Dear Members and supporters,

Every year, the British-Slovene Society organises events to further good relations between Slovenes and British, and these inevitably incur some costs. We rely on subscriptions to be able to offer these convivial occasions for meeting, networking and enjoyment. If you are a Member, we would be grateful if you would pay your 2020 subscription, which is due at the beginning of next year. If you are not yet a Member, please do join. You would be most welcome!

Subscriptions remain at the same level as last year:

INDIVIDUAL £15
FAMILY (maximum 5) £25
STUDENT £5
CORPORATE £100

If you have a Standing Order you can ignore this notice. Otherwise, you have a choice of three means of payment:

1. The best way is by direct electronic transfer to The British-Slovene Society’s bank account with HSBC, Sort Code 40-01-06, Account Number 71358332, IBAN: GB34HBUK40010671358332. Please put your name in the reference field. This means of payment saves the Society unnecessary costs. Wherever possible, we ask you to set up a Standing Order. This will save you time and trouble next year.

2. Or you can pay through our website www.britishslovenesociety.org by clicking on “JOIN/RENEW” and following the instructions. On the website you can also pay by PayPal (though this incurs a cost to the BSS).

3. Or by cheque made out to The British-Slovene Society and sent to the Treasurer, Andrej Ogorevc, 10 Rogers Court, 5 Premiere place, London E14 8SF, e-mail: treasurer@britishslovenesociety.org.

We will soon send around the invitations for the Prešeren Evening which will take place in London on 1st February 2020. If you are a paid-up member, you pay less for the evening.

If you haven’t already made a Standing Order, please renew your membership at the beginning of January 2020! Thank you.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and all the best in the New Year,

Trustees of The British-Slovene Society

Members of the British-Slovene Society and their friends once again packed the beautiful Wren church of St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe in London for the annual service of Lessons and Carols in both languages on 6th December 2019.

For many of us, this event marks the beginning of Christmas festivities, and each year the congregation grows, admirably supported by organist Aljoša from Leeds and the Gallus Aeternus choir.

After the service, we gathered in the vestry for wine, kindly donated by the Slovenian Embassy, large quantities of potica brought over from Slovenia by BSS members, and many warm conversations. We collected £264.50 for Barka, the charity for people with special needs which the BSS supports in Slovenia.

Our thanks go to the Church of England, for allowing us to use the church and presiding over the service, Catherine King, who organised the event, and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, which provided a subsidy.

Come again in December 2020!

15. december 2019, ob 17.00
Bellavita Academy, 11c Dock St, Whitechapel, London E1 8JN

SPOROČILO DRUŠTVA VTIS (v tujini izobraženi Slovenci):
London je mesto priložnosti. In zelo pogosto se priložnosti pojavijo, ko spoznamo nove ljudi in ustvarjamo nove mreže. Člani društva VTIS pogosto omenijo, da bi se radi več mrežili, saj imamo v naši lokalni skupnosti veliko talentov, poslovnežev in investitorjev. Zato smo se odločili, da tokrat naredimo dogodek, usmerjen v gospodarstvo, in bomo večinski del programa namenili zabavnemu in interaktivnemu mreženju, zaključili pa s kratkima zgodbama dveh podjetnikov, ki uspešno delujeta med Britanijo in Slovenijo, in nagovorom Branka Drobnaka – predsednika kluba Poslovnih angelov Slovenije. Seveda zakuska ne bo manjkala, na koncu pa še nazdravimo na zaključek uspešnega leta.

Lepo vabljeni, VTISovci, vaši partnerji, podjetniki, investitorji, ostali Slovenci v Londonu in enostavno vsi, ki vas mreženje zanima.

Prijava na dogodek
Facebook dogodek

Deli s svojimi prijatelji, da nas bo čim več!

THURSDAY 9TH JANUARY 2020 AT 7PM
GAYS THE WORD BOOKSHOP
66 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 1AB
(nearest tubes Russell Square or Euston)

Tracing the Unspoken is the English-language debut of Milan Šelj, an award-winning Slovenian poet and translator. Šelj is the author of four poetry collections and co-author of a satirical epistolary novel Spolitika. His work and translations have appeared in many anthologies. Milan lives and works in London. Joining him tonight is Harvey Vincent, a New York director, actor and teacher who has worked closely with the poet in producing this translation. Harvey lives and works in Paris.

The launch is kindly sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia.

Admission is FREE. Refreshments will be served.

“In Tracing the Unspoken, Milan Šelj has compiled a ledger of obsession: by applying language to shapeless silence, the individual tries to make sense of desire. In these fragments of narrative, the tacit, the implicit, the unspoken and the unspeakable are all eventually given voice. Passion is blocked by indifference, indifference unblocked by passion. And somehow love, once put into words, survives to thrive. The process is compelling, the expression eloquent.” –Gregory Woods

Ameriško-slovenska izobraževalna fundacija ASEF (https://www.asef.net) je objavila razpis za nov štipendijski program ASEF Junior Fellows – štipendije za obiske v Sloveniji ( https://www.asef.net/visiting-slovenia/ ). Gre za enoletni program, v okviru katerega izbrani študenti opravijo raziskovalno-študijsko prakso v slovenskih podjetjih in na slovenskih fakultetah, sodelujejo na raziskovalnih projektih s svojega področja delovanja in se vključujejo v razne dejavnosti, ki jih izvaja ASEF, kot so delavnice mehkih veščin, treningi javnega nastopanja, javna predavanja in pogovori z zanimivimi gosti.

Možne so prijave za področja fizike, biologije, medicine, strojništva, elektrotehnike, računalništva, matematike, ekonomije, okoljskih znanosti, glasbe, prava, lingvistike, politologije, humanistike in drugih ved. Prijave so odprte za vse študente slovenskih korenin in tiste, ki imajo izkazan interes za študijsko prakso v Sloveniji, ne glede na stopnjo in kraj študija.

Rok za prijavo je 1. februar 2020.

Prijave morajo biti oddane na spletni portal https://www.asef.net/visiting-slovenia/ . Morebitna vprašanja pošljite na info@asef.net.

Fundacija ASEF povezuje Slovence doma in po svetu. Fundacija štipendira slovenske študente in študente slovenskih korenin za 10-tedenske raziskovalno-študijske obiske v vrhunskih podjetjih in fakultetah v Sloveniji. Štipendijski programi ASEF krepijo sodelovanje in kroženje znanja med Slovenijo in preostalim svetom. ASEF nadarjenim študentom omogoča, da se osredotočijo na raziskovanje in razvijejo svoje potenciale v največji možni meri.

Vabljeni k prijavi!

The BSS warmly invites you to our annual Carol Service on Friday 6th December 2019, at 6:30 pm.

This is our regular festive get together which is held in the beautiful church of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, Queen Victoria Street and St. Andrew’s Hill, City of London, EC4V 5DE.

The church, which was built by Sir Christopher Wren is a wonderful historic building and well worth a visit in its own right. Please come and join in our carol singing in English and Slovene.

Catch up with friends after the service as there will be potica (offered by the Society) and Christmas drinks (courtesy of the Embassy).

There is no charge but a collection is taken to support the work of the Barka charity in Slovenia.

Nearest underground Blackfriars. St Paul’s and Mansion House nearby.

Last Wednesday (27 November 2019) BBC 1 showed a documentary based around a lengthy interview with Boris Pahor, a Slovene writer from Trieste, who is 106 years old and is believed to be the oldest living concentration camp survivor. He has always lived in Trieste except for a period immediately after the war.

The programme was entitled “The Man Who Saw Too Much” and the interview was conducted in Slovene, partly with English subtitles and partly with a live translation into English. It is available on BBC i-player for about the next three weeks.

A new refreshing drink using hemp extract and created by British-Slovene team, has won a “Best New Drink Product of the Year 2019” awarded by Food Matters Live, a community dedicated to changing the world of food and drink.

The winning “Botanical Rose and Raspberry Lemonade infused with CBD” is a delicious, all-natural and refreshing drink and a great alternative to alcohol. It was created by Oxford based drinks company Cannasa, which was founded by British -Slovene pair – Matthew Pygott and Gregor Pečnik.

Matt and Gregor aim to develop amazing hemp-based products by pushing the boundaries through innovation (they are the first to use microencapsulated hemp oil, which has no smell or taste of hemp), sustainability (they use compostable hemp derived label) and a great taste.

CBD, short for Cannabidiol, is the extract of hemp that has become increasingly popular with consumers in recent years. In the medical world, clinical trials are being held to see if CBD may help treat conditions like pain, insomnia, and anxiety. Cannasa drinks are sold in a range of shops including Harrods, Daylesford Farms, Revital, The Vegankind supermarket and many independent health shops around the country. For more information visit https://cannasa.co.uk/ .

Central European Seminar Series
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Tuesday, 26 November 2019
Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in London, 17 Dartmouth Street, London SW1H 9BL
All are welcome, registration is free but essential via Eventbrite.

As part of the UCL SSEES Central European Seminar Series and the World Festival of Slovene Science and Art organised on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the University of Ljubljana writer, translator and lesbian activist Suzana Tratnik will be speaking to translator Olivia Hellewell about her life of words and actions.

Suzana Tratnik lives and works in Ljubljana as a writer, translator and essayist. Her books and short stories have been translated into more than twenty languages, while she herself has translated an impressive array of fiction and non-fiction into Slovene, including authors such as Judith Butler, Eileen Myles, Kate Bornstein, Ian McEwan and Truman Capote. As a co-founder of the pioneering lesbian group, Škuc-Lezbična sekcija LL, and an organiser of Ljubljana’s LGBT Film Festival, Tratnik is as proactive in society as she is productive on paper; a synergy that she documented in her memoir Lezbični aktivizem po korakih (Lesbian Activism Step-by-Step; 2013). In 2016, a selection of Suzana’s stories became available to an English-speaking audience: Games with Greta and Other Stories (translated by Michael Biggins et al.) was published by Dalkey Archive Press. Discussion will turn to prominent themes in this work – marginal destinies in contemporary urban life, childhood in 60s and 70s Yugoslavia, and of course, her own experience of being translated.
The event is hosted by the Embassy of Slovenia in London and made possible by the generous support of the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language at the University of Ljubljana and the Slovene Ministry of Culture. Slovene wine will be served, courtesy of the Embassy of Slovenia in London.