It's all a just a bunch of hocus pocus....

"Another glorious morning......makes me feel sick!"



Every Halloween in my family we have a tradition of watching Hocus Pocus, so even if i'm not around them this year i will be watching it at some point today. i will also be carrying around some salt to protect me from nasty witches and hobgoblins.....

Happy Halloween!

Whilst reading David McCulloughs biography of John Adams, i came across this passage which describes Abigail Adams opinion of her first visit to the ballet in the early 1780's in Paris,

"The dresses and beauty of the performers were enchanting, but no sooner did the dance commence that i felt my delicacy wounded, and i was ashamed to be looking at them. Girls clothed in the thinnest silk gauze, with their petticoats short, springing two feet from the floor, poising themselves in the air, with their feet flying, and as perfectly showing their garters and drawers, as though no petticoats had been worn, was a slight altogether new to me. Their motions are as light as air and as quick as lightning."

I fear that the former First Lady may have thought me a fallen woman.....oh dear....

love is blind.....

"If they say that love is blind then I was blind willingly"
Katie Melua


Listening to my ipod today, this line struck home as to how i'm feeling today.

A Conversation....

So this is a little tid-bit of a conversation that took place today between my American and Slovene friend. It did make me chortle a little bit.....

Slovene - What? Cant you name all the Presidents of the USA?

American - All forty four of them.....No.
Can you name all your Presidents?

Slovene - (very decisively) Yes.
All Three of them.
I can also name all the Presidents of ex-Yugolslavia...
Well....there was only one.


Slovenia is a baby country........

Sunday....

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them"

Mother Theresa

Ice Dancer?

I went ice-skating today after the first time in about 6 years. I love figure skating....well i love watching it, if you ask me if i wasnt a ballet dancer what would i'd like to be i'd say a figure skater....unfortunately i'm not quite as graceful on the ice as i feel i ought to be....in fact i'm not very graceful at all. The old lady kept lapping me (i kept telling myself that she had an Olympic medal in her bum bag and it is okay for an ex-Olympian to over lap me), the children found it fun to skate very fast around me to disorientate me....nevertheless i soldiered on. In fact when i was leaving a very nice old gentleman approached me to tell me the first steps are always the hardest and he hoped i would come back to practise....i told him i will.

In the four years i've been in Slovenia this is the first time i've managed to get someone to go skating with me, indoor recreational skating is not typical to their culture. In fact when trying to explain to my friends the concept of an indoor ice rink they got very confused, and in fact indoor ice rinks only appear in the winter......on the upside... its free.....

My Friend.....Stanley

This is Stanley, he lives at the bottom of my street.

i know that his name is not really Stanley, (mainly because i'm sure there has never been a Slovene named Stanley). There is no plaque to tell me his real name, what he did or why he has a statue at the end of my street in his honour....yet every day as i pass him by i felt like i should be able to said a friendly hello to the only neighbour who i see everyday, in fact the only neighbour who i really know. So i named him Stanley.

I often like to muse over the life of Stanley and what wonderful Adventures he might have had

The artform of movement....

As a ballet dancer i have been training for many-a-day to perfect the art form of movement....

Learning how to express myself to the music. How to move Elegantly. Boisterously. Silently. Gracefully. How to fill Space. How to convey your emotions with the smallest of movements. How to convey your thoughts to an audience without words. How to convey the feelings that the music present within you to the audience.

As a ballet dancer i spend most of my time on the stage standing very still.....
hmmmmm........

Reading....

I started reading a biography of John Adams this week that i bought when i visited his birthplace in Quincy this summer. I'm already loving it and cant put it down.

"Upon common theaters, indeed, the applause of the audience is of more importance to the actor than thei own approbation. But upon the stage of life, while conscience claps, let the world hiss! On the contary if conscience disapproves the loudest applauses of the world are of little value." John Adams

Dance Your Socks Off....

This is a photo of my eight year old little brother taken at a wedding last week. I think he danced himself into his dreams......

Stargazing.....

Are we human because we gaze at the stars
Or do we gaze at the stars because we are human?
But do the stars gaze back?
Now that is the question......

I watched Stardust again the other night, I love that movie.

Ode To My Dirty Dishes

I seem to have an everlasting pile of dirty dishes. No matter how often i do them they are always making themselves dirty again, perhaps dishes like being washed? and look forward to it at the end of a hard days work. i know that having a bath at the end of the day is one of my favourite things to do.

Today i simply couldnt face them. So i am currently sitting with my back to them and wrote them a poem instead. It goes a bit like this.....

O my Dearest Dirty Dishes!
How my heart is full of wishes
That you'll simply clean yourself.

I squeeze my eyes tight shut
to pretend that your not there.
But even with them closed
I feel your penetrative stare.

O my Dearest Dirty Dishes!
If I blow you lots of kisses
Will you simply clean yourself?

I wiggle at my nose
The way Samantha does.
But you do not go away
And your slowly growing fuzz.

O my Dearest Dirty Dishes
If I fill my sink with fishes
Does that mean you will not stay?

I think of Miss Sweet Poppins
And I quickly snap my finger.
But no matter what I do
You just seem to sit and linger.

O my Dearest Dirty Dishes
Maybe Tomorrow....?

I went mushroom picking and came back with Chestnuts....

I do not like mushrooms.
I have a rule - No Eating Of Fungus.

This did not stop me from going with friends now it is mushroom picking time to a-go a-picking. It has on the other hand resolved me that eating food which grows out of foosty pieces of fallen trees is not a good idea. Not being mushroom-picking experts, and relying on only Mojca's small know, we tried our best to be good mushroom pickers. Tim and I gathered a large bag and were exceedingly proud of our fruitful endeavour, only to be poo-pooed by Mojca that all our mushrooms were probably poisonous, she did tell us that we could still try them, we decided that her little knowledge was better than our no-knowledge.

On the upside we found a Chestnut tree and managed to pick a large bag of Chestnuts. Not being a huge fan of the Chestnut i liked the experience of foraging around on the forest floor to find them. It made me glad that it is Autumn.

On the way home we stopped at a cornfield whilst Mojca ran into to steal some before the farmer came.

Once Upon A Time And Long Ago

I started this blog today just to write down some of the thoughts that I have that go through my head. Today i was humming a tune that my mum used to sing to me as a child. Its from Peter Pan the Musical. It goes a bit like this.....

Once upon a time and long ago
I heard someone singing soft and low.
Now when day is done and night is near
I recall this song i used to hear.

My child my very own, dont be afraid your not alone,
Sleep until the dawn for all is well.
Long ago this song was sung to me
now its just a distant melody,
Somewhere from the past I used to know
Once upon a time and long ago.

My mum told me that the other day my sister Bryony called her from London up in the middle of the night to ask her to sing it to her.

I dont believe that we are ever to old to be sung a lullaby to by our mothers.