Letter from Prague | All stories

At the end of last year a significant part of our planet was hit by an apocalyptic disaster. The world media immediately focused their interest on the region. Now, three weeks after the catastrophe, the media are still informing us about the event and its consequences, although the subject is slowly receding from the papers' front pages.

I went to the post office today. With dread. As usual. I had one bill to pay. I had taken the time to sit with it at home, fill out the boxes carefully and prepare the money in advance. The plan was to walk in, pay, walk out. No scenes this time. In the past I have been yelled at for various transgressions- once my handwriting was too big and it was the wrong kind of pen, then I put a dash in the wrong box and so on and so forth... Although I had taken all the precautions to ensure a smooth transaction, my heart gave a jump as I entered my local

As Christmas approaches the hysteria over finding the right Christmas tree is reaching a feverish pitch. I can see it as I lunch at a pizzeria in Prague's Smichov district: one customer after another gesticulating wildly over trees being sold on the corner, the seller running to and fro with a measuring tape. Customers inspect the trees with a keen eye. All manner of common defects are looked for: too tall, too spiky, too shabby, too lop-sided, a tree full on one side and flat on the other.

The Czech commercial TV station Nova is most probably the most popular station when it comes to entertainment. One programme that attracts millions of viewers is a Nova produced show in which the station's presenters or invited celebrities read jokes that have been sent in by viewers. About a month or two ago, I tuned in on a Saturday and heard the following joke read on air:

As a Scot living in Prague, I am intrigued by the Czech passion for all things Celtic. On the metro I often see groups of young men decked out in idiosyncratic versions of Highland dress, and somehow St Andrew's Day seems to be celebrated with more passion here than in Scotland.

Wenceslas Square -a place visited by millions of tourists every year - has been captured on thousands of postcards over the years, pictures which document its transformation. At the start of the twentieth century people could still ski down the square in winter. For the less athletic, there were horse drawn carriages and in the 50s you could hop on one of the open trams riding up and down the square so slowly it was possible to hang on to the bottom step and feel the wind in your face. It was the construction of the Prague metro in the late 70s

This week we have been remembering the 15th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, which brought about the end of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Amid the commemorative events, I realised that fifteen years ago I was exactly fifteen years old.

The 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this week has brought back many memories for me. I had lived in Berlin in 1986 and 1987, and in that extraordinary year of 1989 was missing it hugely. I was in London, in debt and in love with my fleeting memories of a girl who had lived in a grey flat in that deeply atmospheric and rather crumbling West Berlin inner suburb of Kreuzberg.

One of America's most famous contemporary humorists, the Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Dave Barry, announced last month that after 30 years as a newspaper columnist, he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence. Nonetheless, I have enlisted 'AutoDave' to help write this letter.

I'm sure anybody with an interest in radio will have been saddened this week at the news that the much-loved British broadcaster John Peel has died at the age of 65. You wouldn't have to appreciate all the music he played (and some of it would have been harsh and difficult to most ears) to recognise that he was an all-time radio great. His humour, humanity and sheer love of music was apparent in every programme, and for decades he was - for people around the world - a symbol of independence and enthusiasm.