Dr. Filomena

Last Saturday saw an eagerly awaited event come true. Denis a.k.a. človek came up with the idea and was the driving force behind the successful organisation of a bloggers’ Xmas season party. Shunning sponsorship funds, everyone gathered at the cozy setting of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum a.k.a. SEM, bringing some food to help ease the drinks served by the museum down thirsty throats. How appropriate a location, wouldn’t you say? Ethnographic history was being made on site. (Note: part of SEM mission statement: a museum “…about people, for people”, a museum of cultural identities, the link between the past and the present, between our own and other cultures, between the natural world and civilisation…”)

Since there was supposed to be a karaoke show as well, I decided, with some encouragement, to give it a go for the first time with “These Boots Were Made for Walking”. I even dressed… I mean… booted (?) for the occasion. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for the rest of the gang, Mr. Mojo forgot to bring my song. He (or whoever the saviour of blogger ears and possibly eyes may have been) is forgiven, however, especially since it turns out that I actually know mojo man from work-related ‘real life’.

Somehow, I managed to miss out on the karaoke performances of others and I am sorry for that although not sorry to have enjoyed interesting conversations with The Smokers in the plastic tent outside in the mean time (note: reference to the anti-smoking legislation).

I must say I never expected a bloggers’ party to be a place to reconnect with old schoolmates, either. Especially not ones from elementary school! (Yep, happened.)

Anyway, it was way cool to have seen the guys I’d met before at Pr’Skelet, reconnected with several people I’d not seen in a long time (and had no idea they were blogging) and met a bunch of new interesting people. Oh, and not to forget… thanks to Sigi at the bar! Even though they were officially not available, she made me as many caipirinhas as possible (i.e. limited by the number of limes available. They sufficed, thank you very much, and gave Seks a glimpse of the cocktail world.

When I hear music, I can’t help but move… and although I was slightly disappointed by the number of people who ventured out on the dance floor. But hey, the ones who did warm up to the beat sure did move 🙂 You girls and guys know who you are… 😈

I’m sure I’ll mess up by forgetting to mention a blogger pal, so I apologize in advance and blame it on my swiss-cheese memory. Heya, my long-lost grandson (we’ll have to talk about your drinking and sexual orientation someday, but granny loves you anyway and the talk can wait till after the holiday season), my favourite person from Krško who makes yummy rum-coconut-chocolate balls, the most blogestest couple in the room as far as I’m concerned who brought us a homemade blogelicious humongous chocolate jaffa cake. Burn, baby burn!

Morska is officially joining the witch club Binula and I had started a few centuries ago. Provided that Kobrowsky doesn’t wrap her in special plastic foil first.

Sunshine & Mitja, I enjoyed meeting the other half, especially since he comes from the best high school ever. I am keeping my fingers crossed that all your plans come to realization. Šuši, I remember! Yup, upside down, too.

Cheers, Chef (you can move!), Boštjan, Eirene, Saša (way cool to have come! and loved your smiles), Big Bad Wolf (so much younger and not as sharp-toothed as one would have presumed), Mojca the sunny one, Cyco the designer, Fotoholik (found your blog)… Hey Kašpar if Fetalij is my grandkid, I could always make you my great great great great grandson. MachineMan, we have to talk about the clubbing scene in Ljubljana… probably will come see you this week.

I think I noticed Pengovsky carrying on a political debate in a dark back corner of the room. A rather heated debate. Ok so it may have been on sex after all.

Again, thanks to all for a fun fun fun night. I was shocked to see it was 3.30 when leaving… Seemed more like pumpkin time to me.

Some photo material:

OK so admittedly I was more focused on the quality of the caipirinhas than that of the photos. I knew I could count on the other 75 cameras in the room to take better pics anyway 🙂

…

Človek, you da man!

Blog on!

Crystal Glass Snowflake by Rogaška
at the Glasswork Salon in Ljubljana

Now this should make for some seriously merry xmas season 😀

Cheers!

Anyone care to venture a guess? Shoot! Shake! 😀

Ljubljana Lights

Every now and then it really feels good to simply take a walk. If you happen to be in a great town like Ljubljana, even better for you! So after just another fun-filled day at work (BTW, the website is being refurbished completely by a great angelically devilish team as we speak) and an uplifting cup of coffee with my beloved sister, I decided to take a stroll downtown that had just been lit up with a zillion colourful lights and extras, a cheerful reminder of the shopping season that spreads love and wrapping paper all around us.

Exhibition at Mestni muzej

So as not to succumb to the shopping spree completely (whoops, one does require a certain type of paper for that purpose… or plastique plastic), a visit to the museums seemed in order. The artefacts above were excavated at the site of the museum, from the Roman period when this city went by the name of Emona.

Copper Age; style truly is timeless, eh?

Mestni muzej (City Museum) has interesting exhibitions year-round and one of the amazing rooms, at least to me, is the one featuring some of the objects found in the Ljubljana area going all the way back to the period of the so-called pile dwellings (mostišča) at Ljubljana marshes during the late stone age and the copper age (4,500 – 1,800 B.C.), such as the one pictured above.

The many faces of Ljubljana

One does tend to discover many interesting bits and pieces… and people at museums, but one’s uncle is rarely among them. My eye caught a familiar pace and when the monk on the wall projection turned around and gave me that big all-knowing smile, my jaw dropped so low I had to struggle to pick it up. I wasn’t sure if it was just my eyes playing games with my brains on account of the delicious mulled wine I’d just consumed at one of the stands at the Three Bridges as part of the December tradition… Confirmed with a follow-up phone call, yep, that’s my uncle up there, featuring as one of the “many faces of Ljubljana” through the ages. Also re-confirmed, he never really was a monk. Phew.

The new exhibition at the School Museum

Desperately in need of some enlightenment, I swiftly entered not the school, but the next best thing. The Slovenian School Museum where a new exhibition was just presented. With lots of wine available, but in view of the as yet unconfirmed sighting of uncle at the other museum, I decided to pass on that particular temptation. The exhibition “The Teacher in a New Social Reality between 1945 and 1963” makes for an interesting addition to the regular pieces.

We build schools, we build knowledge, we build socialism
(replace with an -ism of your choice any time)

One inscription that stuck was that “any system, anywhere, always wants to claim the society’s children”. Kids, you’re all we’ve got, guys!

Hey, it was time to get some more fresh air.

The festive Three Bridges

What better way to finish a day than to hang out with interesting people. I think the guy in whose honour admission to museums was free of charge yesterday would have approved. Especially if he’d had a chance to share a glass of wine with us. Mulled or otherwise.

Fetalij, the star blogger

Fetalij showing off (ok, so I sorta forced him to) with his own image in the very first printed blogger publication in Slovenia, Blogorola. Grayscale photo per his request 😉

Happy birthday, Dr. Fig!

This is how I feel right now. Don’t come close! 😈
Can anyone guess where the photo was taken? It’s a very central location…

Memory Lane (photo by dr. fil)
where the Rog sawmill‘s timber railway used to run

Kočevski rog covers an area of over 500 square kilometres of Karstic terrain in Southern Slovenia. Human interventions in nature have been minimal over the centuries, so that the entire area is beautifully preserved in terms of nature and bustling with wildlife, including predators extinct in most other European countries. Bears, wolves, lynx and birds of prey abound. Hey, we even export them 🙂 Three of the forests have been completely intact for centuries.

The first WW2 resistance fighter groups in the area were formed in 1941 already, with the famous Baza 20 (Base 20) set up in 1943. Wooden boards were hewn at the Spreitzer sawmill in Stare Žage and at a sawmill in Soteska. Doors and already glazed windows were taken from the abandoned Götscher houses, but tools and other necessary material were procured in shops in the valley.

BAZA 20 provided home and working environment members of the Slovenian resistance. By the time of Italian capitulation on 9 September 1943, thirteen buildings had been erected. In addition to those accommodating the members of the leadership, a radio and telegraph building, a radio station, a kitchen and two dormitories for the kitchen staff and the guards were constructed. In 1944 a kitchen warehouse was built along with a separate kitchen and warehouse for the guard battalion, an electric power plant, two dormitories for the guards and propaganda activists and additional buildings for officials.

The population of BAZA 20 kept growing with the base accomodating almost 200 people by the end of 1944, but thanks to exceptional security and camouflage measures, it was never discovered.

BAZA 20 is the only such headquarters of a European resistance movement that remains preserved. It has become an important monument of the state. Together with the preserved hospitals of Jelendol and Zgornji Hrastnik it was declared a cultural monument in 1952. All 26 buildings still stand.

See the main source for the above text

At Lukov Dom, visitors can see a short film about Kočevski Rog and hire a guide. Custodian & Information: Dolenjski muzej Novo mesto (offers guided tours for groups and individuals, Phone: +386 7 373 11 11)

Photo of the Week in Mladina magazine; visit the author’s blog: Binula

While the Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša struggles to discipline his coalition partners, people still find it difficult to forget some of the recent statements considered to be in rather poor taste.

In our office‘s backyard, my dear colleague (meet Sabina) took a photo of a question posed by an annonymous voter or voter-to-be who apparently dug through the trash container for loaves of bread in vain. He or she most probably came across no milk and honey, either.

Today, Sabina’s photo of the container with the sign: “Janša, where are the bread loaves?” was published in Mladina magazine as the “photo of the week”. Incidentally, Barbara Brezigar, featured to the left of the photo used to share Sabina’s last name. And possibly a drop of blood or two. Hey, it’s a small country 😉

Bravo to Binula the blogger on becoming a published photographer!

Good morning, starshine 😉

Good morning, sunshine 😉

Lipizzaner stallion glancing at the mares in Lipica

Encouraged by Michael Manske’s post at carniola.org featuring Hollywood ignorance of a particular source of Slovenian pride and joy, I thought I’d write a post about the graceful creatures of Lipica that gave them their name, though the world is most familiar with them as the equine version of ballet dancers admired at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

The Lipizzaner breed of horse, which is among the most ancient ones in the world (the absolute record being held by the unbeatable Arabian horses) and goes back over half a millennium, is the product of sturdy local Karstic mares, refined by the introduction of “warmer-blooded” Spanish stallions and later on by an Arabian stallion as well. Horses of the Karst had a reputation for resilience and speed even back in ancient Roman times. In 1580, the first Andalusian stallions arrived to the new royal stud farm at Lipica (Southwest Slovenia), built by Archduke Charles, the third son of Ferdinand I of Habsburg. During the Napoleonic Wars, the stud farm was forced to move three times to Hungary, and sought refuge near Vienna during World War I. It took a great effort and dedication to rebuild the stud farm after WW II.

Of the founding stallions, two were brought from Kladruby in Bohemia (Favory and Maestoso), two from Naples in Italy (Conversano and Neapolitano), one from Frederiksborg royal stud farm in Denmark (Pluto) and one directly from Arabia (Siglavy). Lipizzaner mares come from 16 different families.

After careful selection through the centuries, the resulting breed is of medium size, standing at about 15 hh. The lively eyes reveal the horse’s intelligence. The well-muscled neck is set rather high and decorated with a thick, but silky soft mane. Its legs are strong, with well-developed wide joints, ending in strong, small, well-formed hooves. Correct body structure produces the characteristically impressive gate. The high, elegant, energetic, proud gates make the breed the perfect choice in parades.

Although best known as the white horse of the Karst (or of the Vienna riding school, for that matter), Lipizzaners do also come in black and bay. Some breeders specifically specialize in those colours. As is the case in other breeds, the horses that turn white are all born as black, bay or chestnut foals, changing colour later on. Thanks to selective breeding, white Lipizzaners usually turn completely white very quickly. One thing to remember here: white is not a colour, it is absence of colour. Any white horse (or cat, or dog) has a genetic code for a “real” colour, which is overrun by a gene or set of genes that suppress pigment production or cause pigment degradation.

Lipica maintains a top level breeding programme placing great emphasis both on health and performance. All the moving around that the horses were forced to endure while the world was at war decimated the herd, narrowing down its gene pool and the resulting inbreeding nearly caused the famed sturdy horse to lose its reputation for longevity. At Lipica, they are enforcing a strict 5-generation rule under which no two horses with a common relative in the first five generations of ancestors may be bred together; accordingly, the stud farm has been exchanging stallions that meet the same tough selection criteria with other breeding centres. This policy has proven to be highly successful and the white horses of Lipica can again boast excellent health and longevity.

Capriole (Source)

And long lived these horses should be, otherwise the handsome white stallions would get very little action 😀 The first selection of breeding stallions is made at three or four years of age at the time of their “elementary school” training based on how well they meet the breed standard, their temperament and athletic ability. The best ones are allowed to breed once or twice, then they go off to school. Only those stallions who’ve passed this stage and then mastered the difficult “university level” dressage elements over several years of training, preferably including the “PhD level” haute ecole “airs” such as Capriole above, and whose first offspring from their teenage years has already proven to be of high quality, are finally allowed to woo the white mares. Humm… 😈

Over the last 20 years or so, attempts have been made to modernize the Lipizzaner breed in order to make it more competitive in modern sports. Competitive dressage and show jumping calls for a different body type than would be required in an 18th Century battle horse. Thankfully, the attempts have mainly been abandoned and the value of the breed as it is has been recognized before they completely ruined it and turned it into a “ne tič ne miš”.

The only real Lipizzaners that may have the letter L branded in their cheeks are ones from the Lipica area as their bone and hoof structure is influenced by their nutrition, i.e. the lime-stone-heavy grass and hay from the Karst. Lipizzaners from Lipica (and Piber, the Austrian stud farm with whom Lipica has had the most frequent exchange of ‘genetic material’) tend to be lighter in frame and more elegant than those from stud farms in other European countries where part of the herd had been left behind in war turmoils and the horses were bred differently.

In the late nineties, several countries claimed the breed as their own resulting in a political hot potato. Italy and Austria concluded an agreement on keeping the original Lipizzaner studbook records independently of Slovenia, which at the time was not a member of the EU. Incidentally, Italy’s only claim to the breed is the fact that the country occupied south-west Slovenia for a while and took the original stud books from 1926 onwards to Rome at the time of retreat. Most of the older stud books had already been taken to Vienna prior to Italian occupation.

In early 1999, Slovenia responded to said agreement by issuing a regulation on the designation of origin and geographical indications for the name of Lipicanec (in all languages) referring to the history of the breed and its specific characteristics related to the area where it is bred. The fight over the original studbook record-keeping – as most issues tend to – comes down to not mere prestige, but money. In this case, EU agricultural funds.

Anyway – if you’re in Slovenia, you have no excuse not to make a visit to the historic site that is the true home to these beautiful white pearls of the Karst.
Information: Lipica stud farm.

Besides taking a stroll and a guided tour through the farm, you can take riding lessons at all levels, go out for a ride in the beautiful countryside, take a carriage ride, watch a classical riding school show (think Vienna here). When you’re all horsed out, you can play some golf or enjoy the casino if that happens to be where you get your kicks from (hey, I’d rather be out there on horseback myself 😀 ).

EDIT: Not only would I prefer to enjoy Lipica from horseback or horse carriage, but I really hope that these aspects along with the haute ecole shows remain the focal point in Lipica. The powers that be seem to have lost their bearings and forget what the stud farm is all about. Concerned citizens opposing extension of golf courses on the pasture lands of the white equine ballet dancers have their website at Ohranimo Lipico (Let us preserve Lipica).
(Thanks for the link, Jean

Dr. Fil with a Lipizzaner stallion at Lipica