HELLO

Not in the slightest bit related to my work in Moldova but I am loving this song at the moment. And the video, man the video is just brilliant. A work of genius.

WOW!

Wow

On Friday May 6 2011, Hospice Angelus hosted the 2nd Hospice Angelus Charity Ball. 150 guests including the Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat along with his wife Sanda, Princess Marina Sturdza and many other government ministers, ambassadors, diplomats, business people and friends enjoyed a champagne reception followed by a 3 course dinner and an auction which raised over 10,000 euros. With prizes including a tennis match with celebrated author Tony Hawks, VIP tickets to the summer Bon Jovi concert in Bucharest, weekends in Brasov and Prague plus an Author bike, the excitement in the room was electric. Accompanied by music from local opera star Serghei Varsanov, Jazz group Trigon, dancing from the National College of Choreography and wrapping up with rocking out to the amazing Snails, guests were also entertained by hosts of Sare si Piper, Nata Albot and Andrei Bolocan. Andrei also showed that he was a natural in hosting our auction along with Hospice Casa Sperantei's Fundraising Director, Marc Jenner. Here are a tiny selection of some pics below:

Our auctioneer, Marc Jenner, strikes a pose

Soren and Beatrice attempt to extoll money from Amy Sherwood and Alexei Ghertescu

Looking for more success, they hit Inna and Jon (Inna goes on to win five cases of beer)

Aaron sports the selection of Steaua Bucuresti football tops

Princess Marina Sturdza addresses the guests

Jessica shows off the Swarovski Crystal Clock donated by Princess Marina Sturdza

Laquia models one of our most sought after prizes

Dragos Bucurenci congratulates Angelus Board Member Angela Brasoveanu on her successful bid on the bike

The Hospice Angelus Cake

The National College of Choreography entertain the guests

Hosts Nata Albot and Andrei Bolocan attempt to get me to auction off my kilt

Sandy and Andy busting some incredible moves on the dancefloor

George and Angela get their grooves on

Donna and Jon ruled the dancefloor

As did Rali and Inga

Me and my pal Dragos Bucurenci

Victoria looked ace with her new bit of stuff

Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat meets an international celebrity

Our creative geniuses, Dorin Goian and Liviu Burlea

Derick and Laquia flaunt their wares

Hospice Director Valerian Isac with Princess Marina Sturdza, Dragos Bucurenci, Nata Albot and Andrei Bolocan

I'll post some more about the ball in due course but here are some great news articles which publicised the event:

http://www.noroc.tv/noutati/3116

http://www.jurnaltv.md/ro/news/bal-de-caritate-la-chisinau-255204/

http://www.trm.md/index.php?module=stiri_int&news_id=25300

http://www.jurnaltv.md/ro/start/#receptivi-la-binefacere-255902

http://arena.md/?go=news&n=5014&t=Bal_de_caritate_pentru_sus%C5%A3inerea_bolnavilor_de_cancer_(video)

http://nataalbot.md/2011/05/08/cine-nu-stie-sa-faca-bine-inzadar-il-asteapta-de-la-altii/

http://bucurenci.ro/2011/05/prima-data-la-chisinau/

plus Marina Sturdza's slot on Sare si Piper: http://saresipiper.jurnaltv.md/invitati/840-prinesa-marina-sturdza-la-sare-i-piper

Thanks to all who supported us on the night and we look forward to welcoming you to the Hospice Angelus Charity Ball 2012. Oh yeah, and why is this post called WOW? Because it was all that kept coming out of my mouth all evening. PLUS we raised in the vicinity of 23000 euros. WOW!

RONAN KEATING WAS RIGHT

Life Is A Rollercoaster

It’s been a while since I posted a blog entry as life has been pretty hectic here in Moldova. Work has been busy over the last few weeks with organising our first Hospice Angelus Pool Tournament and a visit from 1986 European Champions Steaua Bucuresti along with local team FC Dacia Chisinau to the children of our Hospice staff which you can read about here. We also have our biggest fundraising event of the year which is the Hospice Angelus Charity Ball coming up on 6 May. These activities have taken up most of our time in the office and the support of the local community has been awe-inspiring.

On top of that, I have committed myself to running the Bucharest Half Marathon in October for the Hospice. As most of you know, exercise and I have never been bosom buddies so I thought that when I said I would do it I would have time to pull out. Not so. It’s just under six months away so I’ve started my training program and I’ve really surprised myself about how much I can do with just willpower. It was suggested that I do a podcast running program called the Couch to 5k which strengthens you up to run 5k within 12 weeks however a couple of weeks ago I managed to run my first 5k in 41 minutes. The Peace Corps volunteers here organised a fun run and it was a beautiful sunny day here in Chisinau so I went along. Halfway through the course I was lapped by the frontrunner which discouraged me somewhat, however I soldiered on and despite coming last, I managed the whole course. I’ve also found a couple of runners similar to my own pace to practise with and also a gorgeous private park to run around. Chisinau is one of the greenest towns in Europe and has a plethora of parks however they are full of litter and not very bonny. But the Dendrarium Park is private (10p to get in) and reminds me a bit of Central Park as it feels like you are in the middle of the countryside whilst being in the city. I’ll be posting a sponsor page in the summer so I’ll post information about it in the summer. Dig deep please!!!

Life in Chisinau is never dull. I’ve met a great amount of people since I returned in January, both expats and locals. There’s always something on at the weekend and for the last two weekends we’ve been trying to play a bit of golf, but the frustrating April showers have ensured that we’ve not been able to. Golf here is a fairly new activity and I’m keen to pick up a club again at the local course. The season opened a couple of weeks ago but I’ve not managed but I won some lessons at Christmas so I’m keen to go. Here’s the thing, there are only 3 holes at the course and apparently there is no real fairway, just rough. But I can’t wait to give it a shot. You can see a bit more about golf in Moldova here:

As I say, the weather has been pretty hideous over the last couple of weeks and Moldovans are pretty miffed that spring has not yet arrived. I can’t wait for summer. Sun, heat, green all around the city and sitting outside sipping a chilled beer are the main aspects of summer here and we are all longing for those days. So if you fancy a trip over here over the next few months, let me know. I had my first visitor earlier this month in the form of Tess from Denmark and we had a blast. I got my first chance to visit one of the many wineries here when she was here with some friends. Chateau Vartely is one of the closest wineries to the city and we all crammed on a minibus to get there. Amazing surroundings, fantastic company and a brilliant selection of wine and food. Sadly I lost my camera that day so all my photos of the day are gone but I’ll try and post some from another source.

Finally, I’ve been thinking a lot of home lately and it’s definitely healthy for me to keep my finger on the pulse as to what’s going on at home. Facebook helps with this but I’ve also been downloading a lot from the Desert Island Discs archive from BBC Radio 4. I listen to them in the flat, on the bus to work and when I’m running and it’s very therapeutic and specific things that remind me of home raise a smirk. David Tennant talking about going out in Glasgow, Alex Salmond choosing Caledonia as one of his discs and Emma Thompson talking about life in the Highlands helps keep me grounded and reminds me of what I’ve left behind. Have a look at the website and download a few. You won’t regret it.

Rambling over. Have a great weekend!

ST PADDY'S

Here's To St Patrick

Last Thursday, St Patrick's Day was celebrated in Moldova and they really did it in style. We went to Albion Club, one of the best haunts in the city and were treated to a great evening of live music, green beer and leprachauns. See the footage here

Round about 4:20 you'll see yet another of my TV appearances. I think my interview is much more interesting and sober than the rest of the expats. Just saying...

HOSPICE ANGELUS CHARITY BALL 2011

Dance The Night Away

Please see the attached flier for the Hospice Angelus Charity Ball 2011, THE Chisinau social event of the year. Please contact me for further information and feel free to pass on to anyone you feel may be interested.

AND RIGHT HERE IS WHERE YOU START PAYING...IN SWEAT

Fame

As things are hotting up in Moldova (not just the weather, but the work of the Hospice), I wanted to post some links to a recent TV appearance I made on the local Moldovan TV channel, Sare si Piper (Salt and Pepper). Our hospice co-ordinator, Denis, is the official photographer on the show, which airs Monday - Thursday from 1815 to 1945 on Jurnal TV, and he asked me to go on and cook some Scottish food in my kilt (see the start of the stovies getting made here) and teach the hosts to do some traditional Scottish dancing.

Some of my colleagues and friends came along to watch the show being filmed (much appreciated support) and it was a great laugh. The show lasted 90 minutes and I was on for much of the time. The hosts, Andrei Bolocan and Nata Albot, were really welcoming and made me feel at ease. Andrei even went as far as to wear a makeshift kilt (but I obviously had better legs) and correct Nata when she got my name wrong. You can watch this and enjoy Mr Bolocan's fantastic Scottish accent here, along with Nata's obvious infatuation with Ewan McGregor and the evident comparisons between Moldova and Scotland on their video clip.

The show is kind of a cross between This Morning, The One Show and Saturday Kitchen and they really went to town in showing traditional Scottish items and some funny videos from YouTube. It was nice to hear the Weegie accents and to see some of the homeland. I was really impressed about what they knew about Scotland including how many islands there are, that Scotland only gets 4 hours of daylight per day (!) and that the national animal is the unicorn......again, not sure but they seemed convinced.

And then the piece de resistance, the Irish ceilidh band they had on to do a Scottish Reel. It was brilliant and set us up nicely for doing the Gay Gordons which you can see below (note, that we didn't get a chance to practise this first and was her first attempt).

The show ended with the stovies looking a bit like vomit and a little bit of slagging as it was just mashed potatoes and meat and this is available all over Moldova. But the cranachan went down extremely well. It was a brilliant night and even made the Scottish press. My journo pal, Jane Bradley, wrote this article in the following day's Scotsman:

and so thrilled were the show to hear about their new found fame, they featured Jane's article on the next night's show. You'll notice in the clip that Andrei mentions something about the dessert from Perth. The story was that they asked me to bring along a bottle of whisky for the cranachan so I thought I should bring a bottle of Perth's finest (depending who you ask), Dewars. They only used 6 tablespoons for the dessert so there was a lot left. Once the show ended, I went to collect my bags from the dressing room downstairs and when I came back I asked for the bottle. Apparently, this negated the shock horror I portrayed earlier in the show when asked if the reputation us Scots have as stingey is true. Either way, the crew and audience had pretty much tanked the entire bottle in 5 minutes so I didn't get to take any home. I feel that this story also backs up the recent articles published by the World Health Organisation about Moldovans and their attitude to drink which you can read about here. Take that, Bolocan!

Take a look at some of the stills from the show here:

Andrei and his make-shift kilt

Irina, Cristina and Victoria from the Hospice were in the audience to have a laugh

Denis, our volunteer co-ordinator at the Hospice, who was responsible for my appearance

This was the moment I realised that I'd probably cocked up the recipe

The ceilidh band who played on the show

Co-hosts Nata Albot and Andrei Bolocan. Pleased to be with such a celebrity.

HOSPICE ANGELUS POOL TOURNAMENT 2011

Games

We are delighted to announce the first Hospice Angelus Pool Tournament which will take place at the Megapolis Mall in Chisinau on Saturday 26 March 2011 from 10am.
Details can be found here:

For further information you can contact me on 0601 44007 or using john@hospiceangelus.md

There will be 32 teams of three battling it out for the honour of being the winners of the first ever Hospice Angelus Pool Cup. Why not have your company, organisation or embassy enter a team or bunch together with a group of friends to enter a team.

We feel forward to seeing you there for a day of fun....and surprises