Beatsteaks

The weekend started with an announcement that Discharge canceled the show in Mochvara due to an illness of the bass player. I was a little bit disappointed because of that but either way, the Beatsteaks were the once I was expecting.

The friend from Makarska had a little incident in the city center. He and his friends were mistaken for two football fans from Split and fiscally assaulted by Zagreb's football fans. They barely escaped alive and had to leave Zagreb the same day. Oh, the stupidity and meaningless intolerance of football fans. Come on, the guys just came to see a punk show.

That evening I ended up at a friends birthday party watching people getting wasted and for some reason having the urge to bake bread. To bad I had to leave before the they finished baking. I went home earlier because I had to finish my seminar presentation before noon tomorrow.

The next day we were going to have a party ant my place before going to the concert and since I was so enthusiastic about Pero visiting me, and meeting his girlfriend and her friend, which I absolutely loved and are amazing and open minded people, they got me drunk with all the booze that they brought in after a whole month of abstinence.

The concert turned out great. Overflow was amazing and I was so proud too see them again, being a prominent band from Croatia. By the time the Beatsteaks came up to stage, I was quite drunk from all the rounds my friend made, that my good judgment weather this was the best Beatsteaks concert I attended was clouded. Anyway I had lots of fun.

We had dinner at Boban on Sunday night before Pero left and I had some of the best pasta in Zagreb, recommended from Pete's girlfriend, who enjoys the same things in life and likes similar restaurants as I do.

More to come later this afternoon....

Concert Abundance

First of all I would like to say that I visited the Scholarship Fare and made some good contacts and gathered useful information. I was given a handout of a London private postgraduate school which has a spacial offer for students coming from Croatia, but the catch is you still have to pay a tuition sum and your accommodation expenses, which are quite high in London. Another cool scholarship is the one from the American embassy, which if you get picked pays for everything. Here you have to pas an international English language test and a preliminary test of knowledge in the field you are interested in.

Since all my posts absolutely cannot pass trough without a food experience or retrospection I will just say that I perfected my sushi skills. I received my order of smoked tofu and for that reason made avocado, tofu sushi rolls. Just look at my masterpiece.



I also went to Vrutak Vine shop, and ended up with two sorts I haven't tried before on the recommendation of the personnel working there, all from the San Pedro wine makers of Chile. One is a Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 called Castillo de Molina, which according to Vrutak staff , resembles Caliterra Cabernet Sauvignon (one of my favorites) at more favorable price. The other is a Shiraz of the same wine maker, an up the ladder version of Gato Negro Shiraz called 35 South, which I opened yesterday and found it quite good and rich flavored but not much of an improvement from Gato Negro version.

Last night was the start of concert rich weekend. I went to Kset for a British Ska punk band which made quite a show last night. They have a female vocal with a very funny voice. I first thought their songs were in Japanese, she has a very high voice that in a few occasions pierced my eardrums. Another downturn was that the venue was packed and there was no air inside so I almost collapsed a couple of times.
My friend from Makarska is coming this afternoon and we are going to see Discharge play in Mochvara tonight. Ohh, almost forgot, Pero is also coming later this day to visit his new girlfriend and for the catch of the month, Beatsteaks playing a show in Zagreb with Overflow as the opening band. He keeps saying that he is going to stay at my place, but he will probably end up at her crib, I truly hope he will.

Another ting I found out this morning is that I have to finish my part of the FDD seminar I'm having with my colleagues, by Sunday. This happening during my friends stay is highly improbable, so I have until 2pm today to get that done. A rainy day outside goes in favor...

Writing a Resume

A terrible tummy ache woke me up and I am still dubious about the cause of it. Was it something bad I ate?
I have spent the morning writing a resume or curriculum vitae for the Scholarship Fair taking place at the University Library tomorrow. I am hoping on getting a scholarship for postgraduate study next year and my top priority would be a international one, New York would be a dream.

Later on I went to collage for two lectures I had this day and suddenly I realized my ache was gone. The lectures lasted until 3pm and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.

It has been raining non stop since yesterday so I came home soaked. This is a downside of having no umbrella during rainy days, e e e e.

Since I decided to make eggplant lasagna tomorrow, AGAIN, so I quickly made a tomato sauce for tomorrows recipe, a part of which was meant for todays lunch. I even added some zucchinis and a carrot sliced into small pieces which I served with brown rice.

Hope the rain stops by tomorrow morning, because I need to go to collage for a seminar and a meeting about a presentation I am having with my colleagues before I go to the fair. I also have to do the CV copies, copies of the materials for the presentation and copies of materials for my mum's project. It is also my friends birthday so I have to take care of a preasent. Oh, busy, busy, busy!

The Apple Pie Frenzy Continues

If there is a title to name this day, it should definitely be "Leftovers Day". I've truly enjoyed the rest of the Sushi from the party the previous day. It was not that bad although I decided, the next time I make sushi, it's going to be vegetarian, because it can probably last longer in the fridge.

I had coffee with my friend this morning and invited him for a taste of the magic. He is really a good friend of mine but a bit of a copy cat. I think that the pleasures in life and interests I seem to enjoy are quite new to him. But he embraces and becomes quite keen to them. He loves the cuisine I am keen to, which is mostly vegetarian since I'm reluctant to meet, he loves my cooking and has, on my incentive, become quite found of red wine. I order not to sound pompous and arrogant I am not going to say that he is idolizing my life stile.

Any how the peak of the day was desert. Another frenzy started once I opened the Apple Pie box mom sent me. They were even better the next morning once the apple juice kind of moisture the pastry. Just couldn't stop. There are only four left and I am saving them for tomorrow.

Sushi Party

Since the day I experienced the magic of Japanese cuisine for the firs time in New York, especially Sushi, I just fell in love with it and have been waiting for a chance to make it myself.
We decided to make it today and went to a supermarket to buy groceries. We decided to make ordinary rolls filled with smoked salmon ( I wanted to go with raw fish, but since I had company, I didn't want to gamble, so at least all the ingredients were edible) , avocado and smoked tofu. We managed to find everything we needed in a near supermarket, so we were all settled to make our first sushi.

The most important part is to prepare the rice right. It takes about an hour to do so including cooking and cooling along with the procedure in between. Another hard part is rolling the stuff right, and the first few tries didn't turn out right, bits falling off, Nori seaweed not sticking well etc... But since there was so much rice and filling, as we went on, we got the hang of it and the result was excellent.


After we finished with the preparation, the feast could begin. We drank some Rosemount Road Red which was a tremendous choice to go with it. Fe managed to finish the first plate and were full before we could start with the other one, so I have leftovers for tomorrow. Another thing was that my mom sent me some Apple Pie made with brown sugar. I wanted to try just one piece, but the taste was so good that the the final number was a dozen. I am so stuffed right now that it is a miracle that I am even writing this right now . I'm dozy and I should probably go to sleep, but am reluctant to do so because the Rocky Horror Picture Show is playing on TV later this night.

Anticipating the Oriental Saturday

Saturday, a Sushi party is taking place at my place. It was an idea that came to my mind during coffee I had with my friends Franciska and Lara. We were supposed to go and by the groceries with my aunt's car but unfortunately she is on a business trip to Hvar co the car is not disposable. No worries, we are going shopping by foot, less carbon-dioxide in to the atmosphere. My only worry is how I to get to Vrutak and buy a few bottles of red wine for the event. I will try to make the effort of going there alone earlier in the morning. I am aiming for Gato Negro Shiraz, a good choice for a bargain price.
This is the firs time I am actually making Sushi, so we will see how my experiment turned out. I hope I won't disappoint them.

Another ting I noticed looking again at the bookstore add is that the 20 percent discount begins today, so my purchase yesterday was in vain. Well not exactly in vain, because I would have bought the books anyhow and the total price wasn't that big so the discount is neglectable. As I went trough the first pages of JPod, I find it quite witty and amusing.

A Eggplant & Zucchini dish with Wildrice

Wild rice, something I haven't tried before... But I find it quite a refreshing change to original or even integral rice and am definitely going to prepare it again. Alongside wild rice I prepared a tomato veggie sauce. A combo of eggplant, zucchini and carrots seasoned with fresh basil, garlic and a touch of soy sauce. Absolutely magnificent, finished with a glass of Casillero Del Diablo.




Another thing i found today browsing trough the Internet is that a local bookstore is having a 20 percent discount on foreign titles so I went to town and bought myself two new books. One is JPod a novel from Douglas Coupland, the bestselling author of Generation X and the other is God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens. A book about how religion poisons everything, and how a moral and humane life can be achieved without pursuing religious dogma.

The Starting Kit

Nothing like a fresh mug of Turkish Coffee to boost the day. Trough out the years it has become my expertise to make a fresh pot each morning, and the day just not the same without it. The pot I am using is already missing the handle and you can only pour a limited amount of water in it because it has two holes somewhere above the middle. I could easily buy a new one, but I am determined to stick with it until I graduate, it grew to my heart.

It is a cloudy morning and I still don't know what to expect of the day. Fortunately after a little bit of reading, I will someone have someone who is going to have coffee with me in the Center. I have almost finished reading Alan Gereenspan's book, and am currently in the middle of the chapters covering the emergence of socialist counties of East Asia, countries like China and the "Asian Tigers", their transition from planned to market economies and their struggles during the process. It is an amazing book and it helped me a great deal to understand how world markets and economies work and the historic battles countries had with ever present problems in their national economies.

Dwelling...

The mornings in Zagreb are starting to get cold. I've experienced that the last couple of mornings when going to collage. At least it is still sunny during the day...

I concluded that I have to to make more sense with this blog and express my opinions, in as few sentences as possible, instead of just making it another boring day to day diary. Making a point as clearly as possible is the power of good writing and you can achieve this only by writing simple and precise. It is my wish that with this blog I advance my writing skills.

I am also trying to persuade my friend to go with me on a shopping trip this Wednesday to Graz. There is a tourist agency organizing the one day shopping trip each week with a bus. I think she is still hesitating because the bus leaves at 5.30am, but I think the trip is going to be worth the effort.

Everybody is amazed with my eggplant lasagna recipe and willing to come over next time I make it. I am considering doing them again this week, maybe even tomorrow because my mom sent me o whole eggplant sack along with my Sainte Catherines shirts last week.

Todays picture is a simple recipe I made for lunch. Pasta made with olive oil, garlic, anchovies, capers and black olives topped with fresh basil. A Mediterranean dish. Real simple, real healthy...

Weekend

This weekend passed in a frenzy musical tone. Friday I was all set to go to Borongaj for the opening of the new student campus where a big concert was going to take place. I met with a lot of my friends this week, and mentioned going to the concert. It appeared that I made arrangements with everybody I talked to so I was supposed to go there with everybody, which is physically impossible. The other problem is that nobody knew where the new campus was situated and how to get there.

Domagoj called me and said that he will pop by my apartment after lunch. We had some beers and listened to music after which we took off to pick up a friend who was on the way to Borongaj.
Reaching the venue was a nightmare. It took a tram, a short walk and two buses to get there, we just had to follow the crowd.
The concert took place under a big tent and there were tons of people there and the whole event was organized professionally, from police squads, toilettes, medical service to food and beverages.

We just came on time to see Kud Idijoti play and they were excellent. An old punk rock band from Istria always worthy for a good show. After them came The Beet Fleet, in my opinion the best hip hop band in Croatia, and they really kicked ass.

The night definitely didn't end quickly after the show. I've seemed to miss the last bus home so my cross town marathon started at about half pass midnight. It took approximately one and a half hours to get back home. Going home with my two drunken friends didn't help getting home quicker either, one of which had to pass by my neighborhood. But I had fun going with them so I don't regret it.

The next day I wasn't sure if I was giong anywhere that night, but inviting my friend Gogo over to lunch made me change my mind. We decided to go to Boogaloo to see Đubrivo play after watching the football game on TV. Croatia was playing a qualification match against Israel.
I've made my famous whole wheat pasta with veggies and soy and it was simply delicious. We started talking about wine after lunch and somehow found ourselves on the way to Vrutak wine cellar buying red wine. They really have an excellent choice of international wine for a reasonable price.

I was amazed to find the new Rosemount Estate Road Red which is a mixture of Shiraz and another sort, which we opened later that night. It was truly fabulous. A rich grape, fruity flavor with a dark Rubin color and and amazing smell. I found myself a new favorite...

A Divine Meal

I made my eggplant lasagna recipe for lunch today and it was truly magnificent. So tasteful, healthy and simple, the colors are amazing as you can see from the picture. After that a nice glass of Gato Negro Shiraz and you have a perfectly balanced meal.

My friend with whom I had coffee earlier this day refused my invitation for lunch, doubting my culinary skills. After lunch I've sent her a MMS of the plate and she quickly changed her mind and regretted not coming for lunch.

Another good news is that the price of HT equities jumped 6%, which was exactly 1 Kuna above the bid order I had placed, so I've managed to sell half of my equities and make a 50% profit making it a capital gain of more than 4oookn.

Rubik's Cube

A cloudy day of having no actual obligations was offset by trying to solve the most popular toy ever made, The Rubik's Cube which was kindly given to me by my friend who defaulted on that matter.
I got started by looking for some simple tips on the Internet, just to get me started.

I found out that the simplest, now that I think of only way to solve it is by going to three layers solving each of them respectively. There is an algorithm for each level and as you go on, they get heavier, have more moves and are more complex to solve, because of the limited amount of movement.

The first layer I solved quite fast because it is the simplest, but the second one gave me quite a ponder but I got the hang of it soon enough. A for the third level, I start to think that it is impossible to solve. After numerous attempts, which all got me on the very begging of the puzzle, I went on the Internet and found out that the algorithm to move cubicles on the last layer contains somewhat 16 moves, which is scary, so I am starting to doubt my abilities.

Well, at least it is getting me thinking and sharpening my mind. I will give it another try today, since there is nothing in particular to do, except I am cooking vegetarian eggplant lasagna, mmmmm.

First lecture

My day started a little bit earlier than usual. I woke up at about 6:30am in order to gather all things necessary to go to the Brokerage Office and place a bid order to sell my equities in person, because I figured that it will be impossible to reach a broker by phone. I started with a healthy breakfast (a bowl of fruit cereals) and a mug full of my favorite fluid, being coffee...
Soon enough I found myself riding the city tram towards the Center, and was surprised that the construction work on the one of the tram lanes was finished and that after a full year I have direct line to collage. This is quite nice during Winter Blizzards.

There was already a small queue once I came to FIMA (the brokerage house) since it wasn't open for another 30 minutes. Standing in line I was quite surprised about the ignorance of the people waiting, because non of them didn't have a clue about what they are dealing with and what they still had to go trough.

After a while a broker came out and asked for people who already registered their equities and only needed to place an order. It appeared that I was the only one , so the broker had quite a hard time explaining to the rest what they needed to do in order to sell their stock.
Another brutish and uncivilized, quite obese lady tried to run me over and cut in before me but the broker kindly gave notice that I arrived first.

Unfortunately, the price of the stock fell 3.5% so my order didn't get trough today. I am really optimistic about the price increasing these days, but some financial annalists are predicting it to be somewhere around 350-380 this week, and my bid was 389 so we will see.

Later today I had my first lecture in Income and Corporate Taxation, actually it was just an introduction so it lasted only a few minutes. After that I had lunch with Miha at his place. We had Whole wheat pasta with Milanese Sauce and fresh basil. It was truly delicious!

I already have some arrangements for this weekend. It seems that in occasion of opening the new campus, the university has organized a free concert and Kud Idijoti will be playing there, so a lot of people I know are going to be there. Can't wait!

Good Riddance

It is finally time to say fer well to my home town because I'm leaving for Zagreb this afternoon. It has been and amazing 4 months of leisure, but its time to start living as a student again. Quite frankly, it has become a little bit dull and lifeless since everybody's gone back to the university, but that also got me time to charge my batteries , relax and enjoy a good read before going back.

I've packed my bags, had a real good home cooked meal, filled a bag of tangerines picked from the tree in my garden and am waiting for a my ride. It is a beautiful, sunny day and I am glad I've experienced it here in Zadar.
Ahhh, the comforting tranquility of Summer has finally come to an end.

Sinister Rouges first official race

Yesterday was the first time Sinister Rouge raced on a regatta since we purchased it, and the turnout was more than we expected. After we spent the whole summer practicing and testing the boat, we decided that Mrduja is going to be the boats first regatta, and damn, was a exciting one.

Thanks to my friend, who voluntarily transfered the boat to Split the day before and was waiting for us there, my father and me, who were the rest of the team, headed towards Split the morning of the race. According to the weather forecast, we weren't supposed to be blessed with good wind, and the race was 20 miles long, so do the math...

This year was a record breaker , according to the number of participants. There were 324 participating sailboats, and it was a magnificent sight to see them all on the race line in front of Split harbor. The start was scarce of wind, so having a good strategy was essential in order to be the first to get fresh wind once it appears, and drift forward.

We got a excellent start and managed to distinguishes ourselves from the rest of the stagnating mass, even tough we didn't have a essential sail used in conditions with scarce wind.
At the end of a 5 hour race we came in 77th and just second in our group of 20 boats, which was a tremendous result. The best part was finally getting a chance to eat something, because there was no time to do so during the race, after which drinking a cold Heineken felt like heaven.

The awards ceremony took place at 8:30pm, where we received a big trophy for second place, after which we headed home. I was exhausted and slept like a baby once I feel on the bed. It was truly a day to remember.

HT stock hit the market

I , along with somewhat 350 000 people, was quite anxious this morning to see what the outcome of HT stock hitting the market would be. And as expected the the enormous interest produced stock hitting its peak at 419 3 minutes after the market opened, producing also a short period collapse which was fixed promptly so the trading continued soon enough.
Toady the most sought out persons were stock brokers and it was almost impossible to reach one. This resulted in brokerage houses taking measures of protecting themselves against angry ''citizens'' not being able to become billionaires the very instant moment the stock hit market, by hiring security personnel.

I want of that luck to get in touch with my broker and claiming a bid warrant to sell my stock. The thing that got my hopes up was reaching the Depositary Agency and registering my stock with the Brokerage House, but that is as far as it got. The equity finally settled at a fair price slightly above 370, which is actually a good profit margin for the ones lucky enough to sell their stock. Better luck on Tuesday when the market opens up again, because of Monday being a national holiday.

Now for some reading and later this afternoon I might go out, being Friday and all. Just need to come back early enough because we leave at about 7 am towards Split for the race tomorrow. Cant afford to drink this evening so a have a sharp mind.

A busy day for the Financial System

I've been up since 7am persistently fighting on two fronts. One of them is reaching my stock broker and another to reach the Central Depository Agency to register my shares of T Com with the brokerage company. The lines were busy all day and eventually I found out the phone system at the Depository crashed. I will try my luck later this day. It appears that every person in the country is trying to find a broker and register their shares. The stock hits the market on Friday and everybody is eager to be the first in line to sell them tomorrow. The only problem is that the financial system of Zagreb Stock Exchange is fit to conduct the maximum amount of 20 000 transactions a day and there are 150 brokers available on more than 300 000 people that actually bought the stock and every one of them is willing to come out with a profit.
It is going to be an interesting day tomorrow and I have a deep concern that the market is going to crash.

A bus ride home

I am actually heading home right now, so this post is bound to happen from a bus ride, thanx to broadband mobile connections . Ahhh the magnificence and ease of modern technology. Too bad its also the cause of our ecological ruin.
Back to the cause of my early trip back to my home town. There is a sailing race this Saturday taking place in Split and I am participating on it with my sail boat UFO22 called Sinister Rouge. The biggest problem is transporting the boat from Zadar to Split because it is a small boat and it doesn't have an inbuilt engine. Thats why we are going to have to tag it along with a bigger sailboat also heading towards Split this Wednesday and I have to go with them.
This also gives me a chance to have a fair fer well party with my friends on Saturday night. After that it is back to Zagreb.
Oh, I almost forgot. I've stumbled down on some news regarding the new ecologically friendly Google search engine called Blackle, which due to its black background saves energy. Apparently monitors require more power displaying lighter screens than black, which is quite logical. It's the small steps that count, so that is why I took the effort to change my homepage from the regular Google to Blackle.

Route 66

Yesterday was a quite busy day and I've been on my feet from early morning. First of all I had to go to the university to meet with my buddy Miha , who has been of great help during my years of study and a grate friend. We had coffee in a bar near the faulty building.
I've applied for the government scholarship this year, which I really hope to get and will be a tremendous financial relief for my future plans. The final scholarship recipients will be announced in late January.

Another important thing was closing the contract with my stock broker and registering the IPO stock of T-Com I purchased with the brokerage company. The stock is going to be listed on the market this Friday and I have a good hunch the price is going to go up, so I'm hoping to get out with a profit.

The afternoon plan was to go with my friend Bo eye shopping in the new Avenue Mall in Novi Zagreb. A really impressive building with lots of different designer stores, restaurants, gadget shops, cafes and a large cinema multiplex.

Already exhausted, I decided to make another stop before I went home. I met with Zlatko an old punk friend who was going to a rockabilly show in the bikers bar Route 66 which was quite near my neighborhood. The band playing came from America and attracted quite a crowd, which was also a downfall because the venue/bar was really small and people were struggling to catch a breath and some to catch a sight.
Anyway after a few beers I decided it was time to go home and call an end to the day. I've put my headphones , pushed play on an Alkaline trio album and hit the road.

My neighborhood is a construction mecca

It is quite fascinating how a good after lunch read and coffee brake can be abruptly interrupted and spoiled by the most annoying sounds of construction work. There are new buildings around mine growing like mushrooms. Plus there is a guy directly above my flat doing remodeling and making quite a racket. Hope that thing will get more quiet once the hardcore studying starts.

A new beginning...

Today is the day I turn a new leaf in the book portraying my life. I am back in Zagreb for the beginning of my senior year at the University. It is probably my most important year which is actually going to determine the way things will go in my further life. So many things on my mind these days that I am actually not quite sure where to start, but I'm positive that...(I was jut interrupted by my mother calling to see how I'm doing. Good old mum, she is the expert of picking up the time to call). Anyhow I am sure that I will manage to stress out the crucial things going on in my life as time goes by. Actually this blog will probably be a good way to clear my head and folder the things bothering me at the time.
This is it for today because, more to come in the arriving days. Now it is time for some reading, to be exact, Alan Greenspan's The Age Of Turbulence and than off to bed cause I had a real rough day.