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It has been strange going back to the old life, the city I left to move to Slovenia. I picked up with the old friends and made one or two new ones. I worked at some of the things I had done before and did some new things. Most useful of all, I was working in the kind of business I want to establish in Slovenia, so I got some good experience and I completed the European Computer Course, thus giving me (I hope) a useful document confirming that I can operate a computer. Certificates seem to be useful in Slovenia and I hope this one will be. But what I learnt certainly will be for the new business. Finally I managed to raise some money for the business, which is what I wanted to do, but things needed to be sorted out in Slovenia, so it was time to return. I had been getting more and more desperate to get back and the grass was growing on my farm, the vegetables needed to be planted so I returned at the start of May, thereby avoiding a really long Slovenian winter. England, as usual, had a relatively mild winter. Lets look at it this way, we only scrapped the car window for ice or snow a couple of times. Like all places, there are good and bad things everywhere. What did I particularly like about being back in England? Sunday newspapers, BBC radio, UK TV programmes (we discovered 'Little Britain' a new cult comedy program, which we enjoyed very much). Shopping. Fish and chips and the English seaside. What annoyed me most? The traffic certainly. Not getting any better. Consumerism, the downside of shopping. People with so many material goods, buying things for the sake of it and throwing them away without thinking. People with no time for a quick coffee or a drink. Stress and pressure. So it's good to be back. However, the old annoyances here surface quickly, first among them as most readers will know, is battling through the bureaucratic systems here, particularly regarding the business. There is a general unwillingness to try and find ways to make things work or be simpler or flexible, particularly to help foreigners. In England, I saw officials trying to help their customers to deal with things, particularly foreigners. Also I had actually forgotten that good customer service is still a rarity here in shops and bars or restaurants. Whilst the traffic is easier, other road users are not polite and it is unusual for anyone to help a fellow motorist by letting them in. A situation that happens all the time in the UK, but then it has to or nobody would get anywhere at all. So there is good and bad in both countries, I just hope Slovenia does not pick up the worst of the western European ways. The best thing about being here is that friends can still find the time to stop and have a quick coffee or a drink in a bar and the price of doing so is not yet prohibitive. So you know what to say, if you bump into me sometime... It is always difficult starting a business, but as I have said before, here it seems to be almost impossible. We still don't know whether we can jump all the hurdles in front of us. We have now invested a good amount of money in Slovenia and our new business, should, if we ever start, take a dozen people off the unemployment register in Maribor. If we succeed and our ideas for expansion go ahead, we may be taking a lot more off. However, if we go on at the speed we have been, none of this may ever happen. We can't seem to find anyone anywhere with some power or a system in place that will say - "wait a minute, this is a good idea, let us help these people. They are bringing money into our country and creating jobs". The reaction is more -"huh - foreigners, let us make life as difficult for them as we can". Let me give you just two examples of things that have happened recently. We are working on a building project for our business and we have built a tremendous ramp for disabled visitors. This in itself is quite unusual, especially the size of it, but we want to encourage disabled customers. However, our neighbours, themselves directors of a very well-known and extremely successful local company raised an objection. Not with us, but with the obcina. We met with them, and whilst they were very polite, they wanted to barter. They actually had no real objection to a disabled ramp but used the situation to extract promises from us to give them four things in return for their agreement to this ramp. All of these things would cost us money and benefit them. These are not poor people, indeed probably some of the richest people in town. When we called the obcina to tell them the matter was settled, we were informed, we could only speak to someone during 'uradne ure', which totalled 2 hours twice a week. We have applied to Ljubljana for work permits for two foreign workers, essential to train Slovene staff. After several months of waiting, we called them to find out about progress. Two possible outcomes. Either it is not uradne ure (office hours) or, if it is, the phone is constantly engaged. Finally we were told the best thing was to make a personal visit and we were told to come between 2 and 4 on Wednesday (the next day). This we did, arriving at 2pm exactly at the office near the railway station to find a notice that it has moved to Rozna Dolina. We walked across town and joined the queue. When we got in the office, the clerk informed us that we should telephone. We explained that this never worked and she shrugged her shoulders. She went to enquire about the case and said the person handling it had gone home for the day. The time taken from leaving Maribor to returning was some 11 hours. OK, we had a nice walk round Ljubljana and visited a possible supplier, but really this is not the way to encourage people to start a business. Who can we complain to? We have no idea. Without these two to train Slovene staff, we cannot start. Does anyone care? Let me know if you know anyone who does!!