OK I realize it's been a while since I posted. So it has been 9 days since I flew over to the UK for the holidays.Though I had to deal with a late start, due to my flight being delayed 2 1/2 hours because of the snow in London. Once I got here everything went really well. I was happy with the train ride and by 8pm I was eating dinner at my sister's house. It was quite cold leading up to Christmas and we even got a little snow on Christmas eve. I enjoy spending some time in the quiet village where my sister and her family live and I will be here for 2 more weeks.

So I decided on Saturday that I would run the Winter Cup race in Pohorje for the second week in a row. I was still a little sore from the last one, but figured that it was just going out in a multiday race. Anyway I stayed at my friend's, who just happens to be the race organizer, on Saturday night. As we left for the race there was a light snow falling, he showed me on his computer that there was snow on the race course. The temperature was also below freezing. There was a big starting field of 173 runners and walkers. Once I got going I did not feel so bad and quickly warmed up. I had changed my shoes from last week to ones with better grip, but once I got onto the steep snow covered slopes I began slipping a lot. In general I felt better when I finished, with a slower time than last week and I have to say that my recovery has been much better.

So at this weeks 2 mile race we had 7 participants. It was once again 2 C though not misty this week, just a little overcast. The Sun did make a brief appearance near the end. I will be out of town for the next 4 weeks and will try to have someone else organize the race while I am away. I am hoping that the field will grow.
Last Sunday I was in Maribor for the second race in this years Winter Cup on Pohorje, it is a 3.8km race up the Pohorje mountain. This is the 3rd year and the field has been steadily growing. There were 155 runners and walkers. The course is a little different each week combining trails and ski slopes. I was a little faster than when I raced in January, but then you cannot compare. I was really tired and quite sore afterwards.

A friend of mine knows the Slovenian composer Alojz Ajdic and got me a free ticket to go see a performance of his work by the Slovenian Philharmonic. It was last night and although it was raining pretty hard I walked the 35 minutes to the concert hall in the city. It has been a long time since I went to a classical concert and it was truly wonderful. 2 pieces were played, a concerto for Piano and Orchestra and his 2nd Symphony. The composer, who is 70 was there and was able to take several bows from a moderately sized audience. I very much enjoyed the evening.

It's been 100 days since I last missed a day of running and since I ran this morning it is now 101. Over the years I have had a few running streaks, the longest being just over 4 1/2 years. I never plan them they just happen and on they go.

As I walked around the city yesterday I noticed a few things; the trees are almost completely bare of leaves. I can remember that at Thanksgiving in New York the last few years there have still been many leaves on trees. I also observe that there seem to be more and more people sitting at the outside cafe's, I don't know but this seems to say to me that people are a bit more comfortable with their finances these days. Maybe it's just me.

Today is November 24 and it would have been my Mother's 81st Birthday. I was thinking of her and wanted to mention it.

Well it ended up being a tiring weekend, I went up to Maribor and on Saturday night went with some friends to Graz. It was almost 2 am when we got home. The next day we went to a place called Cankova which is near the Austrian border and not far from Hungary. There is a small bridge about 5km away that crosses a small stream and it was named a peace bridge a few years ago. There was a nice local ceremony to celebrate the anniversary. I ran with some WHR team members and some local runners to the bridge where we met with another group of WHR runners from Austria and we had a nice ceremony with 2 neighbouring mayors.

When the European Union passed a law banning smoking in Restaurants and such it really hit the coffee shops in Slovenia. The solution was to set up some tables and chairs outside for those who wanted to smoke. Of course this posed a problem when the weather turns cold. So now the coffee shops have propane gas heaters and also provide blankets for the patrons who want to smoke. It seems to work and of course it spawned a whole new business with companies providing the street lamp like heaters.

The seasons in New York are not clearly defined. Over the years I noticed that sometimes we did not seem to have a Spring and December would sometimes have days that were like cool summer days.
Here in Slovenia I can clearly see that there was a change in the middle of October from summer to autumn. Though there are the occasional warmer days they still have that autumnal feel.There is of course the colour change on the tree leaves and the snow on the distant mountains that can be viewed from Ljubljana.

This weekend has been a pretty quiet, stay at home kind of weekend. Yesterday afternoon I spent a lot of my time sitting in front of my computer, check out the live updates on the World Trophy 50k Championships. A friend of mine, Amanda Stickel was participating and for a short time was in second place, eventually fading to 5th place ( she was second American woman). It was her only her second 50k race and first time on the World stage, so she did very well.
For me I got out there this morning and ran in cold and foggy Ljubljana. For her it was hot and humid Gibraltar.

Last night 3 of my friends from Macedonia stopped by on their way to Austria and stayed the night. It was around 10:30pm, but of of them wanted to go walking around the city.So I went out and we got back around 1:30am. Anyway we were up pretty early and they were on their way. Later the guy came to install the cable modem for the internet and now we have high speed internet in the apartment. Next week we will have digital phone. Life is good.

Today one of my partners in my soon to be business told me of 2 options we have to register the business in Slovenia. So with the prospect of getting a roasting machine also soon, things are moving forward. I think it will be in the new year that we will see the fruition of our ideas coming into reality.

Yesterday was the Ljubljana Marathon. I had originally planned to run it, but got sick and thought it better not too. A friend of mine from the Ukraine, Nataliya came to run and it was nice to see her doing well. In fact she finished 10th in the woman's race. It was my first time experiencing this marathon and was quite impressed. It is the 14th edition and I think for the first time they had quite a few African runners. Both the Mans and woman's races were won by Kenyans and both set new course records. Nataliya also set a new personal record of 2:48.

I am back in Ljubljana after almost 3 weeks and the weather is much different than it was when I left. I went out for a run this morning with a full track suite and a warm hat. I noticed right away that I could see my breath and though bright and sunny it was quite fresh. After just a few minutes I realized that my hands were cold and I had not thought to bring gloves. My right calf is bothering me a little, which has been on and off for the last 2 weeks and I was still sore from playing football for an hour on Sunday. All in all I feel quite strong though.

I got a ride yesterday from Belgrade to Zagreb, with some friends. Stayed the night there and caught the early train to Ljubljana. The Croatian border police questioned me about my passport, saying they were concerned about whether the Slovenia border police would give me a hard time.Of course the Slovenians did not bat an eyelid.Maybe the Croatians think England let Ukraine beat them so that they would take second place in the World Cup qualifying group.
It was raining when I got to Ljubljana, but stopped long enough for me to get home. It's quite cold and when I went out for my run this afternoon, I could see that there was snow on the mountains nearby.

I just found out that John Lennon would have been 69 today, if he was still around.
It was a beautiful day in Sarajevo, 25C and I got in a nice run this afternoon. I leave tomorrow morning for Belgrade, where I will be for the weekend.

I am currently in Sarajevo, Bosnia, arriving by bus from Nish, Serbia yesterday. It is quite warm here and I had a nice run from the place where I am staying to the Holiday Inn, which became famous during the war here.
Oh by the way! When I was in Macedonia I accidentally put my Passport in the washing machine. It survived and has got me through 3 borders, but looks a little strange. Fortunately it expires soon, so I will get a new one.

So I have been on the World Harmony Run for the last 2 weeks. It took me into Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria. The team changed a few times, but we had good members all the way through.After the first few days we had a break in Belgrade. Where I participated in a 6 hour race and ran the last leg of a 12 hour relay, so I got in some good training.
I am now in Nish Serbia, where I had a meeting with the guy who will make a coffee roasting machine for me. I also got to look at an old machine to see what it will look like. Finally things are moving forward.

The 2 days we were in Sarajevo were quite busy. They included a Radio interview, visits to 2 schools and a newspaper interview in the lobby of the tallest building in Bosnia. I also got to go to the observation deck on the 35th floor, from where you can see the whole city.
This morning we left around 6 am to drive back to Belgrade, where we had meetings at 3 schools. I am spending the night in a floating hostel on the river Danube, just as I did on Tuesday. If you are ever in Belgrade check it out, it's called Arkabarka.

I have a few last minute things to take care of, but basically I am ready to go. The train leaves in 3 hours time, well it is supposed to,and we will leave for the station in 2 hours. Will should arrive in Belgrade before midnight and someone will meet us and take us to the hotel where the team is staying. Then there will be an early start on Wednesday morning for the trip to Sarajevo, where we will be for 2 days.

Tomorrow afternoon I will take a train to Belgrade with my friend Milan. We are going to join the World Harmony run. He will be with them for about 5 days, but I will be there for almost 2 weeks.In May I was on the run in Slovenia and Italy. This time I will be going to Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria. You can check out the website worldharmonyrun.org and get some information on it and see daily reports. If I get a connection and the time I will post something during my trip.

The weekly 2 mile race in Ljubljana is on a 400 meter track. This morning the weather was overcast and quite mild. There were the usual 3 runners and believe it or not, this week I was 2nd. I was working herd to go under 15 minutes, but as I crossed the line the clock rolled over to 15 minutes. Of course this is an improvement and I am happy with it.

Last night there was a basket ball game between Slovenia and Croatia and I could tell from the apartment building across from mine how things were going. Slovenia won by 2 points.

The day was pretty uneventful as it goes.I did go out for a run this afternoon in a light rain and it was very nice.I have noticed that the last couple of days I have had a few minor aches and pains. Not sure if this is because of old age or the change in the weather.

My day started early. Up at 5am than helped making some deliveries. My back was kind of sore, an old problem that bothers me from time to time. It somehow got better as the day went on and I had good energy when I got home this afternoon. I took advantage of the good weather that followed the rain last night and got a nice run in this afternoon.

Had a nice weekend in Maribor, but got back late last night.
It was overcast all day. I went into the city this morning and on the way in I saw someone walking, what looked like a small dog. As I got closer I could see that it was a small black pig. I guess it was a pygmy pig because it was less then 12 inches high. It looked very happy walking along on it's red leash.
When I went out for my run this afternoon I actually put on warm ups, though it is not too cold it was cold enough.

Around this time 8 years ago I was sitting in the departure lounge in Vienna waiting for my flight to New York. Just a routine return home after another trip to Europe. Of course I did not know at the time that this flight would take me 5 days. We were about 3 hours away from New York when we were informed that there had been an attack on the financial district in NY and the airspace over NYC had been closed and there was no space left for us to land in Canada. So we would be returning to Vienna. I will not go into the details of the extraordinary job the airline ( Austrian ) did in taking care of us until my return to New York on September 15, but it was amazing. We flew into an empty JFK airport that afternoon and as I sat in my window seat I could see the plume of smoke rising from lower Manhattan, a very sobering sight. However there was a comfort in being back. Of course we now know that the events of September 11, 2001 have changed the world forever.

I was not able to watch the game, but it seems that England showed just how good they have become under Fabio Capello, when they beat Croatia 5-1 to qualify for the World cup finals in South Africa.Maybe now the fans realize that sometimes we need a foreign coach to bring the best out the English players.

Today is my niece's birthday so of course I want to say Happy Birthday to Shell.
The weather here is becoming quite mixed these days and I notice that when I go out for my run in the evening I am not sweating as much as I did.It has been more than 3 weeks now since I missed a day so I am quite happy that I think I am getting some consistency and it feels like I have good form.
In about 2 weeks time I will be going on the World Harmony Run, which is a relay run to promoted World Harmony. I will be in Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Bulgaria. So my current training will help me a lot I think.
Oh! And England can qualify for the 2010 World Cup if they beat Croatia at Wembley tonight.

Yesterday I saw 2 different T shirts that kind of had the same message. One said Good boys go to Heaven, Bad boys go to Amsterdam. The other said Good girls go to Heaven, Bad girls go to London.
This morning it actually felt cold and one can feel the change in seasons coming.
I also went to the British Embassy yesterday here in Ljubljana to ask them some questions I have about getting National insurance number. It was suggested that maybe my Social security number from the US may be Ok to use. I have to check at the ESS office to be sure. We will see.

It's funny how you go away for a couple of weeks at this time of the year and when you get back, you start to notice that the days are getting shorter. This is mainly noticeable in the mornings when I wake up. The Sun is no longer coming in through my window while I sit and meditate.
Yesterday it was inventory time at the store where I help out sometimes. It was actually a fun time.
I came home to watch the England v Slovenia friendly football game, which England won 2-1. Though England controlled the game, they had trouble scoring. Slovenia only had one shot on goal, from which they scored late in the game.
My friend Abichal ran a 6 day race in Sweden, which finished yesterday. He placed 9th with a total of 501 km Another friend Sarah Barnett won the women's race with 713.9 km.

Due to circumstances beyond my control I got to be late last night. All through the day it seemed like I was still asleep. I did get through the day doing some work and after a short nap on returning home, went out for a run.
After more than 30 years of living in America I have discovered that I do not remember my National insurance number for the UK and now I need it for my new life in Slovenia and a few other things. So begins the long journey of acquiring this information. It's not easy to change your life after many years.But I am having fun.

Well it seems that in less than 24 hours after arriving back I have developed a head cold.It mainly consists of a runny nose at this point, but I woke up after about 3 hours of sleep and it is not letting me get anymore. I hope to nap a little later and then run. I do have to work today, so it would help to get a little more rest.

My flight from New York was delayed an extra 30 minutes, because when they did the head count we apparently had 1 too many people on board. They finally decided that they were counting a baby who was not ticketed. Even so, because of a strong wind we still arrived 10 minutes early in Zurich. I had a 4 hour stop in Zurich, which went by quite quickly and again my flight to Ljubljana arrived early. After settling in I went for a short run, then made pasta for dinner. Around 9:30 I was checking up on e mails and stuff on my computer and next thing I know I am waking up on the couch at 10. So I decided it was time to go to bed. I only managed to sleep until 3am so I got up, but dozed off again about 6 am.

There has been quite a lot of rain the last 24 hours and and it has become quite cold for August in New York. This morning it was still raining lightly as we ran the weekly 2 mile race, just 4 days after the marathon. I usually try to run under 16 minutes in these races when I have run a long race just before. So I was happy with my 15:47 especially since I felt quite strong at the end and sprinted the last 200 meters passing a couple of runners before the finish line.

It's one of those rainy days in New York, when you just want to stay home and sleep or at most watch the rain fall outside. I did manage to get a run in early, during a break in the rain.Since I am leaving in a couple of days I actually have a lot to do. So I kind of spent the morning going around trying to find some people I needed to give things to., Since I had a problem with my vegetarian meal on the flight coming, I had to call the airline and confirm that things are ok this time.

It seems my payment for running the Marathon yesterday is a sore left hamstring this morning. I did go out and run a few K's as is normal for me and it made it feel better. Today is going to be another warm one, but it is supposed to be much cooler for the next few days after that. It is hard to believe that I will be back in Slovenia in 5 days time.

I probably have a lot of excuses as to why I ran a 5:07 marathon today, but none of them really matter. I ran it and I still feel pretty good at the end of it.The weather was quite cool to start with and although it got quite hot in the Sun, there was a nice breeze on the first half of the course and that helped a lot. Anyway it's another marathon under my belt.

This afternoon I met an old friend from California who is in New York for a few days and he said I looked like I had aged backwards. Which of course meant that I look younger and that my living in Slovenia is probably the reason. Sometimes we are not conscious of the fact that it is quite stressful in the place you are living in. Plus I think that I am actually happier being back in Europe, though I very much enjoyed my 31 years in New York.

I ran the Saturday morning 2 mile race. It had rained quite heavily during the night and was still raining lightly when the race got underway. There was quite a big field of runners and I firmly planted myself in the middle of them. My time was 15:34 which was in fact 4 seconds faster my race in Ljubljana 2 weeks ago so not too bad. I do of course have a marathon to run in 4 days so it was a nice workout.
Cooler after the rain, but still humid.

This morning it is much cooler, but once I went out for my run I realized that the humidity is quite high, I think that will change as the day goes on. I think I need to adjust to the humidity before the marathon on Tuesday. I got a sample of the coffee that I may be importing from Colombia last night and also talked with someone about maybe getting coffee and speciality teas from Guatemala. So slowly slowly I am making some progress with my business

Yes it is hot and humid here in New York and I must say I did not miss this one bit. I brought my American cell phone with me, but for some reason it will not charge and my battery is now low, so I have to figure something out.Maybe it's unhappy that I took it to Europe ha ha.
Anyway I have a marathon to run in 5 days time and adjusting back to the New York weather is the main priority right now.

It has been an interesting few days for me here in New York. After being away for over 3 months I have come back as a visitor. I do not have a place to live here anymore, so I am staying in a temporary residence that is not far from where I used to live. Of course things are a lot easier since I am familiar with my surroundings.I do however have a different perspective on things now, but it is good to see old friends I do not miss living here

I have been helping my friend Aleksander Arsic on the Trans Slovenia run, he finished 3rd overall. Got back in the evening from Piran where it finished and had to pack for New York. When I have a chance I will write something about the race, but you can check it out on the race site at transslovenia.si. I am now in the airport waiting for an early morning flight to Paris and then New York. Feeling kind of nervous and excited at the same time.

A friend of mine from Belgrade has just arrived. He has come here to run the first Tans Slovenia run. Which will start on Wednesday morning. It is a stage race that will cover 397km in 5 days. I had originally planned to run the race myself, but will now try to help him.
Although it is the first time this race has taken place there will be around 28 runners, with the majority coming from Slovenia, but others coming from as far away as Australia.
I will try to post updates during, or at least a report after the race is over.

I had no internet for a couple of days.
This morning I ran my first 2 mile race in Slovenia. I had not run a 2 mile race since the morning that I left New York. So I was not exactly in race shape. I this kind of situation I usually try to run under 16 minutes.
The race was on a 400 meter red tartan track and there were on 4 runners and my time was 15 minutes 38 seconds. I am happy with that.

In the afternoon I went with a friend to lake Bled and we swam. The water was nice and later we ate Kremsnita, which is a very nice local cake.

It was quite a busy day for me. First I had to run even though I had some kidney pain. I think that I am fighting an infection, but nothing serious. Well I did run for 30+ minutes and it felt good, I think my legs are stronger after going up Mount Triglav a little more than 2 weeks ago.

Later I went shopping for a few more items for my get together. Then it was time to make the pancakes or as they call them here Palacinke. I made half of them filled with Chocolate and half with Apricot jam. I thought they tasted pretty good and 2 of my friends said they tasted good. So there you go.

I bought some nice carnations and picked some wild flowers to compliment them.

Well the thunderstorms came last night and we had some pretty heavy rain this morning. I did get to do some work this morning, but this afternoon has been kind of lazy.

I am going to make pancakes for a weekly get together I go to and will be going out to buy the ingredients and do some early prep'. They will be filled with either chocolate sauce or jam. We will see how it goes, I did not make them for a long time.

A friend of mine in Ljubljana says that it always rains when I come back from Croatia. Well I arrived on the morning train and as I walked out if the station it started to rain. It was only a light shower, but...

I did not get to do everything I wanted in Croatia, but it seems it is holiday season there and it is not so easy to meet with people and there is a lot of traffic on the roads.

I did get in a nice 40 minute run on Saturday afternoon in Jarun, though it was pretty hot and the Sun was strong. I went out early on Sunday morning and ran for 1 hour.

I will be going to Croatia this afternoon, it is just a few hours away by train. First I will go to Zagreb and then plan to go by bus to Karlovac where I have family and some friends. I would like to go see my place in Donje Dubrave, but we will have to see what happens.

3 years ago today I posted a video on Youtube called What a Monster, showing a caterpillar I had found on the street crawling on my hand. Well this video just reached 500,000 views. When I first put it up there I think it had 150 views in the first 3 days, on the 4th daz it suddenly started to get around 1000 an hour. It did eventually slow down, but still seems quite popular, especially with kids in their teens and twentys. Who knew!

The keyboards on computers here have all the English letters, but are set up in a different way. The y and z are switched around. As a result when I am typing fast I write strangely and I post without noticing until later.The weather continues to be nice, if somewhat warm. It kind of reminds me of New York without the humidity. Some of my friends in New York have been asking me how things are going and I think that I am finally finding my way around on my own, which I guess is a big step. Mainly I have to get used to the slower pace here.

I went into the Berlitz Language place here in Ljubljana to inquire about Slovenian classes and they said they only have for individuals and they cost €40. The class is 40 minutes long, so €1 per minute.So I loaded a software programme I bought in New York, for $20 into mu laptop and now I am learning.
I quickly learned a couple of phrases and everyone thinks it's great.
The days here are quite hot, but this week the nights have been cool, so good sleeping weather


This was what I looked at while hiking up to Triglav
Will post a view of the mountain later.

On Saturday I took an early , 6 am bus to Bled where some friends are vacationing for about 10 days. The ride is only about 1 hour 20 minutes. It had rained for about 45 minutes but stopped just before I left to walk to the bus. When I got there it was beautiful. I ran around the lake with my friend Pedja and then had kremsnita for breakfast, this is a very tasty sweet desert.In the afternoon we all went to Bohin another lake and actually hiked up to Slap Savica or Waterfall Savica which I visited back in 1996.After dinner I caught the last bus back, which was at 8.30 and was home by just after 10.After a pretty lazy day on Sunday I am ready to start the new week.Oh yeah it seem the guz I want to get my coffee raosting machine from is on vacation, so have to wait a little longer.

I was supposed to be going to Croatia today and then go to my place in the country, but things fell through and I think I will go next week instead. There is a chance that I will go to Bled instead. It is a beautiful lake resort that I have been to before. If it all works out I will visit with some friends there. It turns out that the place where I can sometimes use internet near my place is called GDS and not hte ministry of commerce.I am now near the river in the city and there is a Mariachi band plying for tourists nearby. Ljubljana is really colourful in the summer season

I have discovered that there is free internet at the Ministry of commerce, which is just 5 minutes walk from where I am staying in Ljubljana. You can even use their computers in the lobby if you want. It has been quite hot here the last few days and the Sun is also strong. I have recovered from my trip to Triglav. I have a feeling that my legs will be very strong after this. I found out that the climb was around 7 km and the elevation was around 1700 meters. So yes it was quite a work out. This weekend I am planning to go see my place in Croatia, I will of course take some photo's and try to post some, check back later.

I have been a little out of touch the last few days. I lost my internet connection, but I have found out that there are WIFI areas around the city that are free. So once again I am back on the air, so to speak.
On Saturday I went with some friends to Bohin, which is a lake in Slovenia and on the river that comes from the lake we went mini rafting. It was a lot of fun and also kinda tiring. We got to spend about 2 hours on the river, with all the equiptment for just €10, which was great.
We stayed in a hostel in Kranks Gora that night and woke up at 4:30 to go to Triglav mountain. That was something special. It took us 4 hours, after a few wrong turns. To reach the moountain house at 2500 meters. I was too tired to go to the summit, which is another 300 meters and after a couple of hours and some pancakes and tea, we went down in 2 hours 50 minutes. I was quite tired and sore when I got home. Neddless to say I slept like a baby.

I am going hiking in the mountains this weekend, so yesterday I went to a place called Giga Sports and got myself a nice pair of hiking shoes. I left a pair that would have been suitable in New York, but they are no good to me there. I found a nice comfortable pair and they cost me €35, they were on sale. It is that time of the year. I will be walking around in them for the next few days so that hopefully I will not have problems with them while walking up mountains.

Last Sunday I was in Split Croatia and ran 1 1/2 hours. During the week I was in Maribor and had runs of 1 hour and 45 minutes. Then I gave a workshop on Meditation in Ptuj, Friday night and Saturday morning, a small group, but it went well. Made it back to Ljubljana tired and happy and slept long.
The weather is so nice and I went out with my friend Milan and we ran through some country trails and by the river Sava. Finding some nice wild plums on the way back, I added them to my muesli.

Raining when I got up this morning, but stopped just before my run. I go to Ptuj this afternoon to do a Meditation workshop. I was supposed to do a telephone interview this morning, but they did not call, so it did not happen. They asked me if they could interview me and set the time. That's just the way it is. I like it here in Maribor, maybe it's the river that makes the difference,

It's raining again now, by the way.

I have moved to the not=rth of Slovenia for the rest of the week. Spending about 3 1/2 days in Maribor and 2 1/2 in Ptuj. It has rained a lot so far but I am making the best of it.
There is a music festival going on here and each night there are many acts performing around the city and mostly near the river side. For me it is a mix of work and recreation.

This is my 1301 st post.

For some years I have wanted to visit Split in Croatia. Well this weekend I finally made it.
Some friends picked me up at around 3 am on Saturday and we were swimming in the Adriatic at 9:30. Then we spent the day sightseeing. It was hot, 33C, but we had a great time. It has also been quite a few years since I got a chance to swim in the Adriatic and I was able to do this both Saturday and Sunday. I really enjoyed my time there and have been invited by a new friend to go visit again. Which I will of course do.
Oh by the way! I did get to run for about 1 1/2 hours in a nice park, with some trails.

On Friday I went to Zagreb. It was kind of a last minute thing. We had rain on and off all the way there. It was not raining when I got there, but just as I walked to my friends car near the train station, it started. Very quickly there was a torrential downpour, it kind of reminded me of New York. When it finally stopped it was quite nice and a few of us went to a place in the city to eat cake.

On Saturday I ran to Jarun from where I am staying and there was a Triathlon about to happen, it was the Zagreb Open. I watched the swimming part and the first loop of the cycling, then ran back home.

I was supposed to run a 14k race this morning near Zagreb, but there was a problem with my ride. So I ran for 45 minutes in Jarun. Then I watched my friend swim in a 1500 meter race. Then Ice cream in the city before I caught my train back to Ljubljana.

Woke up to another rainy day, which it seems may continue for another 5 days. There are momentary pauses and a few seconds of sunshine.
Went to the bank here in Ljubljana and opened an account, which is quite easy now that I have a tax number. Then I went to work for a few hours. On the way home I pass by quite a few galleries and I noticed that there is a Robert Maplethorpe exhibit at the National Gallery, maybe if I get a chance I will go and check it out.

Well things are finally starting to move along. After a few false starts I have finally got a tax number here in Slovenia. This is required for me to open a bank account and such. It was a rainy day and did not seem too promising in the beginning, but as the day went on, things started to sort themselves out. In the afternoon I got a call from my potential coffee supplier and he is going to send me a sample to check out, which is great news. He is actually an Englishman I knew and lost contact with a few years ago and is now living in Colombia.
Despite the rain I got a nice run in this afternoon and I am now relaxing before having dinner and watching some U21 European Championship football. I watched England draw 1-1 with Germany last night and hope to watch Serbia play Sweden tonight.

I ran for almost 1 hour this morning in Ljubljana and it was a mix of outskirts of the city and almost countryside.. I feel like I am running at a comfortable pace and my form feels good. I have a slight problem with an old back injury, but I can live with that. Where is your friendly neighbourhood Chiropractor when you need him. Anyway I will sort that out.

Yesterday I met with Zvonko and Zrdavko Jakovic, they are 2 guys who share my last name and live about 30 minutes drive from here. We had a nice chat over coffee and it seems that our history may go all the way back to a village in Bosnia, more to follow.

Over the last couple of winters I have run in Flushing Meadow Park and out to Shea Stadium and the new Citi field Stadium. I would take photo's of the progression of the new stadium and the end of the old stadium. Well one of my photo's of the new stadium has been selected to be included in the 7th and latest edition of the Schmap city guide. It can be see at the following link;

http://www.schmap.com/newyork/activities_activities/#r=none&mapview=Map&tab=Places&p=356459&topleft=40.82303,-74.0250

Pretty cool uh!

On Friday I went to Croatia, to try and do the final paperwork for my farm. It was not as easy as I thought it would be. My cousin told me it would not be easy. There was a lot of going from one department to another and after 3 hours it seemed we were almost finished. I must mention that a friend from Zagreb came with me and acted as translator and explain-er. Then we found a problem and I was advised to talk to a local lawyer. The initial problem was to do with the plan of the land, it was not clear and it needed to be made clear, or there may be problems in the future. When it looked like that was sorted, the lawyer found a mistake in the contract which could cause it to be rejected by the county office. She said that and amendment could be drawn up that would correct this and I would have to come back today and sign it and have it notarized.This was done this morning and now it is being sent to my Aunt to sign and get notarized.
My lawyer will then submit all the papers and the county will tell me how much I have to pay them in taxes. All of this cost me around 400 Euro, which is more than I would have liked, but that's the bureaucratic system for you.

For the last 2 weeks or so the skin on the bottom of my feet has been peeling of . This is normal for me after a multi day race. It is like the old skin of the race is changing into a new one.
On Monday I did my longest run for a few weeks and the next day was shorter, but then I started running longer each day and also running with more pace. I am feeling as though my form is good again, actually I thought my from was good on the Harmony run, but it's hard to tell when you are carrying a torch. Anyway I am happy with my running.

My friend Milan asked me if I wanted to go play snooker, I have not played in quite a few years, but I said yes. When we got to the place, they only had pool tables, so we decided to play pool. It was quickly evident that I was out of practice, but as the morning went on I got a little better and actually won a game, though there is a question of if I did it fairly. Anyway we had a lot of fun. I hope we can find a place that has snooker.
I have now worked out about 4 running routes and I am enjoying running on the streets of Ljubljana.
I just want to mention my friend Amanda Stickel, who I met at the US 50k Nationals, where she was 3rd. Since then she has improved her 5k, 10k and half marathon times, so maybe the toughness of the 50k race made her stronger, when she eventually recovered.

The tree known in the US and UK as Lyme or Tillia, is know as Lipa here in the former Yugoslavia. This month the month of June is when they are in flower and in fact in Croatia they call the month Lipanj after the tree that is flowering then. They also have a month called Listopad, which means falling leaves and that month is October. It all kind of makes sense does it not.

I got a ride with 2 friends from Rijeka to Zagreb on Wednesday. I planned only to stay until Thursday afternoon, but ended up staying until this morning. I got to meet with some old friends and make some arrangements to go to Dubrave and Ogulin in the next few weeks, to take care of the final paperwork concerning the farm.
I am now back in Ljubljana, where the weather is quite nice and hope to enjoy the weekend.

I forgot to mention that since my first experience with the raw food diet, I have not been drinking coffee except when I visit family in the former Yugoslavia. It is such a social thing here that it would be an insult not to accept a coffee from a member of my family. I do noticed though that when I drink coffee my digestive system seems to tighten up.
I bought a Slovenian sim card last week and a friend gave me an old phone, but it needed a new battery. Well I got one this morning in Rijeka and I think a lot cheaper than in Slovenia.
@ of my friends were supposed to be coming to Rijeka today and we were supposed to have lunch together, but it is 3 :30 in the afternoon and I have not heard from them and cannot seem to make contact. They said that I could get a ride from them to Zagreb today, but it looks like I will stay another night and take the bus tomorrow.

I had breakfast with my aunt this morning and when I am in her apartment it always reminds me of 30 plus years ago when I first came to Rijeka.
In January I signed the pre contract for the farm and today we signed the full contract and got it notarized.
I have visited Rijeka quite a few times and it has become quite familiar to me.

I was in Germany over the weekend. Part work, part vacation, well sort of. It seems that I have found someone in Serbia who can make a coffee roasting machine for me, cheaper than the commercial ones and to my specs.
In a few hours I will take the train to Croatia where I will hopefully take care of some of the final details with my property.
So the last few days, my first real week in Slovenia have been quite fruitful. I am off to a pretty good start

I have finished my stint on the World Harmony run and can finally start to settle in Slovenia. I am actually working a few hours a day for my friend's shop and have found some new contacts for the coffee business. It looks like I will probably go to Croatia for a few days next week to take care of a few things with the farm there. It has been really hot and I even heard of some heat related deaths in Croatia. We had some rain here and this cooled things down a little, for now. I just realized that I am repeating myself a little. Still getting used to a slower pace.

So my little stint on the World Harmony Run is over. I spent the weekend at Lago di Garda(Lake Garda ) and it was awesome. I got a train from there to Venice, where I got another train to ljubljana, which arrived at just before 2 this morning. I shared the carriage with 2 Californians and 3 Canadians, so I got to talk some. I have been relaxing most of the day, but will now walk into the city and tomorrow I will work a half day I

This morning it was already hot when we started out on our run. I ran about 5k to a school on the outskirts of Milan and the temperature was 27 C. Afterwards I ran another 5k as we continued our run, visiting 3 more schools during the day. The temperature climbed to 33 C. We are having a lot of fun on the run in Italy as we did in Slovenia. We closed the day with a swim in a river out in a small village, then drove back to Milan for the night. We have been lucky to stay in Milan for 2 nights at a friend's appartment.

I have moved on from Slovenia to Italy on the World Harmony Run. We are currently in the north, Milan to be more specific. It is really hot here, the temperature is mostly 30 or 32 C during the day. We have been visiting lots of schools. Last night we stayed in a monestery which was pretty cool. I will be heading back to Slovenia on Sunday I think.

As I have mentioned before I am in Slovenia in the World Harmony Run and today was a very special day. We met with the President of of the Slovenian Parliament and also the President of the country itself. I actually got to shake the President's hand.. We ended the day in a place called postojna, where there are caves and we went on a tour. I was here in 1996 and it was great to visit the caves again. We also got rooms at the Postojna caves hotel.

So I arrived in Slovenia yesterday and immediatly joined the World Harmony Run, which is running through Slovenia for the next week. We finished the day in Ptuj and stayed at the Grand Hotel Primus, which is a spa hotel. Today we visited 4 schools and had a lot of fun with the children. Tonight we are staying at a friends house, we have a team of around 12. Check out the World Harmony Run website.

Basically there are 12 hours to go for my departure from New York. There were thunderstorms early this morning, but hopefully they are now gone and I can get in a run with Utpal. I have to take my modem to the cable company this morning. Today will be spent tying up any loose ends and any that are still loose when it is time to leave will just have to stay that way. Sometimes you just have to let go.

Ran again this morning with Utpal, my penultimate run in New York for a while was quite pleasant. I am just about packed, just a few last minute things to put in my bags tomorrw. The rest of the day was spent sorting out the rest of the things in my room that have to be put in the charity box or thrown out. I also needed to arrange for my cable internet and digital phone to be terminated before I leave. in about 24 hours time I will be at the airport waiting to board my plane and begin a new adventure, stay tuned.

Happily my lower back and hips are feeling a lot better today. I ran early with Utpal. today and tomorrow will be the last times we will run together for a while. It is quite warm, but there has been rain on and off all day. I am very close to the off, so it is getting a little more intense with the packing and sorting of my stuff. Actually I have pretty much packed the stuff I am taking and need to finish packing the few things I will leave here to pick up later. A lot of stuff is going to the charity bins and some to friends. Still a lot to do, but it will get done one way or the other.

My lower back soreness bothered me on and off all night. I did go out for a run and it flet a little better. I also noticed that it got a little better as the day went on. A lot of things going on including talking with my cousin in Europe and organizing some things that need to be done after I get there, with regard to the farm.
I have been finding many things that have sentimental value to me and there is a tinge of sadness when I decide that I cannot take them with me.. Some I will find new homes for others will be gone forever.
I did find time to watch the second Champions League semi final between Chelsea and Barcelona, which ended dramatically as a 1-1 draw, with Barcelona going through.

It is just 4 days now to my departure and once again it is a rainy day. Tuesday it garbage pick up and recycling to there was a lot of stuf to put out. Since it has been decided that the house will be sold to developers, it is not so important to clear the house completely, but I still have a lot to do in the next few days.
This afternoon I had lunch with some friends to whome I said my goodbyes. and this evening there is a dinner planned with a big group of friends. That is the sad part about leaving New York.
My lower back his a little sore today, not sure if it is a reaction to the race.

Well it's my last week in the house and my last week in New York for a while. This week I have to get all my stuff together, so it might get a little crazy. It's been raining on and off all day and seems it will be like that all week. Maybe NYC is sad to see me go I appear to be recovering well from the 6 day race, though I must say I am enjoying my sleep.

Usually I do not sleep so well after running a multiday race. For the length of the race I am training the body to use only short sleep breaks and at regular times. These usually carry over for a few days after the race. However this seems to have changed this time and I am sleeping well. This morning I went out for a run with Utpal and we did about 4 miles, it felt quite good and I am optimistic that my recovery will go well and quite quickly. I will write a report on the race on my running blog iliketorun.blogspot.com .So if you want you can check it out there.

Well I finished the 6 day race, we had some interesting weather. My total miles was about average for me, 270, but I did finish second in the over 50 age group. I will write more about it tomorrow.

I am a little more than 3 1/2 hours away from starting my 6 day race. It is already quite warm out there and will be around 88 F ( 31 C ) this afternoon. I try to stay at home relaxed for as long as I can and will arrive at the race site an hour or so before the start.
I feel pretty good so we will see what the week brings.
I will write up some kind of report when I get back. Wish me luck !

At this time tomorrow I will probably be out at the race trying to relax before the start. This is my 26th multiday race I think ( you kind lose count after a while ). After all these years I still get a little nervous, but I know that will all go away once the race starts. The trick is to not use up too much nervous energy. As a veteran of these things people tend to ask me for advice and the best thing I can say is; just relax and enjoy the experience, whatever it brings.

Two weeks from today after a week of recovery I will be heading out to Slovenia and a new adventure. I like to think that my race experiences have given me some ability to deal with new situations as they crop up and that this will help me to adjust to my new life in Europe.

The weather has turned quite warm and it almost feels like summer here in New York. Today is not so warm 65 F ( 19 C), but for the next few days it will be in the 80's and the evening temps will be like the daytime temps from a week ago.
I will take some more of my things out to the race site this afternoon, only 2 more days to go.

Today is St George's Day in England, the national day. It would also have been my father's 83 rd Birthday had he still been alive.
It was also my last day at work, it was pretty uneventful and as the day came to a close my boss said that it was the end of an era. There are just 3 more days before I start my 6 day race and 16 more days before I start my new journey, so things are getting interesting.
I went out to the race this evening for a couple of hours, unlike yesterday when it was rainy, today was dry but windy. I got a chance to talk with a few of my friends out there that are running in the 10 day race and get a feel for the new course changes.

It was on this day in 1978 that my Meditation teacher gave me a new name. It was this new name that gave me a spiritual purpose. So today on the way to work I bought donuts for all the guys, it's like celebrating a birthday.

Last night I went out to the race site to help a friend put up her tent, it also gave me a chance to see how things were out there. Today I took out my sleeping cot to reserve a space in one of the dorms. It is already getting crowded, the 10 day race started today and there are 45 runners. I will probably go out every day for a couple of hours, until I start my race.

As I walked to work this morning with a light rain falling, I realized that these are my last days of work before I run in the 6 day race. Also before I leave for Slovenia.
By the afternoon the rain had stopped and it was just overcast, it feels strange to think that in just a few days I will no longer be working at Victory Factory and my life in New York will be drawing to a close.

When I went out for my run this morning it was overcast and looking like it would rain. I ran an easy couple of miles and on the way back saw Utpal and ran another 3 with him.
I had to run a few errands and then I watched the Boston Marathon on the internet. The women had a very close finish with only one second separating first and second places.
In the afternoon the rain came and it got quite stormy as it went on. I was supposed to help a friend set up their tent out at the race site, but that was changed because of the rain.

Nice cool morning to run and I was on my own today, Utpal went to play golf. With just a week to go to the race I am just running easy miles, but after my 2 mile race yesterday my legs felt a little heavy.
I went for breakfast with some of my Serbian friends and then came back and watched the FA Cup semi final between Man U and Everton, they palyed for 2 hours without scoring and then Everton won 4-2 on Penalties.
Went to see my friend Sadhak perform at Panorama cafe, which is 2 blocks from me. Made some video's and spent the rest of the afternoon up loading them to youtube.

With only about 70 runners at the 2mile race this morning, I was able to run the race. The temperature was 60 F and it was sunny with a light wind. I felt quite comfortable while I was running, though my breathing did feel a little laboured in the second mile. A friend of mine passed me just before the end and was just in front of me, so I raced him to the finish line. My time was 15:32, which I am happy with.

In the orthodox world it is good Friday, in Serbia it is called veliki petak of great Friday. It turned out to be a really nice one here in Queens, New York . A warm Spring day with the temperature climbing up to 70 F.
I have a couple of friends from Slovenia who have been here for a few days and are leaving today and I was able to give them a few items to take back for me. Things that I thought might be safer with them than when I travel in a few weeks.
I am happy with the new shoes I got yesterday and may just get one more pair before the race starts next week.

Such a beautiful day today. All the rain that was around has now gone and there is sunny blue sky above

I stopped by a local sports store on the way home and bought myself a new pair of running shoes. it is just 10 days to the 6 day race and I feel I need one more pair to take with me. It would be nice if the weather was like this during the race, but at this time of the year it can change quickly. One of my running friends from India who is running in the 10 day race, contacted me this morning to say that he is in Jersey city. So he has arrived a week early to acclimatize before the race begins.

The rain continued this morning, but at least the temperature was mild. I woke up with a bit of a stiff neck, which kind of bothered me during the day, but I survived.
At least 3 people that I know got sick with the virus I had, though hopefully they did not get it from me. Neither of them got it as severe as I did.
In Champions League both Arsenal and Man U got through their 1/4 final second legs and will now meet each other in the semi's. So for the second year in a row we are guaranteedan English team in the final.

Oh! and it is tax day here in the US.

This morning it was actually quite mild and as I walked to work there were the sounds and smells of Spring. I think it got just a little bit colder by the afternoon and it started to shower rain.
It has been a while but today our resident chef at work decided to make chilli. It made a pleasant change from our usual fare. I had also consumed a breakfast burrito earlier, so by the afternoon I was a giant gas bag.

The last 2 nights have been quite cold, with temperatures dropping close to freezing.
Utpal and I were out there this morning running 6 miles once again. I felt quite comfortable running and feel physically recovered from my virus.
The rest of the day was a relaxing one for me.
It is Easter Monday in the UK and there were football games in the Championship. Wolves managed an ugly win and the main teams chasing them all drew, so now they are only 2 points away from securing promotion to the Premiership.

Happy Easter to everyone that celebrates this week. It is a bit of a cold one here in New York with strong winds, but there is bright sunshine and blue skies.
There is an annual 12 hour walk going on around a school in my neighbourhood. It started at 7 am this morning. So Utpal and I went to the start and watched them get going, probably 200 walkers. Then we went for a nice run, about 6 miles, which was nice to do after barely being able to run last weekend.
This time in 2 weeks I will be running in the 6 day race. So anything I do now is only helping me to recover from last week and prepare for that.

It is one of those weekends when there are a lot of people in town and over 250 of them come out to the 2 mile race. So I run early and then help out with the organization of this weeks race.One of my friends from the Pacific North West wins the race with a time of 9:42
Later in the day it started to rain and has been doing so for a while. I spent some time with friends, partly talking about my move back to Europe and the new adventures that will bring. A couple of my running friends are already talking about a race in June in Austria, so we will see.

It's Good Friday, well except for those of the Orthodox Christian faith. That will be next Friday.
A nice Spring morning, with a bit of chill in the air. Ran a couple of easy miles and met and talked with a few friends. After breakfast it was home to watch some Good Friday football from England. My team Wolverhampton Wanderers, the Wolves, were playing. I got to watch it on the internet. I was so happy they won 3-0 against Southampton. They remain on top of the Championship and only 4 games away from being promoted to the Premiership.

Last night was the season finale of Life, so one of the things I wanted to do was watch this online. However this got a little delayed when I came across some friends on the way home. I then stopped in to my local eatery and had a veggie steak burger, which was such a treat after being sick earlier in the week.
Then it was time to sit down and watch the show and what a show it was! Probably one of the best season finales I have ever seen. The show is so well written and seems to get better every season. They always manage to leave you wanting more.
Oh yeah! I went out for a run this afternoon the first one in 4 days and it felt good and I now feel stronger

Went to work this morning, though I did feel a little shaky, it did get better as the day went on. It was nice to sit down and have a big bowl of soup for lunch. By the end of the day I was starting to feel tired, so when I got home I crawled into my bed for a couple of hours. Once that was done I decided to go out and get pizza for dinner, when I got there 3 of my friends were actually doing the same thin. For the last few days I have been talking with a very strange voice, or so I was told. Well by this afternoon it got back almost to normal.

For the first time in a while I called in sick to work today. I woke up at my usual time, but realized quickly that I was still a little spacey from my sickness. Working with machinery is not a good thing to do when you feel like that, so I decided to spend another day in recovery.Quite a few of my friends asked how I was, it seems that news of my illness had been shared among them. It's good to know that my friends are concerned about me and happy that I am feeling better.

After 2 days of not being able to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time and sometimes even less, I finally managed to sleep for about 4 hours in one stretch last night. I finally woke up and was feeling a little weak, my digestion has improved and my eating is still not great. When I weighed myself I discovered that I had lost 7.5 lbs over the weekend. This is probably the reason I am feeling weak.I am gradually getting stronger, I know this will take a few days, but I am glad I have finally reached that point.
Part of me wanted to go out for a run this afternoon, but I just took several short walks and found these were quite tiring. Whatever it was has taken it's toll, but as the old saying goes, " If it doesn't kill, it makes you stronger" and so it will be.

After whatever it was that hit me on Friday nigh I am slowly recovering. Food poisoning or stomach flu, whatever it was can take a lot out of you. I have had very little appetite for the last 36 hours and have lost about 3 lbs in weight. I did go out and run 2+ miles this morning, but quickly realized that I was quite weak. I have to build up my strength over the next few days and be happy with any training I can get in.

Went to bed last night with a bit of a sour stomach. Kept waking up and finally around 1am, I had to make a dash fro the bathroom. In the beginning I thought it was just a bad case of diarrhea, but then the vomiting started, This went on and off for about 6 hours, with the occasional nap. I thought that maybe I had food poisoning, but I was also getting hot and cold flashes. So maybe it is a stomach flu.
Needless to say there was no 2 mile race for me this morning. I did manage to get out there with Utpal in the afternoon and run an easy 3 miles. Luckily I have 3 weeks to recover before the 6 day race.

I ordered an external Hard drive from Newegg.com the other day and it arrived last night. I have been wanting to get one for a while, since I will be leaving my desk top in New York for now and taking my laptop with me. I got a Western Digital passport and it's amazing, it's about the size of an i phone and 320gb. It would be nice to get a case for it.
Rain this morning, but got out there and ran. By this afternoon when I went out again it had stopped. feeling a little tired, but I am not sure if it is because of the events earlier in the week, or the increased mileage.

My day started with me seeing a raccoon walking on the street towards me as I walked past the park. It seemed a little surprised to see me and quickly ran into the park and started to climb a tree. It then realized I was not going near it and climbed down and walked off into the park.
The walk home was very pleasant this afternoon, I walked home in shirt sleeves, with my coat over my arm.
For the first time this year I saw the city planting new trees on some of the streets that I walk by to and from work

I got home this afternoon just in time to see the England v Ukraine World Cup qualifier. The final score was 2-1 England, they are undefeated in their group.
After the game I went out for my run and managed to do my 5k loop. I am still not 100% internally, so when I saw Utpal just before I reached home, I had to decline his invitation to go further.
The warm weather of the last few days has meant that some of the Magnolia's are staring the flower. I saw some nice Stelata while out on my run.

A few years ago I passed a small kidney stone and I have to say it was quite painful.
Yesterday I noticed some blood in my urine, after my run in the morning. It then seemed to clear up, but was there again after my second run. This can be running induced. I did feel some discomfort and felt that it might be a stone, however I also had the feeling that it might be some thing in my bladder. The blood problem has gone away and I am optimistic that every thing will be OK.
Sorry if I just grossed anyone out, but this is life and all it entails.

It is a beautiful sunny Spring morning out there. I had such a nice run this morning.
Here in New York there are so many flowers popping up, everywhere I look I see Daffodils, Crocus, Aconites, etc.
My running seems to be going well and I am quite happy that the training schedule I have decided on seems to suite me.

Today was one of those wet Spring days. While I was getting ready to go out and run this morning, it was pouring down with rain. By the time I got outside the rain was very light.Utpal and I went out to Flushing meadow, at one point we passed some Cherry trees that were just coming into flower. My head cold seems to have gone and I felt pretty good out there running. After completing our 10 miles we had a little breakfast at our local cafe.
By the time I went out for my second run around 3:30 in the afternoon I was still feeling good. I decided to run what I call my 5k loop. So my total for the day was 13+ miles. I have had a good week.

My race this morning was affected by a combination of many different things. First of all after my run run in the afternoon yesterday I developed a stomach problem, which was followed by a headache. I am not sure if this is a reaction to my current training or I have picked something up. When I woke up this morning I had a head cold.I must say that not of these things will stop me going out to run. The weather conditions were cool and a light rain. When the race started I felt OK, but with the first few 100 meters I had some pain from my lower back, so I backed off the pace. After that everything was fine, if somewhat slower. I finished in a time of 16:01, which of course I am still happy with and will be able to go out and run this afternoon.

You can feel the energy of Spring when you are outside.When I have gone out for my runs the last couple of days, I have been inspired to go a little further or maybe a little stronger.
It the the third weekend of doubles and for the last 2 weeks Utpal has come out with me on Friday and Saturday afternoons. It turns out he ran on his own this morning, so did not come out with me this afternoon. I tend to run a little harder on my own.

There is an Elm tree just around the corner from where I live, it looks as though it has seen the wars a bit. Every year around this time it is full of beautiful red flowers.

The trees that the city planted last spring are just now preparing themselves for the new journey that nature has in store.Along with some of the more established trees, they are showing lots of buds.
I was planning on running just 2 miles this afternoon as I usually do on a Thursday in my current schedule. However there was a light spring rain falling and when I got out there, I just got inspired and ran 3 with a little bit of a push. Of course it will be my first double of the weekend tomorrow.

I talked with my sister and she filled me in on all the family news. It seems one of my second cousins had a serious operation recently and seems to be recovering quite well. I of course wish him well.
I found out some information about my father the other day that was a bit of a surprise. It seems that when he came to England after the second world war, he maybe took a different birthday. The year was the same, but a different month. Sometimes the past creeps slowly up on you.

When I was at college in the north east of England many years ago, I used to take the train up to Edinborough some times to visit friends. I will never forget walking down Prince's Street one Spring and being almost knocked out by, the amazing fragrance of hundreds of Hyacinth that were planted in flower beds all along the way.
I have seen some Hyacinth coming up in a garden nearby and it has reminded me of this experience from long ago.We are still having cold mornings and mild days.

A cold one again this morning, a few degrees below freezing. Nice easy run, with the legs not feeling too bad.
I did buy my ticket for Slovenia, it is one way, but I will be back in August. It's just that ticket will be a round trip from there.
Still have the sniffles, right now not as bad as yesterday. Not sure if it's something new or a left over from something before.
I have a meeting with a lawyer this lunch time. To do with the court proceedings for the estate of the friend who was killed in October. Nothing serious I just have to sign an affidavit. Oh well! that's about it for now.

This is my second week of my twice a day runs. I seem to have gotten over my lower back problem, but was really sore this morning as we started out on our run. It was cold, just above freezing, but quite pleasant. Again we ran about 10 miles and there were periods of time when I felt quite tired and for some reason my right hip was a little sore. I have fallen into a pattern of taking a short nap in between runs on my double days. This afternoon when I went out the second time the temperature had increased by more than 20 degrees and so was a pleasant easy run. Though for some reason I have sniffles.

My 2 mile run this morning was done with a certain amount of caution. Due to the stiffness in my lower back earlier in the week, I wasn't sure how much I could push. I started out quite slow, I was not sure exactly how slow since I didn't get a 1 mile split time.I tried to keep my shape as they say in English football terms and I felt my breathing was good. I ran twice yesterday as per my training schedule and was happy to run 15:51. The temperature was 30F (-1C) and I tend to run a little slower when it is cold.

Mother nature has such a sense of humour! It is the first day of Spring and as I went out for my run this morning it was beginning to snow. As I look out of my window now I can see big snow flakes falling. Of course they are melting as they touch the ground, but it is an interesting start to the day.
My back feels about 95% better, so my run was fine. I still plan to go out again this afternoon and in fact I saw Utpal on my way home and he said he was ready to go out with me on my second run.

When I got home from work yesterday I spent about an hour on my computer. When I decided to go out for my run my lower back was really stiff. I managed to get a run in, but later it felt like I had strained something in my back. I did a few things to try to make it better, but finally decided that the best thing was to go to bed and sleep. I had a long strange dream, which when it started to repeat itself made me wake up, only to find out that it was an hour past my usual waking up time. I contemplated taking the day off since I was still a little sore, but went to work any way. It is still not 100% but is feeling better, so hopefully another nights sleep will sort it out.

On my way home from work today I walked past a flower bed with about 30 miniature daffodils, in full flower in it. It was so nice to see the golden faces standing there in the full sunshine.

I saw this in a newspaper a couple of days ago;
Stress relief
Doctors say the best way
to deal with stress is to
relax and find an outlet for
anxiety. Here are some
suggestions:

Eat properly
Cut out sweets and unhealthful
foods
Exercise
Pursue a favorite hobby
Lose weight
Stop smoking
Cut back alcohol consumption
Spend time with family
Maintain regular social contacts.
So you see it's as easy as that.

So today is St Patrick's Day. It was a reasonably busy day at work.
Yesterday I thought I had seen the first outside flowering Daffodil of the year, in a park that I ran by locally, but today I confirmed that it was just the white skeletal remains of a leaf, that was stuck between the unopened buds of a group of daffodils.
So I guess I will have to wait a few more days to see the champion of spring flowers in bloom.

Slept really well, but with all the running I've been doing the last few days that is understandable. So I went out nice and early this morning and ran a couple of easy miles. Then after a little breakfast I went back to bed. I listened to my body and it told me to go to sleep for a while. It's Monday so I sorted my washing and put a load in the machine. I feel pleasantly sore from my new training schedule and I am quite happy with how the first weekend went. I did go out for a fast couple of miles in the afternoon.

After 2 days of running twice a day, I went out this morning and my legs let me know what I had been doing. I like the feeling of being able to fall asleep quite quickly when I go to bed. This is just the kind of training I feel I need to prepare for the 6 day race. I did similar workouts 2 years ago when getting for 24 hour races. It gets the body used to running on tired legs.

In other news my beloved Wolves won their game on Saturday as did second place Birmingham, third place Reading lost. So there is a little cushion as the season nears it's end, but it is not over yet.

I felt strange before the 1 mile race this morning, The temperature was just above freezing, but with bright sunshine. The feeling I had was almost like nerves, but there was no reason for me to feel that way. Anyway as soon as the race started it was gone. In the early part of the race I had no idea of how fast I was running and at the 1 mile split my time was 7:47, which I think is 2 seconds slower than last week. In the second mile I felt much better and tried to maintain my pace. Everything was good and I felt like I was pressing through to the end of the race. I finished with a time of 15:24, which means my second mile was 7:37. So all in all an 18 second improvement on last week.

This is the second month in a row that we have had a Friday the 13th, I wonder how often that happens? This morning was the first time for more than a week that the temperature was below freezing. Did not feel so great when I went out for my run, but had a pretty decent one anyway.
Need to clear out some of things in preparation for my move, have to work on doing that this today and on the weekend.
Enjoyed Sadhak's gig last night and for some reason stayed up till after midnight, maybe I was a little buzzed fro the hot chocolate I had.

Walking to work this morning, I looked up to see a big old moon shining down. The sky was clear and dark, and there it was a Spring full moon. Well I am not sure if it was full, but it looked like it to me. I am not sure if it has been due to the pull of the moon, but all this week I have been tired when I got home from work. Today was no exception, so I took a nap before I went out for my run.
My friend and co worker Sadhak, singer/song writer is performing at a local coffee shop this evening, so I will pop along and see him.

This will not mean much to most of you, but all four English football ( soccer ) clubs have made it to the 1/4 finals of the Champions League. The draw will be made on March 20, it is likely that 2 of them will play each other for a place in the semi finals.

My cousin Jo', who has been living in New Zealand for the last 7 years, is moving to Australia it seems. I was chatting with her sister Mandy today and she says the move is on April 26.

I am seeing more and more crocus as I walk home from work, a couple more warm days and we could see some Forsythia showing it's face.

It has turned a little colder, but still above freezing. Any possible trace of snow has now gone.
My running seems a little better too.
One of the routes that I take home from work brings me by a new auto parts place that has recently opened. There is a sign outside that reads " Tinting window ". Now unless there is an auto window that becomes automatically tinted when the Sun shines, I think it is supposed to read window tinting. This is kind of confirmed by another sign in the window of the store that reads " window tints ". Sometimes the guys that make the signs do not have a complete command of the English language.
I did take a little nap in the early evening, it just seemed like I needed one.

It's hard to believe that at this time last week there was snow everywhere, because when I looked out my front door this morning I could not see any.
Well the clocks went forward an hour here in the US and although it is not officially Spring for another 11 days, it sure is beginning to feel like it.
This is only the second time in the last 13 or 14 years that I have been in New York at this time of the year, I am usually in Europe now, but things of course will change in May.

So it is one week after the 50k Championships. What a difference a week makes, last week it was 30F and snow flurries, this week it was 44F when Utpal and I went out for our Sunday run. After running the 2 mile race yesterday on tired legs, they legs were not too lively this morning. These Sunday runs are about 2 friends spending some time running together and talking about the past week. So we managed to eek out about 7 miles and have a pleasant run. It is 7 weeks to the start of the 6 day race, so I now have about 6 weeks of decent training to put together.

It's 6 days since the 50k race and a beautiful morning. There was bright sunshine and although the temperature read 42F, it felt warmer. I felt pretty good as I started the 2 mile race, but was not quite sure how fast I was running. There is a short steep hill about half way around the loop, I always try to maintain my leg speed up this hill and sometimes re pass runners who have passed me just before. About half way through the second mile I started to feel my legs were tired from the race last Sunday, but I just tried to keep my form. I had gone through the first mile in 7:44 then ran the second mile a little slower in 7:58, for a finishing time of 15:42. Which is not as fast as my friend Amanda thought I should run, but still my fastest time so far this year. I can usually get it down to around 14 by the summer.

Finally the weather has turned warmer and it felt nice on my run this morning.. It looks like the weekend will be really nice.
I finally filed my State and city taxes, it's probably the last time I will have to do them
I watched a couple of movies today. one of them was Frozen River, which was up for a couple of Oscars. I liked it.

Finally it seems as though the tiredness is going form my legs. I did feel generally tired at the end of my work day, but after a short break when I got home, I went out for a run. I realized that I am 7 1/2 weeks away from the 6 day race I will run at the end of April and feel that I am in pretty good space right now. The fact that the weather is getting warmer may have something to do with it also.

Maybe it's the cold weather, but I am sleeping really well and when I leave for work I feel good. Then as the day progresses I start to get really tired and my legs feel wasted. I know I ran a 50k race 4 days ago, but it feels as though I should be a bit more recovered than this by now. It is supposed to get warmer from now on. Maybe I'll have a better idea of how I am by the weekend.

Everything felt a little better when I woke up this morning., but the temperature outside was 14F ( -10C ) and my walk to work was sometimes on rough frozen terrain. When I got to work my legs felt quite sore again, during my last hour at work I started to feel tired. However when I got home I saw that Wolves had won their latest league game albeit by a score of 1-0. This of course made me feel a little more awake and I went out for a run, which also loosened things up.

Woke up to 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. My legs and feet had been quite sore during the night, but I slept quite good. It was not possible for me to go out and run early as I would usually do on a Monday, so I waited until the afternoon.By about 2 pm most of the roads were quite passable so I went out for a short run to shake things up a bit. It is quite cold out and there is a strong wind, which is blowing some of the snow around. Oh yeah! By the time it stopped snowing there was another 1 or 2 inches of snow and the temperature is 23F.

Drove out to Long Island early this morning with Ray K, who had driven up from South Carolina yesterday. The weather prediction was for snow with some accumulation. It was col, around freezing and there were some snow flurries during the race, but also a very short period of sun. I will write a full report on my running blog tomorrow, but I will say that I ran 6:14:45, which was only 3 minutes slower than my time in Chicago 2 years ago.I expected to run a little slower, so of course I am happy.

It seems to me that life is just a series of adjustments, or at least in order to move forward in our lives we have to keep making adjustments. I think Darwin said something like, adaptation is the secret to success in nature. We make plans and sometimes certain things are in place to make things easier, then these things may change. If we want to keep moving forward we need to adjust to the new situation. We must cheerfully accept the challenges in life and get on with it. Whatever life throws at us we can figure out how to go on. I said to someone yesterday sometimes you just have to survive for now and eventually things will improve.

It is so nice and sunny out there today and the temperature is mild, but things are supposed to change on the weekend. There is snow forecast for Sunday, which should make the 50k race kind of interesting. I have battled much worse, so it will be just a case of go out there, have fun and do my best.No point in feeling sorry for myself.

Due to having a lot of things to do when I got home from work today. I went out for my run a little later than usual. The result was that I got to see the night sky. It is very clear and the moon looks like a smiley face, but with a really thin smile and the pole star is like a huge bright shining diamond way above.
My run felt good, so once again I think I am ready for Sunday.

Yesterday was such a strange day for me. Just after leaving my house in the morning, I saw a lot of police cars heading down the street towards where I was going. Then a fire engine joined them. When I came near to a local park, there were maybe 5 or 6 police cars in there. I do not know what was going on and didn't find out later. When I got to the street where my work place is located another fire engine came by. There was a strange energy in the air. By the end of the day and even into today I felt very tired, I forgot to post anything on my blogs.
This afternoon an old friend gave me some disappointing news and that made me feel tired too. Maybe I'm reacting to the return of cold weather and the fact I have a 50k race in 4 days time.

So I have been having these conversations with my namesakes in Croatia and finding out, that there are so many connections to the people from my father's village. It was even said that the village of Donje Dubrave is the village of Jakovic's. It seems that a large number of the 30 or so Jakovic's I have found so far, have a family member from the village.
The morning was nice and brisk and I had a good run to start the day. I just have to stay loose and in balance for the rest of the week.

It was an overcast morning for our Sunday run, but the temperature was around 40F. It was the first time this year that Utpal had run out with me to see the baseball stadiums. When we got there Shea stadium was gone. You can see from the photo that the view west from Willetts point station is completely different

The 50k race is a week and a day away, so it was OK to run the 2 mile race this week. It was a little cold, but nice and sunny. Though I was running quite fast it felt almost like slow motion. I managed to maintain my pace and finished with a time of 15:55, which was only a few seconds slower than 2 weeks ago. I know that next week I will run a more relaxed pace, so I thought that this was a good race. I realized after the race that I am not fully recovered from my cold, but I have another week and it should not really be a problem anyway.

When I went to bed last night it seemed as though the heating in the house was not on, I didn't worry about it, but when I woke up this morning the house was cooler than usual. I checked the furnace and it seemed OK. When I checked the thermostat control the heat kicked on, I think for some reason it was stuck.
I did run early and it was cold and very windy out, the day was cold and windy, but with lots of sunshine.
Spent a few hours chatting with friends and family in various parts of the world.

Walking home this afternoon, I saw an old man sitting in a wheelchair and wearing dark glasses like he had a sight problem. There was a young woman standing next to him who I thought was maybe his carer. Another young woman came out of the store they were in front of, with 2 shopping bags. She approached them and said something. The old man got up out of the wheelchair and they put the shopping bags in it. The old man then proceeded to push the wheelchair, with the help of one of the young women. You see all kinds of things in New York.

Over the last 30 years or so I have accumulated a lot of stuff and now it is time to get rid of it. So things I will recycle, some I will just throw out, this should leave me with a few things to take back to Europe with me.
This afternoon is cool and rainy, it was strange because while walking home it had the distinct feel and smell of Autumn. Maybe it was just a Deja Vu moment.

My day went quite quickly and before I knew it I was on my way home The afternoon was a little warmer than I expected. After checking out my e mails and stuff I went out for a run. Although I am not 100% it felt as though I had a bit more spring in my step. So barring any major setbacks I think with 12 days to go, I am OK for the 50k on March 1st.

Feeling so much better this morning, ran an easy couple of miles. Temperature just below freezing, but pleasant.
Got my laundry done. Sorted out some old clothes, some for recycling. some for the bin.
It was also time for me to finally do my taxes, my last US ones for a while at least. I will get a small refund.
This afternoon watched the FA Cup 4th round replay between Arsenal and Cardiff. Eduardo made his comeback after being away recovering from a broken leg he suffered a year ago. He scored 2 goals and Arsenal won 4-0. Nice game to watch.

Now that Utpal is back from his travels I had company for the Sunday run. I think not racing yesterday paid off, because I felt a lot better this morning. However it did feel colder than I thought it would, at least at the beginning of the run. We went out to Flushing Meadow park. With Utpal suffering the effects of jet lag it was decided to just run around the lake and back. I am quite happy with the run and actually felt fresh at the end of it.
I did chat with my cousin in Croatia and found out that one of the people in my group on Facebook, was actually a neighbour in the village there.

My cold felt pretty bad this morning, but I figured I would go out to the race and decide there if I would run. After trying to warm up it did not seem like a good idea. I felt there was too much of a risk it would make things worse and I only have 2 weeks to the 50k. I just jogged a couple of miles and went home. After resting for a couple of hours I do feel better.
Hey it's Valentines day! It's also FA Cup 5th round and in most of the games there were draws, so there will be replays.
Wolves continued their bad patch and lost at Burnley, they are still top of the Championship, just about.

After waking up this morning still a little under the weather I actually went back for a nap about an hour later. Woke up feeling much better.
I have been noticing that my computer keyboard as been acting a little funny lately. It is an old one I have been using for about 6 years. I have a new one that came with my computer that I bought about 18 months ago. So I decided to switch in the new one. Lo and behold everything is work much faster. First of all I think it is more compatible and also it's just more efficient.
Utpal is back from his trip ( he was in Bali ). He is majorly jet lagged but we did go out for a run this afternoon, though he mostly wanted to walk.

I woke up this morning with a deep croaky voice, yes I had a large frog in my throat.When I got to work my boss said it sounded creepy. It did get better as the day went on, but it reminded me of many years ago, when I sang bass in a choir, though I am really a tenor.
There is very strong wind out there this afternoon, but it is still quite mild.

The soreness in my throat has remained but is not getting any worse. Actually as the day went on my voice began to break up. It is quite warm out there, the temperature climbed all the way up to 54 F. Due to the late start of the England v Spain game, I managed to get a run in and came back 4 minutes into the game. England looked pretty good early on, but Spain worked there way into the game and took an errant pass from England in midfield to score the only goal of the first half. So Spain 1, England 0 at half time.

Around this time of year, for the past 13 or 14 years I have been preparing for a trip to Europe, It seems that almost every time I get a cold or Flu, which on all but a few occasions is gone by the time I leave.
Well this morning I woke up with a sore throat and during the day I was sneezing a lot, though I must say, it did seem to get a little better as the day went on. The fact that we are supposed to have fairly mild weather all week should help.
However this also happens to me when I am preparing for a race and since I have a 50k coming up in less than 3 weeks maybe that is the reason. Could it be psychosomatic or something my body is doing to slow me down a little.

I got caught up in so many things today that I almost forgot to post something on my blog. I have been doing this search on Facebook for people with my last name. I found a guy named Dino Jakovic, who lives in a town close to where my father was from. It turns out his father is from the same village as my father. I will find out more later.

It was a nice morning, with the temperature already at 40F when I left the house at 10 to 7 .I felt kind of sore and my left hamstring and knee seemed to be telling me something was a little tight. When I got out to Flushing Meadow Park, things were a bit different from last week, though there were still a few icy patches. Once again I went out to Shea stadium and Citi field. My run of 2 hours felt good, but still a little sore at the end.

Due to a lack of officials, I was the starter for this mornings 2 mile race.The other official stayed at the finish line. I was given his watch, which I started the race with and handed it to him as we ran by on the first loop. There were only 6 official starters, not sure why this was, as the weather was much better than in previous weeks. For some reason I was feeling a little sore when I left my house for the race, so I did a little extra warming up before the race.I finished 4th with a time of 15:52, yet another improvement on the previous week. So slowly, slowly I am getting some speed back.
I did a search on Facebook for people with the last name Jakovic and sent out friend invitations. So far I have about 15. I am interested to see how it goes.

I have been sorting through some of my things and the other day I found my diary from 2001. Yesterday I sat down and looked at a few pages, I was interested to see what I wrote on September 11. This is what I wrote;" The day started out so normally. When the flight got to within 3 1/2 hours of New York, we were told that terrorists had attacked. The plane had to go back to Vienna. We would land in London first.The airspace over London was closed, so we landed in Manchester. Then finally on to Vienna, arriving back 13 hours after we left".
My final note was; My running streak ended today
4 years 6 months 8 days.
I don't know why but that is what I wanted to post today.

Today was just a blur.Once again the temperature had dropped down into the low teens F. We suddenly became busy again at work, plus I think we are adjusting to the fact that we are short of guys.,. Anyway before I knew it the end of the day had come. I contemplated going in tomorrow for a couple of hours, then reason made an appearance and I decided not to.
I need to file my taxes and hopefully I will have the time to do that tomorrow.

Woke up this morning with a sour stomach, don't know if it was something I ate last night or what. When I got to work I had a ginger tea and a short time later. a black tea and some plain chocolate cake. Shortly after that I was fine. This was all based on intuition, that's what it told me to do and it worked.
Once again the Sun was shining when I left work this afternoon and the snow is already disappearing off the sidewalks. Maybe it will be gone by the weekend.

I have been back in New York for 3 weeks now, a few days after that my boss went on vacation. Two days after that a workmate lost his battle with cancer. Yesterday I heard that the guy my boss left in charge, slipped on ice while walking his dog and has a compound fracture of his leg. This required surgery both yesterday and today. So things are a bit crazy at work.
The forecast was for it to start raining last night then turn to snow later and accumulate about 1 to 2 inches. It did not rain and the snow did not start until after 9 this morning. As a result it has snowed all day and we have about 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground at the moment.
While out running this afternoon I was reminded of one run I had in Slovenia, it was nice.

While family and friends are telling me there is heavy snow in the UK, here in New York it is like a beautiful Spring day. It feels mild and the temperature by midday has gone up to 47F ( 8C ). Most of the snow from last week has now gone, but just has it has done over the 3 weeks I have been back, it is supposed to snow tomorrow.
I have not been watching the Super bowl the last couple of years, but decided to watch it last night. I thought it was a good game, was not too impressed by the adds. Glad it went down to the wire, when it had looked early on like it might be a blowout.

It's been almost 3 months since I went out to Shea stadium and quite a lot has changed. You can see from the photo that about 3/4 of it has now gone. While I was there taking photo's I met another gentleman doing the same. He got quite emotional when we talked about the history of the place and we took each other's photo's, with the stadium in the background. I ended up running about 11 miles. Meadow Lake was almost completely frozen with just a small section on one side where a few ducks were keeping it open. When I started out it was 1 or 2 degrees below freezing and as I finished my run it was 1 or 2 degrees above.

Due to the cold and somewhat icy conditions today the fee for the 2 mile race was waived. The turn out was quite small ( I think about 10). There was a strong headwind again just like last week. It felt like I was pushing for the whole race, but at times it also seemed like I was in slow motion. The runner just ahead of me looked like he was jogging, but I couldn't seem to get any closer. My finishing time was either 15:59 or 16:00. There was a problem with the clock and times were given from my watch, which I had given to the race director at the start.
Despite all these things I was faster than last week and have slowly improved with each race, so far this year. I think my times were better last year, but the weather was much warmer. Anyway I am happy to go out and try to run fast short races.

Early this morning, after my run I was checking out my Facebook pages. I got an instant message from a running friend of mine in India, we chatted for a little while and then he was gone. Later I talked with another running friend in Ohio. In this new world of technology I can have conversations during the day while sitting at my computer. We can send each other links to web pages and show each other photographs and in some cases see each other live on our computer screens while talking. Yes it's true that some of these things we can do by telephone.
This afternoon I went online and signed up for a 50k race that I will be running in March.

Now that I am back to my old schedule, which I have not been on for about 2 years. Tomorrow is the start of my weekend. After all that snow then rain yesterday it got cold during the night and yes there was major ice this morning. It did get much nicer during the day and my walk home and subsequent run later, was very pleasant. It seems, that for the next few days at least it will be cold nights and milder days.
Oh by the way! I used to play on a football ( soccer) team in my youth , that played in the United Nations league. That's me front row right.