Burn Jack Straw

The other day I met a Californian gal who runs a blog called Bohemian Highway from out of Prague. The blog is part personal part ethereal, but her latest entry caught my attention. It focused on burning a Jack Straw man - not the kindest way to welcome him back to Cabinet is it? To summarise.

1. Gather dried brush and leaves to make a Jack Straw man

2. Little slips of paper, with our worst fears written on them, are tied to its frame.

3. Finally, when the sky turns dark, light the Jack Straw guy. Crank the music up.

Do you reckon this will catch on? Does anyone have any other rituals that they find therapeutic?

Blogpower Awards Online

Below is a picture of "me" at the venue of the Blogpower awards ceremony. These awards will be taking place in Second Life. The time is 2pm British time on Sunday 1 July. Any online and offline friends are welcome to attend. If you don't have a Second Life account, please register and set one up entirely free of charge. Once you're set up, you can teleport to the location using this link. Our generous host, Tom Paine has more on his blog.

Although I don't plan to spend much time on Second Life before the awards (so apologies in advance if I appear a little clumsy there), I shall certainly be in attendance. I've done a bit of exploring. Despite finding myself alone when I visited them, I found the architectural areas the most interesting. Second Life provides us with the opportunity to "visit" and even furnish a building before it's actually built and surely has the potential to be an incredible marketing tool for real life property developments - especially overseas ones. A few of the clubs I visited look like fun, too. Does anybody have any more Second Life suggestions?

Ever Struggle With Motivation?

I think we all do from time to time. Fortunately, I know a guru who has written on precisely this topic. It's an article called Motivation & Uncertainty. His other stuff is also excellent.

I've decided to spend June learning Czech. Unfortunately, the course I wanted to attend is fully booked, so I'm going to try plan B and learn at home. I'll keep up with posts at the Ghost Cabinet, but my focus has to move away from this site if I'm going to make headway with Czech. Anyway, it will be an interesting experiment to track what happens to site traffic, when a blogger takes a break. I'll come back when Blair goes.

Prague Fringe

The annual Prague Fringe Festival is about to descend on the city. I'm definitely going to watch the Stephen Frost Impro Allstars. They are a bunch of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" veterans so that should be cool. All the venues are close to each other so I'll get the buzz on the other shows before deciding. For some reason an aubergine is being used to market the festival.

Political Corner

In a political debate, "Trotting out the same old tired arguments" equals "That is a very strong argument that I can't deal with". Discuss.

Weekend In Prague

Early



Late



Later



Happy Birthday Matt & Lenka.

Snaps From West Mersea

Up Against A Groyne



That's me thinking "Why can't I wear clashing clothes and finish my super sudoku in peace?".

Fighting Off A Hoodie



I'm happy to report that the matter was settled amicably without serious injury.

Apologies for those that like politics, but I've got a backlog of postable pictures from the last few weeks.

Do You Like Solitude?

Just spent a week in Slovakia. We usually go there for Easter. We got the blessing of the local priest for our marriage and we sorted out the wedding reception, too. Being in Slovakia is a good chance to recharge and get new ideas. One came to mind which I hope to develop after the May elections.

This video is from just outside Ms PT's home village where we stay. Due to the contours of the land, this spot is completely private and can't be seen from the road. A stream runs along the meadow and I love the forested hillside that surrounds the plot. I like solitude and beauty. One day I will build a cottage here. The smells, sights and sounds of nature will be inspirational. It will be a great retreat to have. If people are interested in more posts about Eastern Slovakia, I would be happy to oblige. Let me know if you prefer me to talk politics.

Happy Palm Sunday

Not much blogging today. In a minute I'm off to church for Palm Sunday. From 9.30 a group of us will be walking through the Mala Strana (Little Bank) part of town. I'll see if I can squeeze in an early lunch after church. Meeting an Icelandic Conservative at 1 for a coffee to discuss setting up a blog.

Then at 4 I'll be in the last training session before the start of "Hardly Athletic"'s inaugural football season (do you like the logo?). I wanted to sponsor the team, but one unnamed player objected to running around with Praguetory on his back.

At 6.30 I'm meeting up with a couple who are visiting Prague. Me and Ms PT met Jitka at the car rental place last time we were in Birmingham. The coincidences were incredible. They will be getting married in Prague on the same day as us (Sep 8th) and he also proposed this Christmas. Like me and Ms PT they started dating in August and he enjoys reading books and is typically English according to Jitka. Ok, that's all the coincidences so far, but as they (by chance) booked themselves in one of the closest hotels to where we live, we've agreed to meet up and find out what else we have in common. So far I've seen two April fool gags - none here I'm afraid. Laters.

Catch Up

Ok, I'm back sooner than I promised, but I've just booked a week's holiday in the first part of April when I will get a couple of friends to guest for me - I can't keep taking breaks.

Real World

Nice weather in Prague and getting out and about a bit more has been fun. As a result of a chance meeting, I might be able to land a little part-time job here in Prague which will be easier to fit in around blogging than my last position. Last night, I went to chess club for the first time in a while. It's really lively there these days and there's always a good conversation to be had. It's been mentioned by others that Prague has something of a sordid reputation which was rather cemented when two strangers I was chatting with independently admitted to running successful porn sites - yes I did feel like a gooseberry. More disturbing were the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that I overheard several regulars floating. One chap was harking back to Jewish bankers and 15th Century Spanish history (or at least his version of it). Your typical Bush-hating Leftie really wants to believe these conspiracies. This sort of stuff borders on madness in my opinion.

May Elections

I'm about to book flights back to the UK to help with the May elections. I shall probably manage a week of campaigning before the elections and I am still finalising my top secret plans. When I was initially preparing my ideas concerning where to help, my first thoughts were to work in certain "target seats", but as I've been evaluating things I have become a bit more discerning. Firstly, I am going to help friends even if winning would be a Herculean task - moving the vote to within striking distance is a very worthwhile exercise in my opinion. Secondly, although I'm quite happy to trudge the streets for hours if I'm freeing up the candidate's time for him or her to knock doors or undertake other electioneering or council activities, I am not going to break my back delivering for a lazy councillor.

Other Stuff

I've been asked to do a presentation on blogging to some fellow Tories in the Summer. Anecdotally, the benefits of blogging can be quite unexpected and bloggers' reasons for continuing to blog are often quite different to the reasons that they started, so I'll probably explore that theme a bit. Martine Martin's research project into right-leaning blogs should be finished soon, which might provide some insights based on evidence. Anyway, on this theme I would certainly appreciate any tips or advice from my readers.

Mutley The Dog's Night Out

When I went out with Mutley last night, I was given two rules by Ms PT. Firstly, no pictures and secondly don’t wake her up when I come back. I met Mutley in his hotel lobby. He had green absinthe stains all down the front of his shirt, but reckoned that he could pass it off as a tie.

Mutley’s colleagues from the Bridport tourist board were knocking about. Diverse bunch - pictured is Marj the shoplifter (check the top of her back). It’s well known that Mutley got his job by ticking the homosexual box so he introduced me as his gay tryst for the evening. I think he gets a bit tired of “caring” and “enabling” his colleagues and he ordered them to get the staff to put them to bed.

Unimaginatively, we ended up in U Buldoka – only skinheads are allowed downstairs (had you heard that Britney’s in town?), but it was quieter upstairs anyway. We started to reflect on blogging. Apparently, Mutley’s been making a fair wedge from ads since he started, but also explained that he’s just found some Albanian sites that guarantee greater riches. Mutley plans to set up a Bridport diaspora website for people like Paul Newman who were forced to leave their home town.

I told Mutley about the Reagan monument in Prague - Mutley is thinking of getting a George Bush done for Bridport. Town twinning is always so competitive isn’t it?

After making a pass at the waitress using his Czech swear list we had to leave. Mutley got to thinking about Ms Honeysmack on the walk home and we tried a few doorbells just in case. (Cyber-appeal - he loves you – can’t you give him another chance?) Anyway, I left him to walk the last bit. Mutters, can let me know whether you got back OK?

Monday Evenings In Prague

Trying to decide what to do tomorrow evening.

Favourite to start the evening is Bulldog. Straddling the fence between a smokey dive of a bar and a club because it's open late and has DJs, The Bulldog, is a receptacle for the local flotsam and jetsam. It's where I met the future Ms PT.

Chateau is an option, but it isn't much more than a grimy, seedy bar with red walls. Last Wednesday, there was a David Cameron look-alike in there who appeared to be trying to score some drugs - he was certainly looking in the right place.

Zlaty Strom (meaning Golden Tree) is one of those places that has a video outside with loads of people dancing, but is usually deserted inside. Check out the losers on their website when you click "music-club". That chap who's bent double on the dancefloor starts fights.

There is also an absinthe bar somewhere near the Globe bookstore, but I'm not sure which street it's on.

On reflection, maybe we'll go up-market and shoot some pool at Cafe Louvre. As you can probably tell, I don't often go out in Prague. Does anyone have any ideas?

Guest Blogger

I am taking a train later tonight to deepest Slovakia and will have intermittent Internet access.


Mutleythedog is now in charge of the blog until I return at some point on Sunday. Provided we are still friends, I will be giving Mutley the Praguetory tour of the city next week - so hopefully we'll have a few anecdotes for you.

Absinthe - Just Say No

The alcoholic drink of absinthe is strongly associated with the Prague artistic community - poets, painters and bloggers. As part of his quest to become an internet millionaire Mutleythedog is visiting and will be sampling the absinthe. I wanted to share a few cautionary tales with my readers about absinthe.

Jeremy Van Winkle

I like to tell people the tale of the young Californian, Jeremy Van Winkle (the name has not been changed). He came to Prague to find himself - one morning he found himself straight-jacketed and tied to a bed in a Prague mental asylum. The story began when he bought a bottle of absinthe and started drinking at home, alone. The check sheet records that he was found crawling the streets of Red Zizkov (it's like a set off the film Seven) by the local gendarmerie. Unable to get a word out of him, they carted him away to the local cell which he proceeded to attack. Next step in the well-worn route was an injection and a transfer to the local asylum. Everybody's had that momentary feeling of "where am I?" in the morning, few have experienced this whilst tied to a bed in a white straight-jacket surrounded by lunatics and hooks hanging from the ceiling.

The Aussie Tourists

Another absinthe encounter happened in the aptly named Marquis de Sade bar (pictured) on a Prague side street. I met a hedonistic Australian couple out for a good time. They insisted on trying absinthe. They wanted to do the whole "lighting of the drink" shebang, I couldn't stop them. Anyway, it all went wrong. The bloke lit his drink and knocked it back with elan, only swaying slightly. His missus didn't have the same gusto and gently tipped the drink back and burnt the roof of her mouth badly. I have never seen someone's mood change so quickly. Any Aussie politician would be proud of the tirade she launched at her boyfriend. When it got onto anatomy, it was time for me to leave.

The Case Of Honza

Honza is recently retired and has a liking for the absinthe. He misses his old job as a truck driver and has set up his living room with a seat and a steering wheel so that he can recall his driving days. The absinthe helps him recall the scenery. In the picture, Honza is driving the five hour journey from Plzen to Ostrava and is about to take a comfort break.

Does anyone have any other absinthe stories?

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good

Conservatives Abroad kindly asked me to write a guest article for them. It's the first in a series from different locations outside the UK. It's a marginally better post than the pap I put up on this site. Take a look.

The Bad

My boss is unexpectedly visiting tomorrow. I think he wants to see what I've been doing for the last six months or so. It had all been going so well. Does anyone have any good excuses or am I going to have to cause a diversion at Prague airport again?

The Ugly

Faced with the above issues, I need to book a train out of Prague. Whilst I'm away, my old friend the famed political blogger Mutley the dog is going to keep the blog warm. Fortunately, he knows a lot about Prague as demonstrated by his last post.

Other Prague Pictures

A permanent Jan Saudek museum is in residence on a street called Celetna which is just off Old Town Square in medieval Prague. The following picture is probably the most famous. It's called "Fate Descends towards the River Leading Two Innocent Children" from 1970.


After visiting the museum we decided to visit a Franz Kafka museum. There are two or three Kafka museums, so we asked in a very small one where the others were. This involved crossing the Vltava river. Here's a nice picture of Prague Castle from that bridge.


At the other end of the bridge we took a picture of Charles Bridge - you can see the throngs of tourists.



In other news, we are preparing the guest room for a visit by Mutley the dog, Jen and Mr Frobisher.

The Best Man

There are lots of Steves, Jeffs and Geoffs in Prague (some even change their name to differentiate themselves). When I arrived in Prague in 2001, an American Jeff arrived a week before me and we met to watch a game of football and consider flat-sharing. We never shared a flat, but we did become great mates. We both come from Birmingham - Jeff is from Alabama.

We had some lovely weather last weekend in Prague and we took a long walk around the city and took some pics. The photo is of Jeff by a new statue in Mala Strana erected to commemorate the Second World War. Bravely, he has accepted my request to be my best man. He is a bit shy, so he'll probably ask me to take this post down - it stays up until then.

Things To Do People To See

Over the next week, I have a fairly hectic schedule with lots of things to do and people to see. Mutley the dog (NSFW) is coming to Prague soon to tie up details around a city twinning arrangement with Bridport, so I will be trying to improve my local political network. I know that my forecasts of lighting blogging tend to be inaccurate (events, dear boy) so just take this as guidance.

Meanwhile, there are a group of lurkers on this blog who rarely or never comment. I got a nice email from one old friend who is from a family of active Labour supporters.

Good to see the blog is still going well- of what I've read you're extremely informative, thought provoking and balanced and that coming from a Guardian reader.

Any other first time commenters out there?

Birmingham Music - An Under-Exposed Heritage

Despite not being (anything like) fluent in each other's native language, me and my girlfriend's Slovak father get on really well. One of our shared interests is rock music. He used to be a long-haired rocker in the 70s and the pictures of him and his bandmates are cool. Take a look through his record collection and one city dominates - my home town of Birmingham. Here are all the artists in his collection that are strongly linked to the Birmingham area.

Black Sabbath
ELO
Judas Priest (pictured)
Led Zeppelin
Moody Blues
The Move (featuring Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood)
Slade

That's miles more than any other city. This article shows that it is not just in the area of rock and heavy metal where Brum has had a great impact musically. Can I make this political? You bet I can. As described by Nigel Hastilow, there is something of an identity crisis in the region aided and abetted by unwanted regional government organisations. As I said in the comments to his post.

As someone who travels widely I find it very easy to describe Birmingham. "It's in the centre of England and Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath originated from the region making it the birthplace of heavy metal"

Discussions then move easily to our industrial heritage, Shakespeare etc etc. It's not rocket science. Some people need their heads banged together.

Despite this incredible heritage, I can't think of anything on the Birmingham tourist trail that tells this culturally significant story. As the Tory run council has improved services and delivered council tax rises which are amongst the lowest in the country, our opponents main angle of attack seems to be that we don't have a vision. My good friend and Birmingham City Centre council candidate, Peter Smallbone is inviting readers to contribute to the Conservative's May 2007 election manifesto. So here's my suggestion.

I'd like to see the establishment of a Birmingham Music Museum covering the main musical styles influenced by Birmingham musicians since the 1950s (UB40 pictured). I imagine that this could be attached to a pub with a music venue and would be a commercial venture. The main council "investment" would be for "Marketing Birmingham" to commit to provide the venue with free promotion subject to the venue meeting certain criteria re facilities and quality. Such an addition to the sights of Birmingham would be very welcome and definitely worth the investment.

As we are currently redeveloping Eastside, an area just outside Birmingham's CBD, I'd love to see a museum emerge in that area. It would be a great thing for me to take my Slovak friends (or indeed other outsiders) around when they come to visit Birmingham.

Carp Yes, Turkey No, Crackers – Not Yet

Carp & Turkey

Turkeys do vote for Christmas in this region. Something fishy? Yes actually, because carp is the traditional dish of the day to celebrate Christmas. In fact I saw a whole load of carp the other day being sold from a massive storage tank at the side of the street about a mile from Prague’s National Museum on Wenceslas Square.

Indeed, it is said that the best way to prepare your carp is to buy it alive and kicking. The fish is then taken home, and, quite often, kept in the bath until it has to be cooked. How would you feel about killing your Christmas dinner?

Crackers

As for Christmas crackers, they haven’t caught on in Prague yet. Tesco have stocked luxury crackers this year, but they have proved so unpopular that even on 21st December they were already being sold at reduced prices – about £1.50 for 6 luxury crackers (no jokes though). The thing is it seems that nobody knows what they are for. Based on a bar-room discussion it seems our American cousins also don’t have a clue about our Christmas crackers tradition.

A friend who is an English teacher has put the knowledge gap to good use. He’s stocked up on the bargain crackers and used them as a prop for his lessons. If you think about it, if you weren't sure how to "use" crackers, it's not exactly self-evident is it?