I wans't sure what to expect, but it is truly a beautiful country. We stayed in the capital city Ljubljana.
A lot of nature, very modern capital city but with some nice 'touches' of history, very friendly people etc!

Pre vedere il depliant clicca: postumia

Comodamente raggiungibili dall'autostrada che unisce Lubiana a Trieste

Esiste anche un sito in italiano da visitare clicca questo link http://www.turizem-kras.si/

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Yet the IOC only provides each country a limited number of slots for their athletes.

That meant for instance Hayley Haining couldn't go to Beijing when Paula Radcliffe declared herself fit.

Now there are always going to be losers in any qualifying system for the limited slot placement in the Olympics.

But separate Olympic teams for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would widen the opportunities for our athletes, and ensure that as many athletes as possible fill each countries slots.

Consider this:

The UK with a population of around 60 million sent 311 athletes.

England's population of around 50 million is slightly higher than Spain's 46 million. Spain sent 312 athletes to Beijing. (These and other countries figures obtained from the Yahoo Olympic site.) You'd probably be talking at least the 311 athletes in a English Olympic team. (The Team GB breaks down England by region but subtracting the other countries totals from the 311 Team GB total gives an English total of 268 athletes.)

Scotland's population is around 5 million. Slightly higher than Croatia's 4.6 million. Croatia sent 110 athletes to Beijing. Probably the same numbers as a possible Scottish team, although New Zealand with 4.2 million sent 209 athletes. (A quick filter in the Team GB site gives 26 athletes at the 2008 Olympics.)

Wales' population is around 3 million. Just slightly smaller than Lithuania. They sent 74 athletes. (A quick filter in the Team GB site gives 14 Welsh athletes in the Beijing Olympics.)

Northern Ireland's population is around 1.8 million. Not far off Slovenia's 2 million. They sent 62 athletes. (A quick filter in the Team GB site gives 3 athletes, although Northern Irish athletes are also eligible for the Irish Olympic squad.)

Let's add that up:-

England 311
Scotland 110
Wales 74
Northern Ireland 62

Thats a rough estimate of 557. That's an increase in athletes for each country from their 2008 totals.

Might even be more if the Home Nations can begin to emulate the New Zealand population density rate. The UK - as four countries - could possibly send about 700 athletes, more than double the present number; a number that would never be possible for the single British Olympic Committee given the UK's population.

The key here is widening participation in sport for our top athletes.

Athletes that have experience in the Olympics generally do better in the next one. They know what the Olympics is all about, they have seen what it takes to compete at that level, and work that bit harder to achieve their Olympic dreams next time.

Athletes that don't make the slot places may just give up altogether.

With 4 different Olympic committees, sport all over England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could flourish.

And of course, there's no reason for the IOC to object to four different IOC bodies in the UK. There were 12 territories represented at the 2008 Olympics that are not recognised countries.

Bermuda has its own representation. Britain own those islands; Bermuda is not independent or have a seat at the UN. Bermuda sent 6 athletes to the Olympics. And for a population of 66 000 people that's simply staggering.

Thats almost 1 in 10000 people there being Olympic athletes.

Or England sending 5000 athletes to Beijing.

PS Qui ci sono un po' delle foto che abbiamo fatto http://www.flickr.com/photos/29931314@N08/sets/72157606927104121/

all photos shot last week in Slovenija, Portorož, Lucija, peninsula Seča near Ribič & Forma Viva

This definately does not feel like a small place, far more advanced than Brisbane! Ha ha ok so that's not a good comparison since everyone knows that Brisbane should be reclassified as rural ;)

Everything is real close and you can walk the entire city in like 4 hours. The old town centre houses shops but the buildings are magnificent. Everyone had their camera out and snapping like crazy. On the hill is a castle which you can get to via a hiking trail or a cable car. It was raining so I took the cable car route. Once you get up you get a view of the castle and down on the city. The castle itself is made of rocks containing sediments and fossils from 310 million years or something, but it has been really modernized.

This place is so cool, a definate stop on any European holiday I reckon even for a few hours like me. There is one cool hostel that was a former prison that has 'designer cells'. It's even on a tour stop! I saw pics before and it looks very funky.

Going to the train station now. So glad I came here for a fleeting visit. Didn't take any pics on phone but can't wait to upload em once I get access to a pc.

Had a bit of a chat with a local who was a former soldier in the special armed forces. These days he collects empty plastic bottles from bins! Infact quite a lot of older people do that! Quite sad really. Wasn't that hot in Zagreb today, only 27 degrees from the temp screen in the town square. Thankfully we had an air condition, Pity that one of the Swiss guys in the bunk above snored real loud(worse than me ha ha).

I'll be in Slovenia for 5 odd hours and I hear that Its very green and scenic. I just hope I can drop off my backpack somewhere whilst I roam the place.

I was spoiled back when I was teaching, but man, I've found the past tripless 5-6 months hard. (Oops, checked again and it's only been 4 months!)

Replaying the memories of the most recent trip can only take you this far. But I guess I am not done yet, especially since Cindy and I haven't found time to recount everything about our too-short stint in Italy & Slovenia in writing.

Some of my favourite memories from our time in Slovenia (only 4 days!) include:-

• The nature photography exhibition in Park Tivoli, Ljubljana
• Lunch at Pri Skofu, the colourful little restaurant in Krakovo
• Desserts from Bled
• Arriving in Bohinj and strolling around the near-deserted lake by the light of the setting sun, watching a lone dog try valiantly to play with ducks in the water
• Reading "borrowed" books in our unexpected "suite" at the Hotel Bohinj after dinner
• Hiking in Mostnica Gorge
• The cold, somewhat rainy walk between the villages in Bohinj - Stara Fuzina, Studor & Srednja Vas - popping into the cheesemaking museum, old alpine house (with creepy old man) and frolicking amongst the haystacks
• Marvellous lunch of fish with breadcrumbs, cheese dumplings with butter and cream, fried cheese and the world's best raspberry pancakes at Gostilna Rupa in Srednja Vas, with a view of the greening ski slopes

I wish we had had more time to sit in the cafes of Ljubljana, paraglide in Bohinj, and visit Piran.

The bicameral Parliament of Slovenia consists of the National Assembly (Državni zbor), and the National Council (Državni svet). The National Assembly has ninety members, 88 of which are elected by all the citizens in a system of proportional representation, while two are elected by the autochthonous Hungarian and Italian minorities. The National Council has forty members, appointed to represent social, economic, professional and local interest groups. Parliamentary elections are held every four years.

Anyway got to the train station and couldn't find a Zagreb train. I think I'm on the right train, because it's going in that direction to Slovenia and will take me 2 hours from Zagreb anyway. I'm supposed to change trains in 2 hours.

I feel so sleepy! I tried to sleep on the single seats but it was so damn hard especially with unable to stretch legs and the fact that I would get asked for tickets whenever I did fall asleep!!

Moved over to the double seats which gives me more leg room as seen from photo :) I'm so bored though, only two other people in this carriage!

The train is passing through some crazy mountains and it's been quite scenic. Quite a lot of stops though.

Got off at my stop, now a 2 hour wait for my train to Zagreb! This station is right by the river and mountains, so picturesque! Its a small station probably in the middle of nowhere! Only 3 people in the entire station including me!! There's nowhere to walk around or anything and it was so difficult just to buy water just before!!

The border control people were annoying. Didn't believe my aus passport and then held up the train as I tried to find my qld license! The worst part was that they could hardly communicate with me!

Arrived here! Freaking amazingly HOT!!!!!! Im staying with 3 guys from Switzerland who have been travelling in a van! Pretty cool guys but they wanna relax at the hostel whereas I wanna check this place out :)

Just checked the stats, this blog is getting over 70 hits a day now!!

The Rueda was danced on regular Thursday night party, which is organized by BU-BA, sports and recreation center and Salsoteca, the first salsa dance school in Slovenia.

Am fost prin Pietra Ligure (pe riviera italiană), Monaco, Monte Carlo, Nice, Cannes (pe riviera franceză), Genova, Milano, Pisa, Roma, Venezia şi prin Slovenia în Alpi în staţiunea Kranjska Gora.

Revin eu cu detalii. Acuma bag un chill de welcome home.

The hosts started the game well, with Tomi Petrescu, Perparim Hetemaj, Berat Sadik and Tim Sparv all causing trouble to Finland's western neighbours - who, after all, started the scoring. In a sudden wave of generosity, Joni Aho of FC Inter kindly donated the ball to Emir Bajrami. Tomi Maanoja, who was Finland's keeper in the first half, went to great lengths in order to cancel out Aho's mistake, but was powerless to resist when Bajrami got another chance from the rebound.

"We started the game well but got too complacent, and it backfired when Aho made the mistake", commented head coach Markku Kanerva in the post-match press conference, adding that Aho recovered well enough to put in a solid performance after all.

Perparim Hetemaj had to be taken off just before the referee signalled an end to the first half as he suffered what is hopefully a minor injury. More changes were made during half-time: Maanoja made way to Anssi Jaakkola of AC Siena and Aho, Tuomo Turunen, Tomi Petrescu and Berat Sadik accompanied the new AIK signing in the shower.

Among the incoming players was Jarno Parikka, who was released by Mehmet Hetemaj three minutes into the second half. Parikka's strike saw Finland back on level terms, and no goals were yet to be seen. Sweden were slighly in control for the remainder of the night, but had to face one of the key issues involved with every football game: ball possession does not win matches. They did not cause a remarkable threat, owing in part to the linesman, whose interpretation of the offside rule frustrated Ola Toivonen to the extent that in the end he put the ball in the net despite hearing the whistle blow.

Finland's first half formation, 4-3-3, clearly worked better than the formation of four midfielders and two strikers they switched to before the second half. However, Kanerva could not be drawn into assessing his tactical decisions. "I am more concerned about who I select for the team and who I leave out", he assured, declaring that he still has not decided who will be the team's goalkeeper in the upcoming qualification fixtures against Denmark and Slovenia.

Again commissioned by Mladina weekly for their Striptiz rubric I did a portrait of Brigita on a top of Narodni dom in Maribor. I used a fully extended tripod, that I hold it so I got a sort of bird's view on the town. It is important that it's a bit weird perspective with violin, trumpet and didgeridoo and have a very self confident, but also relaxed feeling.
B5

PS: Today I'm off to Bosnia, commissioned by Io Donna / Corriera della Sera and right after I take a week of a vacation.

As donors to the Slovene Olympic Team we are giving each Slovene medallist their very own Bigfish Folding Bike. Yesterday, back in Ljubljana,  Bigfish's Karin Marter presented Lucija with her own brand new Bigfish. As you can see below Lucija is deliberating which colour she would prefer (after all, maybe a gold bike with a gold medal is just too much "bling" for one person!).

Don't forget to keep up-to-date with Boris "our man in Beijing's" latest adventures with Bigfish.

You can see him popping up in the background of the Slovenia House celebrations with Gold-winning Hammer Thrower Primož Kozmus.

Boris's (Slovene) blog is at http://peking08.wordpress.com

Miha spent most of his childhood in a special school for the deaf, eventually learning to speak. An unspecified type of hearing aid would later give him enough hearing to understand speech. Miha did not learn to play basketball until age 14, instead playing football and volleyball. After his first basketball coach spotted him in a schoolyard, he took to the game quickly, soon joining Slovenia's national basketball team for the deaf, which twice made the finals of the European championships with Miha as its star. At age 17, he signed his first contract with a regular professional team, KD Slovan of Ljubljana. During his teenage years, he grew 20 cm (8 inches) in an 18-month period, leading to knee problems that sidelined him for several months early in his pro career.

At Slovan, he developed into a promising big man, soon making the (regular) Slovenia junior and under-20 national teams. Miha played in the Slovenian League All-Star Game in 2004 and 2006, earning MVP honors in the 2004 game and also winning the slam dunk contest associated with the 2004 game. Miha continued to play for the Slovenia national deaf team, leading them to the 2004 European championship.

In the 2005-06 season with Slovan, he averaged 11.5 points and 4.4 rebounds in Slovenian League play. Miha's statistics in the Adriatic League were arguably more impressive, considering that he played only 23 minutes per game in that competition; he averaged 13.2 points and 3.9 rebounds and also shot 47.3% from three-point range.

Miha signed with Union Olimpija, also of Ljubljana, in the 2006 offseason, fulfilling what he called one of his lifelong dreams. Miha also barely missed out on a trip to the 2006 FIBA World Championship, becoming the last player cut from the Slovenia squad. Miha's chance to play for Union Olimpija in the Euroleague was on hold for several months because his transfer became the subject of litigation between them and Slovan. Miha had, apparently inadvertently, failed to revoke his contract with Slovan before signing with Union Olimpija. Union Olimpija had registered him at the start of the 2006-07 season, and he played 6 fixtures in the Adriatic League before Slovan contested the registration. Union Olimpija won the first round of the legal battle in August 2006, but on 23 October, an appellate court set aside the decision and ordered a new trial. Union Olimpija announced that it would appeal the ruling. This ruling also, for the time being, prevented him from becoming the first deaf player ever to play in the Euroleague, as he had been scheduled to play in Union Olimpija's first game of Euroleague regular-season play against Croatian side Cibona on 26 October 2006.

The legal battle raged until late February 2007, when Union Olimpija and Slovan reached a settlement. After Union Olimpija paid an undisclosed fee to Slovan, they finally registered him officially on 1 March. The settlement proved timely for Union Olimpija, as they had seen 6 players leave the team during the season, and had 2 other players out with injury. While Miha was unable to play during the 2006-07 Euroleague, as Union Olimpija had been eliminated by the time of the settlement, he arrived in time for the late rounds of the Adriatic League and for the 2nd stage of the Slovenian domestic league.

On 24 October 2007, Miha finally became the first deaf player in the Euroleague, appearing for Union Olimpija in their 80-52 loss at Montepaschi Siena in the opening week of regular season play in the 2007-08 Euroleague. Miha had 5 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists in slightly over 13 minutes of action off the bench.

Keep visiting: www.lifechums.com more celebrities featuring shortly ................

Popoldanski oblaki so izgledali nekako takole, skoraj so tudi oni opozarjali na prihajajoče nočno dogajanje...

...ponoči se je začelo, žvižganje odprtih oken, hitro lauf preden se kej usuje ... ok končno zapremo okna, pogledam uro, haha na štedilniku od Gorenja piše 24:00, kar je v bistvu nekaj novega. Gremo dalje, bliska, grmi, piha kot že enih 15 let ne. Odprem vrata katera so v zavetju, pogled je bil na dež, ki je padal skoraj vodoravno, oljke v olčniku so tudi bile precej v smeri vetra. Res je dobro pihalo.

Čez nekaj minut sem se opogumil in v boxarcah in vetrovki srfal po balkonu med pobiranjem letečih stvari. Ko sem bil že čisto moker in se nisem več za to sploh brigal sem poslušal veter. Slišati je bilo kot se bi nekaj poleg mene hudo hitro vtrelo, podobno kakšni zatohli turbini.

... drugi dan je pa zgledalo nekako takole. Okrog hiše itak vse razmetano in prevrnjeno. Spakiramo tamalega in gremo pogledat kaj je naredilo z barkami. V Piranskem mandraču je bilo relativno vredu, skupile so jo le charter barke in nekateri nevešči turisti z barkami. V Strunjanu je bila pa slika precej drugačna.

Mislim, da bodo slike povedale zadosti ...

... verjetno valovi od silne tramontane so odtrgali približno 6-8m pomola, ki je bil sidran na betonskih pilotih.

... na Bernardinu pod FPP-jem je padla cipresa čez celo cesto točno na avto "presrečnega" italijanskega turista. Delavci so očitno drevo samo obrezali in ostalo pustili na vozilu.

... takole zgleda neurje s tramontano na obali, kar pa očitno niti ni hudo v primerjavi kar se zadnje dni dogaja po ostalem delu Slovenije ter Evrope.

We can choose to recognize it as we would any disease and initiate actions to halt it's advance now or we can remain in denial and hope that it will place itself in a state of miraculous remission.

In view of their historical track record and blatant arrogance such an event is not very likely to take place.

 I prefer risking  the possible harmful 'side affects' of radical remediation or removal to the only other alternative which is is certain to be far more painful.

During my lifetime I have been engaged in conversations about Russia and Russians with many people from countries that have been included in it's self-proclaimed sphere of influence. When asked for their opinions about Russians as individuals and based on their personal experiences, attitudes are mostly favorable yet frequently tempered by limitations on trust. When asked for their opinions about Russia as a Nation reactions are most often harsh and filled with condemnation.

For some, the mention of the word Russia opens up a myriad of negative emotions and descriptive words that would shock even the senses of a large arena filled with hardened criminals and drunken derelicts. I would often ask myself  How can these people seperate the nature of the Russian people from the actions of the Nation they represent?" and "If there are so many good people to be found in Russia... Why is their history  as a nation and as a steward of the former so called Soviet 'Union' one of such disproportionate  dishonorable mention?" Ignorance, fear and denial are have obviously left their indelible print on Russian Society.

By reading some of my recent posts one might form the opinion that I am hell bent on ushering in the complete destruction of all things Russian...including the Russian People.

The opposite is true. I have also spent much of my life searching for evidence of good things associated with the Russian people and have made great efforts to establish relationships with many of them. Most of my experiences have also been very positve. This only adds to my confusion about them when I consider them as a nation of people. I am haunted by the understanding that Stalin and his Merry Men have succeeded in eliminating the very best of Russian Society.

How many millions of good people were put to death by the hands of their brothers while their fellow Russians assisted and often approved of such horrific atrocities.

Still countless others were kept by fear from rising in protest or making any attempt to halt the slaughter of the innocents.

Good people died.  Good people who would have raised their children in a manner that would have left today's Russia better prepared and more willing to guide Russia on an honorable path.

Russia today is guided by the hands of children born into a state of denial. Morality in respect to relations with people of other nationalities is sadly missing. Decades of propoganda which elevated the virtues of the glory of military achievements have taken it's place. Arrogance and over inflated egos have overtaken much of the ranks of the people within the borders of present day Russia.

I do not wish to witness the destruction of the Russian Nation and it's people.

Yet I am convinced that their confidence in their military capabilities and willingness to deploy armed forces will eventually be met by a shocking and decisively crushing defeat in the not so distant future.

And I am certain that the vast majority of the Russian population will gladly follow 'Putin the Pied Piper to their demise.'

Yes they are certainly conscerned about Russian aggression and expansionist desires. But only so far as it may actually threaten their own way of life. Don't wait for America to ride in on a White Horse and rescue you. The sad fact remains that Americans are largely fat, dumb and reasonably comfortable with their life at home and for the most part are ignorant of the history of Eastern Europe. Except for those who remain true to their European ancestry. There is only a relatively small percentage of good people who are blessed with the ability to think beyond borders and would offer you their support. Western Europeans are not so fat, not so dumb and perhaps not quite as happy. I would venture to say that a far larger portion of society is more aware and concerned for your future. and would offer support to your cause. This however would be tempered by their own fears of making Russia angry. It is understandable they would be reluctant to stand by your side and face the "HUNGRY BEAR" ...but you can count on them to stand behind you.

The message I have for you is that that it is of utmost importance that 'You' who have suffered so long under the dark hand of Russia must rely on each other as would close brothers. As individuals and as nations you must put aside any distrust of each other. Now is the time to take to the streets and make your voices and desires be heard by your leaders and the rest of the world. Send a firm message to Moscow that their interference will not be met without protest, resistance or solidarity. Russia only understands power and force. Let Russia know that their expansion will not come without paying a very terrible price.

By this portrait I had in mind a romantic - pornographic moment and again it was in banzai strategy. I got a brief in the morning and in the evening it was realized. Do you want to buy that doll? It's well preserved and it costs 20 EUR.