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Elsa Peters living a new life in Bulgaria    General Boards    My Diary by Elsa Peters  ›  NOVEMBER 2010
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Elsa Peters
November 1, 2010, 5:18am Report to Moderator

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Monday 1st November

Fristy, frosty, cold fingers, cold nose, hot intention of finding out when that man is going to do my central heating....bbbrrrr and gggrrrrrr.

My central heating man arrived today....He must either have accepted my pleadings over the airwaves...or read my diary...but either way he is here.  There were severe 'conversations' from the upstairs between him and Bekir.  As you've gathered I don't like to see pipes and refuse to have them exposed if there is a chance that they can be hidden.  Now I accept that if there is a join there might be a leak....If there's not a join, I'll take the chance that it all might have to come out at some point...much later....So let's see if there is any blood loss or anybody walks....it will probably be me....

Beautiful day..weather went up to about 22 and I sat out and read a book on my new balcony while two men mixed concrete and made pillars and the third started plumbing in my radiators.  I think that the message was thoroughly relayed that....I don't want to see pipes so tomorrow we go into Kardjali to get a couple of 'elbows' so that we can hide the pipework.....

I dug over my garden and turfed out the old flowers and in the process got rid of about two tons of plastic sheeting(might be a slight exaggeration there,but it did seem an awful lot) from the little garden that housed most of my flowers this year.  I rescued some freezias that were destined for the mice and have potted them up to bring inside and have made a lean-to so that the geraniums and fushias don't get frosted overnight.  I've yet to sort out containers to bring them in....

Well the men went home a tad early tonight but they had been mixing concrete since lunch time so I get the feeling that they were knacked....and with the clocks going back ....it really felt like six at five...it's all to do with adjustment...Tomorrow I am off to Kardjali for those elbows....might cost out the insulation for the loft now that Sally has finished with the polystyrene and the stuff to stick it on the inside of the brickword and bring it home with me...makes no sense in heating the village and not the house....

I'm saying goodnight....I've got a brandy reaching room temperature and a block of chocolate that needs my attention...LN...
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Elsa Peters
November 3, 2010, 5:09am Report to Moderator

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Wednesday 3rd November

Shame on me...I didn't post yesterday and I'm really not sure why.  I didn't even do emails which for me is a first but I think I was so involved with builders, central heating and three hours of Bulgarian lessons that I was swimming by last night.  I keep getting these odd Bulgarian words shooting into my brain and can almost feel the synapses stretching and pulling...shame that when I come to speaking it I seem to forget all that I have learnt so I am off with my teacher to buy some children's books so that I can start reading aloud at home and get a real feel for the language...

So off to pick up my men....I just feel it's going to be a day of confrontation....I mentioned last night that we don't seem to have an electrical connection for the central heating pump and so I think we are going to start shoving blame backwards and forwards....and after all, I only mentioned it....let's see what happens

What is so difficult about....I don't want to see any bloody pipes.....and wires from sockets to pumps.....arrrrrgggggg.  It's started already....

Just to confirm I got what I ordered...now the men are all gone and I am due to devour sausage, leeks and potatoes in a mixture of sauces...wouldn't care to think which bottles I attacked it with....so now LN....I'm off for supper, washing to be hung out and then to bed with a hot toddie...the frost normally attacks at about four in the morning....LN tout le monde.....
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Elsa Peters
November 4, 2010, 5:19pm Report to Moderator

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Thursday 4th November

So today started off well enough.  The men were over in good time, Sally was working on the outside terrace...like building it, Bekir was finalising the electricity socket for the central heating pump and then came the phone call.  Sally's aunt had died so at 11.00 I was back in the car taking him home since they bury the departed on the same day, I had to cancel my Bulgarian lessons until later in the day and my central heating man arrived at 12.30 to do the business.  At 1.30 I realised that I didn't have enough money to pay the man so off to Djebel and then came back for my lesson at 2.00.  I'm now realising that I knew so little about English Grammar or rather how much I have forgotten.....I have a vague memory of learning it once.  Now my little lady learnt it very thoroughly and so we laugh a lot.....now she's teaching me English grammar at the same time.

I now have central heating and the house is warm as the proverbial toast and jumped into Beauty tonight to take Bekir home and guess what....no Beauty tonight, battery as flat as the proverbial pancake.  We're into November and you have to have your lights on all the time even if it's 30 degrees and it's a fine if you don't so out came the Beast to do it's stuff.

And now back home and it's still warm.  I have radiator thermometers in each room and it makes such a difference.  You no longer rush back to the hall just to have a warm and I seem to be burning less wood with more value....let's see how it stands up to overnight temperature drops....and it's all automatically controlled, I don't have to do a thing but tomorrow I have to go and get a sort of central heating solid fuel UPS, so that if there is no electricity, I don't have to empty out the firebox......

Anyway....I'm going to enjoy....LN
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November 4, 2010, 11:12pm Report to Moderator
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morning Where the pictures you promised? I know senior moments!  



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Elsa Peters
November 5, 2010, 1:21pm Report to Moderator

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Friday 5th November


Beautiful, beautiful day and not a cloud in sight and as for the frost and testing out the central heating....the petchka was still going but I didn't pump it up to full steam as there was no need.  It was a nice feeling to have the rest of the house warm, not hot but warm so that you didn't have a cold feeling as you walked from room to room.

Well the picture that Martin published has had to be deleted since it sodded up the format of the diary....sorry but it just had to go....It's posted with the others and it is one of the house before anything I started.  It just shows how far I have come or rather how far the men have come on this project.  We had a brief discussion yesterday, partly because I didn't know the words for what I was trying to explain but it was all to do with sinking pipes etc. into walls.....'Normal Elsa, everything on top'.....so now my men know a bit more and might use it in their future jobs....

D of S arrived with some parsnips picked from his own garden and apparently it's not normally grown here.  We looked it up in the dictionary and I have just been reliably informed that it is good for joints....didn't get as far as asking the men what you are supposed to do with it but that's for a later conversation, can't stop the work as they are both getting on with the balcony from my bedroom.....

As for my other pictures....here are just a few to be going on with .....and  have just realised that I haven't included one of the balcony that has just been finished to which Martin's picture refers.....I'll do that one when the wood has been removed and the unveiling is completed.....and yes I know that the petchka pipe leans a little to the one side, it went in slightly quickly but it's such a beautiful day that they wanted to play outside.....and who was I to say 'No'........



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November 5, 2010, 3:50pm Report to Moderator
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The tiles behind the petchka look very good now they are in position.  I see the Zebra stripes have found a new use, looking good too.  Will email you a couple of pictures to compliment those pictures you have just posted.  Tried attaching them after vso resizer but still too big so will let you sort.
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Elsa Peters
November 6, 2010, 6:37pm Report to Moderator

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Saturday 6th November

Did I sleep in late or what....no men to pick up so it didn't matter but I vaguely remember waking at about seven but then decided that there was nothing to get up for so dropped off again....wonderful.

So I went out to the garden and heck of a decision as to what to get up to....was it to be pickaxe or sunbed and I'm guessing that you got it right....yes the sunbed was the order of the day and it was up to 24 degrees and the house ticked over at 28.  It did get a tad noisy though....a breeze blew up and the leaves falling from the trees kicked up a heck on a din .  Came in about four anticipating that the temperature would drop rather rapidly so lit the new woodburner and I still can't get over that moving from room to room means no change in temperature.

Went back to reading a couple of books that I have been trying to read for a while but still can't get into them.  I don't know why but I feel it's a challenge to finish a book yet try as I might I think that these two would go to a charity shop if they had them here but they don't....thinking about it though, that's where they probably came from.....well, tomorrow is another day and hopefully the weather will be as good as it was today....tomorrow is definately the pickaxe.....I want to grub out some more of the bushes and get some more garden dug since I have been given parsnip seeds that I'm told can go in.....and me being a novice just soak up the advice....anyway....LN.....just about to cuddle up with a good book if I can find one....
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Elsa Peters
November 7, 2010, 6:38pm Report to Moderator

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Sunday 7th November

Again beautiful, beautiful day....woke up really early and then realised that it was Sungay so no men, no taxi service...so went back to bed with my Bulgarian homework...Like being back at school again,

So cooked poached eggs on toast and why is it that when you do two eggs, the one is always perfect and you always seem to eat it first and the second one is that little bit harder and a bit of a letdown...otherwise, fully satiated and then out to the garden.  I took out a couple of bushes, dug three new flower beds and then my avatar neighbour appeared holding a screw driver.  Now my Bulgarian doesn't run to all of the technical terms but in the end we got there.....She wanted me with another screwdriver to help her dismantle a wardrobe that they are taking to Djebel to the new flat.  So after a it of twoing and frowing mission accomplished.  She did do a tour of the house and thinks that it is wonderful and later that day I had the other neighbour, not to be outdone, for the conducted tour.....

Came in from the garden at 6.00ish and lit the woodburner.....everything is toasty but I'm still wondering how it is going to hold up in the cold weather....not really tested it out yet but tomorrow I'm off to get some oak and acacia which I'm told burns hotter than the rubbish that I'm currently burning and some coal to top it off with espectially at nights so that it ticks over.  

This afternoon I suddenly had a longing for chips so I peeled three potatoes and came up with a bowl of the beauties and I've just had my spicy sausage with leeks and potatoes with two slices of toast and so fully stuffed, off for a shower, and I did find a reasonable book, so the half read ones live to fight another day....LN...shower calls....
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Elsa Peters
November 8, 2010, 11:59am Report to Moderator

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Monday 8h November

What a miserable morning.....light rain, lots of wind coming in from Pamporovo but the men are determined to get the balcony finished before they finish for their holiday on the 15th....it's the animal killing festival so watch out and hide in the herd / flock before you get earmarked.  The men were quite impresses with my gardening efforts of yesterday....and midmorning I found my second polythene mine halfway down the garden.  It is now partly exposed but I daren't set fire to it today with this wind blowing.  

Well I've just got back from Djebel and have bought yet another lot of metal for the balcony.....I think my men like 'belt and bracers' just to be sure.  Despite the fact that there is no insurance in BG and as my mate D of S states, a guarantee is only good for lighting the wood burner, they are sure that any work that they do withstands hurricanes and earth tremors and volcanic eruptions so much so that they are all heading in this direction should any of the aforementioned occurs  

Well the men have just appeared outside my bedroom window with a chainsaw and are both precariously balanced on the cross beams.  Now the long timbers are being placed across the top but that wind has just approached gale force and I'm thinking that they need to be strapping themselves on or they might end up in Romania.....I think they need sets of crampons and I'll be careful how I type that...

I'm going to find another workspace......and I've just realised if you look to the left of Bekir's hand on the last pickie, you can just spot my polythene mine....



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Elsa Peters
November 9, 2010, 9:04am Report to Moderator

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Tuesday 9th November

Now my men probably decided that with the wind blowing as it was yesterday that we were destined to endure the same again today so rain and gale force winds stopped play....it also stopped the electricity so it makes it all the more important to get that UPS for the pump for the woodburner otherwise if the pump doesn't have power to it I have to empty the fire box and that sounds like a heap of fun if it's blowing a gale outside...sparks flying everywhere....so....this special UPS provides about ten hours back up for the pump and that makes sense to me.  

Anyway, back to the gales....really strong, lashing rain which makes the weekend that we've had just seem a whole long time ago.  I actually stripped down to a strappy top (well there was only me and the cows and sheep on the hillside) and got a top up on the colour front.  A decision was taken yesterday on the other house to remove the roof so that nothing could come flying in this direction and maybe taking out a few windows on the way....I think this last lot of weather has just bought the work forward for tomorrow, that's if they decide to work.

And as for that electricity black out....I knew it had been off because the radio alarm clock (posh egh) was flashing to tell me that the power had been interupted and that was at 4.30 this morning....so I went back off again and at 7.00...no flashing light so decided that it must be off again and yes, it was....and now I was thanking my lucky stars that my ...and its just gone again...and it's back so it seems more important to get my backside into Kardjali and investigate that UPS.....but as I was saying, I was thinking that my idea of a gas and electric cooker made sense insomuch as I could still have coffee and breakfast and then I remembered it is on the snagging list of jobs that get done when little else is happening....ggrrrhhh....first job on the list for tomorrow.....
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