Magazine
How old is the oldest woman living in the Czech Republic and how tall is the tallest man? How is it possible to steal an entire garden overnight? And whose wedding did the Prime Minister attend last week? Find out more in this week's Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.
The Czech Republic boasts one of the best stuntmen in the world. Petr Fiedor performs a feat that has got him a place in the Guinness Book of Records. He lies down on a bed of broken glass, pins and razors and has people walk over him. In the Guiness book of Records it says he withstood a weight of 560 kg in this position but last weekend in Chlumec he easily carried 700 kg. He always goes that extra mile to please the crowd - even if there wasn't an official jury present, he's a born performer, a friend said. His audiences certainly get a treat - Petr eats fire and cooks a steak in sizzling hot oil turning it with his bare hands.
And what does the tallest Czech man do all day - he's on paternity leave looking after his five year old son and two year old daughter. The tallest woman in the Czech Republic is twenty nine year old Lenka Juroskova who measures 1 metre 98cm.
A forty year old woman from the west Bohemian town of Pilsen was shocked recently to find that thieves had stolen her garden. It is the first case of garden theft reported in the country and the police are somewhat dumbfounded over it.
The woman reported that when she opened her front door early in the morning the garden was gone - shrubs, flowers and earth - and there was a gaping hole -50 x 10 metres in its place. Someone had actually dug it up with a bulldozer overnight. Thieves get bolder with every passing day, a police spokesman said of the incident. Makes one wonder though what some people can sleep through - if they worked with a bulldozer in the middle of the night and went unnoticed - it's a wonder they didn't take the house as well!
It may be a hectic time for Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla but he still found the time to attend a wedding last Friday at which he and his wife Victoria acted as witnesses. The bride and groom are well known to Mr. Spidla, the bride being the government's spokesperson Anna Starkova and the groom none other than the prime minister's body guard Stanislav Veverka. In their professions they inevitably got thrown together a lot - but rumour has it that they were so professional no one had an inkling of the relationship until they decided to tie the knot - not even the Prime Minister.
Some of the inhabitants of Prague nine are waging a war with the local authorities over the dismantling of public clothes lines and public carpet beaters - iron bar constructions on which you can hang a heavy carpet to thrash the dust from it. You can still find them in many Prague districts -especially in the vicinity of blocks of flats -and they are all relics of the past. A reminder of socialist realism and architecture, the local town hall officials said and gave an order for them to be scrapped. However it seems that not everyone has taken to vacuum cleaners. Some people still hang their washing out to dry and -apparently use carpet beaters as well. So there's been a hue and cry over their disappearance. The town hall authorities said the constructions were rusty and ugly and did the district no credit but since some people want them back so badly - they would erect nicer looking new ones. Carpet beaters it seems are not on the way out even in 2003 - they will only be given a new face.
Our summer this year was comparable to that in southern Spain - and I thought it was time to experiment, the 61 year old gardener said. Who knows - maybe in a couple of years time these exotic fruits will be right at home here in Central Europe.
