Good news only

Even though it is only Tuesday, I officially proclaim this week a week of good news! Share 'em if you got 'em. Here's mine:

1. We've successfully elected a new Government
2. That Fair trade shop finally got my favorite coffee after 3 months.
   
3. The concert is happening - one of my top three most wanted.

Bloc party in Vienna? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm sooooo going!

Post election...

System crash. Disk cleaning required...

image source

How to see a crappy movie in style

1. Step one: let yourself be convinced to see exactly this movie, even though you wanted to see another one.
2. Step two: Go to the cinema and buy the ticket instead of downloading the bastard from the web.
3. Step three: Wait for something interesting to happen until the movie ends.

It is important to see a crappy movie every now and then, just to remember to go with your feeling the next time. Besides that - I think I had an Abba overdose.

In desperate need of good movie asap!

Say the dirty word politics!

It's that time of the year when we get to decide how we want to spend the next four years. And I totally understand how some people are not interested in politics and can't be bothered with something as insignificant as electing the Government of the country they live in. The right to decide is overrated anyway.

I also understand how hard it is for some to have an opinion. After all there are more important things in life, like walking a pet, taking a trip or cleaning the apartment. Why would anyone want to think about this drift towards totalitarian regime when they can sit comfortably on their sofa, have a pint and enjoy a nice reality show or a cheesy movie. Ignorance is a bliss.

But there are people who do have an opinion and don't mind noticing the reality we live in. And this Sunday we are going to take that 10 minutes to spell it out. Enough is enough! Ironically left is the only right way to go now and my choice are the Social democrats. Something's got to change and I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit down and wait for the others to decide for me.

I've got the right to vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

I feel Sziget

1. The Preparation
Erase from my mind:

• healthy,
• quiet,
• clean.

2. The Companions:

• Hard copy,
  
• Paperback.
  

3. Activities:

• concerts,
• beer & Palinka sessions,
  
• Yoga,
• a movie,
  
• creative workshops,
  
• logical games (sometimes breaking it really means that),
  
• shopping,
• gossiping,
• reading,
• napping,
  
• photo taking.

4. Music Highlights :

• Flogging Molly,
• Roisin Murphy,
• The Wombats,
• The Killers.
  

5. Disappointment:

• MGMT

6. Missing in action:

• Burek,
• Soup,
  
• Some peoples' cleaning habits.

7. A Special Thnx to:

• Apis & Doriana for saving a place for our tents.
• Zewa for providing the luxury toilet conditions for my fancy ass.
  
• Slovenian railways for the priceless experience of getting to know different kinds of trains, delays and for giving us a unique chance of exploring the Slovenian countryside.

For more info see below:

Venice

Venice is one of those "must see" cities, like London, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna and Berlin. I finally got to go there and I must say it is lovely and quite romantic. Being there makes you wanna sit by the canal, sip your delicious latte macchiatto and listen to melodic Italian conversations which are far too fast to figure out what the hell are they talking about anyway.

I seemed to have arrived just in time for demonstration of public transport workers but luckily I still caught my bus to the airport :).












And now for something completely different.

B for back from Belfast

Just came back from Northern Ireland and obviously brought back Irish weather with me. It's perfectly natural to get that post-holiday "I wanna go back" feeling but I really do. Ireland isn't beautiful - it's fucking amazing!

First of all, people are really nice and I mean nice, not just polite. I love that "darling" and "love" they add to each sentence although when I come to think of it that would probably sound rather strange in Slovenian. The accent is quite strong though and sometimes doesn't even sound like English at all.

First thing you notice in Ireland (besides the rain) are endless green pastures, lavender fields, woods, loots of sheep, cows and water. Not to mention that wonderful misty "Sherlock Holmes" feeling. Unfortunately my camera broke down on the second day so I didn't manage to make any decent photos apart from the ones in Venice.

Northern coast is simply wonderful. Dunluce Castle and Giant's Causeway are definitely the places to visit and Downhill is just the place from my dreams. I think I might move there someday. Contrary to my belief Ireland wasn't all that expensive and I did manage to do some serious shopping. I must admit I could never keep up with the Irish drinking habits. However it was lovely to be able to tryout different beers and have my share of Guinness.

Belfast is famous for many things but mostly for being the city where they built the Titanic. Yeah, well maybe that's not really something to be so happy about but apparently that company still exists and is quite successful too.

Besides sightseeing, shopping and partying I read more books than in the past year, saw few good movies and a play and went ice-skating. And yeah, about that one thing I've never done before - I think singing off-tune at the karaoke night was quite enough. The only real question is - why the hell did I get back ;)

Is you on holiday?

I tried to remember the last time I had two weeks of vacation. I mean real vacation, not the ones when you work at nicer places. I couldn't remember, so it's either never or about the freaking time to have one already! I wanted to wait another week but my body said "no" to my workaholic schedule. So a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

For the next few weeks I'll be on my vacation mode. Which means:

• no internet, no phone (OK, I might cheat on the internet part a bit),
• no work related stuff whatsoever,
• have a good time,
  
• visit old friends (and maybe make some new ones),
• do something I've never done before (suggestions welcome),
• go to a few concerts,
• take photos (Japanese tourists style),
  
• relax a lot.
  

This year I'm not doing any sun bathing. Intentionally. I guess that shouldn't be too difficult considering where I'm going.

Have a hint:


Now excuse me while I get my tired ass to that beer-relax-enjoy land :)

Blogs and marketing

Being a blogger it's only a matter of time before you start getting spam invitations to join communities or adding some widgets to your site. Most of those are generic invitations, sent to everyone and usually doomed to end up in your Trash. I got this two:

Marketing executive from SocialMatic Team is pleased to inform me my blog is not a total waste of other people's time:


Well, Ms. Alicia Yap, I'd never hire you to do marketing for me and to be honest I don't like your website nor your approach. You offering signing up for me just shows how desperate you are to get more traffic. Besides, I don't want to automatically sign up to 13 more social websites and get more spam to my Inbox.

However there are also people who know how to approach bloggers without fancy titles and big words. I got kind invitation from Pocket cultures' Blogs of the world, who focus on life in different countries. Not only I like the concept AND the blog, their approach is individual, cute and obviously effective. Plus they give the impression the really did read at least one of my posts. Needles to say I said "yes".

Now this is what I call proper marketing:

See Ms. Yap, lousy marketing can do you more damage than the ugly aggressive red banner on your website ;)

This fire is out of control

What on Earth can motivate people to drive in the unbearable summer heat to anther country? Got two words for you: Franz Ferdinand. Even though I've already seen them live I knew it was one of those "longlasting" relationships so I couldn't resist convincing Jota to go with me to the concert. Spinach Fairy tagged along and so we headed towards beautiful Italian city of Ferrara.

Our timing was amazingly perfect. Despite an hour long waiting at the Italian "pay toll" stop we arrived just in time to hear Franz Ferdinand rehearsal, have a couple of beers and some cheap junk food and to take a walk in the city.

The concert was held in the open space of Ferrara Castel and the place was not too crowded. The Cribs seemed fairly average but then again they were not even close to what we all were waiting for - almost two hours of pure joy provided by four Scotsmen.

And so they did - the concert was outstanding! Set list consisted mostly of Franz Ferdinand album, few songs were taken from You could have it so much better and we got to hear quite a lot of new stuff - soon to be released in their third album. What an energy! What a music! What a performance!

40' , Come one home and This Fire were absolute highlights of the evening, not to mention Jacqueline, Fallen and Michael. I missed Darts of pleasure and This boy but I guess the idea of concerts is to leave the audience wanting more. Well, it was successful.

According to what I heard, third album will be much better than the second one and a bit more diverse than the first one. I simply can't wait to get my hands on it. Until then - enjoy the highlights:

Ferrara:

Franz Ferdinand sound check:



High male shoe fashion for Tadej and his shoe fetish ;)

The Cribs:



Franz Ferdinand



Till next time!