I hope most of you are wondering, what the heck is FYROM. Many years ago, even before Jesus, there was an area in the Balkans called Macedonia. It's mentioned in the Bible. Alexander the Great's dad was called Philip of Macedonia. Macedonia was part of the Greek world but it was an area where people spoke a Serbian language rather than Greek, people's names were a bit like Russian where women's names ended in 'ova'. I've just realised it looks a lot like ovum - egg, so maybe it is connected to female fertility.
Anyway, these people followed the Serbian Orthodox Church rather than the Greek Orthodox. When Yugoslavia came into being the country had an area called Macedonia. It always bothered the Greeks who claimed the name as their own. When Yugoslavia fell apart, Macedonia because a country. It had always been called Macedonia so the folks decided to carry on using the name but that made the Greeks even more angry. When I went to Thessalonika, which was called Solun in the old days, we were stopped at the border. The Greek guards came running out of their hut with a roll of sticky tape. They tore some off and stuck it over the MK symbol on the car - the symbol of Makedonia. On the tape it said FYROM which means "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Now the Macedonian Parliament has voted to accept a proposal to call the country The Republic of North Macedonia and in a few days time the Greeks will vote. The folks don't like it but it's all they can do; they won't be allowed by the Greeks to apply for EU membership etc unless the name is changed. So now you are experts on FYROM.
Val arrived from England yesterday so I spent most of the day dealing with her needs. I did a lot of walking, in fact I managed to walk over 26,000 steps which equated to 17.6km. At the end of the day I was too tired to be impressed.
With it being Saturday morning I had to wake up at 6.15am so that Oudom could play football. I woke up at 5.35am and lounged around, wondering when the alarm would go off but it didn't. I finally checked the time and it was 6.40; I was to be in the parking lot at 6.45. We moved! Oudom had forgotten his football boots so back to the house we raced. He couldn't find them so he never did play football. Samnang said it didn't make any difference because Oudom can't play anyway. I don't think I've ever heard the two of them say anything nice about the other brother. Later I checked the alarm and it turned out that it was set for 6.15pm. I've decided I should always set the alarm wearing my glasses.
I caught two more mice. Other people arrive home and say to themselves, "I wonder if there's any mail?" I come home and say, "I wonder if I've caught any mice?" It like a conveyor belt; they keep on coming and coming and I'm running out of biscuits and peanut butter.
