I must apologize to this blog’s fan for not having written anything in a long time. Time, along with the other three or five, is another dimension I find difficult to escape from. Though second-hand smoking in Dutch coffee shops that have recently gone tobacco-clean might help somewhat.
Just a couple of sentences on music, however, before I delve back into work.
Music means the world to me. It wakes up every atom of my body and lifts my spirit. (Which in turn helps me lift a broom and do some housework, for example.) Music fills me and takes me places I wouldn’t see or feel otherwise. It’s an essential part of my existence.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of enjoying the concert of La Scala’s Philharmonic orchestra at Ljubljana’s Cankarjev dom and the feeling was incredible. Everyone on the stage could have performed as a soloist. And I cannot imagine that anyone among them does not wish to a certain degree that she or he’d been given the opportunity to show off their mastery. And yet they performed as a team, perfectly in tune with each other, every one of them taking the spotlight at one point of the evening or another while the rest subsided ever so gently and courteously for a moment.
The end result was complete harmony that radiated a true love for music and the smiling faces in the orchestra sent out a loud and clear message:
Once I get you up there, where the air is rarefied
We’ll just glide, starry eyed
Once I get you up there, Ill be holding you so near
You may here, angels cheer – because we’re together
Back to nature, my friends. Going for a trek in the mountains may be one of the few ways to escape the Big Brother’s all-knowing eye. In the country where Privacy is or rather used to be one of the very top values not to mention human rights.
I just came from a lecture by the former CEO of one of the largest and most successful European-based multinationals who made several comments on how democracy in its pluralistic form is terribly inefficient and who claimed that the fact that nowadays the more people oppose the system the more highly regarded they are in terms of academic prizes is unnatural. As he put it, back in the days of tribes, people who opposed the way the society worked were killed. As humanity progressed, they were tolerated. Now, they are awarded. Right.
Just after that, I heard that the fact that I listened to Schnappi das kleine Krokodil (more than once, as well!) would now be known to Viacom due to a US court ruling. What the $#% does Viacom care if I like a certain crocodile??? He’s cute! I will follow developments with regard to this issue with great interest as the US court ordered Google to divulge the database that contains the unique login ID of the user who watched any YouTube video, the time when the user watched it, the IP address (unique online identifier) of the computer used to watch the video and the identifier for the video (source).
I wonder how many Americans still have that ‘over my dead body’ gut response to corporations collecting their information. Isn’t it Google that is launching an online medical record database system where you can keep all your medical records and your entire medical history with diagnoses?
Collectively, people’s hindsight is gradually degrading from 20-20 to 09-11.
Just sharing a few photos. Hope you enjoy. I may not have run into these guys, but can’t say I mind. My views were much better than that 😈
Mr. and Mrs. Surefoot
Tread with care!
So delicate yet so resilient.
I’d never seen these before and found them absolutely stunning. Can anyone help identify them?
Ever wondered what the view from the Top is like? The above may help answer your question, at least as far as the view from the top of Slovenia goes. Shot taken from the inside of Aljaž Tower at the top of Mount Triglav, the highest peak in Slovenia at 2864m.
Plenty… and I do mean plenty more photos on camera. Should I go ahead and bore you with more? 😉
Made this for friends who do not eat meat or fish. With thanks to Binula for her tips!
Served 4:
Cooked eight large sliced potatoes and drained them well. Covered the ceramic pan (no grease necessary as the olive oil from the stir-fried zucchinis suffices along with the sour cream that drizzles through the potatoes and veggies) with half of the potatoe slices, salted.
Topped with three sliced stir-fried zucchinis.
The next layer were four large sliced quickly-cooked carrots. Topped that with a large aubergine, sliced, salted, grilled on the big toaster and cut into cubes. Sprinkled with some grated cheese to hold together.
Topped with another layer of the cooked potatoes and salted.
Mixed sour cream with two eggs, three large spoons of flour, salt and pepper and poured over the top.
Baked in the oven for 15 minutes at 220°C
Sprinkled with grated cheese and baked for another 5 minutes.
Voila.
As a side: shredded a large cucumber, added yoghurt, garlic, salt, pepper, some hot pepper seeds and dill.
Bon appétit, my vegetarian friends 🙂
And Bon voyage!
