Humiliation in the supermarket, told off in the movies... what next!!

Ahoj sailors!

The weather has turned! Yesterday a mighty 7 degrees, and today not too much warmer! Can't believe that only 4 days ago I was biking in short sleeves and shorts!

On Friday I went in to Slany with Jase (the town where he works). Ivana from Jase's work took us in to the local bank for us to set up a Czech account. What a fiasco - 2hrs later, and about 10 trees used in the process.... Then we went to the local vodafone shop for me to get a Czech sim card. Now I have a Czech number for while I am here so texting and calling Jase (me only mate!) won't cost me so much.

Whilst in Slany we also went out for lunch with Ivana. It was good having her there to read us the menu, and of course order me my standard European option of salad and fries! Very nice though. Then Jase and Ivana went back to work and I had some time to fill in before Jase finished work so I could get a ride home (Slany is 20mins drive on a motorway from the outskirts of Prague - I was going to bike back on the country roads but thought the 36km journey according to google may actually turn out to be at least 100km with my navigation so thought better of it!).

I decided to go and check out the big Kaufland supermarket, and get some stuff for dinner. I always find the supermarkets over here so interesting as they have so much different stuff in them. Anyway when I finally got to the counter (the place was packed as it was Friday afternoon), I made a complete idiot of myself by managing to smash an entire glass bottle of balsamic vinegar everywhere!! The woman at the counter was talking to me 100 miles an hour in Czech, and everyone in the store was staring at me - probably didn't help that by this stage I was redder than the local beetroot! I composed myself enough to pull out " mluvite anglicky" (pronounced mlooveeta unglitzky - "do you speak English") - unfortunately for me the checkout woman said "ne" (as in 'near' - meaning no!). She then shouted "Anglicky" to all the other checkout operators, and to the customers in all the queues - there was a chorus response of "ne" all around the store! Humiliation at it's finest!!!

Finally I figured out that I was meant to go and get another bottle, so ran to the other end of the supermarket (making me hotter and redder!) to get another one - then raced back to find that the woman was waiting for me and even though I had paid, she had not served anyone else in the ever growing queue! I made a gesture offering to clean the mess and pay for the new bottle, but she said "ne" and shoo'd me off in the direction of the exit! I walked back to Jase's work chuckling to myself the whole way - what a disgrace! I don't know how these things happen to me!

On Saturday Jase and I headed South to czech out (humour) some of the forest trails. It was wet and freezing (7 degrees!) so went for a run instead of a bike. There is forest everywhere here - lots of tracks too (4 wheel drive mainly but some single track). Today (Sunday) we went for a mtb in the forest near here. It was raining and cold again but good fun. Then we took our laundry into a shop in the shopping mall (the website told us they did washing as well as drycleaning). Unfortunately when there the woman at the desk spoke no English as is the norm here - luckily she knew someone who spoke some English so rang her on her cell phone - it was classic. I spoke to the lady on the phone who then spoke to the woman at the counter - the phone was passed back and forth several times and finally our laundry is there being done for us and we pick it up tomorrow - thank goodness as we were really starting to run out of clothes! We couldn't find a 'laundromat' as such.

Then we headed to Starbucks! Yes we found one - in fact there are several. I need to have words with them over here though (not that they will understand my words) - they don't serve their drinks hot enough.

After Starbucks we sussed out a movie theatre. It was raining outside and cold so I broke my rule of never attending the movies during the day. Some movies over here are run in English with Czech subtitles, and some are dubbed over in Czech. We saw an English one (obviously!) - 'Friends with Benefits' - a bit grim at the start but got better - and to be honest anything in English is exciting for us right now! There were only 6 of us in the theatre watching the movie, and just before it started the ussher came walking in up the stairs headed for Jase and I. When he got to me, he blurted out a whole lot of Czech and gestured for me to move my legs from the seat in front (as if it mattered - only my calves where resting on the back of the seat in front) - Jase just shook his head. Told off in the movies - what next!

We are pretty sure the apartment is ours - but the process seems to be at the same rate of knots as setting up a bank acct. We have a contract but the woman is away until Weds so hopefully we can move in later this week. Meanwhile this week I will attempt to not get lost, not embarrass myself, and not get told off! Here's hoping...

Well that's pretty much all from here
Hope all of you in Chch are ok after another doozie aftershock! Think we have had enough of them now.
Take care
J