Dear Everyone,
I’ve had a busy couple of weeks. Two weeks ago, we realized
that our 35+ year double wall oven had finally decided to retire, and it needed
replacement. Cindy did some investigation and went to ABT to select one with
Gail. They no longer make double ovens
that will fit into the slot of the old one, so they had to saw a larger
opening. For those that are counting, we replaced the failing refrigerator 6
months ago and now have a new oven. I’m
just waiting for the roof to blow off.
Halloween was kind of dull.
With no kids in the house, I didn’t bother to spend the time doing any fancy
carving, nor did Cindy really put up any decorations. Consequently, I’m pretty sure we had under 10
doorbell ringing groups, and under 50 kids.
We didn’t even get through our big package of Hello Pandas.
The weekend of November 1 my ex-PEA roommate, Chip Nichols,
was in town with his girlfriend, Cheryl. Chip is still working as a radiation
oncologist in central Florida. He also
has a hobby? sideline? of stand-up comedy.
So, on Saturday night we met him at Nomonomo sushi, where we all ordered
omakase. The sushi was good, and the
service was unhurried.
Afterwards we walked a block down Milwaukee Avenue to the Lincoln Lodge, where he preformed his set with a bunch of younger aspirants. I’ve seen Chip on YouTube or whatever, but this was my first time watching him live. He is pretty practiced. Some of the other comics were pretty nervous. One also had some particularly funny videos that showed in between sets. There was one animation of Genghis Khan having a psychiatry session that I thought was pretty funny. After they were all done, we watched the last innings of the final game of the World Series (sadly, the Dodgers won), and then the comics went on to drink and hang out. Chip had also invited a younger couple he and Cheryl had met in Pamplona when he went bull running. The two of them were school teachers / administrators from Oswego with young children, and they rarely went out, so they wanted to take full advantage of the night. It was already pretty far past my usual bedtime, so we went home. I must remark that there were a lot of 'young' people and hipsters on that part of Milwaukee avenue. A lot of places didn't even open until after 9 PM.
Then, this Wednesday through Sunday I took a lightning trip
to Bulgaria. The head of my dojo, Bob
Garza, was getting a certificate from Japan (don’t ask why the award was in
Bulgaria, aikido politics) as a Shihan, or master teacher, and I had decided he
needed at least one person along with him on the trip for support.
We flew out on Swiss Air with a change in Zurich and onto
Sofia. I bid on a business class seat to
Zurich and won, so I had a marginally more comfortable ride than he did in
coach (I at least had a seat that went flat, which was a relief on my lower
back and legs, but still not that great).
We left Wednesday around 7 pm, and got to Sofia at 3 PM Thursday. Sofia is eight hours ahead of Chicago.
Bob had an Airbnb only about a block away from the seminar
venue, and close to a mall with restaurants and a grocery store. So, after stowing our luggage, we walked to
the mall, had an early dinner, and went to the supermarket where we got some
bottled water and breakfast bars.
Friday
I made reservations for a free Sofia tour at 10 am for
Friday. We took a cab to the city
center, and had some pizza and coffee at some joint on Vitosha Boulevard,
which in the city center is a large pedestrian mall.
Like my visit three years ago, we met our tour group at the Palace of Justice, which has lions as famous at the Art Institute’s. We walked past the ruins of ancient Roman Serdica (Sofia had already been a settlement several thousand years before Roman rule because of its mineral springs). After the Romans, Sofia was ruled by native Bulgarians, then Byzantines, then Ottomans, and finally achieved some measure of independence after WW 1, if you can forget 45 years of Soviet rule.
We walked past a theological seminary to “tolerance square”
which has a catholic church, an orthodox church, a mosque, and a cathedral all
within rock throwing distance of each other. Saint Nedelya church was the site
of a complex
communist terrorist plot in the 1920’s to kill Boris III. The bombing took place during the funeral of
an assassinated general (assassinated by the communists), but Boris was late
because he was attending the funeral of someone else who had died in a previous monarchal assassination attempt! Nevertheless, it was a deadly bombing,
killing about 200 highly ranked military and political figures, and injuring
another 500.
We stopped to sip some hot mineral spring water at the old public
bath house, and then passed by the old communist headquarters. During
communist rule, instead of a flagpole it was topped by a large red star. People thought it was an enormous ruby, and
large crowds gathered after the fall of the USSR to watch a helicopter take it
off the roof. They thought it would help
the Bulgarian balance of trade. They were
quite disappointed to find out that it was red plastic.
We walked past the Presidency, within its courtyard is the 4th
century church of St George. We passed
by the archeology museum, and then across the imperial garden to the national
theater. This was first built in the
1920s, and burnt down almost immediately (a gas light fire on the
curtains). It was rebuilt only to be
bombed in WW 2., and then rebuilt again.
Unsurprisingly, its symbol is a phoenix.
We met up with some aikidoka for lunch – Stefan, who is a Sofian,
and one of the administrators of the dojo, and two Poles: Oskar and one of his
friends. I met both Oskar and Stefan on
my previous trip. We had lunch at a Happy restaurant, a
chain with a very large menu. The food
was surprisingly good. Then we went to a
nearby Japanese tea house, Teatopia. We took the metro back to where Stefan had
parked his car, and then a short drive to our Airbnb.
After a rest, we were picked up by "Dosi", one of the head aikidoka at the dojo, and we took us on a slightly scary drive through rush hour traffic to Ed Germanov’s dojo in western Sofia. The space there is not very large, and there must have been about 50 of us. The class was led by Michele Quaranta, a 7th dan aikidoka from Basel Switzerland. Space was tight, so we didn’t do a lot of falling. Afterwards we had dinner at a nearby Greek restaurant, Feta, which had great taramasalata.
Saturday Bob and I went out to a nearby diner for breakfast. I had a mekitsa (a bit like Indian fry bread) with ham and cheese topping for breakfast. Then we had a pretty intense aikido session with Sensei Quaranta. I sweated so much my hakama became a bit damp. We went back to our Airbnb for a pizza lunch with Stefan, Oskar, and his friend. The pizza was disappointing. It was a thin crust, but inadequately cooked, so the center of the slice was droopy. I had a mushroom pizza which was without marinara sauce and the cheese was a strange mixture of mozzarella and cream cheese. The mushrooms were good.
After lunch we had an evening session of aikido. Bob and Diane Costanzo split a
class. Diane was another student of Fumio Toyoda. She used to have a dojo in Oak Park, but
during Covid she closed and moved to Lake Geneva. I would term her relationship with Bob as ‘frenemies’. Afterwards, they were each presented with Shihan
certificates. Quaranta taught the final
class. It was interesting to see the
different philosophies and techniques of these three high ranking instructors
over a short period of time.
We went out to dinner at the hotel where Quaranta was staying. I had a pretty horrible pasta carbonara. The Bulgarians can cook Greek food, but they have their own take on Italian. The beer wasn’t bad.
Sunday morning, we flew out.
We had to run through the Zurich airport because we only had 50 minutes
between flights, and we had to go through two passport controls. I only had an economy level seat on the way
home, and it was pretty uncomfortable.
Love, H
PS Thanks for the birthday wishes and presents. BTW, Toyoda’s
birthday was also the 8th.
PPS is it winter or fall?
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