Some people have a way with words, ...... others not do have.
It's similar with binary... There are three types of people, those who understand it and those who don't.
Monday, 26 April 2010
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Changing Money in Communist Czechoslovakia
It was before the Berlin Wall came down, Communism was the norm, Czechoslovakia was under Russian control and all that entailed. It was not expensive to stay in Czechoslovakia and this factor and the country's highly regarded scientific expertise made it a convenient place to hold a conference.
To set the persona involved Kevin Feltham accompanied me. Without being too conceited I believe that both of us are adept at arithmetic. Indeed Kevin has a PhD which involved a good deal of computer programme writing, involving fairly complex calculations. Remember this was in the 1970's, pre-Microsoft.
In those days, exchanging currency in countries of Soviet States was difficult to say the least. Foreign currency transactions were severely restricted and confined to official channels at fixed and favorable exchange rates. (Within a few years, the exchange rate had lost its historical basis and no longer bore any direct relationship to purchasing power in other currencies).
There were limits of cash that could be exchanged and pertinently exchanges had to be made at the "Official" rate and at a Bank..
We weren't exactly out of cash when we strolled over the famous Charles Bridge, a highlight of the Prague scene. A man sidled up to us and said in English "Would you like some money?" Who could resist answering "Yes" which one of us did.
Kevin produced a £10 and a £5 note. The man's eyes lit up and he quoted a rate of 90 Koruns to the pound which was nearly five times the "Official" rate. We must have agreed, don't forget our Czech language skills were limited. He then proceeded to place wads of notes in Kevin's pockets, not one pocket but several. This was done in a very underhand and surreptitious manner.
Czech money 2Czech money 1
We felt rich at this point and decided to find a bar in which to celebrate. By our calculation we should have had 1,350 Koruns. I began to count the contents of one of Kevin's pocket and that one pocket alone contained over 1000. There more more pockets to emptied and their contents counted. There was a total of 10,000 Koruns, so we had £500 at the "Official" rate for a £15! The man had made a mistake and given us seven times the unofficial Black Market rate.
Shocked and confused we ordered another beer each. We quickly calculated that a beer which cost 50p at the Official rate was costing us about 0.5p!
We did really look for the tout, really, mainly because we thought that he would be looking for us! We didn't find him but we did pass a shop which sold hats. Kevin thought that a hat might disguise us somewhat so we went inside and bought two hats, for about 2p each.
You'd think that we would be in a wonderful predicament, lots of money to spend, but... There was nothing to spend it on. The hat shop for example sold only one style of hat. We went into a Department store and could only find a great mound of hard rubber discs, about 10,000 at a guess. They were Ice-Hockey pucks, we really should have bought one as a souvenir. I fact we probably could have bought all of them.
Beer was almost free to us, and there is only so much one can drink, though we did try.
The other problem was that we couldn't change it back into Pounds Sterling, as this was against the law. We did exchange some with two of our close colleagues at the conference, Barry & Claire. Th exchange rate we agreed with them was 30 Kroums to the pound & they thought they had a good deal. So we had our original sterling back.
We did eat out at the best restaurants we could find. We didn't understand the menu items but didn't really need to, we merely ordered the most expensive things.
There was some cash remaining when we had to return to the UK, what did we do with it?
This happened about 40 years ago and I've forgotten many details and I'm hoping someone reading this (esp Messers Professor Sneath, Sackin) will remember exactly when and which conference it was that we attended and any other memories.
My colleague Dr Kevin Feltham has read the above and has added the following:
It was the first trip to Prague, and I seem to recall spending most of the remainder, after drinking and eating as much as we could, on some souvenirs - e.g. I bought a painting at the shop near the castle which would normally have cost £50 or so, but I ended up buying at our exaggerated exchange rate for around £7
To set the persona involved Kevin Feltham accompanied me. Without being too conceited I believe that both of us are adept at arithmetic. Indeed Kevin has a PhD which involved a good deal of computer programme writing, involving fairly complex calculations. Remember this was in the 1970's, pre-Microsoft.
In those days, exchanging currency in countries of Soviet States was difficult to say the least. Foreign currency transactions were severely restricted and confined to official channels at fixed and favorable exchange rates. (Within a few years, the exchange rate had lost its historical basis and no longer bore any direct relationship to purchasing power in other currencies).
There were limits of cash that could be exchanged and pertinently exchanges had to be made at the "Official" rate and at a Bank..
We weren't exactly out of cash when we strolled over the famous Charles Bridge, a highlight of the Prague scene. A man sidled up to us and said in English "Would you like some money?" Who could resist answering "Yes" which one of us did.
Kevin produced a £10 and a £5 note. The man's eyes lit up and he quoted a rate of 90 Koruns to the pound which was nearly five times the "Official" rate. We must have agreed, don't forget our Czech language skills were limited. He then proceeded to place wads of notes in Kevin's pockets, not one pocket but several. This was done in a very underhand and surreptitious manner.
Czech money 2Czech money 1
We felt rich at this point and decided to find a bar in which to celebrate. By our calculation we should have had 1,350 Koruns. I began to count the contents of one of Kevin's pocket and that one pocket alone contained over 1000. There more more pockets to emptied and their contents counted. There was a total of 10,000 Koruns, so we had £500 at the "Official" rate for a £15! The man had made a mistake and given us seven times the unofficial Black Market rate.
Shocked and confused we ordered another beer each. We quickly calculated that a beer which cost 50p at the Official rate was costing us about 0.5p!
We did really look for the tout, really, mainly because we thought that he would be looking for us! We didn't find him but we did pass a shop which sold hats. Kevin thought that a hat might disguise us somewhat so we went inside and bought two hats, for about 2p each.
You'd think that we would be in a wonderful predicament, lots of money to spend, but... There was nothing to spend it on. The hat shop for example sold only one style of hat. We went into a Department store and could only find a great mound of hard rubber discs, about 10,000 at a guess. They were Ice-Hockey pucks, we really should have bought one as a souvenir. I fact we probably could have bought all of them.
Beer was almost free to us, and there is only so much one can drink, though we did try.
The other problem was that we couldn't change it back into Pounds Sterling, as this was against the law. We did exchange some with two of our close colleagues at the conference, Barry & Claire. Th exchange rate we agreed with them was 30 Kroums to the pound & they thought they had a good deal. So we had our original sterling back.
We did eat out at the best restaurants we could find. We didn't understand the menu items but didn't really need to, we merely ordered the most expensive things.
There was some cash remaining when we had to return to the UK, what did we do with it?
This happened about 40 years ago and I've forgotten many details and I'm hoping someone reading this (esp Messers Professor Sneath, Sackin) will remember exactly when and which conference it was that we attended and any other memories.
My colleague Dr Kevin Feltham has read the above and has added the following:
It was the first trip to Prague, and I seem to recall spending most of the remainder, after drinking and eating as much as we could, on some souvenirs - e.g. I bought a painting at the shop near the castle which would normally have cost £50 or so, but I ended up buying at our exaggerated exchange rate for around £7
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Airborne Blog
Blooging from an A320 Airbus over Paris. Flight mode switched on in iPhone so blog won't be posted until we land.
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