I think I have nearly done everything to prepare for our extended stay in Belgrade, Serbia which starts next Wednesday. Our 10 year old is about to embark on a challenging adventure, he'll be going to school there, which is a world away from his school experience in the UK. Half the children in the school attend in the morning and half in the afternoon! It's an 8 o'clock start for the first week and then a 1pm start for the second and repeat...!

So, TWO different starting times AND TWO different alphabets, Latin (mostly the same as English) and Serbian Cyrillic (hardly like English at all!) You'd think TWO alphabets might be ok, but each alphabet has its own hand-written form too!

So as not to feel left out, I'll be going to language school to learn Serbian when I'm there too. I was hoping by now, (11 lovely years of marriage to a Serbian guy) that I'd be fluent! But am I 'eck as like.

The most important things are packed, the contents of my online art shop, all packed into an A3 portfolio, a sketch book, my camera, some lino and some lino cutting tools. 

Once we’ve settled, first stop Grafika Kolectiv, a lovely Gallery for Printmakers in Belgrade est. 1949. Next stop Serbian Coffee & 'Torta' (Serbian cake) in the Hotel Moskva....

OK as a finisher, I thought I would give you a new Serbian word on each blogpost.... here goes....

'Zdravo' - an informal hello!