Halloween Party # 1

M did the honours this year of cutting the face in the Jack-o-Lantern....and didn't he do well


This is the same place as last year - Bohemian Bagel near Old Town Square. This year we planned to go with Kara and her daughter Sophie from expats(Sophie had the flu), so we ended up with other expats..Macky and her family... and ran into other people we know as well. N ended up being the big girl who looked after the younger kids(Daniel and Bennet) and held their hands to go into the haunted house to get their trick or treat lollies. Here's N and M in Jack-o-Lantern mode...

T Minus 7

Who's counting down the weeks - lol.

What happened this week.

• School holiday week
  - N enjoyed her week doing clothes making with a 11 yo friend, Emily, who slept over 1 night
  
  - The week before Halloween, so today we're all going to make pumpkin masks
• Party Week for J
  - night out with the girls, went and saw the premiere of 'The Devil Wears Prada' (http://www.devilwearspradamovie.com/), then kicked onto the party scene, dancing & made a new Somalian model friend. They didn't get home til 3am
  - dinner party at home whilst M was in Dusseldorf. Just the girls
• Dusseldorf for M
  - spent Thursday & Friday in Dusseldorf attending a course & catching up with the crew before heading back to AU. Has been 4 years since I'd been there
  - some Leadership changes this week, so maybe some interesting options may appear for M in 2007. Woonona will still be home base !
  - gave our Woonona tenants marching orders this week. Our agent seems to think the rental market is tight in the area, so hopefully our tenant will stay til the end
  - new surfboard is on it's way to mum & dads

Ciao, M

Swan Lake

N & I went to the ballet last night at the National Theatre. We had front row tickets, $40 each and it was brilliant. The dual role of Odette and Odilia was performed by Tereza Podarilova who is an extroadinary dancer. At break I said to N, "we have just experienced an amazing performance, wasn't she fabulous?"Reply.."Yeah she's great"...."Did you see the emotion in her face and gestures, not only is she a great ballerina, she shows what the character is feeling!" Then we found her bio in the foyer and it covered acclaimed lead roles in everything from classical to modern dance...she is the National Theatres lead soloist. N took more notice in the second half and whispered to me "mummy she is wonderful!"
N just added this..."When she was playing Odilia the sinister smile on her face was saying..my plan is going perfectly"


Here is a quote on Podarilova I found, which sums up her performances "Podařilová not only splendidly conquers the difficult dance role, but has primarily an abundance of stage experience to elaborate the part using interesting details. Every gesture, every movement, is believable in her interpretation........every gesture a small and even surprisingly delay, resulting in an even greater penetration of emotion"


M want's me to add what he did while we were at the ballet....he went to Flyboys (WWI airpilot film) - really good ! See http://www.mgm.com/flyboys/home.html'

Sayonara Saeco

The first official item to leave the apartment.

M's u beaut coffee machine !

It hasn't been working for last 4 months, couldn't be bothered getting it fixed & getting strung out on top much coffee anyway.

No tears,

M

Big Boy Toy - it's a 7-footer !

Another nervous Ebay session. Furious bidding to last 3 seconds.

Cost: 535 AUD (RRP: 800 AUD)
Dimensions: 7'0"x 21"x 2 3/4"

Isn't it preeedi !

Getting Colder

This week went pretty quick. It was book week at Ns school & she was able to dress up as her favourite character. She went as a princess from the Princess Diary series.

J had a friends b'day party at local restaurant on Thursday night. 20 women around the 38 - 45 age bracket - they had fun !

Saturday was a lazy day. J met up with a Virtual tourist colleague from Iran & they went out for the afternoon whilst M&N went to the pool. M went out with the work boyz that evening.

http://www.ultramarin.cz/galerie.php

Sunday we all went shopping & N did well :-)

Heaters are now on in the apartment - 20 inside, 8 degrees outside.

M

Laser TV: Plasma killer ?

Don't buy a plasma or LCD TV just yet. Buy shares !

Laser TV will arrive by Xmas 2007. It will be half the price, twice as good, and use a quarter of the electricity of conventional plasma and LCD TVs.

Australian / US partnership. Will be listed on stock exchange next week. Mitsubishi / Samsung are invovled and the technology won't be limited to TVs.

SMH Article: http://www.smh.com.au/news/home-theatre/laser-tv-here-comes-the-plasma-killer/2006/10/11/1160246198806.html

Website: http://www.arasor.com.au/index.asp

M

The Dog Almost Died !

Warrick had a ground 'lead' fall in one of the Sydney gyms in mid-June, mushing both ankles - belayer incompetence - Grigri, no hand on the rope & distracted. He was lucky that he was aware of what was going on as he managed to straighten himself before hitting the ground. Otherwise, land on his back or head.

He's been in rehab for last 2-3 months learning to walk again. He's back at home, out of the wheelchair & should make a full recovery - lucky bastard !

Typical Warrick, already training for his return to climbing ! Should be fully fit by the time we return home in 10 weeks.

M

Nic and Ivy

Thanks to Sue Y's encouragement, Nic and Ivy spent a couple of days with us in Prague. We did the number 1 touristy things like Prague castle, St Vitus Cathedral....walked down to Charles Bridge (which was a highlight) and through Old Town Square past the Astronomical Clock. Here they are rubbing the relief depicting John of Nepomuk being thrown off the bridge...which is suppose to guarantee you will return to Prague one day.


N had to go to school the first day, but the girls made up for lost time playing around in the afternoon and sharing a bath.

The following day they played most of the morning until the adults had to get out...which ended up to be a great decision. We decided to go to Vysehrad, the remains of the original fortified palace. On the way we stumbled upon a new playground with flying foxes, wiggling castles, seasaws, swings, fort and bridges. The girls spent an hour there before being dragged off to see the views from the still standing fortifications down the Vltava. Unfortunately St Peter's and St Pauls was closed, but we walked through the cemetery until it started to sprinkle. So we took a tram to Wencesles Square for well deserved ice creams. Then met M for Cuban at Staromestska.

4+1 Vinohrady Apartment for Rent

We're starting to get organised for the trip home .........

Our Prague Apartment for rent: http://korunni.googlepages.com/

Land in Sydney on December 20th, few days with friends then off to Laurieton for Xmas and pick up the car & surfboard(s). Back in W for New Years - that's the high level plan.

Our W tenants will be given notice at the end of October & we plan to have all our furniture & belongings back in the W house by January 8th

M

To Hell & back ......

M spent the entire week eating out whilst the Leadership was in town. Long meetings, many late nights & early morning starts really took it's toll this week. J&N did their own thing & it was a public holiday last Thursday in which one of N's friends came over for the day. On the Friday it was a pupil free day, so N got another day off.

Andrew turned up on Friday at 6pm & J picked him up from the airport. We all went out to Gusto's that evening & had a early night as the next day was to be 'hell' - lol.

Saturday ..........

5:30am Get up Andrew (A), we're going to see the AFL grandfinal at the local sportsbar.
6:00am English breakfast with beer side orders (4+) and the level of excitement as the Swans almost came back from a 30 point deficet to lose by 1 point to the West Coast Eagles - bugger !
9:15am Crawl out of the bar & head for Cafe No. #1 for a couple of caffe latte's
10:30am Stroll down to Old Town square & across the Charles bridge to head towards the castle.

11:30am We meet J&N in the church.

12pm Watch the change of the guard at the castle.



12:30pm Lunch overlooking city & more beer
2pm Headed back to the apartment because our babysitter could start minding N whilst the adults went out for the evening
5pm M&J&A went to watch the local ice hockey game. We thought Sparta was playing Kalovy Vary but when we got there we realised we got it wrong & ended up watching the upcoming teenage sensations in a local derby. They were very good & got the idea what ice hockey was about.
6:30pm Headed back to Old Town for a spot of shopping.
7:30pm Off to 'Hell' to enjoy some sinful stuff --->>> http://www.peklo.com/

11pm Back home & crawled into bed.

On Sunday we all slept in & did some lazy tourist shopping with A, then watched a DVD, relaxed and J took A back to the airport for his flight back to Sydney.

M