Touring Central and Eastern Europe - Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.