Happy Crimbo!

It's a bit last minute panic, last minute food shop and last minute blog!

The kids have come home with some amazing decorations they made at school...

this one made from an Ikea catalogue!!

There is carp for sale everywhere in buckets...

and our neighbours just delivered these homemade gingerbreads (I'm not going to even try to claim these as my own) they are just incredible.

So we're nearly there....and all that's left to say is a A BIG HAPPY CHRISTMAS or VESELE VANOCE from us!

Sensory overload

A small part of my job requires that I go and review films.

Sounds fun?  It is.  Especially when the kids and I just 'had to' view all the latest kids blockbusters over the summer, they thought it was a blast and for the most part I did too. And of course they were on hand to explain to mummy when she didn't understand what was going on - the films are all in Czech.  

And for the most part that's OK, they normally are visual feast.  I pop my 3D glasses on, and sometimes laugh if I get the gag...usually about a minute or two after the rest of the audience.

However, since the kids went back to skool I've suddenly lost my wing men and I'm flying solo.  I can't whisper to them in dark and or give them a nudge, 'hey what does that mean?'.  Now it's just down to me, sitting with me glasses on...hoping the other 'more serious film reviewers' don't catch me out in the audience.

I know it's a great experience of Czech and all that, but when I've got to hand in something professional for my job I can't just zone out and hope that the bad guy wins (ok they normally do, but that's not the point).

My hardest viewing to date was a French spoken film with Czech subtitles, as I've only got an O level in French I had a headache after that one let me tell you.

This week I had to review two films, Life of Pi and Perfect Pitch

Life of Pi was in 3D, which really seems to be the norm these days.  And it worked because it was an absolute visual spectacle - a whale jumping out of an ocean of phosphorus, Richard Parker the tiger pacing threateningly on the small boat......I recommend it, it's also a great story.  But I have to say I'm getting a bit bored of 3D, and the problem is my kids expect nothing less, coupled with a pumped up sound track and a stream of visual computer graphics.  All well and good as long as it's not just a gimmick to cover up what is essential a bad storyline.

Thank god there are still some films out there that are still 2D - I saw Perfect Pitch this morning in a beautiful old cinema called Lucerna which was built in 1906, it has a kind of art nouveau style and it's a real pleasure to see a film there.

Ok so the film wasn't as good as the wizz bang 3D Life of Pi...but that's not the point!

Hallo 'ven

Czechs don't celebrate Halloween as a rule, but the carving of pumpkins and general dressing up is catching on, or certainly if you have children.

Last year was our first - and we hadn't quite got the hang of the local customs.  Seeing a few pumpkins lit on the street I duly sent the kids to knock at doors excited that perhaps we could go trick or treating after all.  Only one man answered, peering terrified around the door he asked in czech, 'Co chcete prosim?' (what do you want?).  The kids were so embarrassed that we don't walk down that street anymore, and needless we didn't repeat that exercise this year.

But we were fortunate enough that our local 'community' group, a right rowdy bunch of wanna be actors and performers (who don't need much of an excuse to don their tights, costumes and make up) put on a quite a Hallo 'ven show in a little park near our house.

This year they retold the story of Golem (a Czech legend about a clay monster who comes to life) and it involved the kids parading into the dark woods looking for him, before returning and some amateur pyromaniacs took place as he was killed.

It's always a great show - there's grilled sausages for the adults, and of course the seasonally welcome Svařák (mulled wine), essential for those who need to keep warm like me....

But if I look back at our Halloween last year, there's quite a profound difference.  Same event, possibly some new costumes, same hot wine even - but we knew no one.  We skulked around feeling as though we had crashed a party.

This year I hardly saw the children who were off with friends, unless of course they needed more money for crisps, leaving me to chat with neighbours.

It's obvious I suppose but when we look back at an event like this, I can really measure just how far we've come.

Freelancing...

I've always been a 'freelancer' or worked 'volne na noze' as it's known here.  I've never been much of a one to work in a permanent job, arrive at the same desk everyday and do my 9-5.  Of course it comes with many disadvantages like no stable income/ no holiday/ sick pay/ pension, but even in my old age I wouldn't have it any other way.  I like the 'free' in freelancing too much.

However, since we're staying in Prague I've had to get my act together and sort out my official paperwork and get something called a Zivnostensky List, or 'traders licence' - a self employed status where I'm responsible for my own tax and social security contributions.

The problem is this involves sorting out my official paperwork and that's no mean feet here.  I read somewhere that bureaucracy is as part of Czech culture as beer. There's a lot of rubber stamping and signing, a bit more stamping, another signature, oh then you need to go across to another office on the other side of Prague to get another stamp.  I can see why Kafka was so inspired...

It's only taken us 11 months to get a Czech licence plate for the car  (it's just as well we decided to stay for another year)  So with this in mind I headed to the local 'urad' or offices to get my licence with not much hope that I'd get anything sorted quickly.

My first problem was that I had to determine which office I needed to go to.  Eventually after a bit of wandering around I found the lady that deals with 'L, M and Ns' (luckily she was in that day as I'm in no doubt that the H, I, J and K lady wouldn't have been able to deal with my case).

In my bad Czech I somehow made myself understood and an exasperated lady sat me down and tried to process my application with a lot of huffing and puffing.

But you know what?  I didn't care.  I was proud of myself because a year ago I couldn't have done this on my own, my husband would have had to hand hold me all the way, and although I have to return again next week with the 'correct' paperwork,  I'm happy!

Food...glorious food?

There's nothing quite like it....

Unless you're shopping in a supermarket in the Czech Republic that is.  It's a bit of a shock after Waitrose, M&S, Sainsburys...and frankly even Tescos in Leytonstone.

Supermarket food here is pretty grim.  Don't get me wrong  - you can buy most things nowdays, from pesto to parma ham, curry paste to sesame seed oil.  But it's the low quality meat, the so called 'fresh' produce that just leave a bad taste in your mouth.

The veggies are rank and last about 3 or 4 days, if you're lucky, but most end up like this;

or this

I complained to a Czech friend of mine who told me it's because the supermarket chains (including good old Tesco here) use the Czech republic as a kind of large disposal bin - they ship the products they can't sell anywhere else here because Czech's want cheap food.

But the thing is, it's not much cheaper and a lot of Czechs are beginning to realise they are being duped.  Outside of the cities of course, people like our Czech Rellies, still live a subsidence living and grow their own - but we all rely on the supermarkets at one point or another.

Slowly Czechs are waking up and smelling the coffee, realising that there are other choices - even around near me in deepest darkest suburbia a neighbour told me about a vegetable box delivery, and there is a van which comes once a week selling fresh milk and dairy produce, supposedly direct from farmers.

I've even read stories of Czechs driving across the border to Germany and Austria loading up their cars with groceries - it all sounds a bit extreme.

But if the old adage is true, 'you are what you eat', I'm afraid I might be a rotten tomato.

Home is where the heart is...

Ok I know, it's been radio silence here on the old blog front.

It's that I didn't want to write, it's just that I couldn't write.  It's been a stressful month or so deciding whether we should stay in the Czech Republic or return to the UK.

And finally we've decided to stay for one more school year, we weren't ready to go back yet just because school beauracy was forcing our hand.  Instead for better or worse we've made a decision and we hope it works out....one more year in Prague then starting secondary school back in Blighty.

Although we are having a great time here, and family is happy I can't quite imagine spending the rest of my life here, or certainly 8 more years of school education.  And if I'm honest too, I want my kids to have their secondary education in English.  No offense but Czech ain't exactly internationally recognised.  I also miss being back at 'home', it's not time to go back yet....but it's on the horizon.

Humans are adaptable creatures really, give us a bed, some creature comforts, give us a task like making sure the kids are settled and ok at school, and a job to go to, and there we go boom suddenly a year goes by.

But it's getting a bit of squash and a squeeze Chez Nous.  While the kids are growing every year, our home always seems to be shrinkin', we currently living in the family's small flat.  We're getting it all wrong - instead of upsizing, we keep downsizing.  When the kids have left home we'll probably be moving into a mansion.

So we've had to do some creative re thinking about how we're fitting in, and as our brood gets old and needs more privacy.  Good old Ikea to the rescue.

Before....

...and after

Whenever I think the walls are closing in on me, or start salivating over 4 bed Victorians on Rightmove, I have to remind myself that we are still lucky to be on an adventure, living life....and this is the small price we have to pay.

365 days ago...

Almost a year to the day we savored our last coffee in Belgique, packed up our car with the guinea pigs and left rainy East London, waving goodbye to our worldly possessions which we trustingly put on the back of a Polish lorry (secretly praying that we'd see them again).

Two days later we arrived at midnight in Prague.  Our stuff did arrive, mountains of it which we had to unpack.  We had 5 days before Czech school started.  It was a mix of excitement, nervousness, curiosity and fear  - and some of those feelings haven't gone away.

The year has rushed by, we've had our ups and downs, but it's been a fun experience and we've never once regretted our decision.  However I feel it is time to re evaluate what I like and don't like about living here...

LOVES
1.  Freedom - maybe this is because it's always easy to leave the shackles of your old life, mortgage, job pressures, the rat race, but it's been lovely stepping away from all that for a while.

2.  Independence & responsibility - have gone hand in hand and this is what the kids have learnt this year, from school, scouts groups, and living here - the Czech Republic hasn't heard of health and safety here yet and it's been amazing for them to learn how to look after themselves, and they've embraced it!













3.  Nature and countryside - canoeing, mountains, skiing, swimming in lakes, it's quite easy here to do all that stuff. Czechs also seem to live side by side with nature more, it's been great.


4.  Learning another culture - stimulating, interesting, sometimes weird...

....and sometimes very different...

5.  Woof woof - it's really dog friendly here.  We can take Max on buses, trains, the metro, to restaurants...He's been to more restaurants at the age of 10 months than I did before I was 18 years!

6.  A surprising entry - The Weather.  Maybe we've had a good year, but it was a proper cold winter, and a proper hot summer.









HATES

1.  Czech DRIVERS - awful, dangerous, unsafe.  They overtake on side streets, reverse without looking, never stop for pedestrians.  Stats show they are one of the worst in Europe and I believe it.

2.  Customer Service - I don't think Czechs have a word for it in their lexicon.  They find it a very difficult concept to grasp.

3.  Bureaucracy -  ooh they don't half love a bit of paperwork, and there's lots of coloured stamps that need to be stamped to make sure it's all official.

4.  Cold Fish - Czechs's aren't the warmest of people.  It takes an awfully long time for them to accept you, especially if you're a foreigner.

5. Corruption -  sadly a daily occurrence with politicians and people in power.

6.  1980s and mullets - I wanted to start a collection of mullet photos, but I never seemed to have my camera to hand when the time came.

But believe me, they are still alive and well here...along with bad 80s outfits and Christmas jumpers...and let's not forget good old sock and sandals!

















But either way, so far we have survived the good and the bad!

On the Road....

...Unlike Jack Kerouac I'm not taking mind bending substances and quoting Ginsberg or the Beat Poets, instead I'm carrying suntan lotion, dog food and reading out weather reports from the iphone.

Still, the feeling is the same, that of freedom and spirit of adventure.

This is the first holiday since the kids were born that we've donned backpacks and went travelling with just a guidebook and a passport.  Admittedly we've not gone far - only to Slovakia, the neighbouring country, but it feels like a real trip away without hotel reservations in place, and more importantly without The Car and all the trappings of life we bring with us when we have 4 wheels.

Everything we need we are carrying on our back, and if we ain't got it - tough luck.

Our first thrilling stop was the overnight sleeper train from Prague which arrived at an ungodly hour in some ungodly deserted train station in the Slovak Mountains. It was definitely less Orient Express and more Intercity, but that didn't stop the kids from being high with excitement, practically bouncing off the walls until the lull of the train on the tracks rocked them to sleep about midnight.

We felt like the Famous Five - cos now we've got our own Timmy the dog (ok....a less well behaved version) and hubby took us on all sorts of treks through meadows, along streams and up mountains.  

Luckily he was astute enough to pepper this with trips to hot springs and waterparks to keep the kids and wifey happy along the way.

And even when he was presented with problems like climbing up a steep gorge with a Labrador and ladder....

....he always found a way around it....

               

Woof Woof!

The weather helped.  I'm sure we (read I) would have given up and headed straight for the nearest town and hotel if we'd been squelching through mud, but the sun made it all more doable, more romantic, more fun....

And we definitely all felt a sense of independence and spontaneity as we conquered fields of wildflowers drinking in the panoramic views and sweeping valleys.

And then all too soon it was time to wait for our night train to Prague again...to slowly take us back to reality.