| 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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| Sleep? Weekends? What are these strange words? |
| Saturday 11 March 2006 |
So, it's quite exhausting this mission lark. It's (very) hard to believe that this time last week, I was out with a mate watching Pink Panther, it seriously feels as though it was a lifetime ago.
What's been happening?
Essentially, we've attended meetings. That's pretty much all it feels like we've done. Last mission, we were always in high-ranking meetings, where tea and sweets were served. This time, we're in operational type meetings, and we go for five hours without a break. Once again, my bladder sphincter (the one at the BASE for all those anatomists out there) is coming under pressure. However, I can pride myself on overworked pelvic floor muscles I guess...having to hold it in all the time.
I KNOW you're just delighted to have been shared that little tidbit of information, aren't you?
Life in Azerbaijan is relatively easy for expats though. There have obviously been sufficient oil-based plunderings that the local populace don't stare at /care about foreigners in their midsts. We can purchase all the things we need (some things that I can't even get in Prague for heaven's sake, though STILL no Starbucks...!) and people are FAR more friendly here than in Prague.
In Prague, when you go to a (local) restaurant, you have to attempt to make eye contact with someone to be seated. This is difficult when the waiting staff behave as though they're wearing Cannes-esque sunglasses (despite not doing so), avidly avoiding customers eyes/gestures. In Baku, if you stop at the door to tie your shoelace, they hoist you into the restaurant as though by a large shepherd's crook and plonk you immediately at a table. Quite a nifty trick.
There, when they bring food to your table, you're REALLY lucky if it's PLACED in front of you before the waiter continues on his trajectory to 'somewhere else'. Occasionally, if you're particularly unlucky or wearing white, the plate will slide across the table (as a result of too much kinetic energy - having been 'thrown' in the general direction of your place setting) and spill gravy down your top. Here, they visit your table so often to bring everything, that you're telling them about your ex-boyfriend before they can say "do you like?".
There, when you want to pay the bill, you have to mumble 'zaplatime' as someone (hopefully in charge of your area) stalks past you in a fug of Slavic snobbery. Here, if you want to pay, you have to convince the staff that, really, your meal was delightful but your eyes are too big for your belly, and no, thank you, dessert is unnecessary (here it helps to have large thighs to point at in horror) and yes, you really do have your own bed to stay in tonight, there's no need to join their family, and it's okay thanks, you don't really need to take anyone's first born home with you!
That's one advantage of Prague then. The OTHER advantage, is that as you stay there longer, you find yourself mimicking the 'don't care' nature of the staff. For instance, you can be gaily chatting away to a mate, almost doubled up in hysterics at something they say and someone walks by your table. Within split seconds, your face can melt into a would-be-slightly-dissatisfied-if-i-could-bring-myself-to-bother-having-an-opinion scowl so that you can mutter/bark/mumble something about getting another round in (complete with overanimated gestures still, if I'm doing it, which totally denounce my non-citizen status) and once they've flounced off, your face can remould (again, instantly) into it's previously jocular expression. It's crazy. You end up feeling vaguely schizophrenic.
Okay, not entirely true.
You end up with a GREAT outlet for your latent schizophrenia!!
If I keep writing along these lines, people are gonna think I hate Prague. Not so at all (I can't emphasize that enough). I love the place. When I was in the UK, I wanted to slap the staff for being so effusive, friendly and subservient. That's after wanting to hug them for speaking English (er, what was I saying about schizophrenia?).
If anything though, the experience in Prague has assisted greatly here. I may be overcome with a sudden attack of stage fright when partaking in a game of charades with close friends (I know!! What was all that about?) but I'm getting brilliant at acting out 'how to kill a chicken in a humane manner'.
It was a really bad C-grade movie from the 50's...
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posted by Nomes @ Saturday, March 11, 2006   |
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