We Do Adventure

God said “Let there be light” and there was light. For the rest of us it’s not quite so quite so simple! It’s not usual for blokes to tell tales of their DIY failures but in the interests of honest communication that’s what I’m going to do. Over the last two days Ben and I have been trying to install an additional light fitment in Klub. It should have been a five or ten minute job but for several reasons it still remains unfinished. We’ve not been having much success with drilling of late and I hadn’t figured on the ceiling being concrete rather than plasterboard. Then the fitment itself was broken. Knowing that customer service is an undiscovered art returning it to the shop would be pointless. They might offer to send it away for repair. This happened to a cheap heater bought by one of our colleagues in Čapljina. It was mended, but returned after the worst of winter was passed. It took just half an hour of fiddling to find and fix the problem. But the real fun and games came just bef...

I’ve heard of he-said-she-said arguments and I’ve heard of being frozen out of conversation. Now I’m living in a country where others will be freezing because of someone else’s argument. The argument I’m referring to is between Naftogaz and Gazprom , an argument that has resulted in the gas being turned off to most of Eastern Europe. I only say others will be freezing because Mostar doesn’t do central heating; neither does it get quite so cold as the rest of Bosnia Herzegovina. We use electrical heaters here, not that they are hugely effective. Nevertheless, today I heard of huge queues in Sarajevo to purchase them. Over coffee this afternoon we wondered if this could create a new, knock-on crisis. Does the electric grid here have the spare capacity to meet the inevitable rise in demand? Time will tell.

We visited Mostar in March this year. It was our reconnaissance trip. A time to see things and meet people we'd being working with. We also took the time to assess the shopping situation, noting what we saw stacked on the shelves of supermarkets. However, it was a causal comment that really stuck with Rowan. A Novi Most member mentioned her washing was still damp after five days hanging out to dry. Suddenly 'tumble drier' was indelibly written at the top of Rowan's must-take list. As our drier was old (read dispensable) we figured there was nothing to lose by putting it on the van. Now we find we've rented an apartment that has a drier. This is a rare but welcome circumstance. Our spare appliance quickly acquired an eager new owner. So before it spun its last spin for us I thought I should replace it's trusty three-pin plug with a local two pin version. Plugs here can go in the socket either way up. They have an earth connector on both sides. That's strange ...