Bohemian Rhapsody

Sometimes called "the mother of cities", "city of a hundred spires" and "the golden city", Prague came highly recommended...and did not fail to live up to our expectations. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Hlavní město Praha (Prague) has become one of Europe's (and the world's) most popular tourist destinations, and is the sixth most-visited European city after London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Berlin. I’d been hankering to visit the city for ages, so B and I decided to treat ourselves to a long weekend there to jointly celebrate reaching our mid 30s in fairly sound states of mind, if not body....B was plagued by a nasty cold (borderline ‘man flu’) the whole weekend, but soldiered on regardless.

After an unpleasantly early (3 am) start, we found ourselves in the middle of the MMFTW (Mass Migration For The Weekend) that is Stansted on a Saturday morning, put our heads down into the polite - yet verging on aggressive - jostle onto our easyJet flight...and were thankfully soon winging our way towards the Czech Republic. Public transport in Prague is reputed to be excellent, but we’d opted for the luxury of a private car transfer to our hotel....the fabulous, Art Deco style Radisson, which was ideally located just off Wenceslas Square (centre of New Town Prague and scene of mass demonstration during the Velvet Revolution that bade farewell to Communism in 1989). Luckily, although we were early, we were able to check-in, unload our bags and have a quick freshen up before setting out for an orientation walk.

Hotel room

Bathroom

Our first stop was the historic Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí), which features various architectural styles, including the gothic Týn Cathedral and baroque St. Nicholas Church. At the centre of the square is a statue of religious reformer Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake for his beliefs. Mounted on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall is the famous Astronomical Clock or Prague Orloj (Pražský orloj), a medieval astronomical clock that comprises three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures, and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.

Staroměstské náměstí

Pražský orloj

The square was filled with the smoke and smells from wooden stalls selling all sorts of Grilované Klobásy (Grilled Sausages)....very tasty when smothered with ketchup and eaten in a soft white baguette, and a handy lunch on the go...but one that would keep reminding me of its presence all afternoon and wishing I’d packed the antacid! We were in the square to watch the 2 o’clock “Walk of the Apostles".....not the most exciting parade I’ve ever seen...basically the skeleton (‘Death’) pulls the bell cord, and the apostles proceed from the left window to right... but hey, for the 14th century it must have held the equivalent wow-factor of any Hollywood blockbuster movie today.

By now B was taking strain and we decided to head back to our hotel for a rest before the evening’s activities...a medieval night at a restored tavern in the Old Town. We were met at the door of the tavern and escorted downstairs to the banqueting hall, where guests are seated at dark wooden tables, on chairs draped in rugs.

With the room lit by candlelight, the atmosphere was quite rough and romantic....hard to see anything really, but I could make out ropes and metal instruments hanging from thick beams overhead. We were served wine in thick goblets and nibbled on the not-so-medieval-looking salad platter and hunks of bread already waiting on the table. A hooded monk was strolling around, more guests began to arrive and quite soon the place was full.

Serving ‘boys’ and ‘wenches’ came around with the first of a seemingly never-ending supply of food....over the course of the evening we were served roast pork, pork knuckle, pork ribs, sausage, chicken, duck, beef goulash on rice, potatoes, spicy potato cakes, dumplings and cabbage. In true medieval style, you could eat with your hands.....but knives and forks were on the table for the more conservative diner. But the meat fest was not the best part of the evening... it was the entertainment!

As the food was served, a loud drum began to beat.....musicians came into the hall and moved up and down among the diners, playing bagpipes and drums. Then the exotic dancers made their entrance...first a belly dancer, then a series of luscious ladies accompanied by ever more dangerous ‘props’...a sword, a snake and then fire. Between the dancers' performances, sword fighting knights, and a dice-playing dwarf provided entertainment. And the platters of food kept appearing...culminating in dessert, a cake made with dates and honey.

We’d arranged a walking tour for the next morning, and we met our guide, Jiri (George), in front of the Astronomical Clock....another chance to watch the Apostles walk...or rather whirl mechanically through their parade. Accompanied by a never-ending stream of information on the history of this great city, Jiri took us through the Old Town Square, into the narrow streets leading off from it and then onto the old Jewish quarter. We stopped for an early lunch at a traditional Czech restaurant...where I sampled the local speciality, Svičková, a somewhat interesting combination of meat with a sweet, fruity sauce and whipped cream, served with dumplings. B opted for the Guláš (goulash), a wiser choice.

Svičková

Refuelled, we headed down to the Charles Bridge, which spans the River Vltava and connects the Old Town with Prague Castle. Construction of the bridge started in 1357 under the sponsorship of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. The bridge is protected by three towers, two of them on the Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter) side and the third on the Old Town side, and is decorated with 30 statues and statuaries of saints and religious scenes, most of them baroque-style. Charles Bridge famously made an appearance in the action films Mission: Impossible and XXX. Although possibly not looking its best as it is currently under repair, the bridge with its gothic towers was an impressive sight.


We crossed over to Malá Strana and began the ascent to Prague Castle...more of a palace these days, after large parts of it were destroyed in a fire in 1541, and subsequent wars. The Castle includes the spectacular gothic St Vitus Cathedral, the Romanesque Basilica of St. George, a monastery and several palaces, gardens and defence towers.

View from Prague Castle

On the way back down from the Castle, we passed the monument to the liberators of the country (1938-1945):

Our tour ended with a boat trip on the Vlatava from under Charles Bridge...not sure if it was the mulled wine they served on board or the fact that the boat was overheated, but I found myself nodding off to the soothing tones of the boat captain's voice. B was pretty much finished too after a full day out, so we crawled back to our hotel for a nap...and ended up staying in and getting room service - very expensive club sandwiches and strawberry and chocolate pyramids, but worth it for the luxury of eating them in your comfy hotel bed. The next day, there was just time for us to return to Charles Bridge and climb to the top of the Bridge Tower for some spectacular views of the Castle and the River Vlatava. A last wander through the alleys and streets of the Old Town, some quick shopping for souvenirs and then it was time to bid farewell to the beautiful city of Prague.

View from Bridge Tower top

Prague Castle and Charles Bridge

Two Down, One To Go

13 unlucky fears and facts about the number 13 or the day Friday:

"If 13 people sit down to dinner together, one will die within the year."

As if to prove the point, the Bible tells us there were exactly 13 present at the Last Supper. One of the dinner guests...er, disciples...betrayed Jesus Christ, setting the stage for the Crucifixion. Interestingly enough, precisely the same superstition has been attributed to the ancient Vikings. Twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla when Loki, the god of mischief who was not invited, turned up, bringing the total number of guests to 13. True to character, Loki raised hell by inciting Hod, the blind god of winter, to kill Balder the Good, favourite of the gods.

"If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck."

The serial murderers Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names. Coincidentally ‘Prime Minister’ also has exactly 13 letters.

"Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck."

One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell once and for all the widespread superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned, named 'H.M.S. Friday'. They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday....and was never seen again.

“Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams.”

Similarly, “If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow.”

And, “If you start a trip on a Friday, you'll have misfortune.”

Tarot Card number 13 is the Death Card, depicting the Grim Reaper (although it is read as transition or change and not literal death).

Thirteen is also know as a 'baker’s dozen'. It is superstition that prevents this number be mentioned by name, in fact the extra loaf, presumably the runt of the litter, was baked as a special bribe for the devil not to spoil the batch of loaves.

The ill-fated Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 local time on Apr. 11, 1970 on Pad 39 (3 times 13). The sum of the date's digits (4-11-70) is 13 (as in 4+1+1+7+0 = 13). And the explosion that crippled the spacecraft occurred on April 13 (not a Friday). The crew did make it back to Earth safely, though.

Hotels rarely have a room number 13. Usually it is called 12a or 14. Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. Most hospitals do not have a number 13 room, and few airplanes have a 13th row.

Both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment.
In British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the gallows....13 knots in a hangman's noose, while the guillotine blade falls through 13 feet.

Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s.

And, looking to the future….the asteroid 2004 MN4 will make its close encounter on Friday, April 13, 2029.

Rat Au Van

Anyone who's a fan of the Blackadder series will recall one of the funniest scenes in Blackadder Goes Forth, that is a conversation between Blackadder and Baldrick . Blackadder queries the delights on the trenches' menu, to learn that Rat Au Van is indeed "A rat...that’s been run over by a van...”

For Rat sauté:
"Take the freshly shaved rat and you marinade it in a puddle for a while (till it's drowned), then you stretch it out under a hot lightbulb, then get within dashing distance of a latrine and then you scoff it right down!"


For Rat fricassée:

“...the same, but use a slightly bigger rat.”

While Baldrick may have had a ‘cunning plan’ to take care of deceased animals in the trenches... I do sometimes wonder what happens to the estimated 10 million birds and mammals that are killed on the UK’s roads every year? An ex-colleague of mine was a firm believer in the "waste not, want not" approach. His rule of thumb was "if it’s still warm, it’s good to eat".... many a recently-demised pheasant he spotted on his travels was swiftly loaded into the boot of his car, and was roasting away in his oven that night.

Purgatory-pending pheasants are plentiful on the roads around where we live...they apparently outnumber every fox, deer, badger and rabbit killed by cars by at least six times. This is hardly surprising, as anyone who’s ever seen a pheasant running (they very seldom actually fly) across the road, knows they have not evolved any road instincts to deal with two tons of metal coming at them at 60 mph. Just last weekend B and I were driving home when a pheasant on a death run across a dual carriageway ended up hitching a ride in the middle of our radiator grill. There was an immediate yet distinct smell of roasting pheasant...we pulled over to the side of the road as soon as possible, convinced that we would be pulling a dead, partly cooked bird from the grill......only to find a slightly stunned Percival turning around to peer at us...very disconcerting!

Even on the odd occasion when pheasants do remember that they have wings, the results can be disastrous....I’ve witnessed a couple of these dozy birds launch themselves into the air....thwack!...only to collide mid-flight with a passing truck. Before they knew it, they were carving out a protractor-perfect trajectory back to the side of the road on which they started.

Ownership of road kill is debatable...most country people assume that the driver who kills the rabbit, pheasant or pigeon may not make a meal of it, but the driver of the car behind can. Although the Highways Agency owns all road kill on the UK’s roads, this rule is rarely enforced. It is, though, the party that is responsible for clearing it away. But are there many other people prepared to scrape their dinner off the tarmac rather than visiting their local supermarket? Best known for his BBC programme, The Roadkill Chef, professional forager, Fergus Drennan, describes himself as a ‘vegetarian who eats road kill’. Recently decorated with an Ethical Cuisine award from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Drennan trumpets the merits of mown-down fox, hedgehog and badger over supermarket meats and processed food, and says "eating foxes, squirrels, pheasants, hedgehogs, badgers, rats and rabbits killed by cars is fair game", because "it has not been killed on your behalf". On his website www.wildmanwildfood.com, Drennan extols the virtues of road kill insisting: "It’s not factory farmed or pumped full of antibiotics. It is fresh, local, seasonal and nutritionally rich" and says the best place to find quality road kill is on roads you use daily: "If it wasn’t there the previous day then it’s probably good to eat today."

To finish, flattened fauna can serve scientific and educational purposes, providing an ethical source of animal tissue for research. Scientists at Cardiff University, for example, have studied the diet and environment of otters by post-mortem examinations on almost 1,000 otter carcasses, mainly road kill from across Wales and England. Otters are very difficult species to study, as they are quite elusive and rarely seen in the wild alive. Examining dead otters is a useful way of monitoring river pollution levels because pollutants accumulate up the food chain and they are at the top. The research showed there has been a drop in lead levels in otters since the early 1990s, which reflects the ban on lead in car fuel in the UK.

Space Invaders

I’m more ‘spatially aware’ these days...a car accident can do that to you, as I found out the hard way last November. It was nothing serious, mind, but enough of a dodgem-car style bump, grind and jolt to now give me the heebie-jeebies every time another car drifts too-close-for-comfort in a tight roundabout. Always a fairly cautious driver, I am definitely more inclined to ‘let the other dude go first’ nowadays....respect the safety gap!

There do, however, seem to be a lot of things crashing into each other lately. On Monday this week, it was reported that two nuclear-armed submarines from Britain and France collided while on separate patrols in the Atlantic Ocean. Analysts said a major disaster could have resulted had the underwater collision ruptured the hulls, set off conventional ammunition or started a fire, although the chances of a full nuclear explosion were virtually nil. But, thankfully, there were no injuries or radioactive leaks....just some rather red-faced British and French officials, who have so far failed to explain how two sophisticated vessels from allied nations could collide in open water.

And, last week, the US commercial Iridium spacecraft and a defunct Russian communications satellite collided in space over Siberia, in what is thought to be the biggest incident of its kind to date. The impact produced a cloud of debris, which will be tracked into the future. It is hoped that most of the debris will fall to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. The risk to the International Space Station, which is orbiting the Earth some 435 km below the course of the collision is said to be low.




Since the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, it is estimated about 6,000 satellites have been put in orbit. There are about 17,000 man-made objects above 10 cm in size that orbit Earth - and the tally is constantly increasing. This in turn raises the risk of collisions between objects. Intact satellites share Earth's orbit with everything from spent rocket stages and spacecraft wreckage to paint flakes and dust. The diffuse mist of junk around our planet is the legacy of 51 years of human activity in space.



Speaking of objects sharing our planet’s orbit, on Friday April 13, 2029, the ‘Apophis’ asteroid (originally designated 2004 MN4) will fly its nearest to Earth, a mere 30,000 km above the ground - for comparison, geosynchronous satellites orbit at 36,000 km. At closest approach, the asteroid will shine like a third magnitude star, visible to the unaided eye from Africa, Europe and Asia, even through city lights. This is rare....close approaches by objects as large as ‘Apophis’ are currently thought to occur at 1000 year intervals, on average. No one in recorded history has ever seen an asteroid in space so bright.


Back in December 2004, astronomers considered there was an ‘unprecedented level of risk’ – a 1-in-45 chance - of ‘Apophis’ striking the planet. In Egyptian myth, ‘Apophis’ was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness. A fitting name, astronomers reasoned, for a menace that was hurtling towards Earth from outer space. NASA had estimated that an impact from ‘Apophis’ would release more than 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima. Thousands of square kilometres would be directly affected by the blast but the whole of the Earth would see the effects of the dust released into the atmosphere. Thankfully, however, additional observations soon ruled out a direct collision... phew! It’s predicted the asteroid's trajectory will bend approximately 28 degrees during the encounter, a result of Earth's gravitational pull. What happens next is uncertain....some predicted ‘Apophis’ might swing around and hit Earth after all in 2035....but these reports were quickly dismissed by astronomers, who calculate that the probability for that encounter as 1 in 12.3 million.

Let’s hope they’ve got their calculations right....I’d rather leave sleeping satellites (planets) lie..........

"Sleeping Satellite" by Tasmin ArcherChorus
I blame you for the moonlit sky
and the dream that died
with the eagles' flight
I blame you for the moonlit nights
when I wonder why
are the seas still dry?
don't blame this sleeping satellite

Did we fly to the moon too soon
did we squander the chance
in the rush of the race
the reason we chase is lost in romance
and still we try
to justify the waste
for a taste of man's greatest adventure

have we lost what it takes to advance?
have we peaked too soon?
if the world is so green
then why does it scream under a blue moon
we wonder why
If the earth's sacrificed
for the price of it's greatest treasure

and when we shoot for the stars
what a giant step
have we got what it takes
to carry the weight of this concept
or pass it by like a shot in the dark
miss the mark with a sense of adventure

Love Is In The Air....

"Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap."   [Joel, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]

Cue soppiness, satin-covered heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, teddy bears and red roses selling at £10 a stem....it’s the day that keeps card makers, florists and chocolatiers in business for another year. But how did Valentine’s Day come about and is it just another excuse for commercial profiteering?

The early origins of Valentine's Day can be traced back to the ancient Roman celebration of Lupercalia, which was held on February 13th through February 15th to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. Lupercalia honoured Lupercus (god of shepherds) and Faunus (the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Pan) and the founders of Rome. When the Catholic Church set out to change the old Pagan feast days into religious feast days, they made the pastoral festival into the feast day of Saint Valentine....but just who was Saint Valentine? Considered the Patron Saint of (in no particular order) engaged couples, bee keepers, people suffering from epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriage, love, lovers, plague, travellers and youth, there are at least three different stories surrounding his identity.

One legend tells of a third century Roman priest who went against the anti-marriage laws of Emperor Claudius II. Claudius believed that unmarried men made better soldiers then men with wives and families, so he made it illegal for young men to marry. It was said that Valentine secretly married couples, and when Claudius discovered his betrayal, he had Valentine executed. Another story tells of a priest who was executed helping Christian prisoners escape harsh treatment and torture in the Roman prisons. A third Saint Valentine was a martyred minister who practiced in the province of Africa, but there is very little known about him and few scholars believe that he is actually associated with the Valentine's Day holiday.

But why did a saint's feast day become a day for lovers? Perhaps it had something to do with an old English custom of the fourteenth century. On February 14th, the unmarried people in a village would each draw the name of another unmarried person, and the two would then exchange notes. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week, which has led to the modern day expression “to wear your heart on your sleeve”, meaning that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

Charles, the Duke of Orleans in France, was said to be the first person to send a love note on St. Valentine's Day. In 1415, he sent a letter to his wife from an English prison. Sending valentine cards first became fashionable in Great Britain in the 19th century, and in 1847, a Massachusetts woman named Esther Howland created and sold the first mass-produced valentines in the United States. Her embossed paper lace valentines inspired so much popularity that today, nearly one billion valentine cards are sent in the US each year, making Valentine’s Day the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas. Cupid, a symbol of Valentine's Day, became associated with it because he was the son of Venus, the Roman god of love and beauty. Cupid often appears on Valentine's cards holding a bow and arrows because he is believed to use magical arrows to inspire feelings of love.

Valentine's Day does seem to be a holiday of expectations..... culturally we feel obligated to be part of a couple on this day, a time to be in love and to be loved, so it is a hard day for people who are in between relationships, in bad relationships, or who may have a partner but only in memory. Perhaps Valentine Day should be more of a time remembering all the people in our lives whom we love. B totally has my heart, but there are many kinds of love...the love of parents, siblings, good friends. One of my all time favourite films, 'Love Actually', I think is a wonderful homage to love in all of its forms, not just romantic.

A Touch Of Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Back in 1993, the British Medical Journal published the results of a study, provocatively titled, "Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?" Here's the abstract for this publication:

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relation between health, behaviour, and superstition surrounding Friday 13th in the United Kingdom.

DESIGN: Retrospective study of paired data comparing driving and shopping patterns and accidents.
SUBJECTS: Drivers, shoppers, and residents.

SETTING: South West Thames region.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Numbers of vehicles on motorways; numbers of shoppers in supermarkets; and hospital admissions due to accidents.

RESULTS: There were consistently and significantly fewer vehicles on the southern section of the M25 on Friday the 13th compared with Friday the 6th. The numbers of shoppers were not significantly different on the two days. Admissions due to transport accidents were significantly increased on Friday 13th (total 65 v 45; p<0.05)

CONCLUSIONS: Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52%. Staying at home is recommended.
[BMJ 1993 Dec 18-25;307(6919):1584-6]

Any paraskevidekatriaphobics (people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th) reading this – well, they most likely won’t be doing much else, given their fear of even venturing out today - are probably nodding sagely about now, thinking “You see, there’s scientific evidence that the day is unlucky!” Personally, I think it's a bit far-fetched to base the ill-fatedness of any particular date on the calendar on a single, rather peculiar scientific study. More likely, these statistics can teach us something about human psychology. Could the fact that it's Friday the 13th make you anxious and that will make you more likely to have accidents, drive less well, and perhaps find it harder to relate to other people?

Unlucky or not, today is the first of three Friday the 13th days we’ll get through in 2009....touch wood!

A Snow Week That Was

This week, the “heaviest snowfalls in 20 years”, caused the UK to almost grind to a halt. The ensuing transport chaos brought misery for commuters, but joy for children as thousands of schools closed. For me, working from home as I do, it was pretty much business as usual....barring a cancelled meeting with a client in Edinburgh, a casualty of the airport closures.

Here's a collection of images from the week....

I was lucky to capture the sun setting over a snowy field near our village......

Sunset over snowy fields