an uneventful weeding morning at the vineyard

I woke up at the usual time, give or take – it was 6:30AM – but given that everyone is waking up at this time, I'd like to be able to get up a little earlier, and get some much needed alone time (it is also quite ironic that, considering the wee hours at which I happen to write this, I muse about regularity). Still managed to spend some time with Utopia for Realists, which is a very breeze read for these short periods of the day.

In the morning, we were back in the vineyard; but not all. Paula and Antonella would not be joining for the morning works, which meant Hanna, Luka and I were to tackle it all by ourselves; luckily, Nataša had found some comfort with the razor machine and put some weeding work ahead in the less sensitive parts. We still had to manually weed and air the root of the vines, which was (more than, unfortunately) enough work for the period between 7:30 and 11:30AM. This was the first week in which we enforced a more strict routine as far as work is concerned, and this is much more pleasant and sustainable; but maybe we could start a little earlier even, as the sunrise is around 4:30AM (in fact, it should be quite soon, but I digress).

With so few people, the work was naturally quieter, but this is something I don't particularly mind. I had a chance to catch up with some talks by Joseph Goldstein on some buddhism topics; a bit later, I'd be listening to Se Eu Acordar from cover to cover, enthusiastically singing along to most of it.

The period from the end of the morning works to lunch, which usually lasts between an hour, feels a little short; one comes from the fields understandably tired, as the sun is already quite high and strong, and between recomposing and showering, there's little time to tackle anything seriously. It feels like yoga would fit in here perfectly, but it was too hot. Maybe if I find a fresher space in the farm...in any case, this short period is perfect for some further reading.

short musings on my progress in Slovene

After the obligatory NSDR nap, I felt reinvigorated, and secluded myself from the happy jostling around the house to study some Slovene. I did it for maybe one hour and a half; at the later phase, I got engaged in mild conversations regarding my progress and motivation. In fact, learning Slovene is quite hard; I'm also quite aware that my progress would increase tenfold if I had someone nearby that I could practice with on a daily basis – and this is something I could fix very soon in myriads of ways. In any case, it's a nice experience, and I realise it gives me a source of clear intellectual progress on my daily routine. Learning languages always felt like a very rewarding exercise; not only that, it can definitely unlock some interesting possibilities for the future.

the weather giveth, the weather taketh away

We had some plans to tend to the garden, but around three in the afternoon it became quite clear (metaphorical pun not intended) that there would be no more work: suddenly the sky got very dark and heavy, with a storm looming on the horizon. Slovenia really is having some crazy weather. There was lots of wind, and sudden big waves of showers.

This is not good news for the garden, which is already quite delayed due to the heavy rains withstood during the whole month of May; the constant humidity might also be bringing ideal conditions to the proliferation of snails and general slimes, which are having a blast at the early sprouts of our vegetables. Unfortunately, I haven't been tending much to the garden; I should fix that soon, too, as it was one of my biggest motivations before coming here (alas, there are only so many hours in a day!). At some point during this very homely afternoon, we got some good news in the mail:

This pertains to the Summer School of Political Ecology 2023, which will take place in one of the later weeks of August, in Ljubljana. At this point, any reason to return to this lovely city is great, and so much more so if it brings about some more knowledge on the ecological cause. I'm quite excited for this, and we should be planning for accommodation soon.

train traveling frustrations in Europe

I'll be visiting Vienna on the forthcoming weekend. This is, too, very exciting, as I had a lovely time during last year's Autumn, despite the greyish weather and shorter days. João, a good friend, is also visiting the city for work reasons, thus providing me with a place to stay in, in exchange for some company and homemade meals.

Unfortunately, all of this was planned with very short notice – I am no good at all with planning in general – which goes against the established policy of a great many train providers in Europe. I spent no less than two hours, with some international calls in between, trying to figure out a way to take the train from Maribor to Vienna; the Rome2Rio website was the only source informing of a train at 10:19, and better yet, with a maximum price of 21 euros. This would be perfect, were it not for the complete absence of further information from any source on the internet. Shortly after, an email arrived, replying to an inquiry made to the Croatian railways but they could not inform about the price.

A phone call would prove itself even more frustrating, as the kind lady could only tell about timetables, but not pricing; in any case, I was pointed towards the Deutsche Bahn website, which seems to be the most reliable way to check for train availability and to purchase tickets as well. Alas, trains get much more expensive as the date approaches; even the return trip from Vienna on Monday would cost twice as much as the corresponding Flixbus trip – not to mention it taking half an hour longer. I really, really, really, really do prefer trains over cars or buses, but it feels like the services are still very inflexible across Europe; so I suppose I am doing a bus round trip from Maribor and back, and all this uncertainty and frustration really was a low-ish point of the day (and maybe the source of my restlessness during the night, although that might have to do with traveling in general).

a big system failure to end the day

The following was written during the night from the 23rd to the 24th; it is now 03:35AM local time.

As I prepared myself to leave the computer and ease into a pleasant night of sleep, the HTTP connection to my TiddlyWiki server broke; it is now very much inaccessible for editing purposes, and even the static website export is having some major, cryptic issues when updating its content. In terms of computer work, this is a little disaster that greatly feeds into my imposter syndrome regarding my IT skills and what not. I'm not sure whether I'll bring the computer to Vienna. It would help with the Slovene practice and the journaling; not only that, the Python Discord server is revisiting some Advent of Code problems, which should be a great initiative for my getting back into coding. I suppose I will decide in the morning – or, better put, in just a couple of hours: it is now 4:26AM and, indeed, the sun is starting to rise.