Gridlock and exciting developments.

 The allotment project in the area had a re-launch and to our delight and amazement lots of people came. It turns out there is a growing Home Education movement locally and the parents are just beginning to meet together and they want somewhere to develop their education with the kids, so the allotment could be just the space.  But in addition to several families, individuals turned up too so who knows this precious thing which has been hanging by a thread just might thrive. 

However, some people could not even get to the allotment as there was so many cars gridlocked on the road, that they could not get through. The gridlock was caused by people trying to get petrol.  I had originally planned to go to a green event in Hertford but decided it was a non starter as the roads were so blocked.  

I have bought a climbing rose for my developing front car parking space and hope it will thrive.  

St. Augustine - a green example. Austen - A red example.

 As Cop 26 comes ever nearer and to help celebrate the Great Big Green Week, the local parish church held a rather nice event.   Some activities highlighted how we could help e.g. Fairtrade, moving to a green energy provider, but elsewhere their were stalls ,were we could just engage goods. There was a lovely atmosphere and loads of people attended.     Local cllrs also attended to talk about what the Council here is doing and Green Party members dropped in to enjoy the occasion.  I felt a bit odd, being both a resident and a Green Party now activist when talking to the Cllr,  he was very nice and realised we both had an agenda but were genuinely asking question about what is happening in the area with regards to climate change and sustainability.  

I have eaten my pepper.  It has been a tiny green pepper for many weeks so I left it to see if it would grow, but instead it has turned red.  It was delicious.  I have grown a pepper from seed. :)

Bus stop.

 Just ventured out despite the torrential rain to catch the 11.38 bus to the next town down.  Gave up at 12. 27.  Not sure what is going on.    In Croatia as least I could wait in the sun, but then I had to pay for the privilege of catching a bus.  Glad to be home, but have started working on my Croatian again,  so obviously looking forward to the next trip too.  

Post script.  Next day the person I had had an appointment with notified me he had Covid, so now thanking my lucky stars that the bus did not come.    He is now about the fourth person who has been double jabbed that I know about who has had a very nasty bout of Covid. 

Badly behaved in Croatia.

 Don't know what is wrong with me.  Have just walked out of the local supermarket, not wanting to pay for the goods as they were not what I wanted or expected. Think I am just tired of not being able to understand things, tired of all the emotional ups and downs and even of the heat. I am still happy to be here, but feel I just keep getting things wrong and that is taking its toll.  Plus I am not sure feeling well.  

When I was a teenager I had a slightly similar melt down. Every day I would go out on time to catch the bus to college and every day I would either be late because the bus was late, or I would be late because I missed the bus as the bus was early. One day my body had just had enough and I collapsed for a day or two.  I am not in as serious a state as that, but things are definitely catching up with me.   

I have decided that buses are a bit of a metaphor for life.  The bus fills up at the beginning and then bit by bit there are fewer of us left till there are none, or one is at the bus stop early and still misses the bus etc etc.   I am sure as I get a bit more of the language and can remember to laugh more at my inability to understand and I will be fine but perhaps age and travelling does make it all a bit more challenging.  And I am not well  I treated myself to a meal out a couple of days ago and have not been right since.  I am normally never tempted by hamburgers, but this one promised 100% Croatian beef and everyone has been saying the local hamburgers are the best.  So I gave in.  It was delicious everything about it from the handmade brioche, to the crunchy salty bacon bits on top but it was rather red inside and I felt too shy and too lacking in knowledge about hamburgers to know if that was right or not.   Anyway based on how ill I have been since, I guess in this instance, perhaps that was not right.  I think burgers can be pink like this one, but perhaps it wasn't cooked to the right temperature level.  Time to slink back to cold old England and try and get back to a bit of work and " normality" whatever that is in a world where the Taliban are back in control and the weather is up the creek.   

Rookie errors, and teetering up and down hills.

 I have taken myself off to view some more of Croatia.  It is a really beautiful country, travelling by coach first from Split to Tucepi and then from Tucepi to Dubrovnik,  has given me a great opportunity to know more about its geography if nothing else.   It is very mountainous to Ploce, with winding roads and stunning sea views,  then suddenly there is a wide valley, with wines growing followed by a steady rise.  A bridge is partially completed, so not in use, but one day will take travellers south within Croatia   but at present one suddenly has to give in passports as one is in Bosnia for a few kilometres, and then once back into Croatia, the land drops down to Dubrovnik and its generous port and old town. 

City Walls Dubrovnik. 

However, I feel I have made a few rookie errors when doing my bookings.  Croatia has a great bus system, but as I booked through a website that checks all the options for buses,  rather than via specific Croatian bus companies, I paid a lot more as I did not get a pensioner discount.  Yet , the website I did use Getbybus,  was good at giving specific location pick up point details, which was just as well as another error made was booking to go to a small destination, rather than one with a bus garage and easy access to information.    Which was why last Tuesday my nerves were almost shattered and I was trying to work out how to find out what was going on,  as I had been sitting by the side of the road for over an hour by the time my bus did suddenly appear.  By then I had already managed in my anxiety to drop my phone and break it and weirdly my camera is not functioning properly either in sympathy.     So note to self, no more bookings to more difficult destinations.  However, in many ways Tucepi was a great way to wind down from the last few weeks.  Much more touristy than anywhere else I have been to in Croatia, I was very happy to just sit on the beach, read, walk along the front and generally relax.  I did try and work, but the internet was not good enough.  Unfortunately that was also the case in Kastela.  Hopefully Dubrovnik might be better, though I can only risk booking one class in case there is an issue.  The front at Tucepi is 4 km long and I walked about half of it,  luckily as they have not felled the pines along the front, walking is a nice gentle pursuit and not too hot, but up above the main road  there are tantalising mountains and the paths are very well signposted but I just cannot walk up hills anymore and so only got to do a short distance in the evening.  . However, one can see how well the lower reaches of the mountains have been terraced to enable olive farming.  Some of the terraces must be very old, but routes through have been made that go down all the way to the coast and water runnels also are catered for which is interesting.    I could not see anyone working the fields and there is so much tourism perhaps that takes all the workers, but it would be nice if a balance can be found between the sea and the land and the locals and the tourists.  

By the way maybe avoid the Studenac supermarket if you ever visit Tucepi.  The first night there as I wanted to cook,  I went to the local shop and was initially charged 162 kuna, for a few nuts, a banana and some peaches, tomatoes and roll. More than a decent meal in a restaurant would cost.  But the guy said well some bananas and nuts are just that expensive.  In the end I persuaded to run the stuff through the till again and it came to 20 kina.  The last day, I bought breakfast there and again he over charged me but as it was only 2 kuna this time, I did not complain.    /when it is working the store has decent and cheap coffee and hot chocolate, so it worth going there, but only when one is not overcharged.  The one next door to where I am staying in Dubrovnik has proved that good service can exist here.  

Halfway up. 

When I visited Lisbon, I found I could only walk downhill, I had to have a bus to go uphill.  I had not realised till I arrived in Dubrovnik that Dubrovnik is even steeper. In the heat, and despite having only a small bag with me, I thought I was about to have a heart attack when looking for my lodgings.  They are very nice and only half way up the hill, any further and I think I would have had to find somewhere else.    Lots of stairways are cut up through the houses, which is very clever, but on a dark night having somehow missed the bus back to my lodgings, it was also alarming to find my way here during the coolers hours. Why I did not think to stay in the Youth Hostel heaven knows, it is much better located even though I like where I am now I know my way around.    In the UK it is very difficult to book just a bed in a hostel because of the Covid virus and these days many hostels have only mixed bed dorms, but I did not even think to look for Dubrovnik. I no longer think I am a youth even though I know one can be any age to stay there. Fitter older people will cope with and enjoy Dubrovnik. It is quite an amazing place, the history of the Dubrovnik Republic is very impressive, so I am glad I have been and hope I might come again, but I have added it to my list of places one should visit when more energetic.     For example I would love to have the courage to do what lots of visitors do here and that is to go sea kayaking, but I would be too scared and even walking around the walls, I had to give up as the last bit was just too scary with my vertigo.  It never occurred to me I would be so scared, but I got encouragement from some Brits also going around the route and congratulated myself with an extravagant 15 kuna salted peanut ice cream to steady my nerves, half way around.   

Late night fireworks just before missing the bus even though I was at the bus stop!. 

One thing I did get right though, having failed at Tucepi, to spot they had an evening of entertainment on at the harbour whilst I was there, this prompted me to check what was happening in Dubrovnik and to my delight it turned out that a Beethoven concert was being held in the Open Air the day I arrived, and whilst I had to go half way through to miss aforementioned bus  is there anything nicer than sitting on a church step on a warm evening enjoying the most beautiful sounds in gorgeous surroundings and watching the world go by.  So despite the flaws, mostly in my planning,  I am very glad to be getting to know my adopted country better. 

A wonderful wedding.

 It is hard to believe it is the 1st of September, as here in Croatia it is still lovely and warm and the beaches in the tourist town of Tucepi are still packed. I am kicking myself for not buying the little flat in Kastela, that I had the chance to buy last year - I thought that there would be very few tourists out here this year with the Covid virus, but I am wrong,  so I really missed a trick there, however, I do know that there were lots of reasons I did not progress with it and my offer had been rejected.  So even in another country still stuck with old concerns. Sadly I have also been a bit freaking out all holiday. I often do the first day in a new country, but this time it has stayed with me much of the time, though I do not fully understand what it is about, so whilst I am enjoying it all very much,  I am also weirdly freaking out.    I suspect it has to do with the weird year it has been and the emotions connected to what has been a very happy time, but also  I suppose a very intense time.    However, everything has been made much easier by how calm Mr and Mrs Austen, have been throughout this time and how kind.  They really have put others first,  even though they should have been at the heart of the event.  

First they gave us the family time before the wedding,  just chillin time,  they especially spent time with the children, then they ensured that we visited key places and for fun they added in time at the local aqua park.  There have been lots of nights watching TV together, or playing computer games and tons of takeaways in between trips to hairdressers and wedding dress companies.   Bit by bit they also had to dash to the airport to pick up more of their guests, and when the car stopped working, that meant via bus.  Two days before the wedding they had to get pcr tests for the guests who had come in from Sweden, Portugal and France and they also put up Nathan's cousin when her accommodation did not come up to spec.   The night before the wedding a whole bunch of them went out for a meal, including  my 14 year old nephew and on the wedding day they also ferried several people to the event which was taking place out on Ciovo island. 

I wanted to make the most of the hotel we were staying at so I took myself off their early by bus.  It was a rather touristy place - it had that old familiar feel of a holiday hotel that was a bit past its best but that in a way was its charm, except you had to climb about thirty steps to the uninspiring reception where a sour faced greeting sent you off to a side door entitled Hotel Bike.   The actual room I stayed in was stylish and big and very promising, except that when I needed a hot bath,  I got a cold one instead and could not work out how to use the shower and to add insult to injury it cost £26 more to stay there for a night than I expected, however, it was just above the wedding venue and that was useful as we could go on the beach, help with the decorations and then rest before the event, and when I was all danced out I could slip away to sleep away.    

The wedding had a few dramatic events to it, such as the grooms wedding ring going missing,  the audio being such that even though an English translator being present, I often couldn't hear or understand what he was saying, and for a moment I was a very sour faced guest as I felt a bit overwhelmed by it all and was upset when the little English band were not all together at the reception.  In the end it was quickly sorted out and for the most part it was a very lovely occasion.  The priest himself was great,  the little church really sweet and it was completely full.  Musician friends from Sahaja came and played and Mooji was kind enough to send personal greetings to them and the bride and groom.  My nephew handed out the sheets with the reading in English and my niece being the flower girl got to sit in the front row with me.  Despite the cold wind outside it was roasting inside.    Most of the ceremony was in Croatian including the vows,  my son is really coming along with his language,  and it was wonderful to see the loving smiles between him and his wife.  It seemed much nicer and more friendly than most weddings.    I was really taken by the fact that both me and the bride's mother wore the same colour blue.  We had pride of place, but no ceremonial function but every now and then people would congratulate me both on the wedding and on having such a lovely son.   I would have loved it if I could have made a brief speech to thank everyone for coming, but speeches are kept to a minimum, which is probably as it should be.   However, I was busy taking pictures and sending them back to the UK so that made me feel more purposeful. And at key moments the bride and groom did manage to hook up with family at home too, so that helped it feel inclusive. 

Then it was off to the wedding venue next door. There were only 50 guests but that was a nice number. N and M were at the top table with their best man and best woman.  The best man gave a brief speech and then that was it.   We had a lovely starter of prosciutto and cheese, followed by a meat dish with prunes or rice and squid, which people seemed to really enjoy.  The meat was very tasty,  and then I had fish which was really lovely.     It is served with chard, which is really popular here.  I need to find out how they make it so much tastier than my chard at home.    As the wedding had not started till 7.30 we were eating really late and in between each course we all got up dancing.  There was a really special mood as each number seemed to signify something to the other for example my sister and I suddenly found ourselves dancing the opening bars of a song, alone before everyone joined in.  And the 8 year old ring girl surprised everyone with her robot dance.    Apparently some of the people up and dancing were famous for not normally joining in so I do not know what had happened, but the choice of music, which was designed to reflect everyone's various tastes helped. There was a lovely moment when M danced with her very elderly grandma.  Then there was a very delicious cake,  each layer had a different flavour,  lemon and chocolate were the ones I tried and then having danced and danced I slipped away, but apparently it only! went on to about 2.30! by which time I was fast asleep. But I woke at 7 so went up to the swimming pool and then enjoyed breakfast and started taking down the decorations.  I was able to get a boat back to Trogir which was fun, or would have been if I  had not left my camera behind at the hotel.  However, luckily others at the hotel were able to retrieve it, so whilst I felt their service had not been good (like much we have experienced this trip) on this occasion they came up trumps.  .   Then I crashed out at home, waking up in time for a second day's celebration for neighbours who had not been able to come to the wedding.  It is so lovely that maybe 20 people can sit outside and share a meal together.  Apparently it is traditional to serve roast lamb or pork the day after the wedding,  and there was a special heart shaped cake and a toast to end the evening.  (however, I had crashed out by then)  And it was good to get to know the neighbours who now people my son's life. 

The last day of celebrations come holiday was a boat trip out to the islands.  The sun shone, the company was good and it was a perfect way to relax together.   The owners even gave the newly weds a present, and their attention to detail was great.  Fish, wine,  the famous local drink and swimming off the boat, made for a memorable end to memorable celebrations.