I guess I am a real creature of familiarly and habit. When things change and there appears to be no reason for the change it takes a while to get past it. For years now we have stayed at the same place and followed the same routine while staying here. This year everything was upside down. The villa got overbooked, we ended up in another building up the hill from the villa, without a kitchen and considerably smaller than we were used to. When you hadn’t planned on eating other than what you prepare yourself or from places you trust it upsets the cart. We, through persuasion are having some things changed in our favor but it is a long process.
It appears that we will be spending a week up north in Pljevlja. Another unexpected change. We don’t really find out until Friday what exactly we will be doing there but I think from what we heard it will be a teaching trip. Mainly layout using Word I believe. Should be a challenge. Only bad part will be that it will be very far from the coast and the sea is what draws us here time an again. And of course the temperature will be 10 degrees cooler.
We did get to spend some time, socially, with the students, and they are a really nice group of people. They seem very enthusiastic and sincere in what they want to accomplish. Some are even talking of finding ways to stay on longer to gain more experience. It will make it more difficult to keep in touch with their needs and responses when we are not in the same building but we will need to find other ways of doing that.
We have made our favorite walk here along the beach front to Sveti Stephan. Much of the restoration work is done from last year and it is once again very beautiful.
Weather is beautiful, sunny and warm. Even saw some folks in swimming which is rare this time of year.
Sunday April 10
Last night we went to Sveti Stefan to our friends Pizza restaurant. Always grest to see someone who recognizes you immediately after a year away. Great evening chatting, pizza and beer. It turns out he has a new sail boat and we have made arrangements to go out with him, do some fishing and sailing. This will be a first for us but greatly anticipated, especially we actually catch some fish.
Happy Birthday Marianne
Today is Marianne’s birthday and although she is miles from home and family it has been a special day so far for her . This morning the staff at the hotel marched out from the kitchen singing happy birthday and carrying a lovely cake. Friends called her and wished her the best.
There was even a large coke bottle filled with “black wine” fron Zoran who runs a vineyard south of Skadar Lake waiting at the front desk of the hotel this morning.
This evening Marianne is being treated to a pedicure as a gift from the front desk girls. Later i will take her for a nice dinner.
We spent the afternoon in Budva walking about the shops but of course she couldn’t decide on what she wanted. Another time.
Shadows
To those who know me they would sense a feeling of being distanced from conversation (blog) or a quietness about me even more than usual. Bear with me while I get some of it out of my head and onto the screen.
Even though our trip is wonderful and our friends are ever so welcoming there is an over shadowing heart ache we brought with us on our trip.
For those who may not know we have been searching for our first born daughter that we were heavy handedly persuaded to give up to adoption for over 40 years and because of the victorian laws that s surrounded adoption laws we were prevented from finding any information out about her or her adoptive family.
After giving up a great deal of my life to be part of the lobby group that demanded open records from the Ontario government we had a victory of sorts last year. We were able to apply for what identifying information the CAS deemed releasable. This gave us a name, along with some other non important information.
After another year of searching and with some twists and turns we were faced with the news every searcher dreads. Our Daughter had passed away on Dec 17 of 1976. She was 8 years old and had died of Lukemia.
If the government had been a little less stupid and some ministers were willing to reveal some of their own skeletons we would have known she was sick and although I don’t know the treatments then, might have been able to help.
So, we found this out a couple of weeks before we left and I tried to hide in my corner of the office in case some on would ask if I was ok. Part of the purpose of this trip and it being so long was to regain focus and put things in perspective. The intention is to return, make contact with her parents and ask for a sharing of her short life with us. The up side is that I will have closure, a new focus on live and the ability to return to work refreshed.
I think it will be a long time before I will actually want to talk openly about it, I have to learn how to grieve someone you never knew first, but when I do the legislators will certainly hear from me again.
Thanks for your ear and now back to work. 
On the move Again
Well for the third time we are on the move. Our regular flat opened up at the villa and although it is a real bother to pack up and move we think it will be worth it to have more than 1 room and to actually have a couch to sit on. It will be considerably easier on my hip and leg to not be halfway up the hill so that every walk starts off either climbing or walking on a slant. And it will be so nice to have cooking facilities in the apartment itself.