(no subject)
Kamila has kindly invited me to come to her czech lessons. This is really nice of her because in my experience the one thing that lecturers seem to avoid is having another lecturer that teaches the same subject, listening to them. She is also very pretty so I took the chance.
This means three hours of solid Czech, the most difficult European language with its complex grammar and almost impossible pronunciation but I did feel I was making progress. Last Thursday Isabela emailed me. She had found a gap in her crowded schedule (15 minute slots covering the next two years!) for me. She was going to Plzen to see a sculptor to design a headstone. It would have meant missing Kamila's Czech lesson and I didn't feel I could do that. So I had my three hours of Czech and spent the rest of the week regretting not meeting Isabela. After her trip to Plzen Isabela had gone back to Rumburk to her cottage.
On Wednesday to my relief there was email from Isabela. A three hour slot from 14:00 to 15:30 to got to another photographic exhibition before she played in a bridge tournament. But better still she invited me to goto her cottage for a couple of days. One slight snag she would pick me up at 6am and if I wasn't ready she would not wait. I made sure I was ready! I telephoned Ivana to let Kamila know I would be missing from the saturday class. Ivana laughed. She said you would not goto Plzen last week so now she ius pulling on the doglead and making you get up at 5 to goto Rumburk. Well I want to go :-)
It was a three hour to Rumburk starting off in the dark and seeing the day gradually break. It was getting light as we drove through the hop fields. The poles were all in place but the hops have all been picked so the poles were bare. It rained but the countryside with the conical hills of long extinct volcanoes covered in woods were visible. Camponilo had the front passenger seat in his cat box tightly belted to it.
We had a super couple of days. Swimming, walking, saunas and jacuzzi. Friday morning was another 6 am start to go to a fleamarket at a village about 20 kilometres away. She is fascinated by old wooden artifacts and bought some. Better still she found me tea cups, wine glasses, beer glasses all at a fraction of their normal price in shops. She also found me a pair of jeans. "Dy vill fit you". I said I don't think so. "Dey vill. I can tell. So try them on". I tried to hide behind the stall holders table while I slipped my trousers off and tried on the jeans. They did fit perfectly. "Good", she says. "Vee must change all of zee udder 'orrrible clothes you vear." We went to a really strange old Czech pub for lunch with a huge collection of wooden statues and other odd things. We spent an hour at a cattery she does volunteer work at. She aklso insisted on giving me a three hour czech lesson and she is not an easy going or tolerant teacher. We had to return to Prague Saturday evening so she could get back into her scheduled badminton tournament on Sunday morning. She'll win of course.
