We Do Adventure

Having reminded myself earlier this week that today would mark the 5th anniversary of our first trip to Sarajevo I thought I'd be only right to dig out an old video to commemorate. This video was filmed the four days of that visit. In the last 5 years over sixteen thousand people on YouTube have watched me talk about my first impressions of the city; many have left comments saying things like "I  am thinking of going there, your video helped me in my decision, thanks"  or "I  have also been to Sarajevo. I  love it."   As videos go this is not the most professional looking or sounding I ever produced but it is an honest record of our first visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This weekend saw Rowan and some friends taking a first swim for 2011. I know that three months from now the waters of the Adriatic will be beautifully warm, which does little to tempt me to plunge into the cold. I did, however, get as far as getting my feet wet. We were in Gradac, Croatia, for the Novi Most team retreat. I should, of course, be showing video of all the thought-proking sessions but I was too busy leading them to get the camera out so instead you're left with a glimpse of how we spent our spare time, although what this video does fail to show is how good the ice cream was!

Back in January I wrote a post about the behind the scenes preparations for the music courses we are now teaching in Jajce. In the video I said I hoped that at some point we'd be able to post a video showing the result of this teaching. This is that point. After a couple of months of teaching individual music lessons we decided it was time to get all our students into a rehearsal to put together what they have been learning. There were nerves, and there were some mistakes, but there were a lot of very encouraging performances too. Judging by the cell phone videos that appeared on Facebook on Thursday night they are proud of their progress; we are too and this is our video record of their first rehearsal.

This isn't the first time we've had reason to write nice things about EasyJet on this blog. We hope it won't be the last. But least pessimism get the last word let's celebrate the bizarre experience that was collecting my brother and his family from Zagreb airport yesterday. We knew they were flying EasyJet, in fact we'd noticed tickets for the new route become available and recommend they book a cheap trip months ago. We'd since forgotten they'd booked on the inaugural flight. Without this context we did wonder why we were seeing the aircraft ceremonially doused by the hoses of two fire tenders as is taxied towards the terminal. The presence of a media scrum in the arrivals hall had us wondering if a Croatian celebrity had shared the flight with them. When a lone piper struck his first drone note in baggage reclaim we were lost for an explanation. Thankfully the British Ambassador to Croatia was on hand to provide the missing pieces of the puzzle. As we say...

This was the view out of the window when I wandered, bleary eyed, into the kitchen this morning. Yesterday we had been told there was snow up in the villages above Jajce. There was speculation as to whether we'd get the same weather in the town. We didn't, but,as you can see, the high ground got quite a good dusting overnight. Today we were back in Banja Luka buying things we need to get Novi Most up and running in Jajce. Most of the way there was snow somewhere to be seen. The mix of fine fall (or autumn) colours and a dash of winter wonderland made for another very scenic drive. This time the overtaking entertainment was provided by a reckless coach driver who was powering down our side of a section of single-carriageway road as we rounded a corner. The benefit-of-the-doubt assessment would be he'd misjudged the speed of the double-length lumber truck he was struggling to pass. More likely, he was just to impatient for his own good. I halved my speed, deciding not to get ...

I was going to get on my bike yesterday afternoon and head out into the countryside. I didn't. My excuse was the weather, that and trying to finish off some work. However, I did ride the Friday before, my first ride of 2010. Naturally, I wiped out my camera to commemorate the moment.

I love helping people to creative firsts; I don’t particularly enjoy spending money. When I do spend I want to know it’s been money well spent. A couple of months back I started e-begging for guitars . It was fantastic when we started to see donations coming in. But then came the responsibility to see that cash was well invested. After talking with some of my students I decided we needed to get an electric guitar and amp, along with new acoustic guitars. I’m going to claim that was a very inspired move on my part! You can see the guitar pictured here, being played by one of our students during a concert at his school. He had two spots on the bill. The other spot, which I tragically forgot to photograph, had him playing guitar while a fellow student recited a poem. Together they recently won a generous cash prize with their creation, coming first in a talent show for high school students across the canton. As one of their teachers excitedly explained, it was the first time anyone one fr...

It was an afternoon for firsts. I dropped my parents of at Dubrovnik Airport at the end of their first trip to Bosnia Herzegovina. As I drove up the coast road I realised I was following the first Albanian car I’d seen. (It was a Ford Mondeo – which somehow seemed appropriately global!) Suddenly it started slowing down and I realised I was about to see my first road accident since we’ve moved. (It was a Croatian one, as I hadn’t crossed the border, so maybe that doesn’t count?) Sadly a big white Mercedes had taken a serious side swipe from a small anonymous-looking car that had buried its tiny bonnet into the other’s door. Air bags had deployed but it didn’t look like anyone had been hurt. For the first time I took a right turn in Neum and headed home up over the mountains. I had heard various reports about the road. I don’t know what I expected but what I got was a pay-attention drive that would have served well as a stage on Sega Rally. A Hyundai Matrix is not a rally car – nor do I ...