Sunday 19th September

Finally finished the housework and mopped all through.  It's been a tough one.  Also think I'm coming down with a summer cold with a nose that needs a tap fitting...not a pretty sight.

Packed my overnight and am just about to get into the Beast and head for Sofia....one out and one in but I've decided to stay at the Holiday Inn tonight and packed my bathers....something nice about that place and then I shall tackle the journey home.  Not done Sofia before so I'm a bit on edge and the cold doesn't really help....oh well, it's in the lap of the gods.

Update you when we get back....and the house does look bl**dy brilliant.

Have fun in Sofia, enjoy the swimming pool.  I am not bringing Annie to your house she will just shout at me!

Tuesday 21st September

To D of S....I've got three weeks to mess the house up before Annie comes over so never fear....promise to have it so that you feel comfortable...wouldn't want you to suffer while she is here

Now as for my trip to Sofia...the buggars have got the road up on the junction to the hotel and my 'navigator' is telling me that there is no road off to the airport on the map but since I have done it before I know there is, but the last word was....let's wait and see, no point in labouring t.  Well I missed the airport turning that wasn't there, but found another turning to the district that I wanted only 100 meters further on which was a better route and managed to get straight to the hotel without a problem.  Again the same mutilated road made the trip to the airport a little more complicated but managed it, parked up, said goodbye to one and went round to arrivals to meet Angela, my house guest for the next couple of weeks.  She arrived looking a little startled when she didn't see me immediately but soon calmed down and we were back to as we always were.  Getting onto the highway proved to be difficult because of those bloody road works and I realised that we were on the right road heading into the city centre but then managed to negotiate and ended up the right way....result.  Stopped for lunch, back on the road and found the turning to go through the mountains back home ....bad choice, rain and thunder but stopped for coffee and tea, asked for milk for the coffee and somehow managed to get a brandy which Angela was forced to drink since I was driving......giggled all the way home....on a pub crawl and only just got here

Did a little shopping, town out of Pliska Brandy since we thought that we would carry on so we managed a couple of Vodka tonics, cheese and biscuits and then to bed.  She's still sleeping, being two hours ahead here, I'm updating this since I might not manage to get round to it later.   Going into Kardjali, got to go to bank, collect bath panel and a couple of special lightbults....

Enjoy the day.....

Tuesday 21st September continued

Lovely day....Bank, builders merchants, supermarket, market, lunch in town and remembered everything I went for.  We decided that the salmon in the freezer looked good and it was only when I checked the bill at the end after payment that I saw the price....I confirmed with the assistant that the item on the bill was for the salmon and can I say that we shall NOT be having it again...expensive or what....tasty but you felt that you had to savour every morsel....

Evening of gentle vodka and tonics with a brandy night cap...LN....off to bed....

Wednesday 22nd September

Lovely mellow day but my new guest had to wake me up this morning so that I could go and pick up my men.  I had a rough night and woke at 3.00 am  so had an hour with Julius Caeser and then off to sleep again...don't know what disturbed me but awake I was.  Nice day break and dry heat and cooling breeze today.  Angela got a few emails off to family to say that she had arrived safe and sound, I got the men here and they are tiling the landing and the bedrooms.  Not a bit of trouble from them....they just get on with the job knowing what they have to do.  Sally has been wielding that paint brush of his yet again and I think my bedroom has taken another pasting looking at the skirting tiles that I dutifully cleaned off on Saturday...groan, groan.

Connection pretty poor tonight so I am going to cut it short....last thing I want is to write and epistle to the Anglophiles to have it sent into the ether and no record of the event...LN and let's keep everything crossed...

Thursday 23rd September

So what started off as a fairly sensible day change rather rapidly when I said.....'Lets go out to Mishevo for a ride'.  On the way we picked up a man who was destined for Ardino having visited his father in one of the high mountain villages and when we got to Ardino yours truely had the idea that we would go out to Devil's Bridge, noted in the travelogues but no one mentioned the road to it....and so....it started off well but the signposts soon ran out and on we went...in the Beast.  The road surface got steadily rougher and narrower, Angela was gripping on to her seat and on the way up, at some points she was over the deep drop and at others it was my turn.  She cracked a funny when we though about a puncture and the final analysis was that...... we would cross that bridge when we can me to it....and since we were heading for Devil's Bridge it seemed to be the only option. As it stood...all safe and sound, tyres intact, engine still in place and a wonderful time was had by all but I did  panic slightly when I realised that to get back the way that I had come, (10 km of rought track) that I had to turn the Beast to back 10 km to civilisation.....I think it ended up a fifteen point turn with Angela guiding me backwards to avoid the stone undergrowth that would have shattered the tyres in an instant...did we laugh ????  Well we did as we were heading back into Ardino for coffee, tea and cheesy chips but not before....but we thanked out lucky stars that we were two women out for a spree without the male Sword of Damaclees hanging over our heads and offering advice....now for the pickies.

Friday 24th September

What a change in the weather....I know that I sent up a few words for him/her up there to turn it down a bit because Angela doesn't do 'hot' but tonight I have to ask again for it to be turned up slightly.  She's sitting there with my pink yetti slippers on to match her pink fleece.  As for me I haven't managed to get out of my morning fleece yet.  It's a little nippy when I fetch the men. The washing went in this morning and on to the line but it was either leave it out and hope it get's there before the rain starts or get it in and have a bonfire.  I chose the second option as the men are accumulating lots of empty tile boxes since they are well and truly slapping them down on the upstairs.  

Supper is in the slow cooker, chilli sausages in a honey and tomato sauce and the jacket potatoes will go in so that they're ready for when I get home from taking the men.  They aren't working tomorrow.  It's the Djebel fair and party time for the workers perhaps with a little beer.

We've planned our trip for the next two days and you should have quite a few pickies to look at all being well but this time we shall attempt to stay on asphalt roads and not head for the hills.  If either of us say that it looks alright....the other is to confirm that we are in it together and I'm fitting Angela with a blinker on the side overlooking the ravines.....and I'll be borrowing it on the way back, that's if we manage to get where we're intending.....Watch this space   

Now off to get some money out to pay the men so that they can enjoy the fair tomorrow

Sunday 26th September

I have had the most super days ...driving...and now feel much more confident finding roads, road signs and the likes...   We went to Kazanlak up beyond Stara Zagora and the only thing to let us down was the ....weather.  I have always wanted to do the Shipka Pass and what stopped me....FOG.  We got part way and what did we see....NOTHING.....even the memorial stones were shrouded.  Poor Anglela's worst nightmare is driving in fog so I understand that even worse than that is being a passenger on the way to the summit.

On Saturday night we found a lovely hotel in Kazanlak and loved this little city/town/whatever it was.  We had supper and went for a walk but when we asked for a beer and two glasses I think we were thought of as wimps or misers...Considering that we had a bottle of the red stuff after supper we lived with the tag.  Breakfast this morning was a selection of everything and the owner was more than willing to tell us of the Thracian History.  

We found the museum and the Thracian tomb but that was before the fog set in fortunately and then we went off to find Shipka and the Shipka Memorial Church with its golden onion shaped domes shining between the trees that's until the fog shrouded the onions.  The inside of the church was beautiful with memorial plaques to the thousands of villagers that lost their lives in the historic battle against the Turks from the Ottoman Empire.

So back home we came and stopped off at a favourite fish restaurant and had Carp, chips and tomato and onion salad with a beer and arrived home at about 7.00 tonight.  Angela took to her bed by 8.30 and the lights are out and there looks to be nobody at home, I am updating this and then heading for the sack.  Looking at the countryside driving home....have we had rain!!  Everything is awash and buckets round the house are full...Must get the low down from the villagers tomorrow....I'll post the pickies tomorrow of the church...I'm just too tired...

LN....

Monday 27th September

So today my men decided to have an away day...away from work in Dushinkovo and who knows what they were up to.

We had a very pleasant day doing ...nothing....I did breakfast and sorted out the water buckets that had accumulated and generally tidied the garden, had a bonfire ad did two loads of washing, got it in and made a wonderful supper of sweet and sour pork with rice and generally had a comfortable day.  The water table was quite high and my normally dried earth had the darkened water glaze and perhaps now is a good time to start moving things from pots to soil.

Worked out that we did about 200miles yesterday during out travels.  Tomorrow we are off to Momchilgrad to the market and then off to my other house in the mountains....not sure what there is to see but since Angela hasn't seen it, it has to be on the agenda.

Sorry no pickies, the camera battery is flat so that's for another day....LN

Tuesday 28th September

So this mornng I woke up early and it was dark.  These days the dawn is just so much later and at seven the sun was just about showing its little face.  I was just about to get into day gear when Bekir phoned to say that he could not work....a cheer went up and back to bed I went and maybe it had something to do with the wine that was consumed last night....Julius Ceasar has been sent off to oblivion and even though I knew the end, the four books were exciting and I had to condense it for Angela in so much as she is only into the first of Alexander the Great so she looks like never knowing what the next two books are about and his trials and tribulations and the eventual outcome.

Really sunny day today and I got set into the garden and have now established a hedge from the sprouting from the trees I cut down last year.  I have only taken about three feet off them but it makes such a difference.  As for the lilac, that just needed a haircut.

Into Djebel this afternoon so that Angela could send off a couple of postcards.  I don't think that the postmaster has a lot of traffic out as he applied the stamps to the cards and then cancelled them out with a rubber stamp and saying 'cotovo' as he kept them to leave on the next pony and trap probably about next Wednesday.  Did a little bit of shopping and then decided that I would test out my culinary skills and knocked up lasagne in my new little bowls with garlic bread washed down with some of the local brew....wonderful.

Three visitors today....Socks into the rubbish bin for any goodies that might be lingering, two ginger cats with the same aim and one bloody big spider that I should have heard entering.  Quick exit though.  My witches broom traps as it sweeps as it slings them out with quite a force onto the concrete outside the front door. He/she/it/ quietly got up and walked away so no harm done.

Cleo belting out tonight....off to be a good hostess with the mostest....LN....