úterý 14. ledna 2020

One week to my big day

Long time no see, respectively long time no write. Let's catch up a little bit...
Phew, it has been already 5 years down under, can't believe it how time flies...
I have been enjoying life without uni duties for more than 1 year and still don't have enough of it...
So far there hasn't been any whim to enroll anywhere...

Because right now I have a big significant issue to deal with...

In September 2019 we went back to Czech rep for a short visit
so we also took advantage of more patient's friendly medical system,
mainly from the financial perspective. 
Ironically enough, on my mum's birthday the doctors found a tumor in my belly coming from my left ovary. 
This came as a huge surprise as I haven't suffered with any problems, no pain, no indicators. 
As this was found only 3 days prior my departure I decided to take the risk
and deal with this condition back down under. 
During the following 3 months I have undergone several tests including ultrasound or magnetic resonance
to doctors still not be able to 100% diagnose what the large mass in my belly is. 
Looks benign but they will be sure once they open me and check :D
Unfortunately what they could tell is that the tumor has oppressed my left kidney in such a way
that it completely lost its function and needs to be taken out together with the tumor. 
By the time I have already absorbed the overwhelming information
and just waiting for my big day to have it done. 

Even though I thought that I did all the prevention check ups,
I underestimated the aussie way of the gynecologic one.
Here you only go to your GP and ask for a pap smear test for checking the cervix cancer.
Unfortunately no palpable test and ultrasound is done here as it is in the Czech republic.
Now I know that patient in Ozz needs to be proactive and asks for all the test and examination
she wants to have done.  Especially, if you have this diagnosis in your family...Lesson learnt.

I reckon that images coming out of MRI are pretty cool, aren't they?

čtvrtek 8. února 2018

From a track to the saddle

Hey sis, I hope you still practise jogging. Tereza told me when I unpacked xmas present from her -  jogging suit. Well, no I don't. I had to answer frankly....But I can wear this to my riding anyway, so don't worry.
If I want to remember when was the last time I went out for jogging, I would have to check runkeeper.
And I ask to myself: How is possible that this kind of sport which I loved so much I have been neglecting so much.
It's not so straight to answer this. Every time I see people jogging, gracefully jumping in their pace, I wish I would be them. Or when I see some announcement of half marathon or other similar race I think that this time I'd force myself and start again to be ready for it.
I will use a nice oxymoron right now and yet that I am too lazy and everytime I am about to do some sport, I simply pick my bicycle.
I think that I am able to excercise more in the same time span and it is easier and convenient to get back home on the saddle rather than run. In other words, If I want to spend 1 hour of jogging, it will take me at least 1,5 hour to get to the park and back.
Yeah, I could ride my bike to the park and then run one circle.... I did this once and I think that my legs are completely use to different movements, I felt horrible ponderously.
Well, one day maybe, I will find that enthusiasm I used to have before.

                                                       My just serviced red dragon

neděle 16. dubna 2017

Outback trip

Finally! The trip I have been looking forward to it for so long. 4 days outback trip by train and coach. Even before it started a few things had happend, good and bad, changes, surprises so I have decided to write a feed about it to captrure it better than just with pictures. I started to organise whole trip 1 month in advance, made a great itinery,

Sydney - Broken Hill by train and coach
Stay 2 days in Broken hill and enjoy the outback
Broken Hill - Adelaide by coach
Adelaide - Sydney - plane

Because, if there is something what we hate with Tomas, is backtracking!

Unfortunatelly, 2 weeks before our departure a lady from coach company, which runs coaches from Broken Hill to Adelide, called me to inform me, that all journeys were cancelled on Easter week. Well, this really hasn't made my day, so whats now?

We could fly from Broken Hill to Adelaide, the airticket cost like return ticket to the Czech rep. though, therefore we hadn't had any other option but backtracking.

On wednesday night I got back from work (our departure was scheduled on Thursday early morning) to find out, that Tomas forgot to make schnitzels for our trip! Dont worry, the schnitzels were frozen prefabrications, I couldn't ask for tenderizing, making triple layer and frying from Tomas, I am not so cruel. But he completely forgot as he thought that I will make them on wednesday morning, eventually I had some shift swap so I couldnt. The point is, this kind of assumption is going to be critical for us later. So we just made fun from this that all trip is ruined because we forget to make schnitzels.

Another kick came on Thursday arvo, when we arrived to Dubbo and we should change the train for coach. I jumped to coles to buy some necessities and because we still have some time we grabbed a beer. With some spare time we finished our beer and headed to bus terminal, where we saw nothing was happening. In a shock I checked the ticket and saw the departure time was 1:15, not 1:45 as I was wrongly thinking. I just fixed in my mind that we have an hour in Dubbo. Tom has seen the ticket the same day, but he just accepted my false assumption. After checking the schedule, we found out that the next coach is leaving tomorrow. I went to information and I was lucky, there were still some free seats in tommorow coach, anyway we have to spend night in Dubbo.

The following day we have enough spare time so we were heading to botanical garden where we saw how lucky we were as from 365 days there were only 3 the garden is closed. Of course, we picked the bad one :D



We didnt miss our coach that day, the lady from info centre told us: "You two, you stay here and dont go anywhere! :D " when we arrived 20 minutes earlier.

I was looking forward to observing the change of landscape from countryside to outback, but what I saw from the window was more savanna than Sahara. Then the dark fell and I saw pitch black. But what I found cool was the massive bumper in the front of the coach. The kangaroos were jumping quite frequently accross the road indeed.
The following day we went to Broken Hill Miners' memorial in the morning and for the afternoon I planned a walk to Living desert sculptures.(walk for me, for Tomas Todesmarsch). According to google only 7 km and 2 hours walking, easy. And the thing was, that sculptures are the prettiest during the sunset, so we hit the road at 3 pm. When we got like 2 km from the city, a coach was passing by, it stopped after a few meters and the driver asked us whether we want to go to see the sculptures. If so, we can hop in. From the distance we looked like two emus as he said and when the driver asked the others if they should give us a lift, they agreed. By that time we didnt realize how lucky we were, but eventually 7 Km according to google were 14 Km in reality, so I dont want to imagine the possible scenario. All the people were very nice to us, it was a group of pensioners from Adelaide. And we were for them typical silly people from city, who really underestimated the whole situation. Tomas has experienced the feeling, which people from Prague have when they are somewhere else and have to face the typical reaction (well, from Prague, what do you expect? :D) Here it was transfered to Australian conditions. Fortunatelly, they gave us a lift on the way back, so were safe and sound back in the hostel early. We really took the lesson from it, such as at least we should inform somebody from the hostel where we are going and always ask locals and never trust google! :D 






Outback trip

Konecne prisel vylet, na ktery jsem se tak dlouho tesila! 4 denni vylet vlakem a busem do pouste v New South Walesu. Uz pred jeho zacatkem se stalo par veci, mile i nemile zmeny a prekvapeni provazely cely vylet, tak jsem se rozhodla, ze to zvecnim i zapiskem do bloggu nez jen fotkami.
Cely vylet jsem zacala organizovat asi mesic predem, vymyslela nejlip proveditelny itinerar  nasledovne:
Sydney - Broken Hill vlakem/busem
Pobyt dva dny v Broken Hillu a uzit si outback a poust
Broken Hill - Adelaide busem
Adelaide - Sydney letadlem

Protoze jestli neco nemame s Tomaskem radi, tak je to "backtrackovani" neboli jet stejnou cestou tam i zpatky.

Bohuzel asi 14 dni pred zacatkem mi volala slecna z autobusove spolecnosti, ktera provozovala spojeni mezi Broken Hill a Adelaide, ze kvuli Velikonocum vsechny spoje rusi....No, opravdu me tato zprava nepotesila, protoze uz jsme meli koupenou letenku do Sydney z Adelaide na nedeli 16.4., tak co ted s tim?

Letet z Broken Hill do Adelaide slo, ale jelikoz je jedna o malou leteckou spolecnost (Rex), tak cena jedne letenky se rovnala skoro zpatnecni letence do Cech, takze to jsme rezolutne odmitly a bohuzel nam nezbylo nic jineho nez backtrackovat.

Ve stredu vecer jsem prisla z vecerni sichty(odjezd ve ct brzy rano), kde jsem ocekavala ze budou hotove (nebo aspon v procesu) rizky, ktere mel Tomik pripravit na nasi dlouhou cestu. Nebojte, rizky byly zmrazene prefabrikaty, opravdu jsem po Tomovi nemohla chtit naklepani, obaleni a usmazeni, takhle kruta nejsem! Ale on na to uplne zapomnel! Zafixoval si totiz, ze rizky udelam ve stredu rano ja, ale nakonec jsem musela prehodit nejaky sichty.....Tohleto zafixovani si se nam i pozdeji nevyplatilo. Nakonec jsme si z toho udelali srandu, ze je cely vylet zkazeny protoze se zapomnelo na rizky...

Dalsi kopanec prisel ve ct odpoledne, kdy jsme dorazili do Dubbo a meli jsme prestoupit z vlaku na coach. Nevim, proc jsme nemohli jet vlakem az do Broken Hill, protoze koleje tam vedou, mozna je nekde opravovali. No, v Dubbo jsem si skocila koupit par nezbytnosti do obchodu a protoze jsme meli cas, tak jsme si dali jedno pivko. Zodpovedne jsme se s predstihem zvedli a zamirili na nadrazi, kde jsme videli nebo spis nevideli nic. V soku kontroluju listek a hle! odjezd nebyl v 1:45 ale v 1:15. To jsem si zase pro zmenu zafixovala ja, ze mame v Dubbo hodinku na prestup. Tom mel listek ten samy den v ruce, ale proste prijal moji mylnou domnenku za svou. Kontrolujeme jizdni rad a zjistujeme, ze dalsi spoj jede az zitra...Jdu na informace a nastesi je v zitrejsim spoji misto, takze za maly poplatek prebukovavame listek. Nedobrovolne tedy travime noc v Dubbo. Nejdriv jsem myslela, ze v ramci usetreni prespime venku, ale teploty v noci padaji az k 10st a nemeli jsme s sebou spacaky, takze bookujeme motel na jednu noc.

Druhy den nam bus jede ve stejny den, takze mame dopoledne dost casu. Vypravili jsme se do botanicke zahrady, kde zjistujeme, jaky mame stesti, ze se strefime z 365 do 3 dnu, kdy je zahrada zavrena :D                                  

Tak jsme dosli jen na fotbalove hriste kde jsme se vyvalili na slunicku. Ono to totiz nebylo uplne kousek z motelu do zahrady, takze jsme  byli celkem unaveni. Po dostatecnem odpocinku razime na obed, kde si davame tradicni australsky velikonocni obed a sice, morske plody.  Ja si dala kalamary, takze me uprava smazenim neprekvapila, ale Tomik si dal squida (chobotnicka) a ty kousky byly taky smazeny. Asi z cele nabidky 20 jidel na velikonocnim menu byla tak 3 jidla nesmazena....brrr

Autobus do Broken Hillu jsme si tentokrat ujet nenechali, pani z informaci stala na nastupisti a rika mi, vy dva uz nikam nechodte, zustante tady :D 

Hodne jsem se tesila, ze cestou uvidim, jak se krajina postupne meni na nehostinnou poust, ale za okny to spis pripominalo africke savany nez Saharu. A pak padla tma, takze i kdyz jsme treba pak jeli mesicni krajinou, tak jsem to nevidela. Po jedenacte vecer konecne prijizdime do Broken Hillu a v hostelu padame do postele znaveni cestou. 

Rano druhy den se jdeme podivat na Miners' memorial na odpoledne jsem naplanovala prochazku, podle Tomaska by to byl Todesmarsch, na sochy v living desert area. Podle googlu jen 7 km, za 2 hodky bysme tam meli byt, pohoda. Cestou nas miji autobus, ktery po par metrech zastavuje a ridic se nas pta, jestli jdeme na sochy a jestli jo, tak at si nastoupime. Prej jsme z dalky vypadali jako emu a kdyz se ptal ostatnich, jestli nam maji zastavit, tak vsichni souhlasili. Ani jsme netusili, jaky se na nas usmalo stesti, protoze to byla jeste dalka k socham. Byli to moc mili lide, spis duchodci z Adelaide, pro ktery jsme byli neco jako cviceny opicky nebo atrakce, protoze jsme jako typicti mestaci podcenili situaci a vsechno nemuselo skoncit dobre.Hacek byl totiz v tom, ze sochy vypadaji nejlepe pri zapadu slunce, tak jsem vse nacasovala, abysme tam na zapad byli, ale pak uz jsem nejak nepocitala s tim, ze cesta zpatky muze byt za tmy. Vyprava nam pak nabidla at se k tim pripojime i na afternoon tea a svezli nas zase zpatky. Google nam tady totiz tak trosku lhal, protoze vzdalenost nebyla 7 km ale asi tak 14 km?! Proto si vsichni klepali na celo a ptali se nas, jak muzeme byt tak lehkovazni. V pousti totiz byva po setmeni docela zima, jak vsichni vime. Na to jsme byli pripraveni dalsi vrstvou obleceni, i vody jsme meli dost, ale treba baterku uz jsme s sebou nemeli. Tom si tak zkusil, jaky to asi maji Prazaci na venkove nebo vlastne vsude mimo Prahu, kde jsme "no jo, Prazaci" preneseno na Australske pomery :D
Rikame si, jestli je to normalni, ze jsou takhle vsude fajn mili a prijemni lide? Protoze Sydney proste neni Australie a my jsme ted konecne vylezli z tehle bubliny. 

Po jedenacte vecer jdeme spat a nastavuji budika na 3:25 protoze bus zpatky do Dubbo vyjizdi z Broken Hill uz v 3:45. Z vlastni zkusenosti si davame budiky oba, protoze se Tomovi uz stalo, ze se mu mobil jednou zaseknul, takze mame pojistku navzajem. No a rano zvoni jen jeden budik, koukam na to, jak je to mozny, a muj cas na mobilu se mi ukazuje o pul hodiny zpatky? Jako pri pomysleni, ze ten budik nastavime jen u me a nechame si ujet zase autobus, me poliva studeny pot. Na druhou stranu by se asi nic nestalo, protoze autobus mel pres pul hodiny zpozdeni, ale kdo to mohl vedet ze? Kdyby byval ten bus mel zpozdeni i v Dubbo pul hodiny tak ho stihneme taky :)

Posledni perlicka byl vypadek proudu ve vlaku na ceste zpatky do Sydney, kde jsme stravili cernou pulhodinku na miste, nez zavadu opravili....Rikali jsme si, paneboze, co se nam jeste prihodi?Koneckoncu, byl to super vylet, hooodne narocny na cestovani a vsechny ty prekvapeni ho udelali o to vic special.



sobota 4. února 2017

My very first home made bread

After my quite successful attempt of the first dumplings it was a turn for a home made bread...
I had bought some dry yeast some time ago already so I had all ingredients needed.
But that wouldn't be me just to bake some normal bread...Because I had inherited some special ingredients from Jana, who had left Australia to New Zealand travelling, she passed me some seeds and green powder. I was a bit surprised looking at the green package and thinking what for is that...?
She told me that I can use that for bread baking....all right....so I looked up some recipes on the web...Honestly I was quite surprised how many alternatives came up in english google but not a one in czech...Nevermind.....the result was fair enouh for the first attempt....The dough was quite sticky so next time I can only improve it...Tomas resolutely has refused to taste it firstly as it looks as if it was rotten but then after one bite he has to admit thats actually quite tasty...

So thats my first Hulk Bread :)


sobota 24. září 2016

Big step ahead...

Hi guys,
it's quite long time since my last feed. It wasn't to much to write about anyway...
But now the really important moment lays in front of us...With Tomas we have been planning to
apply for partnership visa for a while, however we really started to did something about it last month.
There was an option that I will study MBA and Tomas meanwhile will have unlimited working visa. For the first sight that idea was perfect, although on the second though I was thinking like that: "I don't really want to study just because of visa." And then I got idea to try to get "normal working visa" based my previous experience and education. (Note: Since immigration policy of Australia is quite complicated matter I don't want to specify the visa exactly because most of you will know nothing anyway). So I decided to visit very capable immigration agent and talked to him about my situation. There could be some possibility to get that visa, however I would need to work hard on my English to get better results and then more point on scale. More I would need to check my czech studies in special institution and after I would need to complete some particular subjects anyway.
So we have adjusted our plans little bit. Now I have been studying English again. And again the same course I took when I arrived here. CAE Cambridge course. I can remember how desperate was I during that first course. Now I feel more relaxed despite the fact I really need to get better results what is quite hard. By the begining of December I am going to take the exam, so still I have enough time to study. And by the end of February I will go to university, but no to study MBA, however Master of Professional Accountant in order to take the subjects I would need to complete anyway if I want to try to get working visa.
So last week we paid a fortune for that schools, visa and health cover. Our budget was so tight that I needed to ask for a favour my dear Pavi to lend me some money to survive. And yesterday with exactly $50 we went shopping grocery for the next week. Tomas crossed out items from shopping list and noted down the price to control total expenses. While paying at self-assistant check out we faced the cruel truth and yet we spend 6 cents more :D The last item in our basket was lettuce for one dollar. Tomas was about to steal it, but I don't know why I am so honest person and I forced him to pay for it by money he had for his transport card. It was really amusing moment and no wonder that Tomas called me Mirek Dusin from Club of quick arrows.