No Internet for a week and weekend in Prague

Well, life without connecting to the internet is strange these days. But, our router decided not to work. I think it died of overuse actually. The girls and Honza were fighting over the computer, my laptop is usually with me.

But he was popular, he can download free music and films from Russian sites which the girls liked immensely. Blank CD’s were piled everywhere. My wish-list came true a long time ago now, I’ve got a music collection to die for. God bless the Russian Federation!

The atmosphere is completely different to Brno. Prague is like a huge West End of London. It just goes on and on. It seemed that only bar staff were Czechs. Dagmar, my girlfriend, was knackered from speaking English all weekend. Am I the only foreigner ordering drinks in Czech?

Dagmar slept in the car all the way home. Everything seemed back to normal when my Mum called; Mags, my ex-girlfriend still wants the car back, she’s been calling.

But, no chance. No-one in their right mind gives up an almost new Audi A4. Mums boyfriend, who’s a lawyer, says it’s mine legally now, although I didn’t pay for it. But he’ll look into it further. I’ll just keep polishing it and hope for the best.

Wild Weekend. What is Kofola?

Well, the weekend went quite quietly actually. My daughter Kate and her friend admitted they liked Honza, Dagmars son. Apart from 7 things.

1-He's too young

2-He doesn't speak English

3-He doesn't actually speak

4-Too much aftershave













5-Spends too long in the bathroom (if they only knew why!)











6-He dances like a git

7-He doesn't drink ("we did since 14!" they boasted)












But, he's good looking and doesn't have spots (HA HA HA!)












"And what is this Kofola?" they asked "It's a bit flat and it's crap with Bacardi"
(Gawd, I thought, they're only 17. Even I like Kofola)

Luckily they spoke too quickly for Honza to understand, poor boy.

But it's not all been going their way, Jessica peed behind a taxi on a rank, Saturday night, and it drove away before she finished!

Friday, the girls arrive from London

Well it’s Friday evening and I picked up the girls from the airport this afternoon. What was all the fuss about I wonder.

The ex has been on the phone more times than I can remember.

“Are you sure the flat is big enough, it’s not a hostel?” ( A hostel, I ask you)

“ Has it got hot water? “ (no, we wash in the river)

“ How old is this boy?” (he’s 23 and has 37 previous convictions)

“ You won’t let them go to Prague, will you?” (yes, I’ll take them myself & sell them into the sex-slave trade)

She also phoned Mum loads of times, but Mum re-assured her. I was then warned of an incoming calls. Sod the re-assurance.

So, the ex drove them to Stansted and I picked them up today.

It’s not just the ex who’s been acting up. Honza, Dagmars boy has been up in the air about this too. He spent ages in the bathroom, he’s shaved all the fluff off his chin, spent another 20 minutes in front of the mirror removing and hiding 2 spots from his forehead. He came out smelling a bit fragrant, he’d used the best part of a bottle of aftershave.

Teenagers will always be strange, they only speak to other teenagers, to anyone else it’s just Yeh or No or Dunno. When I picked up Katie and her friend it just like this.

Kate wanted to sit in the back of the car with her friend, who I now know is Jessica. Dinner was quiet and a bit pungent with Honza’s aftershave. Now they’re out, Honza’s showing them round town. He got a grunt of approval, when they saw him, and Honza spoke his first ever word in English today.

We couldn’t believe it, he said “Hello” amazingly followed by “How are you?”

The answer was “Yeh, ok”

Interesting Cars & Strange Bikes

Today started off nicely, sunny and promising, but now it's raining. I was just thinking back to the weekend, when we went to Telč. There was a kind of display of old and interesting cars and motorbikes.










Also some kind of cycling club, where they all dress up in pre-war clothes and cycle round on old bicyles. They went twice round the square and then to the pub!! My kind of cycling trip!

















And not one them locked up!



















Can someone tell me what this is? (not the picnic basket)

















Is it a Jag? A Morgan? Help me out folks.











Weird & Weirder still!



















A prop from Where Eagles Dare? Complete with machine gun.










Mobile park bench! & a Nice old Royal Enfield











Another mystery. & Meet the locals!

So, a great day and a great place, visit sometime.

Four Letter words, Renault Badge

I’ve been meaning to come back to you all about this, and it’s a tricky subject. Why did Dagmar take the Renault badge off her car?

Well… Czechs don’t swear or use bad language like we do in English, they use pictures and there’s a funny shape that looks something like a Renault badge or something lozenge shaped that refers to a part of your anatomy. And if you’re a boy, don’t waste your time looking, it ain’t there! With me so far?

You know, oh come on, surely I don’t have to spell it out do I? Ok, it lives near the little starfish, are you getting close?

Personally, I’ve always been a bit strange about lozenges, even when I had a bad throat. I’m quite fussy what I put in my mouth. I’m talking about Strepsils, of course.

And there’s a rock group here in Czech Republic called Tři Sestry (3 Sisters) and according to Czechs, they are pushing their luck, because they have a symbol like this:

What a bunch of lozenges!!!

The point is that Dagmar doesn’t want something on the front of her car that says

“I am a Lozenge!”

I've just looked at my flag counter I've got 29 online, from round the world. Yahoooo!!

So, you like my blog?? Please leave a comment if you do.

Early Start !!

Early start today, 7.00 a.m. Czechs are nutters, they want classes in the middle of the night!

We went to bed early last night and I fell asleep before 10. Now I’m up dead early with a bit of time.

They have a habit here of starting early and finishing early, some start at 6!! It goes back to the Austrian Empire and the Emperor who couldn’t sleep, so everyone else felt obliged to get up at dark o’ clock.

When they finish at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, they all seem to do the same things.

• Go to their 2^nd job
• Work in the gardens
• Get sloshed

I have to keep working, because a few of them want to do English after work. Dagmar works similar to me, she’s a manageress in a cleaning company, so her job is before and after normal working hours. But she can go home, she’s on call a lot though.

Teaching was good today, last lesson was 4 men who are production managers in a manufacturing company. We practiced doing guided tours of the firm in English.

So, today, it’s home for lunch. What will we eat, I wonder?

So home now, Yes, we’ll have Rabbit!!.

Dagmars folks are from out of town in a small village and they are living the Good Life, just like on the old telly programme!! Except it’s quite normal here, not in Brno maybe, but outside town, most people grow and breed their own produce for the table.

Mum and Johnny were out last year and we all visited them, and she saw the rabbits in their cages “Oooh lovely” she said “you keep rabbits” “For a while” said Dagmar with a little smirk.

In fact we’ve never bought any veg, potatoes, pork and of course, rabbit, it all comes from her parents.

Lunch was great, it’s half an hours rest then back to work. I’ve had a cancellation for the first lesson tomorrow, so I might gown the pub tonight.

Dagmars driving experiences and her little car. She’s driving I’m drinking today (I’ll need one !!)

Dagmars got a little Renault Twingo, you can’t buy them in England, they’re too easily confused with a Twingo biscuit , which is chocolaty and a bit less powerful then the Renault version.



She loves this little car, always cleaning and polishing it. She has even special music that she’s recorded for playing in it. But!! She never plays music in the car, it would be too distracting in big, nasty, busy Brno, with it’s terrifying junctions and also other scary cars (that’s all of them) that come too close.



She has a mental list of junctions that she’s petrified of, and it’s quite a long list, very long in fact. They come in 3 categories;

1. Very scary
2. Even more scary, enough to give you bad dreams
3. So terrifying that you have to drive an extra 5km to avoid them

But she drives everyday somehow as part of her job, usually quite slowly with her nice pointy nose almost touching the windscreen. Her knuckles are usually white with pressure, reminds me of an overboard sailor clutching a piece of driftwood.

She zips along at 25 – 35 kph, with a long queue of admirers behind. Oh yes, the Renault badge, she took it off, just a blank space now. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.



















Today we’re going to Telc, a small historical town. There’s going to be some historical cars parked on the square.