Yeah, no one wears makeup like that when they're doing chores around the village 😆

21 years after it was first released, Princes Amongst Men: Journeys with Romani-Gypsy Musicians by Garth Cartwright is back – updated and bigger than before.

And guess who had a big part in its fruition? 😊

The book is out now at all good bookshops

Who's really moving to the abandoned villages of Bulgaria? Is life in rural Bulgaria what it's cracked up to be?

Is life in an abandoned Bulgarian village really that great?

And there's one particular group of people who fantasise this 'dream'...

949 сигнала за купуване на гласове срещу ДПС и ГЕРБ спрямо 71 за всички останали партии Броят на задържаните лица е 425, а през 2024 година е бил 72

How many reports of vote buying have been made so far in today's Bulgarian election?

Almost 3000

That's up by 204% from the last election

"The buying and selling of votes is a crime" in Bulgaria The aspects of Bulgarian elections that no-one else talks about. And what does Chalga have to say about it? All aboard the 'Bulgarian train'. Toot, toot!

#Bulgaria goes to the polls today for the 8th time in 5 years, where 19 years of EU membership has not stopped mass vote buying.

Plus, how does Bulgaria's most popular music genre do politics, and do Bulgarians go for a particular look with their leaders?

All aboard the ‘Bulgarian train’!

A joke for the eve before elections in Bulgaria...

"The buying and selling of votes for under 200 leva (100 euros) is a crime"

RECORD-SHOP-DAY: TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY? A LAMENT ON A MARKETING EXERCISE + A GUIDE TO SOHO'S RECORD SHOPS

Record Shop Day today

Today is Record Shop Day. Garth Cartwright, author of Going for a Song: A Chronicle of the UK Record Shop, has an important word to say about today.

Disclaimer: I’m also briefly mentioned in Going for a Song

Bulgaria’s elections are not for sale, PM insists as he vows crackdown on tampering Sofia is battling to fend off meddling, as the country heads into yet another vote.

Despite supposedly meeting the EU's strict accession requirements 19 years ago, vote buying is still a huge problem in Bulgaria.

All Bulgarian election-campaign materials must state 'the buying and selling of votes is illegal.'

Bulgaria is going to the polls on Sunday for the 8th time in 5 years!

CIOL Conference 2026, London

Off to the CIOL Conference today in London

#ciol #translators #linguists

Al lago: Un viaje balcánico de guerra y paz, un libro de Kapka Kassabova, ya está disponible.

To The Lake by Kapka Kassabova is now available in Spanish.

Blow to cartography in Australia as The Map Shop prepares to close One of Australia's few remaining cartography shops is about to close in Adelaide, prompting questions about where people can buy the critical documents, particularly those travelling in remote areas w...

Sad to see that the Map Shop in Adelaide, Australia is closing.

Map reading is a disappearing skill, considering many people rely on apps to navigate. But what happens if those apps are unavailable?

A Macedonian flag used to adorn the window of the Map Shop.

On the ‘peace’ wall separating Catholics and Protestants in west Belfast.

If Albanians and Serbs have ‘learned to live together', then why is Mitrovica even more divided than Belfast?

And how random to see 'закон’ – ‘law’ in Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian.

On the train to Heathrow and a Bulgarian Romani woman is loudly speaking on the phone in a mix of Bulgarian and Romani. I'm getting great info about getting jobs picking tobacco in Greece. You have to talk to Stefka, apparently.

As what my grandmother used to say to my mother in the late 1970s in Australia about the fact that my sister and I had blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin as small children...

"They won't be having any problems in this country"

That was experience talking there.

Annette Jorgensen, whose family migrated from Denmark to Australia when she was 2 years old:

"I was a 'clog wog', so more accepted than the Mediterranean 'wogs', who were more visible."

Much is now whitewashed of the true levels of racism directed at non-Anglos in 1970s Australia.

The eggs are dyed for Orthodox Easter. They turned out great this year

#translation #localization #gamelocalization #loekalization | Loek van Kooten Iran just gave the world a masterclass in why translation matters. Their 10-point ceasefire proposal exists in two versions. The Farsi original includes "acceptance of enrichment" for Iran's nuclear ...

Decent translation and cultural expertise matter... and that comes from humans.

How come the supposed ceasfire agreement between Iran and the US has such different interpretations?

It could have to do with the US State Department having sacked its Farsi experts last year...

Egg dye purchased!

First time in over two decades that I bought a Greek dye brand, but what can I do when there was no Macedonian dye left.

8 April – International Romani Day Today is International Romani Day. Note, not 'Gypsy'. Why this is not the most appropriate term, and how ethnic labels can be complicated.

8 April is International Roma Day!

Note, not 'Gypsy'.

Why the term 'Gypsy' is not the most appropriate term, and how ethnic labels with Roma can be complicated in the Balkans.

🎉 Bahtalo 8-to April Maškarthemutno dive e Romengoro!

#InternationalRomaDay

Vale Yanka Rupkina! Famous Bulgarian folk singer and member of the world-famous Trio Bulgarka, Yanka Rupkina, has died. Here is her extraordinary life.

Not everyone gets to record with the likes of Kate Bush, George Harrison and Linda Ronstadt... but this Bulgarian singer did.

Famous Bulgarian folk singer and member of the world-famous Trio Bulgarka, Yanka Rupkina, has died. Here is her extraordinary life...

Поклон пред паметта ѝ!

Georgiana Lobonț X Costel Biju X Costi - Necazuri și Supărări (2026) YouTube video by Fortza Generation

And now there's a new 2026 version of Necazuri și Supărări in Romania

TSVETELINA YANEVA x AZIS - HAVTE / Цветелина Янева х Азис - Хавте | Official music video 2026 YouTube video by Tsvetelina Yaneva

Then Azis did it again earlier this year, in a duet with Tsvetelina Yaneva, bringing back Necazuri și supărări

ГАЛИН x АЗИС – ТАЗИ ДИСКОТЕКА / GALIN x AZIS - TAZI DISKOTEKA | OFFICIAL VIDEO 2025 YouTube video by GALIN

In 2004, Romanian Manele took Bulgaria by storm. Those hits are now back. It all started when last year Galin and Azis took the Adrian Minune hit Diskoteka Boom and gave it Bulgarian lyrics
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUTe...

Wog in A Box - Kilkenny, SA WOG IN A BOX - CLOSED, 349 Torrens Rd, Kilkenny South Australia 5009, Australia, +61882444680, Mon - 11:00 am - 8:30 pm, Tue - 11:00 am - 8:30 pm, Wed - 11:00 am - 8:30 pm, Thu - 11:00 am - 8:30 pm, Fri - 11:00 am - 8:30 pm, Sat - 11:00 am - 8:30 pm, Sun - 4:00 pm - 8:30 pm

A business name that wouldn't work outside of Australia...

Well, not working anymore in Australia either, from the looks of things

Lazarus Saturday – the Balkan debutante ball, and Palm Sunday – the Balkan flower festival The weekend before Easter in Balkan Orthodox Christian societies sees major celebrations for the coming of spring, steeped in pagan origins.

Today is Lazarus Saturday and tomorrow is Palm Sunday in Orthodox Christian parts of the Balkans. Both days are celebrations of the coming of spring...

АЗИС - НИКОЙ НЕ МОЖЕ / AZIS NIKOI ne MOJE YouTube video by Sunny Music

Azis and his 2003 hit 'Nikoi ne mozhe' (No-one Can)

Dragana Mirković - Nisam ni metar od tebe - (Audio 1994) HD YouTube video by PGP RTS

Dragana Mirković's 1994 hit 'Nisam ni metar od tebe' (I'm Not Even a Metre Away from You)

Carmen de la Salciua - Inima mea e un hotel (Official Music Video) | Manele VTM YouTube video by ManeleVTM

This new Romanian hit by Carmen de la Salciua shows how influential the songs of Serbian Turbofolk star Dragana Mirković have been on Romanian Manele. Major whiffs here of Mirković's 1994 hit Nisam ni metar od tebe (later covered in 2003 by Azis with Nikoi ne mozhe)

Last night watched The Partisan Necropolis, Chris Leslie's brilliant doco of how the fate of this WWII partisan cemetery reflects the division of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Biggest revelation – Mostar Croats speaking in a different accent from the Bosniaks! That wasn't the case before.