Road to Nowhere

Finally made it our to Zvannieki yesterday. The purpose being twofold, one to deliver toys collected by J.... (Irish person of growing stature) and secondly to meet with the actual owner of the property - a Mr Janis Ezergailis - to try and convince him to permit us to build the extension.

Well the first bit went well, toys safely delivered, but as to the second - a dismal failure, despite my best diplomatic efforts (truth be told I lost my temper with him) he refused to even consider an extension. The man is in his mid 80's and clearly set in his ways, and the fact that there are now Somalians living there has not helped the situation one bit.

He has if I understand correctly also indicated that he wants to remove all of the children from Zvannieki - but I do not think he will be able to do this at least in the short term. There has been quite a bit of publicity last week, where he has given interviews to both TV and Local press, and been forthright as to his views on the Somalians.

So the best that we can do is to complete the interior/exterior work and take it from there.

There is no doubt that the Somalian situation has and will continue to cause problems for all at Zvannieki. Not sure what we can do to resolve this, as clearly the older ones cannot stay there for any length of time - but where do they go ? If they could get a job with accommodation this would be the way forward, but who is going to employ them, when notwithstanding the local prejudice against people of African background, that they cannot speak with any fluency Latvian.

On a more positive note the road works are now in full swing, and should be finished during this week. So well done to J... (Irish builder of dubious repute) and his team.

and of course to J... for his generosity with toys, although as you can see he seems a bit bemused by it all !!

Just a small mention of visitation to the Status Quo concert last Friday - It was all right ! but not great. Two thirds of the audience sat there absolutely motionless the whole night- why did they go ? It was an experience and certainly for the 90 minutes they played they gave it their all -but somehow it lacked conviction, almost as if they were just going through the motions.

Apologies re quality of pictures, still not sure how to use digital camera in dark surroundings

So there we go, another week in progress, Manhattan Transfer and Simply Red lie ahead, the sun is still shining, and if anyone can assist or offer guidance as to what we could or might be able to do re Somalians or getting additional accommodation at Zvannieki - let me know.