So I just spent a few days in Banja Luka and the weather was so warm, in fact it rose to 25 c on saturday. I cannot believe that I have been in the Balkans for almost 3 weeks and traveled all over. I was on top of a mountain called Kozara a few days ago and have other trips planned in the next few days.

Well it has been more than a week since my last post and I am now in Bosnia. The trip here was by bus and took me twelve and a half hours. I did see some spring lambs on the journey, which took so long because we were delayed at the border for more than an hour. I enjoyed my trip to Bulgaria and short stop in Serbia. We will see how things go in Bosnia.

The city of Plovdiv is surrounded by hills and yesterday I ran up one of them and got a great view.It was so nice here during the day, I see that it is cold and snowy in New York, so I am happy to be here, though there are many other reasons to be happy to be here.everything seems to be going well and I am enjoying my stay in Bulgaria. Later today I head out to the Black Sea.

I am now in Plovdiv which is about 2 hours from Sofia, I had a very nice meeting with a large group of people last night and staying in a friends apartment, in the middle of the city. I will stay here for a couple of days, but will visit another city this evening. The weather is cool at night but warm during the day.

It is early on a very beautiful morning in Sofia, I have just come back from a run in the Park of Liberty. I had a very nice talk with a big group of people last night, later a great meal and conversation with 10 of my friends, at a vegetarian restuarant called " Th eVeggie House ". I also had a meeting about maybe getting my Poetry books printed here in Bulgaria in the future.

So last night I got an overnight train to Sofia in Bulgaria, the train ride was uneventful but slow. I arrived more than 1 hour later than the scheduled time, but I have learned that this is normal.The weather here is very nice and while walking this afternoon in a park, near to where I am staying I saw primroses. Also many of the trees are just about to burst into leaf. It has only ben a couple of days but I am happy with the trip so far.

So I made it to Belgrade with a short stop in Milan, the weather here is very nice, warm temps and bright sunshine. It was raining when I got here yesterday, but everything is good  now after a good nights sleep.

My last day in New York for a while started really well. The weather is a bit like spring and I got a nice early run in. Took care of paying all the bills that will come up while I'm away, did some last minute washing and packing. I am not sure how easily I will be able to get intenet access since I am travelling a lot, but I will try to post some thing whenever I can. Oh yeah, Happy St Davids day to all Welsh people out there.

So here we are, my last full day in New York for a while and it is a nice warm day. Things went quite well at work and I didn't leave too many loose ends for the other guys. My agent has called an end to phase 2 of trying to find a publisher for my childrens book, it it now time for phase 3. You just have to keep plugging away.

Overcast and rainy today. I did a lot of communicating with europe when I got home from work. Lots of people are checking my schedule with me, I have quite a full plate. Some FA Cup replays,Man U beat Reading 3-2, WBA lost to Middlesborough on penalties after a 1-1 draw. The winners play each other in the 1/4 finals.

So we had about 2 " of snow overnight which was less than they thought, it also stayed quite warm
allowing it to start melting quickly. My friend Utpal came back from his trip and we managed to get a run in this afternoon. I talked with one of my cousins in eastern europe this morning and he says, that they relly did not have a winter and there are flowers everywhere.

A very quiet morning, cool but with sunshine. It may literally be the quiet before the storm, as they say there is a big snow storm coming this evening. The first major trophy in English football has been decided, with Chelsea beating Arsenal 2-1 in the Carling ( League ) Cup. Oh yeah, I talked with my sister yesterday on the phone.

What a difference a day makes, it easily feels about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday. I also feel a lot better after a good nights sleep, that was about 30 minutes longer than usual. I also took a short nap in the middle of the morning. I listened to the Ireland v England six nations game where Ireland crushed England 43-13. In the Championship My Wolves won 1-0 against Leeds and are now only goal difference away from the play-offs, 4 points away from automatic promotion with the last 1/4 of the season at hand.

I will be glad when winter is finally over, It seems as though fighting the weather all week and trying to keep running everyday, takes it's toll. When I get to the end of the week I always seem to be a little tired and weery. Though I know that all the hard work I put in now will pay off in the spring, when I can run freely. Of course the odd nap here and there helps. The strong winds of earlier in the winter have returned, though the temp's are warmer than they were before which makes it a little better.

Not a lot to say, there was heavy rain during my walk home this afternoon, it could have been snow! This time next week I will be on a flight to europe.

It hit 50 degrees f today though very briefly. Liverpool beat Barcelona 2-1 in the Champions League which will make my niece very happy. Chelsea managed a 1-1 draw with Porto in their game. I kind of have a new favourite TV show " Heroes ", well I've watched 2 episodes and it looks pretty good.

OK a big day in football ( soccer ), in the Champions League; Man U 1-0 Lille, PSV 1-0 Arsenal, Celtic 0-0 Milan. In the Championship Wolves 1-0 Ipswich, WBA 1-0 Leeds. Yes it was finally a warm day temp's reaching around 44 f (6 c ), the snow and ice of course is melting.

It's Presidents day here in the US, celebrating the birthdays of Presidents Lincoln and Washington.
So it is a pretty quiet day. I finally sat down and did my taxes, so they are done for another year. It's possible that this is the last cold day this winter for me, the temperatures will be going up into the 40's f from tomorrow. Everyone is saying it's too late now to get really cold.

Kung Hei Fat Choi, yes it's Chinese new year, here in New York it's a very nice day for it. I ran early this morning before 7, about the same as last week, but when I turnd back for home I noticed that I felt a little heavy. So it was a bit of a slog to get back. Afterwards though I did feel quite relaxed.

This is my 550 th post since I started this blog. Things have finally started to warm up and the snow is begining to get a llitlle more manageable. It's Saturday so the was football in the UK. my nephew's team WBA managed a 2-2 draw at Middlesboro' in the FA Cup 5th round. My team Wolves beat Burnley 2-1 in the Championship and moved up to 8th in the table. In about 12 days time I will be going on one of my trips to Eastern Europe, mainly Bulgaria and Bosnia, so I am making lots of plans at the moment.