We Do Adventure

The final stage (shot)

2011-11-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Having posted two photos of a people-free stage I thought I should end the run with this: us in action. It comes from an album of photos of the AVNOJ event uploaded by Jajceinfo.com. The album really captures the feel of the event so I'd recommend taking a few moments out to browse through them over a nice cup of tea...or similar beverage.

And talking of drinks...it was only last week that Rowan was reading that Somersby Pear Cider was coming for Bosnia and Herzegovina, as their Apple Cider was apparently a huge hit over the summer. I still maintain it tastes like vaguely alcoholic Apple Tango and am concerned it might damage the image of cider to first time drinkers over here, but the announcement of the arrival of its pear counterpart is good news. I found a bottle in Croatia this summer and was pleasantly surprised by how tasty it was. So it put a smile on my face when I stumbled across some in a supermarket earlier today...hopefully they'll still be stocking it come next summer!

Filling a stage.

2011-11-26T13:21:00.000-08:00

After posting yesterday's empty stage picture I thought it good to give it some context with today's image. This is how things looked late this morning before everything kicked off outside the AVNOJ Museum. We were responsible for that kick off, rocking out as the assembled Partizans, anti-fascists and other onlookers processed back across the bridge over the river, after a wreath laying ceremony at Jajce's Partizan memorial. If there was any disappointment from the crowd it was we didn't squeeze another song in, or accept suggestions as to what it might be, before we made way for the rest of the program to continue.

I did, however, get a truly Bosnian busking experience, filling in on bass guitar with a local folk singer, his school music teacher keyboard player and the sound man on drums for an interesting rendition of a traditional tune. The song was in 7/8, which might not mean much to some of you, but others will understand the challenge these presents when feeling your way through a song you never heard before. Some rather-too-pleased-with-themselves acquaintances enthusiastically assured me my first foray into sevdalinka had been videoed. I can't see me rushing to put it online!

The stage is set.

2011-11-25T11:51:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Saturday, is the big AVNOJ commemoration here in Jajce, remembering the founding of Yugoslavia on 29th November 1943. (AVNOJ stands for Antifašističko Vijeće Narodnog Oslobođenja Jugoslavije or the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia.)

We were asked to be part of proceedings again. Last year we gave an enthusiastic performance of some ex-Yu rock songs (plus a few international numbers) as part of the organised programme of events from the stage outside the AVNOJ Museum. And so, with a slightly-rejigged line-up, we will reprise the spirit of that performance tomorrow. The stage is set - I photographed it earlier today - it just remains for us to turn up early in the morning and hope it isn't too cold for guitar playing fingers!

Citizenship fail

2011-10-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Guardian.co.uk homepage featured an article about the Life in the UK Citizenship Test. We've been out of the country for the better part of the last three years so we thought it would be good to see how we got on with their online quiz. We failed. Embarrassingly so! For us this means nothing more than some dented pride but I can't help feel for the genuine cases that are going to come unstuck when faced with the real deal.

Yes we did!

2011-10-09T11:23:00.001-07:00

It's not a picture I'm proud of but I'll say I guess it had to be done to mask the clear lack of principled behaviour on display here. As someone who has enjoy living in a land beyond the reach of McDonalds and Starbucks it is unfortunate to have to confess that this weekend's trip to Sarajevo saw us not just sampling McDonalds traditional fast-food but also indulging in their take of the Starbucks formula.

One of the key strengths of the McDonalds brand is that, whatever you think of it, their food tastes the same wherever in the world you eat it. I don't care much for McDonalds' ability to steam a burger to within an inch of its life, but their hot apple pies and ice cream are a special kind of plastic magic. But who would have imagined they could tackled the decent coffee and cake thing? I was genuinely surprised; I certainly won't rule out a return visit. And that's a confession I didn't expect to make.

Yesterday's news

2011-10-07T04:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's news was, quite fairly, dominated by the passing of Steve Jobs. It made for sad reading on my MacBookPro over breakfast. I for one am grateful to the man who designed a computer that does the things I want to do without requiring me to understand how the computer does it. That it does it all in a well designed package that is a pleasure to work with is an obvious advantage. But the purpose of this post is not to big up Apple or their various iProducts.

It is, instead, the tale of two contrasting meal times. If breakfast was a subdued affair, lunch took on a celebratory tone as we indulged in our first wraps purchased in Jajce. Not only has the local supermarket finally decided to took some Mexican food, they have done so by stocking more varieties of wrap than we've seen in the other towns we used to secure our supplies from. Long may this continue.

So what's the most appropriate to finish this post? It has to be by saying: that's a wrap!

Eviscerated?!

2011-10-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

Most of us must have a favourite quotable movie and if not a favourite then we probably go through phases of plundering a particular popular film for our own entertainment. I remember when A Knight's Tale was the movie of the moment. It remains fantastically quotable, although these days its best lines might do little more than draw blank stares. Heath Ledger was good but I think the scriptwriters gave Paul Bettany a gift with a part they wrote for Chaucer: “I am a writer, I give the truth scope” remains an all time favourite of mine.

I say this because we met a writer last night. They are visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina to research their next book. As we sat listening to them describe their journey from writing true stories to fiction I confess my mind wandered. I was back in A Knight's Tale hearing Chaucer tell the Pardoner: “I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.” Eviscerate sounds so emotive, even if I'd be hard pushed to give the dictionary definition with, well, consulting a dictionary!

I doubt we'll end up as inspiration for some fictional characters but who knows. If we do and you recognise us just remember the writer has probably given the truth scope.

Today's news on Twitter

2011-09-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer I saw an “article” on The Telegraph website which consisted of little more than a string of Lily Allen tweets, linked by some poor prose, masquerading as an attempt at celebrity gossip. It was the kind of sub-journalism that one hopes resulted in someone being relieved of their writing duties!

I don't blame Twitter for this. The micro-blogging site delivers the weird and wonderful with surprising ease. Try searching its feeds for mentions of 'Bosnia'. You'll quickly discover there are plenty of Bosnian Beliebers desperate for Justin to visit the country. Today, however, I saw something genuinely interesting: a link to a UWC Facebook page. While we were in Mostar we knew several United World College students in the college there. We heard a lot about the UWC philosophy and we saw the opportunities it opened up for them. I was intrigued to read that a student from one of the world's more closed countries is about to enter that world. At the risk of appearing lazy, I pasted the following straight in from the UWC Atlantic College Facebook post.

UWC in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina has announced the acceptance of North Korean student Kim Han Sol. The 16-year old will be the first student from North Korea to attend a UWC and benefit from the transformational educational experience that UWC offers. 

The UWC movement identifies diversity as one of its core values. In bringing students together from a range of cultural, social and economic backgrounds, we can further our mission to make education a force for peace and a sustainable future. We aim to develop students who are multi-cultural, socially confident and morally responsible. During their time at UWC, alongside their academic studies, students participate in a variety of community service activities and develop skills to resolve the tensions within and across society. We expect that all students who participate in our programme, from whatever background, will ultimately be of service and influence in their home and the wider global community. 

Li Po Chun UWC, based in Hong Kong, has been operating an outreach programme with North Korea for a number of years, sending student ambassadors to the country to engage with young North Koreans and learn more about life in their country. The enrollment of the first North Korean student to a UWC is a natural consequence of this relationship.

Keith Clark, Executive Director, UWC International commented “UWC is proud of the transformational nature of its education. Diversity is key to the educational experience and each year UWC welcomes a diverse cross section of students to its schools, colleges and programmes.”

Thinking of a holiday...

2011-09-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

We're back from our holiday and back to work. While our work is based in Bosnia and this blog is for the most part dedicated to given an alternative glimpse into life in Bosnia and Herzegovina we're going to allow this post to talk about the neighbours: in this case, Croatia.

After a week on the beautiful Zlatni rat beach near Bol, on the island of Brac, it seems a good time to promote a bit of regional tourism. Remembering that we once posted a video from the BiH Tourist Board I went searching on YouTube to see if I could turn up something similar for Croatia. I found this. There are too reasons to love this fancy little 30-second clip: the American voice-over and the fact that it opens with a superb we-were-there shot - enjoy!

We'll back after the break!

2011-08-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

Our summer activities are over; our summer holiday is just a little way ahead, around the corner. For the young people we've been working with this summer, yesterday's highlight was probably the water slide at Aquana, in Banja Luka. Either that or the opportunity to tease me, a Spurs supporter, about Dzeko's four goals for Manchester City at the weekend. In the interests of impartiality I left a bit of both in the video.

We now have a month before we resume Novi Most courses and activities here in Jajce. I probably don't need to point out that is not the same as a month's holiday but, there, I did anyway! Our holiday is booked for later in the month. My only concern is that although the sunshine and the temperature yesterday spoke clearly of summer still being here the trees on the drive back had definitely decided autumn is on its way. Give it a couple of weeks and who know where we'll be. Well, we know where we'll be; we just hope the good weather will still be hanging around for us!

An Unintentionally Aquatic Finale

2011-08-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

My last post might have made it sound like anything in Jajce involving water and tourism was experiencing something of a hiatus at the moment. Of course, that isn't the whole picture. This evening, for the first time, we rented a boat from outside Hotel Plivsko Jezero and spent a lazy hour soaking up the early evening sun on the lake. As you can see for the video, the boat had a small electric motor, running off what was basically an oversized car battery. It was slow and almost silent. Although my last experience in a boat involved a powerful engine, an exciting turn of speed and vast stretches of Finnish water I think Jajce's lakes, and this evening's excursion, benefit from their lack of the noisy elements of watersport. Tranquil would be a word well used to describe the experience.

This little adventure was part of an unintentionally aquatic finale to our Novi Most summer activities with young people in Jajce. Yesterday, we had the first social gathering between young people from Novi Most's three locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mostar's Gradski Bazen - it's outdoor pool - was where most of the hanging out took place. Our final trip takes us to Banja Luka, on Monday, for a second visit to the aqua park there. For a first summer of organising activities in Jajce I think we can say things have gone fantastically well. We're in the process of getting some official feedback from the young people but the fact they've kept coming back speaks for itself.

This evening was a first for us, it probably was for many of them too. But it wasn't the first first we've made possible this summer. Insights in the other firsts will, however, have to wait until another post.

No waterfall

2011-08-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

Jajce really is very pretty in the summer; sitting, nestled amongst the green mountains, under a clear blue sky, its various water features sparkling in the sunlight. I could start writing things about an other-worldly beauty but I fear the 'pretentious police' might put in an appearance. Besides, some would say this would not be Bosnia if there were not some way of bringing overly romantic thoughts crashing back down to reality. For Jajce, this summer paint and pile-drivers provide the answer.

The main pedestrian bridge in one of the prettiest parts of town has been undergoing noisy, if necessary, reconstruction for the past two months. That this coincides with the height of summer and has almost certainly affected the number of visitors to the AVNOJ museum - effectively stranded on the wrong side of the river - is unfortunate, to say the least. I would add that the bridge being out of action robs tourists of easy access to the best views of Jajce's waterfall. However, for the last week the waterfall has been 'switched off' to allow the essential engineering works that have been happening below it for some months to expand. I'm sure, one day, the magic will return, but until then there are machines and what appears to be an homage to Heath Robinson.

A tune for the summer

2011-07-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago Poppiholla, Chicane's take on a Sigur Ros track, was undoubtedly my song of the summer. This year that title is likely to be taken by something of the Hurts' album Happiness. Both of these are unfortunate confessions to make before today's big announcement for they betray a fondness for electronica and retro-styled synth pop. However, unashamed and undeterred, I will offer this suggestion for your summer fix of pop punk rock.

Peace & Love is the latest recording from Gilgal, they band which Rowan and I form two-thirds of. It is one of those relentlessly energetic tracks that demands repeated plays at high volume. You could drive fast to it, dance crazily in front of the mirror to it or take your choice between air guitar or air drums. (Full disclosure: I'm the guitarist but when it comes to air instrumentation I am almost exclusively a drummer.) It may not be the sound-of-the-summer but it is certainly a sound-of-the-summer type song.

Because we feel a bit guilty soaking up the hot sun here in Bosnia and Herzegovina, watching friends in the UK tweet about grey skies and rain we want to do our bit to brighten your day, should it be a dull and cloudy one. Click the link to the Gilgal Bandcamp page (www.gilgal.bandcamp.com) and you can download Peace & Love to kick start your summer fun – regardless of the weather. You can get the track for free, or if you want to leave a donation Bandcamp makes that very easy. All donations will go towards the work we're doing making music recordings with young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Whether you prefer your summer synth pop or punk rock, we hope you have a good one!

Gigging again

2011-07-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

We're gigging tomorrow and Saturday. Gilgal. That's us. Rowan and I and Budo, our drumming co-worker at Novi Most in Jajce. If your eyesight is good you'll see from the poster that the gigs are at two different caffe bars in town. We're actually playing outside two caffe bars, because at this time of year any caffe bar that has the option to operate outdoors does so.

These will be are first gigs in Jajce, if you don't include our cameo in last November's AVNOJ event. As you'd expect, we've been putting the hours in rehearsing. We're ready to play about 35 songs, including extended guitar solos and an acoustic set! Quite how the evenings will play out is anyones guess at this stage. Experience has taught us to at least try to be relaxed about such minor details start and finish times, and whether another bunch of guys are going to hold an impromptu jam on your instruments half way through the evening.

I guess in the UK advertising like this is called fly posting. Over here it's how the word gets out about pretty much everything. We weren't responsible for where our posters went up and I probably wouldn't have gone for this particular spot as, although it has an advert for summer day trips to the Croatian coast, it is mostly used for posting death notices. That said, we always see people stopped and reading them here so perhaps it wasn't a bad idea. We'll find out tomorrow night.

Awesome!

2011-07-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

I show this photo not to illustrate man's propensity to spread a little around the middle but because it was my favourite photo from our recent camping experience. That it is pains me. Not because I have anything against any of these guys; the photo was the idea of the bloke doing the pointing and I thought I'd do them all the favour of blurring their faces to spare their blushes. And it's not that I dislike the photo. I like how it captures the happy wind down after a mad five minutes that mixed testosterone and a diving board. My pain is because of all the good photos I didn't manage to take.

Four days camped out at Boračko jezero, the lake you get a glimpse of in the picture, came with some fantastic sights that did not include excessive man flesh. The sunlight, the mountains, trees, clouds, weird and wonderful bits of wildlife: all of these I tried to capture. I failed. The photos I downloaded from our camera this afternoon have no mystique, no sense of wonder. The real deal, however, did not disappoint at all. Whether it was the morning sun striking the rocky mountain outcrops, or the brook weaving its way down the canyon, or the usually unseen stars revealed in a night sky with no light pollution. In the correct sense of the word, I had a great time seeing creation be awesome.

Finished!

2011-06-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

Rowan spotted this video on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. It's from a high school graduation celebration here in Jajce. We were out of town when it was filmed so we missed the parade, although we did see a similar one in the boarder town of Gradiška on our way back from a recent trip to Zagreb. It's a fun video to watch - we know a few of the characters in it - and it does a good job of showing Jajce off, which we think is a cool thing.

Posting it tonight has an added significance because I've got that end-of-term feeling. My work on the children's album (that our last post talked about) is officially finished. After nine months of the project simmering in the background and two weeks of intense work, today we put a CD on the bus to Mostar, where the artwork is being designed and where it will be duplicated. It is a satisfying feeling to have delivered what was asked of me inside the timeframe we initially discussed. That the initial feedback has all been positive is an encouraging bonus.

Now all I need to do is get those songs out of my head and start learning a bunch of local covers for an acoustic set in a couple of weeks. But before then, I will have one day with a summer holiday feel to it!

In the mix

2011-06-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

It looks like it's going to be another sunny day in Jajce but I'm inside, sitting down for another of mixing. It's what I've done for the last two days; it's what I'll be doing for most of the next three days. At that point we'll assess progress and work out what needs to happen before the end of next week. You'll have to watch the video below to get the details of the project, it's enough here to say it's going well but the timeframe is tight. The looming deadline means there's little room for interruptions. However, in my experience, achieving an uninterrupted working day is a big ask in Bosnia and Herzegovina - but here's hoping!

Mine no more.

2011-06-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

“UK Government congratulates #Nepal for clearance of last remaining minefields & its designation as landmine free country.” So tweeted the Foreign Office this morning. This is good news for the Nepalese, and for visitors to their country.

When it comes to the scars of war, clearing up the physical mess can take a lot longer than it does to return to some kind of psychological normality. We hear people talking about choosing to move on, but bombed-out buildings don't mend themselves. In the fifteen years since the shooting stopped in Bosnia and Herzegovina many of its marks are still clearly visible. This morning I woke to see the sunlight streaming through the bullet holes in the shutters on the window of the bedroom I was borrowing.

I'm in Mostar. I drove down from Jajce on Sunday evening. One section of the journey passes through what has been, until recently, a largely unmarked minefield. Last month a sudden proliferation of bright yellow hazard tape alerted me to the fact that I'd managed to miss the small red “Pazi Mine' signs that have been nestled in the bushes for some time. In the last week the roadside shrubbery has been hacked away and a grid of hazard tape marked out over the ground: all indications the days are numbered for this particular mine field.

Perhaps it's just me, but it is strange living in a country where there are still so many mines out there. You don't go off the beaten track. You do watch where you put you feet when you're outside of town. You do look up at the inviting mountain views and think “I wonder...” Optimistic articles I've read indicate Bosnia might be in the say position as Nepal within ten years, the pessimists add another nought to that number. Either way, the day can't come too soon.

What we see in Zagreb

2011-06-08T12:25:00.001-07:00

Last weekend the Pope was in Zagreb. We were there the couple of days before he arrived. The to events had no connection, except that we were as aware of his impending arrival as he was unaware of our impending departure.

However, the point of this post is to put Zagreb on the map if you haven't heard of it before. We would hope the capital of Croatia has crossed your consciousness before now but should it have evaded your radar that's about to be corrected.

We've only started to explore Zagreb since our move to Jajce; it's now about a four hour drive away, which is makes it a reasonable proposition for a weekend break. Where as every city we've visited in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a east meets west feel to its architecture, Zagreb is definitely a western city. It has charm and, though we can't claim to have visited any of them yet, it also seems to have a healthy collection of museums and art galleries. It also has recently landed a regular Easyjet service from London Gatwick.

If this reads like an advert, or a puff piece, I have to confess, sadly, that we are in no way getting remunerated for our kind words - not that we'd object if that situation changed! What we can say is that we have seen enough to know there's plenty we'd like to see more of in Zagreb. We'll definitely be back there some time. And if you're reading this in London or Paris you are just one cheap, direct, flight away from meeting us there!

Music Courses Update

2011-06-01T23:23:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday we ran a second rehearsal for our music students at Novi Most Jajce. Since we started teaching guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums (and violin), at the beginning of the year, we've seen a steady increase in the number of young people wanting to learn with us. Some have tried an instrument for a few weeks and decided it's not for them, but despite that drop-off we still have more students than we started with. Fourteen of them joined us for this session. For some it was their first time trying to play as a band, for most it was their second. (One or two might have had a little more previous experience.)

Anyone who's played music for any length of time will know there's a big difference between being a 'bedroom player' and a gigging musician. It's encouraging to see these young people rising to the challenge. Many off them are still in the very early days of getting to grips with their instrument. That they are prepared to use the little they've learned so far to make music with others is a real credit to them. Fo our part, we hope that providing both personal tuition and regular opportunities to play with others will not only give these guys a great start on their musical journey but hours of fun too.

Big news & black humour

2011-05-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today the big news from this part of the world is making the headlines around the globe. It's always difficult to know what if anything we should write about such things. If we've learned anything in these past few years it is that war stories are really as simple as most news outlets like to paint them. We were in Croatia last weekend and there were plenty of visible declarations of support for General Ante Gotovina. A UN war crimes tribunal recently sentenced him to 24 years in prison for persecution, murder and other war crimes during the conflict in the 90s, but that doesn't stop him being a hero to many Croats. Likewise, in Bosnia and Herzegovina the arrest of Ratko Mladic will be met with different reactions. It may bring closure for some, reopen old wounds for others. And then there are those who will think he's being falsely accused. Discussing it could prove a conversational minefield; a sad reflection of the physical minefields that still litter the country.

In the light of all this, perhaps it is permissible to quote a light-hearted tweet on the subject. Like the British, many Bosnians we've met do a good line in black humour. I think they'd get a smile from this, if they could get their heads around the pseudo-archaic English of DrSamuelJohnson: Gen. Ratko MLADIC / Both evil & tragick / Vanish'd from View / 'til SERBIA wish'd to adjoin the EU.

A First Swim

2011-05-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

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!

A wake up call.

2011-05-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

Summer has not even arrived yet and we're already preparing for winter. This morning we were woken by the persistent ringing of the door bell, announcing our first delivery of wood. It was ten to seven. So we started the day, under the watchful ear of six or seven swallows, stacking this pile of logs into something neater and altogether more tidy.

Although the instructional videos on YouTube tell me wood should dry for a year before being burned it doesn't seem to work like that here. However, this lot will get a minimum of four or five months which should put us in a lot better starting position than we were last October. Here's hoping fires start quicker and are distinctly less smoky come the autumn.

Biciklijada

2011-05-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

I should have got this online about a week ago but I needed a little longer than a moment here or there to get the video edited. So in the spirit of 'better late than never' here is what the outward leg of our recent 60k cycle ride looked like. I didn't film the way back so you miss out on the increasingly heavy rainfall the accompanied our journey home, and the collision between a brake-less BMX and the rider in front of me that left one of them tasting tarmac!

Burnt out

2011-05-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

At a time when there are fears the actions of politicians on all sides are fanning unwelcome flames in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jajce experienced its own unwanted act of arson. We were told today these mills by the lakes survived the war unscathed but last night they did not survived what was surely a very pointless, and mindless, act of vandalism. Although, lest they perished in vain, perhaps they will provide a timely reminder of how beautiful environment is too easily scarred. Nobody benefits from that.

Worst Post-War Crisis

2011-05-06T08:58:00.000-07:00

If Wikipedia is the place to go check 'facts' online then Twitter is certainly the first port of call for breaking news. When I noticed the phrase 'worst post-war crisis' appear with alarming regularity is my 'Bosnia' keyword search I figured we probably had something worth investigating.

It seems this is the verdict of the International Crisis Group. One might argue that given their name they were unlikely to find the situation in Bosnia as anything other, but nevertheless these kind of reports are a timely reminder that nothing should be taken for granted.

You can read the way the BBC reported this story if you want a bit more background, although it really contains little new news. However, I was left wondering where hope and optimism are when you need them. It is a brave man who says he understands the ins and outs of the political machine in Bosnia and Herzegovina; it will take brave men to see it provides ongoing peace and prosperity for all people here.

An R-rated barbecue?

2011-05-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

This video really needs very little introduction although it may benefit from a film-like classification. It's been labeled as 'the most gory video I've seen' and I've been told it should be R rated for violence. I feel I should say "you have been warned" but can a barbecue really be that bad?

May Day Barbecue

2011-05-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

In the next couple of days I'll edit an hours video footage into something watchable but until then I present this photograph as evidence of our May Day celebrations. That's a young goat being spit roasted and, yes, that's me taking my turn at slowly rotating the highlight of our barbecue lunch.

I'd never eaten goat before. Now I can say I've been party to tearing a freshly cooked one limb from limb and chewing it off the bone. Civilised dining it probably wasn't. However I now know goat doesn't taste like chicken, it's, unsurprisingly, lambish.

Best of British?

2011-04-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's hard to understand something you've never experienced. Up until two weeks ago my only clear recollection of an earthquake was on a simulator in London's Science Museum. That didn't prepare me for what flashes through your mind when your house actually starts shaking, like it did as we were watching Man City dump Man Utd out of the FA Cup. Last night as I lay in bed, trying to drift off to sleep, the house shook again. These quakes, while big enough to show up on the websites that monitor these things, were nothing compared to the quakes we've seen destroy communities around the world in recent months. I know that my little experience cannot really help me understand the tragedy, and terror, of those situations.

This morning we woke to a day where around the world people have joined in celebrating one of the best things about the British: their ability to do pageantry. Rowan and I watched the Royal Wedding thanks to the streaming on YouTube, although by all accounts local television was full of it too. This afternoon I was looking at some of the reporting on the BBC website. Over a helicopter image of Westminster Abbey the voiceover declared: “The seat of Kings for a thousand years.” We shouldn't overlook the fact at least a couple of Queens have been crowned there in that time, but oversimplifications aside, Britain has experienced an incredible stretch of continuity when compared to many other countries.

Since just before moving to Mostar, a book called Bosnia: A Short History has sat on our shelves. Despite its optimistic title it's a daunting brick of a book that remains unfinished. Nevertheless, I'm all too aware few countries in the Balkans can come close to claiming that kind of continuity over the last hundred years, let alone over a millennia. I often wonder what it feels like to be born in a country that no longer exists, like so many of our friends here were; their parents were quite possibly born into a different country still. (I know I'm probably guilty of a little oversimplification myself.) We live in a city steeped in history. Yugoslavia was born here and it lives on in the memories of many, but it is a past that will only slip ever further away. Listen long enough and you hear more nostalgia than pride in the present, or hope for the future.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have no desire to experience a tremor that really rattles the Richter Scale to better understand what it feels like. Neither would I want to live through the break-up of my homeland. Both must bring with them an unwelcome insecurity. Even though I wouldn't say life here is dangerous I think do about things I never considered back in Britain. I know the UK is not without its issues but it still has a lot going for it. Days like today help highlight this heritage. When it comes to why we shouldn't take British history for granted I think Christine Amanpour summed it up well in this tweet: “Amazing to see Will & Kate tie the knot. Not empty pomp but richness of history & continuity. Uplifting sense of security in troubled times.”

Sometimes I'm tempted to think this security, or stability, that forms part of my background is an unfair advantage, but none of us decide when or where we are born. We are, however, responsible with how we share the good things life have given us with those who haven't had the same opportunities. A day like today serves as a timely reminder that those of us who were born British shouldn't take the benefits that has brought us for granted.

Not one swallow...

2011-04-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

One swallow does not make a summer but could two be the sign of sunshine to come? The online weather forecasts don't agree at the moment but we live in hope. Whatever the weather it was quite a surprise to see these guys outside the window as I was getting breakfast. Perhaps it is evidence of ageing or a sign of the power of parenting that such things catch my attention. As if to prove either point, this morning's bike ride around the lake was a head turning affair. I am pleased to say I didn't run over three of the largest snails I can remember seeing. Spotting the first, bang in the middle of the trail I was riding, had me stopping to gauge just how big he was: head to tail easily as wide as my fist. Maybe that doesn't sound so impressive to you but it was to me!

The wisdom of Wikipedia indicates the bird swimming on the lake could be a sign of summer. The margin for error comes from the vagaries of their distribution map and the accuracy of my identification. Nevertheless, I'm going to make it 2-0 to summertime with my sighting of a Great Crested Grebe. (Real ornithologists feel free to shout me down on this!) Least this all get terribly optimistic I have to redress the balance with what Wikipedia says about my weirdest wandering wildlife encounter yet: “These salamanders are secretive and will only exit their underground home on warm rainy nights in Spring, to breed and hunt.” Yes, I spotted a Spotted Salamander, obviously late getting home from a hard night out in yesterday's rain. Shiny black with bright orange spots he was always going to be hard to miss but nevertheless proved a little camera shy. Here's the proof it's probably still spring.

The first rehearsal

2011-04-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Not inevitable

2011-04-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I was told a simple story that illustrates why the hatred and division, fuelled by nationalism, that's all too common in this part of the world need not be an inevitability. We were visiting the parents of some brothers who are attending the youth work we're running in Jajce. Over generous helpings of coffee and cake the conversation ranged around various subjects. Then it turned to the one that can prove so explosive. The father leans forward. “It was ninety-three” he begins, explaining that this was the height of the war between the Croats and the Muslims, at least where he was at the time. “We got married then.” He is Catholic, his wife Muslim. His point was clear, so clear I think it needs no further expounding.

An Empire State of Mind...in Sarajevo.

2011-04-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

We'd watched it grow but we'd never been up. Yesterday, we visited the Avaz Twist Tower in Sarajevo for the first time. The decision was made by its proximity to the place we were spending the night but mostly by the gloriously clear blue skies stretched over Sarajevo. Although they had postcards pushing a parallel with the Empire State Building the two are very different experiences. For one thing there are no snow-topped mountains to be viewed from Manhattan. Without a double the Avaz Twist Tower does offer the best panorama of Sarajevo. If there was one disappointment it was that the open-air section of the 36th floor viewing gallery was closed, meaning the 35th floor cafe bar provided the better views. But as it would be wrong to gain that much elevation without stopping for coffee we did have time to savour them.

International Roma Day

2011-04-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

You have to be careful what you read in the news. It can give you a very unbalanced perspective on things. Today as I sat in a multi-agency round table meeting to discuss Roma issues in a village school near Jajce I caught myself thinking: I can't imagine this happening in France. I'm aware this is probably very unfair to all the un-xenophobic French whose views are not presented in the British media. However I was struck with the contrast between reading recent stories of deportations and sitting in a room with representatives from the local social services, local government, OSCE, EUFOR and others discussing issues around education with a group of Roma parents. Here were people trying to make life better. That, at least, is the optimistic view. Listening to the realities of the struggles this community faces it's easy to wonder if life will ever change. This evening I read a less than hopeful article about the future of the whole country. With such big problems in need of fixing it begs the question why worry about the little ones. But as a friend said this morning: you have to start somewhere. Where people have started they have made a difference, and when people stop to think about it they recognise that and are thankful. That's the encouragement. There may still be a long road ahead but, one step at a time, life can get better.

A winning day

2011-04-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a very satisfying day. Sometimes in youth work it can be hard to see progress, or any kind of positives, from all your efforts; it was not one of those days. Instead it was day when I could choose which of many encouraging outcomes to reflect on.

The uni hockey match in Mostar brought together young people from a mixture of ethnic and social backgrounds, although the teams were not defined by these factors. The teams, from Mostar and Jajce, were both mixed. It was exciting to see that after a hard fought game, that lacked nothing in passion and intensity, the teams were happy to hang out and mix together. Perhaps this was because the players are unified by an involvement in a sport almost unknown in this part of the world. I'd like to think the accepting atmosphere the coaches from both teams have created had something to do with it too.

For my part it was nice to know I haven't been forgotten by the young people from Klub Novi Most in Mostar, and it was fun to show the young people from Jajce around the sights of Mostar's Stari Grad. Six and a half hours on the mountain roads between here and there took its toll, but it was a very satisfied exhaustion that left me struggling to wake up on Sunday morning.

Jajce fights back!

2011-04-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

It's like Jajce read yesterday's post about Mostar and thought anything it can do...and turned up the heat.

When I left the house at nine this morning is was a grey, overcast day. By noon we were sitting outside a coffee bar in the centre of town, burning up under the midday sun. This season's tan is officially started!

At five I had a meeting with a local band out by the lakes. Had I sat the other side of the table I would have spent an hour staring at this view. As it was I concentrated on what was being said instead!

Truth be told, Mostar was warmer yesterday but having given friends there a cautious appraisal of Jajce's move towards summer weather I am happy to be proved wrong so quickly.

Mostar looking lovely.

2011-04-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Mostar was looking lovely today. I was down for the day as our uni hockey team from Jajce were playing against the team from Klub Novi Most in Mostar. I'll save any comment on the game until I can post the highlights video.

Instead, enjoy the view from the Stari Most. It was ideal weather for taking in the delights of the Stari Grad, which we did before hitting the road back to Jajce. Warm, t-shirt weather in the low twenties is much more suited for strolling around in the sunshine than the mid-fourties heat of high summer.

What you won't see is all the photo opportunities I passed up on the way there and back in the interests of driving responsibly. Blue skies, sunshine and snow-topped mountains still take a lot of beating in my book. In fact my concern to drive safely almost backfired when I slowed dramatically on a mountain road to let a cat with no sense of urgency saunter out of my path; I was being tail-gated by an impatient local at the time. In retrospect, full speed ahead would have been safer for human life. Future dazed and confused felines be warned!

What Europe has lost.

2011-04-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

It's a sad fact that most news stories about Bosnia and Herzegovina that make English language news sites tend not to be happy ones. The article from this week's Economist that landed in my Facebook inbox this week would be a good example. While I don't believe you, me or the international community at large should ignore the issues this kind of journalism highlights it is important to offer proof of the positives of this place. As an example of this I present this quote from an article a friend posted on my Facebook wall last night.

“The country described sometimes as the heart between the mouths of two lions, hosts one of the two greatest tracks of primeval forests in Europe, unmatched biodiversity, daunting mountain faces yet to be climbed, deep gorges yet to be traversed, wild rivers with water so pure you can cup your hand to drink, some of the highest concentrations of wildlife, and perhaps the last highland tribes of semi-nomadic peoples on the continent. In many ways, Bosnia today has what the rest of Europe has lost.”

It was a brief travelogue piece: perhaps not the finest piece of writing in the world but the reaction of someone who'd clearly been taken by surprise by their Bosnia and Herzegovina experience. It wasn't an April fool; I checked the date and it was written in September 2009. Whatever might have happened politically or economically since then it is safe to say that the mountains and gorges, rivers and forests still present the same, largely unspoilt, opportunities for would be adventurers. Anyone hungry for an off-the-beaten-track holiday in Europe could do worse than investigating what Bosnia and Herzegovina has to offer. Don't say you haven't been told!

(After Wednesday's post it would be wrong to ignore that fact today FIFA and UEFA have suspended the Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – something that only goes to prove my opening sentence!)

It's a funny old game

2011-03-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

Let's pile on the the cliches; we are talking football after all. That game of two halves. The one where things always seem to be up there and probably at the end of the day! It's been described as a game that is't a matter of life and death, it's more important than that. Maybe it is, probably it isn't. Nevertheless, these days, many a manager mangles words like a would be philosopher while the stars of the pitch are schooled to deliver non-committal, controversy-free press conference performances a politician would be proud of. Taking their cue, this post will touch a little on the political and philosophical, which I hope makes up for the lack of anything more important.

Tonight I played a little game. I typed 'Bosnia news' into Google, determined that I would blog about the first link it served up under its 'News for Bosnia news' heading. That was this link from ESPN Soccernet. I was the story I expected.

Although I've been aware of this story for a while I don't claim to have any inside track on any facts, so this piece should be read as nothing more than a breezy bit of opinion from the blogosphere. I know enough to know the footballing situation is complicated and not easy for the casual observer to understand. It goes without saying this too is a reflection of the political situation.

Under the headline 'Bosnia and Herzegovina facing ban' the article explains that the national team may be suspended from international competition. This is not for any misdemeanours on the pitch, nor for anything untoward going on in the stands. Instead it is because the country's footballing hierarchy reflects the political system that governs BiH. There are two football associations in the country with three presidents between them. FIFA and UEFA announced in October 2010 that if they could not organise themselves into one association with one president by the end of March 2011 they would be suspended on April 1^st. That's no joke.

With all the fanfare FIFA made about taking to football to new places with the way it awarded the hosting of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups it seems strange to be talking about them taking it away somewhere else. It is, as they say, a funny old game.

Ingenuit-Wii!

2011-03-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

We recently bought a Nintendo Wii for the youth club sessions we're running in Jajce. There were two reasons for choosing this over a PlayStation: the Wii is less common here and it seems more of a social gaming experience. The wireless controllers often make the players as entertaining as the game play. However, it was only in the unboxing after the purchase that we realised the sensor that picks up the movement of the controllers was connected by a very thin, delicate-looking piece of wire. Not something I deemed durable enough for repeated rigging and de-rigging. One over-enthusiastic tug might have left us with an expensive collection of useless bits of plastic.

And so I dreamed up this, as-yet, un-named transport, storage and protection solution for the Wii. That it doubles as a handy projector stand is an added bonus. The toolbox cost little more than a fiver and now houses the Wii console and power supply. The tool tray keeps the various controllers and connectors organised. Custom cut slots provide access for loading games, running leads to the projector and letting the sensors 'see' the players. My one concern was overheating – I plan to add ventilation holes once I've purchased an suitable drill bit – but two hours of constant use came and wetn this afternoon without issue.

The good news is the pay off for all this 'ingenuit-Wii' was a whole group of happy young people who had hours of fun. That tells us enough to know this was a worthwhile investment.

The passage of time

2011-03-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

Consider this our passage of time moment. Like in the movies we are acknowledging the time since our last post by showing the changing of the season. (Compare with the post below.) This is today in Jajce, a warm sunny day that might mean winter has passed.

After a couple of weeks of catching up with friends and family back in the UK we're now getting back up to speed with our work here. Rowan was running a baking course last night and is out teaching art this evening. I spent the afternoon giving keyboard lessons. So we are back, up and running.

Castles in the Sky...with snow!

2011-03-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

I think it was in a video I made earlier this year that I mentioned how a dash of snow suited Jajce's castle. Back then I didn't take the photos to prove it but an overnight fall gave me the chance to snap this shot while walking home today. In fairness, the castle looks pretty good whatever the weather.

On Monday I was sorting through some old photos to upload on our new WeDoAdventure Facebook page. If you were to head over there and click 'like' you'd be able to see that clear blue skies and golden sunshine also compliment it nicely. But least I be accused of favouritism let me add the castle is not the only photogenic spot in Jajce. The waterfall, the mills and the lakes are all up there as great place to take a camera; something I've tried to provide a bit of evidence for on Facebook. If you do like the page I hope you like what you see!

Independence Day

2011-03-01T14:07:00.001-08:00

Today is Independence Day in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I don't want to claim to speak for anyone on what this means so I'll quote from something I saw on the Facebook profile of a local friend. It was written in English, so I haven't coloured anything in translation.

Happy Independence Day to MY most BEAUTIFUL country Bosnia & Herzegovina!! ♥ and to all of the people living here, wishing that any subsequent year is better and that all who live in this territory feel like BiH is their homeland :) :P

I wholeheartedly agree this is a beautiful country but it was the last bit that really got me. If the things I've heard over the years are a fair representation of the truth then it was the desire for distinct homelands that broke up Yugoslavia. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country from which some people would still like to carve a distinct homeland for themselves. While not wanting to comment on the politics of that I fail to see how the economics of such action would add up, apart from anything else.

I'm aware there are many who might not have clicked 'like' if they had seen this status this morning but to me it said something about hope for the future...and I like that.

Fact or fiction?

2011-02-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

I'll confess that at first the thought made me cringe. Google refused to come to my rescue and the growing realisation dawned: I may have invented a myth. That is a rather grand way of saying that the lies I told as a tour guide my brother took as truth and presented to YouTube. Obviously, I didn't intentionally set out to misrepresent my adopted home, or to mislead my brother, or his YouTube audience. I still maintain that my information came from somewhere other than my fertile imagination, but I have yet to find the facts to back this up.

Clearly a video about a different kind of tanning booth has great potential on the internet. It was only after seeing it titled and tagged that I began to doubt the description I'd given. Online all I can find is references to 'mills' or 'water mills'. (Now I know which sounds more glamorous; perhaps the local tourist office is missing a trick!) I quickly came clean to my brother about my reservations and he countered with the comment that most official signs he saw in Jajce confessed to unverified sources. No different from using Wikipedia then!

Much as I'd love to sweep this whole, slightly embarrassing, episode under the carpet I felt it a useful exercise in transparency and an interesting example of the issues surrounding much of the history of this region. The truth is out there but often it seems the only sure fact is that the facts are fuzzy or altogether elusive. I doubt I am the first foreigner who, with no ill intent, misrepresented history here, I probably won't be the last. And should it, by some strange chance, end up that my recollection was, in fact, correct I will nonetheless in future remain ever mindful of the fact of my own fallibility.

Squeamish?

2011-02-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

The last couple of days it has been attempting to snow here in Jajce. This has jogged my memory, for better of for worse, reminding me of this photo from when we had snow settled everywhere earlier this year. Against the white blanket covering the ground this mystery object stood out as we studied the view from our kitchen window. Rowan declared in disgusting and I, employing a sensible look-don't-touch policy, reckoned it to be some kind of animal skin, probably removed at one of the butcher's shops near our house. Whatever its origin, and however it ended up opposite our home, it provided hours of entertainment for the local stray dogs. For the better part of a week we watched it get smaller and smaller until, with the snow, it disappeared altogether.

A uni-hockey first.

2011-02-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of years I've written a number of posts about uni-hockey. However, I've never posted a photo or a video that shows the game in action. Thankfully, last weekend my brother was on hand to do the honours. This, then, is his first-hand account of his first experience of uni hockey, on his first visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Big Thumbs Up!

2011-02-12T00:44:00.000-08:00

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 on the video: big thumbs up to Easy Jet on this occasion. It was our nephew's first flight and were he old enough to remember it it was a very memorable experience. Thankfully his uncle has a slight video-making obsession so the moment is captured, even down to our Ambassadorial handshakes, which were a very welcome icing on this most surprising of cakes.

Undermined?

2011-02-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

On today's impromptu after-lunch stroll my wander up to the view point overlooking Jajce's waterfall was interrupted by a familiar looking strip of yellow tape. MINE: not an indication of ownership but an announcement of clear and present danger. After a quick glance around I decided they was no need to do what Hilary said she did in Bosnia. I did not duck and run; I stopped and took this photo for you. Only last week I saw a new article posted on Facebook about a cliff fall a few metres from where I was standing. My mind was putting two and two together hoping for four. Was the danger not so much a mine as an undermined area? Is it wrong to suspect that MINE tape was being used as an all-purpose hazard tape?

Having experimented with various ways of capturing the view and the tape in a neatly composed image I wandered back down to the path that leads out to the side of the falls. The sun was in completely the wrong place for capturing a good photo – why I had headed for the upper view point in the first place – but squinting into its glare I could see that the fall had indeed take quite a chunk out of the cliff face. A path we once ventured down now ends end more abruptly than it did when we trod it. Something is being built by the base of the falls. There is a crane drilling deep holes down there. We've heard conflicting stories of what exactly they're up to. All that's obvious is there's some heavy machines and a lot of concrete down there. It wouldn't take a conspiracy theorist to conjecture there is some connection in all these goings on.

In closing, I should note that the view point is but a road's width away from a scenically placed petrol station. From its perspective I suspect neither mines or undermining are particularly good news.

Not lacking potential

2011-02-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

A piece on the BBC website about the Easter Islands caught my eye this morning. It made me think about a conversation I had on Friday morning out by the lakes in Jajce. I was drinking coffee with a local friend who was saying it was a shame more had not been done to develop the potential of the lakes as a leisure destination. It's true they have huge potential, their banks bear testimony to various efforts down the years to capitalise on this, yet it's fair to say much of this potential remains unfulfilled.

I'll confess my knowledge of the Easter Islands runs little deeper than recognising the origin of the giant talking statue in Night At The Museum, but their story got me thinking over breakfast today about the pros and cons of achieving potential. The lakes in Jajce could easily become one of central Bosnia's go-to summer locations, but at what price to the local community. We know the lakes are loved by the local community but perhaps the price of overcrowding and possibility of permanent scaring on a beautiful landscape are worth paying for the jobs and revenue an upturn in tourism could create.

Jajce is a town, or city, with charm and character and fair helping of rich history and natural beauty. It does get tourists but it is not a touristy place. This gives it an engaging authenticity. We heard someone say Jajce used to be the biggest tourist destination in former-Yugoslavia, a fact which, if true, is not entirely surprising given its place in both Bosnian and Yugoslavian history. It has heritage if not the badge to prove it: the Easter Islands have their UNESCO World Heritage Site status while Jajce remains just a candidate of its. Nobody I've spoken to is sure if or when this status will change. And who knows if or when the town will. It is easy for me to say I'd hate to see it ruined by development, I think the more pressing issue for most local people is they'd love to see some jobs and some money return to the area.

Sun...and sexism?

2011-02-06T12:45:00.001-08:00

The sun came out on Saturday. It's not that we haven't seen it for months but this was the first time for months that you could say it was warm, or at least warmish. Running around at uni-hockey training I wasn't the only one to end up in a t-shirt. Since the start of January, after training on Saturdays, Novi Most has been running a social session for a couple of hours. Most of the team will turn up joined by a number of other young people from the area.

So far this year the sessions have happened inside – apart from one snowy weekend that saw some impromptu 'ice hockey' happen in the area behind the building. This week the sunshine and warm weather prompted our co-worker to suddenly decide to get all the lads clearing leaves and generally tidying up the yard outside. He is unashamedly keen to have this space ready for the onset of barbecue season! And so an industrious half hour from the boys saw a splendid piece of early spring cleaning accomplished under the watchful gaze of the girls. Was it sexist not to hand one of them a broom? Not in this country. It's been our observation that gender roles here have well established and accepted norms. Many people seem to have a clear distinction between what is men's work and women's work, and I certainly didn't catch anybody complaining about that in this instance!

Pretty in pink?

2011-01-31T14:44:00.000-08:00

Without doubt, the most popular car on the road in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the Volkswagen Golf. Every generation is represented, in fact, only the other day I saw one of what Wikipedia tells me was only 6,697 Mk2 Golf Country's ever made. This was Volkswagen's pre-emptive – you could even say prophetic – stab at producing an SUV in the early nineties. My sighting was the only time I have ever seen this model anywhere, other than in a picture. But today we saw a much more modern incarnation that whet Rowan's appetite. As you can see from the picture it is pretty in pink. Rowan declared that it looked like you could eat it. Instead of the words 'Volkswagen' or 'Golf' adorning the cars behind there was just a simple, silver heart decal. This too is a unique sighting. I can't recall seeing many pink cars over here, if any others at all. Do I approve? Well, I like the wheels! Naturally, if I had to choose between these two Golfs my vote would have to go with the retro 4x4 experiment.

On Course...

2011-01-24T07:35:00.000-08:00

Last week we said we'd be starting running courses as a Novi Most team in Jajce. We can confirm we did and that our first week of courses turned out to be a heady cocktail of drums and guitar, with a dash of synth, a spot of violin, lashings of papier-mâché and two dozen chocolate muffins! This video gives a bit of insight into the preparation for the music courses and a nice long look at my new hat from various angles!

She Will Be Mine?

2011-01-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Wayne's World. As a teenager my wife and her friends were definitely in the Bill and Ted camp; for me and my friends it was Wayne and Garth that got our laughs. Regardless of your franchise allegiance – if any – an interest in either should have stirred an affinity with the rock wannabe. I first watched Wayne's World as an aspiring musician; two decades on I've now got a long history of helping others strike their own first heroic barre chords.

Tomorrow Novi Most starts its first music courses as part of its work in Jajce. So it was that today I – a guitarist – walked into Banja Luka's premier music store with my drumming co-worker for some essential supplies. Yes, there was a drum kit sitting under some lighting bars but he did not treat shoppers to an impromptu solo! In the movie Wayne had his heart set on a white Stratocaster that lived locked in a glass case in his local music store's window. “She will be mine” he says until the day he can make an extravagant cash purchase. I've never asked to play a guitar locked in a glass case but the shops I used to frequent in the UK all used to wire their guitars to security alarms. Today I walked in on this beauty just laying on a stool in the guitar room, clearly asking to be played. I can't claim to be a huge fan of Strats or super-strats, but neither was I of Teles until I bought one. Is this the super-strat to change my mind? Will she be mine?

Lunch

2011-01-13T12:50:00.000-08:00

This was lunch. I can't say I'm proud of it but I present it as an interesting case study of economists; neatly summing up both the psychological power wielded by global brands and the well known fact that scarcity increases demand. As we've mentioned before, Bosnia and Herzegovina has no McDonalds. This is by no means a bad thing. The country has plenty of quality home-grown alternatives to the most famous burger in fast food. However Croatia has McDonalds and that means the lure of the Golden M is never far from the travelling kind.

We once spent twelve days in Manhattan. Despite there being seemingly a McDonalds on every corner that wasn't occupied by a Starbucks we only stepped inside once, when needing to find a 'rest room' after a trip on the Staten Island ferry. We had no inclination to eat there. Years before we left the UK we'd stopped considering McDonalds as a fast food option, except in an absolute emergency. So why did I find myself eating a soggy burger and some decidedly average fries in Zagreb earlier today? Clearly I am a victim of some pesky mind games because I am reluctant to admit I would pine for an absent restaurant I was well out of the habit of frequenting!

Back Page Special

2011-01-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

One of our co-workers turned up this morning, apologising for oversleeping in one breath before breathlessly asking if we knew how much Edin Dzeko is set to earn every day. For those whose eyes are not glued to the UK's back pages, Dzeko is Manchester City's latest acquisition and Bosnia and Herzegovina's star striker. We saw him once, when he turned in what I'd have to describe as an uninspired performance in the country's most important ever football match. They lost 1-0 to Portugal and didn't go to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

With a £27m price tag to justify you have to hope he performs better week in and week out in the Premier League. Whatever his wages are they are almost certainly beyond the realms of comprehension for most people in his home country, although this is almost a universal issue with the sport's highest paid stars. That said he could probably pop back here in a couple of weeks and afford to buy a small town, or two!

The funny thing is there's a local joke about Manchester City, at least amongst our friends. It doesn't translate easily into a blog post because it revolves around singing like a folk singer. Needless to say, having lived with this joke associated with City for the last eighteen months or so it put a smile on my face to see Bosnia's most famous current footballer signing for them. I look forward to seeing a rise in the number of fake light-blue shirts on the streets!

Crazy Icy Tunnel

2011-01-04T12:34:00.001-08:00

We blogged about icy tunnels a few weeks back but as yesterday's bike ride took in a couple of them I could resist the temptation to stop and make this video so you could experience them close up. Enjoy!

Happy Trails

2011-01-03T09:51:00.000-08:00

Here is the evidence I went out riding today. It's not that I think you wouldn't believe me without the image - I could have blogged about the ride without it – but a pictures ability to add to the word count without adding any words is the stuff of legends. From what I gather from Facebook it seems some UK readers may be sick of the sight of snow, and to them I apologise, but it was the dusting of overnight snow that got me out of the house this morning. I wanted to ride in the snow a couple of weeks back but we had too much work on for me to find the time. Today gave the perfect combination: a sunny day and enough snow to make it a snow ride, without too much to render riding an impossibility.

Yesterday we met an American who had worked in Jajce at the end of the nineties. They were excited to here about the developing youth work project we are part of. The word pioneering cropped up in the conversation. I'll confess it's not a tag that sits easily because I'm conscious that our success so far owes a huge debt to everyone who has worked on similar projects here in the years before we arrived. At the same time, when people with the experience to comment with some historical perspective on what we're doing use the word it seems foolish to dismiss the compliment.

As we look ahead to 2011 we do want to be part of something that provides new opportunities and experiences to young people in Jajce. For all my hang-ups, yes, we do want to be involved in something pioneering, even if we don't want to jump to stick that tag on it ourselves. In our first couple of months here we've seen far more progress than we would have dared anticipate. As we kick off our working year later this week we have plenty to work on, and a surprisingly large number of young people to start working with. Being in the right place and the right time may be a cliché but it also may be our present reality.

Which brings us back to the photo. It clearly shows my bike tyre tracks in fresh snow: trail blazing, or pioneering if you will. I shot it close-up. There's nothing to give any sense of scale or perspective, except if you know the average width of a mountain bike tyre. Were these the lone tracks across a vast untouched snow field? Are they carving a furrow on the verge of a well-gritted highway? You can't tell. Perhaps it doesn't matter. The snap shot shows activity where five minutes before there was none. Instead of a blank page it shows the signs of purpose and progress. If 2011 is stretched out in front of us like a sunny snow day I hope there will be plenty of these kind of photo opportunities as we make happy trails.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T13:35:00.000-08:00

For the first time in a long time we're staying in on New Year's Eve. Last year enjoyed a mild evening in Dubrovnik's old town, listening to bands of various qualities. The year before we were treated to Laka performing outdoors in a freezing cold Spanish Square in Mostar. The last New Year we spent in England saw us standing on the banks of the Thames for at least four hours to witness ten minutes of awe inspiring fireworks from directly opposite the London Eye. The previous year we braved Times Square, in New York, to watch the ball drop and the year before that we were in Cape Town, although we did stay in with family that night.

Having done trips to Zagreb and Mostar within the last ten days we felt no great urgency to get out and find some entertainment tonight. There was a good gig happening in Sarajevo but seeing as we'd had one of those in Mostar on Wednesday the seven-hour round trip to the capital seemed a little excessive. We'll probably clamber up onto the city wall near our house come midnight and hope that people still have some fireworks to let of by then.

This video is from the end of the concert in Mostar. Something happened that we'd never experienced before. We thought you'd like to see it!

More driving fun

2010-12-30T10:39:00.000-08:00

Today we drove from Mostar to Jajce in brilliant sunshine. Despite the fact mountains cast shadows on the roads leaving many a snowy or icy stretch of tarmac to be carefully negotiated it was a great day to be out driving. Driving north gave the dual advantages of not just being headed home but also mostly having our backs to the sun. It's easier, and safer, when your view doesn't alternate between dense shadow and dazzling sunlight. It's hard to pick a highlight from the drive although the intense double rainbow caused by one of Bosnia's hydro-electric dams gushing from all five of its gates probably takes the prize. Sadly there is no accompanying photo for that. You'll have to make do with this video where I show you one of my favourite views, from yesterday's outward journey.

What have we been up to?!

2010-12-28T12:08:00.000-08:00

It's been just over two weeks since our last post which means one of two things: either we've had nothing to talk about or there's been a little too much going on to find the time to talk about it. This video should help you make you mind up about which one it's been.

Feeling all Alpine!

2010-12-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon is, traditionally, a good time for a stroll. And so yesterday afternoon, with the snow falling thick and fast, Rowan and I headed out to catch a glimpse of a different kind of Jajce. Such eagerness to run out and play in the snow is undoubtedly a result of our childhoods in England, where snow was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it phenomenon. All that has, of course, changed in the two years since we left. Last week my hometown had it's heaviest snow fall in fourty-three years, apparently.

The snow is Jajce is unlikely to go anywhere for at least a week, accept from the roads and pavements, where a very efficient cleaning operation had everything snow-free by the time we were back from a trip to Vitez today. That's one reason I'm happy to have grabbed Sunday's video, for the full alpine effect! The photo is from about half past eight this morning, somewhere approaching the town of Travnik and the Vlašić mountain. It was a great to be out driving this morning with everything looking so 'Winter Wonderland' - even if we did have to be up and out uncomfortably early for the privilege of seeing it before the tarmac was visible again.

Fairytales vs Platform Games

2010-12-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

Rowan was reminded of ice daggers, the sort plunged through the hearts of unfortunate, and probably unsuspecting, victims in fairytales; shortly before some wholesome, heart-warming hero arrives on the scene to heal the hurts and ensure everyone – except, perhaps, the ice-wielding bad guy – lives happily ever after.

I had images of old-school platform games, or perhaps even a Nintendo original hand-held classic like Donkey Kong. The aim was to complete a successful dash through the Tunnel of Doom, while dodging the game-over inducing objects regularly falling from the ceiling.

Earlier this week we were telling friends in Mostar that our walk to work – or the supermarket – was a relatively easy one in all weathers as half of it was through the road tunnel under Jajce's castle. As if to prove that nothing in life is really that simple the weather threw us a curve ball this morning. This is not photoshop, a fairytale or Nintendo's finest; those really are icicles over three feet long, or measuring over a metre if you prefer metric.

However, fear not; in a country that often appears to have a laissez-faire attitude to all things health and safety these actually register as dangerous enough to require attention. As I was walking through the tunnel, photographing all the while, I spotted the guy with the very long stick working his way towards me on the other side of the road, smashing the seasonal hazards above his path. I was pleased to see that despite clearly forgetting to don his protective goggles he had remembered his wooly (safety?) hat!

An Inexcusably Short Drive

2010-12-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

We haven't owned a car since we left the UK and, despite having access to vehicles through our work with Novi Most, I think we can say we've significantly cut back on our personal use of the combustion engine. The truth is, however, that this hasn't been driven by any strongly held environmental convictions but simply by the fact that both in Mostar and now in Jajce it is quicker and more convenient to walk, due to how close we've lived to where we are working. But as with every rule there are exceptions, here's evidence of us about to make an inexcusably short drive!

Paper Trails

2010-12-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

We were down in Mostar yesterday and today. This provided us with two paper-trail related tales to tell.

Yesterday: Novi Most owns a couple of Volkswagan Transporters, one of which we are using in Jajce. To make fuelling easier about a year ago we got fuel cards from a chain of gas stations that are well represented in Herzegovina. Moving to Jajce we realised they had no forecourts in the immediate area so it was suggested we get a card from a different, Bosnian-based company. Two weeks ago, somewhere in north-west Bosnia, I used this card for the first time. It took the two gentlemen behind the counter fully fifteen minutes of conferring with one another and consulting sheets of A4 paper on the wall be behind the till to finally get the appropriate machine to spit out a little slip of paper for me to sign. Yesterday, I was in the Novi Most office in Mostar when the envelope arrived containing the bill for the account for the last month. There, stapled to the top right corner of the A4 invoice, was the very same slip bearing my signature. I couldn't help thinking that for a company with a nation-wide network of forecourts which are being actively, and very nicely, modernised this system might lack a little in the efficiencies made possible by the digital age.

Today: Amongst other things we found the time to shop for some things we haven't been able to get in Jajce. One was phone/fax machine. Even in Mostar, finding one of these that didn't include the bulky addition of a printer and scanner required a bit of a search. We ended up in a shop called DigiTrends, in the Piramida shopping centre. While the purchase of an unremarkable piece of office equipment would not normally be afforded a blog post this story finds it way online because of the quaint picture of the young assistant hand-writing the receipt in a carbon-copy booklet. For a retailer showing off a fine selection of the latest consumer electronics, surely this is not the digital revolution the shop's name implies!

A Presidential Drive-By!

2010-12-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

We were standing in the kitchen this morning when I heard a Police siren outside the window. In our experience here that can mean only one thing: dignitaries being ferried about the country in a high speed convoy. Rowan had seen on Facebook that Ivo Josipovic, the Croatian President was dropping in on Jajce today. Sure enough, half a dozen blacked-out people carriers, a few others vehicles whose description I can't remember, and a couple of ubiquitous white Volkswagen Golf Police cars were snaking their way down the valley from the direction of Banja Luka. I can't claim to have seen the President but if he was looking out of the window he may well have seen our house, if not us gawping out of the window!

I've just received an email from Balkan Insight that contained a link to an article explaining why he was in the area. As it was a promising piece politically I thought I'd couple some of the stand out sections here in the hope you'll click the link to read the rest. So here goes...

Croatia's Josipovic Is 'Man of the Year'

Nezavisne Novine daily said it was awarding the Croatian leader because he is “a statesman not burdened by the legacy of war... who promotes a policy of reconciliation and tolerance” in the former Yugoslavia.

For his part, Josipovic said that the award was a great privilege.  "It is time for cooperation that implies peace, good neighborly relations and understanding, common interest, and it is time for all to return to their homes, to boost trade, cultural exchange and cooperation," he told Nezavisne Novine.

Read the full article here.

Snow Falls

2010-12-05T07:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I needed to cool my head down, literally, to stave off the tiredness and kick start some clear thinking. I could have gone and sat in the spare bedroom but it was much more inspiring to head out into a snowy Saturday night. When I saw the snow swirling around the floodlights I knew I needed to make a video.

The picture below is the view we woke to first thing this morning. Today ended up being all bright blue skies and mild weather, so while there's still some snow around it doesn't look exactly like this anymore. The next time it snows I need to make time to get some good photos or video of the castle and city walls as they certainly suit a bit of snijeg.

Of Villages and Boys Toys

2010-12-04T15:10:00.000-08:00

After being involved in youth work for more than fifteen years you've heard lots of reasons, and occasionally excuses, as to why people didn't show up when you were expecting them too. Today I heard one I'd never heard before. Rowan and I used to do a lot of youth work out of a school youth centre in a rural part of Sussex. Even there this never cropped up. Jajce is more rural still, as this picture indicates. It was produced by one of the young people who did make it to our first Novi Most session in Jajce. He was one of almost twenty who responded to the invitation and came to see what opportunities could open up with Novi Most now working in the town. It was a very positive couple of hours. We'll run a similar introduction session next weekend for those unable to be there today. Some of them were at a school event happening in town, which is familiar territory; others, however, had to go to a village and slaughter some pigs, which is definitely a new one for me!

In have to add this picture of some black boxes for all of you who can identify with boys toys type excitement. What you may or may not be able to make out is a small KV2 Audio PA system. At the last big event I played at in the UK before moving to Bosnia and Herzegovina we rocked a significantly larger KV2 Audio system. Buried in the back of the wardrobe I still have a couple of KV2 Audio T-shirts, gifts from the nice people on their stand at Plasa, an annual sound and lights trade show held at Earl's Court, London. My snap was snapped in Artist, a music store in Banja Luka. It's a real rock'n'roll music store. One where they let you touch things without hovering like over-protective parents. Such shops used to exist in the UK, but the ones I used to frequent in the early days of my musical journey have long since evolved into don't-touch-without-permission generic supermarkets for sanitised musical equipment. More's the pity! The downside of the visit was the sudden urge to buy things I probably don't have the money for. The upside was the discovery of many useful things I haven't seen on sale in the music stores in Mostar or Sarajevo. I don't think it'll be too long before I find myself back in Banja Luka with a little bit more time to spend checking out the plentiful delights of this Aladdin's Cave.

Snow and Rainbows

2010-12-02T10:17:00.001-08:00

While the town we came from in the UK is in the grips of some unseasonally large snow falls, Jajce has not yet plunged into the depths of winter. No doubt it will come. Today we had enough sunshine to add a rainbow to a now familiar view. Yes, a rainbow needs a little rain and we've had a bit but nothing like what's going on back in Mostar at the moment. Rowan was looking at some pictures on Facebook earlier and said she never saw the Neretva so high in the two years we were there. Apparently the border at Metković was closed due to flooding in the town. With so many of Bosnia and Herzegovina's main roads running alongside rivers I've often thought how vulnerable this network is to rising water levels.

Snow, however, it is well equipped to handle, at least in our experience. Gritters and snow ploughs operate around the clock keeping the main routes passable, if not entirely clear. The requirements to put winter tyres on every November and carry snow chains help too, although people only seem to resort to chains if absolutely necessary. Like the time one of my back wheels froze on the top of a mountain. Snow chains gave enough traction to drag it down to below the snow line where the bare tarmac provided enough resistance to work it free again. And so to all my UK readers struggling with the country's less-than-entirely resilient infrastructure, enjoy the snow-break...and if you see a set of snow chains they are a worthwhile investment!

Danas je Dan Republike

2010-11-29T12:07:00.000-08:00

'Danas je Dan Republike'. So went the chorus of one of the songs we played on Saturday. Today it's actually true: today is the Day of the Republic. It was much like any other day in Jajce when we wandered to the supermarket in the early afternoon. Saturday, however, was a different prospect altogether. Hundreds of people had gathered from across the former-Yugoslav republics to remember Tito and Yugoslavia. As if they had arrived through some rift in time, proud communists and uniformed Partizans gathered in the areas close the the AVNOJ Museum. AVNOJ stands for Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia and the Museum is housed in the building that played host to the meetings that led to the forming on Yugoslavia.

Like in much of post-communist Eastern Europe it is not hard to find people nostalgic for how things were. For these people Saturday's events are a reminder of the togetherness and sense of identity that gave them a place on the world stage. And a memorial for the man who orchestrated that. Tito clearly still has a profound influence.

I confess I felt a bit of an imposter, climbing on stage to play as part of the official programme outside the Museum. A friend who was singing with us had bought a 'Born in YU' T-shirt from Jajce's main tourist shop. It looked cool but was a reminder that we weren't...although I did visit Yugoslavia for maybe eight hours one October in the mid-eighties! So why did we agree to get involved? I think there are two main reasons.

The first is that in the sort of work we are doing I believe it's important to identify with the things that are important to the community you are in. For the people we are working with, and for many people in Jajce, this is an important event. The willingness to get involved helps our differences become less important. In all our conversations with those from the Museum responsible for the event we never picked up any sense that they were concerned we weren't local.

The second reason is while it is unlikely that this region will ever see something exactly like Yugoslavia again there are positives that remembering the past bring. The Balkans would certainly see a brighter future if it found more time for focusing on its similarities - like the old concept of brotherhood - and less for the divisiveness of nationalistic political posturing. There's also something to be said for anti-fascism. Europe is facing the rise of the right-wing, and, perhaps alarmingly, in some unexpected places. France hit the headlines with its stance on Romanian Roma but I was surprised by a recent article I read about the plight of Sweden's of immigrant communities. Whoever the victims, it's important that we remember the reason why Tito was bringing together anti-fascists in the first place. It would be nice to think Europe has learnt its lessons. I certainly don't want to be one who makes the same mistakes.

Professional Rockers!

2010-11-27T13:36:00.000-08:00

It's wrong to blow your own trumpet, so to speak, but after viewing this particular incident perhaps you'll forgive us this once. We were playing at the AVNOJ event outside the museum in Jajce today when disaster struck in the form of a falling PA speaker. As reactions go we're pretty proud of our apparent unflappability!

(The whole events deserves a proper post which it will get some time in the next day or two.)

Hard Rocking!

2010-11-21T12:23:00.000-08:00

Before you ask, no, of course Jajce doesn't have a real Hard Rock Cafe. Unlike Mostar, it doesn't even have a place pretending to be one. As someone who has visited Hard Rock Cafes in London, New York and LA – yes, the original one is in London – I know it takes more than a few guitars and a Jimi Hendrix poster on the walls to qualify as rock'n'roll's finest eatery.

Nevertheless I share the photo because it makes me smile. Who wouldn't want a bright orange (fake) Hard Rock T-shirt was a birthday present! That not the real reason though. As we head into the week that should see our first public rock'n'roll performance in our new town I thought is was a great way to get back in the live music mood. Moving has meant we've gone a few months without practising altogether. We're either in for a pleasant surprise or a horrible shock when we crank it up for rehearsals over the next couple of days!

That's not quitting!

2010-11-19T12:38:00.000-08:00

Only yesterday I was wondering what the latest was with Angelina Jolie's film project. So it was with a certain serendipity I noticed The Telegraph screaming 'Angelina Jolie quits Bosnia' before I logged off for the evening. I paused long enough to decide I should share my findings today.

What we learn from this article is a truth, probably universal, but eminently applicable to this part of the world: don't believe the big statement. Why? While it may not be a lie entirely such generalisations are generally misleading. In this case the details of the article are all but completely misrepresented by an emotive headline.

By most common definitions quit is to give up, leave or walk out on. I expected to hear that Jolie was no longer going to film at all in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, and this is a direct quote, the article says: only three days of filming will now be done in Bosnia and Jolie will only visit the set briefly. The number of Bosnian locations used in the film has been cut from seventeen to five.

To clarify, far from quitting the country Jolie's film will still have scenes shot in Bosnia and she will still be visiting to be part of that process. Like Hollywood's movies these days, things are rarely black and white. I guess 'Angelina Jolie scales back filming in Bosnia' just isn't as compelling a headline. Unfortunately it's not just stories in the arts section that get treated this way.

Homework

2010-11-18T13:10:00.000-08:00

The end of next week will see the anniversary of the founding of Yugoslavia. We were in Jajce for it last year, as much by accident as by design. Our blog post back then, with its picture and video, give a sense of how we found things that day. This year we are Jajce residents so it only seemed right to do a little homework before the day rolled around.

Zabranjeno Pušenje, described on Wikipedia as a Yugoslavian garage rock band from Sarajevo, seemed a good place to start. Despite their name meaning 'No Smoking' - still quite an unpopular notion in this part of the world - their four albums recorded in the eighties have seen then remain popular in the Balkans to this day. It was for the song 'Dan Republike' that I turned, it being about the upcoming Day of the Republic (as was). This version has a nice historic slide show to enjoy while you listen!

Temptation

2010-11-15T13:20:00.000-08:00

This morning my Facebook status announced I was 'very tempted by the clear blue sky and sunshine outside.' Having worked all weekend today was a day off; it's never a bad thing when a day off coincides with good weather. Knowing we should really be in the grips of winter already I decided to give in to temptation, get my bike out and go hunting for the trails a tourist magazine I read promised run around the lakes. I probably found them. It's hard to be sure as the map in the magazine was not particularly detailed. Few maps for Bosnia and Herzegovina are. I have one good one but despite being sold as a drivers map it's basically too big to open inside a vehicle.

Today I navigated by Google Earth. Again, the satellite imagery for this country is not their best (drift into neighbouring Croatia and you'll notice an appreciable improvement) but it was good enough to guide me around the lake on the local equivalent of the Great British bridleway. The terrain was much more familiar than anything I encountered in Mostar. There was mud, for example, and it was green and smelt damp. It was also flat which made the twenty-five of thirty kilometre round trip a pleasant rather than a painful experience. The views over the lake towards the sunlit mountains on the far side were, at times, nothing short of spectacular. It won't be the last time I hit those trails.

Photographing People

2010-11-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

I'm aware that over the past few weeks I've posted a number of photographs of the beautiful scenery here in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I'm also aware that we're here to work with people not to sit back and soak up the surroundings. And so today I offer this picture as some small way of redressing the balance.

This is Budo (the other Novi Most team member with Rowan and me in Jajce) on Banja Luka's main shopping street. He's pointing a camera at me, Dina (who runs the uni hockey team I help out with in Jajce) and eleven young people who we'd taken to play against a club in Banja Luka this morning. Our team lost: 21-16 was the final score. They have previously done well in competitions so are unused to being on the wrong end of what, while not exactly a hammering, was certainly one of life's learning experiences.

Other than the scoreline, though, it was a great day out.

Almost The View

2010-11-04T15:17:00.001-07:00

This afternoon did not go quite as I'd planned it. As I say in this video I was supposed to be planning but I bumped into friends while on my thought-gathering wander around town. I ended up joining their sight-seeing trip and taking some nice photos, but having already shot (most of) this video I'm going to share with you instead!

We Owe Them

2010-10-29T04:28:00.000-07:00

I began my journey as a songwriter and performer in the early nineties. At the time I was inspired by the music of Keith Green. His enthusiastic piano style was probably in part influenced by Elton John's; it's certainly been compared to it. In the early nineties Elton was riding high in the charts with Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me: the live at Wembley, duet with George Michael, version. As the decade headed to it's close he'd score the UK's all time biggest-selling single with the Diana tribute version of Candle In The Wind. Despite this he didn't register on my musical radar.

I owe it to two movies that I discovered the wonders of Elton's early work. Almost Famous introduced me to Tiny Dancer and Elizabethtown to My Father's Gun. The latter movie's Free Bird scene is my favourite cinematic rock-out moment. Obviously, I owe Cameron Crowe! Type 'Elton John' into my iTunes and the search returns 142 songs. This represents most of his early seventies output and almost everything from the late nineties onward. The latest addition is this week's release The Union, a collaboration with Leon Russell.

I have to confess before reading about this album I'd never heard of Russell. Several reviews and interviews later it's clear that Elton would not be musician we know him as without the influence of Russell. Listen to the album and it's hard to tell who's playing what. All I know is I'd be happy to play any of it. But beyond wanting to recommend it to all lovers of real music, The Union got me thinking. The picture of the star known for his excesses providing a platform for a now largely unknown inspiration is a powerful one.

Let me move from piano to guitar to explain. I only began exploring what Oasis have to offer since leaving the UK, and since breaking up they have nothing more to give but arguably the best back-catalogue in Brit Pop. They kicked off the new millennium releasing Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants. They'd never made any secret of their Beatles obsession but this was as blatant a confession as you could hope for. It's a universal truth: others have gone before. We owe them. I've still yet to make a connection with The Beatles although I can see myself downloading some early Leon Russell. Even that's not the end of the line. Someone paved the way for him too.

Last week we had the privilege of meeting people without whom we could not be where we are doing what we're doing. We are in Jajce to start a new youth work project for Novi Most International. There is something pioneering about that. However, it doesn't come out of nowhere. We owe connections and the context to others who have gone before. We've met a few of them, there are more we've heard stories of, probably some we'll never know about. We may never fully understand how all the strands of the story fit together. That doesn't matter. Our job now is to play our part and to always remember we are not the only ones playing.

First Snow

2010-10-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

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 unduly excited: no horn! As he squeezed back over to the right he flashed his lights in what I hope was an admission he had been in the wrong. Sadly, too many coach drivers we see appear to have a very cavalier attitude to their passengers' safety.

The Right Direction

2010-10-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

What does Bosnia and Herzegovina have in common with Djibouti, Gambia, Guatemala, Kiribati, Sri Lanka and Swaziland? The answer: together they are joint-ninetyfirst on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index 2010, released today. In a survey of 178 nations, ninety-first might be generously interpreted as being comfortably mid-table. The country does sit a little below its geographic neighbours but the important thing on any chart-based scale is movement relative to the previous results. The good news is Transparency International's figures seem to indicate Bosnia and Herzegovina is moving in the right direction. The same can not be said of not-quite-so-near neighbours Greece or Italy. Both are sliding the wrong way down the table. Should this trend continue look forward to next year when Transparency International will declare Bosnia and Herzegovina less corrupt than the birthplace of democracy!

(Q: Had you even heard of Kiribati before?)

War, History and Angelina Jolie.

2010-10-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

“Listen, don't mention the war!” Basil Fawlty famously cautioned, “I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right.” He was mocking British attitudes to World War II and Germans but it seems Angelina Jolie could learn from his advice. In a week that's seen her permission to film in Bosnia revoked and restored again I found her grabbing headline space in this morning's Observer online: The star's debut as a director has sparked fierce controversy over who has the right to tell the story of Serbian rape camps. Fact and fiction make uncomfortable bedfellows where people still feel the pain of the recent past. Her crime, according to her accusers, is telling other people's war stories through the Hollywood lens.

Last week we were told stories of bullets flying through cars carrying humanitarian aid into the then war-torn, barely-born Bosnia and Herzegovina. The information was volunteered and by people who were actually there. It was their story to tell. In the two years since we've lived here we've picked up bits and pieces of people's past but we've been careful not to pry. We're not investigative journalists, nor are we trying to make a movie; we want to help young people here have hope for their future. The fighting officially finished fifteen years ago. Some people we've met have clearly moved on, others obviously haven't and with others the war is the elephant in the room.

I once mentioned to a friend here that as a teenager I had briefly toyed with the Army Cadets. We learned outdated drills and how to strip and clean a First World War rifle blindfolded. I've needed neither skill subsequently, although the ability to distinguish between a live round and a spent one did come in useful once in the twenty years since. As soon as I'd started telling my tale I realised at the same age, when I was playing war games, my friend was learning the grim realities of the real thing. You can't compare the two. It makes you think.

But back to Angelina and her movie. I see the arguments against it but I'm equally aware that there will be a point the tragic chapter of the early nineties has to become history. History happens when the chapter is closed, but no line has been drawn under some of the suffering she seeks to portray. People don't want her playing with their present reality.

If history is written by the winning side, from an English perspective, it's then rewritten by the Americans for a movie. Movies that win hearts and Oscars! Whether Jolie achieves this kind of success with her directorial debut remains to be seen. She has to finish it first. Painful though it is, I've a feeling the country can benefit from the attention the film is generating. In all the controversy surrounding the scripting and shooting my hope is that it's causing a few people to think seriously about ways to heal the hurts it has highlighted.

Stop and stare...or not!

2010-10-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

If yesterday I pulled my van over to snap a view I was particularly enjoying today I was indulging in a bit of drive-by shooting! Okay, technically, this picture is actually the result of a ride-by: I was out cycling by the lakes in Jajce, soaking up the last of the autumn sun as sunk slowly behind the mountains.

I don't know what Ansel Adams would have thought of the digital revolution. Did he ever grab a photo one-handed whilst riding a bike? I doubt it. However, he did create art. Nevertheless, I'm not complaining about this image. Under the circumstances it does a great job of capturing the moment. Less than an hour later the moon was up, but those photos won't find their way online!

An Eagle and an Ostrich Day!

2010-10-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

Before today we had been to most of the major cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Now we've been to Banja Luka we can say we've seen them all. Obviously we know Mostar the best, after two years of living there. A few times we've surprised friends from Mostar with how well we know Sarajevo, but then we've been pretty regular visitors. Tuzla I've only visited a couple of times, and never spent long exploring the city; Zenica we saw but briefly before Bosnia and Herzegovina's disappointing defeat but Portugal in their World Cup playoff game.

Banja Luka is now our nearest major city so will be getting to know it better in the months ahead. The road from Jajce clings to the banks of the Vrbas, at times almost impossibly so; definitely calling for a cautious first drive. There were a couple of emergency stops courtesy of big trucks trying to negotiate the low rocky overhangs but the real danger was the distraction of new views to take in. The snap-shot show the 'stone bridge', or Kameni Most. Note the clear blue sky and golden sunshine. Note too that I pulled into a lay-by to grab this photo! As for the eagle and the ostrich: sadly I'm lying about the eagle, it was almost certainly a buzzard, possibly the Steppe Buzzard, but eagle sounds so much more emotive. The ostrich, however, was the real deal. It may even have been hanging out with an emu. Ornithologists with realise already this is not their naturally habitat. They were obviously on show to lend credibility to the 'eco-resort' sign we'd just driven by! We will have to return to investigate. The road is narrow, but aren't all the best ones?

"So this is a short 'Welcome to Jajce' video..."

2010-10-20T04:36:00.000-07:00

Internet arrived in our apartment this morning, two weeks after we did! As the title says, we're now living in Jajce, in central Bosnia. Here we are promised a long winter, with snow, but at the moment it's autumn and the trees are looking seasonally appropriate. Over the next couple of months things will begin to take shape as we look at the best way to begin our work with Novi Most here. Obviously there are ideas but we wanted to relocate before making definite decisions on the way things would be. In a good way, we have a lot of unknowns.

What a send off!

2010-10-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

I should start by saying that we enjoyed living in Mostar for two years. Hopefully that's come through on this blog. But it was time to move on and we are now living in Jajce, in central Bosnia, preparing to start a new youth work project for Novi Most International there.

We finally moved just over a week ago. Over the past month we'd been gradually moving things to our new apartment. Last Monday we were preparing to pack our final kombi van full of stuff and head north. Then we discovered we needed a paper that I had safely stowed in Jajce to sign out with Mostar's police. It was also apparent we had more then one van full of things still needing to make the move. So Tuesday we drove to Jajce with most of what remained. We got up early to head back to Mostar, pick up the rest, sign out with the police and hand back our keys to our, now, ex-landlord.

If there is one downside to life in Mostar it is the extreme rain it gets. It rained on Tuesday night. Heavily. Very heavily. Pictured above are just two of the five drowned rats we discovered littering the street immediately outside our soon-to-be ex-apartment on Wednesday morning! I should add that in two years we had never seen one drowned rat, let alone a pack of them. We drove back to Jajce Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday saw as sending an hour trawling the streets of Travnik in search of the illusive office where we needed to register our presence in Jajce. A postman and a couple of local police were unable to point us in the right direction. We had directions but it wasn't until we found the building that they finally made sense with everything that we could see around us.

And so we're at the beginning of a new chapter of our Bosnia and Herzegovina adventures. This week's adventure has been our attempt to get the internet connected at home. Despite arranging everything with the HT Eronet office last Friday tomorrow will mark a week of tomorrows in which we have stayed in on the promise someone would turn up to install the necessary equipment. Maybe tomorrow!

Head Turners

2010-09-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about writing this post since I snapped the photo on the left about a month back. I wanted to craft something thoughtful, perhaps even a little profound, to accompany this image. As I sit typing now I get no sense that I'm going to achieve my aim this evening. Nevertheless, like a fine impressionist painting, I hope these words go some way to conveying the picture in my mind.

I loved cars as a kid. Either my ninth or tenth birthday outing was to the Motor Fair at Earls Court, London. (Whichever it wasn't was a trip to London Zoo!) I can still remember the cars I got my photo taken with that day: the then new Toyota MR2, the MG Metro 6R4 and behind the wheel of a BMW 628 CSi – the 635 CSi was my favourite but there wasn't one of those on display. There were plenty of other super-cars roped off where you couldn't get your sticky little fingers on them. These where the days when the Lamborghini Countach was cool!

Yes, these were the Thatcher years and I was born in the Conservative stronghold of central southern England. While I was too young to be a yuppie I was old enough to appreciate the allure of their aspirational autos of choice: the Golf GTi or the Audi Quattro. Conspicuous consumption has taken a bit of a hit in some sectors over recent years but back then there were plenty of people who had it and were flaunting it. Those of us didn't have it wished we did...or hoped we would when we were old enough to drive!

Sadly by the time I passed my driving test they'd long since stopped producing the Quattro, Toyota were building safe cars for mums and you wouldn't want to be seen dead in a Metro. I never owned a Golf, although I was once given a Scirocco that was well passed its sell-by date, and the nearest I got to being a BMW driver was owning a couple of new MINIs.

When we moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina I expected to see the streets littered with some of Eastern Europe's finest: the Trabants, the Ladas, the old-school Skodas. I was surprised to find roads full of Volkswagens – every generation of Golf, plus plenty of Passats and Polos – with both the BMWs and Mercedes from the last twenty years putting in a strong showing too. Sure the average age of the vehicles was not a young as in the UK but it was younger than I'd imagined.

The shock came when I started seeing cars I knew where just out driving around Mostar. Seeing my first BMW X6 here springs to mind. Then I started spotting Mercs that had come out of the AMG and Brabus shops. The list now includes nice new Porsches, Ferraris, Bentleys and the very sexy Maserati pictured above. Yes, I'd take the Maserati over the Ferrari! But, living here, I don't honestly think I'd drive either. And not just because the state of some of the roads here could rip the undercarriage to shreds in a matter of minutes.

Perhaps I'm more sensitive now since my work brings me into contact with real poverty. It does weird things to you when your income halves and yet you find yourself in a situation where you are viewed as wealthy by some people. Perhaps it's that fact that my local friends who are not poor still have vastly different value system to my UK influenced one. We have more and we are used to paying more for things. Perhaps it's just that neither a Ferrari and a Maserati is much use if you need to transport guitars about!

So what should I think of these undeniably fine automobiles? I know what one section of local opinion is: you only get a vehicle like that if you're doing something that isn't strictly legit. That may be doing some people a disservice but I can see where the feeling comes from. Given their price tag, these cars represent the almost unimaginable gap between the haves and the have-nots here. The Thatcher-loving kids in my Economics class back in college would have told me to celebrating people's financial success and not begrudge them their profits. Besides, they would argue, ultimately everyone will benefit from their prosperity.

Maybe they would have been right. Perhaps, like seeing Jamie Oliver products arrive on supermarket shelves, this is all part of the country's progress westward toward the bright lights of the free markets and European integration. Can I give them the benefit of the doubt? I'd like to say I can. If I'm honest though, I struggle to shake the nagging thought that these cars, that, yes, I'd still love to own in another life, represent the rewards of crime or corruption. If that is the case it is neither progress or a price worth paying. A head-turning car can brighten your day, albeit in a superficial way. I'd just like to think my head was being turned for good reasons.

Ever the optimist?

2010-09-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a bleak day in Mostar; rain non-stop for at least the last twelve hours. We're almost moved so today found us stuck in a half-empty apartment with little to do and even less motivation to do it. After watching a football match I had a passing interest in and falling sleep for the duration of the one I wanted to watch I found myself catching up with some other blogs. It was this that lead me to a Radio 4 documentary: The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia by Martin Bell.

I like to think of myself as an optimistic person. I have been accused of such in the past, although sometimes when I listen to myself talking I have my doubts. For a foreigner living an adopted country I believe it's important to keep a positive outlook. I find it insulting when other internationals constantly talk about how life is safer, more civilised, or whatever, in their homeland. I'm sure the constant critique must grate on local people even more. The permanently vexed ex-pat has the option of going home but many people for whom this is home can't leave and they need all the help they can get to help this country be the best it can be. Criticism alone won't fix things. Yes, the problems are often obvious. What's needed is people prepared to engage with the issues and work to make a change.

After listening to Martin Bell this evening it was hard to lift myself back to such positivity as I headed out into the dark and the rain for some essential shopping. His conclusion wasn't as bleak as it could be but neither did it offer any hope for imminent improvement in the issues that hold back this countries development. In the interests of balance, and an exploration of issues this blog often cheerily glosses over, you might want to take a listen for yourself. Do it quickly as the link will expire and have something planned to lighten the mood afterwards!

What Isn't There

2010-09-21T10:48:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago we mentioned some demolition work had started not far from where we live. Today I shot this short bit of video as we strolled by. After making this video I spotted the sign that said the site is going to house some new government buildings in Mostar. If they go up as fast as these ones came down then they'll be practically finished by the end of next week!

Mapping Stereotypes

2010-09-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

Today the Telegraph introduced me to the work of Yanko Tsvetkov. Yanko is a London-based Bulgarian who describes himself on his website as a 'graphic designer slash visual artist'. He has produced a series of maps of Europe that label countries by the perceived stereotypes of one of the member states. Being English I was naturally interested in 'Europe According to Britain'. I think the concept is great but either my stereotypes are not representative or he's a little off. For example, I've never been to Iceland, although I have long wanted to, but I have been to Vegas; I don't think I've ever confused the two. I also recently argued, during a trip to neighbouring Finland, for the strength of Sweden's pop output. (They are one of only three countries that exports more pop music than they import, the US and the UK being the other two.) What really surprised me, though, was to see the Western Balkans clumped together under 'uncharted'. Perhaps the countries ended up too small for Yanko to individually tag them. Perhaps, though, he has hit on something. Living in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is easy to feel like you fell off the edge of the map, at least as far as news coverage from British new sources is concerned. (The BBC covered the build up to Bosnia and Herzegovina's clash against a shaky looking French side in the Euro 2012 qualifiers but didn't follow through to report the news that they sadly lost the game 2-0.)

Still, for all the grumbling about lack of attention, it's nice to live in a beautiful part of the world that isn't over-run by 'Brits on tour'! I remember trips to southern Spain where it was unquestionably embarrassing to be English. Here much of the country is still unspoilt by tourism. Things are changing fast and how long it stays that way is anyone's guess but we'll certainly enjoy it while it lasts. The country could certainly use the income and investment an increase in tourism would bring.

'Europe According to USA' was, of course, brasher than all the other maps. (We are talking stereotypes here, right?!) It was probably the funniest too. That is, apart from its treatment of the Western Balkans. Take 'Smelly People' or 'Godfathers' and I can see where he's coming from but 'Resident Evil'? Then again, I'm not American...but neither is he!

Gone!

2010-09-18T04:22:00.000-07:00

I took this photo on our first visit to Mostar, back in March 2008. A quick search through my photo albums has indentified it as the best photo I have of the building second from the right.

As we walked into town this morning we discovered this ruin had been reduced to a pile of rubble. (I didn't have my camera with me or you might be looking at picture of that too!)

This highlights a dilema I have often pondered. For us, who only arrived in this country two years ago, the derelict and ruined buildings are part of the character of the place. We never knew them when they were shops or houses. For people here they must serve as a constant reminder not just of the pain of conflict but of a past that is unlikely ever to return. Seeing them restored or replaced by new buildings must give some hope for the future. For us is a reminder to beware the dangers of misplaced sentimentality.

Faking it?

2010-09-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

So today we read that Casey Affleck has confirmed what some of us suspected all along, namely that the 'documentary' following Joaquin Phoenix's lurch from an acting career to hip hop experimentation was staged. Fake is a word being bandied about. That seems a little strong given that the clip of him on Letterman that announced his apparent celebrity meltdown did actually happen. However when it comes to the integrity, or credibility, he was claiming it's true Phoenix is left in need of a resurrection. Still, this little Hollywood side show serves as an interesting parallel to the real news here in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It's election time. You can tell because, as much as anything, something like a million political posters have been plastered over Mostar. Rowan and I are not here for any politically motivated reason, and we don't have voting rights for this country, but living here we've obviously interested in the effect of the political situation on everyday people. I'm clearly a bit of a cynic when it comes to celebrity shenanigans and it seems some people share a similarly cynical view when it comes to elected officials.

One person told me they didn't see anything changing because, basically, all politicians were a rotten bunch. I expressed some surprise. They went on to explain a jailbird relative had been in prison with a guy who became one of the first presidents of the country. They shared a cell. Somewhat cheekily, I asked if this meant the relative ended up with a government job. No, I was told. They were a straightforward thief, not like a hyena. Someone else told how one year they worked counting votes for an election. They were disillusioned by the people they saw altering ballot papers as they counted them. They say they won't be voting in this election.

Clearly such stories can not be taken to represent the whole of politics here. We could have stumbled on two very isolated cases; two lone voices of disillusionment. I would like that to be the case but then I look across the Adriatic at the soap opera that the media so frequently make out of Berlusconi's administration, or the British government that gave us the world's most famous duck house, and think perhaps, like Hollywood, the political world is one caught in an unending battle for integrity and credibility. Let's hope there are people here who aren't faking it.

One is not amused.

2010-09-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

"Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hinderance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary."

So reads the inside cover of the British Passport. Nestled under the Royal Coat of Arms, and written in some suitably cursive font, it is impressive stuff. It would be great to think these words actually meant what they say; that someone, somewhere, might actually offer assistance should it be required.

Not for the first time we've come to realise that the phrase 'afford the bearer such assistance' could more accurately be read 'if the bearer can afford such assistance.' Today my wife phoned some office in Germany with a question about a UK passport renewal. (Yes, that does say Germany.) This was the fourth number she called in one of those 'oh, the person you need to call is...' scenarios.

The phone was answered by someone who told her that the website had all the answers on it. Don't they always? No, of course, they don't. That's why you just need to ask a quick, simple question to an intelligent human being. Not so fast. First hand over your credit card details to pay for the call before they will listen to the question! 'But what if you don't know the answer to my question?' Quizzed my wife. Unbelievable. At a minimum of £3.50 this call cost well in excess of a pound a minute.

Now I know this post is going off like a Daily Mail leader but sometimes it is given for every man to rant for Middle England. I would have littered this with choice expletives for effect but that's not my style. My wife was similarly self-controlled on the phone while being completely disbelieving of the bureaucratic nightmare she was encountering. Her question was answered, but you'll be reassured to know that the renewal process remains a complicated and expensive process for someone living outside the UK. Still, at least she didn't have to call the number that said it charged $14 a minute to learn that!

Two Years Today

2010-09-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

Nine years ago yesterday Rowan and I sat on a beach in Crete talking about the future. It was one of those moments that changes the way you see things from then on. For me it was the first time I realised I wanted to move on and do something different (well, sort of the same-but-different) from what I'd been doing up to that point. We came back from the beach to a text telling us a plane had crashed in New York and walked into a hotel bar to join a crowd watching live TV coverage minutes before the second plane crashed into the Twin Towers. The world changed that day. But for all the things that were different in the post-911 world what we were doing wasn't much changed, at least not dramatically so. Until two years ago.

Two years ago today we arrived in Mostar, after an epic road trip across Europe, to start doing something the same-but-different in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was a life change unlike any I'd imagined, although Rowan had spent half her life wanting to do something here – somehow in ten years of marriage it'd never come up until ten months before we moved! I know there are people who still find it difficult to imagine me adjusting to life outside the UK – I had an email reminding me of this just this morning – but we've done more than just survive since we've arrived. If you're a regular reader you'll know something of our adventures over the past two years. We've had fun and we've achieved more than we imagined. As we stand on the brink of another change, and another two years in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we are excited about the possibilities of more of the same-but-different!

Perfect prediction

2010-09-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

Back when Lord of the Rings was wowing audiences on the big screen I was more than once referred to as a Hobbit. It had nothing to do with hairy feet, of which I am thankfully not the possessor, proud or otherwise, but more to do with being short of stature and with a tendency to slightly generous proportions around the waist. Tolkien aficionados will know 'The Hobbit' is the widely used abbreviation for 'The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.'

Today we drove there and back again through some of Bosnia and Herzegovina's fantastic countryside; mountains, rivers, valleys and forests that could easily be parts of Middle Earth. We were treated to sunshine and clear skies, heavy clouds and pouring rain and the most intense onslaught of thunder and lightening. The reason for our journey may have been relatively mundane but the weather provided everything required for an epic adventure!

About halfway between here and there is a small, mountain side gas station and cafe bar. It's yellow and it has a covered walkway that straddles the road, linking it to what could well be a mechanics. My memory lets me down on this because hanging from the outside of the walkway is red LED display that always grabs our attention. It tells the time and gives the temperature. This, being up in the mountains, is always lower than the temperature 'here'.

I wound down my window as we entered the bend before this staging post. 'I'm gonna give it eighteen!' I announced to the others in the van. Eyes forward as we exited turn, to see the numbers '1' and '8' boldly rubbing shoulders at the end of the display. I was, perhaps justifiably, proud of my perfect prediction. However, I failed to heed the sage who cautioned: never repeat a successful experiment. I was out an inexcusable five degrees* on the way back. Here's to a little humility!

(Lest anyone think I foolishly risked frostbite for this let me reassure readers all temperature are in degrees Celsius.)

A nice reminder...

2010-09-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

We were driving back from Jajce to Mostar earlier this week. It had been pretty miserable weather in Jajce which after the hot sun and soaring temperatures of the Mostar summer was an unwelcome shock to the system! The drive back started off rainy but as we drove up the mountain between Gornji Vakuf and Prozor the sky began to brighten. We got to the top and saw this. It was, as the title of this post says, a nice reminder.

An Introduction to Rural Wife!

2010-08-31T13:35:00.000-07:00

Cut and bruised we have returned from winter preparations at the apartment we'll be moving to sometime over the next month or so. I once learned to chop wood – and even got paid to do so – but that was more than two decades ago. Rowan had never wielded an ax in anger! Neither of us cut the wood pictured here. We bought it pre-chopped. However, as is the way here, it was all just dumped in the street outside the building and we had to stack it neatly in a dry place.

The wood is destined for the hot place pictured to the right of the ageing Electrolux cooker. That's our new stove. It'll serve as the main source of heat for us this winter. The fancy looking contraption that looks like a boy racer's exhaust should, we're told help it to chuck out a bit more heat. While I might know how to chop a log or two I have to confess my fire-starting skills are distinctly less developed. Okay, so I'm suddenly remembering a spot of petrol-assisted bonfire starting and if barbecues count then obviously I'm not entirely without experience. There is something enticing primal about the need to master the art of starting fire - watch out, I'll be inventing wheels next!

Have your cake and leave it!

2010-08-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

Just less than two years since we arrived in Mostar we have worked our last evening at Klub Novi Most. I don't think it's quite sunk in yet. The summer's been a busy time – perhaps evidence by the very sporadic blog posting! - so although we've known for a while that we'll be moving on to a new project with Novi Most in the autumn we've not had the down-time to let leaving really sink in. There were a few tears tonight as me, Rowan and Budo (all pictured on the leaving cake on the left!) were given a very fitting send off by the young people and our other team members in Klub.

Two years have flown by or at least it feels like that tonight. I might have said different if you'd asked me in the middle of Mostar's long, rainy winter! We've seen a lot and been part of a lot. Hopefully we've help a bit along the way. Time will tell. A couple of years from now perhaps we'll be able to look back with greater perspective and see how our positive contributions in Mostar have grown, and see the successful establishing of our new project taking shape. Despite the fact we will miss people in Mostar we know it's time to move onto the next thing. There are fresh challenges ahead and new opportunities waiting to be explored. I once wrote: you get the story when you go. We're off to get the next bit. WeDoAdventure!

Here's to Angelina!

2010-08-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

I caught some friends cheering 'Angie, Angie' at the television the other day. Their excitement was caused by the footage of Angelina Jolie at a Bosnian airport playing out on a local news programme. (You'll forgive me for not noting whether she was coming or going at the time!) I wasn't particularly paying attention so I didn't catch what the story was and I would have forgotten all about it had I not stumbled across this article in The Guardian online this morning.

It's great that the actress otherwise known as Mrs Pitt wants to film her first full directorial debut in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Good news too that it'll provide opportunities for local cast and crew. The attention of a Hollywood A-lister in a country that gets to export little of its culture to the Western world is undoubtedly a welcome thing. The film will tell the tale of a Bosnian woman falling for a Serbian military man. Jolie is quoted as saying, "The film is a love story, not a political statement." But perhaps a story of love that sees past ethnic prejudices is inescapably a statement in a country whose politics so often remains entrenched in them. Statement or not, let's hope it encourages all that is best about Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Not a good picture!

2010-08-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

"That won't make a good picture" warned my wife as I reached for the camera. She may well be right. But I have soft spot of the venerable Lada Niva. Spotting two of them, identically coloured, alone in an otherwise empty car park somewhere in central Bosnia was too much temptation.

I have a friend who tells me horror stories about how their oil (or it could be fuel) consumption grows with age every time I say anything approaching complimentary about these stalwarts of Soviet design. He wants to ensure I never succumb to my irrational attraction and enter into any kind of long-term relationship with the vehicle.

And so, for better or for worse, I will continue my quiet admiration from a discreet distance.

Step up to the microphone!

2010-08-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

This was the view that greeted me on Thursday night. A mic, some mountains and an audience gathered for an evening of music. Under the wooden beams of this barn-like building the tea-lights flickering on the tables created a beautiful, mellow atmosphere shattered only by the crashing drums, pounding bass and screaming guitar of our punk rock three piece.

Our set blended well known covers in equal numbers with original material. To my mind people jumped and cheered in all the right places, and for that I'm very grateful. I know singing English-language rock songs carries an element of risk in a situation where many in the audience know little of the language. In my defence, I'm still relatively new to the lead singing game and while I may yet learn to sing in another language I would be happier still to know I inspired someone here to step up the microphone. There's a huge satisfaction in helping others achieve their musical dreams: I saw it with plenty of young people in the UK, now it's time to see it in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hopefully this gig will prove to be a big step right direction.

[We've just put the first Gilgal demo recordings online as free downloads!]

Iconic

2010-07-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

We were in Dubrovnik at the weekend and, wandering around the old town, I spotted a sign for the Museum of Icons. We gave it a miss. I'm well aware that religious icons are a genuine point of faith for many people but, generally speaking, they don't do it for me on either an artist or spiritual level. But today my head was turned by this cultural icon that seemed somewhat out of place in a Mostar scrap yard.