BARGAIN HUNTING

Saturday mornings in Tirana are the time to get bargains for your home. The brilliant Roma community lovingly lay out items for sale in and around the station area in the city. It's the equivalent of a giant car boot sale and if, like me, you have a great home, but little furniture, then you can pick up most things. Yesterday morning I went looking for essentials: kettle, iron, cups, saucepans etc. It's the sort of shopping I tend to steer clear of until absolutely necessary. The best bargains, I am told, are to be had around 5.30am. So at 9am we were on the road, and a little late. Electrical items, old mobile phones, clothes, bikes and prams were all available. My excellent Albanian friends, Endri and Dyshi helped me out by checking prices and seeing if the items worked. Here's how it works. We take a kettle and walk to a nearby cafe and borrow one of their plugs to boil water. The kettle indeed works, as does an iron. Not too sure why the seller of the kettle boiled such a large amount of water and then tipped it all away. I could have bought cups from him and made him and his wife English tea!

The house in Schoze has lovely neighbours. I have yet to learn their names, but they tend to comprise of husband and wife and various children who always play outdoors. There are no PS3s or Wii's to keep them stuck in their rooms. Girls will play with dolls on the side streets and boys will chase footballs. They are safe and love the experience of being children. Their parents never worry about where they are, knowing they will emerge when they are hungry.

Finally got to sleeping in my new home yesterday for the first time. I have a bed and enough furniture to make it comfortable. I now have a cooker and a fridge that works. Gradually starting to unpack some of my gear. Quite why I brought so much, I'm not too sure. but items which I don't need can definitely be put to good use by others. Really appreciate transporting 20kg of porridge oats 1500 miles across Europe. I think these will keep me going until well into the new year.

Once last experience to share. I had the joy of a beautiful 40 minute run in nearby hills just before breakfast today. Returned back to the neighbourhood and went to buy fruit: peaches, nectarines and oranges are all gorgeous at the moment. Across the road is a great fruit stall. My bill was 150 lek (£1.10) but I only had two 100 lek notes and the owner had no change. He just nodded, took 100 lek and said to bring the rest later. There is a great deal of trust and kindness shown to the visitor which we can all learn from.  Have a great week to all who read this.  Steve xxx