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