Sunshine, Cricket and a string of small crises
Ok, so I’ve not been writing anything for a while but don’t take it personally – it’s not you, it’s me. I’ve been having an affair with a wireless internet connection and,just as I thought things were going well – she left me. Sheesh
So, what’s been up in May (or Maj as they say here)?
Well, it started in the sun and it’s pretty much stayed that way until today hitting a stupidly hot 30 degrees in some parts yesterday. But, our prayers have been answered and the heavens have opened today leaving me stuck inside, praying it will stop. Ok, enough of the English weather-speak – we don’t need small talk here.
Hospitality club provided the first fun weekend in May and Petra and Rory came to visit from Zagreb. I originally met Petra and her gang in Oxford and again in Zagreb so it was cool to see her again in sunny Lj. As you can probably guess, Rory is not a local but a cool guy from Ireland who’s spent even more time in this part of the world than me. In the short time they were here we managed to party, be tourists and spend the obligatory hours sitting in cafes in the sun.
Next up was a weekend of Cricket. Yes, the class systems highest achiever has somehow found its way to the Slavic side of the Alps and I somehow ended up playing. Actually, I ended up representing Ljubljana in the Slovene national championships and took a blinding 3 wickets in 4 over’s to help secure our place in the next round on the 2nd of June. I’d like to claim this was skill but alas, most of you know me, know how little I know about cricket and understand my general tendency to bullshite about my achievements – so I’ll be honest – it was pure fluke. To understand the real quality of our team you should know that four of our team had never played before, one had played once, I played 13 years ago but never understood what I was doing and the last two think they are better than they are. Still it was a fun day and the image of a bunch of Slovenes in cricket whites chucking ‘wides’ for 6 hours will stay with me for a long time. As will the look of bewilderment on the faces of the local onlookers.
The bottle of blues.
Friday was one of those days that life throws at you (well me at least) to really test my knowledge of English swear words and blaspheming. Just 3 weeks after swallowing a bitter 700 Euro pill to fix the front of my exhaust system – the back bit fell off. Not only did the back bit fall off but I got home to kick something and the back bit of something else fell off. No, not my arse – my tooth! Yes yes, another filling gave up on life in my mouth and is currently AWOL. Throw in a large cat (aka hangover) and you can probably picture my face.
Don’t worry though (ha ha – as if) it didn’t last. An afternoon in the sun with a good friend of mine soon fixed the Eddy blues and I’m back on form – just a little poorer.
I would however like to point out that both of my absent fillings were drilled into place in the UK and their demise doesn’t do much to support the idea that I should avoid Slovene dentists in favour of ‘superior’ English ones. There’s clearly a reason why the Yanks have been laughing at our teeth for sometime.
What else… hmmm, I’ll probably think of everything when I’m not able to type but, on the whole life is good, I still have a ball-busting 18 hours a week and I’m still enjoying life as an alien. Teaching is getting easier and my students are keeping me well informed with a lot of useful (and much useless) information about life here, Slovene history, local news and where I should go sailing in Croatia.
Last week I learnt the 7 days of the week in Slovene – check me out!
Eddy
PS, I might not have won the argument about Triglav however, my persistent insistence on the middle of July looks like it’s paid off. Naturally, you’re all invited to join us on the 15th(ish) of July to climb up to and stand on top of Slovenia.
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