Death to monopoly!!!

Just returned from extended holidays back home. (Merry christmas BTW). But anyway- I'm pissed. Why? Because of broadband internet. Or the lack of it to be more precise.
OK to make long story short- only few weeks ago the national telecommunications provider (and still de facto monopolist BTW) Telekom Slovenije managed to extend optic fibre network (neccesarry for broadband internet) all the way to my home village. "Great" - you'd say. "Great"- that was what we all said- finally we'll be rid of those squeaky painstakingly slow analog modems. But as always with this situations the milk went sour. Almost to fast. The only internet provider, that started signing in users was SIOL (owned by Telekom BTW). "Great!" - my parents said- they always wanted to have more channels on their TV without the need of expensive satellite dishes - SIOL offers 120 channel digital TV together with their broadband internet. Now, troubles started as soon as I made inquiry. "Sir - SIOL TV only comes together with 1 Mbs broadband internet and IP phone number- only in a package called Paket trio". "But... I only need SIOL TV, and 256 kbps broadband internet. No new phone number.". "Sorry sir, it's either all or nothing". "What about if I take smaller package- can I than upgrade just for TV?". "I'm sorry".
OK, I said, so I'll pay little something more, so my parents can enjoy 120 channel TV, together with all the joys of the broadband internet. When they called me that early wednesday morning, on the 21st December to tell me one of their workers would come to plug us in, I was rid of my doubts- at least they do it fast!!!
So, imagine my surprise when I came home last saturday, and I connected TV to the ADSL modem and there was no picture? "OK." I said. "At least they have 24h support desk". I called, and I managed to talk to someone after just 15 minutes being on queue. "Yes sir. I'll have one of our technicians look into it. No problem.". And some technician obviously did. Because after few hours not only that TV wasn't working- neither was internet. So I called again. No such luck as getting the operator. So- next day- christmas eve I finally managed to get someone. Who told me that it must be problem with infrastracture, and he'd let know someone on Telekom. Needless to say- 4 days later no sign of any technician, and no sign of internet. Serve me right. Next time I won't rush into things. And neither will I pay any bills before someone finally moves their butts. I mean- I know it's holiday season. I know things are bound to go wrong at the start. But I do think, that even f***** monopolists should show some basic friendliness together with a true will to help. Or am I just simply to naive?

The christmas mood (or the lack of it)

What's summer without sun, or winter without snow? Well, while we are still quite fortunate with summers, winters suck lately. Last week it was 15 C during the day. 15 in December... We just might end up like British or Irish- seeing snow as rarity like tornadoes or 15 days without rain. And while global warming is already causing havoc on our fragile world, some smart scientists (being paid by oil companies) declare there's no direct link between global warming and the rate of pollution. Right. For all you who haven't seen All Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth - I suggest you do. It's very good and it'll show you where this all is leading...

Winter fairy tale- 29th January 2005

There was a LOT of snow that week

Anyway, wandered off a bit. I miss old ways of celebrating winter holidays. When we put up Christmas tree only few days before Christmas. And streets, and shops weren't decorated in Christmas fashion three days after Halloween. It's crazy what commercialism is doing to us- we are being brainwashed by decorations, commercials, even with songs we listen on the radio every day. It all leads to one thing- shop, shop, shop!!! And when Christmas finally comes, you've been brainwashed to the point where it's not by far as special as it used to be...
But anyway... Not everything is bad. Like Christmas decorations on the streets of Ljubljana. Or skating ring and mulled wine stalls...

Wintery Ljubljana by night

Ice skating pose

Neighbours doing their own fireworks on New Year eve

London

If life would be fair, I'd never have to write the previous post, and there would already be a bigger and merrier post about my weekend in London. But anyway... Life has to go on, no matter of personal tragedies.
OK... The story of London is as follows. My Wizzair flight to London was late. But I didn't care- once you're on vacation this things happen right. Than we had to wait in fully boarded plane because of bad weather at Luton. Than the passport control queue at Luton was stretching virtually from arrival gates. But well- I was on vacation right? Than the bus to London was full so I had to wait for the next one. And than the bus driver was Sikh with thick accent, and I wasn't quite used even to English accent at that stage, so when he shouted something similar to (Bewly stree) I said to myself- "No, that can't be it", so when bus went from the station and I saw a picture of Sherlock Holmes on one of the buildings it was already to late. Anyway- to shorten the story I was at hostel at 11 pm, but still happy to have a weekend off.

The following two days were much better. On saturday I met with my friends Nat and Dan, the Slovene-Canadian/English couple who are going to be married next October. Haven't seen them in 4 years, so I was really glad to meet them. Little did I know that we'd see each other in less than a week again (but that is a story of previous post). Anyway. We did a boat trip on Thames, and the best pub crawl ever.

Natalija and Dan

London by boat

Getting home after hard night out

Next day I went to do some sightseeing. I probably don't have to mention I was a bit dehidrated and all, right? ;-) Did some normal touristy stuff + went to few bookshops.

Diana's fountain at Kensington Gardens

Royal coat of arms at Buchingham palace

British museum

Monday was day to go home, so I only did a bit of shopping, and loads of travelling. My best experience of this prolonged weekend has to be meeting Natalija and Daniel and just not doing anything remotely useful. You know- just let your brains go, and enjoy yourself. It worked...

In memoriam...

To great man, person who showed us, that it's possible to be honest, hard working and kind. Person who did what he believed, and believed in what he did. Who was a great role model and friend for me, my family, neighbours and everyone who knew him. A man who could make you laugh to tears, but never insulted anyone. Our lives will be emptier without him. It hurts just to think about the loss, and my thoughts are with his family. If there is a heaven I know of no better person to deserve it.
Čača, may you rest in peace. A person like you cannot be forgotten....