Today is the 10th anniversary of my cousin Danka's death. She suffered from cancer of the uterus and died far too young. She passed away at 46 years of age. Two of my cousin's Mato & Cvita who are also two of Danka's 6 siblings and Ljubica (Mato's wife) & John & I went to visit Danka's grave. These types of visits bring us back to reality & remind us that we too will perish one day - hopefully not too soon. After a short walk down the hill from t...

Finka (cousin & sister of Cvita) invited Rođo & Mato (my cousins & her brothers) & Mato's wife Ljubica; Milorad and us to lunch. On the menu was fish paprikaš and fried fish with salads. Finka's husband Antal makes a mean paprikaš in a pot over hot coals. The pot is a kotlič. He also made a lovely hot & spicy paste for us to add to the paprika because we like chillies. When we got there the fish paprikaš was bubbling in the kotlič &...

After a bit of last minute shopping John was in charge of blowing up the balloons & decorating the house. I had to arrange the food on the platters & make sure we were all ready to go for 6pm. Sandra was at work until 6pm so I had her responsibilities. Earlier in the day I decided it might be good to make pizza pinwheels as they are filling & reasonably healthy. Unfortunately you cannot buy ready made pastry sheets in Croatia, so Cvita decided she wo...

After breakfast we headed off to Vukovar with Darija (Cvita's daughter) & Dragan (husband) & their 3 boys. A bit of shopping was the theme of today - kid's books for school, runners & clothes as gifts for the 2 cousins celebrating their birthday. Thank goodness for Darija, she knew the kids sizes & their taste in clothing. After returning John headed off with the 2 Dragans to Bačka Palanka in Serbia for a bite to eat, a few drinks & some s...

Today we were off again after breakfast with Dragan, Cvita's son-in-law. He seems to have taken a liking for us and John in particular as he speaks in English with him. He always brings his 2 younger boys to save his wife the worry of constantly looking after them. Dragan has today and tomorrow as paid leave from work as he is donating blood this afternoon. A nice way to encourage people to donate blood. Dragan is the ultimate host. He wanted to take us to visit...