blonde poker forum

Today was going to be one of those days; I just knew it.

For a start, I'd already agreed to join a group of workmates and form a Cricket team to take on a touring Old Boys team from England and Prague Cricket Club - who make up a decent proportion of the Czech National Team. Suffice it to say, I didn't hear a lot of Czech being spoken. These boys were expats and loved their cricket.

Our team was formed as a response to one of our Clients being the Captain of the old boys touring team, and, as you know, you never say know to the guy who pays the bills. We agreed on a little T20 round robin format and having watched the first game because all of our team - apart from the Qualified Umpire who did just that, umpired; had not played cricket at any serious or unserious level and worse still, three of them were Americans who thought they were coming to play 'the one like the NFL, not the one like Baseball'.

Anyway, we lost quite heavily despite my own glorious contribution which amounted to dressing as a wicketkeeper and shouting 'bowling Warney' after each wide or cover drive to the boundary.

The other teams took it a but seriously for my liking - I wasn't really a fan of some of the comments which were either supposed to be 'banter' or actually were 'banter', but 'cricket banter'. In short, absolutely terrible.

But I digress, of course.

On the way back from Ctělnice - which roughly translates as '12 miles past nowhere' and with quite a lot of sunburn, I received the following picture message, accompanied by the note 'pls don't be mad?'

(http://i.imgur.com/coKg5bB.jpg)

We are now cat owners. My better half had been to the flea market this morning, and, non-native as she is, thought that the idea was to bring back fleas. She found $nameless cat between two old food stalls near the flea market and covered in mud. Clearly the cat needed rescuing so she brought it home.

So far, so good....

The only thing is, dearest Blonde, that I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never had an adult cat, much less rescued a kitten.

So, cat owners of Blonde, I ask you:

What now?

So far we've bathed him and put Front Line on him, fed and watered but he won't let us clean his ears.

He also needs a name. Preferably unisex because we aren't 100% convinced he is boy cat yet. (Interesting fact: the German words for 'tomcat' and hangover are the same, if you're suffering from the night before you have a tomcat...I hope that doesn't ring true for us!)

He is class though - very purry, inquisitive and will be very fun. We were going to previously adopt a dog from the Shelters here, but that's quite hard to do if you're not Czech (they won't give to people they aren't convinced won't leave the cat here again later...) so now we have $nameless.

I think he will be awesome and will tell some stories as I go from 'man who can barely take care of himself' (my dad, sept 2015) to cat owner.

Your input would be amazingly appreciated.

Nice start to your blog. Good luck with it!

I would be inclined to register it with a vet and take it across for a check up. Pets at home are good and resonable on the price front. Next I would get some cat insurance, just for those expensive emergencies. Next up give it a name?

For a name I suggest... Razz.

Cute cat. I want to hear about cat adventures!

As for  name, those beginning with S or t are good for cats, they recognise the sounds apparently.

Wouldn't worry about cleaning the ears, Cats wash themselves and can be very particular about where they are touched. You will soon find out when 'petting' a cat as it will likely bite/scratch you when you touch them somewhere they do not want to be touched.

Worming tablet, in addition to flea control is usually good. We get ours from the vet, they seem to work much better than the shop bought stuff.

You'll have to name him Tikay then...

My cats are called Glitter and Bling, so I should probably not chip in to this debate

Call him Toon?

Don't let him out of your house for at least two weeks, otherwise he probably won't come back.

From this angle the black marking over his right eye looks like a frog.

Winner. Toon it is.

Thanks for the advice people. Appt at Vet tomorrow!

Incred, I've had about 10 cats, never been allowed to name any of them.

Cheers mull. Touched 😢

I will continue to call it Toon, can't speak for Jil.
She doesn't want to call it 'Toon' because it's a 'silly word and not English'.

That said, I've just walked in and she's talking to the cat in Luxembourgish because, and I quote 'my cat will be bilingual'.

Christ.

Hahaha

First round of basic injections today at friendly vet.

We took a friend to translate if needed but although the vet didn't speak much English he spoke a decent level of German so we could understand what was going on etc.

Got the 'basic catch all (part one)' injection and some worming/flea/all that stuff drops that we need to start using tomorrow.

Here's the aftermath:

(http://i.imgur.com/lQHEOZ8.jpg)

Back in three weeks for part two of the basic catch all injection.

Vet said his health for a street cat was pretty incredible so we think it's pretty likely he's been dumped and wasn't 'born on the streets'. Found out that he's definitely male and is now registered as 'Toon' at the vet.

Have to say I was expecting to be spending close to 100eur just for the injections/tablets but so far we've spent £21 and by the time he's chipped and eventually spayed it'll be no more than £50 in total.

I suspect, but I don't know, that it would be wayyyy more in England. I guess they have to make it affordable for Czechs as well when you consider that almost one in two households here has a dog (dogs more than cats tbh) and the average wage is smt like £750/month (close to 700 if you only consider Czechs and even less than 600 outside of city) then I guess the pricing makes sense.

Very delighted that he's managed to find the litter tray first time and he'll be allowed out of his bathroom quarantine in two days once the drops have fully taken affect.

Cat thinks he is parrot.

Makes me a pirate?

Deal.

(http://i.imgur.com/5a49q7U.jpg)

We had two cats called spot and Trevor.  We found one getting tortured by kids on a campsite.  They were throwing it in the paddling pool over and over.  He had a big spot on him, and Spot the Cat was amusing to a bunch of kids.  One of my mates reckoned all cats answer to Trevor , so the 2nd one was Trevor.  It was abandoned too, but we picked it at a rescue centre.  My mum still goes on about how much she disliked having to shout "Trevor" from the door at night to get him in. 

Toon obviously a good name, but bet he'll come if you shout Trevor.

We've had our cat 16 years, called Tigger. Mrs named him obv. We never had cats or dogs when I was growing up as my parents hated them. Mrs grew up with cats, most of em called Tigger or Sammy..lol

We also get the flea drops and worming tablets from the Vet. Mrs says the ones from the vet are far more effective than anything you get in pet shops.

You don't look like I thought you looked like. I don't know what I thought you looked like.

You look a bit like longy though.

Agree.

He definitely does not look like a person who writes like him should.

For a start, his hair is all wrong.

Will wildly assume these are both compliments :D

Good news: toon watched his first nufc match.
Bad news: he showed as much interest in it as the nufc players did.

I knew what Mulhuzz looked like. But i never would have thought that longy looked like Mulhuzz. Strange that.

He is a dead ringer for Longy, actually.

Then again, Longy does not look like he should.

Not sure about that.

It was a great photo though, really, & I'm very much enjoying this Diary.

Is Toon speaking Luxembourgish yet?

Have Longy and Mulhuzz ever been seen in the same room together though?

A bit like you and Bobalike.

Forum multi accounting at its finest imo

Can you tell us how you came to to be living out there, was there any particular reason a Newcastle lad ended up in that part of the world?

Will you ever come back to the UK?

What do you do by way of work?

Just swerve if they are to personal. People, & their stories, are so interesting.

Unlikely - I've met Longy, & he speaks properly, so he can't be a Newcastle lad.

I moved to Prague in July last year because the company I was working for in the UK bought a company out here to expand into the European market (specifically Germany, France and Benelux to start). I got that started up a bit but realised I wanted a bit more than working in a mostly pure sales environment.

As chance would happen I got talking to a guy who works in an adjacent office and he basically offered me the chance to come work with him at a company who produces Hard Drives - I won't name them, but you'll definitely know them. Absolute market leader world wide.

I've been here since April and am working in 'Channel Marketing' for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It's a lot of fun with a great deal of convincing and negotiating and trying to max that ROI number!

Whether I'll ever come back to the UK I don't know.  I've moved around a fair bit, living in Germany, Austria and Gibraltar before now finally the Czech Republic. My parents have more or less lived in the same place all my life but always encouraged my brother and I to travel, so he lives in Brazil and I live here. I imagine if I moved again it would be to Germany or Holland a or possibly Bali,  for now though I'm loving here and wouldn't be surprised to see myself here in 5 years.

In general though I've never been one for making long term plans. Here is great, when or if it stops being great I'll move on!

As for Toon, he speaks about as much Luxembourgish as I do. I'm trying to learn but without Jil knowing. As you can imagine, that makes learning difficult when you immediately ignore the most obvious teacher! And probably improving my Czech should be the priority really - Jil and I can already communicate in 4 languages, do we really need a fifth? It would be nice, but something for the future maybe.

Today I learned:

Cats growl?

Good luck trying to wrestle his toys from him...

A bit more like me a Celtic then, obviously I'm the one who speaks proper in this lookalike partnership

I was always a dog person as a youngster and was never really taken by cats at all but about 5 years ago that all changed when we bought a couple of cats for the kids. We are now owned by these cats! Don't be fooled in to believing you own a cat now, this will never be the case.

Yeah, a friend's cats are delightfully known as 'the sleeper cell' because eventually they will take over the world. They already run her apartment :)

Cats growl when they have caught prey and they think you are taking it away. One of my cats does it when i confiscate the mice it brings in.

Your cat is lovely, looks just like one of mine. Enjoy! They are the most beautiful and loving creatures.

Make sure you keep up the flea and tick treatments monthly and the worming every two months if it is going to be an outdoor cat.

He seems to have forgotten who I am - not been home for a couple of days -- and now no amount of me feeding him or playing with him seems to make him unafraid of me.

Ideas?

Typical cat behaviour, he is sulking. "Don't think you can come and go as you like and expect me to make a fuss when you get home, OK?".

Dont forget he is an untamed street cat. It will take a lot to earn his trust. Also, dont keep him inside, cats hate that!

Can't go outside yet, needs more injections.

Once he's had next round of injections in two weeks he can start. At least according to vet.

Slowly exposing him to more and more areas of the house so he gets used to one room at a time.

This is so true.He will acknowledge you when he is good and ready and not before.

Every cat I have had has been the same.

Get up in the morning, come home from work, or an evening out, all over me.

Stay away from home for a few days, won't come anywhere near me when I get home.

They do it to spite us.

Confirmed, people haters! Mine still hate me for moving them 3 months ago

He caught his foot in a chair whilst climbing and the sound I heard was one of the most terrifying things I've ever heard.

I untangled him and now we're friends again.

Delicate ground here I know, so I'm trying to tread carefully, but....

No. That's too blunt. I'll come back when I can phrase my question better.

Blunt is absolutely fine...

Well it seems to me that if a person had a cat's personality they would be the last person you would ever want to associate with.

PS- I phrased it worse this time cos I couldn't remember what I said last time.

Lol. Not too keen on cats Tom?

I don't mind em, I love all animals, but cats as pets just don't cut it for me. They seem so aloof and independent. Everything has to be on their terms, which is fine, if that's what you want.

I suppose I've just got too used to unconditional love.

So true.  My Misses' folks have cats.  When we go up there the cats stare at me.  I stare at them.  They stare back. 

I know that they know that I know.

A positively menacing atmosphere.

Plus, cats kill an estimated 55 million, (yes million) birds a year. They don't eat them, they just kill them.

They don't do it because they are evil, they do it because they are still virtually wild animals and they are just following their instincts.

If we're going to keep cats as pets, we need to domesticate them properly.

Please don't hate me blonde cat lovers.

Dogs kill people sometimes.

And who has the job of counting 55 million birds?

Too late

Just give it time. Will soon come around

That's true. People also get shot in Nando's.


http://www.standard.co.uk/news/man-arrested-over-nandos-shooting-6330783.html

Lol, wasn't even an argument over chicken wings.

My Bengal cat killed a pigeon on Saturday afternoon. She sat in the middle of the lawn surrounded by feathers proudly munching on the torso. When I wrestled the dead bird from her claws I noticed that it was full of undigested grain. Quite interesting I thought :)

Pigeons are often full of seed or grain. They can't digest it in their stomach so they hold it in a special neck pouch called a crop where it gets ground up by rubbing together with grit that the bird has swallowed for the purpose.

Well I never knew that. Thanks Tom just as I was getting concerned that I haven't learned anything new today you come along and BAM. ;)

Evening Tom

More importantly, what else is crapping in my garden?

I am used to the neighbours cats leaving presents in my garden (must return the favour one day).  At the weekend I found 5 big piles of poo whilst mowing the front lawn.  They looked to be dog size, but it seems unlikely a neighbour would start letting their dog do this, so I thought maybe a fox?  My first impression was definitely dog. Looking closely at them they definitely looked to be grassy in composition.  I'd say each pile had 4 or 5 decent sized poos.  I expect it would have to be a huge cat to do this.  We live near some woods if that helps. 

Up until this week, I have never seen piles of poo of that size in my garden.

Foxes definitely do their business in the same place regularly until encouraged to move - often dig a decent sized hole or trench too

my absolute non-expert opinion has plumped for 'pine marten'. 
 
so there's something you can rule out :D

Almost definitely fox or badger. Fox scat is usually quite a dark colour and if you look closely, you may see small bones, feathers or fur.

Also, fox crap is incredibly smelly. Much more so than that of a badger. When your dog comes back to you smelling like Satan's toilet brush, you can bet he's been rolling in fox poop.

originally we wanted a dog (actually, a puppy) until we ruled that out because we both work fulltime long hours (10+ hrs/day each usually) and getting an older dog which doesnt need too much training or taking for 5 walks a day (means no husky for me which i am incred sad about) means taking one rescued. which we would do, if we were Czech. Not being Czech means being confronted with the mistrust that you're going to up and leave in a year and bring the dog back to the shelter.

our friend runs a small shelter over the border in Slovakia (actually, her mum does, since she lives here) so our new plan is to go and get a dog from there and take her advice on best breed that means we can both have a dog and give the dog everything it needs.

the reason we ended up with a cat was simply because Jil couldn't leave it there to likely die. I have visions of training him to be an absolute ninja, but in all likelihood I'll be happy if it just doesn't always hate me and doesn't kill anything.

That's a great plan. Keep us informed.

Now. What does your alias mean ffs?

I'm guessing mullhuzz=mulhearn?

in non-cat related news...

finally went and took a structured Czech lesson today. learning it on my own has not been easy but I was surprised how far I was ahead of the beginners class.

my issue is that I know a lot of words, but not a lot of sentences. Anyone who has tried to learn a language, particularly something *hard* like Czech (where the noun and adjective both change based on gender, count and case....like Russian or Latin) will know what I mean there.

My class is just three people, with a school that *only* teach CZ to foreigners (my thinking being, this must make them good at it, if they've been open 10 years with no other revenue streams) and the other guys aren't native EN which means that the teaching is done exclusively in Czech (near enough.I have quite a few friends who teach English to non-natives here and they all tell me they wouldn't dream of using Czech in their lessons because it really impairs learning in the long term. Using the native language (they have a fancy word for it but i can't remember what it is...transitional, maybe) means the word doesn't exist in the taught language in your brain, merely as a signpost to the native language word. Thats fine if you have to learn to be 'conversational' quite quickly, but quite bad if you're aiming to achieve fluency in the long term. It makes the 'middle bit' where you're quite good but not fluent really drawn out, apparently.

Anyway, as proof of my newly venerated CZ skills, here's the title of this diary:

Ten idiot a jeho kocour : Denik*

*probably wrong.

some variation of that, yeah.

it's also a portmanteau of my name and 'fuzz' - that being the nickname i've had since childhood. My 'wrong' (as tikay put it) hair should offer some clues as to why :D

Right, will have a good sniff next time.  Am away at the minute and the garden waste bin (where it ended up) will be gone by the time I get back.  All the piles were close together, so guess fox is long odds on.

Cat lost ball under decking thing by window.

Cat went to retrieve.

This is so thin I couldn't get a fist under it. Jesus.

(http://i.imgur.com/vhdihlU.jpg)

Cat appears to be trying to eat his own foot. Normal?

If you mean he's chewing claws then yes.

That's probably it. Yes.

Boy oh boy, you did well in that quiz thing.

Unrelated, but did you used to be a poster on the Newcastle Poker Forum?

If so, did you know, or know of, a lad named "cowhead"? (Sunderland supporter).

I do know Mr Cowheed.

He is one of my favourite humans of all time, for reasons I can't really explain. Especially with him being a Sunderland supporter.

Toon is helping me with my Czech homework. Presumably because he thinks the quicker I'm done with this, the quicker he can be fed. Cat logic.

(http://i.imgur.com/HxBr4PF.jpg)

Ha, "Cowheed", being the regional accent I suppose.

I gather he was not immensely popular on NPF? To be fair, not many were.

Think he once told me - he may have made it up - that there was a thread or board on NPF called "Cow Corner", where they all dissed him.

He's a regular Next Door these days, & we've developed quite a friendship. It was a slow-burner, one of those friendships that started out really badly, we fell out (unintentionally, my fault really) first time we met. Now we are all cooey-wooey. Strange, some of my best friendships started like that.

He has the wonderful talent of saying the most extraordinary things.

I don't remember a Cow corner, but certainly Cowheed stickers. I don't think it was meant badly at all as I think, at least I hope, most people know him as a funny, if not slightly insane, bloke. I'll be a bit sad if he took it all the wrong way. from time to time I see him win or run deep in a BH next door and that pleases me. Especially since he's recently engaged/married.

Ask him about Pet Taxi, Tikay. I promise you, some of the best stories I've ever heard. Guaranteed to make you cry with laughter.

He absolutely NEVER took it the wrong way, in fact I think he was proud of it.

I'll raise the matter of Pet Taxi with him.

Cowheed's a good bloke because:

A, He is a Sunderland fan.

and

B, He like's getting a bit lash on.

Pet taxi stories were quality.

I had actually forgotten all about the Newcastle Poker Forum until Tikay just mentioned it there, which is quite incredible considering how much time i spent on there from the age of about 18 to 21. No idea why.

i was life time banned from there, no idea why

Had another Czech lesson today. New person joined group and started telling me wrong things about the English language. She was Italian.

I've now bought private lessons and will practice with the cat, who is 100% smarter than her.

Cat seems to be more teenagery lately as well. Won't be told (like, don't fight with my phone charger, especially when my phone is charging). Any ideas on teaching him?

So far I move him away from it three times then kick him out the room for an hour....

Good luck trying to train a cat to do as it's told.

Contrary creatures, and that's being kind.

You could

a)try distracting the cat by offering something more interesting than the phone.
Or
b) find somewhere else to put the phone on charge.

Eventually you'll opt for b) :)

Slowly coming to this realisation.

Typical convo at ours:

Me: 'kocour* - stop that, phone is more expensive than you'
Jil: 'but the cat is irreplaceable' *smiling sweetly* (at the cat, more than me, it should be said!)
Me: *menacing grin*

*czech word for tomcat, and what is basically his nickname.

Sounds like he's up for a game. Get a stick and some string, will keep him amused and wear him out at the same time

FYP

My cats had the idea that they could get on the work tops ,till I flicked em round the ears with a tea towel ! They soon learnt

He seems to respond quite well to 'Oi'. Literally the only thing he responds to mind.

In other news, I've learned today that an unattended cat will:

1. Brazenly sip hot tea from your mug and go back for more.
2. Find, play with, eventually kill and then eat grasshoppers who come indoors because it's freezing outside.

I did not enjoy the sound of the grasshopper being crunched. I am such a city boy.

Have you tried calling him by using "Trevor!" yet?   Am fairly sure it must work on all cats even ones born in Prague.

Will try tomorrow. Usefully, like 'Oi', 'Trevor' is the same in all languages.

Which is helpful because this evening Jil's friends opened a bar so we went for some moral support. They are Italian so a lot of the conversation was in Italian.

I wish I'd brought the cat.

Bump

so i lately I've been lurking on Blonde a bit, for the first time in many a year... Tikay reckons it's about 4 years, and I reckon he might be about right.

Quite a lot has happened in those years, so a brief summary.

1. I am no longer a cat owner. Jil and I broke up in slightly acrimonious circumstances and I haven't see her, or the cat, in a couple of years at least.

2. I am still in Prague and still firmly of the belief that the Czech Republic is one of the real hidden gems of Europe. In the years since I last posted, I've traveled almost everywhere throughout the Republic and discovered how much more there is to the place than just Prague. I now live in a vibrant district of the city which is gentrifying at pace. Sometimes I get concerned that Prague is becoming like $insert_european_capital_here - homogeneous and monolithic, but then I'll find some pub or art gallery or and and and which reminds me how much this place retains many of the things that make it unique.

3. My career has changed quite a bit in a direction I'm delighted about. For a while I had quite a mental period of growth and learning at a very hectic pace (which was probably not-sustainable long term...) and now I've reached a place where there's still lots to learn, grow and do, but at a more manageable pace and I am more in control of my goals and ambitions.

4. I still regret that Mike Ashley is the owner of Newcastle United.

5. I do not speak as much Czech as I'd like, but probably B1 on the European Common Framework of Reference (https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/table-1-cefr-3.3-common-reference-levels-global-scale) for language ability. I'm working hard to increase my level. I'd like to be C1 (which is 'near-fluency') within the next 5 years -- by which time I'll have been here 10 years and will have the option of Citizenship (if I can prove C1 fluency, which is the requirement). I don't know if I want that, as it's such a visceral question of belonging, nationhood and all that, but I would like the option. They say that Czech takes about 1000 hours of study to reach that level and I am trying to study around 8 hours a week, in addition to using the language where and whenever I can.

Maybe I'll post a little from time to time when my schedule allows. (As we say here, Bez práce nejsou koláče. (Without work, there are no pastries...))

Particularly if there's any interest in learning about the mighty Viktoria Žižkov and their attempts to finally get out of the 2nd Division and get back to the glory days of beating Rangers in the Cup Winners' Cup.

Na zdraví vám všem, Blond'aky!  :)

3 years 361 days to be precise, and thanks for responding to my PM so promptly with a nice update.

Great to hear from you.

Please keep the diary going if you can. I lurrve the diaries.



Don't be put off by lack of feedback or response, it doesn't mean anything. My diary is fantastic and virtually no one comments but I know they love it really.

That's spooky.

I was looking through the EU thread, and clicked your profile to see how long it was since you'd been on. Was pleasantly surprised to see you'd logged in very recently, and even moreso to get an update.

Glad to hear things are going so well, and +1 to more updates.

+1

Tikay doesn't even respond to his own, most of the time ;D

(http://i.imgur.com/BybPRWi.jpg) (https://imgur.com/BybPRWi)

this week has been pretty mental.

I've (finally) got a permanent desk in the office, having been  'hot-desking' (urgh - both the terminology and the practice) for the better part of 18 months.  Usually that would involve plonking my laptop somewhere, scramble about to get stuff plugged in and then hope whoever's desk I'd purloined for the day/week/month wouldn't suddenly turn up unexpectedly. Sometimes they would, and then I'd smile sheepishly, scrabble around and extricate myself and apologize for interrupting their day.

Whilst I am excited to finally have a place where I can relax and not worry about being kicked out, I must admit that I'll now, at any given time, be capable of being located, and with that, have flow interrupted. Still, at least I can put some pictures of my non-existent kids and pets up. That's what people do in offices, isn't it?

#######################################################################################################################

Last week saw the mighty Zizkov return to winning ways in a rare televised game against FC Zbrojovka Brno, the leading club from the second city. Quite a scrappy game was punctuated by one belter of a freekick from our centre-back from about 30 yards. Up to 7th in the league and next up this weekend is a trip perennial strugglers FC Vlašim about 70km to the South-East of Prague.

I've never been to Vlasim and have heard good things, especially about the castle park -  said to have inspired Gustav Mahler to put chinese poems to music in Das Lied von der Erde and the Château - but unfortunately, on account of both a friend's birthday and the small matter of the RWC Final, I won't be able to make it this time and so will content myself with a couple of photos from the internet. Perhaps I'll make it there next season.

(https://www.czechtourism.com/getmedia/3b870889-013c-4349-9423-2b100c2a36ed/shutterstock_jemniste2.jpg.aspx/?ext=.jpg&maxsidesize=480&width=309&height=181&crop=1)
The Château

(https://mahlerfoundation.info/images/Locations/CzechRepublic/vlasim/vlasimcastlepark/park1600.jpg)
The entrance to the Castle Park.

After that, we close out the first half of the season with a home fixture against Usti Nad Labem ('Usti-upon-Elbe') before the lack of undersoil heating at most second division grounds enforces a winter-break until probably the second or third week of Feb. The top division tends to run a little longer, so I'll probably get my fix by heading to Bohemians 1905 who are probably the most fun fans in the top division, in Prague at least.

#######################################################################################################################

As for next week,  a pal will visit me and we'll head into the mountains in the North for the weekend after a couple of days showing him my favourite spots in Prague. I might even remember to take some proper photos to share.

Bohemka fans having fun in the cold.

Singing songs about kangaroos and threatening to destroy their stadium (in jest) if the team don't score 'one goal, and then another one...'

(https://scontent-frx5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/45282944_10102528250732673_9070229003616387072_o.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_oc=AQl0Dt5uDGk69o1-RE19sHXjG6bcjuR_DHXBv34boRFUUk-lDiHoLLzsKG9Sockc1nY&_nc_ht=scontent-frx5-1.xx&oh=40a9c7cef669e75abfe6b52653f8fb89&oe=5E49AA7B)

Great diarying Huzzy and the pics add so much.

I have one request. Could you explain your avatar please?

the avatar is a picture of me, dressed as an Oompa Loompa and is probably 10 years old at least. :)

last night I went to see Daniel Sloss and his show, X (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11081044/).

Brilliantly funny and a really, really interesting look at toxic masculinity and everything that comes with it.

I believe it's on HBO in US/Canada (https://www.beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/7927/daniel-sloss-special-hbo) so you can probably find it online somewhere. Highly recommended.

this weekend I was out of Prague and back in the UK for a family birthday.

whilst I was away, the Czech Republic celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution (Sametová revoluce) which brought to an end decades of brutal communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia.

My Czech teacher was a student at the time of the revolution and was showing us photos of the demonstrations and explaining in detail what happened. There's nowt so good as a proper oral history from people that were there.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50419667 is a good overview of then, and now

A few short years later, after free elections had made Vaclav Havel the first PM of the free Czechoslovak state, the country divided in the Velvet Divorce into Czech Republic (now Czechia, sort of...) and the Slovak Republic. The historic divorce meeting took place at Villa Tugendhat just outside Brno, the Czech Republic's second city. Built from concrete in the late 20s and following designs by a pair of German architects, the villa truly is iconic, not just here, but around Europe as one of the pioneers of modernism and functionalist architecture.

You can see why:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Vila_Tugendhat_exterior_Dvorak2.JPG)

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Brno%2C_%C4%8Cern%C3%A1_Pole%2C_%C4%8Cernopoln%C3%AD%2C_vila_Tugendhat_%2803%29.jpg)

Anyway, 30 years hence and the Republic is still in a state of flux. The PM is a Slovak-born billionaire who stands accused of corruption and of being a collaborator with the Communist-era secret police StB (Státní bezpečnost / State Security). The Slovak Constitutional Court ruled in 2012 that there was no doubt that Mr. Babiš was certainly a collaborator but - obviously - made no comment on his suitability to be the PM of a different country. Many Czechs distrust him and there is evidence that he has misused EU subsidies for his own gain (the so-called Stork's Nest affair (https://kafkadesk.org/2019/07/18/storks-nest-czech-police-launch-new-investigation-for-tax-evasion-into-pms-business-dealings/)..) and would long for a return to the 'Lustration' period, where collaborators with the StB and other communist-era institutions were banned from the highest offices in the land. That law expired in 2000.

Mr Babiš, and his ally President Zeman (who maybe I'll write about another time as he is quite a character) continue. Babiš as the leader of a coalition goverment with his ANO ('YES') party who is facing calls to resign. The anniversary of the Velvet Revolution was the perfect opportunity for 250,000 people to descend on the Letenská pláň park in the city to rally and call for his resignation. That's part of the movement Milion chvilek pro demokracii ('A million moments for democracy'). Not bad, but not quite as many visitors as a similar rally in the summer which had perhaps 300,000. There's still some way to go to reach the numbers during the Velvet Revolution which numbered 800,000 or so. Although, of course, the country is smaller now..

Today they renewed calls for him to resign. It's worth noting, whilst he has many detractors, he has his supporters too. His party won the Euro elections with about 20% of the vote, and it's fair to say that outside of the metropoles of Prague and Brno he enjoys quite a swelling of populist support.
Removing him from power will not be easy - either at the ballot box or otherwise. There are now more than 500,000 signatures on one million moments petition for him to resign. A salve for democrats is that in the history of the world a non-violent protest engaging 3.5% of the population has never failed to bring about change. A fascinating article on that subject here (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world).

If I've made a small contribution, it's that I pointed out this article to two young journalists I met in a bar on the eve of the larger summer protest and lo and behold, it appeared in their newspaper (ironically, owned by Babiš) the next day.

The population of the Czech Republic has 10.65m people, so the magic mark for 3.5% stands at around 375,000 people.

Below a comparison of the protests in November 1989 and November 2019 from iDnes, a daily newspaper.

(https://i.imgur.com/BtqRG6H.png)

The next months promise to be interesting....

That's a fabulous post, thank you.

Wow! I never knew I didn't know that.

Thanks mulhuzz.