sharp practice

I don't like shaving, but I don't want a beard either. It would be too itchy and probably ugly as well.

I have read the short book "sharp practice" by Anders Larsen. The book was a history of shaving and also a good manual on different techniques for shaving. Some of the sections on the history of shaving looked like they were copied of the Internet, but he told some good stories. I liked one where he fell asleep in a barber's chair, and the barber shaved all his hair off.

The book was particularly good for learning how to use a cut throat razor. The reality is that I don't have time to properly learn how to use one. Also, it would be a problem to take a cut throat razor in my hand luggage. Still I used to like looking at the cut throat razors in the shops around Manchester Piccadilly railway station.

I would look so cool shaving with a cut throat razor - much more of a man than now, when I shave with a wimpy Gillette Fusion. And I would save money, given the high cost of the fusion blades.

Wine

n the past, my understanding of wine was summed up by the phrase: "I would rather have a beer". I do know that I should have red wine with meat and white wine with fish, because this was covered in the film "From Russia with Love."

Occasionally I get invited to people's homes for a meal, so I bring a bottle of wine. I do find it stressful to chose the wine, because I have no idea, what is considered a good wine. In an attempt to educate myself, I ordered from Amazon the book "I don't much about wine, but I know what I like" by Simon Woods. The book gives a number of hints about wine. I don't want to become a wine snob. I now know that screw tops are not as bad as I thought, before reading the book.

Now I am tempted to get a case or two of wine from Amazon.

The secret ascension

I think I have read most of Philip K. Dick's novels. So how I am going to keep the paranoia going? Luckily Michael Bishop wrote "the secret ascension" that is written in the style of Philip K Dick and actually features Dick as a character from another reality. As you would expect there is an alternative reality, but also stories of normal folk, who are just trying to survive.

Photographs

For a long time I resisted taking photographs. I prefered to let the memory of the scene stay in my brain with no artificial reminders. It is also now almost impossible to walk around any tourirst site, because everyone is taking millions of pictures with their digital cameras, and you don't want to get in their way.

I now of course sometimes take pictures. They do brigten up my blog. My technique is to take a picture when I see something I like, or some scene I can weave into a blog posting. I don't do any planning of the visual aspects.

At my mum's house there was a book called "Creative photography" by David Kilpatrick from Marks and Spencer publishing. The book was full of tips and techniques and frankly an eye opener. I will think more about foregrounds and backgrounds. I have even looked at the instructions of my camera so that I could learn about the zoom.

Halloween

I have so much to do, but today I have been distracted. It is Halloween and Satan is tempting me. I miss the sound of fireworks, as children in the Uk get ready for Guy Faulkes day, by throwing fireworks at strangers.

I was planning on learning hypnosis today, but I am even too apathetic to do that.

The one downside of living by a forest is that it gets depressing when the trees lose their leaves. Ok, so perhaps the new colors are pretty, but it looks so bleak and barren when I look out and see through empty branches to a big road.

I have tried to read some uplifting poetry on the internet, but "Gacela of the Dark Death" by Federico García Lorca made me feel worse.

The Girl who played with Fire

A month ago I finished reading "The Girl who played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson. This is a very popular thriller based on the exploits of Lisabeth Salander .

Lisabeth had a hammer, a can of mace, and some condoms in her bag. Why can't I meet a chick like that? She likes computers too.

After I had told my German teacher that I liked the books by Stieg Larsson, she asked if I dreamed of blood. Luckily I didn't mention that I sometimes read the work by Marquis de Sade.

What is science education for ?

After the many and continuing crisis in the funding of physics in the UK, I have been reading more about science policy.

A couple of weeks ago I finished a books of essays called "What is science education for" . The book was a series of essays prompted by the introduction of some new science GCSE in schools. There was a tension between educating non-scientists and those who wanted to do science at a University level. I am now of the opinion that we need better science educated politicians.

All this worrying about particle physics in the UK will probably affect future relationships. If we are shopping for engagement rings, and my partner says "diamonds are a girl's best friend", I am likely to respond with "I fucking hate Diamond -- it keeps stealing money from particle physics" .

Failure

I have been trying to learn German again. It turned out that there was a free lunch time course at the University. So for two hour and half seesions per week, I try to master Deutsch. The course is a well hidden secret, because there are two students from chemistry and three people from our physics research group in the class.

At the end of the last semester the class was tested for the A2 level. Someone in the EU has standardized the tests for different languages. To cut a long story short. I failed the test. I was the only person who failed. I did all the homeworks and studied for the exam. The exam was actually an order of magnitude harder than the homeworks. Two days after the exam, I went to a meeting in Graz, so I was also writing a talk, and I couldn't do a last minute push.

Anyway, excuses, excuses. So it is just me and the bottle tonight, so time for some shots.....

Second day in Sarajevo

Frankly I had seen most of the old town on the first day of my visit to Sarajevo. So on the second day, I decided to visit a museum. There were two museums close to the railway station.

I should have taken a tram, but it was such a hassle to buy a ticket. Anyway I walked by the tram lines that also followed the river. It was a bit of a boring walk with standard buildings, after I left the old town area. It started to rain.

I wasn't entirely sure that I was going in the correct direction, so I was happy to see signs for the museums. The signs seem to point over the over the river, so over there I trudged in the miserable rain. But then there were no more signs and the area looked residential. So back over the river I went, and I continued my journey to the train station.

I finally did see the museums. I chose to go into the one about the history of the Sarajevo. On a web page somewhere I had read that the was some dispute as to who pays for the museums. ands indeed it did seem slightly run down. The entrance was run by a family.

Everything was in a one big room. There was a lot of historical stuff that showed that Bosnia was a separate country with a long history. This is a big deal, because both Serbia and Croatia have recently wanted to swallow up Bosnia. Before this trip I was slightly cynical about whether Bosnia was a separate nation (based on no facts I might add). I was more convinced by the museum and additional reading that I did. The museum also had exhibits about the siege of Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995. This was really tough on people of Sarajevo. One of perhaps many complaints of them was was that there was an arms embargo, but that only stopped the countries that didn't have large stock piles, such as Bosnia. (There was a Star Trek episode that explained this to me). There were some home made guns on display.

Outside the museum there was kind of small fair. There was a stage with traditional singing, and people doing various fun sporting activities, such as playing table tennis. The rain had stopped so people were smiling. Also there were people in military uniforms teaching the kids to punch pads and use padded sticks. I wanted to do some boxing as well, but I only knew how to say "thank you" in Bosnian, and not "I want to punch my fist through people's heads".

The museums were near the American embassy. There was some kind of fair being set up, sponsored by Redbull, involving tram tracks. I had some chips and a beer at a restaurant near the railway station, and then walked back to the old town.

Stray dogs and cats

There were a lot of stray dogs and cats in Sarajevo. As far as I can tell in Wuppertal, most people have about 3 dogs each, unless they work in the theory group, when they own 2 cats. I was shocked to see animals on their own in Sarajevo, especially given how fast the cars drive. To prove this I show a picture of cat. I think the cat wanted to be friend (if I ad food of course).

Apple

I was walking around Sarajevo. I saw another interesting building. In the window I saw the apple log. This most be the coolest Apple store in the world.

Evening in Sarajevo

Obviously like many people I travel to broaden the mind and try new experiences. So that is my excuse for drinking so much local beer in Sarajevo. My tourist map did show where the brewery was, but I thought that was going too far.

There was alcohol available in Sarajevo but it is not a place with a lot of drinking dens. Most people sat outside cafes with a coffee.

First day in Sarajevo

The hotel gave me a simple map, but it wasn't clear where I was on it. On the streets the cars were moving very fast. They seemed to come at me from all directions. There were pavements, but people had parked their cars on the full pavements, so you had to walk on the road to get around it. It didn't take long to find the pedestrian area. I didn't want to lose the route back to my hotel, so I spent a lot of time trying to pin my location on my map. I was at the entrance to the old town, by the Sebilj water fountain. It could not have been simpler.

The old town area was full of bustling shops selling food and trinkets. There looked as though there were a few crazy people on the street, but they didn't bother me. (Note there were the same amount of crazy people as you would see in Glasgow say). If you are interested in this sky religion business, there were many churches and cathedrals close to synagogues.

I was looking forward to seeing the Latin Bridge where archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. This event triggered the start of the first world war, although perhaps it was just an excuse for the great powers to declare war on each other. It didn't take me much time to find the bridge. Given the amount of death caused by in the first world war, I expected to feel some bad vibes, but no. On the other side of the river was a nice little park and a cafe, that I spent much happy time reading in.

In the evening I decided to try some Bosnian food. So I had a kebab, which was very tasty.

First night in Sarajevo

After a 11 hour train journey I felt I needed beer. I dimly remember some words about a minibar in the description of the hotel. After a frantic 5 minutes of pulling open all the doors in my room, and even checking under the bed, I decided there was no fridge in my hotel room. So I thought, it is time for a walk.

As I went out of the hotel onto the road, I found I was close to a huge graveyard. So this is what they mean by "old town" I thought. Should I go up or down the hill. There was no prospect of exciting neon in either direction. I saw two couples come down the hill with white plastic bags that looked to contain groceries. So up the hill I went and I eventually found a mini market. Unfortunately, there was no cider so I couldn't go into the graveyard and drink in the traditional English manner. It is probably a good think that I didn't, because the grave stones didn't look very Christean.

The journey to Sarajevo

My plan for this holiday was to fly into Zargreb and then fly back from Sarajevo. This is possible with cheap airlines, because they are happy for you to take single journeys. I knew I could get the train from Zagreb to Sarajevo, but I hadn't looked into details such booking a ticket. I was slightly dismayed to see that the train took 9 hours. It started at 9:00 and got to Sarajevo at 18:00. Also various online posts told me that there was no dining car on the train, but that people would sometimes get on and sell food and drink.

I was bit nervous about this, because a number of things could go wrong. Also there are only two trains a day. The second train is a night train. For example if railway clerk didn't understand English then buying the ticket would be hard. As it was he did speak English. We did have a problem when his machine wouldn't except my credit card. Luckily the ticket was only about 35 Euro, so I had enough local currency to pay in cash.

The train was a standard local train with compartments of 6 seats. I have been spoilt in other parts of Europe with access to high speed trains. Luckily the train was only 25% full, so there was plenty of room. The train seemed to stop every 20 minutes or so at really small stations, so it was a real stopping train. It was never very clear that the place the train had stopped at was actually even a station. I usually couldn't see any signs, but people just got on or off. We did stop at some bigger stations with modern utilities such as platforms. My passport was checked at the Croatia-Bosnia border.

Most people just seemed to stay on the train for less than two hours. Only the really stupid people stayed on the full journey.

The 6 seat compartment trains are more social, because you are more likely to have to have to talk to other passengers, if course only if you can all speak the same language. These type of trains remind me of Agatha Christie novels, so I worry that I will get murdered. At one point in the journey we went through a tunnel with no lights on. This is it I thought.

I did talk to one guy who spoke English. He asked if he could smoke in the compartment. I said yes. He would just have gone into the corridor and smoked at the window like 50% of the other passengers, so it made no difference. He was training to be a lawyer. He also told me the train was almost 2 hours late. My heart sank, but at least I was spared the worry of trying to work out whether each little stop was Sarajevo.

After 11 hours the train stopped at a big station that I hoped was Sarajevo, so I got out. There seemed a lot of soldiers travelling in combat uniform, but unarmed. Somehow the train seemed bigger than the one I got on Zagreb. The station was small, grubby and quiet for 20:00. I couldn't find a cash machine, which sucked because I had no local currency. After a 5 minute walk in the dark I found a cash machine at a nearby bus station. The view from the railway station was not promising: a big ugly car park, some big buildings with brightly lit neon signs.

Google maps is not very detailed for Sarajevo, in fact it is totally useless The wikipedia entry for Sarajevo warns of the taxi drivers at the railway station or airport who charge a lot, or run a scam where they take you to the wrong hotel. Given that in previous holidays I have been ripped off by taxi drivers and have spent many hours bitterly cursing them. I was not looking forward to talking to the taxi driver. After I was done with worrying I told the taxi driver the address of my hotel, he said "7 Euros", and mentally I jumped for joy. On the drive from the station, I didn't see many shops or bars. I hope there is a little nightlife here I thought.

Some pictures of Zagreb

I didn't take many pictures of places of interest in Zagreb. I was excited to see a church with iron bars over the statues of saints -- a bit hard core security if you ask me. The other pictures are either the Cathedral or of the square around the Cathedral. Whenever I see a cathedral I just think of the workers who were exploited to build it. Of course my good friend the Archbishop of Canterbury might say they built it, with blood and Faith. I would reply "Brain washing".

When I was wandering around on Thursday I went through an arch. The tourist sign said "Roman arch". In side the small tunnel was a small church of some kind. I was surprised by this, particularly as after my various experiments with the occult, I am not sure whether I can stand on hallowed ground any more. Apparently I can though, if taken by surprise.

2nd day in Zagreb

I managed to see even fewer museums in Zagreb on the Thursday. Either the museum I tried to find didn't exist, or I couldn't the map properly. I did go the market again, which was open and people were selling lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.

I tried to find the Zagreb museum. This involved walking up a big hill. I was zoning in on the location. As I got close there were TV cameras and people standing around. There were black cars with police lights on the top of them. I didn't want to get involved with police.

"So why do you want to learn about the history of Zagreb. Perhaps you have some miltary interest?"

Anyway I looked at the police cars and cameras, and suddenly the thought of a cool beer at an outside cafe came into my mind.

What I did in Zagreb

What did I do for two whole days in Zagreb. Not a lot if the truth be told. It started so well. After breakfast I thought it is time for me to hit the museums and galleries. There is a big art gallery in Zagreb with a lot of paintings by old masters, but I couldn't find it. There was a big building with scaffolding around it.

I did find the modern art gallery. The first painting I saw covered the wall. It had a number of women semi-naked in a lake. Some kind of "lord" was lying on the bank watching the women. Some of the women were being attacked. Frankly a bit disturbing. There were many pictures of people from Croatia from beginning of the twentieth century to before the second world war. They all looked a bit sinister, like Bond villains. There was one women wearing tweeds and carrying a shot gun (nice).

Unfortunately I couldn't see any toilets in the building. I had drank too much coffee and juice at breakfast, so I rather rushed through the modern abstract art, so I could go for a quick piss in the toilet at the shopping Mall.

Then I wondered around in the sun for a bit. There are many park benches around Zagreb, so it is a good place to read outside. I wasn't feeling very well. This could of been because of the stress of travelling, or a real illness, or some bad beer the night before. I did find the cathedral and saw the close of some famous market. I walked back to the hotel, but I one last go to find the technical museum. I was feeling worse and worse, and couldn't find the blasted museum. I did find the botanical gardens. I had a sit down in the quiet. I didn't tour the gardens, but it was very green and peaceful. I began to feel better, so I walked back to my hotel.

Close to the Zagreb railway station

My hotel was behind a concert hall that itself was behind the railway station. There is a big mall underground close to the station. There were fast food options, and a big supermarket.

I have to admit that I found Croatian women very attractive. (I am sure that they will be all thrilled to learn that and even more thrilled that I am now out of the country.) I think somehow the warmer weather allows more elegant (but casual) clothes. I did try to explore the Mall. I got lost in a maze of designer shops, with cute women looking at new shoes and jeans. In the past I have only liked the book and CD shops in shopping malls. Now that the internet revolution has come and I buy mostly from Amazon or Itunes, so there is nothing, that I could buy, in a shopping mall to interest me. This sudden burst of lust was brought on because I suddenly realized that my chat up line "so do want to come to live in a EU country that doesn't use the crappy Euro" will no longer work. The standard of life in the center of Zagreb looked better or the same as in the UK. Especially, when the UK economy is going to get hit by the Conservative (and liberal) party's massive cuts. Also the weather in Zagreb is better and the cafe life is cooler. With my fantasy love like in ruins, I picked up some cans of beer, and slinked back to my hotel to watch TV.

First night in Zagreb

Unfortunately Expedia had just told me that my hotel was close to the train station. I still needed to use my trusty map reading skills to get me to the hotel. The sun was bright hot, so I was sweating. There were massive outside cafes with people just hanging out drinking coffe and chatting. I was ready to join them, but I still had to find my hotel. There were signs for many other hotels, but not mine. I wasn't too surprised by this, because I usually only stay in cheap hotels.

After some pacing around trying to get my directions, I was getting no where. Eventually I remembered that a train station could have a front and a back. My hotel was around the back.