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May. 2nd, 2010 07:15 am...given the amounts of food consumed yesterday.
Since all of Skopje was up on the Vodno yesterday, and Irene has to give her right knee a bit of a rest, I decided not to be a brave mountaineer but settled for an hour of home sports (40 min step + 20 min abs) followed by a wonderful hour out on the balcony. Wearing new bikini -- I think I can pull it off now, as the cut is quite flattering -- and soaking up the morning sun. I'm getting that patchy outdoor sports tan, and I wanted the rest of me to catch up a bit. Beteen 9 and 10, it's nice and warm in the sun, but sunscreen isn't necessary, if I stick to the 1-hour limit.
The gargantuan feast started at 1 p.m., and we left shortly after 9 p.m. Slavica and her husband live in a part of the city called Aerodrom (I suppose that there might once have been a small military airfield, but will have to ask), on the ground floor of a 4-storey building from the 80's. They have a small, cozy garden, about 25 square metres, which becomes an additional room when the weather gets warm.
These people are...it's difficult to describe them without sounding horribly clichéd, but then I think that we have a tendency to call things clichéd merely because we know in our heart of hearts that they're good but terribly difficult to achieve. So, these two are good people. Simple but not stupid, modest but not submissive. They have raised their two sons to high standards, but without being harsh or demanding or cruel. Slavica has two sisters, one of them Vesna, and the other unfortunately couldn't make it yesterday, because they had guests they needed to entertain. So it was Slavica + Ilija, her husband, their son Slavko (aged 26), plus Vesna and her two children. The wife of the other son, Petar (football player, currently in Sweden) dropped by for a couple of hours with her baby boy Marco.
It was just amazing to see how much love there is in this family. Nothing demonstrative about that, and they don't pretend to be living in eternal harmony. One only has to watch the little boy and the way they handle him, or the way the sisters treat each other. Or listen to Ilija saying that he's very pedantic and therefore has decided to iron his shirts himself, because Slavica's ironing just isn't up to his standards. Seeing as he is in his mid-fifties, and Macedonia isn't exactly famous for being the country of equal opportunities, that's quite something. And he took care of Vesna's daughter for a whole year, when Vesna had gone through a difficult divorce and had to take on two jobs -- he was a policeman back then, and switched to night shifts, so he could look after the girl when she came home from school.
Such lovely people. The kind who doesn't have much, in terms of money or possessions, but loves to share and give.
Unfortunately my great idea of giving Slavica a trip to Sweden, so she can visit her son, won't come to anything, because she'll have people staying at their place some time at the end of May, but seemingly those people are unable to name an exact date.
But I think I might have got an even better idea: my nephew Daniel won't be needing my flat in Vienna for about a year, because he'll go on a work-plus-holiday trip in September with a friend. So I think I'll give Slavica and her husband tickets to Vienna as a present, and they can stay in my flat. This means they won't have to spend insane amounts of money for eating out, because they can use my kitchen, and I'm sure they'll be more comfortable staying there than in a hotel. Plus, it's something they can share. I must say I'm quite pleased with the idea.
I'll conclude saying that, unless you want certain bodily functions to be quite painful the next morning, don't eat ten hot peppers. Because, even if you eat them with bread so they don't burn so badly, bread and peppers go separate ways afterwards. Ouch.
Tennis at 10. Irene's lesson is at 12, but since her knee is wonky, I'll have it together with her, so she can rest her knee while I do the running.
Since all of Skopje was up on the Vodno yesterday, and Irene has to give her right knee a bit of a rest, I decided not to be a brave mountaineer but settled for an hour of home sports (40 min step + 20 min abs) followed by a wonderful hour out on the balcony. Wearing new bikini -- I think I can pull it off now, as the cut is quite flattering -- and soaking up the morning sun. I'm getting that patchy outdoor sports tan, and I wanted the rest of me to catch up a bit. Beteen 9 and 10, it's nice and warm in the sun, but sunscreen isn't necessary, if I stick to the 1-hour limit.
The gargantuan feast started at 1 p.m., and we left shortly after 9 p.m. Slavica and her husband live in a part of the city called Aerodrom (I suppose that there might once have been a small military airfield, but will have to ask), on the ground floor of a 4-storey building from the 80's. They have a small, cozy garden, about 25 square metres, which becomes an additional room when the weather gets warm.
These people are...it's difficult to describe them without sounding horribly clichéd, but then I think that we have a tendency to call things clichéd merely because we know in our heart of hearts that they're good but terribly difficult to achieve. So, these two are good people. Simple but not stupid, modest but not submissive. They have raised their two sons to high standards, but without being harsh or demanding or cruel. Slavica has two sisters, one of them Vesna, and the other unfortunately couldn't make it yesterday, because they had guests they needed to entertain. So it was Slavica + Ilija, her husband, their son Slavko (aged 26), plus Vesna and her two children. The wife of the other son, Petar (football player, currently in Sweden) dropped by for a couple of hours with her baby boy Marco.
It was just amazing to see how much love there is in this family. Nothing demonstrative about that, and they don't pretend to be living in eternal harmony. One only has to watch the little boy and the way they handle him, or the way the sisters treat each other. Or listen to Ilija saying that he's very pedantic and therefore has decided to iron his shirts himself, because Slavica's ironing just isn't up to his standards. Seeing as he is in his mid-fifties, and Macedonia isn't exactly famous for being the country of equal opportunities, that's quite something. And he took care of Vesna's daughter for a whole year, when Vesna had gone through a difficult divorce and had to take on two jobs -- he was a policeman back then, and switched to night shifts, so he could look after the girl when she came home from school.
Such lovely people. The kind who doesn't have much, in terms of money or possessions, but loves to share and give.
Unfortunately my great idea of giving Slavica a trip to Sweden, so she can visit her son, won't come to anything, because she'll have people staying at their place some time at the end of May, but seemingly those people are unable to name an exact date.
But I think I might have got an even better idea: my nephew Daniel won't be needing my flat in Vienna for about a year, because he'll go on a work-plus-holiday trip in September with a friend. So I think I'll give Slavica and her husband tickets to Vienna as a present, and they can stay in my flat. This means they won't have to spend insane amounts of money for eating out, because they can use my kitchen, and I'm sure they'll be more comfortable staying there than in a hotel. Plus, it's something they can share. I must say I'm quite pleased with the idea.
I'll conclude saying that, unless you want certain bodily functions to be quite painful the next morning, don't eat ten hot peppers. Because, even if you eat them with bread so they don't burn so badly, bread and peppers go separate ways afterwards. Ouch.
Tennis at 10. Irene's lesson is at 12, but since her knee is wonky, I'll have it together with her, so she can rest her knee while I do the running.
