Took me on a date

Oh, how to celebrate Valentine's Day when your sweetheart is not around, when Aphrodite isn't on your side?

Well, I went straight for this:

Yep, I took myself out on a date to one of Prague's sugary Ovocný Světozor (i.e. Fruit Delicatessen) spots near my flat. This chain has an insanely delectable assortment of cakes and ice cream treats. It looks a touch like a Super Mario Brothers game on the inside, but no matter.

I savored a piece of amaretto cake and chased it with a latte. 

The shops are difficult to miss, with their vivid red and green exteriors... and steady streams of customers.

That wasn't my only V-day treat, though; the night before, Art Teacher and I attended a Blood, Love and Rhetoric performance of "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen, at Studo Alt@. Nothing like a play about misogyny and a failed marriage to ring in Feb. 14! Nonetheless, the lead actress was a talented former student and the whole performance was fetching. 

Blood, Love and Rhetoric is one of the few outlets for English theater in Prague, and they're often doing edgy, atypical takes on old favorites or highlighting lesser-known playwrights (though their take on Ibsen was quite traditional). Studio Alt@ is a gem of a small theater, in what first appears to be a sketchy industrial park in fuzzy lighting...

...but once you pose for a few photographs by the incessant graffiti...

...you enter a cavernous, cozy space filled with theater lovers and ping pong. We also saw a woman getting a haircut there after the play.

Via bonza.cz

So Valentine's Day was not a tragedy, thanks to a play, a pal and a pile of baked goods :)

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BW ages another year

Is it really February? I know BW and I have been pretty busy at work, but when I logged into this blog and realized it had been almost a month since the last post, it was a bit of a reality check. 

Must make space for down-time! 

And what better impetus to reignite blog posting than BW's birthday?! Yes, he turned the ripe old age of 35 a couple of weeks ago. 

I don't think he looks 35!

I planned an Anthony Bourdain-themed gathering at a pub for him after work and aimed for getting a cake and a present and a few balloons. Four problems:

1) I discovered you cannot buy helium-filled balloons in Prague unless you dispatch them in batches of 50. Or buy your own large helium pumping apparatus. Idea discarded.

2) American-style birthday cakes are only sold by a few places. However, with the help of Czech friends, I ended up finding a marzipan-covered entity at Ovocny Svetozor off Wenceslas Square. Granted, it was decorated like an 8-year-old girl's bedroom, but WOW was it tasty!

3) The majority of our friends didn't know who Anthony Bourdain was. FYI, he's BW's favorite chef. But they probably figured that out from all of his quotes about food that I sprinkled across the tables.

4) The present I got him - a cookbook called "Thug Kitchen" - looked apropos at the Neo Luxor bookstore. But upon BW opening it, we discovered it was a vegetarian cookbook. BW doesn't do vegetarian, unfortunately. Meh. He can add meat.

So with a somewhat cobbled-together birthday, BW entered his mid-30s with grace and positivity and friends and beer. Lots of it, according to the evening's tab.

Mind you, we had lots of people stop by!

Oh, and lots of purple princess cake, too.

Happiest of birthdays, BW!

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