It’s been a while since my last blog post. Here I am, drinking my first cup of green vanilla tea (urgh, just the thought of it seems wrong, but someone somewhere on the web mentioned that they liked it, so I thought, well, let me try it) and thinking about what’s new. I’m not coming up with much. The winter is in full swing and we have finally been hit by the arctic cold that’s come from Russia. We’re not having -30 in Prague (those in the Olomouc region are) but the -13 all day yesterday was enough, thank you. I went out to shop and run some errands and about every five minutes I felt as if my face was going to fall off, so I had to duck inside somewhere to thaw. Before going out today, I looked at the thermometer and heard myself exclaiming excitedly: “Wow, it’s warm, only -7!”. I put on a lighter jacket, left my hat at home and felt pretty fine outside. Everything is relative.

I went to the library, found out there was absolutely nothing by Henry James on the shelves, and ended up borrowing what looked like a hundred year old copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Sounds like a good read for this weather and time of year.

From the library, I headed to the garden supply shop to inquire if they can help save the ailing rubber plant that has lived happily in our rented apartment until this past Christmas when its leaves suddenly started to turn yellow and fall off one by one. “Do you have a specimen with you?,” I was asked. “Umm, no, I don’t…,” I replied. “Ok, bring a specimen that’s at an average stage of deterioration and we’ll see what can be done.” So I have my work cut out for me. I have to pick out just the right specimen to take back to the plant doctor for analysis.

In the potraviny, I bought a package of figs. When I unwrapped it at home, I found that all the figs were rock hard, which renders them practically inedible. These are sun-dried figs from Greece, packaged in September and supposedly expiring next December. How can sun-dried figs turn dry? Too much sun?

I was so elated by the “comfortable” outside temperature that I decided to take the dog out after I was done with my errands. We headed to our favorite park, only to find it almost completely frozen over and therefore impassable to anyone not wearing skates. I remember experiencing the same situation in the same park in March of last year. I hope we’re getting it over with now in January and that March will, for once, be a proper messenger of spring.

Just got back from the holidays, which we spent in Northern Moravia. We had snow the whole time, so it was nice to have a white Christmas. We arrived back in Prague yesterday and there was no snow, but it started snowing last night and there’s now a fresh white cover on the ground and on the roofs. They’re predicting a heavy snowfall for today and tomorrow (it’s just getting going in fact!) and the temperatures are supposed to drop to crazy levels. If you’re coming to Prague for the New Year’s and plan to be out in the streets, you’d better carry a flask of rum with you. 😛

Here’s the weather forecast provided by Meteopress:

THURSDAY, Dec. 29 Low: -5/-8 °C High: -3/-1 °C FRIDAY, Dec. 30 Low: -8/-12 °C High: -7/-3 °C SATURDAY, Dec. 31 Low: -11/-15 °C High: -4/0 °C SUNDAY, Jan. 1 Low: -10/-14 °C High: -7/-3 °C MONDAY, Jan. 2 Low: -8/-12 °C High: -6/-2 °C

Old Town Square December 28, 2005, 4:15 p.m.

By the way, the Christmas market on Náměstí Míru is gone. The square is bare and looks weird. The markets on the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square are going to stay through Sunday.