Kit Kats

3 finger kitkats! It’s outrageous! I am really struggling to find any decent chocolate here, there certainly isn’t a great deal of the UK brands. So far I have seen Mars, Snickers, Kit Kat (3 finger), Twix and Bounty. These are fine but didn’t really feature in my chocolate habit back in the UK, not regularly at least. I tended towards chocolate such as Twirl, Buttons, Galaxy bar and most definitely Maltesers. I think it’s not having the Maltesers here that hurts me the most. I did happen to find them in Austria a couple of weeks back, so grabbed a bag then albeit paying over the odds. (Because they belonged to some little kid and his Dad was less than happy) I’m not really sure why European chocolate doesn’t taste quite right, to my western tastes; I’m guessing either not enough milk or sugar in the chocolate.

No decent bread either, sure you can go into a supermarket and choose from 659 different varieties of roll (rohlik) but try and find one that doesn’t also double as supplies for the construction industry to build houses and you’ll be lucky. So far I have not been able to find a decent sliced loaf, you know like a Kingsmill or Sunblest. I have found a similar sliced loaf but this also appears to be prepacked stale bread with the texture to, and is most often used for toast.

Bringing me onto cheese, also I cannot find my favourite chunk of Mature Cheddar and have to settle for sliced Edam or Leerdammer and sometimes Gouda, all Dutch cheeses. Sure they are fine, but not really that wonderful flavour of Cheddar. Oh I miss it.

I have to search very carefully for my ham, because most of the packet ham here is infused with something or other, maybe garlic or herb or it’s smoked or soaked in beer, you know what I mean, and I really like mine fat free and au naturale. I must admit I have made a couple of mistakes with my choices, but they don’t really go to waste because Petra will eat almost anything.

On the upside, CAKES! Gorgeous, delicious, rich, sweet cakes, coming at you from all directions. When I fancy a little down time I can wander off to a café or similar and sit with a huge latte and wedge of luxurious cake (dort) what a way to spend an hour eh!

What ever next

So nobody speaks english at the Foreigners Police, and it appears that they do not know their own address yet. I didn't want to wait too long before I went to sort out collect my permanent residency permit from the new offices so at the beginning of this week Petra kindly telephoned the Olsanska offices to check the address of the new offices for EU citizens. The address is given as 188 Konevova Ulice, so no problem, I locate it on the map, and log it into my sat nav just to double up. I set out in the morning first on the metro then a short walk and a trip on tram number 9. I get off and realise after checking the number on the nearest building that I could actually have stayed on for a few more stops because I was down around number 40 Konevova. Being that I can't be bothered to wait for trams I set off walking up the road, unfortunately it was a long road, and it took a while. As I approached number 188 I started to get a bad feeling, the sort you get when you realise you are on a wild goose chase. I had no problem finding the address, but the foreigners police were not there, to make sure, I sneaked into the house and climbed every flight of stairs to the top and checked the name plates on all the doors. They definitely were not there. So I called Petra and tried to explain that the address the FP had given was not correct, but this kind of thing doesn't really sink in with Petra so she just kept telling me that they must be there, and that I should walk around the block and find another entrance, I am not the most patient of people and as I was standing at the address and knew well enough that walking around the block would be futile I set about admonishing Petra. A further 5/6 phone calls later between myself/Petra and the FP we still had the advice that their address was 188 Konenvova street. Petra looked it up on the map (internet) and said that I should walk down to a different location and she gave me the name of 2 other streets that should be either side of the address I was looking for. I trotted off back down the road and mumbled to myself as I went, the sort of things I could not really repeat here, you see the thing is, I was also busting for a nature break (needed the toilet) and for once I could not find a public convenience, therefore it was rather an 'inconvenience', and saying I needed to go is as understated as saying there is a little trouble in Iraq right now. When I arrived at the second location I still didn't get the cookie. However, just to make sure that I would not be sorry later I walked around the block on both sides of the road, to no avail. During one of the telephone calls to Petra she told me that the location of the FP was shared by a supermarket Delvita and GE Money Bank, in my wisdom I decided to locate these and see it if brought me any closer to the finishing post. Having walked another kilometre down the road past where I had first disembarked the tram, I started to understand that I was getting warmer, no me personally, but as in closer to the destination. I found both the Delvita and GE Money Bank, and within a minute the entrance to the FP. Hooray! by the way, the number of the building is 32! As I said earlier, they don't appear to know their own address.

Inside I found the 3rd floor and realised another moment of despair, manifesting itself as an enormous amount of people also filling the offices. I noticed that the FP were using the same system that we see in the Posta and some insurance offices to keep people in order. You have to go to a machine, make a selection and wait in line with your ticket which has a number on it to give the order in which you will be seen. Ironically the machine has only Czech language descriptions you can choose from even though these offices are specifically for foreigners and EU ones at that. You would have thought that with todays technology the machine could have allowed you to make a selection from a few different languages, such the type you see to withdraw money at banks or to buy train tickets at stations. However, the FP do not want to make this easy for us in any way. I pressed the informace button which anyone can guess is information, after this I called Petra again and read the other buttons to her to ask if I should make another selection, and I could, so I pressed that button and after again reading the ticket to Petra, I felt like assaulting someone, because the ticket for my selection basically said 'we can't help you today, come back another day'. It had taken me about 3 hours to find this place and get within a half hour of speaking to someone and the ticket was telling me to go away.

I decided to stay in queue and speak to someone at information, especially as I was armed with the letters that they had sent me instructing me to collect within 10 days or else! Eventually I was at the front of the queue and simply handed my letter to the lady, who read it briefly and told me "moment" in Czech and wandered off to a colleague. On returning she pointed to another desk and said "dvacet devet" which I understand as 29, I said thank you and wandered over to number 29. So I had hope that I might get somewhere, and just then a girl promptly took my letter grabbed some papers and started tapping away on her computer, I stupidly thought it might be easier if I struck up a throw away conversation with her just to lighten her day, as the look on her face told me she was having a shit one. I just said 'wow, it seems like everyone in here wants an argument' to which she immediately replied, "I don't speak english, I speak only Czech' of course she said this in Czech! I actually felt embarrassed so just said "pardon" in my best Czech accent, then continued to look all around the room and anywhere except at the girl. After just a moment more she shoved papers in front of me and said 'podpis tady' which I understand to be sign here, I complied and then again on another, then offered her my passport when she asked for it (potrebuji pas). She pointed to the chairs behind me and said 'moment' and as I am catching on quickly I know that I have to go and sit down and wait a little longer. She returns to her desk with an older guy, who I saw around the office earlier who indicates that I should step forward again. Feeling hopeful I walk at pace over to them, for him to say, 'come back tomorrow morning' IN CZECH! I don't even know why at this point but don't even have the energy to try and ask why. I simply say thank you and walk out.

Well the next morning I returned and in just a few minutes the girl spotted me and summoned me to her desk, and amazingly with just a couple more signatures she handed me my brand new permanent residency permit. YES, the saga is finished. Well for 3 years anyway.

What about this weather

where to start? well the weather is the easy place, its definitely turning for the winter with most days now cold and wet, except yesterday which was like summer, the mornings now have thick fog from the warm air of the morning depressing the cold air of the night.

I am so looking forward to skiing this weekend, I feel so lucky to be off to Austria for 3 days, I'll do my best not to break anything. maybe I ĺl get a couple of photos to send.

The things that make me laugh here. Well I got a letter from the post office the other day telling me that they were unable to post a letter to me because it had to be signed for and I wasn't in. So Petra and I went to the post office and collected the letter, which was from the Foreigners Police. I was told in the letter to go to the offices and collect my residency permit, so its good to know that it ahs been approved. so rather than wait I jumped on the metro and went off to the offices at Pankrac, only to find that they were closed! Permanantly, and relocating to another area of Prague, I copied down the signs from the office doors as they were only written in Czech, quite annoying as these offices are for foreigners. Then this morning I got another letter, but this time from the foreigners police at different offices, the one for non EU citizens. The letter told me that I had 10 days to go and collect my permit from them. So I am not really sure what to do but I think I will first go to the offices in Prague 3 and see if they send me to the other place.

I went to watch pro football for the first time last night, to Sparta Stadium just behind Letna park, Czech were playing Denmark, it was only a friendly but the game was a bit average. The great thing is that a ticket for the match only costs 100 Kc (2.50) what a bargain.

my studies are going quite well, I enjoy gonig to class but I dislike the teacher because she is so rude and impatient. Maybe I will get a decent teacher on my next course.

Had a right calamity on my journey to the town today, I didn¨t really want to come to town but Petra needed me to do something for her. I jumped on the tram and made part of the journey when the metro stopped at Prazkeho povstani and everyone had to disembark, they did explain why, in Czech, but that was not helpful for those speaking other languages. I waited for a moment on the platform then heard someone explain in english that a train had broken down in the tunnel so all trains were stopped. I followed the crowds out towards some buses which I guessed would take everyone to the town. The unfortunate part was that it turned out to be a total "free-for-all" to get on a bus, people packed themselves in so bad that the doors wouldnt shut, but instead of getting back off, others outside just pulled and pushed the doors until they closed, squashing all inside, it was quite unbelievable. I managed to get onto the 4/5th bus and next had to catch a tram into the town from where the bus dropped off. Well I made it!

Now I shall head home and get the last bits packed for the weekend.