Life Update - October 2023.

An Update from Čardačani

Welcome to the this edition of This Week in the Balkans

Thanks for reading my posts. It means a lot and I really appreciate your support and being part of the community here.

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Welcome to another update video here on the channel.

I don't know if you can see the steam off the coffee, but, the mornings are not as warm as they used to be. Let's put it that way. This week there's been changes of weather. We've had rain and overcast and then we've had brilliantly sunny days like yesterday when we had blue skies and not a cloud. Not a cloud. But that's not going to be lasting forever for now on.

This is the last update from October 2023. And it's been a pretty laid back week. After filming this, I've got to go into Lakataši, which is the nearest town, and get my health insurance paid for because I pay into the health scheme here. I do that every two months, so then I get the full array of services, that's available here and they're very good by the way. They're just as good as in the UK. People here think that their system is really bad, but, you always think the grass is greener in the other field, right?

So we're going to be doing that, and over the time since the last video, I've relaunched the podcast and I'd like to talk a little bit about that now. And then I've got, some B-roll some footage of what's been happening here in the world of David and Tamara.

By the way, I've decided to wear a branded t-shirts from now on in.

So, the podcast has been going for 10 years. That's a long time really. With some stops and starts, of course, it hasn't been full on. Trying to tell stories from Bosnia and Herzegovina rather than using the travel podcast or the travel vlog way of doing things.

So I've been updating that so you can find us on all good major podcast platforms, Spotify, Apple, and now YouTube Music. I was trying to find out how to put my audio podcasts on YouTube without having to re-upload them and it's really, really simple. I just had to put my RSS feed, which is the feed that carries all the details from my podcast.

So if you go to YouTube Music and look for an Englishman in the Balkans, you'll find me there. And if you go to normal YouTube, where the videos are and just put an Englishman in the Balkans podcast, you'll find 88 episodes there.

So please do like it and do share it.

That would be great.

So that's the podcast relaunched.

Hopefully some cool people joining me in the future on the Podcast and I say hopefully because, you know, it's a busy world these days and people say, yeah, I'll be there on Tuesday, but something happens in their lives and they can't do it.

So my Patreon account is now taking off. So if you want to see exclusive content before anywhere else, that's on Patreon.

But you don't have to pay to watch a lot of the free content on Patreon either. There's a new part to it where you can be a free subscriber. So you can join that. The great thing about Patreon is it's ad free. So if you watch YouTube and you don't like the ads, why not come across and check me out on Patreon?

Yes, there are subscriber tiers for exclusive content, behind the scenes content, but there's also some posts and some videos and some audio there, that it's free. And as I say, it's ad free as well.

So in the village the main thing has been tidying up and Tams father making his, or continuing building his tool shed, which is coming on. It's still going to have, as I record this, the wood cladding around the outside, but he's got the frame up, the roof has been done.

A friend came in who's a roofer and did that. And he's done the insulation bit and all that's got to happen now is for the wood cladding to be done. I'm sure he'll do that and finish that soon before the wet weather really sets in and it gets colder.

So the B-roll that's coming now shows you the development of the tool shed. Some more shots of the garden, which I never really appreciated until yesterday actually when Tamara and I took Fibi, who's very energetic little dog, and Mare, who's this terrier that we've adopted because she just arrived, had been thrown out by people, which happens here.

I'd like to do another video about dogs in the future and how stray dogs, and it's just awful the way people treat dogs in this country in general. But we had them both running around going crazy, and we're really mindful of the fact that we don't want them to run out on the road and get hurt in any way by the cars. But we have a garden here, which is bigger than some green spaces inside major cities and people have dogs and they exercise in there.

They can run around crazy here, totally safe. So, we've been doing that. So you might see a shot or two of Mare.

I tried to push the drone the other day out towards the church, which is in the centre of Čardačani on the hill. So do enjoy that. I think you'll see some sheep.

So wherever you're seeing this, thanks for watching. If you'd like to give me a thumbs up, share it with your friends, that would really help as well. And these videos, these weekly or bi-weekly B-roll updates of life here for me wherever I am in Bosnia and Herzegovina and whatever I'm doing are not available on YouTube.

So you're seeing this, either bumping into it on maybe Vimeo or watch it on Substack where it's free or on Patreon where it's free.

Next time I do one of these, I hope to have a branded mug. And I'm waiting to get a patch sewn on my hat.

So stay safe wherever you are.

Lots of love.

Don’t forget that you can read back editions of the newsletter, listen to previous podcasts (we have quite an archive now), or catch other content, all this is available on the web interface, just like a regular blog.

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Once again, Tamara and I appreciate your faithful readership, your comments, and your generosity! 

Until our next post.

THANKS SO MUCH ❤️