(no subject)

Some days ago the Polish Embassy sent out a Note Verbale (i.e. official letter an embassy sends either to the Foreign Ministry or to other Embassies) informing about an attempt at burglary. They said "There has been an attempt at penetration at the Polish Embassy", and I still can't think of that note without laughing out loud.

Tonight 4 of my counterparts from other embassies will be coming to dinner at my place -- very relaxed affair, and I hope ze boyz will be behaving themselves well. Menu: Onion soup, Turlitava (prepared by the wonderful Slavica, it's Macedonia's answer to Irish Stew and really very good), Panna Cotta. Nice and not too heavy. All guests are female (French, Polish --ha, ha! -- Greek and Spanish), all good company, age ranging from mid-thirties to mid-fifties. I'm really looking forward to this dinner.

Went to see tailor today. That guy is an artist, and he's going to see a lot of me. He's got lots of fabrics at his workshop, and I immediately spotted this piece of raw silk in the perfect hue of dark burgundy for the jacket, and we found a georgette in the matching shade for the skirt. I'd made a sketch, and we understood each other perfectly -- both artistically and linguistically, the latter of which was a special boost. Fortunately I remembered that bra means "prsluk" (such romantic words...) and thus was able to ask whether I ought to be wearing the same bra next time, which I should. I'm beginning to get rather excited about that ball. Call to dancing instructor will be made tomorrow, so we can start the lessons next week.

Whatever I'd done wrong playing tennis, I obviously did it again on Tuesday, and so I've decided to suspend the lessons until I've seen a doctor -- fortunately Ana, who is sort of my PA, knows somebody who knows a professional football player, and so she managed to find me a doctor specializing in sports injuries. The arm hurts like hell -- I can't even lift a coffe cup without yelping in pain -- and I'm really curious to find out what the problem is. Still, there's a silver lining to every cloud: without tennis, I'll be able to fit in the dancing.

Ambassador left yesterday for Vienna; tonight he'll be going from there to China. He kept insisting that this wasn't a holiday but a study visit (obviously one mustn't have fun...), and I kept telling him that days off were days off, and that he wouldn't be getting any more in the near future. Bantering is always fun, especially as we both know that he may have as many days off as he wants. He'll return to Skopje on the 15th and be back at work on the 16th. Meantime, there's lots to do -- the secretary of state from our ministry of finance (that's basically a deputy minister who does all the work while the minister does the press conferences) will be coming to skopje on 14/15 April, and we have to prepare a programme. The stress level will be nowhere near the foreign minister's visit, but since we want to keep our good reputation, things will have to be done well.

Oh, and on 15 February, Ambssador, Irene, Stefan (police attaché), Heinz (technical cooperation attaché) and I will be going to Kosovo -- the KFOR guys invited us for a little touristic tour, and in the evening there'll be a dinner at their headquarters. This was of course the perfect excuse for me to order the military boots I've been coveting for months -- we'll have to do quite a lot of walking, and while high heels will be appropriate for dinner, the boots will be just the right thing for a bit of hiking. These are the boots, BTW: http://www.militaerversand.at/katalog.php?cat=1&art=141&artnr=32308071&id=226
And they have them in size 38!