We Do Adventure

This video is about one of the hot topics of the last week here in Jajce. As I say in the video, I'm not claiming to be an expert on the issues or have all the facts at my finger-tips. But as I was cycling past Brana today I thought I'd stop to film incase there's someone out there on the internet who'd be interested in this news who hasn't heard it already. As for what will actually happen to this beautiful little part of central Bosnia: time will tell. And when it does I'll be sure to make a video about it!

This time last year I uploaded a video showing me chickening out of a first swim for summer 2011 . We were in Gradac, Croatia, for a Novi Most team retreat and trying to make the most of a few days by the coast. This weekend we were back in the same place for the same reason. However the outcome of the 'will I, won't I?' swimming question was not the same. In an relatively uncharacteristic act of bravery in the face of less-than-warm water I took the plunge...remembering, of course, to take the camera with me so the pain was not in vain. That much was to be expected!

We have waited fully four weeks for this moment...it would be wrong of us not to share it with you on video!

There is a possibility that tomorrow normal service will be resumed with the water in our house. However after three and a half weeks with just one working tap I'm reluctant to get my hopes up. That said I can't wait to have a proper shower again. The novelty of pouring bottles of water over myself every morning has definitely worn off. We are well aware, however, that our current inconveniences don't compare to real hardship. But if they are a cloud of sorts then this morning we got to see the silver lining. The heavy winter might have got the better of the plumbing in our building but it's also left lots of snow on the top of the nearby mountains. This morning we decided to explore and found the ski slope we can see from the kitchen window deserted. We spent a couple of hours enjoying the silence and getting sunburnt!

Life is full of challenges. For the past two and a half weeks one of ours has been living without a functioning shower in our house. Last week we discovered there was no problem with the outflow pipes from our house so we've got more adventurous in how we use the facilities on the non-functioning side of the house. For example, our recently replaced toilet will flush if you fill the cistern by bucket from our one working tap in the kitchen. Likewise it is perfectly possible to use the shower if you fill bottles of hot water in the kitchen and then proceed to pour them over yourself! When we were back in the UK at the beginning of this month we happened to drive by Ardingly reservoir, in West Sussex. I commented at the time it looked alarmingly low. I wasn't wrong. The reports are now out that southern England is in a state of drought . I guess that will mean hose-pipe bans and the like. For us the last few weeks have been a real eye-openner to just how much water we use, or wou...

Fun: it's one of the Novi Most values. That's one reason why our team found itself at the Terme in Ilidža this afternoon. It's a great recreational swimming facility, that was almost empty but for our noisy bunch enjoying themselves and me making this video. I think you'll agree, it had to be done!