BIBLIOGRIND
The Life of a Wordsmith — Read … Live … Write
Archive for July, 2010
July 31, 2010 at 6:50 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
We’ve been wonderfully relaxed this week. One might call us happily lazy. New classes start on Tuesday, but today is our last real HOLIDAY day to laze about town, or just sleep 9 hours, wake for coffee and breakfast, walk down to the monthly flea market, hit the food store for taco lunch fixins, do a little writing/work, sit around and watch Top Chef, take an evening walk to buy Magnum ice cream bars (one each … we don’t split bars during holiday time), then get back for more wine, another Top Chef, a movie at 9pm, with chips and a beer.
This is the way to end a three-week holiday … just before the “lean” month begins. Ha!
The Namesti Miru flea market has every sort of junk for the treasure troller. People lay out goods on rugs, fold-out tables, or regular display stands. There are not many practical items. For the collector, this is the place to be.
Miru square is a great place to hold a flea market: good transportation hub; big square but without tourists; and beautiful gardens, inviting park benches, and the cathedral as the architectural background.
Asia has been looking for a length of elestic rope to play this Polish kids game, “guma,” and she found a woman selling yarns and ropes and lots of sewing/knitting stuff.
I was looking for a butter dish. Butter in Czecho comes in big square blocks. It’s tough to find a dish for such a food shape.
What I found were clocks. Look at all these old clapper types. I can imagine my head between the two bell on a Monday morning, trying to get up to teach a class. Of course, I didn’t buy one of these things. There are enough clocks in my world already. I’m happy with looking out the window: if it’s light, this must be daytime; if it’s dark, this must be nighttime.
July 29, 2010 at 7:16 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
How to have a picnic in the rain:
Bring an umbrella.
Today we went on a lunch picnic that we had planned a few days ago: bread and butter, hardboiled eggs, tuna from the can, pickles and tomatoes and cheese, beer and iced coffee.
We took Tram #22 from around our corner all the way up and past Prague Castle, then walked to Petrin Park through the back door so that we didn’t have to climb Petrin’s hill. Lots of tourists were out today, but none bothered us. When we heard American’s speaking, we switched to Polish; when we heard Poles speaking, I called out in a loud voice, “Jestes glodny?” (Are you hungry?) just to see if I can get a few heads to turn. This is usually a group of kids, who are here for, well, kid-camp I suppose. When you ask a Pole if he/she is hungry, they will expect a traditional Polish meal [note: this is just an aside, and has nothing to do with the day, per se]
Petrin’s apple orchard is in full applely-ness, and we found a nice spot halfway up the hill. The view gave onto Charles Bridge, Old Town’s one-hundred church spires, Zizkov Hill in the distance, and the giant television tower. We used for the second time our new picnic blanket. This was a gift to me from one of my students at the end of this past term. It’s a tartan green wool fold-up model with rubber backing to use on wet grass as well as the summery dry kind.
The skies had been threatening all morning, but once planned, there is nothing (short of lightning and actual rain) that can stop the AsiaMark Picnic Train.
So anyway, we took a nice picture as the drops came down, just little sprinkles. The food we’d already gobbled up (Hey, we were hungry!). And then the drops came more often, with more force, it was time to fold up shop.
End of the picnic. Race home for tea time.
Milego dnia!!
July 28, 2010 at 5:14 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
I brought my laptop with me to Poland, but opened it three times in 16 days, and only to look up word definitions using my Merriam-Webster program. Well, I kind of figured I wouldn’t get so much done, but that’s okay because this vacation was all about relaxation, losing the mind to literature and food and sleep and wandering with purposeful aimlessness.
Now that I’m back in Prague since Saturday, I’ve written nearly 4,000 words and have seemlessly got back into the flow of my book. I think, with a little luck and some imaginative writing, I can have a finished first draft before Christmas, maybe before the revolution holiday in November.
Meanwhile, I’ve gotten THE VILLAGE WIT back from Anne, who graciously gave it a final CE read, and with those changes I’ll have it ready to format for publishing, probably in online stores by September 1st. I’m choosing font, layout, front & back matter, and trim size, then will make a pdf, send it to Amazon publishing for POD cataloging, etc, and get a proof copy back in a couple weeks for one final look. Afterwards, I’ll have the electronic format ready for e-Readers. Perhaps a few of each will sell. At least the public will finally have a chance to see my work, no thanks to traditional publishers looking only to push swill onto the world.
July 28, 2010 at 5:02 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
The Poles know their vodka and sausage. I’m really digging this traditional vodka, flavored with a unique blend of dried fruits, herbs and spices is said to have wonderful stomach settling properties, and is very tasty. You don’t know that you’re drinking 40-proof liquor, so it’s best to pour a shot or short glass and sip it. The problem is, I can’t find this brand in Prague. At least, not yet.
Polish kielbasa comes in many varieties, but to get a couple links home, I chose two “dry” sausages. A country sausage (garlic and herbs), and a meaty fatty one that nearly melts in the mouth. Add some cheese and pickles to the mix, a beer chaser, and you’ll gain 5 kilos in no time at all.
July 26, 2010 at 12:21 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Gdynia has a big harbor that works 24/7 … we should know because we heard from the window of Pani Helena’s flat all the trucks and cranes and ship’s horns and deisel locomotives operating night & day.
The harbor has lots of docks for big container ships, with massive cranes cayside for heavy loads (notice Asia at lower left in pic). Imagine that this port area of Gdansk-Gdynia has seen ships for a couple thousand years, and what those ancient mariners would think today seeing ships the size of towns, and cranes reaching down like the hand of Poseidon.
Perhaps I’m getting carried away, since I’ve not lived near nor seen such huge works. To Asia’s dad, the docks must all be old hat, as he’d spent a lifetime at sea for months at a time. This engineering stuff still fascinates me, though. Probably because I’m still a little kid at heart, wanting to drive a dump truck or work one of those cranes.
On the way to the public wharf there stands a bridge that gives you a bit of an overlook of seaside Gdynia. On this bridge one day many many decades ago, Asia’s future grandfather walked up and across the arches to impress her future grandmother.
Docked at the wharf are an old four-masted ship and a naval frigate.
Down at the end stands two monuments. One celebrates sailing and maritime life.
The other is dedicated to Joseph Conrad, the Polish seaman who became a writer (he wrote in English, his third language. Asia and I talked about his lengthy–boring–prose, got that way because he’s a non-native speaker and used long-winded constructions.)
Of course, we had to take pictures of each other looking through the deep-sea diver’s cut-out. Now we have a collection of these silly photos from a variety of places.
July 26, 2010 at 11:27 am · Filed under The Prague Blog
Life can be serious. Sometimes we make it more serious than it is. Sometimes overly serious than it ever should be. Before this happens, we should make funny faces.
Make funny fish faces …
before life passes you by.
July 25, 2010 at 1:04 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Gdynia is an industrial port town that happens also to be a beach community. During Communist times, I suppose there were guards posted in the life-guard towers instead of lifeguards, ready to shoot any bathers crossing the red bouys as they swim to freedom across the Baltic Sea to Sweden.
Asia assures me this was not the case.
Our two weeks in Gdynia were basted in sunshine and high temps, which brought out both holiday-makers and suburban Gdyniaks down for a day of sunning, bathing, partying, and peeing in the salted sea.
AsiaMark decided to sea-bathe at the end of the day, when the heat had been shorn by sea breezes and the sea had warmed up under the sun’s hellish rays.
Meanwhile, the beach seen is quite fun: lots of people hanging out,
great little beach bars with umbrella-covered seats,
a beach volleyball tournament underway,
and a promenade stretching one-or-so kilometers along the coast.
One afternoon when the weather had cooled, we took a picnic to the shore and found a shady-ish spot on the grass (sand and running brats don’t do well for beach-picnics).
We took lots of pictures and then walked the promenade. Fun, fun, fun.
Asia improvised without a spoon to eat her cottage cheese.
Asia sported her new hair during one bathing day.
Mark played in the surf like a distressed sea lion.
By the end of the day, a pair of Little Fox paws were doing a dance of happiness …
July 25, 2010 at 12:10 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Asia was prescient enough to think about, and then execute, the purchase of a new computer while in Poland. Fact: prices in Poland for most products are cheaper, vis-a-vis currency conversion, than other Euro countries. Fact.
So, Asia got herself an HP state-of-this-year computer that is blisteringly fast, has lots of bells & whistles, and blows her old computer out of the water.
In the days of Old America (the 1970s), there was a thing known as the “two-car family” … and everyone envied those kinds of people. This was on the tails of the 1960′s “two-television family” that, by God (and a working wife), a family could afford ONE color television to go along with the ONE black & white tele “for the kids.” Boy-oh-boy them’s was good times!
Of course, times have changed. Some idiot in the 1970s actually suggested that there wasn’t any use for computers in the home. Now we say, “How the fuck have we lived without these puppies?!!!” The answer seems obvious, but only Nietsche and Kant could possibly disquisit successfully on this question.
Any-hoo … to have one computer in the family was an astonishment back in 1984 (the year of Orwell’s BIG BROTHER, don’t you remember), and kids queued for time on that slow-ass piss-ant of a machine. Who remembers typing a document and then, just as you are about to save said doc, the power goes out and … Poof! … there goes the document into what was yet to be called “cyber-F*(&%@#&NG-space). Of course, this sort of thing still happens, but we love our fast computers that can store 200+ pirated movies. (Ooops!)
So now Asia has two computers. And Mark has two computers. Or, to put it quite kindly …
we each have one COMPUTER and one “electronic typewriter.”
July 24, 2010 at 12:01 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
So we found the most comfortable route back from the Baltic Sea: Gdynia – Warsaw by day train, then Warsaw – Prague by sleeper train. Ahhhh, WHAT CIVILIZATION !!!!
We arrived in Hlavni Nadrazi at 6:51 this morning to a stormy, cool Prague morning. This was perfect, actually, after nearly two weeks of 30+ weather on the Baltic. Asia and I both sighed with relief on opening the door to our flat. Vacations are wonderful, traveling is KING, meeting new people and eating great food is par excellance … but home always calls you back, and our Chodska palace has called us for a few days now.
I want to recall all the great things we did and saw along Poland’s Baltic coast, so I’ll do that in a few posts to come. I need to go through the photos and vids, rekindle memories, and get some story moving. What I want to do is write about …
Asia’s bedroom where she grew up …
and us walking along Gdynia’s wharf …
and dipping our feet in the Baltic Sea …
and Mark underneath a Polish statue …
and AsiaMark on the beach …
and … all the booty I brought home!
July 17, 2010 at 1:51 pm · Filed under The Prague Blog
Asia’s mom has a birthday on Tuesday, so we came over for a lunch-time celebration today. Asia’s dad is the family cook, and his food is fantastic. He’s careful with his recipes and demanding of his food products. The other day we had fish & chips, and the fish was perfect, with good & salty chips, too.
But today Pan Szustek served golabki i ziemniaki: meat-stuffed cabbage rolls and potatoes with fresh dill. To illustrate how demanding of his food he is, we almost didn’t have cabbage rolls today because he couldn’t find a proper cabbage head. Now that’s a strict cook!
He cooks the cabbage rolls in a tomato-based sauce, which then is poured over the top of the plated food. The taste is so cabbagee, and so dill-potatoee. Yummy!!
While we ate, the Szusteks spoke Polish to each other (naturally) with Asia doing a bit of translating por moi. I actually like to sit back at times like these, to absorb the language and the facial expressions and whatnot of foreign language speakers (come to think of it, I’m the foreigner in this story). Otherwise I’m asked obvious questions using words I’m already a bit familiar with: Jestes glodny? (are you hungry?); Bardzo? (BIG hungry?); Dobre? (Good?); Tak! (Yes!). Dziekuje (Thank You!).
It’s actually quite interesting to hear Asia speak Polish, which changes her voice so much from her British-inflected English spoken at home.
Now Asia is going to go through a bunch of her posessions in her childhood room, with the mind to take so much stuff back to Prague that, between us (i’m bringing back candy, vodka, soap, pottery, and keilbasa sausage), we’re going to look like Gypsies tramping across Europe.
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