If I wasn’t sure before I am now, the one media platform that I will never work on is television. Ok, let’s be honest God blessed me with a face for radio to start with but that isn’t the biggest problem. So let’s rewind a little and fill in the gaps. Don’t ask me why but the main Croatia television company, HRT, asked to make a short documentary about me and my life in Dubrovnik.

“We are making a series of documentaries about foreign people living in Croatia and your name came up as a good candidate for Dubrovnik,” said the young voice down the phone. I was caught in a moment of weakness, wanting to help a colleague and thinking of promotion for The Dubrovnik Times, and answered “Sure no problem.”

I was guessing that it would be the same as all the other times I have been on the TV, none of which I enjoyed, a quick spot in front of the camera and then “cut.” I was wrong, not for the first time.

“Great, we will be coming down from Zagreb on Saturday, the film crew arrives on Monday, and we will be filming every day until the end of the week,” she then added. What! Did she say all week! Shit! But of course I answered “Yes that sounds fine, looking forward to it.” Big lie. “I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts,” once said the great Orson Wells. Well Orson I don’t like peanuts!

True to her word they arrived and wanted to scout locations for the documentary. “Your house, your work, places you like to walk, the Old City, with friends, with your wife, with your work colleagues,” the list seemed endless. Were we making a documentary or a feature film? And to make the whole thing “believable” I had to act in most scenes. I say “act” in the very widest sense of the word, I am to acting what Kim Jong-un is too diplomacy...zero! “Cut! Can we do that scene again,” shouted the producer, or director, I was getting lost.

A big “hats off” to my colleagues who seemed to be much more comfortable in front of the camera than I was. I was a rabbit caught in the oncoming headlights, shall I turn left, shall I turn right, shall I...whack! I had no lines to forget, I just had to remember my life, but I was having problems just acting walking let alone speaking.

But that isn’t why television is not for me, no. The main reason is that it is so slow. Mind-numbingly slow! Anyone who knows me will know that I don’t have a lot of patience, well not that’s exactly true, let’s just say that I can’t keep still for a long time. The idea of spending hours on end sipping coffee is a horror for me. It reminds me of Chinese water torture, when the victim was tied down and had a constant dipping of water aimed at his forehead for hours and hours, yes it drives you mad. No, I don’t have time to waste; I seem to be forever chasing the missing minutes.

Those filming days were some of the longest in my life! Over and over again, the same scene three times. And when I same the same scene I mean exactly, one hundred percent exactly the same scene. Chinese water torture! Although I do have an added sense of sympathy for my colleagues who work on the television. And I know that I only saw half of the process, they are probably still editing out all of my mistakes and swear words. That’s another thing I learned, don’t swear on TV, they don’t like it. Funnily enough my wife was also a natural. I wouldn’t say natural actress because she defiantly wasn’t acting, she was being her normal direct, bubbly self. I could live to regret her direct approach, especially when the documentary is broadcast. But life would be boring without some drama.

It could be that nowadays we are just used to a more instant form of journalism, well a more instant form of pretty much everything. We are living in a Nescafe 3 in 1 world and this whole television process was more like making Turkish coffee...slow as slow can be. So now we await the results, rather like planting a seed, then forgetting about it, and then being surprised when you see a daffodil in your garden. I will leave the final word to my favourite of the Marx brothers, Groucho, “I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book.”

The largest European television sports network available in 59 countries and in 20 different languages is coming to Croatia.

Victoria Davies (VP, Country Manager, Discovery Networks CEE) and Saša Kojic (VP of Sports, Discovery Networks CEEMEA), Croatian commentators and prominent athletes have officially announced the start of the Eurosport broadcast in Croatian.

This project will enable all sports lovers to enjoy in the Bundesliga football matches, the Olympic Games, four Grand Slam tournaments, broadcasts from athletics and all other relevant sport events.

Croatian athletes welcomed the arrival of the largest television sports channel in Europe adding that it would be a synergy of professional sports, sports journalism and the Eurosport media platform.

One of the greatest female athletes, the discus thrower Sandra Perkovic has also welcomed the arrival of Eurosport in Croatia, as she said, ‘’after so many major sports achievements of Croatian athletes’’.

Eurosport is to start broadcasting in Croatian on the 19th of November on Vipnet, H1, Evo TV, Hrvatski Telekom and B-net. MAX TV platform hasn’t been negotiated yet, however, the director of Discovery Network for Central and Southeast Europe, Victoria Davies said that they were open for such possibility.

‘’We came to Croatia and we will continue to invest. We want to get closer to this market having in mind the passion of our sports fans, spectators and sports lovers’’, said Davies adding that as far as the interest of sport journalists and professionals was concerned, the atmosphere was very optimistic.

On the occasion of Remembrance for the victims of Vukovar in 1991 tonight three hundred students from primary and secondary schools with teachers and fellow citizens lit candles in front of the Church of St. Blaise in the memory of the suffering of the hero city a quarter century ago.

Candles were lit along Vukovar Street too in memory of all participants in defense of the city - the symbol of Croatian freedom.

In Dubrovnik Cathedral there was a mass for all deceased and missing Croatian soldiers and civilians in the Serbian aggression on Vukovar.

                                                                                                                                             Photos by: Zeljko Tutnjevic 

With the one day left to the Dubrovnik Winter Festival the Old City is getting it's Christmas groove on!

The historic center is full – festive stands, decorations, giant Christmas ball just before the entrance... With lot more surprises left to be presented.

Olive and sour orange trees are the novelty, check out the rest of Advent decorations in the photo gallery made by Zeljko Tutnjevic.

Filming of the Bollywood blockbuster “Prisoner no. 150”, originally called “Khaidi No. 150” attracted attention of visitors, locals and of course our photographers! Beautiful Kajal Aggarwal, main female actor in the movie, was shining in the long, purple dress. The scenes were shot right in front of cathedral.

Just a reminder - after the mega popular Bollywood movie “Fan” was filmed in the city back in May 2015 starring one of the most popular stars of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, the city has been on the radar for Indian film makers. This latest movie, the second Bollywood blockbuster to be filmed in Dubrovnik, will be the first for the popular Indian actor Chiranjeevi after a long nine-year break. It will be the 150th movie he has been involved in and lends its name to the title. Besides being an actor Chiranjeevi has also been involved in politics and from 2012 to 2014 was the Indian Minister of Tourism.

                                                                                                                                                      Photos by: Zeljko Tutnjevic 

On the occasion of the 36th anniversary of its work the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) has launched the first newspaper intended for refugees and asylum seekers in Croatia.

The monthly newspaper called ‘’Staze’’ (Paths) was launched on the 17th of November with the main goal of establishing closer mutual trust and offering information to people who were forced to leave their homes in search of protection and security.

At the reception centre for asylum seekers in Dugave, Zagreb, the director of the JRS in Croatia Tvrtko Barun explained that this project was motivated by a wish to enable asylum seekers and all persons who had been given international protection in Croatia to express their views and share their refugee and integration experience.

Most of the newspaper’s authors are asylum seekers, whilst ‘’Staze’’ will be monthly published in Arabic, Persian, English and Croatian.

The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is a non-governmental, humanitarian, non-profit organization from Zagreb which mission is to monitor, serve and advocate for rights of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. As part of the Jesuit tradition, the JRS has based its activities on the evangelic values of hope, justice, human dignity and respect for other cultures and their values.

The JRS works in more than 45 countries worldwide.

The Dubrovnik Winter Festival 2016 will officially open tomorrow, the 19th of November, and it has become clear when the winter stands in the city will work. The Mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahušić, has issued a statement establishing the working times of the stands during the festival.

For the third edition of the Dubrovnik Winter Festival the festive stands will be open seven days a week from 9am to midnight.

News just released from the Croatia Bureau of Statistic highlight the massive influx of tourists in Croatia this year. In September 2016, as compared to September 2015, the number of tourist arrivals in commercial accommodation establishments in Croatia increased by 14.5 percent and the number of tourist nights by 11.5 percent. In September 2016, the number of domestic tourist nights increased by 6.0 percent and the number of foreign tourist nights by 11.8 percent, as compared to September 2015.

Concerning the structure of foreign tourist nights, most of them (74.6%) were realised by tourists from Germany (32.4%), Austria (10.8%), the Czech Republic (6.7%), Poland (6.5%), Slovenia (6.1%), the United Kingdom (5.8%), Italy (3.8%) and Slovakia (2.5%). Tourists from other countries realised 25.4 percent of overnight stays.

And the highest number of nights (3.75 million) were realised in rooms to let, apartments, studio-type suites and summer houses. And the highest number of overnight stays realised by foreign tourists was recorded in Dubrovnik.

In the period from January to September 2016, as compared to the same period of the previous year, the number of tourist arrivals in commercial accommodation establishments in the Republic of Croatia increased by 8.0% and the number of tourist nights by 8.6%.

Croatian Bureau of Statistics