Buying new trainers

Petra had a stroke of luck today. We had spoken about getting some new running shoes for her and maybe for me to, because we are both still running and it's important to make sure that you use the right footwear to avoid injury, but also to replace your footwear regularly when they get worn out. I remembered that it was a long time since Petra had had new trainers so I suggested that we go and look for some. We went to the Nike shop in Chodov and they had a small selection of sale shoes. Just by chance there was a couple of pairs that she liked, one of them was the Nike Shox model, really good quality but a little bit expensive, they had been reduced from 5,000Kc to 2,799. Such a good saving that I said to Petra, if they fit you should take them because they are an excellent shoe. There was also another pair that she liked and was reduced from 3,300kc to 1,590. Great savings on both pairs, soI suggested that she had them, and she's never one to argue with a comment from me like that. We went to the till with the trainers and the girl tapped on the till for the prices. I noticed that the till showed incorrect amounts and the price on the really expensive ones came up too low instead of 2,799 that registered at 1,350. So if you are still following this, they should have cost 4,990 at original price but we were being charged 1,350!!! I realised this but wasn't about to say anything, however, Petra isn't always as dishonest as me and she asked the girl to check the price. The girl wasn't too fussed and just said 'the price is right' I kicked Petra a couple of times but she didn't really get it, and again said, 'are you sure about the price' (der) so now I just butted in a said to Petra, 'just pay for the bloody shoes and let's go'. So when we left we checked that the models were correct, which they were, and smiled at each other when we calculated that instead of paying 8,300 kc for the trainers we paid ONLY 2,74o kc.

absolute bargain.!!!!

Vikend Akce

We had a fun weekend, firstly on Friday evening we went to watch the ice hockey at the Slavia Stadium, we seem to bring the team luck, for each of the 3 games that we have been to, Slavia have won, and scored 7 goals each game!

Saturday morning we arranged to meet Jana and Radek at an ice skating rink. I guess usual for myself, I had some preconceived idea of what the rink may look like and considering that Ice Skating is a national sport here my idea was that the rink would be good quality and well taken care of. I got a bit of a shock, it was nothing more than an ice rink covered by what seemed to be a delapidated air craft hanger. Once this had sunk in it was fine, I just got on with the skating, and really enjoyed myself. The justification of course, as always is the price you pay. In the UK when we would go to the Gillingham Ice Rink, if I remember well, we would pay around £6 each to skate, and the facility had restaurant, bar, shop etc. and of course this all requires manning. Here we paid 70 Kc, which equates to about £1.75. No shop, restaurant, bar or safety staff. I'm sure we'll go back again soon, after all the reason you go is for the ice, and the other bits are not really importan, we'll equip ourselves with a flask of hot tea, a snack or two, and have a great time.

On Sunday evening, we went to a place called 'Rudolfinum' an historical and well kept theatre in the centre. Petra received some tickets from work and on this evening the program was for an american Jazz quartet. I couldn't say that the music was fantastic, but it was good, and extremely well played, I would have prefered more mainstream old american Jazz. but the concert was around 2 hours long and Petra said she really enjoyed it. of course it was nice to have a lovely posh night out together to.

Spoke to soon

On Monday I will start in the MEDD program, this is the biggest program running in DHL at the moment, and involves the migration of the Exel systems to intergrate with the DHL ones. The program should complete at the end of December, however, the program director has applied for an extension because some elements of the program a running behind. He tells me that the delays are with parts undertaken by contractors rather than our own team. I will have to learn very quickly and try to pick up the role fast from the person currently doing it as she finishes her term also at the end of December. My boss laughed when I told him I had not experience, he said 'so we'll drop you in at the deep end, you'll not be a project assistant at the end of this, ha ha ha'.

I'm looking forward to learning the new things, and having some responsibilities, and I really hope I don't let anyone or myself down. If this work suits me, I have an opportunity to settle in here and have a stable and progressive job.

As always, I'll keep you posted

New Start at DHL

I started my new job at DHL on Monday, and it has not been quite what I expected so far, I always seem to be in the 'it can only happen to me situation' So I am sitting here at the moment hoping that very soon things will begin to improve. In any case, I'll give you a quick run down of this week. Monday morning I arrived at the time scheduled on my joining instructions, but I had to wait for a while at reception because my contact was not ready to receive me, then immediately he explained that he had meetings to attend and promptly showed me to a desk on the 3rd floor and said 'enjoy the coffee, I'll come back for you later'. I saw him once more that day at about 10.30 when we rushed along to the T-mobile rep so that I could pick up my mobile. My contact went back to another meeting.

Petra has helped me to get my security pass, which I received on Wednesday, however, you are meant to receive this on your first working day. I also picked up my laptop on Monday afternoon from the IT department, at least I have this. At 4.00pm on Monday I met the HR representitive to complete all my induction particulars to comply with the law.

Apart from this, I was scheduled for an interview with a department manager to see if I would be appointed to that department, but he didn't show up for the first meeting, so we rescheduled for the following day at 12, which got rescheduled again to 2.00pm which he was also unable to keep. so I am still waiting for a meeting.

To summarise, I have been sitting at a desk for 4 days with no one to speak to and very little to do other than what I can find for myself. Hence, this blog entry.

I hope that soon I will be appointed to a team and that I can start to train and learn what I need to for my job.

Prokopské Udoli

Today is the first day of our holiday, we are having a week off but staying in Prague. This came about mostly because Petra still has a lot of holiday to use up and I should have been working, so I had said to her that she should take a week off and just use some of her holiday, however, I finished my job last Friday because I have a new job to start on the 12th November (next Monday) I realised that I may as well have the week off with her to.

First thing this morning we planned to go the the district offices of Prague 8, where our new flat is situated, so that Petra can begin the process of changing the registered address on her ID and driving licence. It is quite a simple process but as usual with things here, someone will always make it more difficult if they can, and they did. Therefore, we will have to go again on Wednesday with additional documents so that we can complete the the first process, 3 weeks from then we can continue with the second.

This afternoon we decided on a walk in the fresh autumn air, I already pressured Petra into going to an area that I have discovered previously when out mountain biking by myself. It's called Prokopské Udoli (Udoli-meaning valley) in Hlubocepy, Prague 5, south of the city. It's an incredibly attractive area and not really that well known. I'm trying to think how to describe it accurately, it's a spine of rock and cliff formations and forest area with a valley between them, starting quite close to the Vltava river and moving away to the south west. My idea was to get Petra to go with me and make our way as directly as possible up the rocks to the top so that she could immediately see the magnificent panorama of, pretty much, the whole of the city of Prague, and after looking around and taking it all in with our usual game of picking out all the landmarks and points of interest around Prague, to then take a long walk across the high ground making our way along the spine to the west of the Valley, where we could make our way down and stroll back through the valley to the bus stop in Hlubocepy which would take us home. Everything went well and the walk and fresh air was great, although taking a bit longer than I thought it would, we walked for about 3 hours and I got really hungry. The temperature dropped towards the end and it was dark by the time we got back to the bus stop. We also discovered a secret lake between the high rock walls with two swans who tried to mug me for any food I was carrying which by then was nothing more than a few peanuts, good enough for one of them but the other wasn't to partial and kept pressuring me to offer up something else, so in the end I had to do a runner, leaving Petra standing and laughing by the secret lake.

Both back home now and feeling satisfied by our walk, bellies now full of Risotto and ready to watch a DVD starring Wesley Snipes in Contractor.

Here are a couple of pictures from today. Let me know if you like them.

The tree looked interesting with the broken Kite stuck at the top

Another change

As you may know I have been working for a couple of months as a furniture restorer/repairer, well this is what I was supposed to be doing, however, within a couple of days, I started to get asked to take care of a lot of other maintenance problems at the company I worked for.  This covered almost everything you could think of from changing a broken toilet seat to cleaning the inside of a boiler, I even fitted new sinks, cupboards and mirror/shelf sets in 3 bathrooms.  I spent time making garden planters, fitting lights, moving flowers and plants (including small trees), painting, repairing locks, and just occasionally working on the furniture

The job was ok, in fact I quite enjoyed it, but there were a few other things that put a black cloud over working there.  So I looked for other work and through persistence with one company in particular, managed to secure another job.

This week coming I will have a break, then I will start as Project Assistant with DHL IT Services in Prague.  The overall package is a great deal better than what I had, and as I intend to stay here long term I needed to have a legitimate secure job with some opportunities hovering somewhere in the distance.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that this time things will work out and I get some enjoyment from it all.

I am amazed at how fast Christmas is creeping up on us, it really isn'€™t all that long away now.  Petra and I want to go away for New Year but we are finding it a little difficult to find a Penzion that has availability.  We should keep looking though, as it would be disappointing to do nothing as we did last year.  We would of course love to go skiing or something like that for the whole of Christmas and New Year, but we should be moving into our new flat at around that time or just after, so we understand that we need to keep as much money as possible ready to buy all the furniture we need and all the appliances etc that will set us up in our place.  Actually, I feel quite romantic about it, because it will be our first place together that we will be going into together with a kind of equal stake in how we choose the things we want, you see, Petra came to live with me in England and therefore I already had the house set up with everything that I or we needed, then when I sold the house and everything in it, we moved the CR and have been renting for the past year, in a fully furnished flat and haven'€™t needed to get anything. Now we will be starting again and itâ€'s just a little exciting to go and purchase all the stuff we'€™ll need just like a new couple may do.

 

We will still look forward to our next skiing trip...............