| 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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| From awhile ago now... |
| Tuesday 24 January 2006 |
In the Summertime – remade by Tom Jones and the guy from the Verve into a song that you HAVE to turn up loud in the car and wind the window down to. I LOVE songs like that. I have the sneaky suspicion I’m gonna miss my car over the summer here, so I might have to hire one and go cruising with friends. I already have three invitations to little villages in the countryside to meet people’s extended family, and I’m really looking forward to exploring my environs a bit more than I have. It would be nice to know some geography rather than just the lay-of-the-land-of-bars.
I had a good giggle at the news this morning: a 38tonne sculpture has gone missing in Madrid . According to Lisanne (the EPIET there), they have an amazing amount of Catholicism-related holidays, and if any of those occur on a Tuesday or a Thursday, then you’re allowed to take a Puente – a bridge day to the weekend (preceding or following, respectively). And if I recall correctly, puente’s don’t come out of your annual leave allowance (I’ll gladly accept religion back into my life if I could get away with this sort of carry on). Consequently, for one day of annual leave (Wednesday) you could get a seven day holiday. I’m insanely jealous. But jealousy aside for the moment, the point I was trying to make is that, since everyone is permanently on holiday, planning to go on holiday or just back FROM a holiday in Spain, it wouldn’t have been too difficult for the ‘thieves’ to organise the logistical support required to remove what the BBC described as “four steel slabs”. Having said that, the support would have to be expatriate (otherwise it too, would be holidaycentric) so I’m advising the police look for any recent expatriate buildings that have a panic room. Elementary.
Oh, and while I’m advising judiciary systems across the world, might I also offer my wisdom to the Australian penitentiary system: make the gaps between the bars and the walls a little narrower huh? 56kgs is the weight an awful lot of female friends of mine aspire to (or should that be perspire to?), and it would seem you’d have an awfully hard time containing them should they be found out for any of their nefarious activities! As an aside, he lost 14kgs in a matter of weeks. The Australian Government could end up with a publishing contract: The Incarceration Diet – no handcuffs required (cover of book has fridge behind narrow bars)!
It seems my comments section is likely to go on a diet soon too, as David shall no longer be filling them up with his much-appreciated drivel. RIP Drivel. That means that the rest of you had best get scribbling in case I think you’ve abandoned me. And welcome aboard the good ship Nomes to Jo (in NZ) as well… Pack sunscreen, as I can’t promise that she doesn’t sail too close to the wind/sun at times.
But tonight, I pack. And tomorrow I look up recipes for Czech traditional food. Seems that we’re all supposed to ‘bring a plate’ to this party on Saturday night in Berlin – so I hope Andreas won’t mind us taking over his kitchen on Saturday afternoon and pottering awhile. I think Lisa mentioned picking up French pastries to fly in (lord knows how they’re going to survive until the party if they’re near me) and the rest of the EPIETS are scurrying through supermarkets as I write. Which means this’ll possibly be the last time you hear from me for a while folks (I know, you’ll miss me, that’s okay…absence makes the heart grow fonder – or is it that what the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t long for?!). I’ll see what Berlin has in the way of internet cafes with wi-fi. In the meantime, content yourself with the idea that I’ll be prancing around on screen (hooray) and practising pithy one-liners for the international press (okay, well, they’re from England but we’re going to be in Berlin…it’s international okay? Work with me here!). I’ll also, no doubt, have my sense of style thoroughly abused and come home with dreams of wearing a coral suit. I have sharp spike I can screw into my desk for seppuku in that event, so panic not.
In a more serious note (promise I’ll stop these soon): I just found out that a good friend I haven’t seen for some time, one who’s also now expatriated from NZ, has been diagnosed with MS. It’s not often I’m rendered speechless, but - crap. I guess we’re not as invincible as we try to convince ourselves we are.
Hugs to all,Me. |
posted by Nomes @ Tuesday, January 24, 2006   |
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