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I am connected to the internet and the new house has wifi

Receiving dish being installed, perfectly illustrating the Czech approach to health & safety 🙂 © Ricky Yates

One concern I had from the outset of deciding to purchase my new home in Stará Oleška, was whether I would be able to obtain easy internet access. Ever since having an email address and joining the world-wide web, I have always done so via a broadband connection as part of having a landline phone – through British Telecom in North Oxfordshire and via O2 in Prague.

Therefore, back in mid-April, I enquired of Real Estate Agent Martin Tonder, whether the elderly owners of the house, had a land line phone line through which internet access could be obtained. In reply he wrote, ‘Sorry there is no land line, but there should be very reliable wireless service from JAW.cz’.

The website of JAW.cz is unfortunately only in Czech. But helped by Google translate, I got a good understanding of the service that they offer. I therefore sent off an email to their generic email address info@jaw.cz, with a brief Czech introduction, but with the rest in English, asking about whether they could provide an internet service to my new home and at what cost. Being a hi-tech company, I didn’t think it unreasonable to assume that there would be someone competent in English, who could reply.

I sent similar emails twice, but was greeted by total silence. Therefore it was a few days after I had moved into the new house and was in Martin Tonder’s office in Decín, resolving a couple of other issues, that I mentioned to him, this lack of response from his recommended company. He was most surprised at this and promptly rang JAW.cz. His call resulted in the promise that a technician would call to assess the situation on Monday 22^nd May at 14.30.

Communication mast on a hill four kilometres away © Ricky Yates

The technician duly arrived at the appointed time. Whilst he didn’t have a word of English, he pointed out the communication mast on a hill four kilometres away from which a signal could be obtained, and told me that Bar-restaurace U Soni, three doors down the road, obtained their internet access from the same source and that he personally, had installed their wifi system. Bar-restaurace U Soni, has been my main means of accessing the internet since moving to Stará Oleška, so it was a good recommendation. The technician further assured me that he would get an English-speaking staff member to phone me, to take the matter forward.

Unfortunately, I was once more greeted with silence as no phone call materialised. Therefore on the morning of Monday 29^th May, I braced myself and went in person to the office of JAW.cz in Decín. The young lady on the reception desk had very limited English. But between her very limited English and my very limited Czech, we made progress.

Putting my name into her computer immediately revealed details of the technician’s visit a week previously. Somebody could come and complete the installation the next day she promptly told me. Unfortunately I had a medical appointment back in Prague that day, but we agreed on Wednesday 31^st May at 14.00. But why no one had followed up the technician’s previous visit, I never did discover.

On Wednesday 31^st May, more than hour before he was due, the promised installer arrived. He happily went up the ladder into the upstairs front room and then climbed out the window onto the roof of the verandah. He fortunately discovered that the receiving dish for the wireless signal, could be attached to the base of the existing TV aerial. He also managed to bring the wire from the receiving dish into the house, through the existing hole for the TV aerial wire, without needing to drill a fresh one.

A power point located adjacent to the top of the ladder into the upstairs was the perfect place for the router and, in a relatively short period of time, my new internet connection was up and working. Cost CZK 1800/GBP 60.00, together with a monthly payment of CZK 319 / GBP 10.60.

Plenty to keep me occupied

Whilst the inside of the new house was left basically clean and emptied of the previous elderly owners’ possessions, the same cannot be said for the garden, or the various outbuildings. I’ve inherited some quite valuable and useful stuff, but also a lot of rubbish and mess that will take quite a lot of time and effort to sort out.

On the positive side, there was a good supply of cut and split logs for the wood burning stove, (the main source of heating in winter), left stacked in the wooden shed in the back garden. Then there was a further stack of cut logs, sitting at the top of the back garden, clearly the unused part of a supply delivered at the beginning of last winter. Last week, Sybille and I spent several hours over two days, moving all of the latter by wheelbarrow, stacking them in the shed, and finally disposing of the ugly bits of plastic sheeting which were meant to be keeping them dry 😉

I’ve also been left quite a number of gardening and building tools. But they were not all in one place but scattered inside or sometimes outside, the various outbuildings. Some seem to just have been left where they were last used, exposed to the joys of a Czech winter! I’ve been slowly gathering them all together and at least putting them somewhere sheltered and dry.

But on the negative side, there is an awful lot of junk that I will need to dispose of somehow. The previous owners were clearly hoarders, unwilling to get rid of anything. The photo below is of one end of the wood shed, which hopefully illustrates my point.

Seeing all of this reminded me of an experience back in 1975. Aided by my then eleven year old nephew, I was clearing out the lean-to building on the side of my widowed mother’s house, which had been the ‘workshop’ of my late father. He too, was a great hoarder. One box we came across had been labelled by my father as ‘Bits & bobs – vaguely useful’ 🙂 There is a lot of stuff left here which also fits into the ‘vaguely useful’ category!

More things ‘vaguely useful’, propped against the shed © Ricky Yates

Circular saw with ‘rain cover’ © Ricky Yates

One thing I am going to have difficulty moving is this. It is an electrically driven circular saw for cutting logs, and is sitting in the middle of the back garden. There is a heavy duty power point in the pantry at the back of the house, which is where I presume the lead sitting under the machine should be plugged in. When it was last used and whether it still works, I do not know, but I’m not keen to find out! Clearly before last winter, the previous owners bought in ready cut logs, rather than using this implement.

All the work that has been done to the house – altering and extending it, seems to have been done well. This retaining wall, built to hold back the earth at the back of the house to prevent problems with damp, was only completed last Autumn. But unfortunately, whoever did the work, (I suspect, a younger relative), didn’t dispose of the earth removed so the retaining wall could be built. It remains as this unsightly pile – another major item on the ‘to be disposed of’ list.

As Sybille said several times during the first week, there will be plenty to keep me occupied 🙂

Moving to Stará Oleška

The view from the front door of the new home in Stará Oleška © Ricky Yates

Further to my previous post, on Monday 15^th May, we moved out of the Chaplaincy Flat in Prague, and into my retirement home in in the North Bohemian village of Stará Oleška. I approached the day with considerable trepidation but in the end, everything proceeded remarkably smoothly.

As promised, three removal men and their truck, arrived promptly at 09.00 at the Chaplaincy Flat. Fortunately the team leader Filip, had quite good English, which certainly aided communication. The main issue was making sure that nothing belonging to the Prague Chaplaincy got carried off into the van, and equally, that nothing belonging to us got left behind. In this respect, the only mistake was an ironing board belonging to the Chaplaincy, ending up in Stará Oleška. I’m returning it tomorrow 🙂

By 11.00, everything was packed, either in the removalists truck, or in the back of the ‘Carly’. Fortunately, the ‘Carly’ travelled faster than the truck, so we reached the new house about half an hour before the bulk of our belongings caught up with us. The task of unloading also proceeded smoothly so that by 16.30, everything was done.

We were particularly grateful for the willingness of the removal men to get a whole lot of boxes, particularly those containing books, into the two small rooms on the first floor. We had visions of being unable to move in the ground floor rooms because of being surrounded by boxes. They also reconstructed our double bed, meaning we had somewhere to sleep comfortably on Monday night.

The past four days since our arrival, have been a mixture of both practical and administrative matters. Aided by our Real Estate agent Martin Tonder, I’ve now signed a lien regarding our water supply which comes from a source on the neighbouring property. This will allow him to finally register the transfer of the property with the regional authorities in the next few days. I’ve also been to the offices of our electricity suppliers to get it into my name and agree how I’m going to pay for it!

On the practical front, we are now able to cook, the fridge and the freezer are plugged in and working, and on Wednesday morning, I successfully plumbed in the washing machine. Four loads have now been washed without any leaks from either the cold water supply or the waste water disposal 🙂

Today, I finally found a suitable wardrobe that will fit into the designated space on one side of the bedroom. There are limitations caused by the relatively low ceiling, a protruding pillar, and allowing for where a door opens. The new wardrobe will be delivered next Thursday, finally allowing the dismantling of these cardboard ones.

Our current hanging clothes storage © Ricky Yates

Of course, having bags and boxes lying around, waiting to be unpacked, have a great attraction to the feline member of our family. My old cricket bag sitting in the enclosed glazed area on the front of the house, with his favourite old towel on top, makes for a very snoozy place to curl up and rest 😉

Šárek’s new favourite sleeping place © Ricky Yates

Ricky Yates – an Anglican no longer in Prague

Ever since I announced that I was going to retire as the Anglican Chaplain in Prague and move to live near the Czech-German border, I’ve been asked both, whether this blog would continue, and if so, would there be a new header and tag line. This post is a definitive answer to both questions.

Whilst we currently are still living in Prague – we don’t move to the new house in Stará Oleška until Monday 15^th May, I decided this evening, to ask Sybille to upload the new header that she had created at my request some days previously, in anticipation of the forthcoming change.

The new header is a combination of two photographs of mine. On the left is the gorge through which the Labe river flows north of Decín, on its way to cross the border with neighbouring Germany, where it becomes the Elbe river. On the right is the skyline of Dresden, featuring the prominent dome of the Frauenkirche.

The aim is to reflect my life over the next few years. I shall be living in Ústecký kraj, North Bohemia, but continuing in my role a coordinator of English-Language Anglican worship in Dresden, Saxony, or Freistaat Sachsen auf Deutsch.

Getting the new header uploaded and writing this new blog post, is a nice distraction to the current major task in hand. On Monday 1^st May, sixty cardboard boxes were delivered to the Chaplaincy Flat, along with a massive roll of bubble-wrap and several rolls of wide sticky tape. Yesterday & today have been two solid days of packing boxes, together with separating what belongs to the Chaplaincy from what belongs to us.

We’ve made good progress, but my sixty-five year old body is aching! This evening, I also discovered a rather large bruise on my right arm, presumably where I banged myself carrying a heavy box. This is an inevitable consequence of permanently taking Warfarin following my pulmonary embolism in August 2015.

I do hope that everyone who has enjoyed this blog for the past eight years, as I have reflected on my life in Prague and my travels further afield, will continue to visit and also hopefully comment, as I move into a new phase in life. No longer am I ‘An Anglican in Prague’ but instead, ‘An Anglican in Bohemia and Saxony’.

Bubble-wrap and sticky tape © Ricky Yates

Time to say Goodbye

Leading worship on Sunday 30th April 2017 © Sybille Yates

Today I conducted my final service at St Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague. After nearly twenty-eight years of full-time ordained ministry, I have retired.

I really didn’t quite know what to expect today. But during the week beforehand, I decided to prepare for worship just as I have done previously week by week, for over eight and a half years since arriving Prague in September 2008.

My sermon was therefore based on the Biblical readings set in the Revised Common Lectionary for the Third Sunday of Easter. – in particular the resurrection appearance of Jesus to the the two disciples on the road to Emmaus as recorded in Luke 24. 13-35, together with the end of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost – Acts 2. 36-41. As I always do, I tried to put the readings into context and explain the historical and cultural background. Having done that, I then asked what the passages have to say to us about our faith and how we might live out that faith in the coming week.

Administering Holy Communion © Sybille Yates

Whilst we had a small number of visitors, the rest of the congregation was made up of our regular worshippers, together with some of the less regular ones who had made a special effort to be present on my final Sunday. Yet as our Welcomer Sally, (who did the head count), said, the attendance was actually slightly higher than that on Easter Day.

Presentation of gifts by Churchwarden Stephen Weeks © Sybille Yates

At the end of the service, I was presented with a framed drawing of St Clement’s, along with a framed photograph of myself wearing cassock-alb and stole. But I also made my own presentation, much to the amusement of the congregation – that of the Chaplaincy mobile phone, to Rev’d Nathanial Bm who will be the interim Chaplain over the coming months.

Presenting the Chaplaincy Mobile Phone © Sybille Yates

Following worship, there was a very well-attended bring and share lunch, held in the hall on the third floor of Klimentská 18, across the road from the Church. Here there was a second presentation, this time of a dummy cheque for a very large sum of money, which I was promised would be paid to me by bank transfer, early next week. This was then followed by a champagne toast.

After a whole series of ‘goodbyes’, Sybille and I finally set off for the tram, waving a goodbye to the Church as we passed by. We made our way to one of our favourite bar-restaurants for a beer and a bite to eat as, because of everyone wanting to speak to us, we ate very little of the bring and share lunch 🙁

Whilst we were sitting enjoying our drinks, what song should come over the bar-restaurant’s sound system? ‘Time to say Goodbye’ 🙂 We both felt it was rather appropriate.