Chilli J has gone away

More photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unsoundmethods/

Thanks to Christophe for the photo above.

Last week my flat hosted the first barbecue of the season. The 27th April and May 1st and 2nd are all bank holidays in Slovenia, so most people have an extended holiday using the weekend in the middle. We were in full holiday mode after our trip to Koper, so it was all set for a meat centred banquet. My 'fun sized' flat had to accomodate half of Slovenia. We'd been out the night before to join the pre-May Day revellry in Ljubljana, so a breafast gin and tonic was required before I started the preparations.

We combined the bbq with watching the Liverpool v. Chelsea match in the evening, so a whole day of drinking was in order! In the end my flat hosted: Me (somewhat obviously), Christophe, Simon, Ian, Dave, Alenka, Ajda, Tjaša, Paul, Neja, Melinca, my neighbour Senki, Croatian barbecue ambassador Goran, Victor and Luka. There are still peanut shells under the skirting board.

It decided to rain for a couple of days, but summer is back in style. I still don't really have enough work... Ah well, my weekend begins at 6:45 tonight. It's the študentski tržnica (student market) in Tivoli Park this afternoon, so I need to get my lesson planning finished and hit the road.

I hope everything is cool with everyone, I promise I'll give Owen Hargreaves his barnet back soon...

More photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unsoundmethods/

This weekend saw us take a trip to the coast thanks to an invitation from Ajda to go and stay at her parents house. It was my first experience of the short splash of Slovene coast, but we took a grand tour of the whole lot (all 20 kms or so). Ian, Christoph and I arrived in Koper to glorious sunshine on Friday after a journey of traffic jams and not entirely impressing the two birds we picked up as hitch-hikers.

We had a quick lunch and then headed straight out to the beach, just down the road. We were joined by fellow Slovenes Alenka, Tjaša, Iva, Marko, Bostian and Matjaž (I've probably spelt the last two wrong, sorry gents), although only Ian, Simon, Alenka and I were brave enough to swim (Christoph - you keep dropping 'man-points' for the French, have a word with yourself). Not that bravery was a pre-requisite, the sea was as warm in April here as it is in July in Britain. The weather was so warm that you actually wanted to take a dip, so it wasn't the masochistic token gesture of visits to the English coast.

It was pretty weird that our last day of snowboarding was on the last day of March, and that we were swimming in the sun before April was out. Friday evening saw us having a dinner party at Ajda's gaff, followed by going to a cool little pub/club down by the water which was run by Einstien.

I got up with a sore head on Saturday and we travelled to Piran, a beautiful little Venetian town on the sea. The weather was even hotter than Friday and we decided to take a short road-trip down to Croatia. It was my first visit to the country and I have to say I was impressed (although Croats, if you don't want internationally diverse groups taking an en-masse slash on your farm land, then for fuck's sake install some public toilets!) We went to a small seaside town called Novigrad and sat by the sea drinking Croatian beer. During this time my honourable friend Mark informed me live from Bournemouth of the fact that Cheltenham Town had secured League One football for next season by beating Rotherham 4-2. To use a common phrase from our trip - Eat my Goal!

We went back to Koper and due to not having eaten anything all day had a pizza-feast (the Slovenes make excellent pizza, but we were also in the area that is bilingually Italian, so the were really good!) This led to a mildly lethargic night as our bodies attempted to break down the baked dough, cheese and everything else. We cruised back to Ajda's and stayed up until gone 3 chatting, although largely talking about bidets.

On Sunday we travelled down to Isola and chilled by the sea. After stealthily avoiding tourist tax on our račun (that is to say our bill at a cafe, which was €13.50, until Ajda had a chat with the waiter in Slovene and the bill miraculously dropped to €10 - f.f.s. stop trying to steal money off us just because we're British!) we returned to the beach we'd been on on Friday and we hit the sea again. It was a really cool weekend and felt like we went away for at least a week - let the clement weather continue.

Hope all is well with you all - Nick, how's Costa Rica going? Has anybody tried to teach you how to say 'puppy' yet?

Keep tidy, safe and sound - I know you all will.

x

p.s. raise a glass to the mighty Cheltenham town, do it for me!

More photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unsoundmethods/

I was joined a couple of weeks ago by Adam and Claire from Hooky. The first week they travelled down to the coast and enjoyed a stay in Piran before returning to Ljubljana for one hell of a session in Metelkova.

For those of you who don't know, Metelkova is the area of Ljubljana that was occupied by the Yugoslav army. Following independence, members of the cities alternative scene flooded in and squatted. What exists there now is a continuation of this - a wide selection of bars and clubs for your love and enjoyment. It's a cool place.

The last couple of weeks have been absolute scortchers, I'm finally biting the bullet and realising that I have to go an purchase some threads. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm going to melt in jeans...

Ads, Claire and I travelled up to the lakes for a couple of days. We strolled up to Bled castle, went for a beer or two and then stayed in a cool (and cheap) little hostel. The next morning I took my first trip to Bohinj. Bohinj is about 30kms away from Bled and is far more unspoilt, it's a beautiful place and I've already resolved to go there to take a dip when the weather heats up. We walked along the far side of the lake, which is truly beautiful. There are fissures up on the mountain side where underwater lakes collect water and then spew them out into the lake at high pressure. The only indications are the large boulder fields carved through the middle of the forests. It's near the mountains as well, and looking up a Triglav made me realise how high that block of rock really is - still gonna do it though...

And following my article in the Slovenia Times, here is the link: it's under the sports section

More photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unsoundmethods/

Hey there everybody,

I went to Celje on Wednesday night to cover the Slovenia v. the Netherlands Euro 2008 qualifier for the Slovenia Times. Slovenia fought like a mongoose in a sack of snakes, but in the end it wasn't to be. Van Bronckhorst scored a fairly weak goal in the 86th minutes for the Dutch to take the spoils.

My first foray as a bone fide football journalist was a good experience. Unfortunately the other Slovene football journalists in general seemed like a pretty savoury bunch. I made the most of it though, I'm not sure which other jobs would allow you to have a drink or two with a load of pissed blokes from Groningen in the name of research...

Can't say I remember that sort of thing when I was a customer service advisor. As long as the editor accepts my copy I'll put a link up to the article when it is published online. Have a good weekend all y'all, I'm under the impression that Adam and Claire will be here next week - this will almost certainly guarantee frenzied tales of British misbehaviour, I'll post again when we get released...

10-4

This week I have been pondering: Did anyone actually think Steve McClaren was up to the job?

But also: How do you motivate millionaires?

Well, after what the residents consider to be the worst winter in beard, in terms of cold weather, we finally had some proper snow. Complete with big flakes, I mean big, the size of marbles, or somesuch nonsense.

The snow didn't hang around for that long in the city after falling on Monday and Tuesday, but up on the mounatins it led to a frenzy of winter sporting by yours truly. I took myself off to Krvavec on Thursday and finally had my much-delayed final two hours of tuition (after going off by myself on numerous occasions and no doubt picking up bad boarding habits) the weather was beautiful - although the snow was still falling, there was a clear view of the valley.

Emma, Simon and I went up to Krvavec again on Saturday. Unbelievably, there isn't a public bus on Saturdays to Ljubljana's most local resort, so we had an interesting trip involving the ubiquitous taxi rip off. The weather wasn't as good as Thursday, to say the least. There was a shit load of fog which closed in thicker and thicker, akin to those death devices in films where the roof and walls close in.

After the first hour it was impossible to visually discern the difference between the sky and the snow, but the lifts kept going, so we did too. The severe fog meant that I was trying some much more difficult runs than I would have done given the use of my admittedly limited eyesight. Getting stuck into the reds, but still not ready for the blacks. Boarding in white blindness is a really strange experience, it's impossible to work out how fast or in what direction you're travelling, which means it feels like you're in some fucked up dream (or trip - probably easier to relate to for some of you...). All the fun of the fair.

I lost one of my teaching jobs last week. Basically because the class was composed of people with too widely differing abilities. So they're having a Slovene English teacher who can translate for them. Just when I was hoping to build up my hours, I end up losing some.

But strikes and gutters - I'm going to cover the Slovenia v. Holland match tomorrow for the Slovenia Times. I've got my accreditation and look forward to a cosy seat in the press box. I don't know how I'll fare at a Slovene press conference, but we'll see. Get in!

Anywho, anyhow, hope you're all well.

Peace, love, special prizes to anyone who can fathom my titling system,

J

Hey, hey.

Should have some photos up at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unsoundmethods/

I hope all's well in the world for everyone. I've had a good couple of weeks. My folks came over from the U.K. last Wednesday and they were with me for about 6 days. I managed to accumulate a lot of things I needed for my flat on the rainy Thursday. On Friday we did the proper tourist stuff and travelled round Ljubljana's old town on a tour of the sights, pubs and eateries. I showed my folks the many examples of Plečnik's architecture (which I think they were mildly underwhelmed by, but I'll not tell the Slovene's!) and the Roman wall, before we hit the pub trail.

On Saturday I went on my first trip to Lake Bled. It's a really beautiful spot and I think that we picked the right time to go because it wasn't that crowded. Mum and I walked up to the castle which is perched on a rock 100 metres up, we sent Dad off on a stroll to the first pub he could find and then began our assent. The views are amaying from up there, you could see for miles and because the day was fairly clear you could see Triglav in the distance (Slovenia's highest peak, which we have plans to climb in the summer - as probably mentioned elsewhere on here).

On Sunday were made our way around some other parts of Ljubljana in the South of the city. We had a walk through Tivoli Park and then visited Ljubljana zoo. Unfortunately there weren't any meerkats, but the beers and wolves made up for it.

On Monday I had to work, so my folks wandered off by themselves. I think they went round the markets in the centre. I know for a fact that they tried a burek each, something they won't be doing again by all accounts! A burek is a kind of pastry filled with meat or cheese, it's the Balkan equivalent of a doner kebab in Blighty. Needless to say, it's something you only eat when pissed - you taste and smell the bloody thing again in the morning.

My folks left on Tuesday and I had a pleasent day off work because of a cancellation. The weather was absolutely stunning, but I had some lesson planning to do, so couldn't take full advantage.

We had an old skool house party last night, it's been a long time, but it took me back to the old days (though not the personnel of course) but I'm really getting to know Ljubljana well now. We've found a really cool bar in Metelkova (the army barracks taken over by squatters and the alternative scenesters in 1991) and I think the summer will offer some good craic (suitable use of the word - I gather it was St Paddy's yesterday)

I got an e-mail from Adam P. saying that he and Claire are coming over at the start of April, so that'll be cool. Take it easy you's.

p.s. Imam mačka

Not to fucking Austria, that's for certain.

I took an unplanned trip of three European countries in the space of twenty minutes and all that really came from it was a new dislike of the Austrians that never existed before (I mean, what could anyone have against the Austrians?)

We were rolling up to a chalet in Bovec in northern Slovenia, a cool little place up in the mountians, when we took a single wrong turn. The easiest way to get to Bovec at this time of year is via Italy and through a little pass in the mountains. We cruised up to Jesenica and I had secured my now obligatory supply of Mad Bat for the journey - the clairvoyant powers of t'Bat should have warned me about the impending germanic hate crime and given me 'sight-beyond-sight', but no doubt those pesky Austrians have some sort of jamming device.

We took the wrong road and ended up crossing the Austrian border from Slovenia, we had to pay a policeman at a toll both to travel trough a tunnel, but it was only 6 euros, so we thought no harm no foul. We quickly replotted our route and planned to roll down a stretch of highway for about 6 kms before exiting the road at the next available point into Italia.

We were joined for the weekend by Middlesborough Nick's mate Greeny, who'd come over from the U.K. Greeny and I cheerfully worked out that we'd never been to Austria before and that this was a not unpleansent (if rather dull) little adventure.

As we reached the Italian border we were stopped by the Austrian highway police and Ian (our driver) was asked for his documents, fair enough we all thought, it's a U.K. registered BMW, they just want to check our papers. The young officer who was dealing with us (lanky streak of piss, never been laid in his life and sporting a curious sort of narrow moustache that I vaguely remember from something in my history lessons) informed us that we had to pay a fine of €120 or they'd keep our car because we didn't have a little sticker for using the austrian highway.

He informed us in his inflexible manner that we had passed five places where there were signs telling us to buy a sticker (it transpired that all of these were in Austrian cities - we hadn't passed any of them because WE DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO GO TO FUCKING AUSTRIA IN THE FIRST PLACE) We didn't have much choice but to pay up, but we've worked out now that we should have just got them to send the ticket back to the U.K. and then never gone back to the place.

We all went ape-shit about it for a while, planning a boycott of Austrian products (before deciding that they don't really produce anything). This is however a state sponsored scam - so beware of the crooked bastards if you ever have the misfortune of travelling on Austria's roads.

We crossed over the Italian border and eventually chilled out - at least you know where you stand with the Italians, no nasty fines. We retuirned to Slovenia travelling on some of the most dangerous roads I've ever been on, you wouldn't belive this stuff is allowed in the E.U., but it's seperate extreme sport in itself.

The chalet we had was really cool (I promise photos will go up in the next few days, I'm still being disorganised and leaving my camera at home when I come into town), but our mood was further dampened when we found out that the cable car wasn't running because of bad weather - no snowboarding for the day.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: When the going gets rough, the rough get pissed (apologies for deep unoriginality with that) We picked up a large supply of beer and returned to the chalet for a beer/pizza/snowboarding video (the t.v. didn't have an ariel)/trivial pursuit/shithead marathon followed by a relatively early night.

The weather fell over night and it pissed it down for absolutely hours. We were all pessimistic that the weather would imporve (this was my only available day because I was working the next afternoon and had to come back to Ljubljana) but we awoke to find loads of fresh snow on the hills and an excellent day of boarding followed. I'm really getting the hang of it, but I'm worried that a combination of work commitments and absoultely no snow might throw a spanner in the works.

This was a cool little trip - Ian drove me to catch the bus in Kranjska Gora and we took a trip through the Soča valley which is stunning, I really look forward to going back up there. We've made a pact to climb Triglav, apparently Slovenes aren't real Slovenes until they've done this, but people keep telling us it's a lot harder than it looks. But, you know, it's just a big hill!

Nick left us on Friday to return to the U.K., here's to you fella if you're reading this, na zdravje! I now have an excellent impression of the people of Middlesborough. It'll be a slightly quieter place from now on!

My parents are paying me a visit tomorrow evening, they'll be around until next Tuesday, I'm looking forward to seeing them and having a little connection with home again for a while, it'll be weird in a way, Hooky seems pretty far away from here in many respects.

Anyways that's the end of my extended rant for now (on reflection it's largely just the nurturing of lazy national stereotypes, not my usual style, but the Austrians started it!) both teaching and driving on the wrong side are going fine. I'm off to eat some food, drink some beer, chat to some pretty ladies and watch Liverpool beat Barca.

Adijo moy friends (no dictionary today...)

Hey, hey. I haven't written anything for a while, and having been told off by a few people, ere's a update.

I moved into my apartment on the first of February and I've got well settled in there. The T.V. doesn't work, so I haven't watched telly for three weeks now, which is pretty weird, though I'm sure I'm not missing too much! It does mean that I've managed to read a stupid number of books (whoo, rock and roll!)

I've met up with a load of people who are doing the CELTA TEFL training course out here, as well as some English teachers, so I'm really starting to know the place well. The winter has been really mild here, so we've been able to engage fairly freely in the Ljubljana riverside cafe culture already.

I've started snowboarding, which I'm really enjoying. I'm still stacking it on a fairly regular basis, but I'm getting better all the time. I think I've landed on my arse so much that the nerve endings have given up transmitting any information to my brain, so it's not hurting so much these days... I never really understood the winter sports shebang; I thought people only did it so they could say that they 'wintered' at such-and-such (insert swanky resort here). But it's such a tranquil thing to do, it's so peaceful and meditative to be gliding down a snow-covered mountain. The peace is broken up every now and again by unscheduled journeys face-first into piles of snow, however, I find this keeps my wits about me.

Not that I subscribe to the boarders v. skiers rivalry, but I'm coming to the conclusion that skiers have a collective attitude problem. It's related to the Slovene's generally lax attitude to queuing in general, but when waiting for the lift to get back up the mountain, you get loads of twats bombing it down and believing that that square foot of space in front of you is not for you to manoeuvre yourself into, but a special little space that you've reserved for them. It seems that the full etiquette of this is only observed if the aforementioned skier maintains a steady 60 mph until the last possible moment. the whole process is concluded with them turning round immediately and giving you a 'What's the problem' look.

We took a road trip on Saturday. Originally we were going to go to Venice, but we ended up going to a really nice slope near a place called Cerkno. We didn't realise it was the Carnival in Ljubljana, so we had a surreal experience upon our return to find the whole city dressed up in crazy outfits. I became deeply concered regarding the contents of the 'Mad bat' energy drink I had used as a pre snowboarding pick-me-up, but it soon transpired that it wasn't the result of a cheap, bad tasting, hallocinogen-based energy drink ideal for (according to the label) 'nocturnal activities'. It was merely the celebration of the start of Spring.

I've just started working for an English school. In fact, I've got two of them fighting over me, but only one of the has given me hours so far. At the moment I'm teaching Business English in Kranj, which is about 25 kms north of Lj. I've got to drive myself tomorrow, which I'm mildly scared about. I'm sure once I've done it for the first time it'll be cool, but the Slovene's seem to be competing with the Italians and the Parisiens when it comes to what I like to call 'blind-faith based driving'. We'll see if I ever post again as a measure of my success. Wierdly, it's changing gear and using left-hand filters that worries me, rather than being driven off the road by Janez Bloggs.

I've also been asked to visit the editor of the English-language paper out here, so hopefully I'll get to do some work there as well. Anyhow, that's probably getting you up to speed for the now. I'm still trying to sort the lead for my camera out, so I promise there'll be pictures soon.

Peace, love, and Cheers to y'all.

My second week has been fairly relaxed, still spending time in the city. As friendly and unthreatening as everybody in
Ljubljana is, I've realised that there are certain taxi drivers not to be trusted. I've had my fingers burnt twice - the buses seem to stop going towards my hotel at about 10:30 on weeknights, so taxis (or walking) are the only option. On Saturday I caught a ride with one driver who could speak some broken English and asked him to take me back to my hotel, showing him where it was on a map. He proceeded to take me on a short tour of the countryside and expected me to pay €55 for a journey that should have been 2 kms - I was adamant that I wasn't going to pay the thieving bastard, who suddenly couldn't speak a word of English, but he suddenly started shaking like a hysterical child and shrieked something Slavic over and over again into my face. I felt like laughing but when he put the car in gear and began to drive me down the side road by the hotle I gave the 'see you next Tuesday' the money. I've seen hostel, and I'm quite attached to my internal organs.

I'd spent the night in Patrick's Irish pub (my apologies, I'm trying to be local, but the Irish pub has Sky Sports) When I got there there were a load of lads in the latest Liverpool shirt, so I anticipated some revellry with some Scousers following the Chelsea whipping. I leaned over and tapped one on the shoulder with the obligitary "Alright mate, where are you lads from",
"We are all from Ljubljana" came the reply, one I wasn't expected. According to these lads everyone in Lj supports Liverpool, apparently "Because Liverpool is best" in their not entirely impartial view, Once I found out that they were really into the cream of British bands as well the night got going in force. It's always fun to be a pet Englishman for a group of Anglophiles - though I've found some Slovenes get offended if you correct their pronunciation, though why we were talking about David Nugent I can't say - these lads know their English football.

Slovenes are a really welcoming bunch and the offer any help or assistance they can. Everyone I've spoken to about teaching work has given me details of either a teacher or someone who knows administrative staff at one of the schools. Nothing has come of it yet, but I'm going to keep following leads. I went house hunting yesterday. I met up with the letting agent outside the station and he drove me to his office. We then travelled into a part of the city near Tivoli park to look at a flat. It was on the fifth floor of a 12 storey building, I've never lived that high, I'm not sure if it's for me. The bath was very short with no shower and the bedroom was basically the sofa bed in the living room. The kitchen was nice, but the building was of the architypal 70's communist type - maybe I should rent it for authenticity. I'm going to keep looking on that front too. After looking at the flat the letting agent suggested a coffee at one of the cafes and we retired to a bar that he used to drink at. He decided to call it a day at the office then and we tucked in to the beers at about 2 in the afternoon. He seems a really good bloke - he keeps telling me loopholes for getting the price down, even though it's his commission that will suffer. That's an attitude to work we can learn a lot from in Britain (I probably mean the slacking off to drink rather than the honesty!)

I've spent the week wondering around the city, dipping in and out of the shops and cafes. It's a really good city for this, the buildings are generally really attractive and I can see that in spring and summer the riverside will be the place to be. It snowed last night and I awoke to a thin covering. It's English style snow though and is melting fast. I'm planning to go and learn to snowboard next week so hopefully the snow will hang around in the higher places...

Hope everyone's cool. Take it easy chicos y chicas...

Well, I'm here. Battling away on a Slovene keyboard (the y is hidden away somewhere and the first few things I wrote didn't have apostrophies because I couldn't find them). I'm sharing my hotel with loads of folks from Eastern Europe, none of whom really speak English to any practical level. This means I haven't had what you would call a conversation for quite some time.

I went to Ljubljana castle yesterday. The building itself wasn't as impressive as it looks from the city, but it's got to be situated in the best location I've ever seen for a fortification - atop a very steep, ver high bit of rock on what is essentially an island. Yesterday was very windy, but I decided to climb up the tower for the panoramic views of the Ljubljana basin (I'll post pictures soon) I was terrified by the time I reached the top. I'm not bad with heights, but the wind was so feirce I had to brace myself against the bannister at the top. For those of you with bad acrophobia the battlements at the top only reached halfway up my hips - that place is a death trap.

Apologies to the real animal lovers, vegetarians and Mum, but my lunch yesterday was a horseburger - and it was pretty tasty. I know it might upset a few folks, but it doesn't compare to some of the bush tucker Ben and Pinks have been noshing.

That's about it for now. I'm going to try and sort out work and an apartment this week, so less sight-seeing for the moment.

Observations so far:
1. When the green man is showing cars will still drive at you.
2. Pints of beer are about 1 pound 20 pence (and the local lagers are pretty damn good).
3. The music in my hotel bar is either of these: a mixture of the Cranberries, Dido or Slovenian women that sound like the aforementioned; or Simple Minds' Don't you (forget about me) - this has played twice already today.