We Do Adventure

This is Lavovi Jajce (Jajce Lions) all smiles before our first game in the new BiH Floorball League. That's me second from the left. Saturday was the first of four tournament days we'll compete in this year. Hopefully we'll do better at the competing bit next time. We lost a closely fought first match 3:2, with the winning goal coming in the dying seconds. However, for reasons I won't go into here, we for ourselves 2:0 down in about as many minutes at the start of the second game. Our opponents in this game go by the name Gromovi, which translates as Thunder. There's no thunder without lightning, and although they say this never strikes twice we were on the end of a brutal 12:2 thrashing. In the words of Yazz : the only way is up!

It is not every morning you are shaken from your sleep by the sound of a gun fight; nor that this is immediately followed by the sound of someone running under your bedroom window; nor that you get to take a photograph like this from the comfort of your own living room. But that was last Thursday in Jajce. It was a day that was supposed to have been all about Project Avant-Guarde, a street-art project Rowan has been part of organising for the past couple of months. However a rare armed robbery, or attempted robbery , got in there early in an apparent attempt to steal its thunder. Real thunder and lightening had a go at playing with the best laid plans too. Our PA equipment got caught in a freakishly fast and heavy hail storm. For a moment I thought our mixing desk might have shipped a little too much water to work again, but careful use of kitchen towel, with the aid of gravity and a hair dryer seemed to save the day. Going into details about the Project is best saved until ...

Rowan has been fascinated by the amount of thunder crashing around Mostar this afternoon. It’s the volume that seems to have impressed itself on her. Her Facebook status currently tells the world she ‘has never heard thunder this loud before!’ It’s passed now, as has the accompanying rain, but not before I managed to get myself caught in it on a shopping trip for a soldering iron! This video is this evidence of my poor timing.

Tonight we are not having fireworks, although, as if on cue, the longest peel of thunder has just crashed about outside while I type this sentence! Obviously, this most English of occasions passes unnoticed here, perhaps wisely so given the large Catholic community in Mostar. Those who don't fully understand should Google 'Guy Fawkes' and 'gunpowder plot' for an insight into an important part of English history. Rowan is missing fireworks, as she particularly enjoys a good display. Hopefully we'll get something at New Year to make up for it. So back to the thunder - it's rolling noisily around the mountains. Perhaps it signals the end of summer? Obviously summer ended a long time ago for locals but I was discussing this with Ben today: it's November, yet every day has still been better than this year's August in England. He's from Wales where the temperature bar is set much lower so it's even better for him. It's raining - the cars are sl...