| (no subject) |
[Nov. 18th, 2006|03:20 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | bedroom | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  drained | ] |
| [ | music |
| | deftones | ] |
Hello everyone! So sorry that its been such a long time but since my last entry I have been a busy boy and have been having fun so writing a journal was kinda bottom of my list. But I just read my old entries and decided its high time for and update so here goes:
(this will be what I can remember from the last month or so) – So the last thing that happened since my previous journal entry was my cousin Matts wedding. I flew back to uk for a few days for the ceremony which was really great. The reception was in this Jane Austin style house in the country side in Bristol and apparently Jude Law had had a new years eve party there! The night was awesome and I met all Matts friends from uni who dished the occasional dirt on him lol! That weekend came to and end too quickly and before you could say ‘stopped in customs’ I was flying back to CR for a new week of work. At this juncture I must add that my room mate Mark had gone back to uni so I was now living alone . It was the first time I ever had lived alone and I found it a very strange but good experience. The next big event after that was my trip to Munich which really needs a journal entry of its own. I got on a train in Prague main station and to my horror had to stand up for 8 fucking hours while we travelled. That was made worse by the fact that my phone packed up when I arrived so contact with my friends was impossible. Luckily we all just went to the hotel and met by chance.
Oktoberfest was so great – the women there are way finer than I had expected (especially wearing the traditional german gear that accentuates the boobies) and the atmosphere of the festival was awesome. The first night we walked around the town sized carnival and drank beer from glasses that were almost as big as suzy (one of the friends who was with me) The second day we met a friend of jonti who lives in Munich and saw the sights. That night the 5 of us got dressed up in the gear too and went to festival for a second night. If u wanna see what a mug I looked you should check out my facebook profile. The next day I went back to CR and this time I got a seat!! The other guys stayed in zurich for a night and then went back to Manchester. That weekend rocked Ramstein style!!
Next on my list was a trip to Brno to see mark. Brno is the second largest city in CR and it has loads of cool places to check out. I stayed with mark for a few days and enjoyed sight seeing, good food and the usual laughs that he provides!! Again that weekend ended too soon, but it was great to see my old roomy again – I miss him loads as he cooks great and we always hav a laugh together. After that weekend work was the same as usual only now ive started training in a new software as we will probably not be using flash to make everything. Im now studying flex and hope to get good at it as soon as possible. That weekend I met a nice Czech girl in kartosa and the next we agreed to se each other again sometime...we still havnt met yet tho lol..you know how these things are.
Ok next was a visit from mark and we decided to go to Prague for the weekend to meet joe and hang out in the city center where it really kicks ass. We had a great meal together and got taken around all the cool theatre bars where a lot of Czech actors hang out. We were in one place and there was apparently a movie actress sat next to us…I obviously had no idea who she was but my Czech friends seemed pretty excited.(by the way joe got married as planned and had a great honey money in costa rica – we were with him and yana that night) after much drinking joe and yana went home leaving me and mark to entertain ourselves…we had to wait 4 hours till our train back home . We wandered around Prague at around 2 in the morning and I was so quiet compared to the usual hustle and bustle. We crossed charles bridge and it was empty! (usually the busiest place in Prague) – we decided to go to the train station and wait. We found out it was locked up so we covertly crept through the woods behind it and got onto the platform by walking along the tracks and getting to it via the back lol. We weren’t so clever as we had forgotten that the clocks went back that night. We slept on a bench for 2 hours like bums and finally the time came to get the train (4 am), I slept on the train again like a bum with my toe sticking out of my sock for effect and we finally got home by 5 ish. Yet another fun weekend to add to the archive!
At this point I will mention progress at work. We have started renovating our new office space which is way bigger than our current office – I think it will be a great space when its finished. Josh also purchased the building next door to us which is great as we can expand when needed…or just hav fat parties there…either way its not a bad thing. We are very close to finally finishing our contract proposal with Vodafone (these things take fooking ages ive recently discovered due to the layers of managers – we need every single manager to say yes out of the 6 or 7 before we get the green light!!). We released our new site called youme.us (http://www.youme.us) it’s a site for dating and relationship advice so you should all check it out and tell me what u think. View also now hav an office in the U.S. and we hav 2 more employees who work there. I also had my 3 month review to judge my progress and the result was that im doing great and could finish my internship in half the time if I work really hard!
Ok back to my out of work life –
One thing that pissed me off recently was the fact that Czechs don’t seem to celebrate Halloween!! Or bonfire night either!! So I hav to bring some Halloween fun to my friends by introducing them to pumpkin caving and apple bobbing..not much I know but it was better than nout. Also around Halloween was when my new room mate turned up. He was the guy I lived with when I first arrived here, Alex from the Ukraine, we get on pretty well and im helping him improve his English. Bonfire night was pretty poor as not a single firework was let off lol so I just went out to kartosa instead. And that brings us fairly up to date. Last week I went to salsa class with my Bosnian friends (I forgot to mention ive been hanging out with a house full of girls this last month – they r really cool and are from bosnia, Ukraine and Romania) which was actually really good fun, we planned to go every week from now on!
Ok and finally I can tell you about this weekend! We had a day off on Friday as it was a national holiday and I went out to a student party on Thursday organised for all the students here where I live. That was fun and then Friday night it was simonas (our secretary) birthday. We chilled out in a traditional Czech pub with live music that sucked lol – plus the guitarist had a mullet that would put Pat Sharpe to shame!!
So there you have it folks…a brief recap of the last months activities!! Sorry its such a long post but I needed to tell you everything I could! My Czech is getting better and I feel completely settled here finally. I dunno how often I will post again but ill try and make it sooner than next year!!
Bye for now fans!
Jamie
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| best weekend ever!! |
[Sep. 10th, 2006|03:28 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | U2 | ] |
Hello all...just had to give you an update about this weekend. It rocked! and i can prove that as right now (sunday) i am sitting in the same clothes that i went out in on friday night! i smell goooooooood!
So we started in some cool bars on friday night as we were celebrating my friend Joe's future wedding (this tuesday!!! - good luck man) and that was great, all my close friends here came including 2 russian girls we met in the student dorms the other night. As we knew the bar man in the first place we went we had a great time drinking free drinks. One thing i should mention is that here in the czech republic and surrounding countries, they celebrate marriage slightly differently. They have 2 weeks of parties before the ceremony so we were participating in probably the last party they were going to have.
The night continued...and continued...and continued and ended up with me and alex going back to the russian girls flat at around 4! they live in the center of Prague the lucky devils and by the time we went to bed it was sunny again. Later that morning when we finally awoke i was in the hangover's grasp...but it soon went away. So me and alex decided to stick around Prague for the day and chill. We spoke to joe and he had booked a table in the coolest restaurant in Prague. The tv tower stands on a hill overlooking the city and our table was at the top!! the view from inside was a panoramic scene of the whole of Prague which was complemented by a sunset. All the people who had been out friday night came to the restaurant and we enjoyed a delicious meal at such a low price i couldnt believe it.
By this time i was feeling a bit uncomfortable as i was in a posh place in my day old clothes. I was sure that i would go home after the meal but you know how things go...plus i didnt want to disappoint Joe...so as we left the restaurant the bell dinged for round two!
We had yet another great night going round all the great places that the tourist mob didnt know about (most of my friends either live in Prague or have been here for a long time) and we stayed out late again. It was great to spend time with joe and his fiancee before their marriage. They are a great couple and i hope they have an amazing wedding in Slovakia! So the clock stuck 3 and yet again we were cruising back to the russian girls flat :) When i woke up this morning i couldnt believe that i was STILL in the same clothes. We walked round Prague for a bit and then got the train back to Podebrady for a well deserved shower (the flies had started to make friends with me). So we now have a place in The center of Prague to stay whenever we want (the girls words not mine) and im looking forward to coming back again for more madness!!!
Well its late afternoon as im probably gonna go and sleep before work tomorrow :( But i f'ing love this place and if i get some money anytime soon im investing into a flat in the center!!!
Farewell for now my fans...the only thing keeping me sane right now is the fact that we r having fajitas tonight!!
BYEEE
Jamie
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| week 5 - woo! |
[Sep. 6th, 2006|08:26 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  optimistic | ] |
Hi all, sorry its been a while since my last journal entry but some of us have lives lol. So last time i wrote i was explaining that mother dear was visiting. She arrived safely in Podebrady and i showed her round a bit before going to the hotel(thankgod it was sunny!). When we arrived at the hotel the staff seemed to know who we were before we gave our details (i was thinking damn..their good) but it turned out that my mum was the ONLY guest in the hotel which was evident from the wall of keys behind the desk (apart from ours that we took). The hotel was very nice as it was a brand new build, the receptionist was also the chef, maid , masseuse, bell boy, cleaner etc...and yet again i found myself chuckling away at how funny things had turned out here in CR.
That night i showed my mum my flat and i think she was a bit surprised at the living arrangement. I had previously mentioned that i had a flat with a balcony overlooking a courtyard. What she had pictured was a castle with a huge balcony overlooking the courtyard of gardens below which surrounded a huge fountain which you could go swimming in lol...what she was met with was the most basic of balconies only big enough to stand on overlooking an office that needed renovating and paving that needed weeding (not to say that where i live is bad...it was just a bit different to what she had imagined!). But she was much more impressed by the interior which boasted hard wood floors with (fake) persian rugs and antique furniture. Later on i took her to a nice restaurant but we needed our czech phrase book to order. Soon after translating the menu i was offered an english version but by then it was too little too late.
The next day i was hard at work again on the Vodafone stuff and my mum came to the office for a bit to see me in action. Obviously she was very impressed and joined in eagerly with my programming conversations`(NOT!). We went out again in the evening to one of the nicest restaurants in Prague but this time i took some work friends. The next day she had to go back home but it was great to see her. I think she liked it here but ill get the full story at matts wedding im sure.
After her departure i got good news from my boss (who flew to london the previous day for our vodafone meeting) Im pleased to say that my hard work paid off and vodafone were hugely interested in what we had to offer. So much so that they were willing to pay the Czech department more money to start development with our idea. This is great news and is what i have been working on for the past week. I am now into week 5 and the progress ive been making has been great.
Last night i met up with Marks friend who was another cool philipino guy, his name was jello so ive been making a conscious effort not to call him jelly. After dinner we went to the student dorms here in Podebrady (students are moving in soon so should be much more fun) and i was met with a shit hole. The kitchen had a toilet next to the hob and this was supposedly shared by all students in the building! There were also signs on the toilet doors showing you how to sit on the loo which i found hilarious - NO SQUATTING OR STANDING ON THE RIM!
So things are still good guys, infact i feel more settled now and feel like i know the guys at work really well. We are planning to go out to the center of Prague on the weekend and stay in a hostel on friday night just for laughs woo, im a crazy bastard sometimes lol.
Ill keep you posted
Jamie
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| 3 week - minor set back... |
[Aug. 27th, 2006|12:06 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | music |
| | deftones | ] |
Hi friends, well its been 3 weeks now and things are still good here in CR. After my hangover last weekend i went out on saturday night (as any sensible person would do) for Jo's birthday. It was nice going into the center of Prague again, it looks so nice in the night. The subway was a different story though, for some reason all the strange people of Prague felt it necessary to congregate in our carriage, among them being someone who my friend swore was actually evil. She was very happy when we were safely back at ground level lol. So we had a relatively quite night and i was home sensibly early (so chill out parents!). The 3rd week at work started as it usually does very laid back with lazy lunches and fun evenings, although we decided to hit Kartosa on wednesday night for a change. We started the evening with a nice meal and then went to the club - everything was great until later that night when i got back and started to feel ill. I woke up and vomited profusely for a while (not a good look) and assumed i had food poisoning (i still havnt been able to think about duck without feeling slightly queezy) but it soon became evident that this was alot worse than food poisoning. 2 days later and a spew count of 6 i found out i had gastro enteritis and was gonna be out of it for a while. A minor set back to my adventure but i was thinking positive about everything and just considered this another funny chapter to my life here in CR. So its now sunday of week 3 and week 4 is about to begin. Im feeling alot better now which is great as my mum is coming to visit on monday. Im looking forward to seeing her and showing her around Podebrady. Unfortunately i wont be able to get any time off work as we have a meeting with vodafone on tuesday, and im the man who had to finish the interactive demo in time! But im sure she will have fun on her own during the day, this is a SPA town after all.
Well see you all soon, some sooner that others as im home for Matts wedding!
Bye for now
Jamie.
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| 2nd week and im feeling good... |
[Aug. 19th, 2006|11:46 am] |
So my good friends i speak to you hung the f*** over...its bad...wosrt one for a while...but anyway -
So i have had yet another good week here in Podebrady, work was fun all week and we now have a new member of staff. Ive been working hard on our interactive demo for Vodafone and i think it will be ready in time. This week i have done alot of things - i house sitted for my boss and watch films on his 47 inch computer screen while drinking beer woo! i went to the lake and we tried to rent boats but no luck (hopefully we will go today), i tried the Ukrainian national dish and the Philipino national dish this week mmmmmmmmm seriously tasty, the flat is looking good now as we have lots of plants inside the house and a nice new rug. Last night i went out to Kartosa again (as you probably guessed) and yet again drank my weight in tequila...i wish i hadnt tho. The vibe in there was different to last week, but the amount of fine women was consistant :)
This weekend i will be going to Prague center again for Jo's birthday, should be fun (note to self: stay away from the José Cuervo) and today we will go rowing on the lake i hope i can find my sea legs fast.
Well im very ill right now so im going...oh and im not gonna bother to spell check either ha
bye for now |
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| a successful week! |
[Aug. 12th, 2006|10:56 am] |
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So everyone, my first week has come to an end and I must say - it has ben great! I did have my reservations about coming here but I now feel I made the right decision. Yesterday was business as usual in work but I started learning the job of Michal, the graphic designer. He will be in New Zeland soon so I will probably take over when he is gone. After work me, Mark and Alex (Alex has a killer apartment for 7000 crowns a month...im getting me one of those bad boys) played some basket ball and had fun on the local court. I met some of the language students there and introduced myself as the sweaty english guy. Later that night we went to Kartosa, the only night club in Podebrady. It was cool and I got chatted to by lots of people eager to practice their english. So now I have even more czech friends! I exchanged emails with a few people and planned to do stuff with them sometime - including going to oktoberfest! cant wait! That night I bought a few rounds of drinks including some big ass tequilas + the entrance fee + a game of pool and it cost me 12 english pounds! I love this country! So more nights out to Kartosa are in the pipeline including some Praha visits too. Im still hung over so I will probably go back to bed now, but you all should know that im almost settled here and doing fine. Next week I will probably go to Praha so i'll tell you all about it then. Bye for now! |
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| day threeeeee |
[Aug. 9th, 2006|07:27 pm] |
Well since my first day things have been great. I have got on very well with the guys in work and I now feel settled into work. Im still getting used to Podebrady, but im confident that in a week I will be ok. I have been learning some Filipino cooking from my flat mate Mark, which is really delicious and dont worry I will impress you all when you visit!
There hasnt been much more to tell as it has only been two days, but im planning to go to Munich for Oktoberfest! and maybe go to Switzerland to visit Jonti too. Ive really warmed to this traveling lark, I could see myself packing up and moving somewhere else in a few years.
Now that I have met these great people its inspired me to maybe even teach English somewhere. My dream of being a divemaster has also been strengthened so when i get some moola i will prob go and have some adventures!
Well im off for some more food and group guitaring...see you all soon!
jamie |
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| Prague baby.... |
[Aug. 7th, 2006|06:57 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | podebrady | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | determined | ] |
Hey all, so i made it! just.....
Ok so the flight was good..had minimal banter with the old welsh guy sat next to me whose accent was as thick as barry whites neck. Then had to wait ages to claim my guitar...it was in the plane as fragile (i put it in without a case) so i had to wait to the end. It came back in 1 piece thank god but was soaking. Then i went through to arrivals only to find that there was no one waiting for me! in my panicked state i did what any normal person would do...i sat down and played my guitar. Then when i realised that no one was gonna come save me i decided to venture out of the airport, in torrential rain might i add, and find a taxi. I guess the weather fit my mood perfectly. During the cab ride i was told that to get to Podebrady would cost me a weeks wages! but i had no choice but to agree. During the ride the taxi driver was quite a good commentator, pointing out all the sights, what he wasnst however was a good driver, and we almost died twice in the heavy rain. I was sat in the back chuckling to myself about how things had turned out....i was always the optimist...
When i finally got to Podebrady i was met by Josh (boss) outside our studio. He was just randomly passing and spotted me. Everyone was worried about me but nerves soon calmed with my arrival. Josh told me how i had paid double the taxi rate he could have got. I was past caring, it was lucky put on the company expenses list :)
That night i slept in my new bed, in my new room with my new room mates...in the same clothes id travelled in. I got bugger all sleep as i never like a new bed the first night and in the morning i was woken to the familiar roaring of torential rain...but i was ready to go! the first day at work turned out to be nice and laid back and i discussed what my next few months had in store for me. I met the whole team and found out about everything the company is aiming to achieve, its an exciting time for me and cant wait to get stuck into my curriculum.
Well thats all for now folks...but keep checking back here for the next chapter of my new life in Prague. |
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drunk