2011..

Is nearly over. There are 8 hours and 36 minutes left of this year in my time zone, as of posting. It's actually already next year in some parts of the world.. hi family.. how's 2012? Here, it's still the old year.. and time to reminisce...

*picture goes all blurry while harp plays*

Well.. really, it's been much like most other fucking years, didn't achieve nearly what I wanted to, or what would be a regular level of achievement for a normal person, or even the modest tasks which I more realistically set for myself, but it wasn't so bad.

Did some travelling.. big trip to Canada and a stop by Berlin, and London, and later to Paris.. started a new job, something completely new as a tour guide, and made a much more concerted effort to get registered with casting agencies. It yielded exactly nothing but.. well, that's actually kind of crap.

Was in a few video project thingies, and an actual movie.. at least I equaled my average for a year.. and actually began making my own stuff. Started quite late in the year, and didn't do nearly as much as what I wanted to, and it's all pretty.. well.. bad, but considering I'd done it not at all any previous year this is a huge achievement. I think, even with the travelling, and actually having some formal employment, this is my most prized achievement of the year.

And when I look back on what I said a year ago ..

For the next year.. I dunno, more of the same, more movies, acting in and making, better movies.. both again. Get a job, an actual job that pays money and.. well, just be super awesome in general.

I haven't done so bad, I mean yeah, I pretty much did all those things, an of course, the last one I achieved quite beautifully :)

Goodbye 2011.

From back when..

Another shot from the (now not so) recent trip..



Berlin, on the summer solstice.

Kay so I'm home.

It was a long trip. Long flight to London, not a fun landing. Through all the security bullshit, though we were just transferring. Long wait, well it always seems to take so long, at London. A not so long flight to Berlin, but still. A not fun wait in a long line for goodness knows what in Berlin which turned out to be the passport control which was quite fast.. then the wait for baggage which shouldn't have been long or a wait at all as they were already there, I just couldn't get them because of the crowd of people camped out in front of the conveyor belt including a small child who's mother bothered to call her away from there right after we got out bags. Thanks.

Then the cramming onto the airport bus, being unceremoniously told to move back so we got separated.. s-bahn and walk to our boat. Oh we stayed on a boat, it was quite nice. So after this long, hot and annoying day, we rest a bit, freshen up, go outside and it's raining.

We had to walk because we had to eat, and we needed to change money too. It was late so there was nowhere to exchange. It would have been a nice walk though, if it hadn't been raining, and we weren't so hungry, but it was raining, and we were really hungry.

Finally withdrew some cash, got a falafel and went back. Finally unwound on the bar at the hostel.. on the boat with beer and some cheesy music.

Went back on the train the next day, which was yesterday. That was ok, spose. Now I'm home, and just back from work. I'd quite like another holiday actually.

Hi from Canada.

So, after a lot of travelling, a very long day, with a lot of daylight we arrived in Vancouver yesterday.. the day before.. oh whenever. Now I'm in a house with a huge number of people...

so.. the longest day was, according to earth stuff, on the 21st, ie the solstice, no idea if the Orloj in Prague was working fine.. so let me know if you have that info, I'd like to know if the country I'm returning to is in peril or not..

anyway, we spent the solstice in Berlin, which was pretty fucking rad, if I may use that description, there was a city wide music festival, and every street corner had some music on it, so we wandered around the city, stopping a bit at Gorlitzer Park, and other spots, checking out a bit o music, and some graf here and there.. then settling nearby our hostel at Love Lite, where we drank beer and enjoyed a few bands, with a break to walk back for a rest, past a few more gigs, including the punk/metal fest... which I found enjoyable.

We got to bed quite late.. packed a bit and showed, and up again at 4:30 am. On to the S-Bahn, bus, plane to London, where we had relatively little trouble getting out of customs, and onto the tube into the city. It was a beautiful moment walking up out of Piccadilly Circus tube into heavy rain :/. Well it was nice, didn't rain the entire time, and got to walk to Trafalgar Square and get a photo on one of the lions are a short battle to claim the spot. Then the fun bit, Indian for lunch, and a beer in a charming pub, in the traditional English style.

So.. back to Heathrow, up into the airport, ride on a transit to our gate and waiting.. and the flight. We flew for about 11 hours, west... so it was the true longest day... something like 20 hours daylight.. we flew over Greenland, and Baffin Island and places in the Arctic.. it was pretty cool.. but too bloody long! Arrived in Vancouver.. relatively little trouble getting out except for a kinda long wait for bags, and onto the Sky Train on the Canada line to home! Got to Erik's place and no one was in the house. I think that's the only time I'll get to see the place with only 2, or less than about 20 people because after an hour or 2 everyone began to arrive.. his parents finally came late at night.. and then just one more wait for a few more people to show up... and after about 30 hours we finally went to bed.

So yeah.. pretty tired. Yesterday was hanging about day, more people arrived, we had a barbecue, and stayed in the house mostly, oh I went to the mall, a bit of North American culture I needed to experience.

It's nice to be here, I'm here for 2 weeks so I can settle a bit, and there's lots to do, lots of weddings, bat mitzvahs and dinners... well one each of the first 2 but lots of stuff related to them... so yeah, fun.

Weather's a bit crap though :/

*puts on boots*

Well.. about to embark on what is probably the busiest month I've had for.. for.. um, ever. I mean.. I have in the past had multiple things to do at once, which each take about half an hour a week so I get on my big horse and go on about how many things I have to do, but this time it's mostly just the one thing, this job thing I have. I finally have a month where I got lots of hours, working almost every night, and 2 shifts on average per night so I'm almost up to about 70 or 80% of a regular person's hours. That is regular persons in one of those countries with very generous work week laws. Maybe. I dunno.

Anyway.. I do have another thing, that is the "job" I've had for years which I actually do a bit of work with, during the day, and my other stuff, my art stuff, my photography stuff.. my video stuff.. (still working on that btw).. so yeah.

Oh and after the 18th there's no work, but that's because I'll be doing something much busier.. going on holiday. I know that sounds odd, but you haven't been on one of our "holidays". I'm using an awful lot of quotation marks today. Well.. we're going to Berlin, to fly to London to change for a flight to Vancouver and going to a wedding and bat mitzvah and it'll be a few weeks in Van, but knowing us that will be anything but restful.. so.. that will take me to the end of the month and into July, so we'll see.

Travelling and stuff.

It's funny. I've always thought of myself as someone who really likes travelling, and would do it a lot. And most likely a lot of people, both that I know, and "out there" see me as this jet setting glamorous person due to me living here in exotic Prague, and being from somewhere else completely.

They are wrong. Well at least the were.. ok the "jetsetting" and the "glamorous" are huge exaggerations and/or entirely incorrect, but the travelling what many people would consider lots is inaccurate as well. At least until recently. Ok the lots according to pretty much anyone is still erroneous, and yes I did just look up the thesaurus to use a word that was neither wrong, incorrect or inaccurate, not that anyone seemed to ask.

I do have a point. The point is I don't travel a whole lot, and until quite recently, not at all. Until some time last year I hadn't been out of Prague for like... ever. Seriously. It took Erik coming for his 3rd trip from Israel to take a day trip somewhere.

Through last year we quite often went off somewhere, and I re-familiriarized myself with some of the non Prague parts of this country, or visited them for the first time. It was nice, but I still hadn't been out of the country for like.. years. Years I tell you! That's a long time for such a little country.

Until this September when I went to Italy. We had a whirlwind trip going to Rome, Sardinia and Tuscany and battling buses, trains, ferries, and planes and meeting people who previously had only existed in the computer.. seeing Erik's parents and.. stuff. It was cool.

And then the weekend before last we went to Berlin. We walked around, visited the wall, mucked around on the U-Bahn, had pleasant mishap free rides on the S-Bahn, ate lots of falafels and kebaps (apparently in Germany there's a p in it) and stuff.

Now I feel all well travelled like I go places or something. Funny how quickly things change.

Berlin

A bit of it :)

I'm back..

Got in earlier today. Had a decent time, in fact I'd call it fine. Details later. And photos.. later.

Misshaps were relatively mild..

Oh and by the way..

I'm going to Berlin tomorrow. I shall spend the weekend there. I'll probably take a few photos. And stuff.