| 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!) |
|
| I just saw the most amazing thing... |
| Wednesday 1 March 2006 |
So, pet shops here are pretty diverse in their stock. Iguanas, monkeys, parrots of all sorts of descriptions. I'm just not sure where everyone gets their dogs from (must be breeders directly) because there are never any puppies in the shops. I would be less than impressed with the selling of such a wide range of animals were it not for the exemplary care shown them by the shop employees. They obviously care aobut the animals and their environments, without allowing themselves to become too attached. And from what I've seen, the Czechs' ALSO take very good care of their animals (on the whole, obviously). I've not yet heard of immolated kittens (which can ONLY be a good thing) here.
Anyway, as a result of all this animal diversity, whenever I'm in a shopping mall, I'll take a quick gander at the tanks/aquaria/vivaria at the back of the shop. I popped down to Eden (pronounced: ed-en, not eedin) at lunchtime and had a quick nosy.
Colourful fish: check.
Cute little terrapins flapping their fins/flippers underwater: check.
Turtles swimming with bubbles of air in their noses: check.
Squawking upside down green parrot: check.
Intelligent looking, head tilting competition entering (with me, natch) grey parrot: check.
Alarmingly eyed (they're so weird!) different coloured chameleons: check.
Cute gecko (about 10 times the size of any seen in Qatar) complete with front leg in the air "you can't see me if i'm really still" expression: check.
Coral snake making very groovy geometric patterns with it's body: check.
Boa constrictor wrapped round a stick: check
Python poised: check.
Why was the python poised? Well, in the cage below his tank (no idea on gender, had a male face!!) were snowy white bundles of wheelspinning energy. Mice. Dinner (to a python at least). And there was a worker hovering nearby.
So...I managed to witness, up close (my nose was fairly pressed against the glass), the addition of one snowy white squeaky bundle to the pythons vivarium. I imagine the thoughts went along the lines of:
Python: aha...here comessssss my dinner now...look into my eyessssss worker...get me a mousssssse...a mousssssse...
Mouse: hello pretty lady. You dont' have to hold me up by the tail you know...I have legs.
Python: that'ssssss right...closssser....
Mouse: really? a new cage? with glass this time? how cool. But what's this floor stuff? dirt? I liked my old straw...eek!
Python: oooh....there you are....GULP!
Yep. Within milliseconds, the python struck the mouse, stretching his jaws wide enough to take the mouse around the shoulders/chest area. He threw a coil (which previously had been his 'neck') around the mouse and held it steady. The mouse's tail twitched a while, and then fell still and droopy. After another 30s or so, Mr P unlooped the neck coil, and wiggled the mouse around a little - just with his mouth.
Then.
The grande finale.
Mr P, by now, had the mouse held over the face (if you'll imagine: from left to right, looking at the scene from head on, it was mouse ear: snake snout: mouse ear). The mouse's tail was dragging on the ground, but other than that, Mr P had it lifted into the air (with just his MOUTH!!). Then he started the laborious process of inching his mouth over the mouse.
You know how a person performs (or gets tangled up while performing) a leopard crawl? That's the one on your belly under a camoflaged net (for those of you who haven't 'benefitted' from a partner in the Army). You move one elbow forward with the opposite knee, then the other - and so on.
Well, the snakes mouth movement reminded me of this. I wondered whether he had little teeth on the underside of his upper palate because he held the mouse mostly in place, then the left side of his lip kind of extended and wriggled over the mouse a bit, pause, then the right.
I'm sure most of you have seen this on telly, but let me tell you, it's completely different seeing it close up. Amusingly (for me, less so for the mouse, I presume), Mr P couldn't do all of this facing down...and in the end, had to tilt his (now large) neck upwards to get the last millimetre of tail in. And the bit of his body that had the mouse stuck in it wasn't NEARLY as flexible as the rest.
And then it just looked like the rest of his body was 'catching up', the scales would ripple towards the head, then the head would extend further. Eventually, about three peristaltic movements after the tail had disappeared, Mr P opened his mouth wide (burping? yawning?) and then went back to posing.
I love snakes. |
posted by Nomes @ Wednesday, March 01, 2006   |
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