Vera & Jack, language team

Michael writes...

Back in March, Jack passed his beginners' French exam with flying colours. We were expecting this - on top of plenty of self-disciplined hard work, he'd been studying French for some years.

Although we have the results - I got an underground copy by asking in French - we don't yet have the certificate as the staff of the Institut Francais have been at lunch since early April.

However, a fortnight ago Jack took the equivalent German exam and for that we already have the certificate:

 

As you can see, again he passed with flying colours. What's really impressive about this is that apart from joining the odd class from another year-group at school, he'd never studied German formally. Vera taught him.

So a massive well done to both Vera as a teacher and Jack, once again a self-disciplined, hard-working student.

Art Opening & Book Launch

Michael writes... 

Last night a fellow writer and I held a party at which both of us launched our latest novels. Here I am, busy with a signing:

I sold out of books, which felt good; and I ordered exactly the right number as the last copy went right at the end of the evening! I also sold copies of my meditation guide - that's the orange one you can see in the middle of the table.

We each made a speech about the other writer's work, naturally praising one another with luscious hyperbole. Here I am in my pulpit:

and here's Sonya across the balcony in hers.







You can find out about my books by clicking here.
You can see Sonya's work here.

There was also a speech by Will, our sponsor. Here he is:

He provided the venue for free, so deserves a mention. If you're looking for working space in Prague, you can visit his website by clicking here.

Raymond Johnston, Editor-in Chief of the Prague Post, came along and intends personally to review my book. I hope he likes it: back in 1999 the only paper to review my previous novel was the Prague Post and they said nice things about it! Raymond is on the right, talking to Ron, at whose school I'll be teaching from September.

I only did the book launch to appease Sonya - I don't think she wanted to be the only one to launch a book! I was mainly there for another reason: to open my show of paintings, my first ever in Prague. You can see most of them if you click here. I sold a few at the opening, did nicely with pre-sales and all in all have 17 fewer pictures than I did at the start. The main objective is to get rid of my completed work as I find it hard to paint - and painting is the bit I enjoy, I hate marketing! - if I have a large pile of unsold work. Getting rid of those 17 canvases thus has to make the show something of a success.

Finally - and perhaps most importantly - the locals approved my choice of wine. As Vera put it, "They picked up the bottle, carefully read the label - then poured themselves some!"

Michael writes...

Feeding a growing lad can be expensive. Here's Jack having an "Obelix" moment yesterday with a chicken...