We Do Adventure

It was during his show-stopping performance at Live8 that Robbie Williams suggested the crowd 'get out their hymnbooks' to sing-a-long as he introduced perhaps the finest song he ever co-wrote! You know how it goes: I sit and wait, as an angel contemplates my fate. That, as untheological as it sounds, is what it feels like today. Ben made a sharp intake of breath when I mentioned the Robbie lyrics but all three of us are sitting in the living room waiting. Sure there are books to read and language to learn, and, yes, that is all happening. But for all of us long-term accomodation is the thing that will help the feeling of getting settled. But it seems this is largely beyond our control, partly due to our inability to communicate in local language and partly due to the fact call them realtors, letting agencies or estate agents they don't seem to exist here, or at least no-one we've talked to uses them. House hunting happens through the papers and the news this morning is...

Since seeing the sorry mess that was the beginning of the restoration of Mostar's Music School I've been pondering the lessons. I should confess I am not a qualified scaffolder. Nevertheless, I have done a bit of rigging in the past. Despite my comment in my video I have combined a rooftop and scaffolding without adding protective headgear into the mix. However, that's not what I've been thinking about. My thoughts are with a damaged building that stood, albeit in a ruined state, for fifteen years since the conflict only to fall when help for rebuilding arrived. Perhaps you can see where this is going? My suspicion is the Music School frontage was pulled down by scaffolding caught in the wind. In every instance of building renovation we've seen here the scaffolding is secured into the front of the building involved. There is little in the way of bracing, certainly none of the big diagonals I'm used to seeing. It seems that scaffolding is not truly self-supportin...

Mostar's Music School building was undergoing restoration. We were shocked to see this as we strolled in to town on Saturday afternoon.

Rowan forwarded me something she saw on The Times website. At the risk of breaking number eight I want to comment on the Ten Commandments for bloggers . You shall not put your blog before your integrity You shall not make an idol of your blog You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes You shall not murder someone else's honour, reputation or feelings You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind You shall not steal another person's content You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger You shall not covet your neighbour's blog ranking. Be content with your own content Writing a blog is an interesting process, perhaps you should try it! The question is always: what to type, what not to type? Striking the balance between being honest and open and n...

There are a great many things we are told that are not true. Perhaps it’s harsh to label them all as lies. Certainly some are merely the result of unbalanced perspective. As our road trip headed south into Belgium and then Germany I began to realise there were great untruths I had fallen for. Britain’s roads are overcrowded. Britain’s motorways always have road-works. Britain’s M25 is really a car park in disguise. These statements are not, in and of themselves, wrong. They are just blinkered; they lack a broader context. Britain may wish to lead the world in a great many things but I’m here to burst the bubble on the idea it has the most crowded, congested roads out there. We all know giant centres of population like Delhi get gridlocked but since when did Belgium have so many people! Perhaps it’s just a tribute to the regional bent for bureaucracy that the traffic around Brussels grinds so painfully slowly. Frankfurt was worse. And on through Austria and Slovenia the crowding and ro...

Rowan spotted it. The van was stopped at lights as we crossed the road. We both reached for our cameras. The lights changed as we hit the pavement, but not before Rowan managed one paparazzi-style snap. And then we stood wondering if we'd really seen what we'd just seen. What this grainy evidence shows is an as yet not formally identified primate . A cursory glance at Google Images indicates it could be some kind of baboon, although monkey (in the generic sense) paints a clearer picture. The white Mercedes van in question was a mobile advert for a circus, carrying two questionable looking characters and the unidentified mammal chained to the roof! While our furry friend did not seem overly annoyed at his airy advertising role we were slightly surprised. His high-profile position would generate no positive publicity back in the UK.

Dunkirk is more famous as a place for getting off the continent than onto to it. However it’s apparently a cheaper destination than Calais so at 4am our small ferry nosed its way out of Dover into one of the world’s busiest waterways for the short trip across the Channel. It’s been the better part of ten years since I’ve been on a ferry. I never thought I’d use the Tunnel, let alone recommend other to, but it is so quick and easy. But it has no magic. You miss leaving and there’s no great sense of arrival. You can’t walk out on deck at 5am to survey the view and talk to your video camera! I not sure why I opted for a particularly stodgy English breakfast as we gently swayed across the mercifully calm waters. As last meals go it was particularly poor, although perhaps comfortingly reminiscent of school dinners back in the day before Jamie Oliver got his hands on them! With this laying heavy in my stomach I stretched out on the bench seating in the cafeteria and attempted sleep. Sleep in...