Dr. Filomena

Global warming, my throat!

I am stuck at home with a cold due to a bad case of summer-nostalgia (i.e. not dressing warmly enough).

On the other hand, I do remember always having to wear heavy winter coats on All Saints’ Day when accompanying my Grandfather to Urh hill where annual commemorations were held for the hundreds of people tortured and executed by the collaborationist “Home Guard” during WWII, among them his classmate who’d been dragged to Urh straight from the classroom at the University.

Snowflakes were usually landing on fur coats while we were lighting candles and listening to the choir singing. Cannon fire added to the cold as far as I was concerned. Afterwards, we’d always take a walk on the frozen paths to see the trees still struggling to finally hide away the tell-tale bits of iron by swallowing them quietly into their trunks. Then, we’d visit the exhibition of extensive photographic material on the events taking place at Urh. Incidentally, since the ownership of the Church of St. Urh, the place of conception of the “white guard” armed forces and their military stronghold where the atrocities were being committed has been restored to the Roman Catholic Church, the exhibition has been hidden away in Ljubljana City Museum‘s basement.

Well I guess my line of thought stranded just a tiny bit 😉 I’ll blame Michael who posted some photos of snowed-in Rogla today. Hey, it’s a good thing that Slovenians cite Alpine skiing as our national sport. Do you suppose the mild winters promoting soccer instead of skiing may have changed the national character a bit? Humm..

So much for today’s rambling. Must get back to work. Albeit from home 😉

Speaking of work… Congratulations to Fetalij on his first full-time “regular employment” job! If you read Pengovsky’s explanation of how Slovenian employers (ok, and students) are abusing the incentive system, oh and actually his today’s post as well, you’ll realize that securing a regular job must have been no small feat! 🙂

Ljubljana market.

EDIT: I still need to figure out this mobile blogging thing. It started snowing at the market while I was there around noon and I wanted to post this entry… Had to cut way back on the text and it still wouldn’t go through. Then it went through a couple of hours later. The photo is so much nicer and larger than the one from the castle… strange. Anyway, will figure it out somehow.

I kid you not.

Source

If you drop by at Mala Galerija, Slovenska cesta 35 in Ljubljana, or at Gallery NOEMA between 15 October and 15 November 2007, you will have the chance to wonder at an exhibition featuring records of the following brave expedition:

“This year on 6 August, atop Mount Triglav, three artists – intermedia artist Janez Janša, director and performer Janez Janša, and visual artist Janez Janša – realized the action Mount Triglav on Mount Triglav.”

Sure sounds like team work!

(Click here for the presentation in Slovenian.)

The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Municipality of Ljubljana and the European Cultural Foundation.

Go Team!

EDIT: I suppose I might do well to mention that a Janez Janša happens to be Slovenia’s current prime minister and that Mount Triglav (literally: mt. three-heads or the triple-headed mountain) is the highest mountain in the country as well as one of its most prominent symbols, e.g. featured in the coat of arms, which also happens to be included in the national flag.

Several of us have been trying to figure out how to define the meaning of “anal retentive”. Now granted, we could have always looked it up in Wikipedia, but why bother when debating the issue can clear up so much (whoops).

I think I’ve just cracked it, though (whoops no. 2). Thanks to David, I learned that that an Austrian baker actually made his staff pay for the time they spent in the toilet.

The owner of the bakery in Eisenstadt, capital of Burgenland province, recorded toilet visits on a computer and took the value of the bathroom time off their annual holiday bonus. No either this guy is anal retentive or he wants his employees to be such… or both.

No doubt, Sarkozy’s alleged pending divorce will be all over the media in the days to come so why not mention it here. The guy does sometimes seem to fit the bill as far as this post’s title goes, right?

Speaking of retention, ahem… Financial Times reports that banks’ debts threaten growth. Big US commercial banks have seen $280bn of new debt come on to their balance sheets since the credit squeeze, threatening to undermine economic growth by inhibiting their ability to make new loans. Large bank capital – represented by net assets – had reportedly declined by $40bn since the beginning of August. European banks are said to be facing similar pressures with many observers expressing concern at the ability of some smaller lenders to handle the potential strain on their balance sheets. Perhaps time to re-read Pengovsky’s two cents’ worth on the subprime-lending-induced crisis?

Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, warned yesterday that the downturn in the nation’s mortgage market would burden the economy “for some time” as several big banks, the largest homebuilder and a major construction equipment maker all highlighted the growing impact of the housing decline. (Source)

Cheer up, though. If not by other means, then by checking out the Cartoon Quiz

Cheers from Tweety!
(Humm, I think I saw a Pussy Cat!)

Slovenia: It’s S’Lovely

Found at another blog (source, thanks Adriaan): Condé Nast Traveler asked six designers to each rebrand a country of his or her choice for its September issue, and Paula Scher selected Slovenia for her effort.
“I’ve been to Slovenia twice and loved it. But most Americans don’t know what or where it is, which is something I wanted to address” says Scher. By highlighting Slovenia’s proximity to Italy, she made the country appear both physically accessible and “like it has great skiing and great food, which it in fact does.”
Although, as she commented in the article, “I don’t think countries should have logos. Logos are for corporations.”

While it may be difficult to shake off the feeling of being categorised as Italy’s appendix and the “love” bit of the word Slovenia has been used a zillion times in various similar solutions, do take a look at Paula’s other ideas at the source.

The past two weeks have been a wild ride for dr. filomena, hence the absence of postings. My life is never boring, but recently it may have reached certain records. Running 12 km around Lake Bohinj (yep!), very busy at work closing a couple of difficult real estate deals, translating a set of contracts and a catalogue of cosmetic products, going to opera and concerts, trying to fit in some quality relaxation time and now for the cherry on the top, the project of expanding the kitchen onto the balcony has just begun. Enjoy some ‘real time’ footage 🙂 taken for a before&after.

divider wall out

new windows in

radiator waiting for the next step of remodelling

(photo source)

I’m becoming a fan. 170 cocktails on the menu and so little time. Apart from the drinks and the ingenious decor that I still have to take pictures of someday, there’s always someting going on… as I’m sure this cool waitress (hairdo by Mič) will confirm:

For an unknown reason, Ljubljana has either ran out of mint sprigs or bartenders willing to bother with fixing mojitos. Still plenty to choose from, though. A B52, for example:

I’m sure Jasna enjoyed her evening with the girls who’d just given her the birthday present. What good is a nice drink without equally good company 😉 This photo may serve to illustrate Michael’s pt. 2 on the 5 Best/Worst Things About Living in Slovenia.
EDIT: As was correctly noted in the comments, I was thinking of point 4.

These two guys from Solnograd in Austria love Ljubljana. Who could blame them.

At “Pr’Skelet”, they do also offer blow jobs. This is one of the ways you can consume them:

Cheers!

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.

Generally speaking, civil servants don’t enjoy the best rep to say the least. We don’t have to think hard to find one thing or another that irritates us. So it is with that much more pleasure that I found some things really are improving a lot.

I am thrilled with the new e-government service that allowed me to extend my car’s registration certificate online. I’ve been filing my tax return online for the past few years and now this new service has come in very handy as a major time-saver. I simply extended my insurance policy online at my chosen insurance company, and then ordered and paid for the new certificate of registration at the Slovene e-administration site.

The certificate arrived in a couple of days complete with an addressed, priority mail postage paid envelope to return the old certificate in.

Impressive.

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