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Elsa Peters living a new life in Bulgaria    General Boards    My Diary by Elsa Peters  ›  MARCH 2011
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MARCH 2011  This thread currently has 12,998 views. Print
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Elsa Peters
March 1, 2011, 2:39pm Report to Moderator

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Tuesday 1st March

What a beautiful day.  I picked Gouljan at 7.45 as planned.  She was huffing and puffing up the lane...that girl is always late.  Cinders would surely have missed Prince Charming....she'd have never made it to the ball, the coach would have gone without her.  So we parked up and she invited me in to see the room in the school where the team works and I was introduced to them all including the head of the project and it was such a hive of activity...they were all making Martinitsas ready for the headmasters/mistresses from every school in the Djebel district where they were outlining what their work entailed.  I'm really up for it and my idea of a bazaar/ or selling items donated has really caught on and is underway as we speak.  I made Gouljan a card for Chestita Baba Marta....today's celebrations and she proudly showed it to the rest of her team...love her to bits......

So walking to the school I saw my restaurant lady and delivered and received my first Martinitsa...it's such a joyous day.  You can buy the six bog standard in the supermarkets for one leva so everybody joins in.  From the school I went on to Kardjali and to my lovely second hand shop.  I found a long cotton skirt for one leva, a cotton shirt for one leva and I spotted a leather short jacket and grabbed it immediately...and the good news is that it had been reduced to half price and was the princely sum of......five leva...(£2.00 ish to me and you).  Didn't bother to try it on...I just knew it had my name on it....and the lady also gave me a Martinitsa and I gave one to her....as I said a really lovely idea. After that I went to my bank and saw my team of two that look after me....Martinitsas all round so now my wrist is looking good...and one to pin with my little hat on my jumper.

So Billa, Lidl and then to the restaurant for lunch with the ladies and yes, collected and gave out even more and another one to pin on my jumper, then home and round to see my neighbours and handed one to each of them.  They almost had tears in their eyes....the sentiments of today are truly overwhelming....such a simple thing but with such beautiful thoughts going around.  And you wish everyone great health, good luck, happiness and hope that grumpy old Baba Marta takes away the snow and replaces it with the sun but no chance of that today....it's fliiipppiiinnn freezing.

So to everyone.....Chestita Baba Marta.....Happy Grandma Marta....
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Elsa Peters
March 1, 2011, 4:52pm Report to Moderator

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Tuesday continued
I am pleased you like the gift Mikey B....I think it will suit the little one, you'll never get in it and niether will Dawn...as for the card...I'll 'borrow' Google images until they come out of my ears...xxxxLN
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Elsa Peters
March 2, 2011, 6:41am Report to Moderator

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Wednesday 2nd March

And cold winds shall blow and we shall have snow so I reckon that that grumpy old lady needs kicking into touch...all that good will batting around yesterday and it still hasn't warmed the place up...

So I suppose I should post some pickies of yesterdays haul of bracelets....and today I might even find more.  Gouljan has just appeared at the door to confirm that she is going off to Turkey for a long weekend.  I spoke yesterday of going with her, she would stay with her sister and I was going to check into a hotel but last night I looked up the weather reports and it's just as cold there so I decided that I wouldn't go.  At least here if it's cold I can stick another log on but if it turned out to be a cold hotel, I didn't want the tag line of arsonist to be added to my list of attributes.  Sightseeing in the cold isn't on my agenda either and she will have a better time if she is not worrying that she should be 'looking after me' and doing the tourist traps with me.... there is always the summer.  As for the journey down there, twelve hours on the bus, leaving at 6.00 tonight....give it a miss this time.

So this morning I thought I would leave the big fire...it felt warm in the house but having sat for half an hour or so ....it's going to be lit....NOW....




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Elsa Peters
March 2, 2011, 5:23pm Report to Moderator

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Wednesday continued

Both fires going and at last the house is toasty.  Went into the wood store and realised that it was in a bit of a mess.  We only threw the last load of logs in so this morning I decided that I would stack them.  At least I could see how many I'd got and whether or not I need more.  So, neat and tidy....I'm OK as long as this blasted weather doesn't go on for too long. I ventured into the wreck of a house, very carefully and picked up some of the roof timbers to use as tinder.  I came out with a good armful and jumped on them stick by stick and it's stacked by the door so easy to get at.  Just as I'd finished, the white stuff started to come down again.  It snowed all afternoon and it's completely white all over again and snow's forecast again for tomorrow...doesn't seem much end to it.  It's stayed at minus five all day.  

Now supper, Indian spiced belly of pork with rice....enjoy your evening....I shall mine...   LN
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Elsa Peters
March 3, 2011, 9:15am Report to Moderator

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Thursday 3rd March

Now that meal that was big enough for two last night was consumed by one...   The intention was to put some beans that I had soaked into the slow cooker but instead I've sorted them this morning.  I put them in on high for about an hour, fried off an onion, drained and added the beans with some honey and tomato puree, fresh water, brought them back to the boil and then returned to the slow cooker on low.  This afternoon I shall add some gammon and then my supper will be ready.

It is cold and snowing again.  Trouble is it's not heavy enough.  If it all came down at once and then buggered off I think we would all be happier.  The cold seems to linger and hasn't got about -5 on these here hills for the last week or so and I think everyone is getting tired of it.  Now don't get me wrong....I like winter and the cold but this is now taking too long to sort itself out.  

My feeding station has become multifunctional and is there for anyone that wants it....As long as they sort themselves out and don't all appear at the same time it should be OK....My freasia is doing its level best to flower....as you know I rescued two bulbs from the garden, nurtured them and have a few words with them every day....and now a few pickies...



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March 3, 2011, 8:03pm Report to Moderator
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Back from Blighty, thought the weather would have improved a bit.  Rained everyday in Swansea thankfully, they now believe me.  Stalin was a casualty of the 'great Swansea flood' sorry.   Annie is back out 20 April, house is rented out so might have djena seki den about xmas. (time for a cow! or two)

D of S
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Elsa Peters
March 4, 2011, 10:27am Report to Moderator

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Friday 4th March

Well it's still cold and there's Dom thinking the weather should have warmed up.....sorry....believe me, it has warmed up.  It was really cold while you were away.  As for the skiing..you better start thinking about getting your skis waxed for April then...for some the season might be finished but for other it might just be starting   Shame about Stalin...now I shall never be able to do the comparison thing with Hitler...

There is a glimmer of sun this morning...but it's only a glimmer and there's no warmth in it at all.  The birds were going well at the feeding station but suddenly there was a flurry as the white and ginger cat made an appearance....it took off with a chunk of bread and scurried down the garden to try and get through it....but I think it gave up in the end.

So today I phoned my tax consultant about submitting my annual tax returns. Before you were able to buy a house in Bulgaria, you had to establish a company and deposit a certain amount of money into a business bank account.  Subsequently, each year you have to submit the company activity even if it is nothing, nothing and nothing.  Nulla, nulla, nulla and then take the documents to the tax office....Failure to do this results in a fine, so fine, I don't want one but the person who did it for me last year has been illusive.  I have sent several emails but nothing so as I said this morning I managed to pin him down and I've just realised that it's a holiday today..so he is phoning me on Wednesday or Thursday of next week....we shall see.  I have until the end of the month so not panicking yet.....now...bonfire....must do something....
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Elsa Peters
March 5, 2011, 7:53am Report to Moderator

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Saturday 5th March

I think yesterday was a bit of a 'blues' day....can't really explain it but it went with a good night's sleep.  So this morning I have taken the little petchka pipes apart and replaced a couple of them with new that I had lingering.  The 'bend' came from one of my neighbours when I was desparate to get the thing going but it had seen better days.  I gave her a new one and have just replaced mine and raised the burner up a little.  Now this wouldn't have been so difficult to do I think I must have slept in a funny position and I appear to have a touch of sciatica this morning and you would have laughed watching me try to replace a sock that had detached itself from my foot when I took my slipper of to put on my gardening outside shoes.  You know what it's like....you try to bend differently but it just doesn't happen and you know it's going to hurt...and it does.  So I rolled the sock down and shuffled my foot down into it, then the shoe, and so to work but first I did take extra strength soluble aspirin and it does seem to have eased a little.  So pipes all back in place, straighter than it was originally and it will be testing, testing about four o'clock.  It's still cold out there but some how the day just seems brighter and while I had the petchka apart I cleaned the floor over in the kitchen so spring must be in the air....somewhere   and the zebra is having a wash and spin.

Now I've just had a visit from my special avatar and she has delivered five eggs from her own chickens.  They are still warm and since I haven't breakfasted yet although supper is in the slow cooker already (lamb stew from one of the sacrificial beasts), it looks like poached eggs are on the menu....idea planted ....off I go...



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Elsa Peters
March 5, 2011, 4:59pm Report to Moderator

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Saturday continued

Dom popped in this morning on his way back from Djebel...he had run out of coal and guess what...the coal man was on holiday...and I was down to one bag so couldn't oblige.  Now the real purpose of the visit was to get my tax declaration completed and as Dom said...I timed myself and it took me eight minutes...so I copied his apart from the address, company details and it has taken me four so far....the rest I can do tomorrow.  So took some more aspirin and the sciatica or whatever it eased this afternoon and I sat like a cat in the sun in the hall way enjoying this phenomenon that we have not seen in these here parts for a while now.  Now it's gone down and petchkas going at full blast but the little one was a bugger to get going but when it is, the background heat in the kitchen keeps it all ticking over.  

And I've just had a visit from my other neighbour and she has brought me round some bottled fruit, tomato paste and some peppers, carrots and onions in a sort of compot.......the weather's fine so they are out visiting.  Tomorrow I must go into Djebel and either buy chocolates or fruit....they are sorely overdue...my little gift to them.....

So Monday I am ordering more wood....as least it will have time to dry out for next year if I don't use it all but at least the house is beginning to warm through.  I suppose two foot thick walls take some heating when it hasn't been lived in for about ten years.

The weather forecast is tropical tomorrow so I've just found my bikini out (slight exaggeration) but I think I might tackle a bit of woodwork or demolition and get some wood out of the house if my back is up to it...Let's see what tomorrow brings....LN....my beer is getting warm...
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Elsa Peters
March 6, 2011, 3:04pm Report to Moderator

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Sunday 6th March

Well I'm a little late in posting today and I thought I'd be able to report sun and a first tan of the season.  If you see any 'brown' tinge to the skin...believe me...it's rust.  It has been that clinging cold and then we had a couple of hours of rain so I've just packed away the bikini and the BBC weather for Kardjali is still saying 'sun'.  It's supposed to be cold overnight though so all the logs are safely gathered in but I made the mistake of putting a thumping big one on this afternoon when it was really red and yes, you've guessed it...it sort of started off well and then sat there so I have spent the last thirty minutes or so coaxing it with bits of tinder, moving it round in the fire box and at last, we have the pump going for the central heating.  It's not that it's cold in the house, but it's when you come to sit and read or just don't move.  Talking to Dom yesterday, you have to go outside to realise how warm it is in the house...same with most things.  It's all down to perception.

So what have I done today...very little.  The lamb that was part of the sacrificial offering that I put into the slow cooker yesterday morning, spent the night in the fridge and I scraped off about half a pound of lamb fat.  It then went back into the slow cooker and is now in the feeding station.  Something not quite right with it....just too fatty for me even after the removal.  Looking out of the window it's still there so not even the dogs and cats are going for it......probably end up on the compost tomorrow if it's still there in the morning.  Downloaded some suduko from Krazydad site.....fabulous...bit of a time waster but there is nothing to do in the garden, the ground is not that good for digging it's too wet after the frozen state it was in and the sciatica still lingering and catching me out...so don't want to exacerbate a situation....give it a little time to heal.  As for exercise and physiotheropy and I shall probably be shifting a ton of wood tomorrow when I phone the man in the morning....   Just want to top up...what I don't use will be there for next year and should be dried out by then....that's if we ever get a summer.....LN....going to tend fires...Where did I put that petrol can
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