Dr. Filomena

Some graffitis embellish buildings, others are no more than vandalism. This one in Ljubljana is a bit of a word play. In Slovenian, “bi?” means “would you?”.

Would you?

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.

Boris works for Slovenia Times and the Ljubljana Tourist Board. An original and certainly eye-catching way of advertising a newspaper and what this country has to offer to visitors. There are more foreign tourists than locals in the streets downtown during summer weekends, which undoubtedly makes this picturesque part of the city the right spot for Boris and his tricycle to do their job.

Read the full story here. And when you see the postman with a top hat, riding a curious old-fashioned device you’d normally have come across some 150 years ago, have him give you Slovenian Tourist Board information brochures and a free copy of the Slovenia Times.

Ljubljana, the name of Slovenia’s capital, comes very close to the Slovene word for ‘beloved’, i.e. ljubljena.

Especially in summertime, noting beats having a nice dinner by the river in the ‘old downtown’ and taking a walk with a friend or that special someone. Add one of the summer festival events for good measure and you’re good to go.

You’ve got to love this town.

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.

This photo is dedicated to Morska
~hugs from dr. filomena~

This large Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon) has several bits of its beautiful wings missing. The decor has already served its purpose by deceiving predators into attacking the wrong part of the insect.

Love of photography seems to run in our family. Here is a photo my “Aunt Vida” took of a burning tree during one of Etna’s moments of mischief. Vida has lived in Catania for the past 60+ years. More from her coming soon.

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

Hey, buddy, my eyes are down here!

r-e-s-p-e-c-t

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.