May

Its only the second Monday in May and I have already been to visit two countries! The first was 4 and a half days in the Czech republic and the second was a long weekend in England.

This was my first trip to Prague, and while I had a good time there, to be truthful it was a slight disappointment. Its true. I didn't have that much idea of what Prague had in it, but so many people rave about how lovely it is, I guess I expected something pretty amazing. Hard expectations to live up to.

Still, there are definitely wonderful things in Prague and here are a few of them:

Prague Castle:

View of Prague castle from a distance	Ceiling detail in a corridor	The great hall
Cool book cupboard with a hidden room!	Coats of arms of kings	The castle at night

And elsewhere in Prague:

The astronomical clock	This to me is the real image of Prague... masses of tourists	Gargoyle in the church in Prague castle

I also fell in love with Czech cinnamon wafers. The wafer itself doesn't seem very exciting; like the church wafers of my childhood but on a grand scale. But they are actually made of two wafers with cinnamon and sugar between, and eaten warm on a cold day are just fabulous.

The weekend in England was basically a trip to go to a concert to see Kristina Olsen. I have seen Kristina in concert a few times back in Australia, and when I read that she was touring England, thought it was an opportunity that I definitely shouldn't miss!

So I flew in to London, stayed with Terry and then caught the train to Ipswich. From there I took a taxi to Sproughton. Sproughton is a very small town, with a developing folk venue. Sadly the concert wasn't well attended, but in some ways it was all the better for it. I got to meet Kristina, she signed my cd's and even sang a song for me! How cool is that? I had minor celebrity status myself, having come all the way from Switzerland for the concert.

I bought two of her latest cd's which she signed for me, so sweetly:

Then the next weekend was the first of the fete des rues - in my suburb. I set up stall and sold books, raising money for charity. A chunk of my street and some cross streets were closed off for the weekend, giving space for a portable climbing wall, stages for music and lots of food stalls. My neighbours on the Sunday were very charming and amusing: their stall was selling second hand stuff including records, and one of them was an entertainer of sorts, who did strange Karaoke sessions.

My neighbour at the stall and I	The portable climbing wall	A funky fish

But it was the next weekend that was the best. The fete du Grottes. My culinary squat friends set up a stall so I spent all of Saturday and Sunday cooking up a storm. I did a batch of sushi, which was not a huge seller although people did come back the next day asking for more. Mainly we made quesadillas with all sorts of interesting toppings. On the Sunday I made Anzac biscuits which sold pretty much as fast as I could make them, and we also had curries and more quesadillas. Shawn was our bread expert and he made the first batch of bread in the new found gas oven. The atmostphere was just amazing. There was a band space right next to us, and while some of the entertainment was appalling (the freeform jazz and 2 hours of french poetry were the lowlights) much of it was really great and we all danced around and laughed and partied all weekend. There were bouts of serious rain, but that just gathered people together under the tarpaulins and made it even more fun. We raised close to 1000francs which will be used to help renovate the kitchens.. .maybe even enough to buy that lovely oven we want!

I wished I could have justed pick all of you up and transplant you here for the weekend to enjoy the atmostphere and ambience with me. That would have made the weekend absolutely perfect. Well I bought a ticket in the Euro million lottery this weekend, and if I win the 25 million francs, you will all just HAVE to come and visit won't you. (Don't hold your breath though)

Anzac biscuits fresh out of the oven	Austin sets up the tarpaulin roof over our food stall	One of the bands playing next door to our stall.

This weekend I hope to relax and take it easy for a change. I have been pretty much completely occupied every night, day and weekend for months, and this weekend is going to be (hopefully) blissfully quiet. The fete des Rue is on in Servette, but I am not sure if I will go or not. On Saturday night some of us will go see the movie "Sex in the City", which should be cool.

Sex in the city was fun, I recommend it as a piece of fluff for a lazy weekend.

On Tuesday night I hosted an "apero" in my apartment building: basically invited everyone in the building to join me in the foyer for nibblies and wine. It was for the "fete du voisins", and was a very agreeable evening. I got to know some of my neighbours and to practice my French. One of my neighbours is 93 years old and still living alone. She is as sharp as a tack too, and has been living in the building for 52 years! I can't imagine living in the one place for that long! She said too, that noone had ever, in 52 years, done what I did, hosting something for all the people in the building. So that was a very nice compliment, and the general view seemed to be that I should do it again, maybe at Christmas time.