Month: January 2008

I know where you keep your skirts

I don’t know why but, this guy really reminds me of my brother Pete. I think it’s the dancing. Actually, Jaimie Henderson – if you’re reading this, you bop like that too.

Posted from: www.bearder.com

Rallying with the nationalists

Rallying with the nationalists.

Posted from: www.bearder.com

You don’t sound alright!?

And no I wasn’t!
I’d been taken by an evil flu-like fever of death. Something like Ebola, malaria and tonsillitis combined.

But I survived with a little help from my friends and I’m back home in Oxford to see out the rest of 2008 according to the new secret plan. (although it’s becoming increasingly less secret by the day!)

So, Malta was nice. I say nice because actually Malta’s pretty crappy but – I had a nice time with Mr and Mrs Bearder senior and the food was good. In fact, I think it’s pretty much all we did in between bumpy island tours on buses or choppy island tours by boat. We ate. Well it was Christmas after all.

The usual chaos started as I waved ‘Sahha’ to my parents in Rabat and hopped on my flight to Venice. We landed to a generous Italian (bloody ridiculous) applause of gratitude/release of nervous tension and I quickly set-about making my life unnecessarily stressful.

I got on the wrong bus, got on another bus, couldn’t buy a train ticket, couldn’t get any money and quickly learnt that the electronic ticket machines only give ‘direct’ tickets. The last direct train to Ljubljana departed an hour ago and 21.40. Only it hadn’t. A little bit of Eddy luck kicked in and it was running 80 minutes late! OK, I didn’t have a reservation or any money but I wasn’t gonna let that stop me. I waved my credit card at the Hungarian conductor and hopped on.

I arrived in Ljubljana at 4am, got a super-expensive Taxi and woke Dave to let me in and pay for my cab. I was home.

Friday was thus spent partying, Saturday hungover and Sunday – ill. Ebola Malaria thing…

Alas, this lasted until Thursday when I managed to get out for one evening before going home on Friday 🙁 My dreams of skiing, exploring and drinking coffee with all the cool Slovenes and ex-English I know pretty much went out the Window. I do however owe a big ‘thank-you’ to Christophe for cooking, Ajda and Alenka for saving me and supplying me with hard drugs (mum, I’m referring to lemsip and paracetamol) and to Dave and Neja who put me up for the week.

However, I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t receive this treatment!!?

I left on Friday, fell asleep on the plane with a chocolate bar in my hand and woke up (after landing) with melted chocolate rubbed all over me.

All in all, the festive period and birth of 2008 had it’s ups and downs but – on the whole I enjoyed the experience and had a great time with all the people I did see.

I learnt that…
The Maltese call Lira ‘pounds’
That Napoleon shafted Malta by pretending he needed their help and then turning his guns on them.
We then kicked his arse and held fort for 250 years
The Maltese language looks and sounds hard
Drugs are not easy to obtain in Slovenia – you need a pharmacy for paracetamol
Ljubljana has self-proclaimed itself the ‘city of love’
The Ljubljanites have erected (no pun intended) a whole bunch of ‘sperm’ and ‘ovary’ shaped Christmas decorations
Lasko still tastes good.
Italians clap when a plane lands.

I saw Saša Lendero perform ‘Ne grem na kolena’ live. No, this is not sad.
Lost my favourite hat (it only lasted 1 day)
Lost my wallet (old trusty) and then found him again under an ice-cream van.

I was late to work today, it’s already dark and it’s raining.
Woohooo….

Eddy


Ma et Pa in Malta. More here.


Ljubljana

Posted from: www.bearder.com

The Happy Prince

Freeze-framing Ljubljana. January 2nd 2008. -3 Degrees.

Starring: 300 kosmatih medvedovs with a brief cameo role for Alenka Lakalaka.

Posted from: www.bearder.com

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