Dr. Filomena

Even if Slovenia may seem like a tiny target, the salsa craze far from missed it. In fact, I have it from a reliable source that the sensual dance has had its group of devotees for nine years now. I’ve only had a couple of lessons in good old Lux, but will join these guys as soon as I’ve learned enough not to break my (or partner’s) legs.

Sunshine is the resident blogger authority on the subject 🙂

Photo above taken yesterday at the weekly Sunday salsa party at Kodeljevo Castle.

Thanks to Morska’s invitation, I saw the opening of Trnfest, the 16th traditional annual festival that sparks up Ljubljana beat every summer. The first art exhibition to be featured was by artist that goes by more names than Prince.

Her current favourite designation is Matilda M. Dobro (dobro = good) and the show is entitled Troedina, which roughly translates to Female Trinity, or the “Comeback of the Drawing”. The works are packed with symbolism and even if a few of them seem to be haunted by horror vacui, they manage to convey the message quite clearly if one takes enough time to appreciate them individually. The two-dimensional quality of illustration allows the focus to be placed on the subject matter. Quite impressive.

The fact that Matilda a.k.a. e.g. the Queen of Snakes, has known Morska for a while, has not escaped me or my camera. I wonder whose always perfect nails she had in mind when working on several of these:

It was great to meet a fellow blogger and such an interesting person, along with her friends. Here is our pic, which ended up also being the last one in which my hair is longer than hers 🙂

The company was great and we ended up spending chatting away the rest of the evening at the Skeleton bar in old downtown, renowned for its extensive cocktail menu and impressive decorations that are mainly… well, skeletons. We covered a variety of powerful subjects and I can’t wait for another chance to do this again.

The morning after

One of the major issues in my life has been resolved. As discussed here, my hair really needed some serious work. Thanks to my wonderful boss (yes, such creatures do in fact exist), I now have a hairdresser I actually like and might go back to sooner than in three years 🙂 Mare Filipič of “Dresura Frizure” is one of the best professionals in Slovenia and assistant to one of the current top artists in the world. What a treat to have your hair done by the same hands that handle supermodels and rock stars. Just as importantly, Mare is a fascinating guy who’s been places, which makes for good conversation and the new hairdo seemed to take no time at all. I told him he could do anything he wanted with my hair. I expected blonde, inch-long hair, but here’s the result.

Ok so not quite the supermodel, but happy with my new cut.

Ljubljana hosts a two-month summer festival every year, filled with events that satisfy a variety of tastes and preferences.

After two disappointing performances, a musicle and an opera that flat out let me down, I was thrilled with tonight’s concert by the European String Orchestra.

Please excuse the sound quality, this is to serve just as a tiny memento.

The musicians lead by conductor Pieralberto Cattaneo used the wonderful setting of a chamber in the Ljubljana castle and its acoustics to produce a soul-pleasing experience. I’m sure each of them could easily have performed as solists, but special mention must go to the one who did so – the solist on the trumpet, Vicente Campos. The clarity and precision of sound was moving.

Bravo!

Two more not-very-good sound files: trumpet and violine

I C U

Inspired by another blogger’s account of his day, I wrote a recap of one of mine. This is Sunday, 22 July 2007. Not too dull a day. Can imagine what Adriaan’s comment will be. (Click the links to view photos.)

00h – Went out on the town. Met a group of old college mates celebrating a birthday, and ran into a couple of Brits-turned-nearly-Slovene, one of whom I’ve known for 9 years. Yikes, time flies! Almost claimed a mojito a certain sombody owes me, but the otherwise lovely Cutty Sark with enjoyable music had run out of spearmint. The improvized cocktail was Ok since the company was good 😉 With the birthday party girls, found a place to dance that wasn’t completely desolate and even had a lovely view of the city from the terrace. Belgrade native confirmed his home town being alcohol+party.

7h – Damn that bio clock that won’t sleep even on weekends! Off to Šmarna gora we go. Got a bit of sun and fresh air. This is where Ian would probably love to go (think flying). Took some photos of butterflies. And of a golden retriever (Hera) who wouldn’t let me take more butterfly pics unless she had some attention first.

10h – What does one do on a hot day? I had it from a reliable source that one goes to hell. Pekel (literally translated as “hell”) is a gorge near Borovnica south-west of Ljubljana. Rambling alert! I had never been to Borovnica before, which is not very nice since one of my grandmothers was born at its railway station. Don’t worry, this is not as dramatic as it seems. Her father was the railwayman in charge of the Borovnica station and they lived there. Literally. Just a few days ago, she was telling me how her father used to take her on rounds checking the arches of the famous Borovnica viaduct when she was three or four years old, before they moved. At the time the second largest railway viaduct in Europe was built in 1856 on the Südbahn or Southern Railway, the first railway line linking Vienna to Trieste and was considered one of the most imposing bridge structures the world had ever seen. It was destroyed by Allied air raid during the World War II. Today only one surviving pier shows where it once stood.

With a stream and a set of five waterfalls, the narrow and steep Pekel gorge protected by a mysterious, dark forest, provides the welcome freshness even on the hottest of summer days. I took more photos of butterflies, ants, insects I don’t yet know the name of and… a freshwater crayfish! This was so exciting! I had hurt my finger climbing (this is not a sprehod, P! ) up one of the metal ladders (think finger caught between metal and rock, not nice) and was chilling the pain in the water, had camera ready for a tiny butterfly and out from under the rock crawls this guy.

13h – Off to a village in Vipavska dolina to visit family. As this includes (my other) grandmother, pass on the recommended trout at Pekel this time around (where there is a grandmother, there is food… lots of food). Spent time with her sister from Sicily, a real character. We have lots in common. I will share a letter she’d been given over 60 years ago, called “Ticket to Heaven”. And a photo she took of a tree being destroyed by lava during one of Etna’s mischiefs.

17h – Knight Tournament at Predjama Castle. A colourful event with attention paid to detail in many respects. Reinactment of battles of days gone by along with the trades of that time represented by craftsmen selling everything from food to clay pots and fur. Observing the more or less elaborate yet undoubtedly effective tools and methods humans once used to kill one another left me slightly less than enthused, but the scenery and costumes were beautiful. And horses are always a nice sight.

21h – The latest Harry Potter came to town, ergo I took my cousin to see it. The book has been my traditional end-of-school-year gift to him and seeing the movie is a must. This one is LONG.

00h – Home sweet home. Thinking finger still hurts, but the photos of the crayfish were worth it 🙂
And here is another favourite: Can you see the damselfly grin as he caught his lunch?

damselfly’s happy meal

Carpe Diem

Night-Time 10 km Run around Lake Bled was a complete success. The organizers actually had to start turning down entries a week before the run so I was really glad we entered on time.

Lake Bled was beautiful as ever and this must be one of the most picturesque runs anywhere. So, while Olivier was picking up Svarun‘s award at the German CFA cat show, I was up at Lake Bled, which looks positively impressive at night as well, with the beautifully lit up fairytale castle guarding it from the tall rock.

My favourite co-runners

I’m glad Mateja and Sašo convinced me to go! I was sure I’d end up walking half way through as I’d never done a 10k before (hey I know it’s not like a marathon, but distance can be a relative thing -G-) and I hadn’t ran in 6 weeks. When we first started off, I felt exactly like that same morning on the Gorenjska road where the motorway ends. Runners had to turn blinkers on at some points to prevent chain crashes. But we soon spread out enough to be able to catch some air. Within minutes, we were enjoying a jogging pace, admiring the views. Had some problems communicating with my sister and thought the finish line was… humm… well… half way through. I was so glad to have reached the end and had actually done 6 out of 10k. Major downer.

What kept me going for the first couple of minutes afterwards were the people around the track cheering us on while having their dinners on the lake. Thanks, guys! Exchanged some energizingly fun comments. Then I started thinking I might have done better going to Belgrade like Pengovsky had done. And so time passed.

But to be perfectly honest, what really kept me going that last mile was the prize. The one and only kremšnita (Bled Cream Cake, yumm). To make a long story short, made it to the finish line without walking in a bit over 61 minutes (take 1 minute off for the slooowww start I suppose and make it a nice and round 60 minutes? -g-)

This was, without a doubt, the prettiest run I’ve ever done. Still cannot believe we ran around the lake twice. The scenery was smashing and the atmposphere matched by no other run we’ve been to. THANK YOU, Vitezi dobrega teka! We’ll be back next year!

The organizers had the original idea of giving us small forks in place of medals. Came in handy with the ever so desired cream cake…

The prize (Cake disappeared instantly so no shot, sorry)

Feeling rather good, I decided I want to take up running again and get ready for the Bohinj 12 km run on the 12th of August. Who’s game?

After having gone to bed at 2am I got up at 6.30 and dragged Ian up to Komna and Črno jezero (Black Lake) in the Alps today, which made for an 8 hour walk, but that deserves a new blog entry 🙂

Včeraj sem večer preživela v Križankah, poslušajoč in gledajoč musical The Music of Dirty Dancing v produkciji londonskega West End International Ltd. London, tu je moje mnenje…

Prvih par minut sem mislila, da se šalijo, potem je nehalo biti hecno. Čez deset minut je gravitacija postajala vse šibkejša in sem se komaj zadržala na sedežu. Malenkost kasneje me je navdušila gospodična, ki je smela odpeti Proud Mary (rolling on the river) in še zdaj se sprašujem, zakaj nima glavne vloge. Zaradni nje sem ostala.

Tam nekje pred odmorom sem se težko koncentrirala na predstavo, ker sem razmišljala o tem, ali je zanič, ker se so nam poslali C zasedbo ali pa so to vendarle Ajevci, ki se pri nas počutijo kot na počitnicah. V igri je bilo tudi potencialno slabo ozvočenje. Strike that. Vse ostalo bi bilo ok, tudi neimpresivni glasovi in ples, ki ga šišajo Mariovi plesni pari, če bi vse skupaj izgledalo seksi in bilo nabito z energijo. Ej, DIRTY dancing sem šla poslušat-do-gledat z rahlo voyerskimi željami. Izrazito sta izstopala že omenjena neprva dama in prav tako neprvi blond plesalec, ki je včasih celo malce koketiral s publiko (hej ostali, učite se!). Kako jima je ime pa nimam pojma.

Čast jim je reševal bend, sicer pa mi je zadeva z izjemo nekaj lepih biserčkov v celoti izpadla kot avdicija za bitko talentov. Dirty Dancing brez dirty dancing.

I’m finally trying to recap last weekend. I was overjoyed to have received my Nikon D40 from Hannes and played around with Nikki as she’s been nicknamed a bit. So on Saturday, after lunch:

buckwheat/spelt pasta with veggies and home-grown basil

I took my bike out on the town. Stopping by at grandma’s first, I took this shot of a busy bee on wisteria:

and hortensia

and carried on to downtown Ljubljana. The first stop of course had to be our dear Green Dragon 🙂

I carried on to Kongresni trg where a group of enthusiastic folks put on a very enjoyable concert as part of the Live Earth happening, called Rock za prihodnje generacije.

One of the best gigs was the joint session of Benč & Grašič:

Thanks to all who organized the event, it must have involved so much work!

…after that, I rode my bike back home right past a Hare Krishna group,

changed it for my cutsey Micra and went South, to the seaside. Met with my sister and her boyfriend and continued with the concerts in beautiful Simonov zaliv. Still carrying Nikki with me, I took these shots of Big Foot Mama…

…and Kingston…

All of this in the best of company:

and before you know it, a new day dawned and we could all start having fun AGAIN! 🙂

Thanks to all who put on the concert! It was fun.

More to follow after the effects of this guy’s work:

fade away

Photo nicked at http://www.lovechotel.com/

The “Vitezi dobrega teka”, which translates to either the Knights of Good Running or to the Knights of Bon Appetit (take your pick) are organizing a 10 kilometre race around Lake Bled on 14 July.

Beautiful setting, good company, the best dessert, this is the Race that’s become a traditional one before even the first one’s over, so what are you waiting for.

More info and entry form here.

A lovely guitar concerto of Spanish and Latin American tunes at Kavarna Pločnik. Alen in Denis Mujkić created an enjoyable atmosphere.

This entry is here to test whether I can include a sound file.