| 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!) |
|
| War on Tourism |
| Wednesday 7 December 2005 |
If Bush can do it, I can too. I wonder where I find some navy seals. Tanned ones would do equally as well, I’m sure.
In the past few days having returned to Prague, I've run around like a flea in a fit attempting to get all my laundry washed (I finally succumbed to the lure of the “total service” and am now apprehensive as to the size and state of the clothes I’ll collect at lunchtime today…will they have melted? Will my hems be around my armpits? Will I create a new fashion label as a result of the bizarre clothes I have left? It’s sometimes very exciting being me!!), my house is nearly clean, I've passed on postcards from a cohort colleague to her old school friend in Prague (and had 3hr coffee), organised that photo tour from the airport, tried to translate ‘tax code’ into Czech so the EU can pay me and learnt the past tense (spala jsem špatné včera večer, tad‘jsem moc unavena – I slept badly last night, now I am tired) I’ve also managed to visit the Vanoce trch (Van-ot-seh trrr-ch = Christmas Market) in the old town square. I’ve had the ability to compare it back to Budapest.
Mikuláš, Anděl a Čert are scary! On the evening of 5 December I went down to the Old Town Square (VERY ‘If you go into the woods today…’) and there were dozens of teenagers dressed up as St Nicholas (a bishop), an angel (white with wings etc) and a devil (looking like a black cat more than a sunburnt inhabitant of hell). They roam the streets, accosting small children, quizzing them about whether they’ve behaved themselves over the last twelve months, conferring with the parents of the terrified youngsters, then rewarding (angels bestow chocolate) or punishing (tying them up in the devil’s sack – seriously, I saw children REALLY crying their little eyes out) them for good or bad behaviour respectively.
Now, apparently, many people perceive St Nick as a ‘goodie’ in this pantomime, but that upset my understanding of Newton’s laws, entropy and the likes (never particularly solid at the best of times, it doesn’t take much to topple my comprehension of physics – despite my wide personal wheelbase!). Surely, SURELY, St Nick must be the impartial bystander in this charade, the ‘person pulled from the audience’ so to speak? Else how will Newton’s IIId law stand ('for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction'). Turns out MY interpretation was more correct than some of the other expatriates: and thus was born the first Czech Traditional ‘Mediator’. A far cry from the jolly fellow you worry is a paedophile in a red and white disguise, gurning merry “Ho Ho Ho’s” from a department store grotto!
While wandering the ‘jam-packed-to-a-standstill’ square, sipping my Svařák (svar-jjrr-aaack = mulled wine / Glühwein) and noting (with considerable disappointment) that the Budapest version was nicer, it dawned upon me that perhaps I don’t really hate tourists. Nope, it’s more likely that I’m lonely as a single tourist. For instance, when we were wandering around Budapest in a group of 6, sometimes, embarrassingly, taking the same photo of the same thing, I didn’t once spare a thought as to how annoying we must be to the locals or expats. Perhaps we weren't so annoying, as we were not a large (~30-strong) group, led about by a tour rep with a ‘sign’ (often a brightly couloured, furled but extended umbrella held above head…occasionally a wooden flower of some description) stopping every now and then to collect the stragglers, listen to a tired spiel and generally block the path of those trying to get from A to B.
So what is it about this whole tourism thing that has me so riled up? Is it that Prague appears to have ‘sold out’ to the American market? There are so many tours of the old town area all going on at the same time, following one another around the same boring route, it’s a tragedy: slaughterhouse style. Is it that I despise the crowds? The crowds were so dense on Monday night, I wondered whether a ‘cave creek’ would occur with the viewing platform constructed in the middle of the square. I was equally concerned as to whether my svařák would be splattered all over me. Is it that it’s taken me this long to find somewhere close to Old Town Square in which I can get a decent cup of coffee without being fleeced? (I still haven’t, by the way Nis, but I’ve heard the rumours from a reputable source!) I KNOW that tourism assists the economy here, I just wish they wouldn’t get in my bloody way!!!
Just want to make a quick shout-out to Nis. Without you, my dear, I would have a very standard template for this here blog. So thanks for figuring out Flickr, and moblogging and RSS template design before me…I walk in your shadow. However, when you get bird flu, I’ll be at your door with my clipboard shouting ‘throw out your flu-ridden’! It's all give-and-take in my world! :)
Anyway, it's thanks to Nis that photos are now along the side of the blog once more. If you click on one of the photos, it'll take you to a photo album thingy on a new site. Then, over on the right hand side, is a small foldery thing that says 'previous' and 'next'. I'd advise scrolling through these to read my pearls of wisdom at the bottom of each photo, or if you're already fed up with my voice, then view as a slideshow. This week, pictures of Budapest. |
posted by Nomes @ Wednesday, December 07, 2005   |
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| 1 Comments: |
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Oooooh....gooodies!!
As for looking all grown up, thanks a bunch for reminding me of my nose wrinkles. Pah! :)
Nomes
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Oooooh....gooodies!!
As for looking all grown up, thanks a bunch for reminding me of my nose wrinkles. Pah! :)
Nomes