Wednesday 18th January

Sorry...late...I was at the library exchanging my books and didn't realise what the time was....

Had a very lazy morning watching a video...Catch me if you can....and went over to the library at about one this afternoon.  Lunch was chicken chasseur..delicious and the chicken was really tasty.  This morning I got a chicken wing curry going so I'm guessing that it is going to be for tomorrow now that I have eaten...poached eggs for breakfast, chicken chasseur for lunch means that there's not much space left.  

Poor librarian.  Her sister has had problems with her health and she has spent days in Kardjali hospital but 30 leva to see a specialist and a MIR scan for 150 leva and the results in one day...eat your heart out NHS.  If you make people pay in England maybe they turn up for appointments and appreciate what is happening... So the result is that she has to have an operation..there are two trapped nerves  in her spine and it was identified in two days...how long would that take in the UK?

Got home at six and no fires to greet me...got them going in quick-sticks so to say and now the house is warm.  The chicken curry I decided needed to be reheated so that it will keep until tomorrow but in the process decided that it was a long time since lunch and added some rice to some of it and it's now simmering over a big wood burner and will be eaten as soon as I've finished this update.

There are no pictures today...I remember I took some but I have lost my camera between upstairs and the bedroom and I can't be arsed to look for it...it will appear in due course and I will publish the results.  I think there was a lovely one of the moon this morning but no way did I see the man hanging down his fishing rod as in the Dreamworld initial screens.  Try as I might...I haven't seen him yet.

Supper as you've guessed is curry.  Came home with several books but the four that I've read so far from the library promised a fifth and instead tempted me with the sixth...The fifth in the series will arrive on Friday that's if the librarian can find it.  I did suggest under the bed as a starting point...let's just wait and see but six can remain on the shelf until I hear yea or nea...

LN...my supper is bound to be ready and I know my glass needs a refill...LN...I'm down to the kitchen....

Hi Elsa, Got the xmas card and thank you. My Mum sends her regards and said" hope shes fairing well over there in the cold". I told her you have 2 fires going. And she laughed. Anyway hope you are ok. Thanks again the card was a nice surprise. Take care. Linda & Rachel.

Thursday 19th January

Quoted from linda g

Hi Elsa, Got the xmas card and thank you. My Mum sends her regards and said" hope shes fairing well over there in the cold". I told her you have 2 fires going. And she laughed. Anyway hope you are ok. Thanks again the card was a nice surprise. Take care. Linda & Rachel.

Thanks Linda...you can tell your mum that I wasn't 'fairing' at all this morning.  Fire was going well when I got up, house was warm, stuck a small log on, but I disappeared to the landing to play on the pc and the blasted thing went out almost.  Spent a little time trying to save it but then realised that I was going to see my student anyway so what was the point.  Received another Christmas card today from the UK and for any others that want to send anything....or replies to my begging letters...do put the postcode on it ...remember, the alphabet is different here...we're Cyrillic...a letter can go anyplace.

Along with my Christmas card came two bills from my internet people and one from the electricity board and personally delivered by my local mayor and me still in my PJ's......not so bad but blue with Rudolph the red nose reindeer all over them.  Then there is the courtesy of shaking hands.  First time I've done the formal greeting in PJ's...   Wind was really whipping round as we stood on the doorstep...didn't want to invite him in...what would the neighbours think, he's single, forty three and I have to look after his reputation.....

So the lesson today was about Mercury the Planet but I don't think he wanted to play today...note to self...let's get some longer texts to read....he's improving.  Went to the supermarket and bought a couple of kilos of oranges and sugar and I intend making marmalade tomorrow.  Never made it before so it's a first.  Lit both fires and they are now crackling away.  Supper is the remains of last night's curry and rice...I know...I said that I wasn't that hungry having eaten at lunchtime yesterday but couldn't resist it.  Lovely sunset tonight and went out in the biting wind to take a few pickies.  LN....it's time to get that curry on....

Which site have you discovered for English exercises?

Cold here but not so intense at night but colder during the day I think. Snowed a lot though

Friday 20th January

Quoted from Joanna

Which site have you discovered for English exercises?

Cold here but not so intense at night but colder during the day I think. Snowed a lot though

Found a wonderful free site Joanna (www.superteacherworksheet), well it was until last week and now they have put a charge on it.  The texts are graded and there are exercises at the end of some of them.  The other one I found is Pearsons but that is an annual fee and not really looked into it yet.  I've started to write my own up now and add the exercises on the end...after all, I did write training documentation and induction manuals so I think I'm up to it....only thing is...I thought I'd retired...

So the weather today has been grey and a little snow and sleet this morning.  Got both fires belting since my librarian was coming to lunch.  Knocked up a spaghetti chilli bolognaise, mixed the spiral pasta in with it and fresh yogurt and honey for afters.  Just as we had finished the meal and sitting talking about nothing in particular, my avatar and my next door neighbour came to visit.  I think they like to see other English and I showed her my pot of lunch and she commented that it smelled rather good so I got a couple of plastic dishes out and I've never seen them run so fast.  There were big no, no,s (well there would have been if they spoke any English) so I followed them out the door and said that I'd found a new way to get them off the premises quickly.  Got my own back though, when my visitor had left I filled up the container and toddled off to her house and handed it to her.  She accepted it gracefully and I'll have the container back tomorrow.  They are so sweet.

Have an invitation to lunch on Sunday but I have the feeling that I shan't be making it.  Weather report for tomorrow is heavy snow and high winds so I'll see how the polythene roof on the wreck stands up to it.  Think I might go into Kardjali in the morning if it doesn't snow...there are a few things that I want....

Temperature dropping tonight but since I revved up the fires today everything in the garden is rosy....well, not quite in the garden, that's frozen hard over and the ice on the ponds hasn't even budged for the last two weeks or so. Lovely sunset again but that red was very windswept and it's coming from the West.  

LN.....I now have the fifth book in the series from my librarian and also the sixth to follow on.  I'm going to be busy....

Saturday 21st January

Well I know we've all done it...gone to sleep in front of the television and woken up to some silly programme, maybe Countdown, and then decided to go to bed.  First time for everything here.  Woke up on my sofa in front of the big wood burner at five fifteen this morning and wondered whether it was worth going to bed or not but sensibility took over and I did.  Fortunately I'd got undressed and ready for bed at ten fifteen, and woke up to find my book resting neatly on my chest, my glasses still in place and the fire still going.  I didn't bother to check the thermometer, it had been forecast as minus seven so just got into the zebra nest, settled in and off I went waking up this morning at eight fifteen.  So all in all I had done my eight hours in two 'shifts' instead of one.

Text message at eight forty five this morning from Gouljan asking me if I was going anywhere....I wondered if she was bored so I ask her 'why' and then a second message asking if I could pick her up from the bus-stop.  Now I'm confused and decided to phone her to try and work out the logic and it transpires that she had to work today and had plonked herself in the bus stop looking for anyone going by.  I'm in my PJ's not all that awake and apologised saying that I hadn't planed to go anywhere and put the phone down.  Five minutes later I ring her again and offer to take her to the main road where she has more chance of a passing traveler but it was too late...she had phoned a taxi.  And then I felt guilty for all of about five minutes....if she had asked me the night before it would have been arranged....arrrgggghhhh.

Raining this morning so the predicted snow overnight hadn't materialised but decided to get dressed, get the wood in and more coal just in case the temperature dropped and sure enough it did.  Got the little wood burner in the kitchen going and a few belts of hot water round the radiators from the biggie and it makes all the difference.  And then it started and everything white over in quicksticks. Snow has stopped now and the clouds are lifting, that twelve miles per hour wind didn't dislodge my polythene from the roof of the wreck and has held out quite a bit of snow.   Sun is glimmering now on the hills towards Greece but the temperature is set to plummet again tonight so it should still be white over until tomorrow.  Yesterday's lunch has become today's lunch and there is enough to freeze a portion.  Noticed some spicy sausages in the fridge and I've lots of eggs so I think it's an omelette tonight...something quick.  Back to my book and my fire....

Saturday continued

Found a pot of pear and ginger jam yesterday that had gone to sugar so decided to Google it to see if I could save it....boiled it up slowly and added the juice of a lemon....stuck it in a jar and I'll see what happens to it now....not sure.  I've just found another one that seems to have gone the same way but before I go through the hassle...I'll test this one first...give it a week or so.

My Avatar returned the pot today that I gave her with my spaghetti stuff in last night and it was full of....natural yogurt that she makes herself and it's delicious.  She said that last nights was delicious and though I say it myself...not bad but exchange is no robbery ....yogurt and jam tonight but not the new one.

Sun now gone but it was dramatic while it was lingering....giving the eastern mountains a rosy glow.  Just managed to catch it, temperature has really dropped now and it's supposed to be minus seven tonight so no sleeps for me on the sofa.  At the first sign of tiredness, me and my book head for the nest.  

LN....I've got fires and me to feed, then a little brandy and hot water for me tonight....that should suffice.

Sunday 22nd January

Slept in until 7.20 this morning and was surprised at how dark it was.  It was cold overnight and the snow is still where it was last night and despite eventual sun today, nothing's moved.  Opened the curtain this morning and was surprised at the sun rise.  The clouds were scudding along the Greek side and they were climbing making it look like someone had a flaming great fire over the other side.  The wind then picked them up and flung them over this side.  Lots of mist hung in the river valley and when the sun eventually broke through...my was it bright.

Usual morning routine, fires salvaged, wood in, breakfast of poached eggs and decided to wash up the jam reworking and last nights supper things before I decided to sit down and read my book.  I almost did it the other way round....book then wash up but my conscience got the better of me.  Up on to the PC to check emails, three star Daily Mail online sudoku in record time this morning and my average time appears to be going down.  I didn't get it in my top five scores but it was a three star.

Decided that the roads were too bad to go to the library for lunch and tried to phone them three times but couldn't get through.  Caught the tail end of the phone ringing when I came in from getting some small wood but tried ringing back and again, same message and I wasn't connected....note to self...try again after finishing off my update.  I had warned that if the weather closed in, I would stay home.

Lunch was yesterday and the day before's pasta thingy only this time I decided to add some tomato soup and in the oven crisp up some stale bread covered with oil.  Gently does it on the teeth but delicious.  I should have added a little garlic to it but only thought about it later.  Everything cosy and toasty...just battened down my hatches for the night....well brought my key in from outside and closed my hall curtain.  

LN.....I'm back to my book and a little more of that brandy tonight won't go amiss.....I slept really well last night.

Monday 23rd January

Beautiful morning....freezing night....sun up and melting some of the snow from the garden and the roof....I can hear it going down my drainpipes.  Unlike the normal Bulgarian downpipes that shoot out onto the pavements.......one of mine goes down the well, another goes off down the lane and the third one is squirreled away down the garden and comes out next to my vegetable patch.  How about that for planning....builders didn't understand it but someone sent a message down from above that I listened to.

So beautiful shower this morning...the water was piping hot.  Hair washed, pedicure, new painted toenails that will now get hidden under two pairs of socks and will only show themselves when the next shower comes along.  A wash, lick and a promise happens some days...

Did a bit of searching today for a friend I had in Gibraltar xxx years ago.  Tried 123 people and ended up having to enter a ZIP code so realised that there must be a Gibraltar in USA, went on to Facebook but no success.  Did get frustrated with the search engines though.  Thought I'd found a way and then came the punchline....sign up for our premium rate service..........doh...I should have known.   I suppose I'll end up putting an add in the local newspaper....I'm just a little curious as to where life took him.....perhaps I'll never know.  

Now to get on...

Monday continued

And get on I did.  I normally find that there is never enough shorter lengths of kindling or stuff to perk up the little wood burner in the kitchen so today's task was to get out my man-sized chopper and get some cut up.  I did get diverted somewhat....I decided to go up on the roof of the wreck and remove the snow from the polythene and where it had melted and frozen, there were great lumps of ice that I tipped out and skidded down to the ground.  How old am I?  Now that would be telling but I had fun.

Back to chopping, clearing the other logs that had been left by the front gate and added them to the pile on the terrace, tidied up some of the other wood that had been left around and generally occupied myself.  Started the Beast and went up to the village to give it a run, brought it back and put it in the yard instead of leaving it outside and then my Avatar's dog came to visit.  I'm not sure if it's to visit or pee over everything in sight or on site and then he head down to my garden burning pit to see if there was anything he could scavenge.  He's that sort of dog.  I can only assume that he had to do it as a puppy and they never seem to get out of the habit and he hasn't.  Well there was nothing there for him so he stood in the road and looked longingly to where his girlfriend lives and scampered off up the road.  Five minutes later he was back with what appeared to be a bone in his mouth and I can only assume that he got it from the rubbish dump.  As he walked back home, he left it on the perimeter of the property, the ground was too frozen to dig a hole for it but he knew that he couldn't take it back home.  Clever little b*gger.  

Caught a glimpse of myself shadowed on the side of the house with the tree next to me as the sun was fading so decided to snap it....then in we go, stoke up the biggie, light the reluctant small one (bastard), fry off an onion and a local spicy sausage, add tomato paste, honey, curry and chili powder, a little water and stir.  In a separate pan boil some pasta...twenty minutes later...serve and twenty five minutes later...all gone.  Washing up completed, kitchen pristine, back to book when update complete.  It's been a lovely day.  LN