Bake Sale fun!

I recently organised a Bake Sale at one of the places I work. I thought it would add a welcome distraction for a Friday and I was proved very right!

The voluntary group I am involved with, Helping Hands and Hearts Foundation (HHH), has been on the lookout for a new project to get involved with and we have been successful in finding something very worthwhile.

HHH will start a new project, to raise funds to enable the British Advanced Life Support Group (ASLG), (http://www.alsg.org/uk/) to come to Bosnia to teach a Pre-hospital Obstetric Emergency Training course (POET) to the Sarajevo Emergency Unit. ASLG is already involved in training doctors in Sarajevo, Advanced Pediatric Life Support (APLS) and Managing Obstetric Emergency and Trauma (MOET) .The doctors who receive training in POET will the following year be supervised by ASLG when they in turn teach the course to other doctors in Bosnia.

The money raised at various fundraising events over the next 6 months by HHH will enable the hospital to purchase the necessary equipment and mannequins in order to undertake this training.

The office Bake Sale was the first event to kick start the fundraising.

I baked some Bespoke British Baking vanilla cupcakes and I trialed Tana Ramsey's Lemon Drizzle cake, which I have to say was easy and delicious! By popular demand Liz made her chocolate brownies which literally sold like hot cakes. Also, under a bit of duress from me, my partner whipped up some triple choc cornflake crisps - these included an awful lot of chocolate, several mars bars and dash of golden syrup and were topped with white chocolate! They were delicious and again were very popular, so much so that he didn’t even get to try one!

Thanks to all those who contributed with cakes and the generosity of those who bought them, we raised an impressive 170KM! This is fantastic and gets us well off the mark with our fundraising efforts!

I am now going to try to undertake a similar effort at the other office I work in and try to encourage some other friends to do the same in their offices, what this space for a Bake Sale near you, soon!

Spring has sprung

After a very mild winter and a lot more rain and less snow than last year, the sun is at last shining and it is lovely! I have lost the jacket and we can once again enjoy a drink outside in the sunshine. If we were in the UK, the summer dresses and shorts and flip flops would already be out!

Spring is a wonderful time of year - perhaps one of my favorites. The smell of fresh cut grass, and the cherry blossom on the trees. There is certainly a feeling of excitement and anticipation, as everyone comes out of hibernation, the cafes open up their outside seating areas and the heating gets tuned off. At least here in Sarajevo we can almost guarantee a long, hot summer is ahead of us.

We went to our first BBQ last weekend and even enjoyed a couple of glasses of Pimms! I know it will not be long until my Facebook newsfeed is filled with status updates from friends back home drinking rose and Pimms sitting on the Northcote Road!

I am not expecting this lovely weather to be with us indefinitely, in fact, there is rain on the horizon for early next week. But hopefully this will just be some April showers and the sun will return again.

"(I) oni su branili ovaj (svoj) grad"

A new photography exhibition has opened in Sarajevo, which is definitely worth popping along to if you have the time.

"(I) oni su branili ovaj (svoj) grad" translated "(And) they have defended this (his) town" is a photo exhibit by Bosnian photographer Milomira Kovačevića Strašnog who captured photos of all those who defended the City of Sarajevo throughout the Siege (April 1992 - February 1996). The imagery is strong, regular people posing for the camera with guns and weaponry, in the background destroyed parts of this beautiful city.

The exhibition is in the National Gallery (Umjetnicka galerija BiH) located next to the Dom Armija. It is open until early May. Entrance is free, however a donation is suggested.

A little bit of France in Sarajevo

Herewith an important update... a new French Bakery has opened in Sarajevo. And this is the real deal.

Proper French croissants, pain au chocolate, tarts and a real assortment of breads, all made the traditional way.

Everything really is excellent, very reasonably priced and well worth a visit.

At the moment, it is just takeaway, but I have heard rumors that seating and coffee will be available soon.

Bon Appétit!

Address; Kranjcevica, just past the Intesa SanPaulo Bank on the right hand side (at the bottom of Alipasna)

Pika the cat!

So, we have a new addition to our little family. A little kitten. We found her loitering outside our flat a few weeks ago and after much agonising, we took her in.

We had talked about getting a kitten, but never thought it would actually happen! It is quite common for internationals here to end up taking various pets back home. If we are honest with ourselves, it is probably not the most sensible decision we have ever made, but I know we can make it work and more importantly give her a nice home!

The vet reckons she about 4 months old. She is a little tabby cat with a white chest and a kind of tiger print on her front legs and she has a spotty tummy (thus her name, Pika, which is spot in Bosnian).

I am getting used to having an animal to care for, she is quite a vocal creature and for something so small she can make a lot of noise! It took us a couple of disturbed (and frustrating) evenings to realise that we could not ignore the meowing and she just simply wanted us to play with her. Ever since, she has been much better and she seems to be settling in nicely.

The only downside of a cat (especially living in a flat) is the litter tray. No matter how clean you keep them, they always seems to smell. I am struggling a little bit with this and have moved the tray out of the sitting room into the spare room we don’t use and am hoping this might help.

All in all, the positives outweigh the negatives and it is always lovely to get home to a little face waiting for you at the door!

 

Night skiing at Bjelasnica

Another post about skiing...! Last night, on a boring, wet and generally quite miserable Monday evening we hit the slopes after work. And it was brilliant!

In my 25 or so years of skiing, this was a first for me, and it was great fun. We headed up to Bjelasnica after work and if this was not all great, we pretty much has the mountain to ourselves! The weather was a bit rubbish - snowing heavily, but there was not a breath of wind and everything was very calm - much more so than during the day.

There was one T-bar open, which offered skiing on two runs, one lit and one not.

The two bars at the bottom were open and a quick break half way through for a beer and a plate of ustipci made it the perfect evening.

Night skiing takes place every evening at Bjelasnica from 18:30-21:00. The cost is 20KM for the ski pass. Parking is free. However, there did not seem to be any ski rental shops open.

All in all, another excellent Bosnian experience only 30 minutes from our front door. And what a way to spend a Monday night... I will certainly miss this when I am back in London... crammed on a train trying to get home!

A year in Sarajevo

This weekend has marked our one year anniversary here in Sarajevo. And what a year it has been!

In reflection we have achieved a lot, travelled to a variety of new places and countries, met some wonderful new people, who are now great friends and made this city our home.

My highlights so far:

February: Two (ish) or so metres of snow falling in a few days

March: My 30th birthday, friends and family visiting, great nights out and plenty of skiing

April: First trips to Dubrovnik and Belgrade

May: A road trip to Ljubljana

June: Queen's Birthday Party and Jubillee celebrations, sailing around Hvar

July: The Olympics, and all the celebrations which went with it. Starting a new job. Camping, Bosnian style and Sarajevo Film Festival

August: Amazing weather and endless trips to the coast

September: Montenegro and more birthdays

October: A beautiful autumn, more sailing and a weekend in the rain in Cavtat

November: Istanbul

December: Panto-time, Diplomatic Winter Bazar, Christmas Carols, importing and BBq'ing a turkey on Christmas Day and the start of the ski season