It’s not like I cannot live without Internet – on many occasions have I effortlessly survived without it, mainly on holidays or weekends away, but I was always morally prepared to it beforehand. This weekend, however, came unexpectedly and shocked the whole family.

I had no Internet on my phone as I ran out of credit, so that service got turned off. I tried to top up, but the local mobile phone provider had their system down and were unable to help me. My husband used up all his mobile internet by the end of the month. We were quite happy using our home wireless connection, until that went down for some weird reason as well! In case you don’t know, weekends get pretty quiet in CZ with many businesses and shops being closed on Saturday afternoons and on Sundays. Internet providers included.

I was planning to write for my blog (I had a Pic’n’Post all scheduled for Sunday and instead I missed it, again!). My husband wanted to work a little. Our kids were shocked about losing access to Apple TV and all their treasured cartoons. What shall we do now??? And this is how our quiet weekend became much more active.

Both mornings of Saturday and Sunday we spent in a local Aqua Centre, being at the gates by the opening time of 10am sharp (I still think that it’s way too late, especially for the families, who’s kids get up at 6 in the morning). Our 5 year old was dead set on learning how to swim, so this activity exhausted our kids nicely to ensure quiet hours afterwards.

On Saturday afternoon we invited our nanny to walk with the kids, while we went to a neighbouring town (about 20 min away) to see what they have on offer in terms of shoes. It turned out – not much. I believe, we actually found a shop where Chinese shoes go to die. Our kids, on another hand, had a great time and didn’t want to go home for 3 hours straight, taking the nanny to all their favourite outdoor places. I suppose, it wasn’t just them sleeping nicely that night.

We made a traditional Ukrainian soup, called borsch. I don’t often cook it, simply because it takes way too much time. Well, guess what, I had enough time this weekend! I’m glad that we made it (my husband was also helping a lot, mainly due to the lack of other things to do) as we really enjoyed it afterwards.

We finally finished a project with my daughter, which she was given in her kindergarten. She had to bring a poster, introducing her family with photos. I printed out some photos together with a map, we showed with the arrows where they were taken, daddy helped to glue them and she decorated with the stamps.

On Saturday evening my husband and I watched Miss CZ. Yes, really. It was a refreshingly new experience, we paid our full attention to the ladies, as the kids were asleep and there were no social networks distracting us. Our basic Czech language didn’t get in the way – the introductory videos and interview answers about ‘world piece’ were pretty straight forward. In the end we were unanimous that the 2nd and 3rd runner ups deserved the title more, but oh well.

When the internet returned on Sunday, as suddenly as it disappeared the day before, announcing it’s arrival with an avalanche of various notifications on our phones, we all did our happy dance cheering and clapping. However, even without favourite cartoons, websites and social networks, we still managed to have a good time together, so not hope is lost on this modern, internet dependent family ;)