So much for keeping the blog updated! We’ve had a rather hectic time since my last post - we spent a couple of days near Český Tě?ín… (Třinec, actually, just a little to the south, but that’s not important right now :-))

View Larger Map

(If you’re interested, there’s a couple of pictures of us having fun, on ?árka’s blog - Sophie, the baby, is the child of one of ?árka’s cousins.)

The reason that I mention Český Tě?ín, is that it’s a town with two halves - one Polish and one Czech. There’s a little more on this at Wikipedia.

Other than that, ?árka started in her new job, and I got myself a job, with Web Design Factory here in Prague. I start tomorrow and I’m really, really looking forward to getting started in full-time employment once again!

?árka has just completed a couple of pieces of crochet for my mom - the second is wonderful, but just see the intricate work on the first! Take a look, and be as impressed as me!

As I’m back in the UK until the 9th August, before finally going to live in Prague with my girl, I thought that I’d better just upgrade WordPress to v2.2.1 while I have the chance, as there are some bugfixes and security fixes addressed. As stated, this is a required upgrade, so if you haven’t already (and it WAS out on June 21st), get this one installed.

Interesting news that Last.fm, the social music website, has signed a deal with Sony allowing members to listen to the entire range of Sony BMG’s music on it’s radio service. Now personally, I would never be inclined to attack Last.fm as it was through them that I met the woman that I am moving to Prague for, but signing a deal with a company with a track record like Sony’s (remember the rootkits) could be a step too far… It will be interesting to see what else Sony may get out of the deal - anyone got any mp3s of Sony artists that they may have downloaded? :-)

Last Sunday (8th July), ?árka and I visited a couple of nice exhibitions. The first was the Dalí Exhibition (not much info on this page, aside from a photograph of the man himself, prices, location and opening times), which contained a number of fascinating pieces, my particular favourite being ‘Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea Which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln‘ (or ‘Pixellated President’ as I like to remember it). If you get the chance, it’s well worth taking a look.

The second exhibition (and it’s just upstairs from Dalí’s) features the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha’s work. If you don’t know him, there’s every chance that you may have seen some of his work in late 19th/early 20th century Art Nouveau art, in particular, posters featuring women in flowing dresses surrounded by flowers and trees. It’s interesting to note that his work also appears on old Czechoslovakian bank notes, postage stamps and many other documents just after World War I. This is wonderful stuff, and you can see it’s influence crop up in advertising through the 20th century. Again, this exhibition is definitely worth a visit.

After taking a look at these, we wandered past the famous Astronomical Clock (or ‘Orloj’) to a free sports photography exhibition: Sport Foto 2007. This is a collection of pictures from some of the Czech photography greats through the years - it’s not HUGE, but it’s nice to look around (and is free! :-))

Finally, before lunch, we decided to do the tourist-y thing, and climbed to the top of the Old Town Hall Tower. You get a wonderful view of the Old Town Square and the Old Town itself, and ?árka took a number of pictures (a couple of which can be seen on her Výstavy blog entry, but we may put the others online at some point).