Magazine
Has the romance fizzled out of your marriage? Be extra cautious on the road! Bedrich Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride to premiere at the Divoka Sarka open air theatre after an 83 year break. And, fishermen go green with envy over a prize catch brought by the recent local floods! Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.
Has the romance fizzled out of your marriage? If so be extra cautious on the road. Czech psychologist Karel Havlik says married couples who are no longer madly in love, tend to squabble on the road more often than anywhere else. Havlik says that when a husband and wife get into the same car for a drive longer than 20 kilometres an argument is likely to flare up - usually over totally inconsequential things. The reason is that both are trapped in a small space and there's no chance of clearing the air by leaving the room or taking up some activity. In many cases squabbles flare up when men comment on their wives' driving abilities, or women start complaining about some aspect of their lives, which the husband pointedly ignores. In a book just out called Psychology For Drivers, Havlik claims that men's concentration and driving skills decrease rapidly during a quarrel - they become more aggressive and less focussed - unlike women, who allegedly are capable of having a fierce argument while remaining focussed on their driving. In one way Havlik, says, a woman is an ideal partner on a long trip. Women tend to be much more talkative than men - some studies claim a woman says three times as many words per minute and day than a man - so if you are a man driving long distance - you are much less likely to fall asleep on the road with a woman sitting next to you.....Well I suppose drivers should take all this with a pinch of salt.
Leszek Sikora from Cesky Tesin boasts a prize catch - without ever having gone fishing. The twenty three year old Leszek is a computer specialist who was helping to salvage what he could in the local floods recently when he saw something huge flapping around in the flooded street. He ran out and grabbed it - hanging on to a huge and slippery silver carp. Fishing enthusiasts nearly had a heart attack. The 19 kilogram catch measured 1 metre 20 centimetres - certainly more than any of them had to show for endless hours spent by the river.
Fifty five year old Zdenek Stastny from the town of Nymburk has managed to grow a record turnip-cabbage. It weighs over ten kilograms and easily overshadows everything else in his vegetable patch. Zdenek says he never intended to grow a giant and gave it no special care. It's just one of those freaks of Nature and because Zdenek is really not into gardening competitions the turnip cabbage will end up on the family table garnishing the Czech national dish - pork, sauerkraut and dumplings.
A young parachutist risked his life this week when he jumped of the Liblice radio and TV transmitter. The transmitter is over three hundred metres tall and the twenty three year old managed to get to the top without being stopped. Unfortunately he jumped too close to one of the suspension cables, got entangled in it and hung there for over an hour before someone alerted the police and rescuers got to him. He had to be rescued by helicopter with one of the rescue team descending from the chopper to cut him off and carry him to safety. The police have classified it as a misdemeanour but the owners plan to file charges since the young man was trespassing on private property.
It's the beginning of the new school year and parents are shopping like crazy to get their kids everything they need - plus a great deal more that they simply can't do without. Even nine year olds are desperate to have and show off the latest fashions, in clothes, computers and accessories. Teachers say that the fashion rivalry among children has grown stronger in recent years and that children whose parents cannot afford luxuries are often ridiculed and bullied. Some schools are now considering introducing school uniforms as a means of curbing this phenomenon and preventing socially weaker children from feeling like outcasts. However not all psychologists agree that this is a good idea. They say that if it is not clothes - it will be mobiles - holidays - or a house with a pool that will divide children in this manner. Social differences are something that children will have to deal with in later years - one psychologists says - and its good if they learn to stand up to the pressure at an early age.
Bedrich Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride will premiere at the Divoka Sarka open air theatre in Prague 6 after an 83 year break this weekend. And it is no amateur ensemble that's presenting it -but some of the most prestigious opera singers in the country - soloists at the National Theatre in Prague. The open air theatre in the Sarka Valley opened in 1913 and was extremely popular with the public. The acoustics in the rocky valley are said to be perfect and the outdoor theatre can accommodate up to 18 thousand people. Despite its popularity the theatre was closed down less than 10 years after it opened - in 1922 - on the grounds of 'the excessive financial demands of the National Theatre Orchestra" to quote the papers of the time. This weekend the National Theatre ensemble will be back -with the Bartered Bride - a present for the districts 85th birthday. All and sundry are welcome and the performance is free of charge.
The filming of a south Korean soap opera has just wound up in Prague and the city hall is expecting it to bring in a huge wave of tourists from that country. The TV series is called "Loves in Prague". When its predecessor called Loves in Paris was shown thousands of Koreans headed for the French capital eager to visit the locations shown. So the Prague town hall lost no time at all giving the film crew the necessary permits to film the most popular tourist attractions. The soap opera is of course packed with excitement - the President's daughter arrives in Prague where she meets a Korean detective and falls in love....at Prague Castle, on the Old Town Square and other highly romantic spots. If you've never been to Prague it's a soap opera to watch out for.
