The Long Weekend
Art for art's sake, writing for my sake.
The Long Weekend
My partner surprised me with a long weekend in Prague. I’ve a done a few cities in my time, mostly when I was in my 20s and backpacking but I had never been to the Czech Republic. I’ve not really wanted to visit any cities in my later years as I prefer holidays and breaks where I’m doing something active. My partner knows this so she had prepared a couple of surprises for the trip.
We took a Ryan Air flight from Stanstead Airport on a Friday night, directly from work, arriving in Prague at about 10pm their time. A quick taxi ride took us to our business-class hotel and we crashed for the night. I am one of the blessed few on the planet who can fall asleep at the drop of a hat anywhere. My partner is the complete opposite and will wake me up to see if I’m asleep.
“Psst, are you asleep?” I ignore her. I then get nudged, so answer back.
“Yes.”
“I can’t sleep.”
“Really? I had no idea.”
We then end up having a cup of tea at 2am and chatting about what we’re going to be doing later that morning.
Prague is a stunningly beautiful city with an enviable public transport system that is cheap and easy to use. One of the activities that my partner had planned for Day 1 was to have a tour guide take us around the city - on electric Harley Davidson style trikes. The trikes were a brilliant way to get around the city and only took a few minutes to master. The young university student who was our guide was witty, very knowledgeable and very patient with me trying to speak Czech (I’d managed to memorize about 5 words on the plane) and with all our questions. He also worked in IT. During our short stay we discovered that everyone spoke English and every Prague local we spoke to had at least three jobs. One of our waiters in a snug bistro was also a university lecturer.
We walked miles every day marvelling at the old Gothic churches, the castle, the John Lennon wall, and the astronomical clock and trying all the different foods and large array of beers. We had a guided tour of an old communist-era nuclear bunker (fascinating), an evening ghost walk (very tongue in cheek) and a boat trip on the famous Vltava River.
We found out that about 75% of the population is atheist so many of the churches are used as galleries, tourist spots or host concerts. We stopped in St Clements church for a Vivaldi classical concert which was superb.
The other surprise that my partner had arranged was a wine spa. Yes, that’s correct - a wine spa. They also do a beer spa. You are handed a large glass of wine when you arrive. You then change into your swimwear and are led to a room with giant baths in them. The baths are full of a warm wine extract infused with herbs and essential oils. You are then given another glass of wine while you have a pleasant soak for about 40 minutes. Our baths were a couple of feet away from each other so conversation was easy. After this you are led to what they call the salt cave where you sit in a deck chair in a warm room and given more wine before you finish your session.
The beer spa option is more for groups where you sit in a large vat of beer with your mates and drink lots more beer. In the salt cave, we were joined by a group of ten young Frenchmen, all drunk and singing. It was truly different. It also makes you realise that there is no way that this sort of business could operate in the UK. Next on the list will be Krakow.
Art for Arts Sake, Writing for my Sake
A rotting banana that goes for $5.2 million dollars at auction and is billed as ‘art’. This tells me a couple of things about the people involved. The artist, Maurizio Cattelan, is a genius. He bought the fruit for a few cents in 2019 and duct-taped it to a wall. Since then, the fruit is regularly replaced as it rots. And people keep taking it off the wall and eating it. It travels around the world to various galleries to be exhibited. Now it has been sold for an eye-wateringly large sum of money. But there are 3 editions of this ‘art’. The buyer at Sotheby’s, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, has paid all that money for just one of the conceptual art pieces, which means there are still 2 more bananas duct-taped taped to walls else where in the art world. Granted, art is meant to be provocative and promote discussion but no one in their right mind is going to point at a rotting banana stuck to a wall and say, “Wow, that’s worth over $5 million!”
This also tells me that Justin Sun is an idiot. Or, genuinely believes he has got a bargain. Then again, he has been quoted as saying he’s going to eat the banana.
I have often wondered if writing can be viewed as art. Some classical pieces may be seen as works of art. Writing is a form of self-expression so really it should be seen as form of art. Am I then an artist? Could I sell a ‘conceptual’ written piece about a banana stuck to a wall for a huge sum of money? No.
So this leaves me battling with the thousands of story ideas rattling around in my head, jockeying for position, to be the one that I will pick and start crafting the story around. They will join the (at the last count) 7 stories I’m simultaneously working on at the moment. There is a method to my madness. I don’t get writers block as each of the stories clamours for my attention and I daren’t leave any one of them too long lest I forget some crucial element or plot point that was essential to the story (thank heavens for phones with a notepad).
I had stopped worrying about deadlines and having to email endless publishers and agents with manuscripts when I decided that self-publishing was the way forward.
This hasn’t worked.
As any writer will tell you, procrastination is the thief of time. No pressure to write means an immense slacking off on my part, which means a lot less writing gets done. So, once again I’ve switched my focus and have set myself the deadline of 1st March 2025 to have self-published the YA novel that I’m editing for the 20th time.
While I’m doing that I have also set myself the task of completing 3 short stories, also by 1st March. Hopefully, this will be the kick up the butt I need!
That’s it for this edition of the newsletter, thank you for reading and have a great week!
Simon JJ Green