Nixta Sinks

Yurope

I'm in Slovenia visiting my mother and brother and working from here when it's not the weekend. Beats the office and my Marylebone flat. It's physically impossible to spend too much here, and still the food rocks. A gazillion photographs to post on Flickr for you unfortunate bastards to peruse (though I suppose in this era of on-demand entertainment that's not much of a threat).

Being here, and being gifted a lovely pair of Marshal Tito socks, along I suppose with the justified pasting I got for my John Lewis bitchpost, I feel it's time to post that display of ceramic armaments The DMC sent me a while back. Many of these ceramics would fit right in with the locals' homes - that's the truly scary thing. And be sure to check out this flash gallery of Krafft's work (mortars and shells - nice). It's all a bit old, but good nonetheless.

Looking at a collection of photos of Marshal Tito, I am reminded that things were actually not too bad in Communist days. Certainly there was a proud sense of patriotism that even today I find it hard to argue was misplaced. It was stronger than I've felt in the UK, and paid much more than the lip-service of US patriotism (after all, we were socialists). I miss the simple old days. No easyJet. No morons with money. No sellout peasants.

But Yugoslavia did create a certain mindset that's a wee bit off the rails for my liking. Witness the album covers I posted before. And you have to question this, although it's not actually far removed from your average "dedicated" UK football fan.