| 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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| Vienna – further East than Prague. Yeah, right! pt I |
| Monday 3 September 2007 |
 There’s a pall of illness that sits over Prague, a kind of Chernobyl patina – where people have bendy/bandy legs, their skin is pockmarked and bones are all too visible beneath said skin. Its malnutrition (it’s called a vegetable), mixed with hard living (beer is NOT a breakfast food) and bad choices (your skin does NOT look better after 20 sessions in a ‘solarium’).
Every now and then, I get tired of it. I need to immerse myself in a populace that recognises the value of open windows in a house. So this weekend, I took myself off to Vienna.
(yeah, the hot chocolates were also a massive drawcard)
I started VERY early on Saturday morning. Read: there was no point in going to sleep – as I just spent the little sleep I had waking every 30mins to see if it was ‘time yet’. But I did end up with a compartment to myself. After fashioning a Macgyver style cover for the annoying lamp (that stayed on for the ticket/passport inspectors) I stretched out on one side and slept fitfully to Wien.
The hostel was in a seedy part of town (oh look, I’m back where I started). A 40year old and myself raised the average age to 23. After throwing my backpack into the left luggage room with a small wish and prayer that it’d be there upon my return) I started at Café Central. Apparently famous for people (i.e. Trotsky) talking there and playing chess. No chess boards in evidence on my visit – just overpriced konditori. They DID, however, make a nice club sandwich (almost as good as the Falcon Club) so I’ll forgive them a lot.
Onwards to the centre, and all I could think were “where are all the people?”. I guess Vienna suffers similarly to Prague, crowds of tourists swell and surge through only very few streets. Taking the back streets meant I had the clean white city to myself. The pavements were flag- (rather than cobble-) stoned and clean. The buildings were pristine, even the sides and backs of them (as opposed to merely boasting a freshly plastered façade) and the people I did see didn’t have bandy legs.
Then, it happened - just as it does here. You turn a street corner, and are swept away by the crowd of meanderers. I followed, emitting a ‘baaahh’ every now and again when the ovine urge became too great. But at least we were heading somewhere: Michaelerplatz. Dominated somewhat by a gateway to the Hofburg, and home of the Spanish Riding school amongst other things. The marble statues round the front are all violence and killing - the artist seemingly going through a bit of a Reservoir Dogs period. But even on the church opposite the archaeological dig (but, why!?) there’s an angel with a spear – ready to jab it into a poor soul under his feet.
Painters and vegetarians. Hmmm....Labels: Travelling |
posted by Nomes @ Monday, September 03, 2007   |
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