The Initial Plan For 2019
It's now the middle of March 2019. We've celebrated the early birthdays. We had a wonderful 10 days with Ester and Pavlina visiting in March. We've accumulated about four suitcases of stuff to take to Europe and are grateful for having a baggage allowance that makes this OK. We leave on March 24th from Tampa, transiting through Zurich and arriving in Prague, hopefully, at about 1400h on the 25th. We hope Lucie will be able to collect us and our baggage and deliver us home by 1630h. After a brief respite we shall participate in our first monthly dinner of the year hosted by Jitka and Milan Simek in Hnanice.
During the first few days, we have to see the eye doctor and collect some prescriptions for glasses. Then we have a lunch invite from cousin Zdena in Liberec on that first Saturday and after that we have to decide if your chronicler must undergo left hip replacement surgery as soon as possible or defer it for later. Unfortunately the process of rehab takes a big chunk of valuable time out of the year...
Also, as we plan to spend less and less time in Florida and ties to the UK have been broken long ago, it seems entirely desirable to cancel one's UK passport and become a Czech citizen; so we have been gathering the essential documents still in Florida to fulfill the application and start that process.
The UK leadership has completely botched up the separation of the UK from the EU, joining which in the first place, in the opinion of some people, was a huge mistake. In any case, the UK has changed so dramatically during the past 50 or so years, that it is not a place on which your un-opinionated chronicler would ever wish to set foot again. The Czech Republic values its heritage and history and seems quite set upon not becoming a cultural melting pot or suborning sovereignty to the Eurocrats in Brussels; becoming a citizen of such a nation will be a great pleasure.
The rest of the year is rather unclear, due to the possible surgery, but we hope to have Nancy, Bryan and the girls visit us in the early Summer and Jacalin and Phil arrive for their annual visit in September. We plan to return to Florida in late November, in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have many projects around the house that we wish to continue and to continue our various weekly activities such as Z's Bible Study, English Class, Ladies' swimming, English Conversation, Friday evenings at the 'Pub', some biking when hips are functional and so on.
During the first few days, we have to see the eye doctor and collect some prescriptions for glasses. Then we have a lunch invite from cousin Zdena in Liberec on that first Saturday and after that we have to decide if your chronicler must undergo left hip replacement surgery as soon as possible or defer it for later. Unfortunately the process of rehab takes a big chunk of valuable time out of the year...
Also, as we plan to spend less and less time in Florida and ties to the UK have been broken long ago, it seems entirely desirable to cancel one's UK passport and become a Czech citizen; so we have been gathering the essential documents still in Florida to fulfill the application and start that process.
The UK leadership has completely botched up the separation of the UK from the EU, joining which in the first place, in the opinion of some people, was a huge mistake. In any case, the UK has changed so dramatically during the past 50 or so years, that it is not a place on which your un-opinionated chronicler would ever wish to set foot again. The Czech Republic values its heritage and history and seems quite set upon not becoming a cultural melting pot or suborning sovereignty to the Eurocrats in Brussels; becoming a citizen of such a nation will be a great pleasure.
The rest of the year is rather unclear, due to the possible surgery, but we hope to have Nancy, Bryan and the girls visit us in the early Summer and Jacalin and Phil arrive for their annual visit in September. We plan to return to Florida in late November, in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have many projects around the house that we wish to continue and to continue our various weekly activities such as Z's Bible Study, English Class, Ladies' swimming, English Conversation, Friday evenings at the 'Pub', some biking when hips are functional and so on.
2019 Planned Activities in Hruba Skala
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Contracted Projects
New boiler for downstairs - done Bed for downstairs bedroom - done Mattress for downstairs bedroom - done Bedding for new bed - done Machines and tools Table saw - done New higher output filter pump? 60 cm blade for big saw? Projects Refinish top of large teak table (seems to be an annual task as the sun does damage to the protective oils) - done Window shutters — seven to go - done Rolling workbench - done Convert old rolling table to potting bench. Actually converted for new table saw - done Abbott Island and Hutch - done Hall tree and bench - done Finish massive conference table design and construction-next year?? |
2019 What Actually Happened
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We had a good year—about 9 months in Europe, with just a little traveling within Czech borders. We had 12 year old grand daughter Haley for three weeks on her own in June and Jacalin and Phil for their normal couple of weeks at the end of August; we stayed in Karlovy Vary for a couple of nights and then did a brief trip to Oberweisenthal for a wonderful three country vista before returning home.
As seems to be our tradition, the evening before J and Phil fly to Tampa, we stay at the Romantik Hotel U Raka, just under Prague's Loretta; it's about 15 minutes easy drive to the airport. There are several good restaurants in the vicinity, but beware of the general policy that Prague's restaurants seem to have adopted of not accepting credit cards and, also, be very careful, if you need an ATM to use one from a major bank. At the bottom of the ATM's screen, you will be asked if you want your cash with or without conversion; select 'without', because the 'with conversion' rate is terrible. We use our US bank's Debit card, which gives a good conversion rate very close to mid-market rates... Next year grand daughter Morgan is insisting that she be allowed to stay with us for a few weeks without parents and we expect that will be fulfilled. We think Nancy and Bryan with fly with her, drop her off and travel on their own for a week or so before collecting her to go back home. Keith decided not to have his left hip changed due, to an absence of pain; however, next year he will get his eyes done to improve his vision. Other than that we are both in pretty good shape. Due to the increasing difficulty of getting on and off a bike with a cross bar, Keith has arranged to sell his excellent, but under used e-bike and has selected a new model without a crossbar; this can be mounted very easily and safely and we look forward to much more e-biking around our beautiful Czech Paradise next year. Next year we hope at least two things will happen: one that Keith’s application for Czech Citizenship will be approved and secondly that a few members of the Florida family will join us for the end of 2020 and the start of 2021. We plan on a few days in a lovely hotel in Harrachov between Christmas and New Year and New Year’s Eve in Prague for some prior to returning to Florida. We expect to return to Tampa on the 3rd or 4th of January, 2021 and this will have been the longest we have been in Europe. By that time, hopefully, the details of Brexit will have been concluded and that on going farce brought to an end, just in time to see our second term President sworn in for his final four years, with luck, presiding over a House and Senate run by normal people and a Supreme Court set for a few decades of conservative judicial rulings. Zdenka had established a very successful Bible Study group, which meets in person every Monday when she is in Europe and over the internet, when she is in Florida... much better that Bible Studies of yesteryear, since they meet at 1700h and always have some wine available. The group has grown to include about eleven people, many of whom, due to the suppression of Christianity during communism, had no knowledge of the Bible. In the USA, it seems that the suppression of everything that the so-called liberals find offensive is already or shortly will be banned from schools and universities and we will reach the same objective as the communists sought. But the burden of educating our children correctly has always been the responsibility of parents. Keith has a steady group of Conversationalists, all professionals and which includes our family doctor; they meet on Thursdays for a couple of hours. Wednesday is Ladies swimming, if the pool is warm enough. Fridays are 'Pub' nights when up to 30 villagers gather next door to our house for as long as our worthy host, Libor, will tolerate it--outside in the warmer months and inside by the warmth of a wood burning heater. In addition, Z created a group of three other couples plus Ester, our doctor, who meet for a magnificent dinner every month in one of the four homes. Except for one husband, four of our progressive dinner group have already visited Florida to stay with us; our next door neighbors Iva and Jirka will travel here at the end of February 2020 for 10 days. Back here we have enjoyed missing Halloween, arriving in time for a great Thanksgiving hosted by Nancy and Bryan. Jacalin and Phil have signed up into a boat leasing arrangement which allows them to take a boat out from many different locations. We have already enjoyed two excursions and links to these are included in the Shared Albums menu. So we are quite active and enjoy life there and here very much. Please have a look in Shared Albums to browse through the many pictures of the year... |