We Do Adventure

Last night I was talking to some of the young people we used to work with back in the UK. I had showed them some video of what we’re up to in Mostar, answered a whole bunch of their questions and finished off by talking about the big lesson I know I’ve learned since arriving in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I talked about what it feels like to cycle up onto the mountains around Mostar and ponder just how many deadly explosive devices still litter this landscape; how strange it is to have a conversation with a former Army bomb disposal expert about what hitting an anti-personnel mine might do to me and my mountain bike. Such a scenario is obviously best avoided. This is just one, admittedly dramatic, example of the lesson that is “don’t let fear run (or ruin) your life”. It’s all too easily done. At the less life-threatening end of the scale is the fear of making a fool of yourself with a failed phrase in local language. The temptation: to keep your mouth shut. Back on the bike the temptati...

The taste buds are wonderful things. Unless they’ve been seared by extra hot pizza, or ceased to function out of sympathy with a blocked nose, they are a surprisingly accurate at detecting even the slightest changes in familiar food or drink. Which is why the familiar is sometimes not so familiar. Ever had the privilege of eating a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk from South Africa? It got a gritty, floury texture not found in its UK counterpart! My taste buds are telling me the Pepsi here is not the same as it is in England. Without the ability to conductive a side-by-side text I’ve taken their word for it. To my rescue rides Cockta ! Now Cockta’s not a brand I was familiar with. The Wikipedia entry starts helpfully: ‘Cockta is a soft drink from Slovenia. Its main ingredient comes from the dog rose berry’ Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it? But, honestly, it is! I’ve drunk litres of the stuff and haven’t got sick of it yet. Translating the prominent sticker on the label today I discovered it doesn’t c...