Monday 1st August

I am a taxi again.....I went to see how my neighbour was this morning and asked her when she had to go again to have her feet dressed and she was due today....so I asked at what time and she said....now.  Now me being still in my pyjamas decent enough as they are, asked for fifteen minutes to have a shower and get dressed and when I went out the the car she was waiting for me.

So last time I was praising the doctor's surgery but unbeknown to me we went to emergency last time.  This time we formed an orderly queue but when it was her turn, she went in and came out clutching a prescription for dressings so off I trotted to the chemist, returned and in she went again.  It took in total two hours from leaving the house to getting home and on the way, it was back to the chemist for the tablets that she has to take.  This should teach her that water puts out fires quicker than feet.  I do feel sorry for her though...the bandages stuck to the burns and she was in tears when she came out but they put the surgery on the third floor so you can imagine the agony when coming down again.  There are even steps without handrails so I had to offer up my arm.  I got some strange looks in the surgery....and she explained to two acquaintances that this was her English neighbour.  It reminds me of when I used to do home helping when the children were small....not much changes if compassion is in your heart

Got a new garden hose from the market while I was waiting for her to get seen to but I have yet to work out how to attach the end pieces so it doesn't leak everywhere but which way.   Arrgggghhh...it's not the cost of water...everywhere except the garden gets sodden including me.

My Avatar arrived as I was pulling in the drive with goodies of yoghurt, eggs and sweetcorn and when I went to get my money from  my neighbour for her second prescription I came home with three beef tomatoes.  So what's for breakfast since I've missed out this morning....fried tomatoes on toast or poached eggs...decisions, decisions....I'm off to the kitchen....

Monday continued

So I cooked three sweetcorn and had them with lashings of butter followed by some of the yoghurt with cherries.  There was a half bottle of wine lingering so had that with lunch, well it was about two in the afternoon, and I treated it like a Sunday instead of a Monday.  I played around with that blasted hose for a bit, started to read Chairman Mao and promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours.

Decided to go out and do a spot of gardening, forked over one of the beds and after my neighbours fiasco with the garden fire decided that my burning pit should have all of the grass removed from it for safety.  I was merrily digging away when my phone rang and I have just finished the call.  Action abandoned outside...it's dark.

As I say...tomorrow is another day and a blank canvas....LN..... and I've just heard that my English neighbour's daughter has given birth to a baby boy.  Mother and baby are doing fine so now she's got a pigeon pair (one of each) she can stop all that nonsense....   

Tuesday 2nd August

A little thunder, a little rain but not enough to soak the garden...we want more....Not a very good night's sleep and I think it was down to the fact that I got a couple of hours in yesterday afternoon...note to self...leave that lingering half bottle until the evening.

I have yet more tomatoes and I have just realised that the last two that KD of S donated to a worthy cause are plum tomatoes....well I hope they are or they have gone a mighty funny shape.  Breakfast was tomatoes fried in olive oil with salt and black pepper and banged on a couple of slices of toast...very tasty.

So back today to digging around my bonfire thingy, clearing the weeds and laying rubble round it.  As I said my neighbour's garden bonfire has made me more aware of how quickly things get out of hand and hence the new garden hose.  So first job with that is to get some insulation tape and give it a try.....I think I was handed the  wrong connectors or shall we put it down to 'China rabote'....like we do with most things when we have issues with their road worthiness.  Another job for today is to dig up about 40 freasia corms that came to nothing to see if anything is worth salvaging.  I have one surfaced but I think the soil is just too hard for their delicate roots so a bulletin will be posted in due course.

Shower, dressed and gardening....nothing to go out for so far today....but things change as we all know...

They could well be plum toms, as I have some of those.  They are good for cooking with but not that great in a salad.  No rain here either

Tuesday continued

Sorted out the freasias and I have added grit to the soil to see if that helps.  There was life starting in a couple of them so we'll see what sprouts.  I've also planted out my busy lizzies that I've rooted in water in my old outside sink and the geraniums dug up from the side garden are looking decidedly better now that they are in pots and getting watered regularly.  The oak tree goes into the hedge line tomorrow....it's looking OK where it is but I think it needs to get stuck in and my honeysuckles that have started to root in water are now out in pots....and that was just this morning.  So made lunch of potato salad (mine), tuna (Lidl), tomatoes (mine) with onions (mine) and hard-boiled eggs (my Avatars) and rested for a couple of hours...no half bottle today but a glass of the local lager.

Started to thunder and we had some rain but not a lot and slept through it coming back to life at around 4.00.  Went out into the garden and continued attacking the bonfire pit and have just come in getting rid of the rubbish as I went.  Tomorrow should finish the job...just need to get the wheel barrow and cart several loads of rubble and rubbish to the bottom of the garden and bury it.....all go in this neck of the woods.

So not particularly hungry at the moment and it's 8.55 here so maybe I shall have a night without food...I did sort of pig out at lunch time and finished a whole honey dew melon for afters so I shan't exactly die of starvation which is more than can be said for Chairman Mao's followers in 1959 ish....the strange thing is that the populous didn't seem to blame him...they felt that it was the ones in between that caused the issues....hence the mausoleum in Tienanmen Square....

So pickies from today...here goes....LN....

Wednesday 3rd August

What a beautiful day...out in the garden at six this morning, moved a few barrow loads of 'builder's debris' and breakfast at eight...tomatoes on toast again.....do I have an obsession or just a glut of tomatoes?????  Yes...a glut of tomatoes.

Poodled around outside until it got too hot and settled in to emails and the likes and adding to my favourite website and then decided to watch a movie in the heat of the day....it was one up for observation by film critics and goodness knows how I came to 'acquire' it but it was on 'My Book' which a friend copied from his downloads.  Very moving...I ended up with a tear in my eye and then saw that I needed to get out and finish my project in the garden.

Vegetable garden enlarged and I have admiration for couch grass....it just gets everywhere....but I got a whole lot out and burnt now that the area is safe.  Sorted out the odd bits of timber that are scattered and move several more barrow loads of debris and raked it over so that it looks OK from the house.

Now tonight's supper was chicken wings with honey, onions, garlic, mushrooms, red wine and tomatoes and the last time that I cooked this my Avatar asked where hers was.....so tonight I walked down the road and handed her three chicken wings in a bowl and said that if she didn't like it she could always give it to the dog 'Socks'.  I asked how my pyrotechnic friend was doing and apparently she was sent to the hospital in Kardjali who sent her home.  Now she has sons and daughter here and no one seems to care.  She has to go to the doctors on Friday in Djebel and I have already offered my services.  There was a funny incident...my Avatar said that it was Tuesday, I know that it is Wednesday, my other neighbour has to go to the doctors on the day after tomorrow and I said that will be Friday then...no, she replied, that's Thursday.  No, today's Wednesday and the day after that.....so we got really confused so I said to ask her and if she needs anything....just let me know....

Bottle of wine had to be opened to go into the chicken wings....so now the glass is full and I'm ready to face Chairman Mao....I've watered my garden, watered me and so LN......I think I might just have to pay a visit to Kardjali tomorrow.....or go to Makaza swimming pool and take a day off if the weather looks fine....we'll see how it looks tomorrow....LN

Thursday 4th August

Hot, sticky, humid and my skin has been leaking most of the day.  I was out early in the garden but by ten there was no way Hosee that you could still be out there.  It saps your energy and I have done several Sudoko puzzles, got a new record score on my DS machine for adding mathematical symbols to come up with the correct answer and played Freecell but the inactivity drives me to distraction. I think I'm better when I'm 'doing'.

So went to see my hotfooted neighbour this morning and she is in a terrible state.  The one foot seems to be healing OK but the other one she can hardly put her weight on it so we're off to the doctors at eight in the morning.  The trouble is that she is knocking on a bit and things just take longer to heal.  She has neighbours popping in but there is no one to actually care for her.  She has family but they seem to be working during the day which is when she needs most support.  I'll just carry on being a taxi, at least that's something less for her to worry about.

So at four this afternoon I went out with the intention of attempting the fence at the bottom of the garden.  I took my trusty bag of nails, the saw and my hammer, inspected the project and turned round again and walked back up the garden.  I decided that with this rib on the mend there was no way that I could assemble several planks and uprights and manage it on my own.  I suppose there are enough men in the village without work and I could pay someone to do it...and it's not meanness on my part....I just like the sense of achievement when I've managed something like that............I'll give it a week and I should be up to it.  

Dug over the garden by the side hedge and taken up some tobacco plants that have struggled.  The problem is that it all needs double digging, manure adding and generally rubbish removing.  So out they came and I have potted up about six of them and put the rest in a bucket of water, I'll give them the 'once over' tomorrow and decide to sow or throw...

Came in at seven tonight....my Avatar has just returned the dish that I took her supper round in last night and she reported back that it was very sweet.  I don't think they do the honey stuff here but at least she enjoyed it...so the next time I do double the quantity and she has more.  Living on her pension must be hard so if I can help out with some of the luxuries without being charitable, then I will.....

Pickies of my endeavours today.....and looking at those 'jam' trees....I should be stocking up with sugar tomorrow and get my rear end into gear....LN

When you say jam I see rakia!  Ilyas & me have 200kg's of jankeys ready to turn into Rakia, but he won't do it until after Ramadan.  I suppose that is sort of taking part.  I have new books if you are passing.

Friday 5th August

So I have been a taxi and note to self....make sure that you have had your breakfast before you see a couple of burnt feet dressed by the doctor....not a pretty sight....no wonder she is in agony.  I was there at eight with my engine revving and the world and all her friends were in there too.  She went in to get some clothes from the bedroom, found lots of 'interesting cardigans' and handed me one...I tried to refuse but my Avatar said that it would be super in the winter....and so I have a new winter cardigan.  Anyway...I digress. She had to hold on to me to get her up the three flights to the doctor's surgery but thank goodness there was no one in front of us.  So my first trip was to the chemist to get the cream for her dressings and we had to purchase a bandage from the 'supplies' cupboard at 'ouch' leva.  Now I'm only just getting to grips with the Bulgarian and now I have to learn Turkish too...such a hard life at such a mature age.

Home James and the reception party was there to greet us.  One of the elderly ladies was with her grandson who had some mosquito bites on his arms and was itching away so again, Florence went home and came back with the appropriate cream and Avatar's knees were playing up so I had to do a bit of 'hot-hands' healing on them.  She said that I was the local doctor and didn't use the adjective 'witch', which has been said before.

Got home...tried to boot up my pc and didn't want to know.....phoned KD of S and so went round there with boxed pc box....he tried to reboot it and everything fine.  I have this terrabyte storage device and it was trying to boot from that...not a wasted journey, I came home with a bag of potatoes, several books and some oriental tree seeds that I have been instructed to store in the freezer for about a month to fool them that winter has come and gone and now they can germinate.  Things you have to do

Chicken leg out of the freezer...I am now going to be creative....its four thirty here so I may see you later...just a few morning pickies as the sheep came over the hill at seven....

Saturday 6th August

I have just lost my post.  I hit a key and off it went and now to start all over again so I'll make it short tonight.  

Sat and watched the sun come up this morning and I know that I've said it before but I know why the Egyptians worshipped the sun.  Unfortunately as it transcends the sky the hotter it gets and it's at times like this that the waves of inertia follow on and yes, I slept for a couple of hours this afternoon.

This morning I finished one of the new books from my Samodiva library.  It was called 'The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ' and put a little twist into the life of Jesus...interesting perspective.  Later had a shower and washed my hair and headed for Djebel to stock up on a new brand of cheese that tastes like cheese that KD of S had found in the new supermarket, bread, gin, lemons, tonic water, shampoo and beer.  A varied choice but you can guess what the aperitif is going to be tonight.  Lunch was tuna mayo on fresh crusty bread.... delicious.

So Gouljan called round this evening with the nephew complaining that there is no peace for the wicked at home now that her sister and the lad have appeared from Turkey.  I have offered up my home to her tomorrow so that she can get on with her computer work from her day job and since she's fasting, there will be little work for me to do.  

So tonight after my huge lunch I don't really feel like cooking or eating so I'm off down to get a G and T, I might happen to find a film on my Notebook and chill for a bit.  The sheep are heading home over the hill.  In the morning they belt down creating a dust storm but at night they are meandering home.....LN.....the update on my pyrotechnic neighbour is that she is much better today...that's good news...LN...time for that drink.