March 2018

Kostel sv Václava, Srbská Kamenice © Ricky Yates

Yesterday was Good Friday and, for the first time in 28 years, I wasn’t officiating at a Church service. So as it was a fine, sunny Spring day, around midday, I set out walking the yellow waymarked route to Srbská Kamenice. This is a walk that I described and illustrated in a previous blog post last August, which you can find here.

I first passed alongside Olešský rybnik, which is finally no longer frozen. Instead, it was glistening in the Spring sunshine.

Several walkers were having a lunchtime break, sitting on the lakeside benches and enjoying the view.

Walking into the forest, there was plenty of bright sunshine coming through the trees, helped by the deciduous ones having yet to regain their leaves.

But along the way, some detours were required, together with some scrambling over fallen tree trunks.

Another fallen tree across the path © Ricky Yates

This past winter, we’ve had two serious storms which have brought down many trees. The first was Storm Herwart at the end of October 2017. The second was in mid-January 2018. I’m sure the authorities will eventually clear all the paths but they face a massive task.

Another storm damaged tree © Ricky Yates

This is another example of the damage caused by the winter storms but at least this one wasn’t blocking a path.

After reaching Pod Strážištem, at 396m, the highest point on my route, I successfully negotiated the steep decent down to Srbská Kamenice, aided by my trekking pole. As I entered the village, I caught this lovely view of Kostel sv Václava ahead of me.

At Bar-restaurace Ve starém kráme, I rewarded myself with a beautifully cooked trout, eating fish being the traditional food for Good Friday…….

……aided by some liquid refreshment.

Whilst I was there, Ve starém kráme became very busy with visiting Germans, many of whom like me, had been out walking and now wanted a late afternoon meal. I felt quite proud of myself being the only person in the whole room speaking in Czech with the waitress. She very much appreciated me doing so, wishing me a ‘Hezký víkend!’ with a broad smile, as I left. I did respond, ‘Vam také!’

Suitably refreshed, I then headed off on the shorter green route, back to Stará Oleška. The total round trip is about 11-12 kilometres which I can normally walk without any problem. But at the end of the day, my body was busy reminding me that I hadn’t done a walk of that length for a few months!

Ve starém kráme decorated for Easter © Ricky Yates

New mirror cupboard and light © Ricky Yates

My apologies once again, for another long pause between blog posts. I was planning to write something back on Tuesday 6^th March, only for my laptop to crash whilst downloading a Windows 10 update 🙁 Two days later, I travelled to Berlin for a meeting of the Council of Anglican & Episcopal Churches in Germany (CAECG). Twenty-four hours into the meeting, I went down with a very nasty bout of vomiting and diarrhoea from which it took me a week to recover.

But enough of my ills – this is a short update of further progress with the house.

Having had the previous shower room completely gutted, I had to choose new fitments and then have one of the workmen return to fix them. These included this mirror cupboard above the washbasin, together with towel hooks, a glass holder, and a shelf in the shower for shampoo and shower gel. I also had to have a new shower curtain rod, as the re-built shower room is slightly wider than its predecessor, and the old rod therefore didn’t fit!

This photograph was taken after Sunday 18^th February, as that is when the electrician returned to fit the new light I had purchased, above the mirror cupboard. Before that, all I had was a light bulb on the end of a piece of electric wire, sticking out of the wall!

However, as well as fitting the new light, the electrician came with a printed A4 sheet of paper which listed by number, each of the circuit breakers/trip switches that he had fitted, saying in both Czech and English, what part of the electrics each related to. This is another example of how Elefant and their staff have gone out of their way to be helpful to me, the English-speaking foreigner. They will be getting more of my business 🙂

New shower room folding door © Ricky Yates

Finally, on Thursday 22^nd February, three men arrived to fit a new folding door, between the kitchen and the shower room. The reason for the delay in fitting it was because it was coming from Italy and the supplier took over two weeks to deliver it to Elefant.

It was only after this folding door was fitted, that Ondrej at Elefant finally sent me an invoice. Although the original agreement mentioned making staged payments during construction, these were never asked for. And when I asked about receiving an invoice, after the bulk of the work was completed, the answer was that they would not issue one, until the shower room door was fitted.

The bulk of my kitchen goods, packed in boxes © Ricky Yates

Until the kitchen was refurbished, the bulk of my crockery, glassware, etc, was stored in these packing boxes, in the room directly behind the kitchen, getting covered in dust! It has been a joy to slowly unpack these boxes, rediscovering what I possess and deciding where everything is to be stored. Before any item has gone in a cupboard, it has first been put through the dishwasher!

This room is now clear. My plan is to decorate it to get rid of all the orange 😉 and then get Elefant to fit further matching units along the wall on the right, to store all those things that didn’t fit in the kitchen. I’ve asked for an appointment with Ondrej at the Elefant showrooms, for later this week.

Month: March 2018

A Good Friday walk to Srbská Kamenice and return

Finishing touches and next steps