Woooo It's halloween in Pristina!

Well as we know British and US culture invades all parts of the globe and All Hallows Eve is celebrated here too. Went to a charity halloween party last night for the orphans of the war. The pub was full of kids so after we had a quick bit of grub we scarpered to the Irish Bar. - We had paid our ticket/donation in advance in case you were thinking 'how tight is he?'. Anyway tonight the Kosovans have followed the traditional Balkan ways of celebrating - they have got their handguns out and been firing rounds into the night sky - a great reason to stay in and catch up with some work.
So here's my contribution to the tradition of scaring people on Halloween

A 50 foot photo of Bill Clinton !

Still could be worse I could be a Sunderland fan! ;-)

'Sno fair !

Well followers of this blog, from Dumbarton to Pompey via the ground floor east in Russell St,  (Yvonne & Malcolm, I know youve been keeping an eye ) I can report it's been snowing here, just a little of the cold wet sleety stuff but never the less snow.
Took this on the way into the office on Friday when it was a nice day, this is the palace of sports which was used in Tito's time to brainwash the kids via sport, it's huge but basically unused since the fall of communism. Ironically I walk past it every time I go to the gym. Plans to refurb it for sports and the inevitable hotel.......looks like a rack of lamb to me.

Kosovo Kountry File

What a beautiful day it's been today, time for a (long) walk out of the city to the countryside. You can probably see the city in the distance.

A herd of goats wanders by,

Not many places you see an old man taking a cow for a walk!

Hole in the ground issue..

Apologies if you have been checking for new posts recently only to find nothing new but I have been really really busy - never worked so hard in my life! We are now at the point where we are delivering training this week and writing the training for 2 weeks time.
Power cuts make for interesting situations, like when the power goes off when you are in a lift 12 floors up, fortunately the generators are pretty quick to cut in in the main government building

Anyway on to the job in hand, Pristina is not the place to walk round with your eyes shut, as you can see from the photos below the first is a street where cars are still going up and down, although I did manage to capture it 'sans voiture' (what a cunning linguist I am ). where the heavy metal is at a reasonable level the cars just park on it or use\it as a ramp to park at the bottom !

The next is a collapsed manhole cover in the middle of the main pedestrianised street in town - Boulevard Mother Theresa - no one seems bothered about replacing it or cone-ing it off !

Hillary goes for a ride on Bill Clinton and finds him rather 'rigid'.

A bit of excitement in Bill Clinton Bv today, Hillary paid us a visit. She stopped to have a look at Bill's statue and picture about a 100 yards down the street

Caption competition anyone?

Then her motorcade came swooshing past us on the street corner by the office.

I know what your thinking, did she wave at me, well readers she did! 

(not that you can tell from this photo!)

Another eating house in Pristina gets done by the Trades Description Act

This place is another of our favourite lunchtime haunts, great cheap home cooked food but can you guess what they don't sell...................?    You might have to double click the photo to see.

Yup, you guessed it, they don't sell burgers. Mind you Boots don't sell footwear so we shouldn't hold that against them.
Photo is also notable as showing the only hole in the ground in Pristina with some form of warning round it !

A sunny day in Pristina

 How do you make a post war communist library building look even uglier?  Cover it in chicken wire of course!

Next door to the library is the Serb Orthodox cathederal which was being built when the war kicked off, the UN won't let the locals knock it down and the locals wont let the Serbs finish it.

 
This is the 'Photos of the Missing' some of the people from Pristina who disappeared during the war.

Something a bit lighter to finish, not something you would expect to see in Pristina but there are fleets of traditional London cabs here!

Honesty is not always the best policy

I'm guessing McDs would be out of business if this was their name........

We had a cracking lunch in here - a huge mixed grill of kebabs, chicken, beef, sausage & liver

Picture this, a day in October

This piece of public art is the symbol of Kosovo, they don't seem to mind it being vandalised.

Storage space is at a premium and Health & Safety further down the priorities in this neck of the woods;

Finally tonight, Bill Clinton & Bush.
This is the view from my office which is situated on Boulevard Bill Clinton and as you can see is partly obscured by a..........tree!

Power to all our friends.........well those in credit.

Experienced more of what it was like to live in Kosovo in the last 24 hours. We have had 3 powercuts, 2 last night, leaving us in darkness for an hour each time and once today for 2 hours. Apparently when a certain number of people in each district don't pay the 'leccy then the power company turn the power off in that area to remind people to pay up !! Certain parts of Glasgow and Middlesbrough would be in permanent darkness....

Let's talk about ...towels baby

Great conversation in a local shop;
Me- Have you got any towels?
Girl in shop - yes, these....only 2 Euros each - they're Versace !!!!
Hmmm........I bought 2.

It's raining again....

Don't know how long I can keep these song references up.

Here's the street I am living in, entrance to my apartment is between the 2 columns at the end of the pavement or should I say 'car park'.

Please feel free to leave a comment, that way I know someone is actually reading it!

The road is long.......

0615hrs Manchester Airport;

I wasn't expecting the journey to be bad enough to have to stop at level 2 on the way to departures........

1615hrs
This is the main terminal building in Pristina, makes Teesside Airport look like Schiphol.

Got to my flat an hour later - it's very nice.
If you are interested here's the link to the video of  My flat