Prague-life

So time has been getting the better of me and not allowing me a moment to do anything creative and instead I've been caught up with learning, researching, adapting and implementing things online as well as dullidy-dull stuff like washing and, today's joy of joys - defrosting the fridge.  There is of course, never a good time to defrost the fridge, but if you're planning on taking almost a month off to go travelling in the US and you've run your supplies of food down to a bare minimum (not just due to trying not to have too much food leftover, but also due to running out of money) I guess, now's as good a time as any.

And so it is that I am purposely taking a moment to recall the little things I've been able to get up to over the last few weeks, because I felt a pang of homesickness as I walked back from Tesco today that I'll be leaving my little Prague life behind for quite a while.

Let's see...

There was the weekend I had tonnes of stuff to do but the architect and I managed to nip out into the centre for a couple of hours on a gloomy Saturday so we walked and walked and took in these sights:

And he laughed at me for taking photos because it was such a tourist thing to do.  But when there's this kind of weird stuff around, how can you NOT take a photo?

Then we had a couple of weeks of it starting to look like spring and there was this distinct change in the light in my kitchen that I had to just capture:

And that summer-yness carried on for a little while, just long enough to remind me how hard it'll be to conduct meetings in my hot little flat, and that at 4pm it's necessary to put the blinds down or the sun on my back will surely burn my skin.  And the Russian Countess came to visit and she took photos of me with my parasol and then we went out for dinner in the evening and sat in the company of a fish, because that was part of the décor:

(That is a fish in there - honest!)

And then, there were the lost days of periodness I mentioned in a previous post, with my emotional turmoil over watching 'Outnumbered' and feeling a bit nostalgic, followed by the last week or so of frantic organising.  Plus, there was the day I had my last stupid o'clock meeting on Vaclávské náměstí  so I took a photo of the big Europa Hotel as I left the building and headed to the street:

And then there was all the present-buying to do at the Easter market:

And now I'm into the 'packing and wrapping up presents' endgame that seems endless and far too much effort for the calibre of Easter presents bought.  

I received my own Easter present ahead of time in the post today and I must say I am enormously blessed:

What elegance!  What extravagance!  What yumminess....

And the other day I got a present of lovely yellow tulips, which brought the thought of spring that helped with the fact that the temperatures had gone back down to normal for spring and the clouds had come to hide the sun.

So all that remains now is to do aerobics, (to keep me fit and strong to cope with the stress of the long day of flying and hanging around in airports that awaits) finish my packing and attempt to make the most of my keyboard while I'm still here.  I actually got out the old Tori Amos sheet music last night and for the first time in my life got quite involved (and quite good at, I might, brazenly add) playing "Silent All These Years".  Which I suppose is quite appropriate seeing as I haven't written a proper full song in about two years now.  But I haven't exactly been 'silent' though, have I?

Little snippets from a Thursday

07.30 Lie-in.  Seeing the sun emerging through the blinds without my already being up and out of bed.

09.45  Drying my hair.  Noticing grey hairs, one of which was a new, strong but very short one, sticking up out of sheer defiance and static electricity.  Too short to curl around my finger and yank out easily.  Took 5 minutes to finally harness and pull the damned thing out.  (Had pulled out about 10 other perfectly fine brown hairs by then.)

10.00  Seeing the steam coming out of my cafetière after I'd just poured in the hot water.  The frothed up milk having stayed frothed up.  Result: delicious mug of coffee.

14.30  Learning the expression, ,,dát pryč'' (lit. put away) meaning, 'get rid of'.

15.00 Going to the post office (yet again) but actually having a nice time, because my Czech teacher/friend with the most amazing patience with my level of Czech, came along with me.  We chatted about my maintenance guy experience and how I stupidly didn't use the polite, 'you' form a couple of times.  She laughed and said it wasn't that bad.  Then I remembered that at one point when he was fixing the cooker with the tiniest little screw imaginable, that seemed determined not to fit or indeed stay put, he had exclaimed, ,,do prdele!" right in front of me.  This is the equivalent here of saying, "f**k!", but said a tiny bit more often.  To which my Czech teacher said, " Aha, so he's not exactly a paragon of politeness himself, is he?"

Sunshine, errands and photos

London is awaiting me tomorrow, along with the Faerie Godmother Trainee.  But the sun decided to come out today (I knew it - the one weekend I won't be here in Prague and it decides to heat up and be sunny - typical) and it's amazing what a difference a bit of sunshine makes.  I went on a little walk to get a few last things to bring with me to bestow on friends in London, but I didn't have time to enjoy much of it.  So I took some photos instead, to be able to look at them and marvel at the lovely weather later.  

While I was out, I stupidly decided to try a bit of light-hearted banter with the woman in Tesco, but she was probably too young to indulge in such things and my comment that, ,,konečně je to léto, že jo?" ["it's finally summer, isn't it?!"] was received with a teenager-like look of simultaneous incomprehension and disdain.  Maybe I was being overly friendly and thus impolite with such an informal phrase as ,,...že jo?" or maybe she was just miserable because people kept telling her what a lovely day it was outside and she was stuck working in an air-conditioned, no natural light to speak of, branch of Tesco.  In which case, ,,takže, chapu." ["I understand then."]  Or maybe my Czech is worse than I thought.  Occam's razor would decree it has to be the latter.

Anyway, I thought I could bypass any further need to attempt to write something interesting, seeing as I'm pushed for time and really should be packing my case instead, with some of the photos I took . There's one extra one from the other day when I realised they'd vamped-up Václavské náměstí with flower beds down the middle, just in time for tourist high-season.  Ah, the vanity...

Looking up to náměstí Míru, the church in the background, this is the general theme of where I live, banks, banks and more banks.  Oh, and a tram.  Of course. 

Then the view from the bank on the corner by the metro station, looking past yet another bank. You can just about see down to the shiny and copper-topped building in the background, which is part of the national museum at the very top of Václavské náměstí:

And here are the roses [um, sorry, you'll have to zoom in and look closely to see them!] in the middle of Václavské náměstí (or ,Václavák' as it's affectionately known to us 'locals'):

Sunshine and a flower

I've been having a difficult week.  Either I've developed a slowly fatal illness as a result of my formerly at least non-life threatening admin allergy, or I'm just getting old.  And tired.  Very tired.  It didn't help that one of my meet-ees woke me up with a text at 2:30am, cancelling Tuesday morning's meeting, and that I had to resort to watching Columbo to try to get me off to sleep again after that.  But it's something more than that.  It also might be that I'm developing a strong aversion to tales of Tuscany from all and sundry (including my own sister) and how wonderful their trip there was.  (Invariably involving a wedding, but someone else's so they get the best of both worlds of going somewhere nice, but getting some free food and drink while you're there.)  I, too, want to lounge in the sun (or realistically, under the shade of a tree) and swim in a beautifully located outdoor pool.  I, too, want to dine alfresco and look upon delightful scenery and soak up the unique atmosphere of a balmy Tuscan evening.  But it ain't gonna happen.

Instead, as the 'total loser consolation prize', I got the following: 

1) Sunshine coming through my window and projecting pretty patterns of shadows on my floor to temporarily distract me from the horrendously disorganised array of things that was once my (reasonably) tidy and inviting room:

and 2) a red gerbera flower from a meet-ee who is now posing serious competition to my boyfriend (who has so far in all the time we've been together only managed three, non-red, roses) which came as a really stunningly kind and wonderful surprise this morning:

and that's about it.  Not quite worthy of an, "I'll be a son of a gun!" Columbo exclamation, but it's better than nothing, isn't it?

Střelecký Ostrov and other shiny things

Marching around Prague, tram, metro and more walking.  New earrings, simple, shiny but black.  Meet-ees, sunshine, sweet-smelling sun cream.   Střelecký Ostrov and the 'deal going down' spot from ,,Bad Company" [starring Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins] as well as streams of seemingly giant diamonds reflected on the water. 

Greek restaurant.  Lots of food, eaten as though in time of famine.  Red wine and an eccentric Czech girl who swore I spoke Czech as well as she does, after my six months here. 

No energy left.  Eyes wanting to close.  No alternative - půjdu spát.

Yay! "Imaginary" Christmas!

You know in The Simpsons, the Flanders family end up having to resort to 'Imaginary Christmas' when everything goes wrong and they lose all their money? Well, I think I'm going to have to resort to that notion now.  How about "Imaginary Rewarding and Successful Life"?  It could start with a few things that actually happened, such as being complimented in Czech today for what I was wearing and for the fact that red suited me.  That was a lovely start to the day, along with the surreptitious compliment in my meet-ee's written work that mentioned my being 'clever' but also a bit of a slave-driver.

Unfortunately, it was cloudy this morning, so in my imaginary lovely life, it was actually sunny and warm and I saw the green parrot-like birds in Kensington Gardens on my much needed walk.  And I bought myself a sugary coffee (this is almost close to reality, as I was brought a small coffee I could add sugar to, so this is as near as dammit) and I played songs at the top of my voice that people on the street heard and applauded.  (I did play today, in an act of sheer rebellion over what I should have been doing and the window was open, but the street outside is in fact far too busy and noisy for anyone to ever hear me from there.)

And my imaginary day culminated in a wonderful evening playing the piano in a studio in Manhattan, making my fingers weary.  And my overall tiredness, is one of a satisfied, fulfilled variety.  (Oh would that this bit above all, were true.)  In fact, I actually really fancy a stroll in Central Park.  It should be starting to pick up in temperature soon.  Maybe in April.  What if I imagine I have a wonderful sponsor who loves my writing so much that they are willing to pay for me to spend a couple of weeks there, just wandering around, buying coffees and cupcakes and reading the New York Times and writing, playing piano in the studio and writing some more?  Will my wishes have any impact?  Will my fantasies shift any energy out there in the universe to bring about an extraordinary course of favourable events?  Or am I picking up on my longing for a trip to New York with a dose of your typical New Yorker unfounded optimism?