Survived II

Well I managed to survive my week of being in charge of the kitchen at Ecofutura, it got a little intense at times, but you just have to get through it. I will say one thing I didn't have a problem sleeping at night. Staff numbers are back to normal and yesterday when I finished my run it completed 18 months without missing a day, which equals my second longest streak of all time
The Sarajevo film Festival is over and I am sure the city will be a little quieter as a result, though I was told that the numbers were down from previous years.

Survived

Survived the weekend. It was really hot in the kitchen yesterday and we were busy, it seemed even more so because we were short staffed. Things will be a little quieter for a few days and the other cooks will be back by the end of the week.
The mornings are quite refreshing and it is nice to go out and run .

Hard work ;)

It has been getting quite busy at work and this weekend it got even more so. Normally we have 3 cooks at the peak of the day, but on Saturday the 2 cooks who have been the mainstay of the kitchen went on a trip for 6 days. So now I am the main guy with one assistant. It was quite intense at times because we also had a Birthday party to deal with, but we survived. It was a little cooler in the kitchen which helped. When I got home I had a hard time staying wake and eventually just sacked out on the couch. Sundays have been quite busy the last few weeks so we will see how we get through this one.

Longest day

OK so it is June 22 nd, which is supposed to the longest day. The forecast here in Sarajevo is that it will be quite warm, but with a chance for thunderstorm's later, from an Hortic's point of view this will help the plants since it has been hot and dry for a while now.
After my little break I am settling in again and actually starting to feel comfortable here.

In Sarajevo we have been experiencing some hot weather kind of like New York, but without the humidity.  of course I have the chance to go up into the hills where it can be cooler and we have even had some rain which cools things down a bit

Since I git back in Sarajevo it has been getting hotter and hotter, but I have to say it feels quite fresh when I go out for my run in the morning.
My weekend job in the restaurant at the Eco village can be quite intense at times, but the nature up there is so nice and I am slowly trying to landscape some of the areas there and create some nice plant features and introduce some new trees and shrubs.

So last Tuesday I took a bus to Ljubljana, it was sort of a last minute thing since I was supposed to drive with a friend but there were car problems, so I just jumped on a bus.
I sorted out a way to get the rest of my stuff ( well almost all of it ) to Sarajevo. It involved me driving with some friends to Biograd in Croatia where another friend would take it back to Banja Luka. I got to spend 3 days on the Dalmatian coast which was great, then spent 1 night in Zagreb, before taking a bus to Banja Luka. The weather in Dalmatia was great and I got to spend a lot of time swimming and visited a place called Murtur on an island near to the coast.
Yesterday one of my friends from Sarajevo picked up me and my stuff, so now I am basically moved to Sarajevo :)

This weekend I was in Hresa which is near Sarajevo, I am helping out in the restaurant at Eco Futura which is an Eco village . One of the locals picked some wild mushrooms for us. On Saturday she brought a Bolet mushroom that has quite a strong taste and on Sunday she brought some very nice Morel's like the ones I found in Slovenia, both of them were very tasty. She knows where all the mushrooms grow and will bring us some throughout the year :)

Well it's Friday afternoon and I have completed my first week working at Sun foods. It has been interesting and I mad a couple of mistakes in the first few days. I managing to run every morning, it has rained almost every day that I have been here, but I think I have only run in the rain once.

I took a bus from Ljubljana to Sarajevo on Wednesday night and arrived in Sarajevo at 5 am yesterday. The trip was fairly uneventful, though there was a lot of rain. Everything was done at the last moment, a friend was supposed to come and pick me and all my things up and drive me to Sarajevo. Now that friend will pick up the rest of my stuff next week and then I will be fully moved. It is a little cooler here and they in fact had some snow at higher elevations earlier in the week. My back is bothering me a little from the 10 hour bus ride, but I have managed to get out and run. I run by the Bosna river and notice that it is running quite high, probably from all the rain and snow melt. I have a few days to recover and then it is off to work on Monday.

Last week we had some holidays in Slovenia May 1st being the big one I took advantage of the time to go to Novo Mesto, which is a place I have visited a few times when traveling by bus to Belgrade and a few other places. but never stopped and took a look around. There is a path along the river where you can run and since most people go to the seaside during holidays it was quiet. Of course that meant that there were only a few places open where you could get a drink and something to eat. However the weather was beautiful and sunny and I had a nice day out.

I had said that I would probably go to Sarajevo this weekend, but once again things have been delayed. The move is now set for May 17 one of my friends will come up on the 16th stay over night and we will drive back the next day.

Spring weather is finally here and tomorrow is a holiday in Slovenia. April 27 it seems is the anniversary of when the people decided to rise up against the German occupation during WWII.

Yesterday I set out early and ran out to the Sava river to an area where I picked Morel mushrooms last year. There a re 3 places that I visited just over a week ago where I picked some small mushrooms and due to the steady Spring rains we have been getting there is evidence that there will be much more than last year when the Spring was quite dry. Almost as soon as I arrived on the trails I saw a morel in a new place and when I came to my usual places I saw some very nice large specimens. I decided to explore a few new places and in one of them I found 5 or 6 nice sized Morels hidden in the leaf litter. In total I found 150 g of mushrooms. I also picked some garlic leaf which grows prolifically in the woods too and I use instead of lettuce in salads.
Morels have a very nice flavour and I usually saute them with butter or oil and a few other veggies, they also go well in an omelet.

So on Thursday I went by train to Zagreb, I usually go on a Friday and the train was so less full going a day earlier.
On Friday I had lunch with friends and then we drove to Banja Luka, Bosnia. It was Good Friday or Veliki Petak in the Orthodox church and a group of around 13 of us got together for a celebration.
Saturday was a mix of light and heavy rain, but 7 of us went up into the hills and hiked 10 Km while also gathering some nice healing herbs and edible plants which were pointed out to us by a friend who is an expert in this field ( no pun intended ). We later had a nice lunch that included some of the plants we had gathered.
I had a little meeting with my friends from Sarajevo and it now looks like I will move there on the first weekend of May. So a new adventure is about to begin.

Yesterday I made flying trip to my place in Croatia. It was a beautiful day and I have not been there for about a year. There has been this pending problem with some missing tiles on the roof of the house and I finally replaced them, thus hopefully eliminating a water damage problem in one of the rooms. It is interesting that the tiles on the old house that are probably 80 years old at least are in good shape, but the ones on the new house that are about 40 years old are showing wear. As they always say they don't make them like they used too. I was actually only in the village for about 5 hours, but got to meet a lot of neighbours and some of them helped me do some of the work, I of course returned the favour. I also got some homemade cheese. I am hoping to make another trip near the end of April and this time take a few friends with me. maybe we'll spend the weekend.

Well it has been more than a week since I last posted and Spring appears to be upon us. I am still waiting to see the galleys for the Dilly and Dally books from my publisher, but I am assured they are on their way.
Just this last week I have been venturing into the woods near the river Sava to collect Cemaz leaves which grow at this time they have a mild to strong garlic flavour depending on the time of the season. I have been using them in salads, which I am eating a lot of now.
It looks like I will be in Ljubljana for a little while longer, probably until the beginning of May, but will keep you updated here.

2 nights ago I went to concert of Indian music. The performance was by a group called Desert Slide, which is actually Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and 5 musicians from the deserts of Rajasthan. I was lucky to see VM Bhatt perform in New York in the summer of 1995. The concert was in a small hall in Cankerjev Dom, Ljubljana and it was really wonderful. I would highly recommend you go and see them if you like Indian music and you get a chance.

Yesterday I made a visit to the Ljubljana Zoo. I have been here almost 3 years now and from time to time I have seen the signs for the Zoo. Yesterday was Spring like and seemed the right time to go visit the zoo. When I finished my college life and moved to London, I got a job as a gardener in the London Zoological gardens, so I have been a bit spoiled and didn't expect too much from Ljubljana. It is quite spread out and has a lot of trees, but not too many exhibits and a limited number of animals. I know that maintaining a Zoo is very expensive and Ljubljana is not a big city. They have a nice petting zoo for the children and there were a lot of families there on this day. There are also lots of play grounds for the kids too. I enjoyed the time I spent there, but it would be nice if they got more animals in the future.

A week ago I took a 12 hour overnight bus ride to Nish, Serbia. Arriving at 8 in the morning I got to visit with some friends on Saturday and on Sunday morning I ran a Half Marathon. The conditions were quite good, it was a sunny blue sky morning with a temperature around 6C. I managed to keep a fairly even pace, slowing a little late in the race and finished with a time of 2:29:08. Which was a little faster than my time of 2:29:36 last year.
I spent 2 more days visiting and took an overnight bus on Tuesday arriving in Ljubljana a little late after border problems for 3 passengers. It has taken me until now to recover from the 2, 12 hour bus rides and Half Marathon and feel like I am running fairly normally.

About 20 years ago a friend of mine whose husband had studied as a chemist, told me that he said that as we get older we have fewer colds, because the body has built up more immunity to them over the years. That what we do get is the newer ones. I guess it's the old, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger theory.
About 9 days ago I had a sore throat and the next day it developed into a persistent involuntary cough that has been with me ever since. At one point I thought it might be Whooping cough, but when I researched it didn't seem to be.After a few days it got worse at night when I got tired and in fact made it hard for me to sleep and would even wake me up during sleep. Some 6 years ago I had the same cough that was left behind after a bout of the flu, but something must have changed since based on the previous theory mentioned my body does not seem to be dealing with it quickly. Things are improving and I don't seem to cough as much and with some adjustments I have figured out how to sleep better with the situation. Last time it improved more quickly as the weather warmed up and that is exactly what has been happening the last week. My energy levels have been good the whole time and I have managed to run everyday.

The last few mornings have been quite cold in Ljubljana, -8C and -10C, so this morning it was almost pleasant to go out for my run and it was only -6C.
It has been sunny during the day for the last few days also and that has brought the temperature up to within a few degrees of freezing.

So there is about 1cm of snow on the ground the wind is gone and it is still -7C so when I went out for my run this morning it was nice and crunchy underfoot.My flatmate likes to put bread crumbs out on our terrace for the sparrows in the morning and I noticed that a robin joined them this morning. With the snow it had the look of a typical Christmas scene. The Sun is shining as I write this so I guess some snow will melt, but it creates a very beautiful picture.

I was supposed to go to Novi Sad this weekend, to an event that some friends organized. However the heavy snow that has been causing all kinds of problems in the south of Serbia switched to the north yesterday. So everything has been put back 1 week. I am not sure if I will be able to go then, but we will see how things progress through the week.
We have had the occasional flurry of snow here on occasion, but it has not amounted to anything until now. I woke up this morning to the sight of a light covering of snow. The temperature is still well below freezing so it should stay. Though it is not much to talk about.

I went to Zagreb on Sunday and it was snowing a little on the way, a little more so in the evening so that there was a light coating of snow on the ground.
Stayed with my friend Sead Sunday night leaving on the 6:50 am train Monday morning, when I got back to Ljubljana no snow. It is colder here than a week ago, but I talked with a friend in the Ukraine today and it is much colder there and a lot of snow. So you have to put everything in perspective.

I spent the weekend in Zagreb, it was really nice there especially on Sunday. I took the early morning train back to Ljubljana on Monday and went to a new book shop with a friend. While talking with the owners I got into a conversation about children's books with someone there, who turned out to be a children's book publisher and now says she wants to publish my books. I have a meeting with her on Thursday.

Cold one this morning, it was -5C when I went out to run and it had only got up to +1C by around 1pm. It looks like I will go to Zagreb this weekend, so we will see how things are there.
Hey I have been back in Ljubljana for a week now!

I have slowly become used to being back in Lubljana. It is colder here than it was in England and that is taking a little longer to get used to. I have managed to keep my running up and on Saturday I completed 1 year of running without missing a day. It has been quite a while since I did that, so I am quite pleased with myself. I think I am about 3 weeks away from making my move to Sarajevo, but there is no exact date set, so stay tuned.

My journey back to Ljubljana turned out to be quite an adventure. I was given the wrong information about the train to the airport and it turns out there wasn't one so I was unable to go and missed my flight. Then it turned out there were no flights the next day, so I had to book one for the following day. It also happened that the flight time had now been changed to 3 hours earlier and I did not have a train in the morning to get me there in time. So I had to get a train that got me in the night before and spend the night at the airport. Which apart from not being able to get much sleep was not so bad. The flight went really well and I was back in the apartment by 2 pm. I managed to get in a run, a little something to eat and some chatting with friends and then I slept really well.
It is colder here in the mornings, which I experienced on my 6:15 am run today. A few more days and I complete 1 year of running without missing a day.

Yesterday I took the train into Birmingham and my old running friend Abichal came by train from Bristol. When spent the day eating lunch, drinking coffee and talking about old times and times yet to come. This is the second year in a row that we have got together in this location. Is this the start of a tradition?

I have been in England for 11 days now, Christmas has come and gone and 2012 is just around the corner. This time last year there was snow everywhere and the UK was going through one of it's worst winters in more than 100 years. It has been very mild this time around. Even though I now live in the very beautiful country of Slovenia I always enjoy visiting my sister in the beautiful Staffordshire countryside.

I ate 3 snickers bars yesterday over a about a 12 hour period. My sister cooked me a nice vegetable stew for tea.
The weather is getting a little warmer at the moment and this morning I managed to buy my last 2 Christmas presents.

OK so I am in the UK for the holiday season, that would be Christmas and New Year. My sister has complained that I do not update my blog enough, so here I am.For the first time in 2 years my flight from Ljubljana was on time and I managed to get a train quickly and was at my sister's house before 11pm. It has been a little bit colder than Slovenia and rainy so far, but very relaxing.Nice to go running in the English countryside and over the next few weeks I will get the chance to see a lot of football ;)

So I am back in Ljubljana after 2 months in Sarajevo and the first thing I did was stub my toe and badly bruise it, sore but still able to run. I have to say it feels colder here than in Sarajevo, but for now it is nice to be back. I have two and a half weeks here before I go to the UK for the holidays, but it also looks like I will make a short trip to Serbia in about 9 days time. Hey it's December and another year is almost over!

Last night I gave a talk on Meditation and Sport to a group of around 20 people at the Bosnian Cultural Center in Sarajevo. Considering that it is a holiday here that was a decent turnout.
The weather here is still quite good though it is supposed to start getting cold at night in fact the coldest it has been since I got here. When I left Ljubljana I didn't bring a winter coat or shoes, I made a request from one of my friends there and yesterday I finally received them, just in time for the cold nights ;)

Here in Sarajevo the jazz fest has started and last night was the opening night. I was lucky enough to get a ticket to see the Rosenberg trio. The concert was great, though it did start a little late, not sure what the organizers were up to.
I have been in Sarajevo now for 1 month and I am very happy with the time I have spent here so far.

I was supposed to go to Maribor, Slovenia this weekend for a special ceremony on Sunday, but after my run on Saturday morning I had quite strong sciatic pain in my left hip area. This made sitting in a car for 7 or 8 hours very difficult so I did not go. I figured my hips needed adjusting and was able to do this myself however the discomfort continued for sometime. By this morning the pain had moved to my middle back area and seemed manageable, I decided to go for a run which turned out to be uncomfortable in the beginning, but got a little better by the end. I am confident it will improve as the coming week goes on, but a little sorry that I was unable to make the trip.

With a few exceptions I have gone to the UK to visit my family at Christmas and today I bought my ticket. The last couple of years my flight has been late each time. I hope I am not tempting fate by saying this, but if the weather is good this year I wont be delayed.

It has been I while since I have written anything here, so a quick update. I ran the 12 hour race in Belgrade on the weekend of 23/24 September. Though I got sick just before I was quite happy with my run completing 42 miles ( 68 Km ) and finishing 3rd in my age group. Eight days later I took a bus to Sarajevo, Bosnia where I am currently staying. I am in the process of trying to set up an organic coffee business, things are progressing well and hopefully....

My return

I have been without internet access since I got back to Ljubljana on Saturday, so was unable to post what I am about to now.
Saturday September 10 I traveled by bus from Belgrade to Ljubljana, there were some delays at the borders between Serbia and Croatia and also Croatia and Slovenia,but I reminded myself of the delay I had experienced 10 years before on the next day. On September 10 2001 I took a flight from Skopje, Macedonia and then had an overnight in Vienna, which I was quite happy with this because I had a chance to visit with some friends there.
The next morning after an early breakfast, (I was staying in an airport hotel provided by the airline) I checked in for my morning flight to New York.. There were a group of Russians on my flight and sitting in my window seat I was surounded by some of them. The flight was quite uneventful and as we approached Canada and 3 hours or so from New York I decided to catch a little sleep. I woke up a few minutes later to the sound of the captains voice and the last thing I heard was him saying was " And then we will continue on to Vienna". Of course I was confused by this and wanted to ask what was going on, but none of the Russians spoke English. After a short time one of the cabin crew came through and when I asked was told that there had been an attack on the financial district in New York and the airspace over America had been closed. The captain came on again and explained that the attack had happened while we were about halfway and we had been told to continue on and land in Canada, but as we approached were told that there were too many plane on the ground and we would have to fly back to Europe. We would in fact land in London, refuel and continue on to Vienna.I had been in New York when the WTC had been bombed and thought that maybe something similar had happened. As we approached London we were told that the airspace there had also now been closed and were directed to Manchester, where we landed safely and refueled. A lot of planes did the same thing and it was quite a while before we were back in the air.
We finally arrived back in Vienna about 13 hours after we had left, we were processed and eventually taken to hotels in Vienna. I was luck enough to get a nice hotel on the edge of the city.
It was not until September 15th that my flight made it into JFK airport. We were the first flight in and it was quite an experience to see a completely empty airport and of course the atmosphere in the immigration hall was very strange.
So 10 years later I had a much simpler journey with just a small delay to remind me of what is now sometimes just simply called 9/11.

On Saturday ( 2 days ago) a few of us were invited to an animal sanctuary in Djurdjevo. It seems that every year there is a sort of open day where there are tables with information about animal protection and also healthy vegetarian eating. As the World Harmony Run we did a small run with some of the local children and then got to enjoy the vegetarian buffet that was served to everyone. The whole thing is organized by a Swiss national, who I believe works for the Embassy in Serbia, Monika Brukner and she does a great job. Had a great time and was happy that I had a chance to go. Check out her website http://www.dzzdjurdjevo.com

Late this evening will mark 16 years since my mother was killed and I became an orphan. So much has happened since that time and my life has gone on and on. It is a time for me to reflect and to be grateful for everything I have had and have. Our parents help to make us what we are and I think of them both.

For those of you who know another side of me I would also like to wish a Happy Birthday to Alo Devi, who has helped me with much guidance in my life.

Some years ago I was unlucky enough to get a case of poison ivy and I was told at the time that it stays in your blood for several years. I don't know if this is true, but I do know that every year it flairs up at some point in the summer, though I must say it seems to be getting weaker, so I guess it is finally going out of my system.

A few days ago after finishing my work I was sitting in front of the cafe with Dejan the manager, when a casually dressed man walked by, he looked familiar. After he had passed I looked at Dejan and he said yes that was Vojislav Kostunica former President of Yugoslavia, it seems he lives nearby. He is still the leader of a political party here, but as he walked by he didn't look like a VIP.

While I was living in New York Squirells were ever present, they were like a plague in the city. I have been here in Belgrade for almost 2 months now and I have not seen even one.

One of the guys I work with in the cafe also works with a small theater group and last night I went to see a performance of a play called, Pagan Phantasma or The secret of Betrayal. It is basically about Judas's betrayal of Christ, but in a very modern interpretation. It was quite interesting, most of it was in English. It rained on my way to town and it got quite cooler as a result.

This morning I went for a run in the park near where I live and followed the path by the river all the way to the bridge that I cross everyday on the way to work.

This past weekend I went with a few friends to Slovenia. After about a 5 1/2 hour drive we stopped at a friends house in Bled and had lunch then we continued on to Planica, where we were going to spend the night at the Olympic sports center there, On Sunday some of the group went up Triglav mountain. I actually spent the day visiting Lakes Bled and Bohin. We all got back together in the early evening and drove back to Belgrade, arriving at around 1:30 on Monday morning. After a sleepy day at work and an afternoon run, I met up with some other friends and drove 2 hours south to Nish were I watched and listened to some old friends give a concert and arrived once again back in Belgrade at 12:45 am, tired but having fun.

On Friday I went with some friends to Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. On the way we stopped in Skopje and did a little sight seeing. This included the new statue that has been erected there. For political reasons it is officially called the rider on a horse, but unofficially it is Alekasander the great. It is quite impressive.
I was in Orhid twice before, once for a few days in 1995 and a second time when I flew out of the airport there when the airport in Skopje was closed for runway resurfacing. We stayed in a nice hotel about 5km outside the city of Ohrid, with a beautiful view of the lake. On Saturday we climbed up Galicica mountain and then visited Ohrid city. On Sunday we went to Sveti Naum or Saint Naum. Inbetween I ran a 2 mile race ( which it turns out was 3000m ) and a 1 mile race up and down a hill the next day. I had a really great time and returned quite tired and sore to Belgrade on Sunday night. I had the opportunity to stay for 2 more days, but needed to get back to work this morning.

I have been in Belgrade now for almost 2 weeks and I think I am pretty well settled in. This past weekend was interesting for me. Saturday morning, after running with some friends. I played a little 3 on 3 football ( soccer ) and I think I surprised a few people with my goal scoring skills.
Later in the day it got pretty hot, when I took the bus into the city it was 39.1 C which is 102 F, the humidity was not as bad as it used to be in New York, but it takes something out of you.
On Sunday I heard that my old friend and spiritual brother Mokshogun Clarence Clemmons had passed away, so my thoughts were with him. He had a big heart and a big smile. In the evening it rained and now everything has cooled down a little.

I am staying in an appartment on the 13th floor.We have a balcony that give me a nice view of the river and the city just across the river. There are a lot of linden trees in this area and actually there are some in front of the building. June is the month that they flower and the fragance wafts up and is so beautiful.This morning, after my run I strained something in the right side of my back and it was very painful when I first got to work. I managed to do my job ok, but it let me know it was there from time to time.

Some 4 days ago I came by bus to Belgrade where I will stay for the next 3 months. It is quite hot here, around 30C, but there are thunderstorms at night and ocasionally during the afternoon. I am staying in an appartment in New Belgrade, on the 13th floor. It is near to the river Sava and so I can run by the river veryday if I want to. I am quite familiar with the place as I stayed here in March. I am working 4 hours a day at a cafe owned by a friend of mine, I work in the mornings. I have worked for the last 3 days and I am starting to get my job down. I hope that I will have time to write more and also to finally learn Serbian well enough to have conversations with people and that it will help me with my Slovenian. We will see how things go, I am looking forward to my time here.

It's hard to believe that I didn't post in May, I guess I was busy. First of all I went by train to Munich on May 9th, this was not wothout incident. Due to track work they took us by bus from Ljubljana to Kranj, where the train left as soon as everyone was on board. Again in Austria we had to change trains twice to avoid track work and so I arrived about 40 minutes late. From then on the week went really well. I got a 1 week subway pass and found it quite easy to get around the city. I gave 2 talks on the relationship between Sport and Meditation, both well attended. I also ran a 2 mile race in a rain storm.
On the weekend I went with some friends to Berlin, though I didn't get to see much of the city. it's an interesting place.

In the last part of May I spent a few days in Zagreb, Croatia, where I got to attend a performance of some of Tagore's music as part of Indian culture week there.

The last few days of the month were in Banja Luka, Bosnia, where I actually met the League Champions Borac the day before they celebrated their first ever league title.

I will try to post some photo's later.

Ok so I was in New York for 10 days and it was quite cold there, spring is 3 to 4 weeks behind what it is here in Slovenia. Anyway in the week that I have been back it has been quite busy I went mushroom hunting twice. The first time I found just 4 Morels and yesterday I went out again and found a nice haul. In between I made a short trip to my place in Donje Dubrave in Croatia and came back with some organic eggs and my favourite smoked cheese. The morels are quite small and I am told by locals that this is because of the lack of rain. We had rain last night and more is expected through the week, so I expect to find more when I go out again. In the photo is about half of the mushrooms I found.

The last 2 days have really had the feeling of Spring pleasantly warm with temp's around 20C. As the week has progressed it has gotten warmer, though the nights are still quite cool. The rain we had the last few days of winter have ensured that all plant life is ready to grow and indeed it is. The trees can't seem to wait for thier leaves and blossoms to open to the world and each day I see more and more as I walk into the city. The last 2 days I have been going out for my run in T shirt and shorts, which is a lot nicer. This weekend I will be in Hungary and hope that the nice weather continues there.

I ran my besy time for 10k when I was 26 or 27 years old. Yesterday at the age of 57 I ran my first 10k race probably since starting to run multiday races. It was a well organized race on the Slovenian coast. There were around 900 runners and the race fee was 15 euro.It is between to small towns. You park your car near the finishing line and they take you by bus to the start. The soline 10k is pretty flat except for one quite big hill at around 6k, then of course there is a downhill. After running a half marathon 2 weeks ago my legs were feeling quite strong, the air was good and my breathing was good. I tried to keep and even pace, there were no K markers until the last one so it was hard to know what my pace was. There was one water station just before the hill. I would have preferred more, but it was most welcome when it came. I was thinking to run under 1 hour would be ok and was surprised when I saw the 1k to go mark and saw on my watch 44 minutes. I crossed the finishing line in 50:25. The best time I ever ran for 10k some 30 years ago is 38:48. So time as not treated me so badly. It was a beautiful morning and I was really glad that I am getting into the racing scene again and hope to do a lot more in the coming year.

So I got back 2 days ago from my visit to Serbia, where I ran a half marathon in Nish. I then spent a week in Belgrade with friends and even got to help out in a friends cafe. It seems that I will go and work there in June possibly for 3 months since one of the workers is taking a break and they need some cover. It was cold when I got there, but gradually got warmer as the week went on and was around 18 C when I left. It is just a little colder here in Ljubljana and rainy.

If we are fortunate to live a long life we will at sometime be touched by death. Now as I approach 60, well just less than 3 years away, I can say that I have been touch by death on more than one occasion. Just a couple of weeks ago I was informed that a cousin had passed away in the night. There had been a period of time when I had lost touch with her and a few years ago reconnected and on doing so was informed that she was in recovery from breast cancer. I was lucky enough to visit with her and her family ( my family) on a few occasions. After moving to Slovenia, even though I was closer I did not get a chance to visit. It seems that the cancer returned and she was unable to get the medication to treat it. So, as is often the case the cancer finally took her. Death as with life is a learning experience and so a new lesson has been given.

Still adjusting to life back in Slovenia, but went to Maribor yesterday for a few hours yesterday. There is not so much snow around and I noticed that they are making snow on some of the hills for the skiers. There was group of about 12 guys on the flight over who had come for a skiing weekend, I hope they had enough snow to ski.

Well it's almost time for me to leave the UK again and head back to Slovenia. Yesterday I went into Birmingham by train to meet up with my old friend Abichal, I have not seen him since he left New York over 3 years ago. It was great to spend around 7 hours talking about things and kinda catching each other up on what has been going on with us. Tomorrow I travel back to Slovenia, it has been a nice break and great spending time with family, but it will be nice to be back.

I have been in Penkridge, where my sister lives for 2 weeks now. When I got here it was very cold and there was snow everywhere. This lasted through Christmas day and then the rain came and now the snow has gone. A few days before Christmas I went to see a doctor at the medical center here and he said that my red eye was Bacterial conjunctivitis and gave me antibiotic drops, which I have to put in my eye twice a day for the next 4 weeks. Well I have to say that after about 10 days things are looking a lot better.
It is now 2011 and I would like to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

OK an update. I flew from Slovenia to London Stanstead last Friday, the flight was delayed 3 hours because of the weather, but all in all things worked out pretty good. The day after I got here all kinds of travel problems began, but In was nice and comfortable at my sister's house. I have been trying to fix my red eye problem for a while now, but it just does not seem to want to go completely away. Well I went to see a doctor in Penkridge yesterday and he gave me some antibiotics which he reckons will fix it. He did say that there is no infection in the center of the eye. So hopefully this is it this time.

Yesterday I got to enjoy my 57th birthday and was quite overwhelmed that I got so many well wishes. At one point I remembered back to my 27th birthday which I celebrated in New York. I was living in an attic room and a friend Of mine just a few days earlier, had come to me and said that he had just heard John Lennon had been shot. We spent the next few days following the television reports and here we are 30 years later. I am in a different country and there is a very strong visual reminder that Christmas is just around the corner.

When I was growing up I lived near to a town where there was a brewery, it was on a hill and on some days when the wind was in the right direction, you could smell the hops when they vented them. I have been living in Ljubljana now for 19 months and they also have a brewery here. This morning for the first time I could smell vented hops as I walked into the city.

Over a 9 day period we had a lot of snow and this past few days we have been getting rain and warmer temperatures. As a result there has been a lot of snow melt and it kind of feels like early Spring with the river high and fast running. When you walk over bridges you can hear the river rushing through them. Probably soon the snow will come and stay and the snow melt will be repeated in the Spring.

The temperature dropped to -8C overnight, so I decided to wait until late morning to go out for my run. It was still -1C when I went out, but the sidewalks were most clear with the occasional icy patch needing to be careful of. I have decided that since I am approaching my 57th birthday that I need to work on my flexibility a little more and have this plan to introduce yoga back into my life. I have not really practiced it for quite some time, but will do a few exercises each day and slowly increase the range as I become more comfortable.

For the last 8 days it has been snowing on and off some days are light snow some days more. We have accumulated about a 1/2 meter of snow during that period. At the beginning of the week it kind of reminded me of New York and say January of February, but this morning on the way into the city it reminded me of the 3 weeks I spent in Montreal, Canada one winter. I know from a city point of view it is probably a pain, but to me it is what winter is all about and I am sure it is really beautiful in the countryside.

Happy Birthday to Purupriya

Well I spent a week in Bosnia, half of it in Sarajevo and half in Banja Luka. As it turned out I took the beginnings of a cold with me and it got worse after a couple of days. I was taken well care of by my friends and it gradually got better.The first part of the week was rainy and the second part colder, but we did mange to avoid the snow that was forecast. However when I got back to Slovenia it was a different story and I was greeted with about 20cm of snow and it has stayed near freezing so far.Part of my trip has hopefully opened up the possibility of some coffee business in the future and we will see how that goes.

Sometimes when I am walking through the city I see groups of school children with teachers telling them something about the history of the city and stuff. This morning I saw one group and standing with them was a street person standing near to the teacher and listening to what she said and sometimes pointing to where she pointed, as if mimicking the teacher and pretending to be an interested bystander. It was quite amusing to me and brought a little joy to the start of my day.

The last few days have been quite busy for me as far as my coffee business goes. I have the opportunity to get a good customer in the near future and I have been looking at suppliers. One of the things that I have noticed is that in these modern times in Slovenia coffee grinders, are not so available as in the past. If people want to enjoy my coffee to the best of it's flavour they should grind the beans freshly before brewing. So I am in the process of finding a supplier of coffee grinders so that we can sell them along with the coffee. I have just found a company that looks promising and they also have milk frothers and I think the price is acceptable. So there you go things are moving along slowly.

It has been pretty rainy here this last week or so, but on the weekend I was in Germany and the weather there was really nice. I was visiting with some friends and also trying to make some potential business arrangements for the coffee. I was also had a surprise when I saw an old friend from New York, who it seems is in Europe for a week, so that was nice. I have had a problem with viral conjunctivitis in my right eye, which I got while in Russia. I was given some Homeopathic medicine and it seems to be working.
Looking forward to better weather later in the week.

Where was I. Oh yes during our second night in Vaasa the rest of the WHR team arrived from Iceland. So in the morning we started at a ceremony in the city square near a market. Then with a police escort we ran once again to the park where the statue was. On the arrival of a local runner we made our way to a nearby stadium where the Vaasa marathon would begin. We were introduced to the runners, did a lap around the stadium track and started off on our run towards Helsinki. Some time after our departure the marathon began and as our runners ran with the torch we were joined by the the competitors as the first part of our run covered part of the marathon course.
Since the full team was now here and we had 2 vans we split up into 2 teams we use a method called leapfrogging to cover the distance and also make various ceremonies along the way. The final ceremony was near the place where we would stay the night and we were greeted by a former winter Olympian and medal winner in cross country skiing. We spent our first night on the road in a log cabin

On arriving in Helsinki and finally getting our bags we drove with 2 of our friends to Vaasa in the north, where we got to stay in another friend's apartment for the night.
We had 26 schools to visit on our first WHR day in Finland, we split into 2 teams of 3 with one team visiting 17 schools that were close together and the other visiting 9 schools further apart. It was very cold and windy, but at each school we had a warm welcome. There are 2 official languages in Finland, Finnish of course and Swedish. each of the schools spoke of these. I was on the team that visited 17 schools. We ended our running in a park where we joined with the other team, some school children who came with us and some local officials, near a statue of Sri Chinmoy, the founder of the run. There was a ceremony at which a Peace tree was planted and everyone got to have their photo taken and some interviewed by a local newspaper.

So I have been back from the WHR for 11 days now, so here is the start of my report.
We were scheduled to fly on Baltic from Belgrade to Riga and then on to Helsinki on September 1st.
We arrived at the airport and proceeded to go to check in, but there was no check in. We then looked on the departure screen for our flight and it was not there. After an inquiry at the information desk, we found out that Baltic does not operate flights to Helsinki via Riga between September and February, even though they let us book a flight for September 1st. It seems they had been trying to inform us of this without success. So they had an obligation to give us an alternative flight and booked us on an Austrian Airlines flight through Vienna for the next morning. This did not create a big problem with our Finland schedule so we were happy and we had a better flight.
We arrived in Helsinki mid afternoon the next day instead of late evening the day before and apart from the fact that our bags were delivered to another terminal everything was good. I was in Finland for the first time ;)

I have just come back from spending the last month of the European leg of the World Harmony Run as part of the team. I got to go from Finland, through the Baltic states, Belarus and to the closing ceremony in Moscow. Spending a month living out of a van during the day and having to go out and run several times during those days can seem like a tough deal. That is so far from the truth. Yes there are days when the body is telling you it maybe does not want to run so much, but I am a multiday runner and I am used to that. Even if you struggle a little bit some mornings the feeling you get when people greet you on the road, or the look in the faces of people ( especially children ) when they get to hold the torch, takes away any tiredness that may be present.
Over the next few posts I will try describe what it has been like and focus on each country I ran in. I hope you will enjoy my journey.

So this morning I picked up my visa for Belarus and I am now ready to go. We fly on Baltic Air through Riga to Helsinki om Wednesday afternoon. I am not sure if I will have any internet access during the trip, but when I do I will post something. You can check out how I am doing here http://www.worldharmonyrun.org/ .

I have been in Belgrade now for 2 days, the bus ride was quite pleasant, but the temperature seemed to get hotter and hotter the closer we got to Serbia. I finally got access to the internet so I am now able to make this post.
My 2 WHR team mates and I had a very nice meeting with the consular general for Belarus this morning and will have visa's on Monday. So now I have a few days to relax and there is a possibility that tomorrow I will go on the boat of a friend of mine for a trip around Belgrade, which should be pretty cool.

Today I picked up my visa from the Russian consulate, tomorrow I go by bus to Belgrade where I will get a visa for Belarus and in 11 days time I fly with 2 friends to Finland where we will join the final leg of this years World Harmony Run. Starting in Finland we go to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. Before entering Russia via Smolensk and finish in Moscow late September. It should be quite an adventure. Not sure if I will have much internet access, but when I do I will try to post something.

It has been 15 years since my mother was killed by an intruder in her home.It is quite a long time but at this time we can easily see how strongly how our loved ones remain in our hearts.
Yesterday I spent around 4 hours at the Russian embassy in Ljubljana applying for a visa for an up coming trip there. A few hours after returning home I got a message that one of my Uncles had had a stroke and is now in hospital, but quite stable and even making jokes. So life has it's challenges, but we go on.

Yesterday I went to the Russian Embassy here in Ljubljana to apply for a visa, but was a little surprised to find out that I needed to give them a photo. So back again today only to find out that my visit constitutes a Humanitarian visa and needed to say that on the invitation. They were nice enough to call the WHR guys in Moscow and arrange for a new invite to be faxed and told me to come back tomorrow. They were actually quite nice to me, but it seems it is not so easy to get a visa for Russia.

First of all it's Friday the 13th. I need to catch up on a few things. Two days ago August 11th was my sister's birthday, so of course Happy Happy Birthday!!!. She just recently had elbow replacement surgery, so I imagine this one was not quite as happy as previous ones. But I am sure she will ultimately be happy with her unusual present of a much better functioning elbow.
Also on that day 2 friends of mine from Serbia came by on their way back from the English Channel, where one helped and the other successfully swam the English Channel. When I was young and growing up in England it was always magical to me to hear that someone had swum the channel. So it was really nice to hear their story of this great feat.
By the way this Friday the 13th is a rainy one here in Ljubljana.
These are some of the White plums at my place in Croatia, in the photo above.

So on Saturday morning I got a ride out to the 3rd stage of the Trans- Slovenia Mountain Edition race where my friend was running. There was some tough mountain running and I got to do some of it with him. I also got to stay in the Youth Hostel where the race ended on Saturday night and where the runners and organizers stayed. On Sunday I got to share the running and helping duties with my friend Milan. The last 30Km or so of the final stage was on the same road as last years classic race so it was familiar to me and I liked the downhill section into Koper.

It is amazing to think that this time last week I was at my place in Croatia and it was raining. Here I am now in Ljubljana and once again it is raining. I was really happy to spend some time there even with the rain, but as you can see from this photo it was quite sunny on the Sunday just before I left. In the photo are my neighbours Vajo and Majca who kept me fed during my visit, though I did buy some supplies from the one store in the village. It is nice to think that I am now adding to the economy of the village where my father was from. OK more to come.

I spent 2 days at my place in Croatia. When I got there it was raining and rained on and off for the first 24 hours I was there. As you can see from this photo I managed to cut down some of the grass and weeds. I eventually removed some of the trees from around the side and back of one end of the old house. It was so nice to sleep in my own house and my neighbours kept me fed by inviting me for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I still have a lot of work to do. I have many white plum trees and gave away many plums during my visit. I had to leave many to be eaten by the birds who seem to love them. It is very peaceful there and the roads are pretty quiet for running on. Over the next few days I will try to post more photo's.

Yesterday was the last hot day this week, the temperature once again was 32C. In the afternoon it rained and everything changed. I had gone into the city in the morning to deliver my coffee sample to the cafe I had visited the day before and was quite exhausted when I got home. By late afternoon there was a strong wind developing and then the thunderstorms came, it was quite refreshing.
This morning it was so much cooler than previous days and as I went out to the 2 mile race I could see that there was rain heading our way. In the middle of the race there was a big downpour.
This is the headstone of my grandparents grave in
Donje Dubrave, Croatia

I had a short meeting this morning with a possible client for my coffee and will return tomorrow with a sample. It is a small organic cafe but could be a nice step forward.
Another hot day here in Ljubljana once again in the low 30's C.

Yesterday I had an express train ride to London and an easy trip across the city to the Stanstead Express, arriving with plenty of time to check in for my flight. My flight to Ljubljana was only 5 minutes late, so not a problem. This morning I woke up to the same hot weather I left behind over the weekend. I am quite happy for this because I did my laundry today and it dried quickly in the hot Sun.

The party for my sister's Ruby Wedding anniversary went really well. I got to see some relatives I had not seen for quite a while and the weather stayed good, it is much cooler than in Slovenia. Managed to get a good run in the morning, nice pleasant country roads.

It is a hot day here in Ljubljana in fact it is supposed to be hot all week with maybe the odd thunder shower later in the week. Friday I will fly to the UK , maybe it will be a little cooler there ;)

This is my barn and as you can see it has a little problem with the roof. I hope to rectify this pretty soon. You can also see that there is a lot of hay in the barn this belongs to my neighbour, actually he cuts my grass and stores it in the barn, it's an arrangement he had with my Aunt and will continue by me.

So I finally got to my place in Donje Dubrave and as you can see it's a little over grown. I got to visit with some of my neighbours, which was interesting since none of them speak English. I manged to understand most of what they were saying to me and to some degree speak back. I plan to go back there for a weekend at the end of the month or beginning of next month. I only spent a little more than half a day there this time, it was really for orientation purposes and gave me an idea for what I need to do next time.
I go to England in 10 days for my sister's wedding anniversary ;)

I am spending a few days in Rijeka, Croatia visiting with family and some friends. also all the paper work involving my place has now been settled and I will be making a visit sometime this week. I will of course take some photo's and hopefully post some of them here. I got to spend an hour or two at the beach yesterday and of course plan to spend more as the week goes by also a chance to swim in the Adriatic for the first time any a few years ;)

In a couple of hours time I will take a train to Rijeka in Croatia. This will be the second time this year that I have gone there, but hopefully this time I will also make a trip to my place in Donje Dubrave, actually I have to make a visit one way or another. There are some things I need to look at there and I need to talk with at least one of my neighbours. I should get the chance for a little beach time and a swim in the Adriatic, which will be nice, so it will be part vacation and part business. Anyway I am looking forward to it ;)

Spent the weekend in Hungary helping a friend of mine run the Ultrabalaton race, a 212km race around lake Balaton. He did great finishing in 26 hours and 15 minutes. I ended up being awake for almost 40 hours.
Lots of things happening for me right now. I just got my resident permit for Slovenia, bought a ticket to London to go to my sister's 40th Wedding anniversary in July and will be going to Croatia in few days to take care of some stuff on my place there ;)

I spent 9 of the last 10 days in Zagreb, where I was helping with a free concert of spiritual music. I also managed to sell some of my coffee while I was there, The weather has been very hot and the Sun quite strong during this period. I also managed to see the England v USA game and was a little disappointed with a 1-1 draw, but in the end 1 point is better than none.
This weekend a friend of mine will be running in the Ultrabalton race, which is a 213 Km race around Lake Balaton in Hungary. Last month he asked me if I would be his handler and I agreed, so I will be in Hungary this weekend.

I was in Zagreb for 3 days. There was a 4 day street festival and on the 3rd day an old friend of mine had organized street drawing I went along with some friends and participated. Check out the little video I made. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f49dw-CX9hA

I have been back from the World Harmony run now for a couple of days and just wanted to post something.
It is always a great experience to participate and this year was quite interesting for me. The International team included an American, a Canadian and a Guatamalan along with the usual Europeans. The run, which is organized mainly by my friend Marjan, can be quite intense at times, but really takes care of the runners. We had some great meetings with lots of schools and such dignitaries as the President of the country and President of the parliament.By the time the week was up many great friendships had been made. Personally after the first few days I had more soreness than usual in my legs, but this improved over the week and the whirlpool and swimming pools in our hotels really helped. In September I get to run in the final leg of the European run which ends in Moscow, which should be quite an experience.

Some news on the coffee front to come shortly.

This week has been quite interesting for me, there has been a lot of back and forth with my coffee roaster in Holland. The label is now done I have now placed an order and we should be getting soon. Oh by the way I don't know if I mentioned it, but to start with we are getting the majority of our coffee roasted for us in Holland. We already have a few customers and will slowly grow the business with a mix of home roasted and Dutch roasted coffee, it's a start and we think a smart start.

So I was in Palic near Subotica, Serbia this weekend, I visited with some friends and spent some time in the Zoo there. I have been to the Zoo a few times. The first time was not long after the embargo on Yugoslavia was lifted and because of which the animals were pretty sparse. Now things are looking much better, the number of animals has increased mostly through new births and I think more people are visiting. I sold my first small amount of roasted coffee and have quite a bit of interest, so we will see how things progress.

After only 4 days back in Slovenia I am off early tomorrow morning to Subotica in Serbia. There is a special event at the Zoo in Palic this weekend and I will be going there with at least 3 of my friends. It's a bit of a drive but it will be worth it. I have some very good friends in Subotica and Palic and it will be nice to see them. I am hoping to run near the lake there, where later this year their will be a 12 and 24 hour race. Hopefully the weather will be good, it seems to be improving here. Anyway, check back for my post on Monday about how things went.

I am alive, I know it may not seem so since I have not been posting for a while, but I am. On April 19 I managed to fly out of Trieste airport to Rome and then on to New York. The airport had been closed for 2 days because of the ash cloud, but opened that day and then apparently closed the next day. I went to NY to run in the 6 day race which started on April 23. It was an interesting experience which I will talk about on my other blog iliketorun, you can get there by going to my profile and clicking on the link at the bottom of the page. When I arrived in NY my bags did not, they were still in Rome and arrived the next day. When I came back on May 4 my bags also stayed in Rome this time they were flown to Munich than to Ljubljana and delivered to me the next day. Which my journey from Trieste to Ljubljana a little easier.
Well now I am in Ljubljana, a little jet lagged and still a little sick from a cold I had developed, but happy to be home.

Sunday I drove with a friend up to Maribor to participate in the last Pohorje winter cup race of the season. It is the 13th race for this edition. This was the 3rd time I participated. With the recent problem I have had with my back and hip I was not sure how I would hold up, but I felt pretty good at the start and the temperature was quite mild. The race started and within the first few minutes my breathing was hard, this is normal and usually settles down after a time, then I lose my legs which also settle down. This time my breathing never got better, I had a problem the whole race, but my legs stayed strong. It was only after I finished and developed a chesty cough that I realized, I had a cold. I was happy that I had a good workout and finished the race. To cap it all off we got free pizza after wards.

Friday the 26th of February was a really rainy day here in Slovenia. I had to walk into the city to get the book for my Slovenian classes, at the Filosofska fakulteta and got quite wet in the process. When I signed up for the course I got a temporary student card and this allows me to get a discount at the school book shop.
In the evening it was the Premier of the Opera/Ballet season in Maribor and a group of us were given free tickets. The opera was Werther by Jules Massenet, which I am sure is a good one, but I have to say I was a little disappointed with the production. It was very sparse, everything was done on an empty stage. It was nice to have a night out though with some friends, so it was pretty cool.

This and a few of the following posts are on a time delay. Well it's just that I meant to write them on the day the things happened, but...
February 25.
Today is the day of my first official Slovenian language class. I was thinking about it all day, I ran early so that I did not have to get in a quick last minute run.
The class consists of 8 people, 2 from China, 2 from Italy, 2 from Finland and 1 from Romania and of course me from England. I am the oldest in the class.
It is a beginners class though most of us have some knowledge of the language.The length of the class is 90 minutes and it went by really fast.We start with the basics and for me it is great that we worked on word structure. It's relaxed group and the teacher admitted that her English is not so great, so while she was correcting my Slovenian I was correcting her English. For which one of the class joked I should get a discount.