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.