Category Archives: Uncategorized

Nebojša Čović – Industrial Magnate / Basketball Fanatic

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Arena #2, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

For those of you following my blog, our team won the grand final game against Gimnasium Milos Crjnanski by 2 points and were crowned CEESA champions for 2009-2010. More on this later. I am blogging about today is the basketball machine called FMP.

Saturday we played the final games of the CEESA basketball tourney at “Basketland” which is a wonderful basketball/steel factory facility. Above is one of the two gymnasiums on the basketland grounds. We took the tour of Basketland and between the two gymnasiums are the assembly lines and warehouses for making metal products like aluminum cans, silverware, etc. This combination of factory and basketball training center is the vision of the owner of FMP (Fabrika Metahl Proizvoda), Nebojsa Covic.

When Covic bought the basketball club ILR Zeleznik in 1991, they had folded due to the increased cost of competing in the higher leagues in Serbia. They started out as a neighborhood (Zeleznik is a large suburb of Belgrade with about 20,000 inhabitants) team that played their games outdoors in the 1970′s. They eventually got better, but could not afford the costs of maintaining the team in a higher division.

Covic has made KK FMP into the third Belgrade basketball team after Red Star and Partizan. They do well in the NBL, or Adriatic Basketball Association. Note that the KK stands for kasorka (Serbian for basketball) klub. The strength of the club is its youth program. Covic has several basketball complexes in Zeleznik and they really develop great players. On Saturday, a group of 14 and 15 year olds were practicing in the other gym. One of them had to be close to 7 feet and was dunking with ease.

FMP is represents for me, Serbia’s serious approach to basketball. I can see why there are so many Serbs in the NBA and European leagues. They just play a lot and many of them are very tall. The neighborhood also has a lot of Communist era block apartments. This combination of beautiful basketball facilities surrounded by industrial and grey ugliness impresses me.

The Factory Grounds of "Basketland"

All of the CEESA teams had a fantastic final day at Basketland. With four games, it was an orgy of basketball and the great facilities. Thank you Mr. Covic.

Day One CEESA Tourney

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Official Team Photo, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

We had a successful day number one of the CEESA “Blue” Division tourney. In the first game we defeated the Anglo American School of Sofia 50-20. In the second game, we came back from a sluggish first half to beat Nova School from Skoplje, Macedonia 55 – 38.

We now complete the round-robin schedule with a game tomorrow morning against the Pechersk School of Kiev, Ukraine.

Note the big fellow in the back right. I wish he was playing for our team!

All of the results for Day One of the Tourney are below.

Pool A
Belgrade 51-20 Sofia
Pechersk 46 – 33 Skopje
Belgrade 55 – 38 Skopje
Pechersk 52 – 34 Sofia

 Pool B
Latvia 45 – 13 Helsinki
Zagreb 43 – Crnjanski 59
Latvia 42 – 50 Crnjanski
Zagreb 42 – 22 Helsinki.

Family Journal: January 15-17, 2010

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Ocean in front of Cave at Staro Hopovo Monastery - Fruska Gora N.P.

On Sunday we headed up to Staro Hopovo Monastery in the Fruska Gora National Park. I was anxious to get out of the house after a very lazy, and relaxing Saturday. It was a really cold day and we did enjoy the drive and a short walk in the ravine areas near the monastery. We discovered a small cave, which we need to come back to explore as well as the trails in the area. Perfect place for walks, bike rides, and picnics with the kids. The monastery is located just outside of the town of Irig.

It is the simple things that are the best in life. If I could re-live a moment, it would be a Saturday evening walk with Owen and Oliver. We walked through the “spooky forest” (Haid Park) to get a pizza at Zodiac. It is a restaurant near our house in Senjak. The boys were so excited to be walking with a flashlight. We had races to the restaurant as we got close. They were so excited and we laughed a lot. It is nice to have them be so dependent on me for adventure and excitement. I wish these kind of moments could be re lived in the future when they are on their own and more independent. Both Ollie and Owen are so cute and so full of life. What an honor to be a father! I hope I am doing a good job with them.

Ollie on the Trail

Hiking On Mount Avala

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This past weekend I was alone with the kids as my wife went to Budapest with girl friends. On Sunday I took the kids out to Mount Avala for a morning of adventure. It is only 18 kilometers outside of Belgrade and a nice day trip.

This is our second time there, and we found some areas away from the monuments that were great for kids. It was a foggy day (the fog seems to stay around Belgrade for days) and with the woods had a special feel to them. We played hide and seek in the trees near the monument as well as hiked some of the trails going down the mountain. A highlight was going through a tunnel that ran under the road near the Roman mine shaft. The mountain is a former island in the Pannonian Sea, and was always a focal point for people heading to Belgrade. The name “avala” means obstacle or shelter in Turkish. Both the Ottomans and Romans settled the area. 

There are plenty of trees, herbs, and wildflowers to identify and the kids loved it, so we will definitely be back. They are reconstructing the TV tower that NATO took out ten years ago. It will have a restaurant and tourists will be able to go up to enjoy the view.

Serbian Parliament

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Serbian Parliament Building, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

I took this photo on last Friday’s field trip to the ivo Andric museum. Both the Parliament building and Andric’s former apartment on on Pioneer’s Park. It was a beautiful sunny morning. This week has been grey and rainy. Temperatures are in the 40′s and 30′s (F) and the sun is supposed to be back on Friday. It looks like temperatures will dip below freezing next week and I am hoping for snow. 

Serbia’s parliament has one house called the National Assembly consisting of 250 members. That is one representative for every 26,000 Serbian citizens. I don’t know how that compares to other countries, but it seems to be a bit of overkill. The school is planning on having some of our older students serve internships in the parliament next semester through an international NGO. I am looking forward to that. The public can visit the parliament on the last Saturday of each month. I would like to do that with the boys. 

School Picture Day 2009-2010

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The traditional school photos were taken a couple of weeks ago. I usually post the photos for family back home to see the boys as they grow. Above is Owen’s grade 1 photo from this year. He is definitely an improved version of me, thanks to Nadia’s beauty. Oliver’s a handsome fellow also, and his Pre-Kindergarten photo is below.

Oliver Age 4

The boys teachers this year are Ms. Marianne Whaley (Owen) and Ms. Duda Vesić.

If you want to see how they changed, check out the April 2008 school photos, and the November 2008 school photos.  

Weekend in Belgrade

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I snapped this photo of Ocean yesterday while we were having lunch at Usce. The light was perfect and she was looking so adorable. What an absolute angel! We got a lot of things done around the house and played quite a bit with the kids.

Supermarket

A highlight of the weekend was visiting Supermarket, a concept store here in Belgrade. A very hip place. It is a restaurant, spa, store, art gallery, etc. We went on a Sunday evening and the place was full. We want to check out their Sunday Jazz brunch which one of the attendants says is well attended by families. They had great gifts there and Nadia bought an agenda. I highly recommend a visit. It is located in Dorcol, #10 Višnjičeva street.

 

Dinner at Whatever @ The Corner - Belgrade, Serbia

 

 

 

Owen’s Presentation and New Haircut

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Owen’s Presentation, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

I listened to Owen’s presentation on Bolivia. The first grade class in celebration of International Week in the Lower School, had all of the students give presentations on a country of their choice. Most students chose either nations of their families or where they spent most of their lives. At an international school, there is always a lot of mixed families. Owen chose to do Bolivia because there are not many South Americans in Serbia. He was also born there and is a Bolivian citizen. We spent several holidays there and he also had an extended stay when Ocean was born.

Owen had many photos and stories to share with the parents and people at the presentations. He also finally got a haircut last night. This is the shortest he has had his hair in a long time. He looks very different! I didn’t recognize him when I first walked in today.

He did an excellent job and we are proud of him. Way to go Owen!!!!

Wine Tasting at the Kovačević Cellar

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Responsible Mom and Aunt, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Yesterday we visited Kovačević Wine Cellar located in the village of Irig, which is about 70 kilometers north of Belgrade. The village lies in the Fruška Gora National Park. Fruška Gora means “Frankish Mountain” in English. It is a region of hills that are in the middle of the flat plains of Vojvodina. The hills were a natural frontier of the Frankish Empire back in the 400s. I prefer the Roman name for the area, Fertile Mountain because it is a great region for growing grapes. The Franks have not been around in a long time. Besides wine, Fruska Gora has some hiking and 12 Serbian Orthodox monasteries, and we will come back again for those.

We found the address of Kovačević in a guide to the wines of Serbia and it was recommended to us by friends. It is not the vineyards and elegant tasting experience of the wineries we went to in Australia, but a nice experience nonetheless. There is no sign in front and so we went around the side of the building. The workers were busy with crushing the grapes and the kids got to see the process of fermentation and storage.

 

The Kids Save the Grapes from Being Crushed

The Kids Save the Grapes from Being Crushed

I was most excited to try the Bermet, which is a type of wine only produced by the Fruska Gora wineries. It is a strong dessert wine, that is infused with herbs and spices. It used to be very popular with the Austro-Hungarian royalty and it was on the wine list of the Titanic. Today, it is not known outside of Serbia. We liked both the white and red versions of the Bermet. We bought two bottles of the red. We also liked the Aurelius, a mix of Cab Sav and Merlot, aged in the barrels below. Nadia also bought a Rajninski Reisling and Chardonnay. I also liked the Reisling, which had tones of green apples. We will be visiting the region again! After the winery, we had dinner in Novi Sad and walked around the beautiful old part of town. 

The highlight of the day however was not the sightseeing, but just spending time with the kids. Below they are eating another of my delicious breakfast entrees. It is good also to have my nephew Sebey visiting us. 

 

 

Sunday Breakfast

Sunday Breakfast