At the end of October, Bodra and I moved into our fourth residence in Reading. We hired a monster of a van, Bodra’s first experience of driving one, also with a column change gear-stick. Squeezing past all the parked cars on our new road proved to be quite a challenge, especially without a rear-view mirror. Somehow we have gone from only having what was in our backpacks and one large box, to having multiple van-loads. There must be extra people secretly living with us, accumulating all this stuff! I certainly remember having harsh words with myself in our first place at Kennet Walk, warning that I must not buy any unnecessary items. Who needs books when there are libraries?
We’re nicely settled in our new place and can only complain about the dribbly shower. Bodra went to Helsinki for work during the first week and I kept myself busy unpacking and cleaning. Paul and Rachael came to stay on our first weekend and taught us the art of the gas stove. There are no markings on the stove so I didn’t really know what to look for to get the oven going. Once it was going (thanks Rachael!) the next question was, how do I know what temperature it will reach? We ended up getting a maintenance guy to check it out, and he’s kindly drawn some markings on the stove face.
On that Saturday, Paul and Rachael took us to Leicestershire where Rachael and I watched Bodra drive a TVR and Paul drive a Porsche. Exciting stuff for the boys, but freezing stuff for us! We joined them in a jeep going over a landscape designed to show just what those vehicles can handle- steep inclines, stairways, slushy pools of mud. Our drive back to Reading was far more stimulating, especially when we hit traffic along the M4 motorway so endured the queue by playing Eye-Spy. It’s amazing how much stuff you start to see when you are looking for a clue.
Lauren came to stay the following week, whilst Bodra was away on business in Turin. He had an extra long trip to get there as the airport employees in Turin were striking, so he had to fly to Milan and then train to Turin from there. I had a great time in Laurens company, as always. We discovered the Chinese supermarket nearby, where you can buy industrial sized blocks of tofu and all sorts of strange vegetables. Lauren made some delicious peanut butter cookies, among other yummy vegan treats.
Kim and Ezra were our next visitors, and we shared our local Indian takeout with them- Chenai Dosa. Paul and Rachael also suffered the spiciness of Chenai Dosa when they visited, and additionally, Bodra and I had it the first weekend when we moved in. Three times in one month- yes, it is that good!
Bodra and I were in Prague during the middle of November. We stayed at the Sheraton at Charles Square and arrived on a National holiday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism, and the beginning of the Velvet Revolution.
As we had arrived early, our room wasn’t ready, so we went for a walk around the block. Prague is a really beautiful city. The architecture shows a vast array of styles- Art Nouveau to baroque, Renaissance, Cubist, Gothic, Neo-Classical and ultra-modern. The buildings are so well maintained, the streets are clean, people and traffic move around with hardly any stress. I believe Czech people must have a lot of pride for their city.
A crowd had formed along one of the main roads. It seemed like a race was going to happen as we could see the start and finish markers, and also a few strange forms of transport- a giant banana on wheels? A couple stages were also set up, perhaps in preparation for a concert or speeches. We didn’t stick around for the action, as Bodra had to catch up on some work and I wanted a nap.
We walked along the Vltava River, where we saw a man shed most of his clothes and dive in for a swim. It wasn’t exactly a hot day as Bodra and I were both in our jackets, jumpers and beanies. Further along the river we came upon an intriguing building- the Dancing House (Tan?ící d?m) by Vlado Miluni? and Frank Gehry, an example of deconstructivist architecture. It is said to look like a couple dancing, two towers with an unusual, curving shape.
In the evening I was still feeling very snoozy and hardly enthused to get out and explore, but we went for a small walk in the evening, in search of dinner which we found at a local Tesco’s supermarket. The streets were far more packed with people, but we still had no clue as to what was going on. So we grabbed our groceries and returned to the hotel. The cold weather really zaps my levels of curiosity.
The weather did little to inspire me on Wednesday, so while Bodra went to work, I treated myself to a luxurious day of staying in our room, bathing and reading. Sometimes it is just really nice and comforting to devour a book in one sitting. I’ve begun reading Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series, an urban fantasy involving supernatural themes. The main character is a witch who is a Private Investigator, and uses charms to catch villains. She has a Pixie for a side kick and a Vampire for a room-mate. Light stuff, but action-packed, humorous- very entertaining to read.
For dinner we went out to Lehka hlava - Clear Head vegetarian restaurant. We had a table in a warm orange room with a fish tank. The meal was very satisfying- grilled goat cheese with cranberries and walnuts, served over a mixed green salad, hummus, cheddar quesadilla with jalapenos, guacamole, tomato salsa, sour cream and bulgur risotto with stir-fried tempeh, spring vegetables and sun-dried tomato and peanut pesto. Our bellies were full for nearly £20 together- wholesome, fresh tastiness at a bargain price!
On Thursday I decided I had better do a little bit of adventuring. I don’t like exploring new places on my own, especially after my ridiculous attempts at orienteering in Amsterdam where I basically kept going in the opposite direction to where I wanted, but I had to make the most of being in this historical city. Our room had a lovely big bath so I thought I should find some scented fizzy-bombs to make the most of it. Sure enough Prague has a Lush, so I made my way over to the Palladium- two kilometres from our hotel so an easy stroll. The Palladium is just your usual shopping mall, nothing noteworthy or unique as far as I could see, although I was only focussed on getting the bath bomb. Even with a map and clearly marked streets, I still managed to unknowingly deviate from my planned route, taking in a sweet woodcraft store and ‘Luxor Book Palace’ on Wenceslas Square, the largest bookstore in the Czech Republic. Post-cards, stamps and a couple Christmas gifts achieved!
After Lush I headed over to Old Town Square, once the central marketplace in the 12th century. I sat down by the Jan Hus statue and wrote a few postcards, then carried on to the Metro Station. Jan Hus was an influential Priest and philosopher who became a martyr. He tried to reform the church, and as a result he was burned at the stake.
One of my friends from Christchurch days, Jan Honza Tilinger lives in Prague, so I had arranged to meet him at the Czech Technical University. Honza had organised a screening of a movie about a solar school which he helped to set up in Kargyak, a village at 4200m altitude in the Indian Himalayas. I was able to meet a couple of his friends and his sister and watch the movie. Most of it was in Czech and it showed the construction of the school. It would be amazing to go there one day but the village is very isolated. Flying into Delhi, you would spend 5-10 days just getting to the village, depending on your route, and involving 4-5 days walk. I really admire Honza and his friends; they are very courageous and strong Beings!
After the movie I helped Honza prepare DVD covers for copies of the movie, and then he took me back to his mum’s apartment where we sat chatting with two of his friends, one an architect and the other an engineer. They had some great stories to share with me, as they had both been involved in Surya School. One of them was off to Madagascar the following day to work on an energy project.
I returned to Bodra later that night and after discovering our chosen vegetarian restaurant didn’t have a non-smoking area we relented and had room service. Yay for vegetarian pasta! (I’m kidding.)
Friday was my last chance to explore so I started off by heading towards Vyšehrad Castle, a little over two kilometres from the hotel. I found the cemetery and the Basilica of St Peter and St Paul, but having followed the walls all around, I became quite exasperated as the castle was nowhere to be found! I have since discovered that just because a place is called a castle this doesn’t necessitate the presence of a palace. Castle just means a fortified defensive structure. Yay for learning new things, but boo for no castle…
From the non-castle containing castle, I wandered down to Vltava River and crossed a bridge, heading for Pet?ínské (Pet?ín Hill). I had hoped to take the funicular up to the top where an observation tower with the likeness of the Eiffel Tower stands. Unfortunately I had spent all my money on the Metro yesterday and couldn’t find an ATM, so I trudged up the steep hill. Thankfully this led me to discovering the Magic Cavern of Reon Argondian, a place Kim had recommended. I didn’t have any money for admission but the attendant said he would pretend he hadn’t seen me, and let me in. I gave him some Geisha chocolate (my lunch) which pleased him.
Three floors filled with fantasy art! Every wall space held bright paintings showing majickal forests and lakes, unicorns, lizards, Elves, Faerys, crystals… I was virtually alone in the gallery, and able to sit and take in the artwork while listening to relaxing music. Relaxing, that is, until they played the Titanic Theme Song. Urck!
I thought I would head out towards the Charles Bridge (Karl?v most) which crosses the Vltava river and takes you back over to Old Town. Lucky for me I didn’t have to do this alone as Bodra had just finished work so could meet me there. I wandered down Pet?ín Hill and passed a bunch of souvenir shops and boutiques. Charles Bridge was the first bridge to have been constructed in Prague and is over five hundred years old. Quite a number of statues lined the bridge, along with all sorts of different traders and their kiosks, selling jewellery, caricatures, magnets and water colour landscapes.
From Charles Bridge we stopped for afternoon tea then trudged up a hill towards Prague Castle, mostly to take in the views of the city, stopping in a couple of Art Galleries along the way. We were able to enter the castle grounds so we walked around St. Vitus Cathedral and exited out the opposite end of the grounds. Back down to Old Town, we stopped for a souvenir print of the seasons by Mucha. Bodra found some Mulled Wine for us and then we began thinking about dinner. Honza had recommended the Indian Jewel so we went there, finding ourselves the only customers (it was very early evening), which was fine as we wanted to be served quickly. A fair meal, but Bodra can cook better. One last stop before heading back to the hotel- we picked up two small bottles of Absinthe. Foul stuff- I couldn’t drink it all as the spirit is a pure gag-fest. Completely non-Faery like!
After Prague I had the pleasure of catching up with a few friends. The following Monday I met Petra, Ian and their brand new bubby (born at the end of September), Daisy Anastasia Young. I’ll be looking forward to a time when I can visit them in Portishead, in the New Year. I also recently caught up with a friend I made whilst working at Thames Water, Tibor, and his wife Lavinia. We met them for dinner at Wagamamas, and hopefully I’ll be seeing more of them soon.
Last Monday Fat Freddy’s Drop gave a concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London so Bodra and I made the mission out there. It is always so much more difficult to push ourselves out the door during the week but we figured we deserved some NZ Summer music! We arrived near the end of the last few songs from the opening act, The Electric featuring DJ Vadim- thank goodness for that as they weren’t our cup of tea, just some random teenagers jumping up and down pumping themselves up and basically sounding cliché. I’m sure there is a more accurate way to describe their music, but I’m not that well educated in their style.
Once Freddy’s came on we had a pretty awesome evening with their fantastic music. We were really pleased to see the guitaring of Jetlag Johnson aka Tehimana Kerr become more of a feature in this gig. Ho Pepa aka Joe Lindsay was great to watch as he danced around with his trombone. The only turn-off was the lighting- we were seated in the circle and from there it was like driving into oncoming traffic with their brights on for the first couple of songs. We caught up with Jono before we left as well; he was seated near us and spotted us as we were leaving. Jono should be joining us for dinner in the New Year so we can find out what he has been up to and meet his girlfriend Jenna.
Bodra and I thought it would be a good idea to get our Dry Suit diving license as we can expect the ocean to be cold in NZ, and hypothermia isn’t much fun. So we had a pool session with the guys from Hydrodive and on Sunday we went out to Wraysbury Lake to do the Open Water aspect of the license. The suit is very well insulated, although Bodra managed to get water in his boots. You still wear a BCD vest, but you mostly rely on the Dry Suit for buoyancy control. We wore hoods and gloves, but getting into the water proved the gloves to be far from insulating. Not sure how cold the water was, but it certainly felt icy around my face and fingers.
I was a bit panicked initially, just some funny things floating around in my head, but I managed to calm myself and descend. Things were going okay for me, we went down to 8 metres and I felt the suit pinching a bit but you just add in some air to release that sensation. We demonstrated fin pivots on a platform near the bottom of the lake and then followed our guide further along. There wasn’t much to see in the lake, just weeds and maybe a cement mixer, some old vehicle carcasses. I forced myself not to hold Bodra’s hand- I didn’t want him compensating my buoyancy again. We began to go up an incline and when we reached the top I thought I was ok, until I felt myself continue to ascend. This is a scary feeling as you kind of get it drummed into your head that you need to be able to control how fast you ascend. At that time I couldn’t, all I could feel was my body rising, even though I was leaking air out of the valve in my left wrist and could feel the suit pinching. I’m guessing it was just the air inside my body that had expanded and caused me to float up? Anyway, the experience had me pretty shaken so I decided to forgo the second dive. Bodra managed to pass his license and hopefully I will too with a little more time.
It seems like last week was the week of awards! Bodra was awarded a trip to Cannock (just kidding- that was for work). We found out that our friend Paul won an award for the Most Effective Operations Management Initiative which sounds very mighty and impressive. Our nephews at Dilworth also had their school achievements acknowledged- Hemi and Te Aue were both made monitors for next year, Hemi won an award for Technology I believe, and Kowhai won a $500 music award which he has spent on a new white guitar. I can’t wait to meet these bright, young beings soon!
Next week Bodra will be going to Tel Aviv for work. We haven’t got too much planned between now and our trip to NZ, just saving our pennies so we can do lots of neat things back home. Christmas will be a fairly easy one, having dinner with David and Olga at a nearby restaurant. Paul will be joining us for New Years and I guess our celebrations will be focussed around the new 47inch LCD TV dominating our lounge. Finally I understand why Russell has been praising HD so much!
Recent Comments