A Small Corner Of A Big World

Touring Central and Eastern Europe - Part 2

2010-08-01T17:17:00.005+01:00

From Dresden we spent most of a day driving to Oświęcim, a town which is better known under the German form of its name - Auschwitz. We arrived at about 5 pm, and had already booked a room in a small modern hotel - Hotel Galicja. We walked to the old town for a brief exploration, then returned to our hotel for dinner. We ate in the hotel's Italian restaurant as the main restaurant seemed more formal, with a richer menu.

The following day we took a guided tour which visited the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps. I am still thinking about or reasons for visiting such a place on our holiday. As much as anything it was on our route, and as we are interested in the history of places we visit, it was too important for us to ignore.

In the morning we spent about two hours visiting the original camp which the Nazis used initially to house Polish political prisoners as well as Jews and other minorities. When that tour was over we took the bus, along with our guide, to the second camp, Birkenau, which was set up specifically as a death camp, devoted to gassing and cremating people on an industrial scale.

The guide's narrative and the exhibits were disturbing, and the visit stirred many thoughts and emotions. The big questions I need to think of are"How did a nation get to the position where its people would allow this?" "Would I recognise what was happening if something similar started here?" and "Would I have the courage to oppose it?".

We ended the afternoon by driving an hour or so to Krakow where we would spend two nights with a full day for sightseeing.

The full Flickr collection of pictures from the trip is here, the pictures from Auschwitz-Birkenau are here.

Touring Central and Eastern Europe - Part 1

2010-07-19T21:49:00.004+01:00

Just before leaving Prague three years ago, Sue and I spent two weeks touring North Bohemia. We intended to visit Slovakia and the Tatra Mountains, but needed more time. This year we finally decided to remedy that and set off for a two week trip via Dresden to Poland, the Western Tatras and Slovakia. Our first day would be long, so we left home just after 6 am to drive to the tunnel and then set off on a long haul across Belgium and Germany before arriving in Dresden just after 8:30 pm.

We parked and checked in to the hotel where the receptionist told us that there was a beer garden at a nearby park. The day had been hot and it was still a warm evening as we walked to the park and enjoyed a refreshing Radeberger wheat beer.

We had dedicated the next day to sightseeing in Dresden and walked through the park again to the old town. Our first stop was the Neumarkt, with its rebuilt Frauenkirche, finally restored after many years of ruin. We then visited other sights in the old town before lunch at a tapas bar - Spanish food was more tempting than the local fare in 30° heat.

In the afternoon we crossed the Augustus Bridge to enter the new town where we discovered the Kunsthof, something of a counter-culture area full of quirky little brightly-painted courtyards full of craft galleries. We stopped for iced tea and admired the artwork before taking a tram back across the river. I had been intrigued by the old Yenidze tobacco factory, styled to look like a mosque, and was delighted to find that it had a rooftop beer garden.

We then walked back to the north bank of the river to admire the view of the city as captured by Canaletto. A 7-person bicycle passed us, giving a city tour with a difference. Once we crossed the river we passed the Soviet-era Culture Palace with its Socialist-Realist mural before heading back to the Old Town for dinner. We wanted an early night because tomorrow we would be driving to Poland.

See our Dresden pictures here.

Prayer for Marta

2009-11-17T11:59:00.002Z

As my friends in Prague celebrate 20 years since the Velvet Revolution I thought I would contribute a few thoughts of my own.

Earlier this year the BBC broadcast short series called "The Lost World of Communism" about Eastern Europe during the Cold War. In the programme on the 1968 Prague Spring they told the story of Marta Kubišová and her song Modlitba pro Martu (Prayer for Martha).

The song, with its simple haunting melody, became a symbol both of the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution.

Here are the lyrics in Czech and English (not translated by me).

Modlitba pro Martu
(Prayer for Martha)
Ať mír dál zůstává s touto krajinou.

Zloba, závist, zášť, strach a svár,
ty ať pominou, ať už pominou.
Teď když tvá ztracená vláda věcí tvých zpět se k
tobě navrátí, lide, navrátí.

Z oblohy mrak zvolna odplouvá
a každý sklízí setbu svou.
Modlitba má ta ať promlouvá k srdcím,
která zloby čas nespáil
jak květy mráz, jak mráz.

Ať mír dál zůstává s touto krajinou.

Zloba, závist, zášť, strach a svár,
ty ať pominou, ať už pominou.
Teď když tvá ztracená vláda věcí tvých zpět se k
tobě navrátí, lide, navrátí.

Let peace remain with this country.

Malice, envy, hate, fear and contention,
Let these pass away, quickly pass away.
Now, when lost governance over your own
Affairs returns to you, people, returns.

The clouds are slowly rolling away
And everyone harvests what he has sown.
Let my prayer speak to the hearts,
Which times of malice have not burned,
Like frost burns the flowers, like frost.

Let peace remain with this country.

Malice, envy, hate, fear and contention,
Let these pass away, quickly pass away.
Now, when lost governance over your own
Affairs returns to you, people, returns.

The classic recording of the song is here and the song is used as backing on this video which commemorates the Czech uprisings of May 1945, Spring 1968 and November 1989.

Balance of Terror

2009-05-28T19:07:00.003+01:00

This year will mark 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down and the nations of Central and Eastern Europe regained their liberty. I remember the 80's being a time when many of us felt nervous as the two superpower blocs introduced new weapons and new threats against each other.

There was a dangerous escalation in 1981 when "The Tweets" released their cheesy Europop disco hit "The Birdy Song". The tension was raised further in 1984 when Black Lace released "Agadoo". Until recently I was unaware of the Warsaw Pact response to these musical weapons of mass terror. Now it can be revealed that Czechoslovakia countered the Imperialist threat with Michal David's "Poupatka" which was unveiled at the 1985 Spartakiada in Prague.

Let us all be grateful for the arrival of Gorbachev and the end to this frightening escalation.

Apologies to my Czech friends for any unpleasant memories this blog post may stir. Especially if you were dressed in a leotard in the Strahov stadium in 1985.

Closure

2009-05-26T21:55:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was a public holiday in the UK so I took the opportunity to have a long weekend in Prague. The weather was excellent, Friday afternoon's rain had finished when I landed and the rest of the time was warm, even hot, and sunny.

I managed to meet up with some old friends and make some new ones. The Prague beer festival was on at Letnany, so I made a pilgrimage there. The beers were good and the company was great but the festival hasn't got the 'buzz' I was expecting. I would give it another try in future, but probably not next year.

When I left Prague I kept up my Czech bank account, which still had a reasonable amount of money in it. Since then I have used that account for our food, drink, transport and mobile phone credit on all of our trips to the Czech Republic. The debit card expires later this year so I decided that the simplest thing to do would be to withdraw my money and close the account on this trip.

This was a simple task, but one which reminded me how bureaucratic things can be in the Czech Republic.

On Monday morning I left my friend's flat and went to the nearest branch of the bank armed with my debit card, passport and most recent statement. I took a ticket and queued for a while before seeing a clerk. He looked at the statement, tapped into his computer, stared at the screen and said "you need to go to your home branch to close the account." I had spent 20 minutes and achieved nothing.

The home branch for my account was a 30 minute journey by Metro and tram. I walked in and waited for a clerk to become free. She didn't speak any English, and my Czech is nowhere near good enough to deal with bureaucracy, I can just manage to buy food and beer. The one clerk who spoke English was busy, so I had another 20 minute wait.

Eventually I told the clerk what I wanted. He entered the details into the computer,gave me some forms to sign and said "the account will be closed in 35 days". We had a brief discussion about my options for getting the money and he said the easiest and cheapest solution was to draw out as much money as I could via the ATM, leaving Kc 150 to cover the remaining charges.

If I made a deposit of Kc 63 I could draw Kc 2000, leaving the statutory 150 crowns in the account. I looked at the queue for the deposits and figured this would take another 30 minutes.

Fortunately Czech ATMs will issue small notes, so I was able to draw 1900 crowns.

I handed the debit card to the clerk and he cut it up. I have closure, and in 35 working days the account will also have closure. The whole process was over in just over 90 minutes.

When the account closes there will still be 37 crowns in it, with no realistic way of transferring it to me. I suspect someone in the bank will be maddened by the fact that there will be 37 crowns which has no home. I'm sure it will cost more than 37 crowns worth of an accountant's salary even to think about how they could deal with this homeless money.

Note: 37 crowns is £1.22, more than enough for a beer in Prague, nowhere enough in England.

My 1900 crowns will probably be enough to cover food and drink for one more weekend.

Greenwich

2009-05-16T18:44:00.003+01:00

I was at a loose end again today so I decided to have an 'anorak day' where I go off and do something self-indulgently geeky. I have never been to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich so I set off for London late this morning.

I got to Waterloo at lunchtime so I popped across the road to Auberge, a Belgian-style bar/bistro I discovered a couple of months back. After a steak-frites and a glass of Leffe I headed off to Greenwich.

The Jubilee Line was out of service due to engineering work so I decided to take the boat. The Thames Clippers are a scheduled service rather than a tourist excursion and I got a 1/3rd discount because of my travelcard. The boat trip from by the London Eye took about 40 minutes and landed me right at Greenwich.

After a pleasant walk through the grounds of Wren's old Naval College designed for Charles II I got to the museum. I was slightly disappointed with the display, but I'm not sure what I was expecting. The main exhibition space was closed as they were setting up for a new exhibition which opens in a week or so.

Most of the rest of the collection consisted of a selection of small boats, maritime art, old naval uniforms and static displays on Liners and London as a port. It was all quite interesting, but not compelling. The Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth makes for a better day out, but of course that has the whole of the rest of the Historic Dockyard to entertain you.

I suspect Greenwich's main value is its library and archive which provide an important resource for the serious historian, and there is enough to entertain the casual visitor with the Maritime Museum, the historic buildings in the park and the old Observatory at the top of the hill.

I visited the Observatory a few years ago and found its display, on astronomy and timekeeping, very interesting; I'll probably revisit it next time I'm in Greenwich with some time on my hands.

A Small Corner of the Czech Republic

2009-04-25T19:21:00.005+01:00

Like Brian Herman I have spent too little time blogging lately. Today I've finally done something I fancy sharing.

One of my students in Prague once told me that there is a Czech pub and restaurant in West Hampstead, London. I found its website a few weeks ago and decided I should go there sometime.

Sue is away walking with her sister and some friends this weekend so I was at a loose end this morning. Naturally this was a great opportunity to try the place out. I don't mind having disastrous excursions if I'm the only one who suffers. Sue would have approached this trip with some scepticism and I wasn't confident that the result would prove her wrong.

The Czech restaurant is part of the Czech and Slovak National House which was founded in the Second World War and moved to its present spot shortly afterwards. It is located in a large suburban house in West Hampstead. It is the sort of building that is too big and expensive for a family home and might otherwise have been converted to flats or become a dentist or lawyer's practice.

There can't be too many Czech WW2 veterans still living in London so I would expect the customers to be mostly recent expats, although they may well have more modern and fashionable places to go to.

I arrived at the place at about 12:30 and ordered a Pilsner Urquell (on draught at £3.00 which is not too bad for London). It was a bit gassier and more acidic than I remembered, so it was a bit disappointing. I was the only person in the bar, but a TV in the corner was showing a nature programme on Czech TV - until the barman turned it over to a sports channel where I could watch the Formula 1 practice with Czech commentary.

Having finished my drink I moved from the bar to the restaurant. I was the only customer there, too. I ordered a Budvar which was lovely, smooth and creamy. This was what I was looking for. I ordered a bramborak (potato pancake) to start followed by vepro knedlo zelo, pork with bread dumplings and cabbage with gravy, arguably the Czech national dish. I hoped the portions weren't too big.

The potato pancake was nice, although a bit stodgy in the centre. The main course was very good. The pork was lean and of good quality, the bread dumplings were nice and fluffy, not soggy and not too dry, and the cabbage was tasty. The portions were filling but I did manage to finish everything. I really enjoyed it, and it took me back to the Pilsner Urquell restaurant in Andel.

While I was eating, a couple came in, I guess they were in their mid to late 20s. After they had made their order I asked the man if he was Czech. He is Slovak from Bratislava and it was his first visit to the place, too. We started chatting and I told them about my year in Prague teaching English, and the great time I had had.

His girlfriend was really interested. She is from South Africa and they will be moving from London to Bratislava in June. She is taking a TEFL course and has previously taught Drama and Aerobics. I talked about my experiences and the kind of classes I had taught and we discussed how she could make use of her experience in her pitch to a language school and in her lessons

They told me that the impending moved had caused them a bit of tension as he was happy to be moving back home but she was nervous about being able to make a living and cope with a strange language. They felt happier having heard about my experience, "you are a good omen for us" was the girl's comment.

This was just another of those chance encounters that make life interesting. Some days it's not about you, you are a walk-on part in someone else's story.

Language confusion

2009-02-20T17:09:00.003Z

I am indebted both to Alec Muffett and the Risks Digest for the following item.

Details of how police in the Irish Republic finally caught up with the country's most reckless driver have emerged, the Irish Times reports.

He had been wanted from counties Cork to Cavan after racking up scores of speeding tickets and parking fines.
However, each time the serial offender was stopped he managed to evade justice by giving a different address.
But then his cover was blown.
It was discovered that the man every member of the Irish police's rank and file had been looking for - a Mr Prawo Jazdy - wasn't exactly the sort of prized villain whose apprehension leads to an officer winning an award.
In fact he wasn't even human.
"Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence," read a letter from June 2007 from an officer working within the Garda's traffic division.
"Having noticed this, I decided to check and see how many times officers have made this mistake.
"It is quite embarrassing to see that the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities."
The officer added that the "mistake" needed to be rectified immediately and asked that a memo be circulated throughout the force.
In a bid to avoid similar mistakes being made in future relevant guidelines were also amended.
And if nothing else is learnt from this driving-related debacle, Irish police officers should now know at least two words of Polish.
As for the seemingly elusive Mr Prawo Jazdy, he has presumably become a cult hero among Ireland's second largest immigrant population.

It's a shame I don't have any classes now, I'm sure my Polish students would have found this story funny.

Original article on the BBC website.

Jordan Part 3

2008-12-24T14:36:00.002Z

Before I finish writing up last month's holiday I'd just like to wish my readers a very happhy Christmas and hope you have a great New Year.

To continue the story...

Tuesday 11 November
We returned to Petra to explore further. On our way to a viewpoint at the top of a hill we met another British tourist. After chatting for a while we realised that we were at 6th Form College together when I was 16-18. After leaving the college I met him once in 1981 and then just bumped into him by chance at Petra.

Later that morning as we were climbing another hill with Mazen we met one of his friends, a Bedouin lady called Hannan. We stopped at her jewellery stall and she invited us to have some tea. It was lovely to meet her and to chat. It was one of the experiences we would have missed without a guide.

We explored Petra on our own after lunch.

Wednesday 12 November
We left Petra to drive tom Wadi Rum in the desert. We transferred from our minibus to the back of a 4x4 pickup for a tour of the desert. We camped at a place where Lawrence of Arabia once camped, too. There were rock carvings of Lawrence and Faisal Hussein.

We walked out to a good viewpoint of the sunset efore returning to camp for dinner. We spent a happy evening with a French party singing songs and telling (and translating) jokes before going to our tent for a night in the desert.

Thursday 13 November
Sue and I got up early to walk out to see the sun rise over the desert. This was beautiful, and well worth the early start. Returning to the camp we had breakfast and packed. We got back to our minibus for a drive to Aqaba. This was to be a day of chilling by the seaside.

When we got to our hotel we arranged a ride to a diving club as Sue was keen to go snorkelling ya coral reef in the Red Sea. We picked up our snorkelling equipment and went to the beach. I didn't have a happy time snorkelling. I'm not as good a swimmer as Sue and at one point was quite scared of drowning. Sue got me safely ashore before going for a brief snorkel dive to the reef. She really enjoyed it, but was sad that I wasn't there. I need to take some lessons and swim regularly if I am to be confident in the water.

Friday 14 November
We left Aqaba after breakfast and drove to Amman. We went straight to the old citadel to see the Museum of Antiquities including the Dead Sea Scrolls and some of the earliest sculptures ever found, from the Jericho area. We stayed at the citadel until sunset and then went to our hotel. Mazen took us to a wonderful Arabian restaurant for dinner, this was the tour company's compensation for our hassles at the beginning of then trip.

Saturday 15 November
Our flight home left on time mid-morning. We were cruising over the Adriatic when the cabin pressure dropped and the oxygen masks came down. The plane descended rapidly in a steep spiral dive before levelling out. The Captain finally came on the intercom to tell us that we would be making an emergency landing in Belgrade.

The Serbian authorities eventually coped very well with our unexpected arrival. At first we had to wait in the gate area, but after a few hours we were given transit passes to go into the main airport where the gave us sandwiches. We could then wander the shops and bars until our replacement plane arrrived. I had been in contact with our taxi firm at home (mobile phones and SMS are a great invention) so they knew we would be late. We eventually got home at 1:30 am on Sunday, 9 hours late.

It was a slightly scary end to one of our best holidays ever.

Check out the photos on Flickr.

Jordan - Part 2

2008-11-25T06:56:00.002Z

Monday 10 November
We had an early breakfast and arrived at the gates of Petra at 7am. Mazen our tour leader wasn't authorised to act as a tour guide at Petra so Ahmed, a local guide, spent the morning showing us round the site. As well as our admission to the site and Ahmed's services we also had to pay for a horse ride for the kilometre or so from the main gate to the entrance to the Siq, the narrow rock canyon which leads to the city itself.

Fortunately for me, we didn't have to take the ride we had paid for and I didn't have to pay any extra money to be excused, although I would have felt it was worth it. Although we were listening intently to Ahmed as he told us of the history of Petra, the moment we were really waiting for was our first sight of Al Khazneh "The Treasury" the tomb carved into the rock, which every visitor to Petra knows.

We hadn't realised quite how big the whole Petra site is, with many tombs and temples, and an amphitheatre. Ahmed's guided tour gave us an overview of the main areas as well as giving us an interesting summary of the city's history. By late morning his tour was over, so after a stop for tea Mazen took us up the track with 800 stairs which leads to the monastery at the top of a small mountain above Petra. Along this way were more tombs and looking back there were breathtaking views. All along the route there were other walkers as well as donkeys for hire for those who didn't want to walk up.

At the top we saw the monastery and more breathtaking views. We had more of the sweet mint tea which we had grown to enjoy before retracing our steps back to the main Petra site for lunch.

We spent all afternoon there, too, visiting an old Byzantine church with amazing mosaic floors as well as looking at more of the tombs.

The site used to be inhabited by Bedouin who have now been relocated to a nearby village. Many of these make a living from horse and donkey rides or selling refreshments or jewellery. The children take part in this, leading donkeys or selling mineral rocks.

One jewellery trader called Suleman told us that he was born in one of the caves in Petra. His English was really good, and he could do a perfect Cockney accent. I asked him where he had learned it and he said he just copied the tourists. I would have been less surprised if he had told me that he'd worked in Brick Lane market. He was a very thoughtful and philosophical man he appreciated the income that tourism brought him, but felt that he had lost something with the passing of the simpler life of the past. "If you get more, you need more" he said. He liked to spend his weekends out in the desert with his children.

On the other hand he was using some of his money to send one of his sons to private school for a better education than the village school could provide, and I think he would be happy if at least some of his children were to have professional careers.

That evening Petra was open for one of the "Petra by Night" sessions which they hold. Sue and I assembled at the gates with hundreds of other people. We were given a fairly stern briefing from a local official before we set off, almost in procession. There was to be no talking and no flash photography until we arrived at Al Khazneh, and we were not to walk in large groups. There was one concession to humour - "married couples can walk together of course, and for the singles, good luck!"

So we set off on our "school outing" and straight away some people were talking and using flash photography. The way was lit with candles in paper bags, and the square in front of Al Khazneh was full of candles. We all sat on mats on the ground and listened to local musicians while drinking sweet sage tea before we had a brief speech of welcome. The walk back seemed more natural with people just chatting in small groups. If the organisers had wanted a more solemn air on the approach then maybe they should have had a more formal procession led by musicians or singers.

Jordan - Part 1

2008-11-22T18:27:00.004Z

It's been a while since I wrote anything here, but I finally have something worth writing about.

We decided to have one last chance of a holiday in the sunshine this year, so we booked a trip to Jordan. The holiday was an independent pre-planned tour, just the two of us with a local guide rather than a big party.

Friday 7 November
We took a Friday afternoon flight and landed at Amman at about 11pm local time. Processing in the airport, buying an entry visa and collecting our luggage, took some time and we were among the last people from our flight to get through the airport. We looked for our driver, but there was no-one obvious so we phoned the contact from the tour company which we were given in our joining instructions. She said that she would make a call and get a driver to us.

The local taxi drivers were anxious to help and eager to get our business so while we were waiting one of them called our hotel. To our horror they told us that our booking had been cancelled but they still had a room free. We had further calls from the tour company (our rep and her manager) about our driver and the fact that we weren't expected until the following day. After at least another hour we finally got our driver and drove about 30km to the hotel.

Saturday 8 November
After breakfast at the hotel we gave the tour company manager another call and established that he would get a driver to us for that day's excursion. Sammy the driver was charming and friendly and took us on our first trip to the old Roman-era city of Jerash. We spent much of the afternoon touring the ruins before having a late lunch. We were due to visit the Dead Sea the same day, but we discussed this with Sammy and agreed that as it would be dark when we got there we should postpone the trip until tomorrow.

We got back to Madaba for a second night in our hotel and managed to visit the old Orthodox church of St George with its Byzantine-era mosaic map of the Holy Land. In the evening we found a good local restaurant and had another call from the tour manager who told us that our guide would meet us at breakfast. This confused us slightly as we hadn't realised that we would get a guide and a separate driver for the trip.

Sunday 9 November

We met Mazen our guide at breakfast. He discussed the mix-up over the cancellation and the fact that we had missed out the Dead Sea the previous day. He then got off on the wrong foot with Sue by suggesting that we skip the Dead Sea and follow the King's Highway from Madaba. The Dead Sea was one of the things Sue was most looking forward to so she made it quite clear that dropping it from the schedule was not an option. Our guide was chastened and with a quick look at the map we came up with a schedule that we were happy with.

Our first tourist sight of the day was the church on Mount Nebo, the site from which Moses is reputed to have seen the promised land which he would never reach. We looked across the plain of Jordan to Jericho, and knew that Jerusalem lay beyond the hills, too.

Our next stop was the Dead Sea and Sue eagerly changed into her swimming costume, I followed with less enthusiasm, I am not a water baby! We floated in the Dead Sea and after a few minutes I felt I had "Done That" and was ready to get out. Sue was floating happily and thought it was great. Unfortunately my next step was to get some water up my nose and into my throat. It is so full of minerals that it stings, to make matters worse I got a drop in my eye as I was trying to get to shore. I managed to get a drink of fresh water and a beach shower and then decided I had had enough of the Dead Sea. Sue went back in and floated around for a little while longer.

We drove along the shore of the Dead Sea passing the rock pillar known as "Lot's Wife" before turning inland. We stopped for a picture of the sign marking sea level - the Dead Sea is at about -400 metres and is drying out fast. It may be gone in 50 years, like the Aral Sea, if nothing is done. Driving further inland we stopped at the town of Karak where we had lunch before visiting the old Crusader castle there. A local guide gave us a tour of the castle and its underground passages before letting us wander round the ruins taking pictures.

In the afternoon we drove through dramatic scenery before we arrived at the modern town of Petra just as it got dark. Petra was the other "must see" destination on the trip and we would have three nights and two full days there.

To be continued...

I want one of these!

2008-09-11T21:07:00.002+01:00

Just idly browsing the web I saw this article in The Register. A toaster that will toast any image or text onto the bread. This is the second coolest computer peripheral I have ever heard of.

The coolest?

I have a brother-in-law who works in a drawing office for a company which makes Big Metal Bits for the oil industry, and they have a plasma cutter that will cut out your design in 1/4" (6mm) steel plate. Just don't select the wrong printer!

Sorry about the lack of blogs. Been doing lots and writing little.

I'm currently working in Scotland, staying in a hotel on expenses and trying not to get too fat.

Thoughts on English Teaching

2008-07-07T20:24:00.002+01:00

Another academic year has ended. Some of my Prague friends are returning to the US permanently soon, but I still have a hard core of people I can go back to see.

My class have had the results from their reading and writing exams. Everyone passed their reading exam, although two failed the writing. I'm pleased with their performance and hope that some of it reflects on me. After the last lesson we adjourned to the pub and wished each other well.

I won't be teaching the next academic year, the UK state education system requires that I take more qualifications and I can't manage a day job, a part-time Education course and a class at the same time. Maybe in a few years I will take the qualification and teach part-time but for now I want to continue in IT and save for a retirement, or semi-retirement at least.

One of my colleagues at the day job gleefully made me aware of a quotation from the philosopher Alain de Botton the other week - "You become a TEFL teacher when your life has gone wrong."
I haven't tracked down the source of the quotation yet to put it in context. I don't completely agree with the sentiment, but I can see something of what he means. Teaching in TEFL is a way of stepping out of everyday life while still having a job and keeping your brain in gear.
I have enjoyed my time teaching very much, and I'm sure that I will miss it once the summer is over.

While searching for the source of the quotation I discovered the following tale of TEFL life from the Daily Telegraph a few years back. It paints a bleaker picture than the life I had in Prague, but it is true that unless you can teach in places where the demand for teachers outstrips the supply it is difficult to survive on the salary. The great thing about my time in Prague was the social life and the friendships I made. Looking back a year on I still think it was the best thing I could have done in my "grown-up gap year".

Practical Jokes

2008-07-07T18:06:00.003+01:00

This Yehuda Moon cartoon made me chuckle and reminded me of something that happened years ago.

I worked in a hospital lab at the time and a few of us there were fond of practical jokes. One Friday I was going for a weekend cycle trip straight from work so I had a big saddlebag with all my luggage for the weekend.

I left work at about 6, strapped the bag to the bike and rode about 30 miles to a Youth Hostel. When I got there I unpacked my bag and found that one of my friends had slipped a 10lb lead weight into it. Like Yehuda I was embarrassed that I hadn't noticed the extra weight before I set off.

The bad news was that the lead weight was lab property, so I couldn't just ditch it. I had to ride with an extra 10lb in my bag for the whole weekend.

Airport Food

2008-06-10T20:20:00.002+01:00

I took Friday and Monday off to go to Prague for the weekend, travelling on my own as Sue had other commitments. For the first time I was flying out from Terminal 5 at Heathrow. The new terminal had its teething problems when it opened, and when I found out that on Thursday they were introducing a new tranche of long-haul flights at T5 I was prepared for trouble. I decided to leave home early to allow more time. I could always spend the extra time exploring the new terminal.

As it happened there were no delays. There was a minor hitch at the car park. I had booked in advance so the number plate recognition system was meant to print out a personalised ticket with my car number and tie that to my pre-paid reservation. It didn't recogise the number, so I had to go to the desk to sort that out on Monday when I returned.

Having allowed extra time I got to the terminal in good time, and since I had printed my boarding card at home and had no checked luggage I was through security very quickly. In fact the entire journey from home to airside took about an hour.

It was lunchtime so I was hungry when I went airside. I checked out the eateries straight away. There were the usual Pret a Manger and Costa Coffee bars, but I wanted more than a sandwich. The pub serving food was very busy. I passed Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food and took a look. Main courses were about £15.00. Restaurant prices, but not totally outrageous. So I went in.

The place was about 40% full. The waitress was friendly and informal but very professional. I had a mineral water while I studied the menu and wine list. I went for the salmon fishcakes and a glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. The wine was crisp with tart apple flavours. The fishcake was perfect; a crisp crumb coating, not at all soggy, a lovely creamy filling with a hint of tarragon, and meaty chunks of salmon. It came on a bed of spinach which was moist without being soggy, and there was a creamy mustard sauce which went better with the salmon than I had expected. There was a small side salad and I had ordered fries which were hot, crisp and tasty. It was the best salmon fishcake I have ever eaten.

I finished my glass of wine while I studied the dessert menu. I went for the Knickerbocker Glory (a large ice-cream sundae for those who don't know the term). It came in a tall sundae glass; there was a soft jelly base, lots of fresh fruit and fruit sorbet filling the glass. On top was a good helping of thick whipped cream with vanilla, sprinkled with freshly-toasted sliced almonds and a fresh black cherry on top. It was wonderful.

There were two flaws in the perfection, the Americano was more like an Espresso, but was beautiful coffee nonetheless, so I didn't complain. The more serious problem was that the spoon was too wide to reach the bottom of the sundae glass so I couldn't eat all of the jelly. I mentioned this to the waitress, who said that she agreed with me that this was a problem and reported it straight to the manager. Maybe they will have different spoons next time.

It was an excellent meal, the best airport meal I have ever eaten, and the most relaxing time I have spent in an airport. At just over £40 including service it was expensive, but good value for what I got.

Sue was quite jealous when I told her about it so we will have to go there again next time we pass through Terminal 5.

New Toy

2008-05-29T21:56:00.005+01:00

I have been thinking of getting a quiet low-power PC to replace my file server at home. After a bit of looking around this system fitted the bill. My system isn't quite the same as the one in the link as they appear to have replaced the Celeron 220 CPU with an Atom during the last few days. I guess it's axiomatic that any PC is obsolete as soon as it ships.

The system is designed to run Windows Home Server but I got a £50 discount for discarding that. The system has two 500GB disk drives and 1GB of RAM so it is an ideal platform to run an OpenSolaris server with everything mirrored across the two disks using ZFS. The basic installation went very smoothly. All I need to do now is make some minor tweaks to the network configuration and set up my ZFS filesystems.

Future plans for the system include setting up an IMAP server, adding SlimServer software to stream music, and getting a GPS receiver so that I can run a stratum 1 clock (NTP timekeeping projects are what allows me to buy new toys at the moment).

Spring Bank Holiday

2008-05-29T21:31:00.003+01:00

Last weekend was the Spring Bank Holiday so we went away cycling to Marlborough in Wiltshire. Saturday was fine and sunny so we had an excellent ride across Berkshire with a nice lunch in Kingsclere.

At one point we caught up with a man who was doing a charity ride on a solar-powered recumbent tricycle. In fact we caught up with his convoy as he had a lead car, a Volvo estate towing a large trailer, a following car and a motorbike with him. We didn't stop to ask him quite what environmental point he was making, we just overtook him and carried on our way.

Sunday morning was wet, not heavy rain but a determined drizzle. We decided to ignore the rain and rode out from Marlborough over the downs before turning south to Avebury, a village with a stone circle. Not as famous as Stonehenge, but the stones are accessible. In the afternoon the weather cleared up so we walked into Marlborough from the B&B.

On Monday we had planned a longer ride home, but there had been heavy winds overnight and it was raining heavily. From Marlborough we rode through the Savernake Forest. The road is paved, but heavily potholed.

Sue hit one pothole in the rain and jarred her wrists, bringing her to a brief halt. I managed to ride into another pothole puncturing both tyres. I called out to Sue who was just ahead of me. She came to a stop and we surveyed my tyres. Just then there was a crash and a tree fell into the road about 200 yards ahead of us. If we hadn't stopped we might have been under it.

Fixing the punctures took about 20 minutes and it rained heavily all the time. By the time we left the forest it was later than we had intended and our progress was slowed by the weather. As we made our way to Great Bedwyn Sue suggested that we could check out the train times. I had been having the same thoughts as I thought that two punctures and a brush with death before elevenses was a bit much.

As luck would have it we got to the station about five minutes before the next train and caught it to Theale near Reading. We got to Theale at about 12:15 and almost immediately came upon a nice pub. Hot soup and hot puddings revived us, and we had just under 20 miles to ride in the afternoon. Still it rained so by the time we got home we and our luggage were quite wet, but that was easily dealt with by hot showers and the washing machine. In all it was a good trip, and we didn't feel at all guilty about taking the train. At my age I'm not sure how many more character-building experiences I need.

More Cycling

2008-04-29T21:44:00.002+01:00

Brian's comment about his classic Bianchi bike reminded me that I had some more to write about the racing bike. I have an older racing bike, similar to Brian's, but a slightly earlier vintage. I saw a frame in my local bike shop in 1985, a Coventry Eagle in Reynolds 531 tubing (as most lightweight bikes were in those days).

It was a nice lightweight training frame, with braze-ons for the downtube levers, but no mudguard eyes. I was looking for an Audax bike so I really wanted to be able to fit mudguards. I spoke to the bike shop owner who said "I'll give Barry a call to see if he can do a special for you". Barry Hoban was a former pro cyclist who was manager of the Coventry Eagle factory in mid-Wales. A couple of days later he said "Barry can do you a frame with mudguard eyes, do you want it in red or blue?" I ordered the blue one as I already had a red bike.

When the frame came and I built the bike up it was great, the first time I had a really fast responsive bike, as opposed to a lightweight tourer. I took that bike on a few special trips over the years, riding out to watch the World Championships in Belgium, riding in the French Alps, but more recently it has just hung on the garage wall as a trophy.

This year as I got a bit fitter I decided that I should ride this bike on fine days, so I gave it a bit of an overhaul. One afternoon early in March Sue and I went for a ride so I wanted to ride the blue bike. We got about 400 yards before I had to stop to tighten the handlebars. Sue was a bit dismissive about the old bike, I think she was a bit concerned that it might not be safe. I assured her that it was perfectly safe, and promptly scared myself to death at the next junction.

I had forgotten that the side-pull brakes of the 1980s are a world apart from modern caliper brakes. I went out on the bike a couple more times, and Sue worried about me each time. I reassured her, but was always a bit nervous of having to stop in an emergency.

And so, dear reader, that is why when I saw the modern racing bike on sale at work, Sue had nothing but encouragement for me. I just wish I was devious enough to have planned it that way!

Open Top Cars

2008-04-27T11:40:00.003+01:00

I was reading Brian Herman's blog earlier today and noticed that the banner photo is a MINI convertible. Brian has had his MINI for almost three years now, and he is really pleased with it.

I have one quibble, though. The car in the picture has the roof up. Surely the first rule of open-top cars is - "If it isn't raining (or snowing) the roof should be down!"

Although I have never owned an open-top car I have driven them on several occasions, and I have always followed this rule. I once spent a day in an MGB Roadster driving through Berkshire trying to avoid the rain showers. Unfortunately I couldn't dodge them all and was hit by a very heavy shower. By the time we had the roof up we were both completely soaked and everything inside was misted up. It was about 15 minutes before I could see out properly.

In a dry place like Colorado, and with a modern electric roof and air-conditioning this shouldn't be a problem so I do hope that Brian doesn't spend all his time driving with the roof up.

Cycling Update

2008-04-27T11:24:00.002+01:00

At the beginning of this year I decided to get back my fitness on the bike again. I have been quite successful so far, with a steady buildup over the months. There has been only one week when I haven't ridden at all.

I mentioned our four-day trip to Herefordshire at Easter. We didn't ride out there, but we managed to ride on the day we drove out there and the day we came home, so we did as much as our fitness allowed.

I saw a second-hand racing bike on the electronic notice board at work, so I checked it out and bought it. It is a Principia frame in aluminium with carbon forks, with Shimano 105 equipment. The bike is very lively and responsive, and I enjoy riding it. I have one niggle - I bought a new cassette to give me a lower bottom gear and it is difficult to adjust the rear mechanism so that it shifts cleanly into bottom without hitting the spokes.

Riding on weekdays is difficult at the moment. I live over forty miles from work so I can't commute by bike, and I am teaching on two evenings a week, but I have worked out a partial solution. I can take the bike to work in the back of the car and then ride home, leaving the car at work. I can then go to work by train the next day and then drive home that night.

I did this a couple of weeks ago before our Croatia holiday and it was quite successful. The ride home was 41 miles and I did it in just under 3 1/2 hours. I intend to do this once a week (weather permitting) until the end of term, and then step up to twice a week from the end of June. I should then be noticeably fitter and hopefully a bit lighter.

Doesn't Time Fly?

2008-04-27T11:08:00.003+01:00

I've just realised that I haven't updated this blog since mid-March. My only excuse is that I have been too busy having a life to write about it. This would lead you to ask what I have been doing.

At the Easter weekend we went away for a cycling trip to Herefordshire, staying in Eardisland which is one of the Black and White Villages. The weather could have been better, we had strong winds, rain and hail on most days, but we had a good time and managed to have some decent rides on three days with a half-day walk and a trip to Hay-on-Wye on the Sunday. I managed not to buy any books while visiting Hay, which is a remarkable achievement for a bookworm like me.

The following weekend we were visiting relatives in North Wales, and I attended the retirement party for Dr Clive Williams who was head of the Chemical Pathology department at the hospital where I worked in my first job. It was a very interesting evening, meeting many people who I used to work with until I left in 1986. A surprising number of people are still there from my day.

We went to Dubrovnik for a week's holiday and returned home last Sunday. It was a lovely time, although after a promising start the weather turned cold and wet for most of the week. I will put up some pictures on Flickr when I have gone through them.

I have had a minor reorganisation of this blog page. I have kept the minimalist layout, but I have separated out other peoples blogs from other links and have set up a separate humour section.

In the blogs I have added a link to Brian Herman's blog. Brian only set this up a few weeks ago but he has been busy posting.

Project Management Is Leadership

2008-03-18T22:27:00.004Z

Those of you who use or teach Project Management and Presentation Skills as business skills might be interested in this presentation by Brian Herman.

Brian was my manager for a while in my past life. I have a very high regard for him, and when I read about his presentation in Alec Muffett's blog I took a look. Brian has an excellent lighthearted presentation style and a wonderful way with minimalist presentation slides. He gets the point across in a way which I find inspiring, it certainly holds the attention in a way that many presenters do not.

I recommend that you take a look. The whole presentation takes about 20 minutes so make yourself a cup of tea before you start.

Any Noun Can Be Verbed...

2008-03-18T22:16:00.003Z

... and it would appear that adjectives can be adverbed, too!

There is a furore in the UK this week following an initiative by a marketing company to provide information to advertisers by, in effect, snooping on the content downloaded by web users.
See here for information.

The Foundation for Information policy Research (FIPR) is a think-tank which defends the rights of users against intrusive activities by companies and government. It has responded to this proposal, in my view quite properly, by pointing out the areas of UK and EU law which forbid such snooping.

Sadly the English language is a minor casualty in this skirmish. The following text made me cringe:

[Regarding consent] Moreover, in many cases it is clear that any such consent is expressly or impliedly negatived.

It is bad enough to make a verb from negative, to make an adjective from implied is just too much! Aside from that it is an example of clear English used by lawyers to make a legal point.

Back to Prague - Part 1

2008-02-24T11:25:00.003Z

We went back to Prague for a four day trip around last weekend. We had a great time walking around, revisiting old haunts and spending time eating, drinking and chatting with our friends.
We also managed to go to a surprising number of places which were new to us.

We stayed at the Ibis which claims to be in Mala Strana but is actually at Anděl. This was no problem for us as Anděl is a great local centre for restaurants and bars as well as being within easy reach of the tourist parts.

On Friday night Jay and Vladka managed to get most of the old crowd together for a pub night near our hotel - though they hadn't realised we were staying so close when they booked it!

On Saturday we walked up through the park from Štefánikova náměstí and followed the hill to near the Strahov Monastery. It was mid-morning so we stopped at the Strahov Monastery Brewery as we had never tried their dark St Norbert beer. I enjoyed it but Sue ws lamenting the fact that she didn't have a hot drink as the weather was cold and the beer had chilled her.
We remedied that later with hot soup and fruit dumplings on our way from the castle to Mala Strana.

In the afternoon we met up with Jay and went out to Spořilov to the Prvni Pivni Tramway.
This unlikely-looking place was rated in The Guardian's top ten bars in Prague but Sue regarded it with deep suspicion as she has this unjustified belief that I always seek out the dodgiest bars in town.

Jay knew of a small lake near the tram station so we had the bonus of a pleasant little walk in the sunshine before going for a beer.

The exterior of the bar is an ugly concrete block, but one of the rooms inside is fitted out like an old tram. The beer was good, particularly the Primator wheat beer. We couldn't stay long because the tables were all booked from 5pm. So we and Jay headed back on the tram to town and went our separate ways.

More from the weekend in the next entry.

And the winner is ...

2008-02-11T16:30:00.000Z

I wrote recently about McQuarie Dictionary's contest to find the word of the year for 2007.

The winner is -
pod slurping
noun the downloading of large quantities of data to an MP3 player or memory stick from a computer.

I still prefer arse-antlers myself.

I also wrote a while ago about textonyms, words which are different, but use the same keys in predictive text mode on a mobile phone, eg 'home' and 'good'.

These have now gained some academic credibility. David Crystal has been studying them and the UK press picked up the story last week. The Telegraph's report is here.

Some examples of textonyms here.

Farewell Sheldon Brown

2008-02-07T21:37:00.000Z

Sheldon Brown was an American cyclist who ran what I regard as the best technical website for cyclists. Whatever the topic, his site would have excellent advice and how-to guides. He did a nice line in April Fool jokes, and introduced me to the Sheldon Shake, an effective way of cleaning a cycle chain by putting it into a bottle half-full of solvent, closing the cap and shaking vigorously.

Sadly I read that Sheldon died of a heart attact a few days ago. He will be sadly missed.

Overestimating the British Public

2008-01-27T17:09:00.000Z

A famous newspaper owner once said something to the effect that he would never go bankrupt by underestimating the intelligence of the British public.

A piece in the Guardian the other week took the opposite view. The author is a Polish journalist who is obviously intelligent, well-educated and has a good command of English. Unfortunately she has chosen to live in the UK where this combination of attributes makes her one of the minority.

The author is a bit snobby about the average British person whose vocabulary isn't as rich as hers and whose grammar isn't as accurate. I can sympathise with her to some extent; as she didn't go through the British school system she didn't learn the hard lessons about not showing off your knowledge to an unsympathetic audience.

It seems to me that her English teachers didn't advise on tuning her language to her target audience. I suspect that her teachers felt that accuracy was more important. I try to take a less lofty view with my classes and would point out elements of language which were grammatically correct but not used by, say, 99% of native speakers.

If she does persist in complaining about poor English among the native speakers, given Lynn Truss's success with "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" I wonder if there is an opening for a pedantic book on English usage written by a non-native speaker...

Newsbiscuit

2008-01-13T17:49:00.000Z

One of my work colleagues sent me a link to Newsbiscuit the other day. This is a satirical news site, I guess it is the UK's answer to The Onion.

Here's a taster - Doctor's receptionist awarded honorary medical degree.

Tart Fuel and Arse Antlers

2008-01-13T17:35:00.000Z

Every English teacher knows how important it is to have a good dictionary. Students whose first language is not English can have difficulty with slang, jargon and new usage of existing words.

They can try looking up words in a dictionary, but an older dictionary may not be any help.

I was pleased to read that the McQuarie Dictionary, Australia's National Dictionary, is running an on-line poll allowing readers to select their new word of the year for 2007 from the words which the dictionary has just included fpr the first time.

My favourites are:

arse antlers - a tattoo just above the buttocks, having a central section and curving extensions on each side.

floordrobe - a floor littered with discarded clothes, viewed ironically as a clothing storage system.

tart fuel - wine coolers and alcopops, viewed by men as deceptively alcoholic drinks that will lower a woman's resistance to sexual advances.

Another one which I need to watch out for is boomeritis - the range of sports-related injuries incurred by baby boomers as they pursue health and physical fitness programs into their old age, such as bursitis, tendonitis, sprains, strains and stress fractures.

The full list is here.

I hope that Angela is reading, I would like her perspective on this as an Australian.

Fame at last!

2008-01-06T17:29:00.000Z

Happy New Year to everyone, particularly Arno, my faithful reader.

I was surprised and delighted to receive e-mail from an editor at Schmap.com, an online tourist guide. They were looking for pictures for the latest edition of their guide to Prague, and asked if they could use one of the pictures on my Flickr site.

I said that they could, and the picture is now linked in their guide.

OK, it's hardly a commission from National Geographic, but it's better than no recognition at all.

I almost forgot

2007-12-22T19:27:00.001Z

One of the reasons that some people procrastinate is that they are easily distracted by things which are more interesting than the task in hand.

I really loved this cartoon - see the original site here.

Procrastination

2007-12-22T17:55:00.000Z

I intended to write this piece last weekend...

There was an article in last week's New Scientist about procrastination, and about a scientist called Piers Steel at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada who has spent the last ten years studying why people procrastinate. I was delighted when I read that he intends to publish his work, but hasn't got around to it yet.

He does give some tips to help people who procrastinate. I reproduce them here in the hope that they will be of help to someone, possibly me.

Make a firm commitment to your boss or partner to finish a task by a certain time. This will make delays more embarrassing and difficult to cover up.
Strip your workspace of all distractions, from your iPhone to your Xbox. Then turn off the "ding" on your email. "We have all these temptations," says Steel. "We’ve made our world motivationally toxic."
Many people say that they put things off because they are too tired to deal with them, so get a good night's sleep and try tackling the most unpleasant and difficult tasks early in the day.
Set a series of realistic goals. Some counsellors and therapists recommend drawing up weekly, daily or even hourly goals. The more readily sidetracked you are, the more you need to divide your main task into smaller chunks.
Promise yourself a reward for each goal that you meet.
Believe in yourself. "The old saying is true," says Steel. "Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you are probably right."
Outsource your motivation. Get someone else to regularly goad you into action.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to my readers, if I have any readers. I will write more in the New Year when I get around to it.

For the linguists

2007-12-13T19:42:00.000Z

I had to chuckle when I saw this cartoon.

So what else has been happening? We had the inspection at the college, and got through OK. I was one of just two part-timers who were observed by the inspector. I think I must attract them like a magnet.

We're looking forward to Christmas now, but I did most of my shopping the easy way over the Internet.

There are two more lessons next week before the Christmas break. I will try to provide something fun and Christmas-based.

I was saddened today to read that Terry Pratchett has early-onset Alzheimers. Not sure what else to say about it, but it doesn't sound good.

Higher or lower?

2007-11-08T18:26:00.001Z

I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or just shake my head when I read the linked story.
Camelot, the UK National Lottery operator recently launched a new scratchcard lottery called Cool Cash.

To qualify for a prize, users had to scratch away a window to reveal a temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card. As the game had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.

But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for some Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6.Tina Farrell, from Levenshulme, called Camelot after failing to win with several cards.

The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn't."

I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it. "I think Camelot are giving people the wrong impression - the card doesn't say to look for a colder or warmer temperature, it says to look for a higher or lower number. Six is a lower number than 8. Imagine how many people have been misled."

I'm amazed at the lady's tone of indignation, and the fact that she feels that she is being fobbed off.

Camelot have withdrawn the competition as they have other customers who are similarly confused.

Most of the comments posted regarding this story on the newspaper site were very scathing towards the woman. I just feel sad that someone could go right through the British school system and not come out with at least enough numeracy to cope with negative numbers. Given the high levels of personal debt in the country it is worrying.

On the other hand a company which runs lotteries is really dependent on a market which isn't too strong in its ability to calculate. If everyone properly appraised their chances of winning before buying a ticket their sales would probably be much lower.

Higher or lower?

2007-11-08T18:26:00.000Z

Observation

2007-11-02T19:03:00.000Z

The college where I teach my evening class is due to be inspected by Ofsted (The Office of Standards in Education) sometime this term, so they hired a consultant to perform mock inspections this week.

We were all given a briefing before half-term on making sure that we have detailed lesson plans and have all our paperwork up to date for this week. My Monday class started at 6:45pm and I had just got the students settled down when the consultant knocked on the door. She apologised and said that she thought the class started at 7:00. I said it was no problem, ushered her to a seat and talked her quickly through my paperwork.

She read through my plan, looked at her notes and looked puzzled. She had been directed to the wrong class. I was a bit concerned. Once I was geared up to be observed I would rather get it over with than put it off until Wednesday. Luckily she decided to change her plan and observe my class instead.

The observation went well enough, with some areas for me to focus on, but she was generally pleased with the way the students participated.

I can now look forward to my official observation from the head of department in two weeks, and then the Ofsted inspectors some time after that.

Note to my teaching friends in Prague, your administrative burden is light!

Healthy Eating

2007-11-02T18:56:00.000Z

Most people in our team at work do their own thing at lunchtime, so the "team breakfast" at about 9am is the main social event of the day. This morning one of the team bought a carton of milk from the cafeteria to put in the fridge in our break area.

The lady at the servery offered him skimmed or semi-skimmed. "Have you got whole milk?" he said. "No, we don't sell it, it's bad for you" she replied. That may be so, but the breakfast selection contained such healthy low-fat delights as bacon, sausages, fried bread, fried eggs and black pudding. Let's hope they don't take those off the menu any time soon.

Yes, I did read the reports this week that bacon, sausages, red meat and alcohol are sure-fire lethal agents. I'm sure I'll survive them in moderation.

Phrase and Fable

2007-10-16T21:27:00.000+01:00

We really enjoyed our trip to Brno last weekend, particularly the Burčak walk from Mutěnice. The weather, walk, company and Burčak were excellent. We had some adventures on the trains getting there and back, of which I hope to write more when I get some time.

On Sunday, as we were strolling through Brno and talking, the topic turned to English words or phrases which sound odd to the language student.

Jay mentioned that one student was puzzled by the term "drinking a toast" and asked if this was the same word as the toast which we had for breakfast. He explained that it was.

I mentioned that he could have gone on to explain the origin of the phrase, when people used to put pieces of spiced toast into the wine-cup.

Later we were all discussing the fact that on Saturday's walk we saw a lot of people were carrying branches of various kinds (including marijuana allegedly). I asked of this was a tradition, but none of our Czech friends was sure. I also wondered if it was related to the fact that in ancient times a bush hanging above the doorway indicated wine on sale. "Hence the phrase 'A Good Wine Needs no Bush'", I said. Sue in particular was convinced that I was making this up. I referred her to Brewer's dictionary of Phrase and Fable, of which there is an online edition here.

To support my case that I remember, rather than invent, these things, here is Dr Brewer's take on Good Wine needs no Bush.

Good Wine needs no Bush

It was customary to hang out ivy, boughs of trees, flowers, etc., at public houses to notify to travellers that “good cheer” might be had within.

“Some ale-houses
upon the road I saw,
And some with bushes showing they wine did
draw.”

Poor Robin’s Perambulations (1678).

So if you are ever looking for the origin of a word or phrase, try looking in Brewer. For completeness, below is the good doctor's entry on drinking a toast.

To next year's Burčak trip!
Toast

A name given, to which guests are invited to drink in compliment. The name at one time was that of a lady. The word is taken from the toast which used at one time to be put into the tankard, and which still floats in the loving-cup, and also the cups called copus, bishop, and cardinal, at the Universities. Hence the lady named was the toast or savour of the wine—that which gave the draught piquancy and merit.
The story goes that a certain beau, in the reign of Charles II., being at Bath, pledged a noted beauty in a glass of water taken from her bath; whereupon another roysterer cried out he would have nothing to do with the liquor, but would have the toast—i.e. the lady herself. (Rambler, No. 24.)

“Let the toast pass, drink to the lass.”—Sheridan: School for Scandal.

“Say, why are beauties praised and honoured most,The wise man’s passion and the
vain man’s toast.” Pope: Rape of the Lock, canto i.

Fifty Years of the Space Age

2007-10-04T06:23:00.000+01:00

Fifty years ago this evening, Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite was launched, and changed the world.
That first mission can be seen as little more than a propaganda coup, and many people are dismissive of the benefits of space flight, particularly manned flight. On the other hand, satellites have brought huge benefits in communications and navigation as well as in the understanding and management of earth resources.

I believe that the space programmes have provided us with a great technological stimulus, and given us with huge benefits. I wish I could be as confident that the next fifty years will bring about technological changes as great as those we have seen in the last fifty, but let's try to be optimistic.

The Man With Two Jobs

2007-09-25T20:55:00.001+01:00

I have been back in the UK for two months, and I have been working as an IT contractor for five weeks. I figured that it would be nice to do more teaching sometime, but haven't been looking for work.

I was surprised and delighted when I had a call from the local college asking me if I wanted to teach an evening class. The college staff knew I was back in the country when I asked for a reference, and they must have thought I did a good job on last year's Sumer School.

I start tomorrow with an Elementary class. I met them briefly yesterday evening and I'm looking forward to teaching them tomorrow.

The day job? They have a flexi-time scheme so I can leave early for college on Monday and Wednesday and make up time during the rest of the week.
It's going to be a busy time, but I'm excited!

English Language Opportunity in Prague

2007-09-25T20:50:00.000+01:00

I am indebted once again to "The Register" for this story. They report that in a document promoting the Czech Olympic Committee's Olympic Bid, the committee came up with the following gem.

Three times will Prague examine courting with international Olympic collection. Previous two advances arrange games are over always inglorious. A how go in for Twentieth Century typical, capital you-break teeth among others on policy. Historian sport and Olympic motion Francis wheelwright prove this story, which he began write at the end 19. century, tell very attractive.

Apparently there is more here. It seems to me that an enterprising school or freelance English teacher might want to approach them and quote a rate to do the job properly.

Textonyms

2007-09-14T19:06:00.000+01:00

My former colleague, Alec Muffet has written in his blog about Qwertonyms, words which are different, but use the same keys in predictive text mode on a mobile phone, eg 'home' and 'good'.

I first heard about them a few years ago. Some friends texted to say they were coming over, and I replied with "I'll open the post", which confused them. I meant port

When I explained my puzzling reply, my friend told me that Stephen Fry had spoken about them. His nephew and his friends had started using the word 'book' instead of 'cool', because when they typed 'cool' in the phone 'book' was the first entry in the list. Book became their slang for cool not just in text but in speech as well.

The word textonyms, rather than qwertonyms, has been used to describe these.

The Chambers Dictionary website has an entry for textonym in its wordwatch section - http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/wordwatch/textonym.shtml

Identifying Bears

2007-09-14T17:57:00.000+01:00

I guess this is doing the rounds, but I thought it was funny.

In light of the rising frequency on human/grizzly bear conflicts, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is advising tourists, hikers, and fishermen to take extra precautions and keep alert for bears while travelling this summer.

We advise that people wear noisy little bells on their clothing so as not to startle bears that are not expecting them. We also advise everyone to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a grizzly.

It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity.
Outdoorsmen should recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear dung. Black bear dung is smaller and contains lots of berries and squirrel fur.
Grizzly bear dung has little bells in it and smells like pepper.
Don't forget, you don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your fellow hikers!

Czech falls off motorbike, wakes up with British accent

2007-09-14T17:51:00.000+01:00

I saw this story at The Register. A Czech speedway rider racing in England came off his bike and was concussed. When he came around he asked where he was, in perfect English. According to the story he couldn't speak much English prior to the accident, and reverted to this state two days later. Read the story for more details.

I guess the moral of this story is that all it takes to sound like an upper-class Englishman is a blow to the head.

I hope this doesn't mean that English teachers in Prague start taking blunt instruments into class, though.

Michael Jackson is dead

2007-09-11T06:50:00.000+01:00

No, not the American singer! I was saddened to learn on Friday that Michael Jackson, the authority on beers of the world, dies recently. The Telegraph has an obituary.

I saw his TV series "The Beer Hunter" in 1990, and learned of the rich variety of beers that were made in Belgium, Germany and Czechoslovakia. There was a discussion of his work on the radio on Friday in which he was credited with stimulating the boom in microbreweries in the US.

His contribution to the well-being of the world will be sadly missed.

Tour of Britain

2007-09-11T06:17:00.001+01:00

I missed the start of the Tour de France in London this year because I was still in the Czech Republic. It's a shame because I enjoy cycle racing and the London start was a great spectacle, even if the Tour was somewhat tarnished by the finish.

On Sunday the Tour of Britain started with a Prologue time-trial at Crystal Palace. This is a much lower-key event, lasting just seven days and with mostly minor teams and development squads rather than the stars of the ProTour teams.

Still, I enjoyed watching it, and it was great to see aBritish rider, Mark Cavendish of T-Mobile win on the day, with a number of other britons doing well. This was a big change from when I used to watch the Milk Race in the early 1980s.

In those days the race was an amateur event and young British hopefuls struggled to compete with young riders from Belgium and Holland who were preparing for pro careers, and fully mature riders from Eastern Europe who were employed by state organisations but were able to race more or less full-time. The prospect of a British winner in those days was less likely than a British winner at Wimbledon. Nowadays British riders are dominant in track events and we have some riders in the pro teams who can hold there own.

Mark Cavendish is in his first full season. He went on from the prologue to win yesterday's stage, too. He has won 10 1-day races and stages so far, and he should go on to greater achievements next season. I sincerely hope that cycling is able to keep root out doping and ensure that the new crop of riders can reach their full potential without drugs.

The Fight For English

2007-08-20T20:37:00.000+01:00

Browsing through Waterstone's bookshop the other day I noticed that David Crystal has written a counterblast to Lynne Truss's "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" entitled "The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left".

Crystal has written about the book in the Guardian.

I am a great admirer of Crystal. When I was studying for my CELTA his book "Rediscover Grammar" saved me from becoming an insufferably pedantic prescriptivist* . I was privileged to hear him speak at Westminster University last summer when a friend of mine invited me to a linguistics conference there.

I haven't yet ordered a copy of the book, but I have a paycheck on the way very soon, and my basket at Amazon is filling up.

*I can still be insufferably pedantic on occasion, but only in unarguable matters of fact.

It's not Prague's fault!

2007-08-03T11:36:00.000+01:00

The British press yesterday made a lot from a Foreign & Commonwealth Office report on the use of consular services by British tourists abroad. Apparently a higher proportion of British visitors to Prague need consular assistance than those in any other foreign destination.

Somehow the stories seemed to imply that there is something dangerous about Prague. I think that gangs of drunken Brits can lose their wallets, phones, clothes etc wherever they happen to be. So many of them do it in Prague because it's a really great place to visit and a half litre of beer is cheaper than most non-alcoholic alternatives.

A follow-up story in today's Guardian lists other places where Brits get into difficulties, and does put Prague into perspective.

"I don't know whether the Czech Republic is more dangerous than anywhere else," says Frances Tuke of ABTA. "I think the thing is that we can be a danger to ourselves, particularly when cheap booze and - shall we say - other cheap services are so readily available."
A 2004 report by the Czech tourism office found that local police believed 20% of all weekend crime in Prague involved British men on stag trips. My colleague Gary confirms this view of events: "My biggest fear when I'm in Prague - I go most years - is that I'm going to get beaten up by a bunch of English people on a stag or hen do."

I remember one Friday when was catching a lunchtime flight back to the UK for the weekend. I arrived at the airport at about 11:00 and one of the airside bars was full of Brits from a stag weekend. This really puzzled me, I figured that they had got straight off the plane and gone into the first bar they saw, before they even went through passport control. Maybe they were waiting for friends on another flight, or maybe they were on a mission to drink in every bar they saw during their time in Prague.

Luckily the stag and hen parties didn't make their way to my favourite haunts.

A Day In London

2007-07-25T20:37:00.001+01:00

Rain was forecast for today and so I decided to go to London as there was nothing pressing to do at home. I had been planning to visit two exhibitions and decided to do this while I still had time. I had some calls to make so I didn't leave home until late morning and got to Waterloo just in time for lunch.

There is a restaurant/gastro-pub near Waterloo called "The Fire Station" (yes, located in an old fire station). Their restaurant menu is quite expensive but the bar menu was more reasonable. I ordered a bacon and chicken baguette and looked at the beer selection before settling for a pint of Staropramen - "beer from Prague" it said on the blackboard. It tastes different in London! The beer has a sharper flavour and is slightly darker than the usual. Almost like a Granat, but not quite that dark. It was definitely worth trying it, and sufficiently different that I wasn't overwhelmed with homesickness for Prague.

The first exhibition was at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank. Antony Gormley is one of my favourite artists and sculptors and the Hayward has a new exhibition of his work. Much of his work is too big for an indoor venue, such as his Angel Of The North, a gigantic metal sculpture outside Gateshead, near Newcastle and Another Place, an installation of sculptures over several square miles of beach, so I was curious to see what would be exhibited.

One exhibit was called "Allotment" and consists of

300 Reinforced concrete life-size units derived from the dimensions of local inhabitants of Malmö aged 1.5 – 80 years.

Each unit is rectangular and the whole thing reminded me more than anything of a war cemetery.

The flagship of this exhibition is a work called "Blind Light" which is a glass-walled room filled with water vapour, like the inside of a cloud or a very heavy fog. I walked inside and was disorientated almost immediately. I couldn't see my own hand at arm's length and lost site of the entrance within a few metres. I didn't dare lose contact with the wall as I walked around inside, hearing voices of other visitors and not seeing anyone.

There was an external exhibit, too, called Event Horizon which consists of more sculptural figures standing on rooftops in the South Bank area, all looking towards the Hayward Gallery. A more typical Gormley work. I won't write any more about him, but take a look at the exhibition website if you want to know more.

I then went to the Imperial War Museum to see their temporary exhibition on camouflage. The exhibition shows how avant-garde artists contributed to the development of camouflage during the First World War and discusses developments since, including the use of camouflage clothing by anti-war protesters and fashion designers. It was interesting, but slightly superficial as it was intended to appeal to a mass-market.

I just had time for a latte at Waterloo station before getting a train home in time to avoid the rush hour.

Back In The Saddle

2007-07-25T20:27:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I had my tasks under enough control and the weather was dry enough for me to go out cycling. I went on one of my favourite local rides which is about 21 km and normally takes me about an hour, altough I was expecting it to take anything up to 80 minutes. I was expecting to take it quite slowly but as I rode along something in my brain kept putting the pressure on until either the legs ached or I got out of breath.

It was lovely to get back out into familiar countryside. I got home feeling quite tired and aching in a few places - my bike has a fairly hard leather saddle and my behind has to get accustomed to it again before I can ride for any great distance, but I'm sure that won't take too long. When I got home I realised that I had finished the ride in about 70 minutes.

In the evening I dismantled the framework of an old greenhouse and put it into the skip, thus freeing some time for today and a trip to London.

Extreme Gardening

2007-07-24T09:48:00.000+01:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I hold passionate views on gardening - I hate it with a passion. Nevertheless, we have a fairly big garden at home and although Sue enjoys doing things in the garden it has got out of control over the last year or so. I was working in Prague and Sue was coming out most weekends so we had no time to work in the garden and couldn't afford to pay a gardener.

Once we got back from Prague it was obvious that we had to do some major work quite quickly, so last weekend was earmarked for garden work. Apart from the unkempt lawns we have lots of shrubs and climbers at both the front and back of the house, and these were overgrown. We needed to hire a skip (US dumpster) which arrived at 7:15 on Saturday morning, although the hire company said it would come between 8:00 and 12:00!

The weather forecast was not promising, but we made a start. Sue was in charge of cutting back and my job was to fill the skip and to do any trimming which needed ladders or a long reach. The neighbours, who had been making little comments about the state of the garden, were impressed to see the skip which was quite a big one at 8 cubic yards (just over 6 cubic metres).

On Saturday we worked until about 4pm, with breaks for drinks, lunch and rain, and then resumed from 5:30 until we finished at 8:00. Starting again on Sunday was hard as we were both tired and aching from the day before, but we worked through until 4pm, again with a break for lunch before we were both too tired to continue.

The skip still had a bit of space in it, which I can use for some other rubbish which we have accumulated, but we had only cleared the front of the house and part of the side. We still have a lot of work to do and need to hire another skip for two weeks time. Although it was a hard couple of days it had to be done, and it was good to see the results. I did think wistfully about our relaxed weekends in Prague with no gardening responsibilities, though!

One for the Business English teachers

2007-07-20T19:14:00.000+01:00

In the light of Google's quarterly figures yesterday, and the subsequent drop in stock price, I was amused to see the article linked above (just click on the title of this post).

Those of you who have to teach vocabulary of trends and rate of change of numbers may find their examples useful. :)

Have a good weekend!

Friday Thoughts

2007-07-20T18:02:00.000+01:00

Greetings from sunny but damp Hampshire. The weather forecast promised a wet day in Southern England, and they weren't wrong! It rained solidly, with thunder and lightning, all morning and most of the afternoon. I wasn't too worried as I had too many things to occupy me indoors today. I now have two pending job applications, so fingers crossed. I have spent the afternoon refreshing some of my Solaris and Internet skills so that I will be on firm ground in any interviews for IT jobs.

Earlier this week I was working on my CV and had to deal with various administrative chores as well as buying two new tyres for the car. When we were passing through Belgium last Saturday, Goodyear had people in the motorway services checking tyre pressures and tread. They told me my tyres needed replacing immediately, this wasn't strictly true as the tread was still legal, but it was definitely time to renew them. I need to get a job to keep up with the bills.

It hasn't all been work, though, I have put some photos from Prague onto my Flickr site and I have made time for this update to the blog. I will make some time next week to start writing up our holday in North Bohemia.

I'm still thinking of my friends in Prague, and good luck to Alasdair on his gig at Noel's!

Safely Home

2007-07-16T17:33:00.000+01:00

We got up at 4am on Saturday (which was hard work after a final meal with friends in prague the night before) and managed to pack the car for a 6am departure.

The journey went smoothly apart from a 1 hour delay due to an accident on the motorway near Wurtzburg, and we arrived in Calais at 6:30pm. We stopped at a motorway services on the M20 for some food and managed to get home at 9:30 - just in time to get some food for breakfast from Tesco.

Yesterday we managed to get to Watford to see an exhibition of photographs which our friend Janice had organised in memory of her late partner, Malcolm. We saw some of our old friends there and I was really pleased that I was able to get home from Prague in time to see the exhibition.

I started job-hunting today, as well as catching up with some tasks at home.

A Week Of Goodbyes

2007-06-29T16:55:00.000+01:00

This week I have been saying goodbye to all of my students. They have been really kind, most of them have given me presents or taken me out for a drink to say goodbye. All of them have said that they wished I could stay. It gives me a feeling that I have helped them and that they appreciate it. I will miss them.

I will also miss my colleagues from the school, both the teachers and the admin staff. We have had a really great social life here, partly because no-one is responsible for decorating their houses or maintaining their gardens and no-one has any children. The community of teachers has been a bit like a group of students in college. Getting back to Real Life in the UK will be strange.

Breaking The Silence

2007-06-29T16:50:00.000+01:00

It's been ages since I last wrote anything. My excuse is that I've been too busy having a life to write about it. Since the end of May I have been busy preparing and setting tests and writing reports on all my students. In addition we have been busy at weekends trying to make the most of the remaining time here in the Czech Republic.

Today was my last day of teaching, and I have now handed in all of the materials which the school provided me with in August, and I have received my last salary from them, too. Including my end of year bonus for keeping my paperwork straight in a timely manner.

Sue is flying into Prague tonight and next week we will start a ten day trip around Northern Bohemia. We will then have a day for the last tidying of the flat before we drive home on July 14th.

I hope I get some time before too long to catch up on the blog by writing about some of the trips we have taken. I also want to sort out some of the pictures I have taken, and load them onto my Flickr page. Watch this space, there should be more content soon.

A Weekend Drive

2007-04-23T07:31:00.000+01:00

It is over a month since my last entry here. I have been busy working and spending the weekends doing things and seeing things, but I haven't taken the time to write about them.

I have just under three months left here in Prague and am trying to make the most of it. We decided that we should have a car here now that it is Spring. We can travel at weekends to explore the country. I flew to the UK on Friday so that Sue and I could bring my car out here over the weekend.

We left the house at about 5:15 on Saturday to drive to the tunnel. Our check-in time was 7:20 and we arrived in sufficient time to get a second breakfast at the terminal before checking in. The check-in and journey to France went very smoothly, and we were soon settled into our journey along the autoroute. Sue drove through France, Belgium and across the south-east tip of the Netherlands where we stopped for lunch just before the German border.

I took over after lunch and drove through Germany for about 150 miles while Sue had a snooze. She then took over until we arrived at Nuremberg at about 6:30. We found a hotel after a slightly fraught drive through the city, and after a shower we went off to explore the old town and have dinner.

We had no idea beforehand that Nuremberg would be so pretty. We had walked around the centre during the last of the daylight and had a quick beer before looking for a restaurant.

We were delighted to find an authentic bierkeller and had a hearty dinner there. The cuisine was quite similar to Czech food with lots of pork, dumplings and cabbage.

On Sunday morning we found the hotel restaurant crowded so we decided to eat in town. There was a lovely pavement cafe serving a good selection of breakfasts. Sue had croissants and I had ham and eggs. We had decided to stay and explore the town until lunchtime so we walked up to Albrecht Durer Platz, the city walls and the castle.

We weren't too hungry by twelve, so lunch consisted of an ice-cream sundae before we set off on the road once more. Sue drove out of town, only slightly hampered by my GPS-assisted navigation. She drove as far as the German-Czech border, which took about an hour, and we stopped there to buy a motorway vignette. I took over to drive the rest of the way to Prague, and we arrived at the flat at about 4:45. The overall journey was about 800 miles.

We enjoyed the trip, especially with the bonus of the visit to Nuremberg, and realised that driving to Germany for holidays would be quite practical in the future.

First Day Of Spring?

2007-03-21T10:46:00.000Z

I spoke too soon about Spring. Last week was really warm and sunny, but the weather turned colder over the weekend and this week temperatures are a few degrees above freezing with a few flakes of snow around.

I had a cancelled class this morning and decided to visit the Cubist Museum, rather than just the cafe. It has an interesting collection of paintings and drawings as well as pieces of furniture, photographs and architectural models of buildings designed in the Cubist style. Czech Cubism was an interesting style which tried to relate all of the above forms into a common style. The architectural period was essentially over once the First World War ended, and architecture moved on to Modernism and Functionalism. This is a pity in my view as Czech Cubist architecture is simple and fairly minimal without the starkness of later Modernism.

The exhibition includes a drawing of a design for the Czech National Monument in Žižkov in the Cubist style. If this had been selected it would have been an improvement on the actual winner in my view, because it would have used a uniquely Czech style and would have been easier on the eye than the Functionalist block which was actually built.

Spring In The Air

2007-03-07T11:40:00.000Z

It really feels like Spring today. As I left for the tram at 7:00 this morning the sun was just about rising, and as I crossed the river the castle was lit with a wonderful atmospheric light.

My early lesson went really well, the students took part very enthusiastically in a role-play of a business meeting. After the lesson I had a few hours of free time (one of the benefits of the early starts and late finishes) so I decided to make the most of it.

I took the tram to the castle area and walked over Letna plain to the metronome which stands on the site of the former Stalin monument. From there I crossed the river into Josefov, the old Jewish quarter, and walked through the old town. After passing the square I popped into the Grand Cafe Orient for elevenses before getting the tram home to work on my preparation for my next lesson.

It's a wonderful day here and life feels really good.

Places To Go - Grand Cafe Orient

2007-02-26T20:19:00.000Z

When I first visited Prague in 1991 all the guidebooks said that the place to go for coffee was the Slavia cafe overlooking the river near the National Theatre. Sadly in 1991 Slavia was closed for refurbishment. I have been there a few times since I came out here this year, but for me it no longer has the combination of elegance and relaxation which I associated with it. It seems busy and touristy and the staff aren't really attentive enough.

A few months ago one of Sue's work colleagues asked if we had been to the coffee house at the Cubist Museum. We hadn't, but checked it out based on his recommendation. The museum is near the Old Town Square, and the Grand Cafe Orient is on the first floor of the museum. The building itself is a prime example of Czech Cubist architecture, and the cafe and its furnishings reflect that.

In addition to the visual splendour, the service is excellent, and although it gets busy at weekends it feels quite relaxed on weekdays. Sandwiches and salads are available for lunch, but for me it is best for light breakfasts or afternoon coffee and cakes.

Another Storming Gig By Alasdair

2007-02-26T20:13:00.000Z

Alasdair played Noel's again on Saturday. Again he went down a storm. We had some friends visiting for the weekend and they enjoyed the gig, too. I confused Katia, the barmaid, by switching to Staropramen rather than my usual Budvar.

I like Budvar, and always ordered it at Noel's because it is less commonly available than either Staropramen or Prazdroi Plzensky (Pilsner Urquell). Sadly Budvar seems to give me more-severe hangovers than the other two. Saturday's experience with Staropramen bears this out. I'll probably stick to Budvar if I'm just going to have a couple of beers, but I don't think I should drink it for a long session.

Places To Go - Pivnice U Švejků, Újezd 22

2007-02-19T08:11:00.000Z

U Švejků is one of a multitude of bars and restaurants in this city named after Jaroslav Hašek's comic anti-hero The Good Soldier Švejk. This particular pivnice, or beer hall, is located across the road from the Petřin funicular railway, near the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, on the far side of the river from the National Theatre.

The restaurant looks like a bit of a tourist trap with a rather garish paint scheme outside, announcing itself in English, German and Czech, and it claims to date from 1618. Inside it looks a lot more homely. There are basic wooden tables and murals depicting scenes from the illustrations to the Švejk book. The staff are very friendly and the beer is good, but the best part is the game menu. This has a selection of dishes from boar, roe deer and fallow deer. We first tried U Švejků in some desperation one lunchtime. We were hungry and most nearby places were busy. Since then we have been back several times.

We have never eaten there in the evening so we have no idea how crowded it gets then, but the menu says that they have an accordian player in the evenings from 6pm. Treat that news as an advertisement or a warning as you see fit.

2007-02-09T16:43:00.000Z

Alasdair's Gig

Alasdair's gig on Wednesday went down a storm, helped by the fact that a lot of his friends, colleagues, and also students came along to support him. He has a great voice and is a very accomplanished musician. The sets were a good mixture of classic Blues, soul and some folky pieces, including some of his own songs. There were many songs which were new to me, as well as some real crowd-pleasers.

I hope that Noel and Barry were pleased with the turnout, the joint was really jumping for a Wednesday. Hopefully Alasdair will get further gigs there.

2007-02-06T11:14:00.000Z

Tomorrow at The Metropole (Soon to be Noel's)

My fellow teacher, Alasdair Bouch, has been booked to play a gig at Noel's tomorrow night.

Here's how Barry from Noel's is pitching Alasdair's act.

London-born multi-instrumentalist Alasdair Bouch has wowed crowds with his intoxicating blend of folk, blues and soul for some eighteen years. His barnstorming floorfillers and intricately-wrought ballads have held audiences spellbound from New Zealand to Nové Mìsto. The British newspaper 'The Guardian' favourably likened his vocal delivery to Otis Redding, and if recent performances are anything to go by, Alasdair's star is destined to rise. Catch him in the intimate venue Metropole (soon to be Noel's), strumming a solo set of self-penned ditties and choice covers. Prepare yourself for tales of love, heartbreak, booze, and low-down dirty sinners.

There are a few colleagues planning to be there in the audience to cheer him on, it should be a good night.

2007-01-28T10:24:00.000Z

Places to go - Noel's Lounge, Anny Letenské 18, Prague 2

This is my first recommendation for somewhere to go in Prague. Noel's Lounge is a very friendly bar run by British Expats. I like to go to Czech bars but as I don't speak the language it doesn't have the same relaxed feeling - I can't pick up much from the conversation around me, and I can't just chat with the staff. The atmosphere at Noel's is very relaxing and the staff there are friendly. They serve Staropramen and Budvar beers and a selection of light meals - nothing with dumplings, but the nachos are quite good. A bookshop called Anagram is attached and is accessed from inside Noel's.

I first found out about the place by accident. I was walking home from the school about 2 weeks ago down a street I hadn't visited before when I saw a blackboard outside a bar advertising a Blues gig coming soon. I didn't pay much attention, but the name of the artiste - Stan the Man - stuck in my mind. That evening I had been invited to join a group of people at another bar, The Globe, which had a musician, too. At the Globe I started talking to a cheery cockney called Barry who told me that he was a partner in a bar called Noel's. He described where it was, and mentioned that he had booked Stan the Man for the following week. Noel's was the bar I had passed earlier that day.

If you look for Noel's right now you may have trouble finding it, as it is called Metropole. Barry and his partners took it over just recently and they haven't replaced the sign yet. As Barry explained it to me "the bar is called Noel's, or Metropole, soon to be Noel's but we sometimes just call it Soon".

I have been there now for two gigs - Stan the Man and Jamie Marston and they were both good nights. Katia, one of the barmaids recognised me on my second visit. Some of my colleagues also went there on Wednesday for the Open Mic gig and one of them may actually have a booking after wowing the audience and schmoozing the proprieters. I think Noel's may become a regular haunt for me and some of my colleagues.

2007-01-27T16:15:00.000Z

The Czech Calendar

Unlike most European languages, including Russian and Slovak, Czech does not use the Roman names for the months. The names for the weekdays are different from those in other languages I am familiar with, too. It was a bit difficult at first, but I now know the weekdays and recognise the months we have already had.

The Czech names for the days of the week are:
pondĕlí (after nedĕle [Sunday])
úterý (second)
středa (middle)
čtvertek (fourth)
pátek (fifth)
sobota (sabbath)
nedĕle (no work)

The Czech names for months are:
- leden (ice)
- únor (melting ice, or possibly renewal, depending on which source you believe)
- březen (birch)
- duben (oak)
- květen (blossom)
- červen (red)
- červenec (redder)
- srpen (sickle, connected to harvest)
- září (blazing or glowing, or possibly preparing for rutting, again depending on which source you believe)
- říjen (rutting season)
- listopad (falling leaves)
- prosinec (time to kill pigs)

2007-01-27T14:52:00.000Z

Snow in Prague

Winter arrived this week. Snow started falling on Tuesday afternoon, and was lying on the ground by the evening. It carried snowing more or less continually for 24 hours so by Wednesday evening we had a fall of about 7 or 8 cm. I'm glad we have had at least one snowfall this winter. It would have been embarrassing this week to have had less snow than the South of England.

The trams ran mostly to time during the snow, although workmen were stationed at some of the points to keep them working and clear the ice. The Metro was busier than usual, possibly because it is more reliable than trams and buses in the snow and ice.

We have had a few short falls of fresh snow since Wednesday but we have had some sun, too, which has melted the snow a little. I was able to get out to take some pictures on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. If it is sunny tomorrow I might take some more.

2007-01-25T20:19:00.000Z

Useful software - synctoy

Synctoy is a really useful piece of free software from Microsoft, and I never thought I would use all of those words together in the same sentence. I have a laptop here which I use to manage my photographs, music files, Internet access, lesson plans and materials and anything else which needs a PC.

I also have a Linksys NSLU2 which is a tiny Linux-based NAS/fileserver device which takes two external USB disks and can export their filesystems using SAMBA . The server can be configured to perform nightly backups from one hard disk to the other, giving a poor man's RAID. There is a thriving Linux development community for the NSLU2, which has ported all kinds of Linux software, but so far I just use it as a fileserver.

I run weekly backups from the laptop to a directory on the fileserver using Norton Ghost, but I also needed to mirror my laptop home directory to a directory on the fileserver. This was the first task which led me to look for file synchronisation software.

So far I have been very pleased with synctoy, it has a preview mode which lets me see the difference in content between two directory trees without modifying them. It also lets me synchronise a directory tree from the fileserver to a directly-attached USB disk on the laptop to give me an additional level of backup of irreplacable files such as pictures and lesson materials which I have created.

2007-01-22T19:01:00.000Z

Some spare time at last

This morning I finished writing up the last of the mid-year assessments. Since I came back from the Christmas break I have spent a lot of time preparing, conducting and writing up assessments on all my students. Now they are all completed so I will be able to have a bit more spare time in my life.

2007-01-17T11:29:00.000Z

A touch of frost

Yesterday morning there was a touch of frost. It's January, so why is this remarkable?
I've been checking the weather data for the Czech Republic and the average daily temperature for January is about -2° C. The daily maximum for January is normally about 2° C, but this winter we have had only a handful of frosty mornings since October, and we have had temperatures of over 10°C on many occasions.

Everyone has been telling me that last year the temperature barely rose above freezing from mid-November until April. This winter there is virtually no skiing in the whole country and the resort operators and winter sports fans are most unhappy. I think they're hoping that this winter is an aberration, but I wouldn't invest in winter sports in the long term.

I am indebted to Chris Gerhard for pointing me to the following video of a mountain biker on a ski jump! Maybe this is the way forward!

2007-01-14T09:28:00.000Z

Who knows where the time goes?

It's mid-January and I haven't written here since November! How did that happen?
Arno's recent comment reminded me that I need to write something here, and I have now managed to make some time to do that.

I spent some of my free time in December looking at the different events which happen here in Advent. There was St Nicholas's Eve, the Christmas Markets, an outdoor ice rink and vendors of live carp in the streets. I took pictures of these activities and have posted them to Flickr.

I went back to the UK for Christmas. Sue and I went to North Wales to spend Christmas, Sue's birthday and my cousin's son's wedding, then we went to the North-East of England for New Year. It was a busy time, but I managed to catch up with quite a few people.

Arriving back in Prague I was pitched straight into classes and mid-year assessments. I have tested the majority of my students, and have just over a week to complete all the reports. This means I have had a busy time so far this year.

After the rush is over I will tell you more about Prague and Czech life.

If you have any questions, post them as comments.

2006-11-23T13:27:00.000Z

The First Hundred Days

This entry is slightly overdue because I have actually been living and working in Prague for about 111 days now. I have been laid low with a stomach bug for the last two days, but now I am feeling better and am catching up with e-mail and the blog. So here is a summary of the first hundred days.

My application for a "Trade Licence" was finally granted last week as the final pieces of documentation from the UK were translated and accepted. At the beginning of this week one of the office staff from the school came with me to various city offices to help me complete the remaining paperwork to register with the Tax, Social Insurance and Health Insurance agencies, and to open a bank account. I now have a large bill for unpaid Social and Health Insurance fees, but the paperwork is straight.

Two weeks ago it was my turn to have the Director of Studies observe one of my lessons. His feedback was generally positive, but obviously his experience in the profession allowed him to point out the areas where I need to concentrate, improve and grow.

From the beginning of this month my teaching load increased to 22 hours a week. This is enough to feel like a full-time occupation, and is just about enough to meet my living costs here. I have to leave the flat at 7:00 am most days, and usually don't return until about 7:30 pm since most students have their lessons at the beginning or end of their working day. Indeed these are regarded as peak hours by the school, and the period from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm is regarded as off-peak hours.

When you take into account my off-peak classes, travel time to classes, lesson-planning time and adminstrative tasks most of my time is occupied. I do have quite a lot of freedom in how and when I plan my lessons, though, so I can create some blocks of free time during daylight hours, which makes it all feel less of a bind than the routine of office life.

The work itself is very rewarding, the students are keen to participate in their classes and I enjoy working with them. Each class is different, even when two classes are using the same textbook they can respond to the material very differently.

Lesson preparation time can vary a lot, some lessons are a natural follow-on from the previous lesson, or are conversation-based and much of the work is already done. For other lessons more work is required. I may have to listen to audio material to ensure I am familiar with it, prepare for supplementary questions the students may have on grammar points, work through the accompanying exercises in the textbook and model answers in the teacher's book to make sure I know the answer I should be expecting, and prepare supplementary materials.

The Internet is a wonderful resource for supplementary material, of course. Dilbert cartoons are great for warm-up exercises on business vocabulary and modern office culture in Business English lessons. Students are also interested in short articles on contemporary British life, and they are also keen to talk about their own country, both as it is now and as it was before 1989. I am always very interested to hear their views and their experiences.

2006-11-13T19:31:00.000Z

A Foreign Field

Yesterday Sue and I joined fellow expat Brits, Czech Nationals and Embassy staff from Britain and other Commonwealth Nations at the annual Remembrance Day ceremony. This was held at the Prague Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. The service was very moving, particularly when a Czech military band played Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations while the representatives of various nations laid their wreaths.

One of the teachers here was a member of the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service and attended the ceremony in uniform. Apparently it is quite rare for the Navy to be represented at the ceremony, which is unsurprising as Prague is a long way from any coast.

I first spotted the cemetery a few months ago when I passed it on the tram. It is part of a large municipal cemetery which also contains war graves from the Red Army and the Bulgarian Army. According to the CWGC website the Prague War Cemetery contains 256 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 34 of which are unidentified. The graves were brought into the cemetery from 73 small cemeteries scattered all over the Czech Republic. Many of those buried there died as Prisoners of War. There is also one burial of the First World War and eight Polish war graves.

2006-11-13T09:12:00.000Z

Out of the City

Sue came out for a long weekend, so we decided to go for some walks near Prague. On Friday we took the tram to Hostivař, in the south-east of the city. According to the Rough Guide there is a 4.2 km walk from there past a lake to a nice village called Průhonice. The walk passes a large lake and makes use of a trail which is part of the Prague-Vienna cycle route. We set off on the walk and soon discovered that the guide-book was incorrect. After 4km we came to the village of Petrovice, but Průhonice was another 7km from there. As it was lunchtime and we were getting hungry we decided we would leave Průhonice for another day and look for lunch in Petrovice.

The original village is quite nice, but we couldn't find any nice pubs there so we set off to the new part of the village which is a large development of concrete tower blocks. We couldn't find anywhere to eat there, either, so we cut our losses and took the bus to somewhere we knew before we got too hungry.

On Saturday we decided to take the bus to Průhonice and explore the park there. It was a very grey day with the threat of rain, so we didn't take any pictures of the park. You can get an idea of how it looks from this site, though.

We decided to have some coffee and a snack before we explored the park, so after getting off the bus we went into the first likely-looking place. This was a very up-market restaurant, but they welcomed us and served us morning coffee and cakes. We left before lunchtime so we weren't causing them too much trouble. Their menu looks good, so we intend to go there for a meal sometime.

After a couple of hours exploring the park the weather closed in and we returned to the village for lunch. This time we went to U Bežousků, which is a popular pub and micro-brewery. The pub was crowded, but we managed to get a table in the restaurant which was nice, although a bit less cosy. The beer and food were very good, and we certainly want to go there again, too.

2006-10-26T14:12:00.000+01:00

Kutna Hora

Sue and I visited Kutna Hora two weekends ago with another teacher from the school.

The town was a silver-mining and coin-minting centre in the 15th century, and became very wealthy until the time of the thirty-years war. A combination of being on the losing side, and the end of the easily reachable silver led to its decline.

Prior to that the area first became famous as a place of pilgrimage. The nearby Cistercian monastery in Sedlec was reputed to contain a handful of earth from Calvary, and so many faithful were buried here from about 1278. The ossuary at Sedlec contains bones from about 40000 skeletons, some in large pyramidal mounds, and others in macabre sculptural arrangements. The present arrangement of the bones dates back to 1870.

The weather was fine and warm and we spent a lovely Autumn day there. We travelled by train and learned that the Czech railway system is more complex than we had imagined. On the way out we had to pay supplements as we were using an Inter-City train rather than the local train we had bought tickets for. On the way back we took a local train, but we inadvertently chose one which took a longer route. This meant we had to pay another supplement for the privilege of an extra 45 minutes journey with more stops.

I also managed to cause confusion at lunch due to my lack of Czech. I ordered two Mattoni mineral waters (or so I thought), but ended up with two Martinis. I now know that Mattoni is subject to the rules of Czech grammar just like any other noun, and that if I had ordered dve Mattonku I would have got what I wanted.

Some of the pictures I took at Kutna Hora and Sedlec can be found here.

2006-10-24T09:46:00.000+01:00

Kofola

Kofola is the local soft drink here. It was first produced in the 1960s as the Communist world's answer to Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Somehow it managed to survive the entry of western soft-drink companies after 1989, and is still popular here.

I have had a bottle in the fridge for a few weeks, but hadn't got round to drinking it until yesterday. The taste is quite different from Coke and Pepsi, it is quite fruity and spicy. If you can imagine "mulled cola" it is that kind of taste.

I'm not sure how often I will drink it, it is a bit of an acquired taste in my opinion, and I don't think I will bother to acquire it. I'll stick to beer, mineral water or wine.

2006-10-12T20:05:00.000+01:00

I Served The King Of England

"I Served The King Of England" is the title of a book by Czech author Bohumil Hrabal. I first read it five years ago when we visited Prague for a holiday. The book is a satirical look at the history of the Czech Repbulic through the eyes of a single character, a waiter called Dite.

The story starts in the 1930s with Dite working as a young waiter alongside a head waiter who appears to know everything. When Dite asks him how he knows things he replies enigmatically "I server the King of England". Dite's own big moment comes when the Emperor of Ethiopia makes an official visit to Prague, and by a combination of good luck and sharp wits Dite ends up serving his food. Thereafter whenever he impresses more junior waiters with his skill and knowledge he always explains his abilities with the phrase "I served the Emperor of Ethiopia".

From there his life follows the twists and turns of his country through the German annexation of the Sudetenland, the Second World War, the brief period of freedom before the Communist coup, and the purges against businessmen during the early Communist period.

For me the book gives a darkly-humorous overview of Czech history. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the country. Apparently a film of the book is due to released later this year.

2006-10-11T16:03:00.000+01:00

Fighting identity theft (via unsolicited e-mail)

I was amused by a story in The Register about the fact that the Metropolitan Police's efforts to notify potential victims of identity theft. Apparently some of those notified are treating the mail from the Met as a hoax.
How long before the phishers start copying the Met's mail?

2006-09-30T21:49:00.000+01:00

Working too hard to keep fit?

Are you worried that you don't get time to take exercise because you are stuck in front of a computer every day? Help is at hand with the Geek-a-Cycle(tm). This recumbent home-trainer and computer desk is just the thing, you can work and keep fit at the same time. Just take care that you don't breath too heavily when you're on conference calls, though!

2006-09-30T20:39:00.000+01:00

St Wenceslas Day

September 28th is St Wenceslas's day, and the Czechs have a public holiday to celebrate their patron saint, Wenceslas I, Duke of Bohemia. I often pass a really striking church which is dedicated to St Wenceslas and was built to commemorate his 1000th anniversary in 1929.

St Wenceslas's day was on Thursday and I had no lessons, although I managed to reschedule them to make up for the lost time. On this holiday the public transport runs to a Sunday timetable, and the big shops are open. The smaller shops were closed, but I was prepared for this and had stocked up on essentials.

We have had a real Indian Summer this September. The weather has been fine and warm most days. Thursday dawned chilly and misty and I thought we had seen the last of the fine weather. Fortunately the mist cleared and the sun came out later in the day.

I spent the late morning and early afternoon visiting the Czech Air Force Museum which is located at an airbase in the northern suburbs. I took pictures, but haven't yet chosen the best ones. Watch this space.

2006-09-30T20:26:00.000+01:00

Karlstejn
Two weeks ago Sue came out again for the weekend. We decided to get out of the city on Sunday and headed by train for Karlstejn and its castle. We ended up leaving Prague late in the morning so we decided to get lunch before sightseeing. The station at Karlstejn is in the valley across the river from the castle and village.

There was a promising-looking bar just before we crossed the river (named after the Good Soldier Swejk) so we went there. The food was good and the prices were an absolute bargain, roughly a third of what we might pay in central Prague, and cheaper than the prices we are used to paying in the non-touristy parts of the city. The bar was popular with Czech cyclists and walkers, too.

After lunch we walked up the hill through the village to the castle. We decided not to pay for a guided tour of the interior as apparently it is quite bare inside, and photographs are forbidden. Instead we went for a walk hoping to get views of the castle from the other side. We didn't have a map but we followed some tracks and almost managed a circular walk. We could see our starting point, but it was about 200 feet below with a nasty looking steep drop. We decided to be safe and retrace.

We felt we deserved more refreshment so we stopped at another bar (again out of the village and popular with walkers and cyclists) for ice cream and cold drinks. We then made our way back through the village to the station for the train back to Prague.

2006-09-21T20:23:00.000+01:00

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

On Saturday evening we were out of milk. I knew that there was a small local shop which would be open, so I went there. Milk seems to be sold here in 1 litre plastic bottles for the most part, but 500ml containers are available. The shop had lots of litre bottles, but I don't use much milk, so I prefer the smaller amount. I a 500ml carton, read the word mléko (milk) and took it home.

We decided to have some tea before bed, and we had finished the previous milk earlier when we had a friend round after a meal out, so I handed Sue the fresh carton. Luckily she sniffed it before adding it to the tea. It was sour! I dug out the dictionary and read the other words on the carton carefully. Translated it read sour milk product.

It is quite refreshing if you know that's what you're drinking. It would not taste good in tea, though.

2006-09-12T19:16:00.000+01:00

The weekend

Sue came out for the weekend. For some reason flights on Friday afternoon and Monday morning were more expensive than usual, so she decided to fly out on Saturday morning and return on Monday evening. The flight was slightly delayed so it was almost 1pm by the time we reached the centre of town on Saturday. We decided to have lunch out, and went to the terrace bar I had visited the night before. The weather was excellent and it was nice to have lunch while enjoying a lovely view.

In the afternoon we left Sue's bags at the flat and walked through the local area (for about 5km) looking for interesting buildings before having a quiet meal.

On Sunday we took the tram to the old exhibition ground of Výstavište and walked through Stromovka Park to the river. From there we crossed two bridges to arrive on the north side of the river near Troja chateau. We explored the gardens and had lunch before we discovered that the Pragus Botanical Gardens are just up the hill from here. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the gardens before returning to Výstavište for the tram home.

I didn't have a lesson on Monday morning, so I was able to spend time with Sue until after lunch. After my class I just had time to dash to Vitkov hill wioth my camera to take some pictures of the sunset. I have now set up an account at Flickr, so my nicest pictures from the last week are now available here.

2006-09-12T19:09:00.000+01:00

Payday!
The second Friday of the month is payday at the school. In some months there is also a teachers' meeting on this day, but since the new teachers had their induction and training this week there was nothing left to discuss in a meeting. The owners did host drinks in a local bar from 5pm, though. The bar chosen had a lovely terrace at the back which looks into a great bowl of a valley. This part of town is called Vinohrady and at one time was famous for its vineyards. Looking into the valley I could just imagine rows of vines clinging to the sides.

Since many of the new teachers are still progressing through the local bureaucracy, they do not yet have bank accounts. As a result the school paid cash to those teachers without an account. I haven't been paid in cash for work since I was 18! It was slightly unsettling going to the pub with all my money for the next month about my person. I did the sensible thing and had a few drinks before going home.

2006-09-07T17:17:00.000+01:00

Connected!
As soon as I had a date to move into my flat I started making arrangements for an Internet connection. My landlord very kindly came with me to the Česky Telecom office to do the talking, while I signed the forms. The landline was connected this morning, eight days after placing the order.

I picked up a DLS modem from the Telecom office yesterday (over the last week they changed their name and branding from Česky Telecom to Telefonica O2 to make things more entertaining).

I had been told that I would get an e-mail with the account information for the DSL, but no such e-mail came. This afternoon I decided to plug everything in and then call the O2 help line to try and find someone who spoke English and could tell me the configuration information which I needed.

To my surprise as soon as the laptop booted it was on the Internet! The router was pre-configured with the DSL information and it was set up as a DHCP server, so everything just worked!

Maybe the fact that I am so surprised marks me down as an old-timer, but like Paul Humphreys I can remember the pain which we used to have to go through in the "good" old days to get a working network connection.

I really missed not having a net connection available to me. I'm really pleased to be back in contact with the world again, and now that I can use VOIP for phone calls, Sue and I should save a fortune.

2006-09-04T16:13:00.000+01:00

A New Term
Today was the first Monday in September, and the schools here in the Czech Republic started back today. True to form the weather this morning was the best it has been for a few weeks.

Life will get busy from now on, the students have had their summer holidays and their English lessons will resume. We had an induction day at the school today, all of the new teachers were given a huge amount of information on how to deal with the Czech bureaucracy, and how to keep track of their schedules and timesheets at the school. I was able to help with this as I have now been here a month and have learned a bit about how things work here.

My new classes begin next week, and I will have a full teaching load by the end of this month.

2006-09-04T16:07:00.000+01:00

A Golden Wedding
Sue's parents celebrated their Golden Wedding on Saturday, the actual anniversary was in August, but they scheduled the party after the holiday season. I flew from Prague to Newcastle on Friday afternoon, and Sue picked me up at the airport.

On Saturday afternoon we decorated the hall while the caterers set up the kitchen and the buffet. The party went well, Brian and Betty's relatives and friends from way back came along, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Sue had baked and decorated a cake for the occasion, and our nieces handed out drinks and canapes as people arrived.

There is only one flight a day from Newcastle to Prague and on Sunday it left at 9 am. I didn't get a lot of sleep after the party so I was feeling very droopy by the time I got back to Prague.

2006-09-04T16:00:00.000+01:00

Moving Day
My move from the shared flat into my own flat on Tuesday evening went smoothly. Everything I had fitted into a few bags and the whole process of packing, moving and unpacking was over very quickly. My landlord went with me to the Czech Telecom office to sort out the paperwork involved in getting a telephone line, and I should be set up with a line and broadband Internet within the next couple of weeks.

I'm really looking forward to getting broadband, I feel as though I have lost a limb, or one of my senses, over the last few weeks. I have been able to get access to computers to check e-mail or update this blog from time to time, but it isn't the same as having full Internet access from my own computer at home.

I had no classes on Thursday, so I went to Tesco to buy a few household essentials, and now I feel quite at home. I took the Metro to the far western edge of the city where there are two big shopping centres, one of which has an IKEA. I was sidetracked by a big electronics shop (like Curry's and PC World combined in one) so I decided to leave IKEA for another day.

In the evening I went out for a drink with some fellow teachers and added to my knowledge of which local bars and restaurants are good value. By the time I get some visitors I should have a good choice of places to take them.

2006-09-04T15:40:00.000+01:00

Where have I been?
I finished my week-long intensive course on the Friday afternoon (August 25th) and my student went home to Prague. I stayed at the hotel an extra night to recharge my batteries after a week of intensive conversation, and spent Saturday morning taking a short walk through the forest near the hotel and visiting an historic church above the town. The walks were pleasant but it isn't possible to cover much ground in a morning. The ideal tool for exploring countryside is a bicycle, so I should try to have a bike with me on future trips.

Owing to some confusion over the rail timetable I had a two hour wait at the railway station. Since I had two large bags and there was a severe rainstorm I decided to sit tight and read rather than go back into town to explore further. On Sunday I contacted my landlord and he told me that my flat would be ready for me to move in on Tuesday evening.

2006-08-24T18:27:00.000+01:00

Old Habits Die Hard
Today was a lovely sunny day so this afternoon my student and I decided we would have lessons outdoors. We drove to Pernstein Castle which is about 30 km from where we are staying. We spent an hour or so in an informal conversational class, and then decided that we should have a drink. I asked for mineral water, but he persuaded me to have a beer. He asked why I had wanted water and I told him that I should at least try to look like we were at work.
He smiled and said "This is hard work, but it could be worse."

As we were getting in to his car earlier I had noticed that he had a CD case with a Java logo. I commented on this and explained that my former employers had invented Java. We then had a chat about the computer industry and I described Sun's products and philosophy. Although I left Sun I still have a huge admiration for what they produce, and wish them well, especially following this week's encouraging news.

2006-08-23T17:04:00.000+01:00

Healthy Eating
I was skinny when I was young, but now I am among the unfortunate majority who enjoy their food, but have to watch what they eat. I was interested in a report in today's Guardian about the efforts of the fast-food companies to try to provide healthier options for their customers. I was particularly amused by this quote:

The American burger restaurant Wendy's added a fresh-fruit bowl to its menu; at the end of last year, the company quietly killed it, blaming a lack of demand. "We listened to consumers who said they wanted to eat fresh fruit," a disarmingly honest spokesman told the New York Times, "but apparently they lied."

I wouldn't call it a lie, but I do have a gap between my intentions and my actions. In a country where meat and dumplings make up much of the national cuisine I may struggle.

2006-08-17T17:29:00.000+01:00

My first week teaching in Prague went well, all of my students are friendly and keen.

Sue came out for the weekend and on Saturday morning we explored my nearest major landmark, Vitkov Hill, just a few minutes from my flat. The hill is home to the Czech National Memorial and the world's largest equestrian statue, of Jan Žižka who gives his name to the Žižkov district where I live.
The hill is popular with joggers and people out strolling, and there are excellent views from here to the north and west. On descending the hill we passed the Military Museum, which I will save for a damp day in the winter, before taking the tram out of the city to the Divoká Šárka country park. We spent a few hours walking in the park before returning to the city for afternoon tea at the Cafe Slavia.

The Slavia used to one of the places to go in Prague, and after some uncertain times has been restored to its Art Deco grandeur.

On Sunday we took the tram to the old fortress of Vysehrad, which gaves us further views of the city from another perspective. I must go up the Žižkov TV tower sometime. This was built in the 1980s, allegedly to jam western TV transmissions as much as to transmit Czech TV, and is regarded by some as an eyesore. There are those who say that the TV tower has the best view in Prague, as it is the only place from which you can't see the TV tower.

Next week I will be teaching in a small town in Moravia. One of the school's students is taking an intensive off-site course, and I will be teaching the first week. My fellow teachers have been giving me great assistance in preparing for this amount of work. I am looking forward to it, but am feeling slightly nervous and a bit daunted at the prospect.

2006-08-09T15:03:00.000+01:00

First day at school
As mentioned in the previous post, Sue and I went to the airport on Monday for her to check in at 6:30. I made my way back to the flat for a second breakfast before going into the school. I arrived just before 10 and spent the morning learning about the school's procedures for lesson scheduling and time tracking as well as finding out about the students from the school's records and other teachers. My fellow teachers are very helpful and can offer advice on life in Prague and the Czech Republic as well as helping with tips on teaching and lesson planning.

I spent Monday afternoon planning for my first lesson, and yesterday morning I met my first students. This was a small group, most of my lessons will be to small groups or individuals, and I think things went well. My teaching load is quite light at the moment, which gives me plenty of time for planning, but I'm sure it will be harder to manage my time once I have a full teaching load.

2006-08-08T13:24:00.000+01:00

Settling in
Sue flew out with me to Prague, and we arrived in the flat on Saturday evening. On Sunday the weather was showery, which was a change from the weather there a few weeks ago. We went out to look for breakfast and discovered that virtually nothing was open until eleven, we ended up having muffins and coffee at McDonalds at the Flora Palac shopping centre.

We took the Metro into the centra and strolled to the river, crossing over to Smychov and Mala Strana. As we crossed the street from Smychov to Mala Strana we suddenly found loads of tourists - obviously Smychov isn't recommended in any of the guides. By the time we got to the Charles Bridge it was lunchtime and the tourists were now out in strength. We managed to find a reasonably-priced lunch at the foot of the Charles Bridge (to my surprise).

After lunch we walked up to Hradcany (the castle area) and then took a tram back through the town. I showed Sue where the language school is located, then we got the Metro back to the shopping centre to buy groceries before returning to the flat.

Sunday night was wet, so after a quick pizza we headed back to the flat for an early night. We had to be up early for Sue's flight on Monday morning.

2006-08-02T17:37:00.000+01:00

Malcolm Wotton - Celebration Of A Life

I wrote last month about Malcolm's cycling accident. He never regained full consciousness, and he died two weeks ago while I was in Prague. The funeral was yesterday. It was a very emotional occasion for everyone involved, but we all took a lead from his partner, Janice.

She wanted the day to be a celebration of Malcolm's life, rather than a mourning of his death. We were all encouraged to wear bright clothes rather than sombre ones, and the tributes and readings were a celebration of life, too.

I knew Malcolm for about ten years, and he was a remarkable man. He was intelligent, sporty, witty, caring, popular and interested in almost every subject one could think of. Malcolm gave all that he could in everything that he did. He lived life on his own terms to a greater degree than anyone else I know.

Malcolm managed to structure his career to give him what I regard as the ideal balance between work and life. He would take on IT work in intensive bursts which he would complete at full effort, then he would take some time to pursue other things. He lived fairly modestly from day to day, but was always able to enjoy himself when travelling, and always managed to keep adding to his collection of cool gadgets.

Sue and I didn't see Malcolm and Janice on a daily basis since we moved away from the North-West London area over ten years ago, but we did see them for weekends and short holidays. These trips usually involved cycling, and always involved nice meals, good beer and wine, and the occasional single-malt whisky. I will cherish all of the times the four of us spent together. The week we spent in a cottage in Bowmore visiting the Islay Whisky Festival is one I will particularly cherish.

I feel Malcolm's loss most keenly now that I too have given up the daily office routine for a less-structured career. I always imagined that in my new life Malcolm and I would have times when we weren't busy working and could do interesting things together. I also hoped that I would be able to get his guidance on making the freelance life work.

On Tuesday night, after we had returned from the funeral, Sue and I poured ourselves a dram of Ardbeg and toasted his memory.

There's no-one else like Malcolm, I'll never forget him, and I want to get as much out of my life has he did from his.

2006-08-01T08:50:00.000+01:00

Frustrations of being a teacher?
Saturday's Telegraph had the following piece:

How can I convey to parents and others how frustrating teaching can be?

The following, which is anonymous, comes from Classroom Behaviour, an illuminating guide to good teaching by Bill Rogers, published by Paul Chapman: "Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain and, gathering them around him, he taught them saying: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; blessed are the meek; blessed are they that mourn; blessed are the merciful; blessed are they that thirst for justice; blessed are you when persecuted; blessed are you when you suffer; be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven.

Then Simon Peter said, 'Are we supposed to know this?' And Andrew said, "Do we have to write this down?' And James said, 'Will we have a test on this?' And Phillip said, 'I don't have any paper.'

And John said, 'The other disciples didn't have to learn this.' And Matthew said, 'May I go to the lavatory?' "Then one of the Pharisees who was present asked to see Jesus's lesson plan and inquired of Jesus, 'Where is your statement of objectives?' "And Jesus wept."

I'm sure that teaching adults won't be quite as frustrating, let's see what I think in three months or a year, though. In the meantime, I'll try to get hold of a copy of Classroom Behaviour to see what I can learn from it.

2006-07-28T10:54:00.000+01:00

Prague
My trip to Prague last week went well. I met several people from the school I will be working for, and managed to organise my accommodation for the coming year. A kindly American called Johnson was my host for the trip, and I will be living in the same apartment building as him.
The apartment is in an area called Žižkov, which is a few kilometres from the centre. This area has lots of cafes and bars frequented both by locals and expats. I'm sure I will settle there happily.

I had more time than I expected for tourism while I was in Prague. One of the letting agencies failed to arrange appointments for me to view apartments, so I used the time to familiarise myself once more with the city. Prague has changed immensely since my first visit fifteen years ago, most of the buildings have been renovated where many were dilapidated before. There are many more restaurants, and they are much more welcoming. Most of the international chain stores are represented there now, too.

2006-07-22T10:38:00.000+01:00

Exam time
I was working at Farnborough College again on Monday. The Speaking and Listening exams were being held for the Summer Course students, and I was acting as a facilitator for the afternoon session. Each student took part in an individual session with the external examiner, followed by a group discussion.

My duties were to ensure that each student was given a record card for their marks, which they had to hand to the external examiner, and that they were present when the examiner called for them. In the case of the group discussion I had to read out the topic for the group to discuss, warn them if they were straying from the topic of discussion, prevent any one student from monopolising the discussion, and ensure that everyone took part in the discussion.

The one thing which Farnborough is famous for is the Farnborough International Air Show, and this year's show began on the same day as the exam. The flying display began in the afternoon, and the college is directly under the approach path of the runway. This meant that the poor students had to cope with aircraft noise during their speaking and listening exam.

I had warned them beforehand that this might be a problem, and they coped with it sensibly, but maybe next time we should ask the air show to hold their display on a day which doesn't conflict with the exams...

2006-07-14T16:25:00.000+01:00

Flat hunting in Prague
I have now agreed a start date for my work in Prague. I will fly out on August 5th to start on the 7th. I'm sure the time will rush by between now and then.

I need to find somewhere to live. I have been checking out property ads on the Internet and the language school has an arrangement with some local landlords, but there is no substitute for checking out a place in person. I will take a short trip out there next week to view a few places and choose one.

The trip will also give me an opportunity to visit the school and meet at least some of the people. Many of the teachers won't be there until the beginning of September. I won't have a full teaching load in August, so I will have a chance to settle in and get up to speed without being overwhelmed.

2006-07-11T16:15:00.000+01:00

Cycling again
Since Malcolm's accident Sue and I haven't been out cycling much. We decided last weekend to get out and take a trip to get back into the groove again. Sue took Friday off work and we spent the day riding down to Portsmouth for a late-afternoon ferry to Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight.

Once over the water we followed the small lanes from Fishbourne to Sandown taking in a scenic road across Brading Down. The views were good, although there was a lot of fast traffic for such a minor road. I think the culprits were people anxious to get away for the weekend, along with a couple of motorcyclists out for an after-work burn-up.

We were booked into the Youth Hostel at Sandown. We haven't been hostelling for some years, but decided to re-join this summer. The hostel was nice and less formal than they used to be. It was a fine evening, so dinner consisted of fish and chips from Fat Harry's taken on a bench near the pier, followed by an evening stroll.

On Saturday we left Sandown via an off-road cycle route to Newport, and then made our way to Yarmouth for lunch. We left Yarmouth on the ferry to Lymington, and from Lymington we rode through the New Forest to Burley. Burlet hostel was very busy, not just inside, but also with families and groups camping in the hostel grounds in tents and teepees.

On Sunday morning we set off to ride through the New Forest to Mottisfont Abbey which is a National Trust property. We are members of the National Trust so we are able to make use of their properties for informal tea-shop stops. At Mottisfont they served some excellent cheese and watercress scones which set us up for the next part of the ride.

We rode through King's Somborne and skirted the north of Winchester, pausing for a cream tea at the garden centre in Headbourne Worthy. From there we skirted the south of Basingstoke to arrive home in the early evening.

It was a lovely weekend. We had some damp spells, but each day ended with sunshine Some of the roads were busy, but many were quiet, and the whole experience reminded us why we love cycletouring.