Life back in Prague

Ahoy everyone
I am over my jetlag and settling back into life in Praha.  The weather has been great!  Lots of sun, and temperatures rising to about 18 degrees some days.  I am a bit disappointed that our small balcony only gets the morning sun, so I will have to find somewhere to go in the afternoons.  There is another quite cool park just up the road (even closer than Divoka Sarka), and that looks like it has some quite good tracks in there, and some seats in the sun on the plateau. 

I also have to report that Jase has even cooked me his sweet and sour specialty!  He loves it and says he was really missing it so volunteered to cook.  He asked me to rate it out of 10, and wasn't too impressed when I gave it a 7!!  It was ok, but I got well sweet-and-soured out when we lived in London in 1998!  We were saving money, so ate sweet and sour fish fingers with brocolli, carrots, and rice every night for a good 6 months!  The only respite was when Jase's aunty and uncle invited us for dinner!

Last Weds Jase had to go to a meeting in a place called Soulothorn (probably spelt incorrectly!) in Switzerland. So we decided that I would go to Zurich with him (where he was staying).  We flew on Swiss Air on Tues night - instead of lollies they give you swiss chocolates when you land - stoked!  We stayed in a hotel near the airport.  On the Weds Jase headed off to his meeting, and I caught the train into Zurich for a look around. 

Zurich is quite a cool city.  There is a big lake, and some snow capped mountains at the head of the lake.  I dropped into Starbucks (hot coffees!!!  Eureka!!) before setting off on a big walk beside the lake.  It must have been all of 10 degrees when I spied 4 men on a big deck all lying in the sun stark naked!!  I did several double takes - surely not!!  But indeed so - very bizarre!  I was freezing in my jeans and jacket!  They were all very tanned too - all over for that matter!  The craziness didn't end there - I also saw a dog wearing shoes!! 

Later that afternoon I met up with Jase and we had a bit of a walk around, before dropping in to a steak restaurant for dinner.  Delicious!  It wasn't a flash establishment, but we damn near needed to mortgage the house to eat there!  Zurich sure is expensive. 

Last weekend Jase and I decided to head out to Krivoklat castle on our road bikes.  I had done this ride last November on my mtb, so knew it would take about 4hrs round trip.  I watched Jase get his gear ready and saw that he had only packed 2 muesli bars.  He said that was all he needed.  Luckily I made him a bottle of sportsdrink, but even so it wasn't enough.  I knew things weren't good when he started drafing behind me, then stopped at a service station and came out with a bottle of coke and a snickers bar, then sat on the ground telling me things were really grim!  True Jase style though... 5mins later he was back to life, and pushing the pace home!!  If that happens to me I never bounce back - and if I do, it certainly doesn't happen that fast!  

The road riding here is actually pretty good.  We have found a much quicker and better way to get out of the city (we are on the outskirts anyway), and the country roads, whilst very narrow, are actually pretty quiet.  The only downside for me at the moment is that the roads are very bumpy so it is pretty hard on my shoulder.  I have had to limit the road riding to 2x/wk for now.  The rest is on the windtrainer which is wearing a bit thin!  My shoulder is improving - less night pain now.  I can start strengthening my torn rotator cuff this weekend - had to give the fracture enough time to heal as the rotator cuff attaches into the fracture site.  I still can't lift my arm more than 30 degrees, but I think that is just a bit of bursitis, and the fact that the rotator cuff isn't doing it's job at the moment. 

On Sunday afternoon we drove out to the Karlstejn castle (about 20-30mins drive).  It was awesome - will attach some pics when Jase is back (he is in Poland for work for 2 days).  I really do need to learn how to attach pictures myself! 

When we were walking down from the castle, a geezer dressed in full traditional Czech costume started walking beside us.  I wasn't too concerned by this until I noticed the massive owl sitting on his shoulder!!  I started whimpering and panicking as only I can do!  Jase didn't help matters by telling me that animals sense fear, so I was best to not show any fear.  A bit impossible when you HATE birds, and that particular bird looked like a man-eater to me!!! 

Yesterday I caught the train into Prague.  I needed to find an optician as I have been having some trouble with my right eye.  It is really sore in the cold, sensitive to light, and really sore in the wind on the bike.  I had it when we were here last year too, but forgot about it when I went home as I didn't have it at home.  I managed to find an optician who spoke minimal English.  She took me into the back room and did a whole lot of tests on my eyes.  She tried to wrench my eyelids open - using about as much care as a welder performing brain surgery!  I am also not used to anyone touching my eyes, so in the end I had tears streaming down my cheaks and some major blink reflex happening!!  She then finished by saying "Dry eye" about 5x in a row, and tilted my head back and forced some eye drops in!  She then gave me the eye drops and sent me on my way!!  I have googled "Dry eye syndrome" and turns out it is worse in dry climates - which explains why I get it here.  There is hardly any humidity.   

Jase headed up to Poland today for work.  I was scheduled to do a 4hr ride today, and the weather outside was fantastic so I was looking forward to it.  Then a comedy of issues (that I didn't find at all funny at the time) lead to me doing my 4hrs on the windtrainer!  BORING!!

Firstly I noticed my rear tyre was a bit down on pressure.  I tried to pump it up, but it wasn't really too good on my shoulder and I couldn't do it - so all I managed to do was lose more pressure.  Next I used my CO2 but for some reason I lost more pressure.  So next step was to take Jase's back wheel and swap it with mine.  Then I set off out on the road.  After 5mins it became very apparent that his cluster is spaced quite differently to mine and my bike kept jumping out of gear.  So back home I went.  I then put my wheel back on and attempted the track-pump again.  This time I lost all air in the tyre.  Then it became apparent what the issue was.  The valve had completely detached from the inner tube...  So a change of tube was my next step.  Since the pump was too sore on my shoulder I used my last CO2 cannister.  The attachment is old, and I lost alot of the air, so my final tyre pressure was only about 70 psi at best.  By this stage my shoulder was sore and I was furious!  I put my bike on the windtrainer and started my 4hr ride..... mind numbingly boring.  By the time I got going it was 11.15am, so I wasn't off it until 3.15pm!  I kept looking outside hoping for gale force winds or rain so I didn't feel so bad for being inside on the windtrainer - not so - it was the best day we've had!!

Well I think I have waffled on long enough.  I hope everyone is well back home and that the weather isn't cooling down too fast.  We are on daylight savings time now - so the time difference is 11hrs - and after your daylight savings ends this weekend we move to 10hrs time difference.

Jeanette