| 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!) |
|
| Nomes's mind dwellings |
| Sunday 20 November 2005 |
Thirty minutes and one zeleněný čaj (gulped to the mantra of "this stuff HAS to calm me down!") later, and I’ve finally managed to open IE6 on my computer which is apparently connected to the wifi server at this cafe. This is the first time I've tried to hook up using this new-fandangled (that one's for you Mum) technology - and of course, I have to go at it from a bloody different language. One where the word připojení means "connection" and the words nastavení mistní sítě are the ones you need to click onto to get the computer to detect proxies automatically. Who knew? Not me, and not the people behind the counter either. Thankfully, my stores of 'self-containment' have been recently stocked, and I didn't burst into tears.
No link…no apologies either.
The night tram drivers are less likely to be of the Schumacker-personality type. Why? Well, it seems they've read the QRA that informed them that the more hectically they threw their trams around the tracks, the more partially digested food and alcohol will be disgorged onto their floors. However, it's with interest (not to mention morbid fascination) that I note the most puddle-forming liquid to be found on a night tram is saliva...the most mucoid (bleeeeeeeeeeeee!) of bodily liquids. This being because one side of the tram is jammed with hormone fuelled and semi-undressed (in THIS weather? God damn it people...haven’t you heard about hypothermia?) couples, not-so-furtively attempting to stroke each others tonsils (or more worryingly, oesophagi) with their tongues. The slurping is enough to make one wish for one's ipod. The other side of the tram is also covered in lolling bodies which are also showing the effects of overindulgence in alcohol...the people themselves have temporarily checked out. But their mucus membranes continue to produce saliva...which hangs/drops/dribbles from their open maws in a VERY horrific manner. You know it's bad when you're disinclined to disembark at your own stop because you NEED to know how long it'll be before that strand hits the floor...it's SOOOO close....
Sadly, the morning tram drivers aren't the night tram drivers, so when you get onto one of the first trams in the morning they hurl you around the corners again. Hurl. Bleh.
But what was I doing on the night/day tram? Well, it was a public holiday here on Thursday so I went out. Karoline (one of the other singers in Intunition) and I went to an expats dinner. It was fairly predictable, but thanks to years spent in Qatar, I found resources of diplomacy and feigned interest that I never realised I possessed. Parents, we weren’t so ponderously patriotic were we? Did we really make horribly judgemental comments about our newly-borrowed host countries? Am I like THEM? I’m sure I remember some fierce slagging sessions in the kitchen with Mum, but I don’t recall making ‘impolite’ small talk at parties. Or perhaps that’s my notoriously selective memory helping out again. Whatever, never have I had the (dis)pleasure to meet some really awful people. *sigh*
There was a nice Scotsman though, who has offered me the use of his washing machine, and is currently cooking me haggis (as you do) as a pre-entire-series-of-House-on-DVD dinner. The expat lads really know how to woo here - television series’ and English-language fiction! And there was an Australian woman from Sydney who is ‘into hiking’ (oh, please!) who tried to coerce me into coming on a trip next weekend. Er…hello…does NOONE look at the weather forecast? Other than that, the highlight (highperson) was Patrike, an adorable Frenchman (yes, they DO exist) who is a music producer. Although Parisian himself, he was unenchanted with Paris on his last stay there so came to the “Paris of the East” instead. CD’s available soon…
Oh – and with the exception of the two dears we met outside Diablos’ on our last diabolic attempt at ‘going out’ in Palmeston North, please tell me I’m not intellectually condescending? I met a mathematician at this dinner thing too…and oh my goodness. After telling me that I ‘probably wouldn’t understand’ his field (Logic) and then nearly boring me to tears (I stifled three yawns - yes, I was counting) for the next 15 minutes telling me about how he ended up in Prague (it’s one of the first ‘opening’ questions for goodness sake’s, I was just being ‘charming’) I finally responded to his very arrogant question of, “And you teach English, I suppose?” with a grin, and “Actually, no. I’m a field epidemiologist on a European Fellowship, posted to Prague for two years.” before returning my attention to Patrike. Little did I know that his interest would be piqued such that I now have the unenviable task of putting him off a dinner date. ARGH! I thought snogging the lovely ice-hockey player (“HELLO forearms!”) that we met at the nightclub later on would have dissuaded him…but alas. L
Anyway, after the nightclub, we went out to a morning club called “The Clan”. Vaguely disturbing? No more so than the fact I’m sitting in Kava Kava Kava – colloquially known as KKK!!! Anyway, what I valued the most about the place (other than it’s cheap mojitos) were the toilets. No longer do you have to precariously perch on the loo to cut your lines on a sloped surface, you can actually use a mirror shelf stuck to the wall seemingly for that very purpose. Thank you VERY much. (I would like to remind you all, at this juncture, that I do not condone the abuse of drugs (use them properly folks!) – I’m just appreciative of those who know the underbelly of society well enough to consider it when designing bathroom fittings!)
And on other bodily functions; is ovulation supposed to make you more fond of humanity? The only reason I wonder is because I woke yesterday at about 9am to the sound of children playing and did not feel homicidal. I remained prone, however, and managed to tune them out eventually, to drift back into the land of snooze. When I DID finally get out of bed, and swootched (well, you don't 'draw' venetians do you? And to switch indicates a 180 turnaround...whereas I only opened them entirely...) the blinds...everything was covered in bees.
Okay, not bees: snow.
It is just so gorgeous…the boughs of trees were all lightly sprinkled. I felt as though I was on top of a café dessert (you know, the ones they sprinkle indulgently with icing sugar?). So the first thing I did was go out. Of course. And I jumped on the snow on my garden. And I sunk a little bit. I’m always so amazed how much of snow is actually air…it condenses so much when under pressure. And I LOVE the crunchy noise of it. And I love how it collects on my eyelashes. Very Sound of Music indeed. But…I also learnt something.
See, all those years of designing snowflakes – either the ones cut out of paper or the virtual snowflakes on that site we all logged onto in the middle of NZ summer last yeat – I thought that the only reason we all ‘knew’ they had six sides was because someone had arduously collected and studied them under the microscope. I didn’t actually know (or couldn’t remember) that you could SEE them. They’re sooooo beautiful.
So another 30mins was spent hanging over my heater (under the window – thanks for the energy efficiency lecture from Rowls) with my head out the wide open window watching the snow fall and examining the flakes that ended up on my sill. I saw loads of different shapes. *sigh* It’s sooooo cool.
I can actually HEAR the slightly knowing and patronising grin on all the faces of those who regularly live in snow. Okay, it’s a novelty now (you’re all thinking) but wait until you’ve put up with it for 3 months. I know, I know. So, instead of just sitting there (now) shaking your heads, how about posting a few comments with your ‘most handy tips’ for dealing with it in time to come. What’s the best waterproofing spray for my suede boots (that being the most important thing to sort out) and is ‘having snow on your car’ really as accurate a socioeconomic distinction as it appears to be?
That and more questions – answered (or posed) next time. Love to all. Or rather, love to all those I know well enough to have your number in my phone…hugs to others, and a firm-wristed handshake to those strangers who browse on by… |
posted by Nomes @ Sunday, November 20, 2005   |
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