| 100 in 1000 |
- Spend a week up a mountain learning to ski
- Visit Karoline's place in Moravia
Hold a conversation in Czech (only)- Drink 500ml of each of the following beers:
PilsnerStaroprammen- Budvar
- Velke Popovice
- U Fleku
GambrinusKrusovice
Respond to at least one GOARN request (WHO and MSF are
also acceptable)Travel across the AtlanticReturn to South America- Read a book to, or with, an impressionably aged child
- Participate in one NanoWriMo Challenge and come within at least 10,000 words of the goal length
Have my nose pierced- Have my next tattoo drawn
Purchase the perfect jeans (x 2 pairs)- Attend a spin class 3 times a week for 8 consecutive weeks
- Bake Viv's cheesecake
Make David's casserole Make David's Chicken Cashew-nut StirfryInvite 4 people who don't know one another too well to dinner- Ride from Vienna to Venice on a motorbike (pillion acceptable, those less desirable)
- Attend a book group for at least two books
- Go on a choir weekend (learn and perform difficult piece in two/three days)
- Visit Madame Tussaud's (in London)
- Take an architecture appreciation course
Join an all-girl group and sing a soloPublish in a scientific journal (top two authors)Cook a duck or other 'waterfowl'. Locate the Al-Timimi's from Doha Veterinary PractiseHave a pedicureMaintain a Brazilian (ouch) for three months.Find a trustworthy Czech hairdresser- Treat my inner-6-year-old twice a week (at least)
- Do the liver-cleansing diet properly (12 weeks)
- Don't eat out for one month
Find a flat and flatmate- Purchase one Joseph sweater
- Purchase one of the following pairs of
designer shoes (they MUST also be COMFORTABLE, and be able to be worn with 4
different outfits and 2 types of occasion): Jimmy Choos, Manolo Blahniks,
Christian Louboutin (Ebay or 2nd hand are acceptable)
- Send 5 books to the booksphere and track them.
- Go hanggliding
- Read 10 'classic' books (from 1001 Books to Read before you Die)
Moll FlandersEverything is illuminatedMadam BovaryZen & the Art of Motorcycle MaintainanceCatch-22OdysseusOn the Road
- Run (non-stop!) for 5kms outside (preferably in a street race thingy)
- Send Christmas Cards on time
Make a collage/mural out of street lights on my wallBuy a bed, build it, and sleep soundly in itGo to AfricaHost an 'event' (classified as and when)Organise a 30th Birthday PartyWear a costume- Sing on stage
- Buy a painting that evokes memories of Prague (cannot involve queues!)
Learn a god-damned card game that stays in my memory (other than fish/snap)See sunrise. Be sober. Have woken for it. Excludes months Nov-Mar- Take a walk and flip coins at each intersection
Win something- Draft a will
- Take a roadtrip
Go to Italy already- Sea Kayak around Abel Tasman Park (NZ)
Get plantsTake a train to another Eastern European Destination (accession countries are acceptable) alone preferably.- Get UK to give me a provisional motorcyclists license and simultaneously get a 'card' license.
- Go SCUBA diving again - at least two dives lasting 30mins each.
Go to a dentist. *sigh*- Do a Czech Wine Trail. And live to tell the tale
- Make an 'outbreak emergency kit'.
- Go to bed prior to 11pm every night (inc weekends) for four consecutive weeks.
- Marvel over lack of tiredness
- Dine at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant (or Nobu)- preferably for free.
Bet on the nags- Do something for charity (applying and getting a 'red card' will count)
- Walk along the Champs Elysee
- Do 100 sit ups in a row
- Do 50 pressups (arms in tight)
- Make branston pickle (or nearest substitute)
- Cook something 'new' and 'adventurous' at least once a month
Find a mentorBe a mentorLearn what mentoring is all aboutMeet an online person in real lifeResist the flirt. Once. Just one night. It's okay if people don't immediately succumb to my natural charm. Really it is.Spend time at a spa (spa towns in the CR don't count)- Send a care package to someone
Get a Tata Bojs CD- Take a French/German/Dutch course and SPEAK THE DAMNED LANGUAGE WHEN I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY EVEN THOUGH IT MAKES ME SOUND
LIKE AN IDIOT!
- Order new contact lenses.
Make a list of things I take with me when I pack for different occasions- Eat lobster. Prepared by someone else.
Back up the blogPut everything onto an external hard drive- Find a DDR mat and console and 'dance, I say dance!'�
- Go to the beach and lie on the warm sand. For an hour. (with sunscreen on, natch)
- Take and complete a course in either: Tango, Salsa or Flamenco
- Join the Municipal Library of Prague
- Move to another country
Go to a live concert of a band I actually like- Pay off debts (student loan excl.)
Send thank you cards for every gift I receive (other than the gift of happiness, blah blah blah).- Get an agent (literary or theatre)
- Go to a sports bar without cringing, by personal choice
- Ride a rollercoaster
- Hold a snake
Spend a day wandering around a museum (not art gallery!) |
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| Pincushions and Bellows |
| Friday 21 October 2005 |
Tak (so)... today I learnt what a hangar is (the clothes variety, not the airplane one), raminka, and that I'd make a hideously unsuccessful intravenous drug user.
Maybe it was the cold, but when I went to have blood collected for testing (three vials, all they needed was 6 measly cc's) my veins hid behind bones.Unfortunately, I have skinny hands (the only part) so the doctor that the nurse called in decided that instead of going for the vein on top of my wrist/forearm (one of you medics help me out with nomenclature please?), she'd go for the ones on the back of the hand.
This is after being repeatedly stabbed in the crook of my right elbow, I might add. The poor nurse, by this time, was stroking my (fevered?) brow since I was quietly crying (all tears, no snot, sometime I AM a lady!) and lying there very patiently willing the blood to spurt forth. Vlad was, meanwhile, holding onto the top of my foot for reassurance (or perhaps, a foot fetish? It wouldn't be the first time...) which was kinda weird (anyone ELSE had their boss come into a medical exam with them?) but at least provided me with some means of communcation. Anyway, the Dr introduced needle and vein, and then added the vacutube which kinda ended the party. I foresaw what would happen next. The vaccuum in the tubes is perfectly designed for large, open, pumping veins to reduce 'needle contact' time, I'm sure, but they're NOT designed for piddly veins that didn't want interrupting from their dripfeed job, which just squeeze shut due to the pressure. I TOLD the Dr that would happen (by means of gestures with my free hand), but no...she wouldn't listen.
So that vein collapsed. (yeah, I know, like you care...however, this is my therapy so back the hell off!). Ever had that happen? It STINGS like a MF!
In the end, the Dr got fed up with me and my veins, and told me to go eat and do my lung test and then return.
So off I went, munching on a sandwich (this is at 8am...yes folks, Nomes was at the Dr's at 7-freaking-25-am!!!) and into a space capsule reminiscent of something that flew around the death star a few times. Whereupon I did put my mouth around the inner tube of a toilet paper roll (or some such) and breathed. Ever notice that when someone tells you to 'breathe normally' you start to sound like an asthmatic horny octogenarian? Or is it just me?
Attempting to breathe normally, and then following the halting english instructions "like a dog" which I took to mean "pant". A few "inspirations" and "expirations" later and I was done. Turns out that I appear to be a swimmer or a long distance runner. Bahahaha! Maybe I should post my lung function graph on a dating site...one look at me in real life will denounce either of those suppositions.
Tak. Medical just about done, need the prodding and the listening to heart bit done next (er, might leave the boss outside for that one), and we returned to the office to discuss how we would rearrange the place. Yep, that's right folks, one PhD later, and I can draw schematics, roughly to scale, of an office crammed with furniture. I think we've got it sorted so I don't have my back to the door (all the better to see the daggers BEFORE they're flung) and don't freeze in the breeze from the window. I even have my own place to 'read papers' (ie. have a 20min kip). Who could ask for anything more?
Following this, we decided to return for the final blood test. Wandered past many many many laboratories (they finally decided to get a lab person to take my blood instead of a medical person...why? Hell...you're asking someone incapable of understanding the choices presented with, let alone making a decision!) And this woman was brilliant. She still didn't hit paydirt in my right elbow (by now, a montage of sticking plasters, so I'm not too surprised she couldn't feel a vein under the elastoplast) but DID take from the vein on top of my left forearm and whaddya know...used a syringe to coax out 2cc of the red stuff.
Honestly...it's crazy.
Tak my friends, that was my entertainment for the day. And it took up all the time I should have been at my czech lessons which is annoying.
Two things that should describe my boss's sense of humour. Just prior to going for the last blood test, I mumbled, "i'll be back in a mo" to my officemate...thinking to go down the corridor to 'the powder room'. To which my boss said, "one minute, I'll go with you.". You can imagine my dismay. I pointed out, 'er, I'm going to the loo, Vlad!" and he responded with, "Tak...I won't go with you then." delivered in his normal, mellifluous slavik english! :) *chuckle* Secondly, while we were waiting for the last blood test again, he pointed out the positive, "at least this is the last one." I grimaced. He offered me, "or...I have a swiss army knife at the office..."
Both of which I realise (now...too late, too late *G&S*) don't translate into humour when written down...but when you meet this guy, you'll realise that his completely deadpan delivery can have you creased up with laughter. Dobze (well), me anyway.
See...you too can learn czech.
NomesXXX
P.S. I now also know the days of the week. And when my boss's wife said that she'd meet me at the ministry of education on Utreti rano v desset, I actually KNEW what she meant. *singing* I'm so excited...and I just can't hide it...Ano Ano Ano (which means 'yes' in czech...)... |
posted by Nomes @ Friday, October 21, 2005   |
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