So much for that productivity thing..

So turns out I don't have a lot to write about. The end of another month and bringing it up to 2 whole posts. Wow.

Here's a thing that happened in Prague. Two weeks ago.

Only in Prague

To The Moon

Žižkov TV Tower, Prague, on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing*.

*alleged

*mutters over here in the 1st world*

So I've been feeling a bit down, a bit bummed a bit bla of late. Somewhere been the last week to 4 years or so. It's just.. shit isn't really working out. I mean it's not not working out it's just.. I don't know.

I mean I've got work, which continues to annoy me in one way or another, and this place, which is an improvement on the last but we still have to share and the hot water isn't heating up properly now and I'm worried we'll have a problem with bugs again. There was the problem with the plug but that's been fixed, for now but then the first time after that I try to take a shower the water doesn't even heat up properly.. it always has to be something.

And my charger isn't working, or working slow. It keeps working poorly, then better then poorly again. If it doesn't start working better again the power will run out and I won't be able to use my phone and what will I do then? I shudder to think.

Dammit..n n n... this bloody phone and its "keyboard" I mean you spend years.. or more like weeks really learning to type properly and really fast (well in my case it may have been days *is slightly smug*) and they invent these super phones that we suddenly all have to use for everything where you type with your thumbs clumsily on a tiny screen like some, man or something and they put the n right next to the space bar and it takes about 30 times to write the word "and".

They're just the things that are bugging me right now. Come back in a hour and I'll probably still be ranting about them, plus addd a few things, although they will be quite similar in nature to the existing list.

I admit some have it worse.

Overheard in Prague 4-7-19

(Presumably) American guy, walking by in group. "We're literally walking round in circles. I do not get the geography"

Well... I mean, it was the nuance, the way it was said, the accent and affectarions... emphasis on "literally" and "not"...

I mean you like.. had to be there.

.......

I'll get me coat.

Parade o' the monks

The Czech Republic (or Czechia as it's supposed to be officially called now, though no one here calls it that) is one of the least religious countries in the world. It's about 80% atheist, according to at least one statistic which may or may not be currently accurate, but the percentage of religiosity here in Prague is lower than the national average so in any case, especially in this city it's real low.

Still, there are tons of churches, statues of saints everywhere, and lately I keep seeing monks.

First last week one morning I saw one running for the tram, holding his skirts as he sped along. It was amusing but a small incident, almost not worth writing home about.

Then yesterday, after a sweltering day of 38 degrees, fatigued by doing tours all day, and then getting on the wrong tram, getting on the right one but getting off again because I thought it was the wrong one and luckily realizing it was the right one and getting on and taking a seat, I see this monk in long robes, black ones, in a heavy material, and I sweated just looking at him. Then he got on the tram and sat down beside me and engaged me in conversation.

He talked about his monastery, which is the oldest in Prague and has a restaurant and a brewery, of course. Asked where I was from, I told him Australia and he told me about some Australian woman he knows, we were interrupted by some tourists asking about the ticket system on the trams and he spent some time explaining it in broken English, which I had to correct later because he gave them some innacurate info, and then he took his leave after giving me a gift of a crucifix and a blessing. So the virgin Mary is now watching over me, I think.

And today I saw this.

Some kind of holy (or perhaps not so holy?) ceremony.

Feeling smug, but only a little...

I have done it. I've achieved a goal. Not a major goal, not one that's of any use, but it's one I set myself and I've done it.

Well I actually haven't done it yet, at time of writing, but once this is posted my mission will be achieved. If it doesn't get posted then there will be no public record of me (humbly) boasting of it so my red face will be mostly due to being out in this sun way too much.

Today (assuming this gets completed and posted successfully), I will have written 9 posts this month, equaling my total for the whole of last year. It's a modest goal, but happily, because it would be pathetic if I couldn't manage that, especially with the ease of posting photos and meaningless fillers, I have done it. I'm proud but just a little.

Disregard all of this if something happens to prevent the posting of this article, which you will anyway because you won't see it.

Sitting over here, sweating into my sweat..

We're having a hot old early summer here, in central Europe and much of the regions west of here, and east of here, oh yeah and south of here. And a bit north of here. At least I think so. Anyway who cares I'm here and here is hot!

Today we reach heights of temperature not yet risen to so far this summer and that part of June that officially is not yet summer yet. Been pretty hot since the turn of this month, but it's peaked in the early 30s til now. Today it's reached 36/feels like 37. Celsius of course.

Now, I know there are places where the temperature gets hotter than that regularly. I've lived in one of those places, but those places usually are by the sea and have breezes and bodies of water to hang out in, they usually have air conditioning in most buildings, and none of them are places where I work as a walking tour guide out in the city, where people will always turn up to do a tour no matter the weather, and somehow expect me to magic up some shade/shelter/warmth whatever is needed to rectify the problem, even if the city itself does not provide.

Today I am fortunately not working, so I'm lazing at home with a fan blowing hot air on me, trying to strategically place ice and cold water in places to make the air cooler. It's not making the air cooler.

The current temperature is a high, and the forecast says it will cool down to a more managable really hot for the next few days, but it will rise again to 30 something high, and feels like even higher... and I will have to work and won't have the luxury of staying in with a useless fan. It will be hard, and I will suffer greatly, but you know me, I don't complain. 🙄

I rarely complain but..

Don't laugh. Ok, laugh, but I'm gonna have a big old whine anyway.

To start with, it's hot. Not a surprise, it is summertime (technically almost) and we get super stuffy hot days as a regular thing here in the summer. Still, as I'm out on the streets again, that is doing the walking tours, it's affecting me. Already got that 'tshirt tan', except it's the dorky button up shirt which is inadequate for heat and stores up sweat that I need to wear as uniform tan. It's still the bus company (did I ever happen to mention that I work for a bus company? Well I work for this  bus company) but I'm mostly doing walking tours for them now. And it's hot.

Speaking of the bus company... that's my other complaint. Actually I have many.. but I'm going to be a lady and not have a whine about them in detail.. for now.

I think I may be more suited to a role as one of the idle rich, that would work for me just fine. Now just how does one actually get a gig like that?

1089

Settled and Permanent

I've been living in this place for 2 weeks now, and there's a contract and some security so for me it's kind of like buying a special plot of land that's sacred to your ancestors, hiring an architect to create the perfect design that especially suits your needs and taste, and making all your own furniture for it and raising your kids there. And 1000 years later it's still your descendants' ancestral home, complete with legends about you told around the campfire (because by then after the Great Galactic War we will have reverted to the stone age but that's already in the past so we're up to the new early modern by this stage) that are wildly exagerrated or frankly, completely made up.

Anyway boxes unpacked, found most of the stuff except for the stuff that we're never gonna find because it doesn't matter how careful you are and in our case it's not very, something will always be left behind, arranged our too much furniture for this size room in an acceptable way, got all keys for everyone, including the big old fashioned key that's difficult and expensive to get cut that it's completely stupid that they have for the doors here, after about a week of having to co-ordinate and wait and hurry because someone who had the key and was supposed to get them cut took his sweet ass time about it, and got used to things here and realized it's pretty alright. Top points for the bathroom and kitchen, which are a great improvement on the last place, oh and for the lack of gawking smokers in the hallway and the police coming to visit... did I happen to mention... nevermind.

Anyway still here. Plan to still be here next week.

A bit o' something visual

My local park, just around the corner. Makes a out as much sense as anything else does.

Oh and another thing...

Internet...

'to' and 'too' are not the same word. They are homophones but not synonyms. Look it up I don't have time to explain it to you.... *sighs and stuff*

Write More Stuff

I may not be writing here so much these days, not like days of yore, but it's an improvement on last year. Not the greatest boast, for last year I wrote a total of 9 posts here on this blog.

Now the challenge is to write more in a month, than the total I wrote last year, a modest goal that I have nevertheless failed to achieve so far, but that's what I'm going for this month. A total of at least 10 posts.

I know, I aim big.

And this of course isn't a filler post to add to the numbers for this month in order to make up the numbers for the challenge detailed right here no of course it's not.

But I mean it still counts in the total, like..

Moved on

I have moved again.  At present I am post the worrying about having a place and moving stuff to the place and moving self to the place, meeting everyone at place and beginning to settle in, but still pre getting everything out of boxes/getting boxes and furniture pieces out of the way of the floor/ having keys for everyone/knowing where the hell everything is and getting used to the new slightly annoying things that you only realize once you move into a place.

So, progress, I suppose.

Dear Internet..

I know I've said this before, I vaguely remember bringing it up, but it was a long time ago and you obviously didn't listen, so...

You don't need to include an apostrophe every time you write a word that ends in 's'! Ok. If it is a plural, as many s ending words are, an apostrophe is unnecessary, and in fact inaccurate. For example the sentence "the dogs were barking" doesn't need one.

So when do you use the apostrophe? Well if you were to write " the dog's barking was loud" then it is appropriate to use one, as it signifies ownership. See? Easy. At least it should be.

Another reason to use the apostrophe is for contractions, ie don't won't isn't etc. I can't think of one that ends in 's' so I don't know if this counts, but you know how to use them now. If you don't then study this please before getting back out there and writing your comments about dragon's and handmaid's because I don't want to see this again. And I have more lessons coming soon so get this one learned, please.

Thank you.

All over again.

I've been somewhat silent of late, going back to the era of forgetting I even have one of these blog things. Truth is, I just don't know what to write, unless I just grumble about stuff, and you know how I do hate to grumble.

What the hell. I need to move again, second time this year, third time in the last year (if you don't count a bunch of mini moves) and the 4th or 5th time in a year and a bit. I'm kind of tired of it.

Haven't done anything wrong this time, or even been accused of it, they're just renovating the building.

Er... know of a place?

Sprung!

It's an oft used expression at this time of year that Spring has sprung. That is exactly what has happened here. Not literally because that doesnt mean anything, but it's happened all the same. The following is one example of this which has sprung.

Happy this time of year.

If you celebrate it. Enjoy Easter, Passover, whatever, whether you're searching for eggs strewn about a garden, gorging on egg shaped chocolate (allegedly) brought by giant bunnies, or...

eating flat bread while telling a story about how awesome it was that when the creator of the universe ordered that all first borns in your land must die for reasons* that he (sorry He) spared the first born of all your group...

or....whipping ladies legs with colored ribbons, celebrating the brutal death (which likely never happened and we're not sure this guy ever even existed) and (alleged) resurrection of the (again alleged and really do you even consider it alleged when it's such an outrageous claim) son of God, and somehow spinning it into celebrations of spring which is totally not because those are things that people were celebrating at the time anyway...

or...

putting up springy decorations, ie the eggs and bunnies and chicks (some of them anyway) referenced above even though it's autumn because you live in a Northern Hemisphere-centric culture and are a typically Christian culture which celebrates these particular Pagan rituals this time of year, a combination of 2 or more of the previous or of one or some of them and something else, just hanging out with the family

or....

working because you're employed in the tourist industry in the most visited per capita city in Europe on a continent wide long weekend and you're one of the very few people at the company which does the tour to Prague Castle, the biggest tourist attraction in the aforementioned city, on it's busiest weekend of the year.

Happy season.

*Because the Pharoah wouldn't free His people, and when he started to think about it God hardened his heart and made him change his mind back, presumably so He could unleash all those plagues.

Framed

This is a view of Vitkov Hill, which I can also see from my window. There was a battle there. So, nearish where I live and very near one of the places I start work is some construction being done, quite a big job so they're making a bit of a song and dance about it, and have this lookout thingy with which to view it.

The hill is in the background and I thought a "framed" picture of it would be really cool. There were people standing on it every time I went there so it took me a while to get the photo, and then I realized it wasn't all that amazing. Posted it anyway.