Tuesday 21 June 2016

When I next see Lusca


Just a quick technical question before we start - does anyone else have to play 'hunt the cursor' when composing posts on the blog? My page remains blank until I start typing, and if I go up or down to edit, the vertical line stays where it last was without flashing, and I have to guess where the next letter typed is going to appear. Is this just my bad settings, or is it a new policy to keep us on our toes?

Rachel has put me in mind of Ljubljana, and my brief stay there when working for a theatre company.

When I went, it was still part of Yugoslavia - though proudly Slovenian - and the difference between the Austrian side of the Alps on the way up and the Slovenian side on the way down was marked. I never got the Mercedes 207D out of second gear for about two hours.

We were to meet our guide and administrator, - the red-headed, Lusca Cosca (I know there is a much better and more correct way of spelling her name) - in Ljubljana, where she would have about $2000 U.S. hard-earned in a shoe box which she immediately gave us, so she could stop worrying about it. She explained that it had taken months to collect this much black market currency, as we could not take zlottis out of the country.

We did the shows under the watchful eye of the military-clad police, then took her on a little holiday to the island of Sress (which we dubbed 'Stress' because of the mosquitos), during which we became good friends. A tearful farewell, and we were back on tour in some other part of Europe.

A couple of years later, and we received an invitation to perform in a town in Switzerland - from Lusca, who was by this time living in sin in a Swiss Canton with her boyfriend, when only a hundred yards down the road they could have legally cohabited. She was an arts administrator for Switzerland as she had been in Slovenia.

More driving up mountains, but this time in the dark. The fact that a notice informing us that a pass was blocked with snow was at the top and not the bottom, added an extra 8 hours on the drive, and I was the only driver.

This was the longest drive I had ever made - 23 hours with one half-hour break. I followed the tail-lights of another truck through the mountains at 2.00 am in the dark, and I swear that if it had gone over the edge, I would have followed it down as well.

Some years passed, and I was persuaded to represent Great Britain in the annual snow-carving competitions in Quebec City, Canada. Another first - to work outside in minus 40 Centigrade was quite an experience. Moral: Never buy a pair of Timberland insulated boots. I almost lost toes in the first hour.

At the opening party in Quebec - there were a lot of parties - I scanned the crowd and spotted a familiar face. It was Lusca, there to represent Slovenia. Small world, eh?

12 comments:

  1. When I first met Lusca, she introduced me to her little son - also a red-head. When he was a couple of years younger, they had been on a train at night, when he reached for the doorhandle and - before she could stop him - flew out of the fast moving train and onto the rocks.

    She pulled the emergency cord, and the driver decided to stop at the next station, a few miles up the track. They told her that he could not have survived, so they would only search for the body in daylight. She was distraught, obviously, and marched down the track in the dark, all the way back to where he had fallen from the train.

    Eventually, she arrived at the spot to find him standing at the edge of the track, completely unharmed.

    He was somewhat angry with her. "Mummy - where have you been? I've been waiting here for ages!"

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  2. I love ljubljana........spent my birthday there last year and had a really enjoyable time.

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  3. Three times is all you get, then that's it. Sorry.

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    1. Yes, I know I repeat myself, but I am always thinking of the latecomers who have no heard me me droning on for the last 5 years.

      Anyway, then what's it? And why sorry? What are you going to do?

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    2. I meant you see HER only three times.

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    3. Oh - I was already feeling guilty about repeating myself on this blog! Maybe I will see her again, but - as you say - I doubt it. Although some people just seem to turn up at the most unexpected times. I had my 4th conversation last night with a friend who has been dead for about 20 years.

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  4. If you use a wireless mouse, just take the little 'thingy' out of its hole, and replace it a few seconds later. This always works whenever my cursor disappears.

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    1. I use a wireless track pad, and if it is switched off, nothing happens at all. Come to think of it, if you use a wireless mouse, there is no little thingy to pull out of a hole, is there?

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  5. You toured with a theatre company? Acting or carving on stage? I am one of the latecomers, having only known you before all your marvelous adventures, so drone on.

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    1. Driver/technician for British Events - Mick and Corrine.

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