Magazine

Nada Erbenova, photo: Zena a zivot

Remember how long the maths lessons at school always seemed? Well imagine having maths for 38 hours non-stop! The man who spent seven years making his own nativity scene for Christmas and, the woman with the longest hair in the Czech Republic. Find out more in Magazine with Daniela Lazarova.

Nada Erbenova considers her hair to be her best feature - and she's decided that there's never too much of a good thing. With a mane of 187 centimetres she holds the 2003 record for longest hair in the Czech Republic. It took her twenty years to grow it and she says that she made up her mind to do so when her mum told her that her grandmother had had hair all the way down to her feet. People are entranced - especially men and children, Nada says. Of course there are disadvantages - her hair takes a whole day to dry - and it is not very practical for a businesswoman. However Nada says the decision to have it cut is really hard to make. When you've lived with it for years - it's like loosing an essential part of yourself, she says.


Remember how long the maths lesson always seemed at school? Now think about a whole day of maths, a night and day of maths - or more - without a break. With the right teacher you might just survive the ordeal. Pavla Mojzisova - a maths teacher at a Prague school is so popular with her class that they decided to set a record in the amount of time a maths lesson could go on. And the result was an amazing 38 hours and 5 minutes! We'd never have made it without support from the school and from parents, Mojzisova says. Four kids had to leave because they fell asleep or got a bad headache - and Mojzisova herself fainted from exhaustion near the end, but she and the class were determined to see it through - and they did! In fact the experiment was such a success that the kids are already talking of attempting a "40 hours of maths" record next year. It's not something you want to make a habit of, their 29 year old teacher says, but she just can't bear to disappoint them. After all what other maths teacher can boast of having a class for whom no maths lesson is long enough?

40 hours of maths lessons,  photo: Zena a zivot

Driving through Prague in the rush hour is generally viewed as a nightmare. The streets are jammed, drivers break the rules and they are inconsiderate. Last week a Prague auto club organized a Gentleman's race though Prague. Contestants competed in how quickly they could drive from one end of Prague to the other without breaking the speed limit or any other regulations. The event was approved by the town hall authorities. And the mayor of Prague Pavel Bem joined in himself to try and set a good example. There were surprising anti- prizes for those who broke the rules - they received a pair of crutches with the assurance that if they didn't mend their habits they'd need them sooner or later.


Frantisek Juracka is counting the days to Christmas because this year Xmas will be a very special event for his family and home town. This year Frantisek will finally be ready to present them with a breathtaking nativity scene that it took him seven years to complete. The nativity scene is made of clay and has three hundred figures in all - 80 of them mobile. And because Frantisek wanted something really original he did not stop at the figures you'd expect to see - the three kings, shepards, villagers and so on. He included figures who most certainly weren't present at the birth of Jesus - such as himself. The whole village is now eagerly awaiting its unveiling so see whether they too have not been immortalized in Mr. Jurecka's amazing work of art.


According to a survey just out, women in neighbouring Germany hate two things - boring sex and lazy husbands who avoid their share of the house chores. Now I don't want to judge Czech men in this respect - but if you hate peeling potatoes then there's at least one Czech man who will never let you dirty your hands with this task. Ivan Bumba from Havlickuv Brod is not a cook -he's the owner of a travel agency but he loves peeling potatoes so much he does it as a hobby! Ivan has just set a new record in potato peeling. He peeled 50 kilograms of potatoes in just one hour, fifty minutes and three seconds! At the end of the race he said he was not in the least bit tired and could easily peel another fifty kilos. As the organizer of the event noted, a race in peeling potatoes is a typically Czech phenomenon. West of our borders, many people don't know that potatoes need peeling - they buy them "ready to cook" at their local supermarket, he joked.


Mirek Topolanek  (on the left) sings in the Moravian folklore festivities,  photo: CTK
Whenever elections come round, politicians do their best to show the public "a human face". They let the public in on their private lives - showing off wives, children, playing a musical instrument for the crowd, singing and even admitting to writing poetry. And so this week Czech politicians were happy to share their music preferences with the public. Prime Minister Stanislav Gross admitted that he was really into pop-music which is what he grew up with in the communist seventies. The right wing Civic Democratic Party leader Mirek Topolanek says he could listen to Pink Floyd twenty four hours a day -but he's also happy to don traditional costume and sing a Moravian folk song. President Klaus loves jazz, while the former Czech President Vaclav Havel is a rock fan. Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda loves classical music. But most surprising of all is the preference of communist MP Vojtech Filip. The man who is allegedly being groomed for the position of party leader one day, loves heavy metal. Unfortunately communist voters have a strong preference for folk music and so at communist party gatherings Filip has no choice but to grin and bear it! All in all Parliament could put together a very nice band - several deputies play musical instruments -and asked what they could produce together Miroslav Ouzky of the opposition Civic Democrats responded with a flash of humour saying : blues, I think blues would be most appropriate. No doubt many voters would agree with him!