The Secret Lives of Bloggers: Bloggers fall ill

I had to stop myself from writing "Bloggers fall ill, too", which would have been a paraphrase of "Bloggers Die, Too", the title of a blog and a never finished story by Groggy. Which goes quite well with the theme of "Secret Lives of Bloggers". I came to internet-know Groggy through the Sergio Leone Web Board; if we were both defined by what our blogs contain, we would probably never cross paths. I only comment on his blog occasionally (because I have seen only a tiny portion of the films he so expertly reviews), and he never comments on mine.


Stephanie Ann came up with this fun idea to document our day-to-day life to break away from that urge to show picture-perfect sides of ourselves on our blogs (which, let's be honest, can be sooo stressful!). I liked the idea, when I visited her blog about a week into the project, and I started taking photos of my day-to-day proceedings. (It was a nice way of trying out my new camera purposefully, too.)
And then I fell ill in my school flat, with slow internet connection and an old memory card reader in my old computer that did not read my new 16 GB memory card. So I have quite the load of photos and boring memories to share now!

2013-06-06 Thursday
Homemade noodles to put into soups. I made them a bit too big, and then spent more time cutting them even smaller, pretty much one by one. I need to master the technique for this... it might have something to do with the fact that the small roller pin I got for my school flat turned out to be ineffective for the firm chewing-gummy dough and I had to use a bottle to roll it out, so it came out quite thick.

2013-06-07 Friday
The essay box, a fixture I became rather closely acquainted with in the weeks to come (one more essay to hand in still remains as of now). How, with my nose full and my head aching, I managed to hand in several essays and get two As and one B is quite beyond me... I guess it means I've got the hang of essay writing by now. Or, that Someone is watching over me...

2013-06-08 Saturday (photo actually taken on Sunday)
Leavened apple slices/whatever. It mysteriously came out tasting of soap or something, which in the end I figured was probably because I must have washed the wooden spoon I mixed the dough with in saponate and not wash it out enough, unknowingly. It was a big pity, because other than that mysterious aftertaste, it came out great. We ate it for days...

2013-06-09 Sunday
And here it begins. I woke up with a sore throat and running nose, and did not go to church. In the afternoon, I had a fever. Here, a ginger tea I used to cure my throat. Accompanied by the usual mess at the kitchen working desk, which got much worse as both me and my sister remained ill.
To the left, you can see a Hollandia yoghurt (one of the two best brands in the Czech Republic, IMO, the other being Choceňský jogurt), and a half-used packet of yeast remaining after Saturday's somewhat failed effort. As I was unable to knead more dough in the days to come, I mixed it with some sugar and milk in the end, and drank it as a vitaminiser (is that a word?). Seeing as yeast contains vitamin B.

2013-06-10 Monday

About as much as I was able to do at this point, other than sleep, drink (lots) and eat (a bit), was sitting with my sister at her computer and play Mahjong with her, or watch MASH.

2013-06-11 Tuesday

Over several episodes of MASH, I managed to finish another handkerchief, one I started on my sewing machine. Two of the corners are not very nice.

2013-06-12 Wednesday
You can't take appetising photos of cough syrup. However, cough syrup meant I was getting slightly better: no more sore throat or dry cough.

2013-06-13 Thursday
I dragged myself to the library and somehow finished and handed in another essay. These are writings that are to be found in one of the toilets. Some young ladies with nail polish were bored... Nail polish, and black marker, and ball-point pen, which can be barely made out in real life and not in the photo. You can see what ugly colour the wall is. The library is a modern building of steel and glass and concrete, and the colour scheme is built around that concrete grey. UGLY.
But covered with vines from the outside. That, at least, is nice.
(Plus, the library is still probably my favourite place to be in the school, because, hey, books and computers with better internet and nice and quiet!)

 

2013-06-14 Friday
The sight of a hot-air balloon above the house across the street is a welcome diversion.

2013-06-15 Saturday
Another defining feature of the days of illness: pancakes with plum jam (povidla). You can see how the filth has been accumulating on the working table. To the left of the pancakes, a tiny glimpse of the bag with my noodles. Was I glad that I had made them!

2013-06-16 Sunday
Another seventh day not kept (I'm not a big stickler for no work - cooking at least has to happen -, but I do try to relax on Sundays). When you're stuck ill away from home, you have to wash your clothes sooner or later, and you have to wash them when you feel strong enough to do it when there's no washing machine.
The washing board was one of quite many things we got from an old couple we worked for/helped out at home last year (mom still goes there at times).

2013-06-17 Monday
Finally feeling relatively well, we went to the Indian restaurant we occasionally go to to share a midday meal. (It comes quite cheap that way.) The restaurant is amazingly shabby, and the food very tasty. And mango lassi!!!

My sister left.

It got hot. Very hot. I had to keep the curtains drawn during the day, because the windows are facing more or less to the south, and they are large windows!

2013-06-18 Tuesday
In those hot days, I took to wearing my chemise and my very Frankensteined attempt at transitional wrap jumps (more on that experimental project later) at home.
I came to Brno when it was still cold, and all I had by way of outdoor clothes were black corduroy trousers and high lace-up boots. Eugh!
Fortunately, I also had my wear-at-home skirt and pumps I wanted to wear to a special occasion I did not get to.

2013-06-19 Wednesday

On the way home. The skirt was good. The pumps less so: they are faily new (second-hand, but apparently the previous owner did not wear them much); in the hot weather, my feet were swollen and it chafed. A lot. I still have band aids on some places...

(Do not worry; the pumps do fit. It's just not the best of ideas to wear fairly new shoes in hot weather, on bare feet. Do not do that if you do not really have to.)

Late that night, I arrived to my hometown, and walked home barefooted. The pavement was still warm and it was rather pleasant.

I arrived home to find three letters from Australia, from a recipe swap on Down to Earth Forums. Yay! Made my day, especially this Echidna.

2013-06-20 Thursday
Can you guess what this is?

2013-06-21 Friday

It finally rained again in the night, but it still was hot during the day. If you look very closely, you can see some drops on this rose... It's been in our garden for a long time. It never looks like much in the spring, and then it blooms again, a lovely yellow rose.

I forgot to take a photo on Saturday. Those two days were busy anyway, working in a friend's home where I go to help out with the cleaning work. Every now and then, it's more than the regular dust and floors.

2013-06-23 Sunday
I finally made it to church again! John the Baptist was the theme, because apparently traditionally he was celebrated on June 24th. The last point of the sermon was about change, something I need to give thought to...
The cross was a gift to our congregation from an affiliated congregation in Scotland (but sadly, the contact seems to have withered away).
There was this beautiful flower arrangement sitting on the table, so wonderfully representative of early summer. I took this first photo (I'm not sure why it's so distorted - still getting used to the new camera!). And then I noticed there were my absolute favourite early summer flowers (Crown Vetch, Wikipedia tells me they're called in English) in the back of it.

So I end my account of a rather boring and tiresome fortnight with cheerful flowers. :-)

The chateau of Dačice

So, back to Dačice! Time to see the chateau!

 

This building here, accompanied by another nod to the humble, world-changing sugar cube.
I'm not being stupid, telling you it is this building. The lady at the cashdesk and our tour guide told us stories of people who did not realise this was a chateau. Dačice, as I mentioned in the previous post, are a bit out of the way, and apparently, this lovely chateau does not make it to many guides to Czech chateaus (there are so many, it's not so bad, but it's a stupid overlook with this particular one!) and many people are not aware of its existence. Many people, apparently, often assume it's a school (and since many smaller manor houses have been turned into schools, it's not that surprising). The craziest remark, though, was someone calling it "a factory".
*headscratch*

The chateau, like many aristocratic residences in this country, was rebuilt several times; the front side is very much Empire/Regency, but there's a Baroque tower on the other side (towards the park).

 

You actually enter the chateau from this side, even though it has such a lovely front.

  

 

 In the courtyard, there are these beautiful Renaissance arcades (I hope that's the correct term). This is where you enter for the tour. Photographing is not allowed inside (or maybe you have to pay a photographing fee, a usual practice in the Czech Republic). So I have no photos from the inside, which is a pity. The tour is rather short, but very interesting; it somehow feels as a house truly lived in. There's an array of styles of furniture as well, and you get to see both the lavishly decorated "official" rooms and a chamberlain's room, much smaller and much more humbly equipped. Also, it's stocked full with portraits. Portraits, and more portraits, from different periods; I really, really regretted not being able to take photos of those, because there were so many clothes to admire!

Not that I minded so much after all, though; I'll get there in another post.




The pleasant thing about the chateau in Dačice is not just the chateau itself, but also the park. It is, very obviously, a park from the time when romantic landscape-planning was popular; which makes for many spots perfect for photographing. Alas, the light was bad when we were in the park, so not so beautiful photos. But you'll get the idea.





















The other side of the courtyard, with the Baroque tower and a Pseudo-Baroque chapel from the beginning of the 20th century. 1910, to be exact.



Closing with this door handle, the image of which they now use as their logo.

Oh, and don't forget to visit the chateau's official site, where you can see lots of other (and better) photos, also of the interiors. My favourite was the library. My sister said it was the sort of library I needed, and I heartily agree. You cannot quite see it in the photo (EDIT: In the photogallery; choose "guided tour" to see it in full), but the library has another "level", with a railing - much like Professor Higgins's library in My Fair Lady.

P.S. The Czech version of the site has this very cool feature of panoramatic "photos" of various places around thew chateau.

How to find an easy happiness and fill your house with books

(OK, so maybe the happiness part doesn't work for everyone, but I had to make up a title for this post, you see?)


Have you by any chance seen Neil Gaiman's library?
Neil Gaiman's quickly become one of my favourite authors, and favourite person(alitie)s. For things like his blog, full of links to interesting things I'd otherwise never learn about, The Graveyard Book, keeping bees (which I've never done, and probably never will, but totally consider a normal thing to do that most people unfortunately don't do anymore) and liking G.K. Chesterton. And his library.
When I first saw the photos of his library, I thought "wow" and "how did he achieve that?"
Then I looked at my room and thought: "He's just older than me. When I'm as old as him, I might need a library like that."

Not all of these books are mine (some of the dictionaries are family-owned), but most of them are. They don't fit in. This is only one of three bookcases/shelves I currently occupy. The books still do not fit in. The detective stories are cheerfully overflowing their alotted space (and I only limit myself to five writers!). The collection of Czech classics is inexplicably growing. The interview books and historical novels squeezed between the dictionaries are just that: squeezed. My books by Finnish authors are forced to democratically (but not always equally) share space with my comic books. The sewing and crafty books groan under the weight of Russian and British history (but Russian history is much heavier). One more Gaiman and I'm done for...

I'm slightly envious of my sister's new tidy bookcases. But it's only thanks to them that my books do not threaten to kill me anymore.

See? Tidy and pretty. I can't keep mine that way. I just can't help it. Books keep entering my possession.

For one thing, the local library keeps selling off old books, duplicates, for 1 CZK a piece. THAT, my dear readers, is not a bargain. I don't think there even is a word for THAT.

And they started another project: people can bring their duplicate or otherwise unwanted books there. They either keep them in the library, or put them into a bookcase outside the library, where people can pick them for free. How cool is that?

As a result of having a fantastic local library (which I have every intention of supporting; how many small town libraries keep lots of Baltic literature?), my own library is growing.

With pieces like these:

 I don't think you have to speak Czech to recognise this.

 Anne of Green Gables and her Czech counterparts Gabra and Málinka

Rupert was new to me, but apparently he is quite big in the English speaking world. About half a year ago, I saw a reprint in the English section of a large Prague bookshop. So yes, they are worn and tatty, but they're the original from 1950s and I am so lucky to have them.

This 1983 Slovakian book on embroidery has one of the most "unappetising" covers I've ever seen. (A book on embroidery and the largest part of the cover is filled with a lamp?! Not to mention the awful composition of the text in the image...)
Inside, it's droolworthy.

It even shows the wrong side of the embroidery techniques!

Last time I visited (Tuesday), I bought Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, four books of the Truth and Justice pentalogy by Anton Hansen Tammsaare (sadly, one was missing) and one more book by him. I'm well on my way to needing Neil Gaiman's library.