sunset, Slovenia

This was the sunset the night of Bob and Hannah's wedding, from the veranda where we had dinner. It was gorgeous. (And the sunset wasn't bad, either.) Just came across this photo and had to share.

the zen of the iPod

Happy mother's day, mom.

It's old news to the rest of the world, but shiny new iPods have landed in our social circle. I have iPod envy, though I do love Thor and would never cheat on him. And it got me thinking again about how life-changing this small white hard drive can be. I have been embarrassingly stopped on the street by randoms telling me I have a great voice. (Yes, Slovenes understand sarcasm.) I've also had people stopping me on the street to say 'prosim?' which essentially means 'what the hell did you say to me, you crazy foreigner?'. (That's me rapping.) But I can't help it; Thor is in a groove with me. On any given day I will be walking to work/pilates class/the pub/aimlessly and get in a mood, then Thor psychically (is that a word?) pops on a song that fits seamlessly into my head. Does this happen to other iPodders? Do other people walk a few blocks out of their way just to hear a song finish up, only to hear the starting bars of the next tune and find yet another route to their destination? Does ownership automatically turn a person into a geek who checks the number of times a song has been played, changes the five-star system on a monthly basis, creates new playlists just for Monday mornings or holiday weekends or random afternoons in a car?

And in the spirt of the ridiculous U2 iPod, here's some others:
http://www.liebography.com/ipod.htm

So now there's a new 60G, a new shuffle, and two 20Gs in L-jub. And my dad is still loving his mini. And I still have a strange email relationship with random iPod owners in the greater Chicago area thanks to Kevin.

It's a bit out of date, but the jist of it is all there:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1114925,00.html

Right, on to other things. Another shortened week was made even shorter thanks to a Friday in Nova Gorica for my boss' leaving do (one of two). Slovenes love their barbecues, and we spent hours eating and drinking wine and nasty homemade liquor and I was knackered when I came home, just in time to change for a friend's birthday dinner. Which evolved into hanging out at a bar, then closing bars dance-a-thons until (get this) SEVEN in the morning. Carys, the birthday girl, her boyfriend Greg, and me. All of us over 30, weathered, and should know better. Who cares. Sometimes you just gotta dance.

Wigan is in the Premiership now. This is interesting as my buddy Jason took Wigan to the European Championship in Championship Manager while we were flatmates in Lisbon and we thought this quite funny as Wigan wouldn't ever be in the Premiership. This is likely irrelevant to anyone other than myself and a few others.

What am I going to do with a full work week? How depressing.

Labour Day

It was only a paint pellet gun, but I frighteningly found that even the most anti-voilence of creatures feels like a bad-ass when wearing a one-piece camouflage jumpsuit, wearing a Darth Vader mask and carrying a weapon. I hid behind a fence-type structure for the first couple of games of "last man standing". I didn't want to get myself hurt. Then we all took a break, drank half a beer, and got back out there. That's when I found myself actually finding a strategy...if I go there, quickly, I'll have a better shot at him; if I'm quiet, he won't hear me; tag-team ambushing...?!? Could I actually be a soldier if more than paint were involved? Loved it, absolutely loved it.



I do adore the European holiday scheme. We had a public holiday last Wednesday in Slovenia (which I spent sipping beers by the river in the sunshine...) and we also have tomorrow off, and everyone at my office took the Thursday and Friday off so I flew solo at work for two days. If I'd had my act together this would have been a great weekend to go off someplace wonderful. Instead, it was Discover Slovenia Weekend, which will commence tomorrow morning for a hike on an alpine lake.



Predjama Castle is a fantastic piece of work. The castle is literally built into the rocks and caves behind it - rock walls serve as hallways and dripping, cold, dark caves served as torture chambers and rooms for servants. It's a fascinating jumble of dark passageways and creepy nooks and crannies, and one of those places where it's easy to imagine living inside. Its history is varied but the most colourful story is from 1483, when Erasmus Lueger owned the castle. He had pissed off the Austrian king so was barred from leaving the castle or receiving anything (the king was trying to starve him to death). Of course as the castle is full of natural cave passageways, one led from the castle to the outside. Erasmus taunted the guards outside by dropping fresh fruit and food on them to confuse them; eventually one of his own betrayed him. One evening, while answering nature’s (ahem) call, the servant waved a white flag outside the toilet and Erasmus was killed by a cannonball. What a way to go.



Taken from Croatia, looking back at Slovenia. The odd part is that this is an unmanned Schengen border. The little white sign to the left says something like “satellite-guarded border” and that’s it. Interesting.



This is taken in a gorgeous hilltop Croatian village called Groznjan. It’s an artists’ colony with loads of tiny galleries filled with ceramics, textiles, paintings and such in wonderfully vibrant colours. The landscape was so lush, hills rolling into the Adriatic in the distance – very obvious why its inspiring to creative-types.

And it all ends tomorrow…sigh…

Sloooooovenia

Thanks to Joel for giving me this perfect title for the new post.

Good intentions, like first dates and upcoming holidays, are full of promise and anticipation and curiosities. Intentions can fail dramatically as I have done with this lovely thing...

So welcome to the people from the MSN site and good to have you back.

Slovenia has been a whirlwind, and I am still trying to come to terms with it being April already. For some reason, time in Prague and Lisbon and Lugano seemed like it passed at a normal pace. In Ljubljana, things have been different.



So a bit about the random travels since the move from MSN to here...



Summer was spent in Lugano with the kids again. My favourite trip of the summer was to this gorgeous villa on Lake Como. Star Wars people, it's where the mushy love scenes between Annakin and the Queen were filmed (guaranteed to be the worst dialogue written in the history of film). It is stunning. The kids were even in awe, which is probably why I enjoyed the trip so much - they were relatively quiet. I'm not returning to Lugano this summer, and there will be a hole where TASIS should be until mid-August.



I must admit that part of why Slovenia appealed is its proximity to my beloved Italy. Venice is just two hours from Lj, and I've been four times already - obsessive, anyone? Twice with colleagues, once by myself and last weekend with my girlfriend Andrea. We had a fabulous girlie weekend shopping, drinking spizzas, eating gorgeous food and getting lost. I'll highly recommend Osteria San Marco on Frezzeria 1610, Tel. +39 041/528-5242 - one of the most memorable meals I've ever had.

So more to come, as the muse visits. Chelsea v Arsenal tomorrow. Still cloudy in Lj. I've got a cold.