Zbraslav Chateau & Football

On Friday, 24th June M's work had a global day off to reflect on company values. Above is the chateau where it was held. Of course we had to leave a skeleton crew back at headquarters just incase any of our infrastructure broke, which it didn't.

The highlight of the day was the football grudge match between the consultants & IT staff. The field was shit! One of those fields you'd find in Guyra or Walcha. Patches of grass in a sea of hard gravelly dirt. After half-time we were down 2-1, which was pretty good for a bunch of unfit IT bastards. Second half was a nightmare, 5-1 was the final score. M managed to damage a few partners who limbed off the field to lick their wounds. They were all shocked that M could actually play quite well. After a few beers & pig on a spit, some of the partners came up to M later on asking whether I'd heard of inter-office matches within Europe - maybe a new door has opened. Round 2 is scheduled for later in the year - we're looking for a better field.

For those interested in Zbraslav goto:
http://www.ngprague.cz/main.php?language=en&pageid=506&dum=10

3rd class in 80 days

N will have finished 3rd class on the 1st of July - that is exactly 80 days that she spent in 3rd class. Today I received the results of how N went in the UK National Curriculum Attainment level tests. They are given levels: 2a/b/c is the expected standard at the end of Year 3("a" being the closest to the next level), 3a/b/c is the expected standard for the 'majority' of children at the end of Year 4. N received 2c for handwriting, 3b for reading and spelling and 3c for maths. So she has passed 3rd class with flying colours. Year 3 includes children aged over 7 but under 8, when they start Year 3, on Sept 1st.
School fete - jumping castle coming down with N in uniform

Summer Solstice (or "Bleepingly" long days!)

10pm 22nd June 2005

We are woken at around 4:30 by the light and it's still light until 10:00. N has given up saying "it's too light to go to bed yet!" We have just passed Summer Solstice and the weather is very pleasant to hot, with very little breeze. All the Czechs at school are deserting Prague in July as they say it gets "too hot", most going to family holiday homes in the mountains.

Thisafternoon after school, N and I joined a newly formed ANZ in Prague group for drinks/dinner at the yacht club on the Vltava, it was a perfect afternoon and the group was a really nice bunch from the east coast Aus mainly and NZ, plus a ring in from South Africa, about 16 all up. It was a good turn out considering the email only went out thismorning. Apparently there are 50 people on this guys ANZ list. It's going to be an ongoing event.

J

At long last we have been accepted!

We have just had our residency accepted. Now all we have to do is get to Vienna again to pick them up. We know of people waiting longer than us, so we are quite relieved.

OTHER NEWS:
N is home from her Summer Residential Trip to Spindleruv Mlyn and said she had a great time. It is a ski resort town close to the Polish boarder(she will be returning there for her Winter Residential Trip). It takes 2 hours from her school by coach.

They stayed at the Hotel Lenka .They stayed in hotel rooms, she shared a room with her friend Sara. She especially enjoyed the ropes course and thought herself very brave. They also visited Vojenska Zotavovna Swimming Centre which is a waterslide/swimming/sports centre and did night walks with torches - these were the other activities that she rated very highly.

Pictures from the Spindleruv Mlyn web site

Tabor (South of Prague)

Last weekend was the company retreat weekend in Tabor. Tabor was founded by the Hussite followers as a fortified military settlement in 1420. It's an interesting town still surrounded by medieval fortifications and a labyrinth of underground passages under the main square.
Our hotel "Hotel Dvorak" was originally the castle brewery(open window was our room)

Tabor view of countryside from hotel window

Typical Tabor street leading to Zizka Square

Horse riding in the countryside

One of our excursions to the water chateau of Cervena Lhota

Inside the Chynov cave(limestone cave without stalactite or stalagmite formations)

There was an interesting Karaoke night on Saturday night, the Czechs sang Czech songs and the English speakers sang in English. I still haven't heard M sing! But he did get up with a group to sing "We will rock you", but I couldn't hear him! It was pretty obvious those that could sing, as the night wore on they were the ones you kept seeing at the mic.

Yanomamo

N's school had their big Yanomamo production last night. N had a solo recorder part and a solo singing part. The production was a great success. N performed brilliantly. It was held in Narodni Minor which is a beautiful little theatre in the centre of Prague.

Paris

Nanjan and I had a fabulous time in Paris. The Parisians were all very friendly and helpful - maybe because it was the beginning of the tourist season, and they all spoke enough English that I rarely had to attempt French. I did use the only French I remembered from High school which I knew one day would come in handy - un glace a la fraise ,s'il vous plait (strawberry icecream).

The Metro system was very easy to use, we bought a carnet(CAR-ney) - ten tickets for 10 Euros, which did us for the 4 days we were there, we also bought a two day "on/off bus" ticket for 28euro to minimise the walking we had to do around the city.

One thing that amazed me the most was the size of the Eiffel Tower - I knew it was going to be big, but it was actually humungous. At night it is lit up like a Christmas tree complete with fairy lights that flashed on and off on the hour.
Eiffel Tower duck pond


We did two tours. The first was to Giverny to visit Monets gardens and home. The gardens were in full bloom - the water garden, with water lillies of yellow, cream, baby pink and magenta; rhododendrons and Japanese maples(reminded me of our garden in Blackheath); rows of bearded iris; enormous poppies with seed heads the size of your palm and flowers as large as a babies head; poeny roses; willows that dipped into the edge of the water and of course the green bridges covered with mauve and white wisteria.
Monets home

Water Garden

Bearded Iris


The second organised tour was a "night-light" cruise of the Seine River with a show at the Moulin Rouge-"Feeries". The show was worth the money. The show started just after 11pm and was everything I had expected and more(or less in the case of the costumes!-although Dieter had seen the show a few weeks before us and had warned me about that). Glitz, glamour, feathers, rhinestones, sequins and pearls(instead of clothes in some instances) comedy, shadow puppetry, gymnastics and all topped with a complementary glass of champaign.

We also visited Sainte Chapelle, Notre-dame(I also did the Crypt), Arc de Triumph(and attended one of the nightly 6:30 unknown soldier ceremonies),strolled the Champs-Elysées, Tuilleries and the Steinbourg gardens. The food was scrumptious, especially the flaky chocolate croissants, marinated bacon and salmon salads.
Notre dame

Sainte Chapelle

Also Sainte Chapelle

Steinbourg Gardens


Jan left early on Tuesday morning not looking forward to her 24 hours of flying back to Aust, but looking ready for a really long sleep. My flight was the late flight back to Prague, so I walked around Paris for the day and caught the metro to the airport - which was really easy (for around 7euro RER B fast train from Denfert-Rochereau metro station straight to Charles de Gaulle airport).