Monday 18th October

Well the update is a little late tonight....I just got caught up in my DS and Sudoko....and I was warm by the woodburner and my PC is upstairs in my bedroom....excuses, excuses.

The men have been really busy today...despite the rain they have laid the concrete floor and finished plastering the bathroom.  As for me...I have dug over the tomato / pepper bed and it's all read for planting.  I am assured that if I put in broad beans that it's the right season....D of S told me so, so it must be right but I think I'll go by the book and check it out first.  

I've had a really good day learning my alphabet and when I left the men tonight I told them to have a good evening in Bulgarian and they're impressed.  One lesson and I'm starting to put things together and they really appreciate that I am trying ....not just trying but properly.  I bought a book this afternoon and I have been writing the cyrillic characters and they are not easy...it's the B's and the V's..they all look the same.  

Just had a let down...my last glass of wine had a bloodly fly in it.....and I threw it away...now there's a first.  Supper was last nights rehashed and this time I had it with toast and it was delicious.  My slow cooker and I have become firm friends....as I said before....I prepare in the morning when I'm interested and it cooks while my interest wains....but there is always something ready at the end of the day.  Tomorrow's beefburgers are already defrosting ready to go into the cooker tomorrow morning.  Organised or what....

Well that's it for tonight...the men's clothes are drying on the airer by the petchka...they both got very wet today so they should be fine for tomorrow...LN....I'm just going to rest these weary old bones....LN...and is that rain I hear.....arrrggghhh

Tuesday 19th October

Well today would have been my father's birthday and so I shall raise a glass to him tonight.  What a lovely soul he was and I still miss him.

I have had my second Bulgarian lesson and I have homework to do for Thursday when I have my next.  It was absolutely throwing it down with rain so I got the car out and went to fetch her.  I didn't even know which house it was but I headed in the general direction and stopped at the bus stop where I thought it was and lo and behold I was introduced to her father so I gave him a lift back to his house and she appeared a little later saying that I shouldn't have worried about her and that it wasn't far.  I made the point that if her clothes got wet then she would have had to sit in them for two hours and would steam.  We went through a workbook that I have just bought from Djebel and one of the words is 'iron'.  She started to make sentences with me to write down and one was 'The iron is on the table' so I changed that to be 'You will never find an iron in this house'.  Well I do have one courtesy on Mikey B but Dom borrowed it to iron his shirt for his interview and I said he can keep it until I might get an interview which could mean he can have it forever.  Annie has just let me know that Christmas is cancelled because the flights are so expensive so I'm going to look outside of the tourist season and see what I come up with....

The men are working away.....Bekir is tiling the bathroom and Sally is putting the insulation in the loft....and the weather has changed from 25 litres of rain per square meter to a lovely sunny day.....almost bikini weather but there again, don't want to frighten the natives....

Let's look for something to do....catch you later....

Tuesday continued

I just popped in to D of S on the way back from taking my men home.  The moon was shining and on the way back I thought there was a police car following me with a flashing blue light until I realised that it was he moon shining through the trees....Now it is into my bedroom window with a great big star hanging underneath it.

Supper tonight was hamburgers cooked in the slow cooker with tomatoes, onions, honey and thickened with mushroom soup and served with pasta washed down with a glass of red and I did remember to say cheers to dad.  I phoned Princess tonight just for a wee chat....makes me feel better that I keep in touch and so LN...got to raise that second glass to my father....

Wednesday 20th October

So last night's clear night was short lived....that moon that I went to bed with must have soon disappeared since the rain at silly o'clock this morning woke me up so got stuck into a book at 5.30 this morning.....I forgot to change my library books (at D of S's) last night so I've picked up one that I've tried to read a few times.  This time it seems to be getting better already and I'm beginning to find some humour in it.

The lorry with the wood eventually came this morning and then I went off to Kardjali in the Beast to get the rest of the central heating bits, a big bag of potatoes since the last five I bought locally I think I got one good one out of them, shopped in Billa for those things you can't get locally like butter and found out the cost of loft insulation.  The weather has changed yet again and Sally is out there in his shirt sleeves complaining how hot it is but he is putting the shuttering up for the balcony/porch over the back door/yard area now that he wood has arrived.

Now I'm researching loft insulation and in UK I'm reading that you need to put down about 27cms of insulation for it to be effective....here I am told that 5 cms is 'normal' so back to the drawing board Nigel.  

Now to finish my homework......

Wednesday 21st October

And yes I did finish my homework ready for my lesson tomorrow that was supposed to take two hours but ran into approximately three....oh boy...was my little brain hurting at the end of it.

Now the toys that I bought for the boys (Bekir and Sally) are being used.  For Sally....wood and loads of it and for Bekir tiles and I am pleased to say that they are banging and mixing to their hearts content and I have the pictures to prove it.  As for the rest of the day, I'm tired of sweeping cement dust and grit out of the hall but I suppose it's par for the course.  You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs so bugger the eggs and the cement dust.

Had a lovely letter from TC who was telling me that she might be over in the New Year and so I better get the bath out of her bedroom and where it should be, some curtains and a bed might be a start.  It will be good to see another of the old crowd but I suppose I better start buying the red wine faster than I drink it so that I should get a bit of a stock in....I know what it's like when we get together.

So the telephone people have started to get their act together and the bills sent out but I still have a credit outstanding which the don't seem to be able to take off the bill.  That's Vodaphone for you...but at least they didn't cut me off for late payment since I didn't have a bill to pay.  Unfortunately there are others that haven't received the last two so they could be in or a few shocks.

Tonight's supper is in the slow cooker.....beef in tomatoes with red wine and a few mushrooms.  Yum...men soon on their way home, back at about 7.15 and then in for the night with a huge petcha going, a good book and the rest of the red.  LN..

Now for the pickies...

Friday 22nd October

Well I was just about to update when a rather loud noise of an airplane drew my attention away from the screen towards the hillside and the most enormous plane and only about a few hundred feet above the ground made me run to the other room to see it disappear towards the northern hills.  And where is the camera....attached to the computer and dowloading this mornings efforts.  I followed it with the binoculars and was sure that it needed to get a bit more height but somehow it made it.....

The pickies are of this morning's sunrise and it was a good start to the day which went down hill thereafter.....bloody petchka....could I get it to light....could I buggary but I think at last we are on the way.  It's not that it's cold, but the men have got the doors open and I don't want it to be damp or cold tonight...nothing worse so just to keep it ticking over is good.  And I had another visitor.  A mouse must have found it's way through the stone wall where they have been making the hole from one room into the other for the central heating...there is no other way without he/she's got a pneumatic drill, dynamite and a hard hat....all other entrances have been sealed.  Bekir is going to do 'a little work' outside to sort the problem out witout it's still in the wall and then he/she is stuffed.....I need to borrow a cat....

My librarian is coming over later and I think Ghengis Khan is on the menu.....Poland...the one I'm trying to read is due for the shelf again....my mind just keeps going to other things after about twenty minutes...

Saturday 23rd October

No men and D of S dropped them back last night so I've had an easy time of it.

It was a full moon last night from the bedroom window and it was still up this morning at 7.30.  Jupiter was really bright close to the moon but my binocs aren't good enough to see it's moons.  We've had our first frost and the petchka managed the night and five minutes and a roaring fire.  The house still felt exceptionally warm despite the white covering on the ground and I really should get myself a couple of thermometers, one for out and one for in....  As for what the rest of the day holds.....it's such a beautiful morning that I think a spot of gardening is on the cards....I want to get my broad beans in, resite a couple of forsythias that I have grown from cuttings into the hedgeline and get in the geraniums....a harder frost and I would have lost them.  I also need to dig over a couple of long/ narrow strips so that I can get it ready for next year but what I really miss is a good English gardening fork....the ones that they have over here seem suitable for hay or mucking out cow sheds but when real digging is needed....the prongs bend.

Just a couple for the record

Saturday continued

I've just come in from the garden.  I now have a ten by eight patch and have planted out a few cuttings into the hedgeline as promised but I have found the polythene mine.   I reckon that for years they have had polytunnels but instead of getting rid of it properly.....let's bury it and yes I think I've just found the last four they buried and I can see another seam a little further down the hedgeline.....that for tomorrow.

The moon is up and it is just as bright as yesterday and I do think when it is that new and so full that you can almost see the face on it.....It's not dark yet so it is a beautiful gold in that blue sky....and Jupiter is out as well.  Looks like we're in for another cold night....better go and put another log on the fire...

Now for a beer and back to my book.....my librarian did arrive yesterday and now I'm into one about the destruction of Pompeii, no not Portsmouth, and it does have a plot not just an eruption.  LN...it's supper time.

Sunday 24th October

Another fristy frosty morning and again my petchka held up but I must remember to fill up the log basket later in the day instead of in the morning...I had to stagger out in my pyjamas for some of the small stuff to get the big stuff blazing at 7.00 this morning or is it 6.00?  Did the clocks change or not....I suppose I really ought to check.  My laptop hasn't asked it I want to assume a new time so I'm thinking it hasn't.

So my new garden is attracting a couple of robins this morning now that the hedgeline has been dug over.  I've just checked out the transplants with my binoculars....we'll it still pretty cold out there yet.  Just finished ham, egg and mushrooms and the rest of the ham has gone into the slow cooker with leeks, onions, potatoes, tomato puree and honey ready for tonight or a late afternoon or whenever takes my fancy.....so now I can get dressed, into work gear and then out to do some more digging...and I forgot to mention....the broad beans went in yesterday....

You have until next weekend, before the clocks go back.  According to google anyhow.  Gengis Khan books are not here I only have the third and final one here the others are in the uk according to Annie.  When the moon has died down a bit you should be able to see the moons of Jupiter with a set of binoculars. Enjoy your digging!

D of S