North Bohemia – Page 9

Brexit

My small act of defiance today. The EU flag is proudly flying on the front of my house © Ricky Yates

Today is a very sad day. At midnight tonight (CET), 23.00 (GMT), the United Kingdom will cease to be a member of the European Union (EU) and consequently, I will lose my EU citizenship.

All this has come about through an ill thought out referendum, held more that three and a half years ago. It was called by the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, not for the benefit of the country but to avoid a complete split in the Conservative party. In that referendum, which was only advisory, 37% of the electorate, which was then 27% of the population, voted to leave the EU. Which means that 63% of the electorate and 73% of the population did not vote to leave the EU.

The leave campaign broke electoral law, was backed by ‘funny money’ from abroad, and told lies of which this is probably the most famous example.

Those who voted ‘leave’ were predominantly elderly, white, English nationalists, believing that the England they fondly remembered from the 1950s could be recreated, along with the British Empire.

Probably about 750,000 of those people who voted ‘leave’, are now dead. Yet the views of a whole swath of young people who were not eligible to vote, but who opinion polls indicate would vote overwhelmingly ‘remain’, will have to suffer the consequences. Bungling Boris and his cronies keep telling us that ‘leave’ is the will of the people. In part, it is the will of the dead now being imposed on the living.

As far as I am concerned, major constitutional change should only take place with a super majority of at least 60%. A good example of what I mean has been well-illustrated by the Church of England where a two-thirds majority of each of the three houses that make up General Synod, had to be in favour before women could be ordained deacon, priest, and more recently, as bishops.

Three days after the June 2016 referendum, I was preaching at the monthly English-language Anglican Evening Prayer service in the Frauenkirche, Dresden, about which you can read here. It is when I am in Dresden that I am particularly reminded of why the EU, or strictly speaking its forbear, the European Economic Community (EEC), was formed. The continent of Europe had experienced two horrific world wars during the twentieth century and the desire was to prevent that ever happening again.

This poster, from the 1975 referendum campaign, which resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of EEC membership, spells that thinking out, very clearly. Yet the supporters of Brexit, particularly the right-wing UK press, seem to think that we are still fighting the Second World War, almost 75 years since it came to an end. They use the language of WW2 saying, ‘We stood alone’, so we can do so again.

Whilst the UK may have stood alone for a short while, the only reason that WW2 was won was because of the intervention of American forces, together with Stalin’s Red Army. UK forces also benefited from many Czechs and Poles who served, particularly in the RAF. Yet it is Czechs, Poles and other EU citizens from Central and Eastern Europe who are now deemed by Brexiteers to be ‘unwanted immigrants’.

Bungling Boris’s cry is to ‘get Brexit done’. He and his supporters will be celebrating tonight. But they haven’t got ‘Brexit done’. The country now enters an eleven month transition period during which time, the UK will still be following EU rules and contributing to EU funds. In that period, there have to be negotiations to agree the future trading relationship between the UK and the EU.

The only way a trading agreement will be achieved in eleven months is if the UK agrees to abide by all current EU rules and regulations and all future ones. This will include allowing for the free movement of labour. The only difference will be that the UK will no longer have any input into the creation of those rules and regulations. It would be what is often referred to as BRINO – Brexit in name only.

Failure to agree to such a deal will lead to massive and long-lasting economic damage. You cannot cease your membership of the club and still have all the benefits of being a member.

There are no real benefits for the UK by leaving the EU – unless you think having a blue passport, produced in France, is a benefit.

President Macron & Chancellor Merkel enjoying a joke

Whilst the Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and the EU, does protect me in my current situation, at least until the end of 2020, there are still issues to be resolved, especially in the area of free movement. And I am always aware that I and every other UK citizen living within the EU, can so easily be used as pawns in future negotiations. At various times, UK government ministers have referred to us as ‘cards’ and ‘bargaining chips’.

Therefore today has been a further kick up the backside to me, to get on with my Czech citizenship application. I have been procrastinating these past months from writing my long essay about my life, travels, education, and why I want to become a Czech citizen. The first section is now written but there is still more to do before I can send it off for translation into Czech.

Neujahrskonzert / New Year’s Concert

The dais of the Frauenkirche © Ricky Yates

On the evening of New Year’s Day, I once more visited the Frauenkirche in Dresden. However, on this occasion it wasn’t to conduct an English-language Anglican service, but to enjoy a complete performance of the oratorio ‘Messiah’, by George Frederick Handel, or Georg Friederich Händel as the German programme correctly declared.

Therefore, instead of being seated on the main dais, or standing in the forward pulpit, I was located in a balcony, high up overlooking the dais, from where in advance of the performance, I took this photograph, leaning over the balustrade. During the performance, I had to be seated and could only hear the orchestra, soloists and chorus as the said balustrade blocked my view 🙁 However, I did stand for the Hallelujah Chorus, as is the tradition, but clearly one unknown to the predominantly German audience who all remained seated 😉

I am not complaining about the view, (or lack of it), from my seat, as I got my ticket completely free. It was a Mitarbeiterkarte – one for an employee or volunteer. In contrast, a ticket for a seat in the main body of the Hauptraum cost €84.00.

Although, with one exception, (the Armenian soprano Narine Yeghiyan), all the participants were German, the oratorio was sung in English, using the libretto compiled by Charles Jennens; Handel only being responsible for the music. The text is a compilation of extracts from the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible, and when taken from the Psalms, using the Psalter translated by Myles Coverdale, which appears in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

The programme, (€3.00), as well as given short biographies of the soloists, chorus, orchestra and conductor, contained the complete text of the libretto in English, together with a translation into German. The English text did include a couple of errors, most notably, ‘His yoke is easy, and His burthen is light’ 😉 My German is unfortunately not good enough to know whether anything got ‘lost in translation’ 😉

As you can see, the programme also made another common error with regard to this oratorio. The correct title of the work is ‘Messiah’, (or ‘Messias’, auf Deutsch), without the definite article. No need for ‘The’ or ‘Der‘!

Although the oratorio is divided into three parts, it was played and sung right through, without an interval, the performance lasting about two hours and five minutes in total. I was therefore glad of the opportunity to stretch my legs by standing for the Hallelujah Chorus, which marks the conclusion of part two. After the final ‘Amen’ had been sung, the performers received a long, loud and well-deserved standing ovation.

Whilst I have a double CD of ‘Messiah’, sung by ‘The Sixteen’, directed by Harry Christophers, there is nothing better than being present at a live performance of the work, especially in such a significant venue as the Dresden Frauenkirche. It did make for an excellent beginning to 2020.

From Autumn to Winter 2019

Winter has been rather slow to arrive in North Bohemia in 2019. We were blessed with a wonderful Indian Summer during the second half of October and the weather remained mainly dry and fine, well into November. This allowed me to make a lot of progress in the garden about which I hope to write another blog post in the near future.

But now it has turned cold with overnight frost on several occasions. I noted yesterday afternoon that the the tub into which rain off the roof of my carport drains, was still solidly frozen on the surface. However, we still haven’t had any snow. In my two previous winters here in Stará Oleška, the first snow fell in November.

Wood-burning stove well alight © Ricky Yates

I have to say that I am very pleased with my new wood-burning stove about which I wrote here, a month ago. It is already proving to be a very worthwhile investment. Here it is, roaring away!

Cross-sections of tree trunk, awaiting removal © Ricky Yates

As I said in reply to a comment on that post, I hope that the truckload of logs that I had delivered in January 2019, will last me through the whole of this winter. But as I wrote in a post on 30^th March entitled, ‘From Winter to Spring 2019’, that load included these massive cross-sections of tree trunk; twenty-three of them in total.

Where the cross-sections of tree trunk once were © Ricky Yates

The only way to get them from where they were deposited, on public land, adjacent to my garden, and into the wood shed, was to cut each of them in two with my chainsaw. Having done that, I then transported each section, one at a time, by wheelbarrow, into the shed. Forty-six journeys in total! I finally completed the task on 22^nd April. Here is where they once sat, along with the debris from chainsawing.They did all just fit into the shed!

Being protected from any rain and with the warmth of summer, all the normal-sized logs have developed some cracks whilst sitting in the shed, as the timber has dried out and become seasoned. In turn, this makes them easy to split into a size suitable for the wood-burning stove.

Two of the cross-sections of tree trunk stacked in the wood shed © Ricky Yates

But the cross-sections of tree trunk have only developed a few fine cracks and have therefore proved much more difficult to split. So instead, I’ve had to spend quite some time and energy with my chainsaw, to reduce them into sections of a more manageable size, before they can be used in the wood-burning stove.

Chainsaw ready to tackle the next half cross-section of tree trunk © Ricky Yates

However, because the wood from these cross-sections is so dense, it burns far more slowly. This is particularly useful if I want to go out for a few hours in the evening and join the locals at U Soni. Just one of these reduced size sections of tree trunk will keep burning for at least three hours, meaning I return to a warm house and with no need to re-light the fire.

My Vine

The house and vine in March 2017 © Ricky Yates

On the front of my house is a well-established vine. In this photograph, you can see the outline of it, in between and along the top of the double-glazed windows that enclose the verandah. The photograph was taken by me in March 2017, at the time I agreed to buy the house. It has appeared previously on the blog, in this post entitled, ‘The new house in Stará Oleška‘.

At some point in the previous six months, the vine clearly had been pruned for which I am most thankful. It was the only thing in the garden that appeared to have received any attention in the months before I purchased the property. I believe that once the previous elderly owners decided to sell, they chose to do nothing further to the garden, meaning that I inherited quite a jungle 🙁

Over the summer of 2017, the vine flourished, as can be seen in this photograph, taken in August that year, when I was painting the frames of the two windows under the apex of the roof of the house. However, it did also produce a healthy crop of grapes.

The vine after being pruned in March 2019 © Ricky Yates

In February 2018 and again in March this year, I rigorously pruned it. This is how it looked following its serious haircut in March 2019. But in both years, all my rigorous pruning has ever done is to encourage the vine to flourish even more.

As you can see in the photograph above, taken in late September this year, the vine took over virtually all of the front windows, making it almost impossible to see out!

However, it did once again, produce an excellent crop of grapes. These are some of the 2019 vintage!

One piece of helpful advice I was recently given was this. Whilst vines are known for growing prodigiously, if you prune them in the late Summer/early Autumn, rather than leaving it to the Spring, they tend not to grow as much. Therefore, deciding that I would like to be able to see out of my front windows next year, over the past two days, the vine has been once more thoroughly pruned.

Pruned vine 31st October 2019 © Ricky Yates

Here is the photographic evidence!

PS: You can also see my recently renovated & freshly varnished front door 🙂

Out with the old and in with the new

The old wood-burning stove with heat proof walls on either side © Ricky Yates

When I had the kitchen in my home completely refurbished, back in January 2018, other than the tiled floor and an overhead florescent light, the only other thing that was retained from the previous kitchen, was the wood-burning stove, because it was the only source of heating for the whole house. As part of the refurbishment, two heatproof walls were built, either side of the stove, in order to protect the newly installed neighbouring kitchen units.

Once the stove has been alight for a couple of hours, it does heat the house quite well. But the associated oven takes a very long time to heat up and it is very difficult to judge what should be the correct cooking time for anything one puts in it. Therefore since the kitchen refurbishment, I haven’t used the stove to cook at all, as I now have a very effective electric oven and hob.

Over the past year, I have toyed with the idea of replacing the old wood-burning stove with something both more visually attractive, as well as more heat efficient. My two concerns have been the cost of a new stove, together with the practicalities of getting the old one successfully removed and a new one installed.

Last week I bit the bullet. I visited the Mountfield store in Decín, from where I previously purchased both my lawnmower and chain saw, and ordered a new wood-burning stove. The one I ordered was in their sale, at half its normal price. So I felt I was getting a bargain.

The two staff members who I dealt with, both had some English. One of them was the one who had been most helpful to me when I purchased my lawnmower back in the summer of 2017. I showed them the photo above of the old stove, seeking confirmation that, as part of the deal, they would take the old one away when delivering the new one. They seemed to assure me, more than once, that they would.

I was also aware that I would need some new sections of metal chimney, as the smoke outlet on the old stove is on the right-hand side, whereas on the new stove, it is in the centre. Aided by the photo, the two staff worked out that I needed two new chimney sections which I duly purchased.

New metal chimney sections © Ricky Yates

At 07.03 on the morning of Monday 30^th September, I got a text message saying that my new stove would be delivered that morning and that the driver would phone me about thirty minutes in advance of his arrival. But when the truck did arrive, it was one man on his own, working for the Czech branch of the German logistics company, Gebrüder Weiss. He duly unloaded a wooden crate containing my new stove, but deposited it on my front path. No, he couldn’t take it up the steps into my house and neither could he take my old stove away.

The new wood-burning stove, sitting before the steps leading to my front door © Ricky Yates

A year ago, at an event in Decín, I met a fluent English-speaking Czech lady called Mirka. She runs a weekly English conversation class and invited me, as a native English-speaker, to help her with her class. It is something I’ve enjoyed doing this past year, and has occupied me for an hour on Monday afternoons, during term time. In turn, Mirka has twice bailed me out with Czech language problems, for which I’ve been most grateful.

Last Monday morning, I made a cri de coeur to Mirka, asking if she knew anybody who could help me out by coming and getting my new stove into the house and the old one out. Over the past few days she has been absolutely brilliant.

She first visited the Mountfield store to ascertain whether they would take the old stove away & install the new one. The outcome was that I had misunderstood what I thought I had been told at the time of the sale – it is a service they don’t provide.

Then, following an exchange of text messages, emails with photographs, and phone calls, this morning, two men with their van, arrived to sort out my problem. Fortunately, the younger of the two guys had quite good English which greatly aided communication.

Firstly, the the two guys successfully moved the old stove out of the house, down the front path to the side of their van. Then they dismantled the wooden crate, to enable them to move the new stove into the house. They discovered that the new stove was actually bolted onto the crate and it took a selection of their tools and mine, to get it disconnected.

The new wood-burning stove, duly fitted © Ricky Yates

But they eventually succeeded, and here it is in situ. And the two new sections of metal chimney that the Mountfield staff got me to purchase, were exactly what was required.

Amazingly, the two guys wanted no payment for their labours. As the old stove still works, they would be able to sell it on. I did press 500kc into the young man’s hand as some ‘beer money’, for which he was most grateful. And I certainly need to find a way of rewarding Mirka, and not just by helping with her conversation class which resumes next Monday, after the summer break.