Back from Prague
We spent a long weekend in Prague, returning early Wednesday morning. Charles de Gaulle allows no gentle re-introduction to France: we were immediately having to push our way through crowds oblivious to the passage of others; the bank machine didn't work; and our taxi driver got into a heated altercation with the woman managing the queue. Yep, we're home.
The taxi argument arose because we had asked for a cab that would take a debit card (since the bank machine wouldn't) and one arrived, but the driver asked us if we couldn't pay in cash;. The despatcher leapt in to chastise him because, since he had stepped forward in response to our request he was obliged to accept our means of payment, and she attempted to remove him from the line-up, but by the time the yelling and arm-waving was over there were no other taxis. We got in again, and the driver informed us, a couple of times, that the whole thing was just because he was black and she was an Arab.
Having exhausted all of the cat-sitting favours we could call upon, we hired a cat-sitter for this little holiday. Signing up was another very French episode, since like everything else it required a dossier, in this case Emma's vaccination records, a health certificate and a picture of her. Paperwork in hand, I trekked across the city last Thursday to a lively neighbourhood north of the Gare du Nord. The agency's office was obviously a going concern, run by an efficient young south-Asian man whose phone (ring tone: a barking dog) hardly stopped ringing. I completed a form to add to the file that included all the usual tombstone information plus such things as the location of the kitty litter, any unusual pet behaviours, plant watering requirements and someone to contact in case Janet and I completely disappeared. For this I had to call Janet and we hastily drafted her office-mate as Emma's godmother.
On our return all seemed to have gone very well. Emma was in good health (not counting the now traditional homecoming hairball), and there was a little note from the attending cat-sitter herself who documented each visit with little comments like "Emma est venue me voir, se méfie quand même." ("Emma came to see me, suspiciously all the same.") Two days later: "Emma m'observe de loin! Elle a bon appetit." ("Emma watched me from a distance! She eats well.")
posted 5.7.06
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