We Do Adventure

For the first time in a long time we're staying in on New Year's Eve. Last year enjoyed a mild evening in Dubrovnik's old town, listening to bands of various qualities. The year before we were treated to Laka performing outdoors in a freezing cold Spanish Square in Mostar. The last New Year we spent in England saw us standing on the banks of the Thames for at least four hours to witness ten minutes of awe inspiring fireworks from directly opposite the London Eye. The previous year we braved Times Square, in New York, to watch the ball drop and the year before that we were in Cape Town, although we did stay in with family that night. Having done trips to Zagreb and Mostar within the last ten days we felt no great urgency to get out and find some entertainment tonight. There was a good gig happening in Sarajevo but seeing as we'd had one of those in Mostar on Wednesday the seven-hour round trip to the capital seemed a little excessive. We'll probably clamber up onto t...

I put this video together today. It’s represents some of the more meaningful thoughts that came out of our trip to the British Ambassador’s Residence in Sarajevo for fireworks on Saturday night. I did leave with other thoughts, like whether it would be wise to public school ones children so as to better prepare them for this kind of occasion. Over the years people have commented of my diplomatic skills in managing people and projects but one thing is clear: I am not part of the diplomatic in-crowd. I might not have been hob-nobbing with the great and the good but I managed a good deed for the evening: offering a torch to a mother whose shoulder-mounted child had dislodged the back of her ear-ring. My mini-LED marvel managed to locate the all-important item amongst the damp grass. I could regale you with amusing snatches of conversation overheard over mulled wine but that would doubtless constitute some breach of state security, so my lips are sealed. However, I pulled out my camera lon...

We saw in the New Year with the celebrations in Mostar. The evening was opened up by Laka , who then went on to, undoubtedly, rock Sarajevo as the clock struck twelve. Laka, for those not up on their Balkan pop, are the act who represented Bosnia Herzegovina in the Eurovision song contest this year. ( See our previous entry about that .) They were fantastic. Super quirky and original, a fine blend of comedy and melody with a tight backing band. Today Rowan was on a local news website and spotted us in their report on last night. If you check out the photos be sure to admire the lead guitarist’s jacket – I won’t go so far to say I’m envious, but its close! Perhaps it gives an insight into what Tim Jupp is up to in his life after Delirious? There were other band playing besides Laka, but RT1 didn’t see fit to show them. However, I will say that Elemental have improved since we saw them in an over-crowded Sarajevo student bar. They got the privilege of playing over the New Year – pausin...