Yesterday while at the excellent Camden Market, I met some fellow country men (Czechs). They had set up a stand from which a lovely caramelised sugar and cinnamon scent was coming.
They were selling “Trdlo” that they proclaimed was a traditional Czech pastry. I had never seen “Trdlo” before so I asked about it, in English.
They started explaining how traditional it is but when I mentioned that I am Czech as well and that I had never seen it before, they had few and lame explanations.
Anyway, I was amused by the claim and it smelled lovely so I decided to try it. It was really yum and at £2 (100 Czech krounes) a pop it seems to be a gold mine. I don’t really care whether the claim is true, I am just happy to see some young Czech entrepreneurs trying their wings due to the new EU membership 😉
Update 06/09/04
Looks as if trdlo has been introduced in Prague as well; with not so good response. A Czech blogger writes how people are being ripped of with burned dough (In Czech).
Update 18/04/06
Trdlo recipe (is in Slovak… will be translated to English at some point)
Category: Journal
Heja Sverige!
Sweden secured 3 gold medals within 24 hours. That’s a very good feat considering the size of the country. Again and again they prove how talented and athletic they are.
First the heroin Carolina Klüft got gold for women’s heptathlon where she frankly dominated (6952 points). Then Christian Olsson in men’s triple jump (17.79m). Last Stefan Holm in high jump (2.36m); his first win in a major competition in a long time.
Being born in Czech Republic, raised in Sweden, living in England and soon to be married to a Brazilian wife, I sometimes get confused about who to cheer on. As long as all of them are winning gold medals, it’s all good!
Beach bumming
Last Saturday was sunny and hot and I was looking forward to Sunday when we had plans to go the East coast of England, Broadstairs.
But on Sunday the weather turned out pretty bad. Windy and with solid overcast, not giving us more than 10 minutes of sunshine throughout the day. Still there were many persons braving the weather and swimming or playing in the water.
I was amazed to see how well prepared the beach visitors were. Normally people bring a beach towel and a good book but these beach bums had so much more. Wind shields, tents, parasols, portable BBQs, crocket and more.
The highlight of the day was ice-cream and cappuccino while overlooking the main Broadstairs beach with its (in)famous rent-a-donkey.
The Rock blessed the rock
My time was seriously running out. The engagement party was to be held in four days and I had not yet popped the question (you know, blah, blah, will you merry me?).
So I booked a table at Asia de Cuba, our favourite restaurant in London. I also invited two good friends for moral support, to share the moment and to try to masquerade my intentions.
The dinner was as grand as it always is at Asia de Cuba but I felt the dishes were coming to fast. Before I knew it, the deserts were served, gulfed down and the bill was on the table – it was crunch time.
To my horror the topic of the discussion had drifted away from the safe wedding plans via risky “who is going to be the next president of the USA” to the right out catastrophic “underage female victims in Israel”.
With no effort of being smooth, I just raised my voice and proclaimed that the real reason why we were gathered was to be able to ask a very important question. With that I proceeded to get down on one knee, having opened the little box with the ring. The dumbstruck expression on my wife to be was suddenly worth all the effort. The answer was another yes.
Unknowing to us, The Rock had been dining with a small party right behind us. They had witnessed my clumsy going-down-on-one-knee act and had a big grin on their faces as we were leaving. When saying hi to them, The Rock looked me in the eyes, nodded in acknowledgement and wished us good luck.
Walking capital
London sees yet another tube strike. The union rejected London Underground’s offer of a 3.5 percent pay rise and a reduction in the working week from 37.5 to 35 hours (what’s wrong with that?). Instead the scene was set for a traffic mayhem.
So this morning streets were full of walking, cycling, rollerblading people and grumpy people waiting for crowded buses. Londoners took out their rusty old bicycles or put on comfortable walking shoes.
All that is relatively good – bonus exercise – the bad side is all the extra cars in the streets. Traffic jams and pollution ahead, the traffic is at a standstill. Earlier last week Ken Livingstone had specified that the congestion charge would not be lifted in the event of a tube strike nor would parking restrictions be lifted, not exactly a helping hand is it.
I can only sympathise with the commuters that depend on the tube to get them to and from work each day. They are already paying very high monthly charge and are now left to their own devices. Some of these commuters are able to work from home but the rest are looking forward to a long and complicated journey with alternative public services or a 1-2 hour hike.
I sweat a lot…
… when in a sauna.
Yesterday I was just getting comfortable in the 87C, catching up on the tabloids when an older gentleman entered the sauna.
He asked me whether I would mind if he put some “Chinese drop” on the stones.
I didn’t quite understand what he had just said, just that he wanted put something on the hot stones. Being an ignorant macho, I thought that if he can manage it I sure can as well.
He proceeded emptying half the bottle of that stuff in a water filled spatula and whacked it on the heater.
1.5 seconds later, a very strong, pepperminty and sweet fist of steam spread around the sauna and punched me right in the kisser.
4.5 seconds later the older gentleman swore something about using too much of the drops and rushed out from the sauna.
I have to give credit to the drops, my airways have never been clear like they were in that peppermint hell. My eyes were watering, but not in an uncomfortable, mint-candy-in-your-eyes way. Instead, they were just moist and cool.
The cool feeling spread to the rest of my upper upper-body and for a short while I was actually shivering in the 87C.
I gotta get me some of those drops!
My thumb is hurting…
… I have been playing too much of “Alien Scum” on my mobile (SonyEricsson T630).
There is something special about low tech games that makes them addicting. You will not see any fancy 3D graphics or stunning animations. Still, this repetitive game is very addicting.
Alien Scum reminds a lot of Alien Invaders. Kill all aliens on the screen to advance a level. This version adds some power ups but in my opinion, it doesn’t match up to the original.
You should be able to get it FREE from the SonyEricsson mobile site.
Gotta love Southpark
Put Champagne on ice
The good news finally came yesterday. A 2 year long fight with a major UK developer over a new St George development site in an existing woodland was over.
The results from the public enquiry had come back: the local residents, represented by SRRA, had won.
The process culminated in a public enquiry where the arguments from both sides were presented and a decision was made by the inspector:
In my judgement the overall planning balance is heavily weighted against the scheme. The manner in which the present proposals respond to the attributes and address the constraints of the site has sacrificed many environmental quality objectives for the sake of maximising the amount of accommodation. I conclude that the appeals should be dismissed and that planning permission should be refused
Have a look at the SRRA summary or download the inspectors full report.
I have learned that the democratic system is a double-edged sword. While it gave us residents an opportunity to affect the local council in their decision, it also gave the developers right to appeal a chain of decisions against their “monstrous” plans. (However their practice of submitting dual identical applications in order not to give the council a chance to reply in assigned time and thus escalating the matter was less than honest.)
The victory would not have been possible without the organisation skills and eloquence of local resident Phillipe Auclair. As another resident put it, “A whole lot of people were doing their bit but without Phillipe’s help we would not have known what our bits were”. Phillipe’s eloquence was both a motivator to all of us and a stinging to the developer’s arguments.
“Is this the end?” one of the local residents asked. “It’s more like the beginning of a long struggle to keep the woodland unharmed” was the consensus of the groups leading group.
Big Red Button
For the last 8 days I have been enjoying snow boarding in Spindleruv Mlýn, a Czech ski resort.
While it is not the most radical resort around, the atmosphere is superb. Food is cheap and a plenty and the beer even more so. An added bonus was the fact that this trip also was a family get-together to catch up and plan the upcoming events.
While most of the boarding went OK, I had completely forgotten how to use the anchor lifts while on a snowboard. I actually tried to straddle the anchor resulting in an embarrassing situation.
While I was fumbling with the anchor it pulled away and I lost balance completely. The closest object was a rod with a big red button and I managed to regain balance by slamming down on this very button. It turned out to be the emergency stop so the whole row of couples was halted, most certainly swearing at the retard at the bottom of the slope – me.
The weather was a dream come true. Plenty of snow from earlier heavy snow falls and four days of solid sunshine.