Fire in Culiston Street A scary happening a few days ago. The house four doors down the street burned down. We were alerted by what sounded like fire crackers and went to investigate – celebrations perhaps for the start of the Nowruz four-day holiday. Within minutes the blaze lit up the street and sparks flew – we feared for the house next door, and ours a few doors down. Though the fire wagons arrived within ten minutes, by then the roof had gone and the house was an inferno. Fortunately noone was harmed and fortunately, unlike our house, it was not a duplex so the fire did not spread.

The next day a constant stream of barrows ferried charred timbers rebuilding to the dump at the end of the street. The day after that, rebuilding began. Today there’s a new corrugated iron roof sitting on the new rafters (it’s either corrugated iron or asbestos here, very few tiled roofs). Doubtless folk will be moving back in soon. Insurance? We doubt it. Cause? No boom, so probably not gas. Most probably an electrical fault – wiring is primitive. All the circuits in our (renovated) house are on one board - the plugs hang from the walls, the switches spark and the wooden floors and roof timbers are like tinder. But fortunately, it’s easy to jump out the windows.

Dushanbe Book Club Our little house was crammed when we hosted the book club this month. Every chair, glass, plate, cup and fork in the house (which doesn’t amount to too many) was called into action and recycled a few times. (And no, no such thing as disposable plates here.) About 20 folk packed into the living room-five on the sofa at one count. Great selection of shoes by the door. Fortunately, the water waited until everyone had departed and we had cleared up to quit coming through the pipes but no shower for us before bed. No water this morning either. We don’t think we smell too bad yet (it’s pretty cold today) despite only having had a basin wash in 36 hours. Fingers crossed the supply will resume soon. PS The water returned late late night so - bliss - a shower before bed!

Transformation - dancing on the new floor Do you remember our photos of St Andrew’s Day last November when we danced at the British Ambassador’s residence? That night the Ambassador mentioned that the embassy might put up funds for a new floor in the practice room at the little Padida Theatre where we dance. We’d asked if anyone had a spare few thousand US$ to put in a new floor in our weekly dancing update in the Dushanbe What’s On e-letter. Well, thanks to the British Embassy, the floor has now been installed, along with heater-air-conditioners for the winter and summer. It’s fabulous - what a transformation. The former concrete floor was cold and hard on the feet. The major beneficiaries are the orphans who attend classes at the theatre in Tajik dancing, many of whom go on to join the national dancing troupe. Here’s Rodney warming everyone up at the beginning of the session. After that it became rather hectic so no time to take pics.

8 March International Women’s Day International Women’s Day is a big holiday here. Office parties honour the women with flowers, gifts (for the ladies at AKF a gift pack of pot holder, oven glove, tea towel and apron!!!) and cakes. The men have their day too, 24 February, when the ladies take their turn to toast the men (they all received razors!). Today was warm and sunny, just a great day to be alive. Brilliant clear blue skies, a backdrop of snowy mountains and the buds on the trees beginning to burst. Folk were out on the streets with their families, heading for open air concerts outside the opera theatre and in the park. Telecom companies vied to present a rose, or carnation, to the ladies. The Dushanbe International Women’s Club holds meetings in a boarding house for female students. To mark IWD the girls joined the meeting. They treated us to entertainment – poems in Russian and English, and dancing, Kulyab, Badakhshan, Bollywood and hip hop - we treated them to home cooked goodies. It was great. The only shadow on the day - Rodney had his mobile picked from his pocket on the bus. Our mobile, AKF's chip. We'll let you know when he gets a new number and phone.

February 25-27 Moscow: Red Square and more . . . After we had booked our Iberia flights from Moscow to Malaga and back, we were told that the Tajik Air return flight from Moscow to Dushanbe was cancelled. The Malaga to Moscow connecting flight could not be changed so, no option but to book a Tajik Air flight for the following day and stay in Moscow two nights on the way home. Given previous experiences transiting through Moscow this wasn’t too appealing but it morphed into a really good stopover. Moscow was blanketed in a foot of snow. The Domodedovo Airport Hotel, five minutes by shuttle bus from the airport, was fine, shielded for the most part by a forest of silver birch. Next day, we took the express train from the airport into the center of Moscow and slipped and skidded our way to Red Square. Along the way we whooped in amazement as we discovered a wool shop, where we bought the circular knitting needles Rodney has had everyone hunting for for months, and a Columbia store for gear. We’d had no luck in finding these items in Spain. Red Square was amazing (though rather smaller than I expected) – the domes of St Basil’s just as weird as they are in the photos, Lenin’s tomb, the Kremlin, and the very up-market three-storied arcaded Gum department store – a great place for coffee, people-watching and a quick read of the (free) Moscow Times.

February 3-25 2006 Viva España! We flew out of wintry Dushanbe to sunny – but still cold – Spain for three wonderful weeks in Cheryl and Tony’s villa (aptly named Casa Paradise), relaxing, exploring for a cortijo, eating and drinking. Andalucia in almond blossom time – mmmm! Several explorations and encounters later we found this one – Casa de Manolo – on the flanks of the Sierra Nevada near Orgiva in the Alpujarras, about an hour from Salobrena and Granada. It's the small building with a chimney in the photo. We’re thinking about it as a mountain retreat. An escape for when Salobrena fills with vacationers, with plenty to do to keep us out of mischief in the years to come. What do you think? There’s water – town water and azeicia water for irrigation – no electricity and the only access is on foot. Mateo, a local builder can do what needs to be done to make it habitable and we’d like to explore options for solar and wind power. The small town in the bottom right hand of the photo is Orgiva. Look to the left and there is a road zigzagging up a spur leading to Cañar, the village way above Orgiva with the slim white church tower. Follow the road back down from Cañar and the cortijo is below and to the right of the last white house in the village, hidden in the olive trees. The terraced land extends to about a hectare of olives, vines, fruit and nut trees, with plenty of space for growing veggies. Cheryl and Tony arrived the last week of our stay and it was great to hang out with them. Yes, we took them to check out Casa de Manolo. Verdict – a great location. Watch this space.