30.11.2004., utorak
If you have a weak stomack, go away
My dear, dear people, I got a cold.
I feel miserable and I'm sneezing and coughing, and then sneezing some more! I've spent a ton of tissues and have eaten pounds and pounds of honey mixture, and have even drunk home-make bay leaf syrup, and I still feel like shit. I guess I have to wait it out.
Honeybunny has gone to Sarajevo. He’ll be gone for the whole week.
I miss you honeybunney!
As you know, this weekend I was going to kolinje.
Well, I went, had a great time, and brought you some pictures.
The first day of kolinje was the killing and sorting day. The family all got up early in the morning, around seven, drank coffee and waited for the rest to arrive. Soon, the rest of the family and friends who came to help arrived. All in all, there were about fifteen of us all together, the cat and two dogs not included (we brought Leelo along for the ride).
The men went outside to deal with the pigs. There was a professional butcher among them, so they killed the pigs quiet quickly.
 (hears and lungs... just hangin')
I really didn’t want to watch how the pigs got killed and cleaned. I was scared not that I would puke or anything, but that I wouldn’t mind the killing.
I’ve never seen anything or anybody killed except on TV. And on TV, you don’t mind. Human or animal, one death or ten thousand, it’s all the same on TV. But what if you see a death in real life, and you still don’t mind? What will you think of yourself then?
So I didn’t want to see the death of a pig not because of the pig, but because I would have to face myself in that moment, and god knows who I would be. I certainly don’t want to know.
 (cutting up meat to make a pršut)
 (future pršuts getting the liquid squeezed out of them)
So, for the whole fist day I help with the cooking while the boys outside cleaned the pig, gutted it, separated different peaces of meat and modeled them to the yummy foods they will later become – bacons, ribs, prsut, etc…
The essential part of kolinje is drinking and eating. The boys were drinking slowly while working, then stopped for a hearty breakfast, and continued working and drinking until dinner. It’s a time for hard work and party.
We cooked. We made loads of stuff for breakfast – fried eggs with mushrooms, ham and cheese, chicken, French salad, regular salad, sliced salamis, and so on.
After breakfast honeybunney’s sister and I went to visit the veterinarian to see if the pigs were free of parasites. There is a parasite that embeds itself in the meat and is very dangerous to humans, so before eating pork you have to make sure it’s parasite free.
 (fat inna bucket)
After the meat was cleared, we started preparing dinner with some of the fresh pork. And dinner was as hearty as the breakfast – cabbage with pork, pork chops, chicken (again), potato dumplings in meat sauce, salads, and later on caked and cookies. Yum, yum, yum.
That was more or less the end of day one.
On the second day came my favorite part – making sausages! This is where I joined in. I was making sausages with my grandmother since I was little, and it’s such fun.
First, you have to mince the meat, and then season it.
 (mincing the meat)
In Slavonija, the part of Croatia where my grandmother lived, they season it with salt, pepper and chilly peppers, so the sausages turn out very hot and spicy, but in Istria they make them with garlic, which was very unusual for me. After seasoning, you mix them good, so that every part is equally seasoned. Sausages are made with a machine that has a tube on one end, to which intestines are attached, and then slowly filled with the spiced meat. When all the meat’s been used up, you hang it in a smoking room and smoke it.
So we made sausages, honeybunny, his mom, aunt and me.
 (smoking sausages :) )
Ah, how horrible this must sound, intestines, entrails, gutting, killing, but when you think of it, all of us eat meat, but most of us never wonder how it got to our plates.
When we eat steaks and sausages, we never think how someone had to kill that cow for us and do all the things I’ve shown here before it arrived to our plate and our mouth. We don’t think of it as a part of some animal, but just as - meat.
I hope my pictures haven’t grossed you out.
Until tomorrow, love to ya all from Tiamat.
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- 14:34 -
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26.11.2004., petak
Well, I say, this thing is going to take forever!
So I went to the driving lesson. Do you know what I did?
I found out where to turn the lights on, and switched gears from fist to forth (I'm driving a stick-shift, that normal in Europe).
That's all!
I traveled for half an hour to the other side of town to switch gears for twenty minutes!
Ok, I understand that shifting is something I have to know how to do in my sleep, but still, I have hoped for a more… for more… well, for more excitement. There’s nothing exciting about shifting from first to second to third to forth and back again.
I haven’t even started the engine!
I hope he picks up the speed of my lessons, because at this rate by the time we get to the 30th hour (the end of diving course) I won’t even reach the road!
Anyway, now I’ve got to see if there’s anything I can learn for the test. I really don’t know what he’s got to test us on?!
And then, honeybunny and I are off to Istria! With the cat! I wonder how she’ll take a three-hour trip from Zagreb to Istria… We’ll see… I just hope she won’t crap in the car.
Kisses!
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- 15:12 -
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Morning everyone!
It's –5 degrees Celsius here, my nose almost froze on the way to the store. This morning, for some reason, we were out of electricity for about a minute. Not much, but still, it never happened to me in Zagreb before.
In Dubrovnik, though, a whole different story. There, we'd lose power with every minor storm or stronger wind. About a year ago, during a very tough cold spell, half of the country lost power because a main power line got frozen and broke.
Ah, the fun never stops in the country of Croatia.
I must say, on another matter, that my classes are fun. I don’t know if I’m learning something I didn’t already know (so far), but the stories the man tells are wonderful. Today, we have an unofficial test. I can’t believe it. Already?!
Anyway, I’ve been busy on the other side too, with my volunteer work. We’ve made a brochure for a concert (I’m so proud, it looks so professional!), and yesterday I attended a forum about the problem of violence against woman. It was interesting; one of the female presidential candidates was there and she gave a speech, there were representatives of different NGO’s and representatives of the government board for equality.
This forum made me think about a friend of mine whose husband is, according to all local gossip, beating her. I was thinking what can I do to find out if it’s true and help her, and even if that’s my problem at all. And I really can’t think of anything I can do for her, since she’s half a country away and I haven’t talked to her in four years, but it’s bugging me. I can’t stop having this feeling that somebody ought to do something about it.
The reality of the thing is, I can’t call her on the phone and ‘say, listen, honey, is the gossip true? It is? Get away from him.’ She’d probably not react with enthusiasm. She’s dumped all her friends for that man, none of us have talked to her, by her own demand, for years. She didn’t even tell us she’d gotten married. She’d more likely think I’m butting in here life and that I have no right to do that, than see a friendly advice and a helping hand. So what to do? I really have no idea.
Well, I’m not going to think about such grim things this early in the morning, I’m off to driving school!
Kisses!
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- 08:57 -
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25.11.2004., èetvrtak
I am so tired.
I’m probably repeating myself, but I am so tired. I can’t believe how a ‘little’ work can make a man so tired. Gosh.
Part of the problem of my tiredness is probably the morning ritual I have. I cannot function properly without:
1. a cup of coffee
2. the morning paper
3. internet news
4. blogging
5. forum chat
I have to; well, have is probably too strong a word, but I like to get up, make myself a cup of coffee, read the papers, then get on-line, see what the news there says, and maybe write my blog, but most definitely go over to our forum and see what the people are talking about today. And then, I’m ready to go.
Unfortunately, this process is about 2 hours long, so if I have to get out of the house at 9, I gotta get up at 7 to do my thing. It’s exhausting me, now that I have more work to do, to go to bed around one and get up at seven.
And the cat has this strange custom, whenever she decides she will sleep with us in the bedroom, she purrs ALL NIGHT LONG!!! You can’t believe it, the bloody cat can purr, continuously, the whole night. She must feel happy that she’s not sleeping alone, and shows her pleasure by keeping me awake half the night with purring :).
A, right, yesterday was my first day in driving school. I didn’t drive; the man sort of laid down some basic rules and gave me an overview of the car. I know this seems funny to all you men, but I have no idea what’s what in an engine. I’ll be driving an Opel Astra, diesel, and it’s green :). Don’t ask me about horsepower and stuff like that – I have no idea. It’s green.
Well, gtg. Kisses to all!
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- 09:57 -
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24.11.2004., srijeda
Hey there!
Well, finally, it's back.
The blog pages haven't been working for the past three days, they had problems with god knows what, I certainly don't and they wouldn't tell us.
Honeybunny has gone to Sarajevo on a project. He says it’s below zero there and there’s snow all over the place.
I have been busy busy busy like a little bee this whole week, and I’m so tired, and it’s only Wednesday! I was thinking I’m going to sleep like a baby this weekend and not wake up until noon, but then I remembered – we’re going to Istria, to a famous tradition of ‘kolinje’!
Kolinje – a native Croatian fall custom of slaughtering pigs and making produces such as sausages, pršut (smoked pigs leg), hams, èvarci (melted pigs fat - crunchy), and other yummy foods made from a pig.
I don’t think any of you has grown up in a village with these customs, but I may be wrong. So I hope you stomach isn’t turning right now.
Kolinje is a fun time. In my house it was a time for the family to get together and work together. Everybody does his or her share; you work all day and then eat and drink half the night. If the pig has already been tested to diseases, you eat your first peace of fresh pork from your very own pig. And you’re satisfied by the end of the day, you know you’ve done well, and that the family will have many pork produces to eat throughout the year.
And let me tell you – there’s nothing like homemade sausages, or homemade pršut. The stuff you can buy in the store is never as good or as tasty as your own. Somehow they don’t smoke it as long, or don’t put as good meet in… and don’t even get me started on the difference between homemade kulen and industrial one.
Kulen – a spicy fat sausage-like product made from the finest meat, smoked and then left to ‘ripen’. Very hot, very spicy, and finger-licking good. The specialty of Slavonija.
So, I’m looking forward to this. I know I won’t get much rest, but I think it will be fun.
Now, my friends, I’m off to – diving school!
Today is my first day of driving. I’m going to drive a car. Me.
I wonder how that will turn out :)
I’ll tell you all about it, if the blog page doesn’t collapse :). Again.
Kisses!
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- 09:05 -
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19.11.2004., petak
It seems that 'The Crash of Blog' has caused my Friday post to disappear. Thank god for Google cache! I'm reposting it.
Today is a very uneventful day for me. I got up, I made honeybunny some chocolate milk, I got the newspaper, I read stuff about wars and other disasters, I went back to bed, I woke up again, I bought some food for the cat, and here I am. The cat is tearing the bathroom apart, she found some interesting places to hide there and is now, while I’m writing this, doing something, I don’t know what, but I hear bangs occasionally.
A few people have asked me about my dear Croatian friend who was with me over there, but I’m going to ask her permission before I write her life all over the Internet. I know I don’t have a huge reading audience :) but still, I don’t want to write about her before I ask her if I can. So, you may get some info soon. Let’s just say I think she’s very happy now.
It’s raining here again, I feel like I’m in England, only without the cool clubs and foreign restaurants… no Whoppers… ; honeybunny is sort of stressed out because of work the last few days, I’m stressed out because of lack of work…
I think it’s mostly the weather. When you look, in the summer, during the long days and lots of sun, everybody’s more relaxed, happier, more lied back, then bum, comes autumn, which is sort of stressful because the clock is changing, the weather is changing, everything’s changing all the time, and the days become short, the sunlight is gone, and you know you’ve got nothing to look forward to except the very short Christmas holydays which you spend fighting with your family and spending money you don’t have on presents they end up not liking, and the next summer full of excitement and fun and laid-backness, and the bloody summertime is eight months away!
Of course we’re stressed out.
But you know, I can’t be angry or sad around our cat. I think anyone who has a pet is better off. When you see your cat or dog so happy to see you when you come back home, you are instantly happy. Here’s someone who loves you and who will mercilessly beg for food regardless of the fact that you are tired, stressed, mad, sad, or whatever. Someone who’ll jump around you and try to play with your shoelaces. Someone who will look at you tilting her head looking at you as if saying: “Come on, stop worrying and just throw me that fuzzy ball!”
Anyway, as you can see, I'm not in the best of moods today. Love and kisses to all, I'll see you tomorrow.
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- 15:47 -
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17.11.2004., srijeda
Housework
I'm sitting here in a complete mess of an apartment. The cat isn’t helping improve the situation, attacking the broom every time I try to sweep up the floor. But she’s cute, so I forgive her :).
I’m doing my best not to be a housewife. Housewife lives seem like death to me. What do they do when the laundry has been washed, the house cleaned, the cat fed and the kids sleeping? Where is their life?
My mother, due to unfortunate circumstances and a long illness, is retired and a housewife.
She does nothing. But, I mean, nothing. There are no kids, no cat or dog, my dad works in another town. She sits around all day watching TV.
I would go CRAZY after a month of that. No, after two weeks. Even with cable AND a satellite dish.
When I moved to Zagreb in September, I started looking for work. Of course, I knew I would not get a job in three weeks, but some illogical part of me still hoped I’d get it even sooner than that :). So, when I saw that I will not find a job soon, and that all I can do is answer internet ads and sit on the couch all day watching TV, I knew I had to change something. That kind of monotones life is unacceptable to me. Though I am basically lazy as hell, hate getting out of bed early, still I need flux and change, excitement and intensity of life.
So, I went to driving school and started volunteer work, the only kind of work I could do, given the situation.
And it’s nice. I have something to do, I have new friends and acquaintances, new people, intelligent people with whom I can discuss stuff with.
So, I think that if I had a million dollars, I would still work. Do some stuff that interest me, for which I never had time before.
Now I’m off to do some healthy volunteer work.
Kisses.
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- 10:09 -
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16.11.2004., utorak
Good morning!
And what a lovely morning it is here. The sun is shining, the air is crisp (and cold), the cat is purring... oh, that's right, I got a cat!
Her name is Leelo, which we found out later means something like night. She's an adorable little kitten, about two months old. I tried to get a better picture of her, but she keeps jumping around :) silly wabbit :)
I always wanted to have a cat again, ever since my last one got run over by a car, but I kept moving around, from Split to Dubrovnik to Zagreb to Dubrovnik to Split to… well, you get the picture. I was never in one place for more than six months, and it was impossible to have a pet. So as soon as I settled with honeybunny in Zagreb, we got a cat.
A cat gives a sort of homey feeling to me. It’s not a home unless there’s a cat :).
Anyway…
Yesterday I got a piece of very good news. I have been admitted in the Diplomatic Academy. It’s a one-year college, sort of like a postgraduate thing. And I’m one of thirty that was admitted, out of four hundred and something!
So far they don’t sound very organized, since this is the first time the Academy is open to public, before it was for diplomats only, but I think they’ll get better. Well, I hope :) .
So now suddenly I got a hundred things to do!
I’ve got a drivers exam, a concert to plan, the academy, and I’m hoping one of the jobs will come through soon.
I can’t remember when I’ve been busier!
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- 08:07 -
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15.11.2004., ponedjeljak
Stranded, part 2
Last year when honeybunny and I were going to Split, we got caught in a worst snowstorm that year.
This year, when honeybunny and I were coming BACK from Split, we got caught in a worst snowstorm this year.
It was horrible. On the coast, the wind was blowing about 100 km/h, with max. speed up to 215 km/h (on a bridge, which was closed). On the radio we heard of the devastations the wind has caused – ripped rooftops of buildings all over the country, and even a whole side of a hospital building was carried off by the wind.
We left early, because we heard the weather forecast, which said of more horrible weather on the way, and we wanted to reach Zagreb before dark. Fat chance.
Just when the sun went down, which meant we had about an hour of light, and we could make it to Zagreb ok, we found ourselves on a top of an 884-meter high mountain. On the very peak, we stopped. There were cars in front of us, cars behind us, snow all around us, and falling hard. A regular blizzard.
So we waited, about a fifteen-minute drive from the highway, which we knew was cleared, we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.
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- 11:59 -
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Stranded, part 2
I can’t describe to you how it feels to be stuck in deep snow, waiting for the road to clear, and not knowing how long you’re still stranded in the cold, with your fuel level getting lower by the minute because the heat’s cracked up, and if it wasn’t, you’d freeze.
Well, for the first three hours it was boring, and then you start getting worried.
What if they don’t clear the road soon?
What if we get stuck here during the night?
What if we run out of fuel?
What if…?
The worst of it was, I had to pee, and I was stuck in snow on a top of a mountain, with no bathroom, or at least a handy bush. Now that was horrible.
Finally, when we started moving (our speed was about 10 km/h), we saw that the delay was caused by about thirty trucks, big, huge trucks, with no winter equipment, which got stranded half-way up the hill, and couldn’t move. We passed a whole huge convoy of trucks which weren’t going anywhere for at least a day, until the road services clear the snow.
Guys, I gotta tell you, getting stuck in snow SUCKS.
But at least this year we had winter tires, while last year we had summer ones, and driving through snow was like ice-skating in a blizzard.
I’m still recovering.
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- 11:41 -
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12.11.2004., petak
Morning in Split
Well, here I am in Split.
Somehow I thought it will be sunny and nice. Last time I was here, it was still summertime.
And it's not sunny, or nice. This bloody rain has been following us from Zagreb to here.
There's no escape!
Strange, how I feel a like complete stranger in a house that has been my home for some 17 years. I spend all my elementary and high school years here, I was born and raised in this town, and yet there is no sense of belonging whenever I return. Do any of you feel the same? After a long time of travel, you come back home, and realise you just don't belong there anymore. You've outgrown you home town, like a pair of old trouses.
Anyway, today we're going to do some shopping, and tonight we have a mexican party, complete with tortillias and tequila :)
I'm always at home at a party :)
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- 11:32 -
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11.11.2004., èetvrtak
I passed!!!
I passed, I passed, I passed, I passed, I passed!!! Yeeey!
Ah, finally. It was about time. This was my third time taking the test.
I felt like such an idiot failing before.
I’m thinking to myself, I can pass math and statistics, financial management and accounting, and I can’t pass one stupid driving exam (for those of you that don’t remember, numbers are my greatest enemy. I hate math, of any kind!). Total idiot.
But now, I passed!
Next week will be my first time behind the wheel of a car. Watch out, Zagreb :)!
Anyway, now I’ve got other things to worry about, namely a job interview, which is in approx. two hours.
No, I don’t have a job. Yet :).
And tonight honeybunny and I are going to Split, which is my hometown.
We’re taking a keg with us :).
I’ve been looking at that keg of beer for the past two weeks, and every time I come close, honeybunny says: “No, don’t you touch it! We’re taking that to Split and sharing it with our friends.” So finally! I get to open a biiiiiig keg of beer!
Party!!!
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- 12:42 -
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Busy busy busy
:sleepy:
Aw, good morning.
Well, I woke up and the weather is still shitty. Just great. And bloody cold. I hate cold. I hate it when I have to wear five shirts and sweaters, and then I walk into a room and I'm boiling hot.
Summer is a much better time of year for me.
Anyway, the reason I'm up at such an early hour (well, early for me), is that I've got a driver's exam. Tests, not driving.
I haven't touched a book in six months, and now I have to learn all these stupid rules for the exam, and I'm not doing very well.
Right now I'm trying to cram as many facts as I can in this short time, and hopefully, with loads of luck, I'll pass.
Wish me luck; I'll let you know how it went.
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- 08:06 -
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10.11.2004., srijeda
Day one
Hey guys!
Today I was walking through Zagreb, and the weather got to me. It's raining, cold, freezing, foggy, all in all pretty shitty weather. And somehow I remembered you guys, and how I miss you all, and how we don't communicate as much as we used to (part of it is definitely my fault. A big part, I'd say).
So, I got this wonderful idea. I'll write a blog, and you can come anytime and check what's going on in my life.
So, that's it.
You can comment, and if you have any web pages of your own, send me an address and I’ll link you.
This is just a note so you know I’m here, from tomorrow I’m writing more about my gorgeous life.
Love and kisses to you all!!!
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- 18:18 -
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