Life Is Short. Aim High And Bite Hard! (An Appeal For Assistance)

Jean of Footnotes from a small village and her border collie Lyra came 6th in the Open Freestyle category of this year’s European Dogfrisbee Championship and all that stands between them and USDDN Disc Dog World Finals in Cartersville, Georgia is a few hundred euros that would buy tickets to the other side of the Pond. I urge you to read Jean’s appeal and help if you can. Even if you only bring this to the attention of other people who you think might be willing to help, you’ll do a lot.

Jean and Lyra were a part of our Liberation day expedition last year and needles to say they both completed it. In my book that say a lot about them. Just one thing. if you choose to help, please do so as soon as possible. Time is of the essence.

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Lyra and Jean in action

St. Weed

About five, six weeks ago a highway section near Šentvid on the outskirts of Ljubljana was opened. This 3,2 kilometre strech of the highway connected A2 and A1 highways, diverting hundreds of thousands of passangers daily around Ljubljana. Not. The tunnel was closed on the very same day it opened, because a chunk of fire-retardant foam fell off the ceiling. All eyes turned to the contrator, which just happened to be Ivan Zidar’s SCT. It however claimed that a British subcontractor, Ceramicoat was to blame. The tunnel was reopened, only to be closed a week ago, when another part of the foam fell off, this time hitting and destroying a car of a German tourist. Luckily noone was injured. The result so far: Minister of transport Radovan Žerjav and the board of State Highway Company (DARS) tendered their resignations (but noone accepted them as yet), while the blame game between the minsitry, DARS, SCT, Ceramicoat and supervisors is reaching new heights.

The tunnel, however, remains closed and heavy traffic is still rolling through northern Ljubljana. On the bright side, however, this has sparked a series of rather good jokes, one can laugh at while twiddling one’s thumbs in a traffic jam on a hot August afternoon…

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St. Weed tunnel – fun for the whole family!

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British subcontractors, huh?

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Del-boy! Are you sure that was fire-retardant foam we used?

Naturally, there are some serious political consequences stemming from all of this, but it’ll have to wait…

What A Wonderful Country!

As I was chewing on my electronic rodent to the point where it actually rolled over and pretended to be dead, just to avoid abuse, and while trying very hard to think of someting witty and clever to write (improvisation is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent deodorant commercial) a thought crossed my mind.

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Now, this doesn’t happen very often. Usually it is my mind chasing thoughts, holding them at gun-point and making them cough up whatever it is they are thinking. About. So the sensation of a thought crossing my mind was not unlike being hit by a train. there I was, sitting on the john, all happy and mellow, and suddenly I realized what a marvelous country I live in.

I live in a country where a PM can call a referendum, see an eleven-percent turnout and doesn’t resign. Moreover, he still calls it a resounding victory. He is also caught copying from speeches of foreign leader and still doesn’t resign.

I live in a country where a mayor of a capital can call for a boycott of that very rerendum and survives. Then -when results are in – calls for resignation of the PM. Only a few actually hold the call for boycott against him.

I live in a country where the Attorney General settles old disputes by having the police use excessive force agains a former colleague of hers and she doesn’t resign.

I live in a country where a long-overdue part of a highway is finally opened but is closed only hours later because pieces of concrete start falling of. The minister of transport naturally doesn’t resign.

I live in a country where inflation reached a staggering seven precent and ministers of economy and finance don’t resing. Even more, they’ve nothing to say.

And finally: I live in a chicken-shaped country. Maybe we should let butchers carve it up and form regions :mrgreen: