Sarah’s School Concert

December has been concert month, first with Ballet concerts, then CISP’s Christmas show and now Sarah’s last day at school concert for parents.

The kids sang songs, danced and recited poetry for the parents:

Malory, Sarah and Jair thick as thieves in the back row:  Colin got frustrated at the lack of visibility and climbed up the jungle gym in the class to get some aerial footage:

Teacher Jana getting into the song, providing the cues to the class from behind the parents:

The English kids in the class singing Jingle bells (Esther, Sarah, Malory, Jair, and Dorkus):

Ballet Concert

The girls, initially excited about going back to ballet classes at the beginning of the (school) year, were very excited about their new outfits and prospects. However this excitement was just that – initial. After a few lessons, they developed a resistance to going, and from then on, it was a slog in varying degrees of severity.

Added to this, an extended absence when Sarah burned her arm, and we had a situation where, when we went back to class, they were far behind the others and out of the loop for the up-coming concert.

Apart from the first few classes, we have also been without aupair, so yours truly has been the ballet dad too. On our return, the teacher forbade any more absence as the performance was only a few weeks away, and we needed to be at every practice so that Amber and Saz would know what to do with themselves on the night.

At one of the Eufrat school weekends, Hanka and Katka heard about the concert, and when invited to attend both agreed and so… they did! Fantastic for the girls, as it turned out in the end, it was what probably saved the day for them.

The concert was to be held at a far away place on the West side of Prague in a small theatre (Divadlo Strašnice) – we had never been there before, but, it showed up well enough on a map, and there was a tram stop nearby, conveniently featuring the name of the theatre in it (Strašnice) so it all seemed plausible enough. We were to be there, as we understood the instructions, an hour before the performance for the ONLY rehearsal at the venue.

I collected the girls from school on time and, loaded with all their kit (which took 2 backpacks) we set off for the hall. Worrying about getting their hair done, which is a mission on a good day when those tight little ballet buns are required, I was nervous about mom being there on time to do the aforementioned preparations. We got off the tram confidently and set off to the theatre. Within a few minutes it dawned on me that I was not seeing the roads I should be seeing and the theatre was not anywhere in sight… Now getting frustrated, carrying two backpacks and two scooters, and trying to phone Hayley for help, my Qi was becoming contorted. We are all sent these little episodes, I am lead to believe…

Hayley, already waiting at the venue, was wondering where we had got to as I tried to describe where we were. Needless to say she had even less idea of where we were than I did, and I had none.

We stormed back up the hill to the main road and I began to seek help in my patchwork Czech. The people were helpful enough – a florist family, but they were in no hurry, slowly explaining to me where to go and when to get off etc. It’s like being desperate for the loo while some lovely old duck tells you to notice the pretty flowers on your way, enquiring about your life, where you are from, how you like Prague etc. Meanwhile, all that’s on your mind is a very particular and urgent convenience, as you dance about in front of them hoping to non-verbally convey the dire urgency of it all.

Anyway, we went back the the tram stop that we disembarked from 15 minutes earlier just as the number we required departed. The wait for the next one was to be about 10 minutes, acceptable under ordinary circumstances, but this was no ordinary circumstance.

In desperation I consulted the list of trams passing our stop for any sign that there was another that passed our destination. There was, and it was the next one, and we all got aboard. The girls don’t deal with urgency well at all. Their standard response is a combination of hysteria, which makes them ask questions at an astonishing rate, both speaking at the same time and losing their temper if I can’t listen to, and answer each of them the instant the question is asked. Secondly they get a kind of paralysis, in which they suddenly become deathly tired, develop pains in all quarters and burst into tears. The combination of these things results in only one thing – more pressure which only brings on more hysterical paralysis…

The tram made a turn that it shouldn’t have if it was going to where we needed to be, and I knew the world had ended. Consulting the onboard map I see that there is not one stop bearing the name of our theatre, but no less than 5 of them the only difference being their obscure extensions. So… we got off, waited for a tram going the other way, went back to the beginning again and waited 10 more minutes for the ONLY tram that stops where we need to be. All the while Hayley is calling to make sure we are still alive and telling me that, not only should we have been there half an hour ago, but we should have been in full kit, hair done and ready to dance!

We sprinted from the stop all the way to the theatre, burst through the doors into the reception area, to the astonishment of all the other parents who were quite serenely talking among themselves, reading etc. The rehearsal was already in full swing behind the theatre doors when the Wood whirlwind blew past trying to locate the changing rooms. Then began the fastest transformation of hysterical paralytics into ballerinas. Thank heavens for Hanka and Katka, who lifted the girls spirits the moment they saw them. Hayley, finished stabbing the last pin into the ballet buns (read babies head) as she delivered them to a very peeved teacher to participate in the last few minutes of their rehearsal.

Poor kids… they cope well given the odds staked against them.

Just before going on… how you feeling girls?

Nervous?

Well, despite the preparation being so dogged, the performance was excellent, and both Amber and Sarah did very well, ended up liking the tour on stage and vowing to get back onto it at every opportunity – I wonder where they get that from??

Amber makes her entrance…

… and then Saz

On with the show!

The concert was not just for their age-group, but included all the classes of the same teacher, so there were performances from dancers in their early 20’s all the way down to our little people – very good indeed.

 

The photography was difficult – the flash shows up all the dust in the air and so, if there’s fast movement to freeze with a flash, it’s dotted with white orbs and washes out the performers, but you get the idea… nothing a 2.8 or faster lens wouldn’t be able to solve, but that’s another story

Our 2 ballerinas – we couldn’t be more proud!

And thanks to the loyal fan-base… for everything!

CISP Christmas Concert

Amber’s school put on a Christmas do for the parents. Being a Christian school, it was a very Christmassy affair. To their credit, they put enough innovation into the event to make it quite unique, well, in my experiences of Christmas concerts anyway. The event was themed around a “Special Delivery” that was expected by the people of the time and all the bits and pieces that one would expect to find.

The show included a number of different acts, from a group of people miming imitations – everything from a pimple squeezed till it popped to ski-jumping if memory serves, others were cases of weird and contagious illnesses that make the sufferer do bizarre things, a very funny skit around the 12 Days of Christmas, and others.

In all, a decent show.

Amber was in the choir and loved every minute of it. She worked really hard on her songs and rehearsals, by the end of the event her little voice was shot. She really gave it everything. Some of the parents came up to us afterwards saying how they enjoyed her performance – when there is music playing, Amber is dancing, there’s just no way to stop it – doesn’t matter if that wherever is in a lift or in front of a few hundred people. She performed all the actions to the songs with the kind of flair you need from someone on the stage too.

The opportunity for pictures was limited severely by the design of the hall, and my proficiency with my new camera… anyway, here are a few shots of the show…

A few contagious diseases being passed along in the doctors waiting rooms…

The impressionists popping a zit…

Amber on her way to the stage – that is Liz Hartman in front of her – her Grade 1 teacher…

Yes, it is a special delivery…

Joseph talking to the delivery guy while Mary looks on…

The choir, Amber front and centre, Leslie Johnson – the school principle is the lady with her back to this (and many other) shot(s).

The angels stressing in a strategy meeting that the delivery is going to be late…

Rowdy sheep with their rowdy shepherds…

The choir delivering another tune…

Any guesses?

Amber and her friend Shamima in the wise-men’s hat after the show

Christmas Market at Starometska, Prague

We can hardly believe that Christmas is storming down on us again.  It seems like a blink since we were shivering at the Nuremburg markets last year.

We have also not had a week-end in Prague for many weeks and so decided to be the “tourist in our own home town” again.

I heard word at the office that the Starometska (Old Town) markets were really good this year so we went to visit them on the week-end.

The first sight that caught my eye was the Staročeské trdlo (Old Czech pastry).  I have just been scanning google to find a translation, but the best I could find was this explanation: 

Credit to a web source I can’t remember (sic) “I am Czech so I can tell you what TRDLO really means. It comes from old Czech where it meant a pole, especially a standing pole that could be used for various purposes like tieing up animals (goats etc) or also keepint fiber when making threads etc.etc. The saying was “do not stand here like a trdlo” (and rather do something useful. So people who used to stand and not to know what to do or how to work, there were considered foolish, maybe a little bit stupid for not to know what should be done. So this way in modern Czech this word means someone who had done something stupid, but it is not serious, it is often used to address children who just made something that has to be repaired.
So trdlo really means a pole or a stick, simply the stick on which one makes the food you had seen. The food is rarely called trdlo itself, traditionally it is called trdelnik, but a company that sells it most has patented the name trdlo for this food though it is a little bit nonsense in Czech but propably shorter, who knows why.”

So back to the trdlo stand which I am never able to pass by without becoming a customer.  Sweet bread freshly roasted and rolled in cinnamon … mmmm.

We gave the girls a limit of 5 Christmas market goodies each and so we stopped at each stall while the girls considered what to spend their 5 limit on.  Here we are at a stall that sells shell Christmas tree decorations.

And another stall of brightly decorated glass ornaments – and I could not resist the warm winter mittens.

The atmosphere is great with street performers and musicians:

Sarah posing for the camera (isn’t she stunning):

We could tell it was close to on the hour by the tourist swarm in front of the astronomical clock. It performs a jig every hour (and was an immense let down for us when we saw it the first time)

We had lunch at a street-side cafe overlooking the astronomical clock and Colin snapped his girls, playing with his new camera:

 Lunch barely over and it is already getting dark.  Notice the angel made of lights:

Yes, The Woods were here:

Christmas Tree.. oh Christmas Tree…

It is part of that most sacred tradition to beckon the presents closer, that rite that keeps the hype up and the days counting down until the fat guy passes through a convenient hole in the house to make his deliveries. I, of course refer to the erection that every house should have in the last month of the year - the Christmas Tree.

Our two love their tree. The moment the first tree is displayed in a mall, or the first decoration is hung the calls begin for the Christmas tree to be set up. Many a young conifer gives up its life for this time, but by a combination of economics, convenience and some conscience we have a wire and plastic number that provides all the satisfaction required of it.

This tree will not have a present under it this year, because Santa has a forwarding address for us in Austria, and so, when the day does roll around, he will need to knock on the door there, not here.

This is an inconsequential detail to the girls who just love the whole process. As long as Santa knows where to find us, they’re ok.

Amber and Saz do most of the work themselves – all the parents contribute is the coiling of the lights. We regularly have to cope with low light scenarios in the house once the tree is up though. Amber particularly switches off all the house lights, and then, on go the tree lights – the entire living area becomes and blueroom.

That, and candles are about all we are allowed to eat dinner by, or do homework if it was up to her!

Cow, one of the the other sacred things in the house poses here, smiling as always with the tree-decorators.

To go with our fake tree this year, we have some fake snow – the real thing is plentiful outside, but being able to spray permanent snow inside the house is just way cool.

The kids got one set of doors to decorate and boy did they decorate – by the end, it was like having a custom frosting job all over the glass.

May the intervening days fleet by!