OK so it seems the gap between my posts is continuing to be long. I have been back in Slovenia for almost 3 weeks now and quite a lot has gone on. I had a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce and have all the information for starting my business. The plan is to get all the capital together by the end of February and then register the company.
I spent a few days in Croatia, where I got a copy of the transfer of ownership for my place and also had the Electric company put my name on their billing records. I also got to spend a couple of days in Rijeka with some family. Where it was reasonably warm, especially compared to Ljubljana.
On returning to Ljubljana I signed up for the beginners course for Slovenian language at the Uni, the classes start next month.

I was supposed to fly back to Ljubljana non Saturday, but a missed train connection got me in too late to check in. for a small fee I was able to transfer my flight to Sunday. So I spent the day in an hotel near the airport with dinner and breakfast included. No problems with my flight on Sunday, except for a 35 minute delay. I am now back in Slovenia, where there is quite a lot of snow on the ground, but it is not as cold as in the UK.
I must also mention that had he still been alive, some people think he still is. Elvis Presley would have celebrated his 75th Birthday a few days ago and I am sure many of his fans celebrated on his behalf.

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.