Dr. Filomena

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

I heard a most interesting interview on the radio yesterday morning and it stuck on my mind. The guy being interviewed was Srečko Rože, collector and owner of the Military Museum Tabor in Lokev village in south-western Slovenia, near Lipica, the cradle of the White Horse of the Karst, Lipicanec. You may know some of them from their place of work abroad in the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. Whoops, rambling in progress. Back to subject.

A miliraty museum is not something I would normally advertise, but I loved the way it was presented. This enthusiastic ex soldier, while fascinated by the items in the collection, says his goal is to exhibit the articles as a reminder of what humans are capable of doing to one another. With this premise in mind and listening to him go on and on about the project, I think I might drop by the museum and see all the uniforms and arms by myself as well. And try not to think too much about their purpose, but more about their message.

This quote does not entirely fit the subject, but I like it so here you go.

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.
-Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

No time to really write, so today, I’ll just post another photo. Being in the real estate business, I come across all types of properties, but the ones on our portfolio lately are so nice they make me go oooh and aaah. If you were a client, I’d be talking investment opportunity, appreciation, rental return. But actually, all I want is some sympathy 🙂 When I win the lottery, this will be my party place.

Photo I took with my Nikki:
Sunset in Ljubljana Penthouse

(click to enlarge)

Drool with me… 🙂

Just a pic I took while waiting for Mattie and Dilys at Prešernov trg, fiddling with the menues of my camera.

edit 18 JUL 2007:
The photo is of Peter Božič. Some information may be found here.

Why if it isn’t Jack the Cricket of Komna!

(click for larger image)

…and his cousin James.
(again, click to enlarge)

Oh look, there is their friend Mickey the discreet insect inside the Turkish Lily!

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.

To illustrate the point from the original Hair post, Sabina used Nikki this morning and proved that I have floor-length hair. Consider this the “before” in a “before and after” series 🙂

I walked up to Šmarna Gora this morning before sunrise, thinking of you. I saw so many perfect flowers, so many picture-perfect views. But it is the imperfections that make for unique… and perfect.

This one is just for you:

The ones we love never really leave.

Happy birthday. I know the sun always shines where you are. Bask in it, soak up all its warmth and love. In my heart, you will stay forever young.