Tuesday continued

So the wind is still lashing, the electicity was off until 30 minutes ago but I maintained warmth by winding up my rechargeable lanterns....not...bloody useless things, I lit candles instead and by the time that I had got light into the main rooms....power was re-established.  The freezer is working its little socks off and I have moved upstairs to get this in before the power goes off again.

Off to Kardjali today and took the Beauty in today to have some air in the tyres and foolishly asked about winter tyres to be told that there has been lots of TV press about the police taking no prisoners and that a rule is a rule....so I was immediately pursuaded that they are a must but couldn't have them fitted because the electicity was off....so I came up a brainwave...I would pay for the tyres and have the receiept with me and if I was stopped, show the receipt with me and the telephone number of the garage...what a plan Batman...didn't get stopped, my wallet is somewhat lighter...but needs as needs must.

Got my UPS and returned the pipe that the man didn't use for the central heating but still not a clue how the UPS works....she tried to explain, I tried to understand but never the twain shall meet....must phone him tomorrow...please come back and install.

Now I am going to sort out my Kardjali food shopping.  I came back with a bottle of the winter dark beer that I can highly recommend...I was drinking it at the rate of bedtime at eight because of the power failure...now I have to make it last until ten or I shall be up at silly o'clock...

LN winter tyres tomorrow....

Thursday 11th November

Sorted out my tyres yesterday + brakes + windscreen washers + antifreeze and my wash bottles for the windscreen can go down to -60 so I'm told......don't think I can but at least I can see out of the car....

The rest of the day was a bit of a none day......I spent about three hours down the garage but did find a couple of Sudokos to do in the local 'Telegraph' but not at all like our Telegraph.  Naughty pictures abound and I tried to convince them that I was learning to read and not just look at the pictures.  Trouble is that when they set up typeface, some of the letters look totally different so now I'm really getting confused.  The book that Guiljan, my teacher gave me about the gnome and his little walnut house is still missing the ending.....I get the gist but not the punchline.....

So I've been wondering what Bekir is about today....firstly he was sorting out the credit on one of my neighbours phones and then planing a piece off wood for another.....who pays the ferryman is what I say and it's for crava mush who takes his time to even talk to me.....and all because I'm a woman without a man in BG...

Sorry forgot the weather report....beautiful calm day, doors open, flies abound, fly spray later.....

Thursday continued

So there were two men running in and out of my bedroom and onto the flat roof....it was a bit like a Brian Rix farce for those of you old enough to remember....  there is more metal on that timbering than was probably used in Blackpool Tower....but that could be a slight over stated on my part.  I think it's designed for a herd of elephants and I can put weight on without worrying about it giving way under me.....

Bekir was out there with his metal cutting tool creating lovely sparks that would have glorified anyone's bonfire party all on his little own and I noticed that the machine had been was lovingly named 'Sparkey' by the manufacturer.  I think I managed to get the point over to Bekir, he smiled and nodded as if to say 'Bless' but maybe I'm being hard on myself.

Three hours of Bulgarian lessons today but I think she wanted to practice her English.  Strange though, as I said, I am learning more about English Grammar but it's just remembering the verb endings and the words....words just pop into your head and then I have to scrabble for the dictionary or one of my text books to try and find out.....talking about Scrabble.....I said that her name would score well on a Scrabble board but mine in Bulgarian would do better, the 's' becomes a 'z' so Top Trumps for me......now off to get supper....LN

Saturday 13th November

Shame on me and yet again....there was lots of activity yesterday, lots of rain, lots of coffee, and lots of concrete being poured and I think I was just too tired to get myself in front of the laptop.  I made some more picked cabbage though but this time red and the remainder of it I fried off last night with butter and olive oil and had it with beef stew that was left over from the previous night...all economy in these quarters.

I stopped off last night at D of S just for a bit of English speaking since not a lot of it goes in in this neck of the woods and asked him what he thought of a book that he brought over the last time....he said that he had got half way through it and gave up.  I managed to get to the end and what a disappointment....it was called 'The Butt' by some well know journalist and the end was nothing like I imagined it would be.  This is often the case when the author receives book prize listing.... I should have done what D of S did but I suppose I was just curious.  I suppose I should have just read the end.

Now for a few of the pickies from yesterday....

Sunday 14the November

Yesterday was a day of sorting out my polythene mine...well that's what it seemed like.  The poly-tunnels of years past have been buried on one particular site about a third of a way down the garden, near the hedgeline.  Now that wouldn't have been so bad, but they had obviously set fire to them at some point and there was a four-inch thick (approximately....I didn't measure it) although I did try and get the measure of it....by the wheelbarrow loads that I put onto my new refuse burner.....and what a fire I had.  I did keep checking the house though for stray sparks that might attach themselve to my wooden balcony structures that house goodness knows how many tons of concrete....but all was safe and sound.....I still have my balcony this morning

Yesterday was also a day for digging up some of the smaller bushes that trip you over when you take a walk down the garden and replanting them on the hedgeline and creating a border over the rubbish that was deposit there in the process of building the house....I also found my 'Greek glass magic eye' that I'm not sure if the builders buried it on a purpose so that they though I wouldn't know what they were up to when I was getting materials, but I doubt it very much.....it was just strange to find it in the rubble and I didn't even realise it was missing...meant to be found and rehung.

Last night I was too lazy to cook.  I had a long shower, sat in front of the blazing wood burner, started a new thriller from the libary of D of S which I brough back the other night.  The Hitler 'A Study of Tyranny' seemed a little heavy for last night after a hard day in the garden but I did manage fifty-five pages of it yesterday morning.

So to horse....cooked breakfast this morning....Final solution to the polythene mine is on the agenda, moving a heap of other stuff to level it off and cover some of the builders rubble and then more of the little bushes further down the hedgline.....and yes....I shall put some pickies on for A so that she knows I'm not slacking and just talking about it.  Got to give her something to do when she comes out next time.

Monday 15th November

Had my first gift of pancakes yesterday from my neighbour along the way and she is one that hasn't been doing a weekly inspection.  I was stoking up the bonfire at the time so I abandoned my task, accepted a gift of two pancakes and then we set about the guided tour.  The word 'chog i' and 'choc guzel' poured from her lips and she thought it was wonderful.  Her little eyes almost exploded when whe saw that I had a 'bath' even though it is not yet installed and the toilet is sitting in the middle of the landing, well not quite in the middle.  Yes I know, it was installed for my first visitors but it is awaiting the floor tiles but outside work takes priority now that winter is drawing on.  Not that you'd know it today....Yesterday it hit the middle 20's and today looks set to be the same as soon as the mist has burnt off.

As for that polythene mine.....it lives to fight another day since yesterday I cleaned the house from top to bottom, put all of the tools from downstairs and the landing into one room so that at least we know that they are in same place.  The plastic outside storage chest is going to be used for wood and coal so that it stays dry and is easy reached if the snow sets in.  So today after my Bulgarian lesson, I am attacking that mine if it is the last thing I do and looking at it.....it might very well be

So let's get moving.....

The internet in Dushinkovo ne roboti!  I will be going to have a look tomorrow, hopefully Elsa will be back on line then!

D of S

Do your best Don we are all awaiting the next installment.  Take care  

Wednesday 17th November

So no thanks to M-Tel and his reconfiguring my settings so that they didn't work, I have managed to get myself back on line.  I spoke to customer services yesterday morning since the system was telling me that my sim card needed activating.  I've only used this for six months and it needs activating...so why the bills.  I went into Kardjali with the intention of reporting a faulty washing machine  which is another story....and getting my sim card sorted since customer services said that it was funtioning and I knew that it wasn't.  The man in the phone shop said my laptop was really a good one, that I needed Windows reconfiguring or reloading and that their system was fine.  Now their system was not fine because he set it up to only connect 3G.  Even I know that on this hillside stuck out in the wilds you need the option of GPRS or 3G whichever is behaving itself that day....so now I've set it to 'preferred' as opposed to'only' and it works...there you go...or rather here I go.

So the washing machine decided that it wasn't going to spin so I went into the shop armed with my receipt and was told that the credit card slip did not confirm payment and that they needed the customer number from the till receipt.  He needed a number to complete the line in his book so I said '3456' and he looked at me rather sheepishly and said that he wanted the 'real' number but that I could phone it in.  So phoning it in was going to be sufficient but since I knew that I was having to take my laptop in at some point I decided to double back to Kardjali and get it all fixed at once.  And I did and also picked up my plane from the shop that had been put in for repair 3 months ago so two out of three isn't bad and the washing machine man has already phoned and will be here today or tomorrow....

I had several more pancakes on Monday delivered and the children were round with their little bags to collect sweets as part of the festival.  Monday sweetie day, tuesday the day of the sacrifice and yesterday morning I had a piece of meat delivered which is now in the freezer awaiting someone to share it with...think it's lamb, not too sure...the cuts look different here.

So a few pictures might be on the cards....

Wednesday continued

I've just had another load of meat delivered and I've just had the update from D of S.  He scored highly on the pancake front...fifty eight because you will only be given two, 'No one's enough!!' but you have to have two and on the meat front from the sacrifices, one goat leg, several beef steaks and lamb.  My second lot I'm told is 'children' so not sure if it's the lamb of the sheep that was killed yesterday since the rule is you can't kill the lamb under six months if the ewe is still alive so I think I got mother yesterday and lamb today.  This one is in the fridge and will go into the slow cooker tomorrow....

Now to get on with cleaning those windows and gettting the cement off them...

So the best laid plans.....of me and windows went by the way......I had another set of visitors.  She was one of the daughters that lived in my house for twenty something years and again she burst into tears like her sister did last year.  I just get the feeling that they don't like what I've done to it but I suppose it does evoke strange emotions.  Star Mushes daughters came round with her and so they had the full guided tour.  I just put my arms round her and gave her a hug and said that whenever she was here she was welcome.  She did say that she thought it was beautiful and I just said that I loved the house very much and then they went as quickly as they came.