Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you... Happy Birthday dear Elsa.... Happy Birthday to you!  

Sorry it's late... been one of 'those' weeks.... Hope you've had a lovely day xXx

Quoted from MikeyB

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you... Happy Birthday dear Elsa.... Happy Birthday to you!  

Sorry it's late... been one of 'those' weeks.... Hope you've had a lovely day xXx

Mikey B...parenthood is like that...lots of love to you and yours....and thank you .....

Happy

Birthday


Dom

(PS Annie reminded me)

Saturday 18th February

Quoted from KingDom

Happy Birthday

Dom......(PS Annie reminded me)

Thanks Annie...and of course to you Dom for getting it into print.

So now those plans of opening a present a day failed miserably last night.  I opened the biggest one from Gemma and I sort of guessed what it was and it's.....all eaten up.....got a touch of the munchies.  Opened my present from Gouljan and I have a set of tea cups and saucers, bright yellow and all I have to do now is to get five friends round at the same time ....

It is cold today but so far no snow....I'm mulling over going to move the snow from front of the drive so that I can get the Beast back into the yard but I'm suspecting that the snow's still frozen so it wont be an easy task...and if it's going to snow later....I'll mull it for a little while longer....and do chores.... ...

Saturday continued

Well did my daily workout and removed the snow and the Beast is now safely ensconced in the drive.  The snow was really frozen so not an easy task but the librarian is visiting tomorrow so now she can get hers off the road in safety while Beauty clutches the wall of the house for protection,

It's been a cold one today....really light snow on and off but ne'r a glimmer from that sun only briefly to see it rising and the same to see it setting.  I went to sleep in front of the fire today after having my exercise and had this peculiar dream of walking in a flood of water with frogs all around...checked the plumbing in case if was a premonition and nothing is frozen and all running perfectly...well.... at the moment it is.

Lit the little wood burner in the kitchen today...you know what it's like sometimes...you just feel cold.  You can see the blaze, feel the heat but your body just doesn't seem to get warm...maybe I'm due for a bug of some some sort or maybe its the anticlimax from yesterday's euphoria....another year older and trying not to act my age but more my shoe size.  Both fires going...curtain closed for the night, lots of wood in...supper might be meatballs that I cooked earlier but I don't know what I want tonight....maybe just a little hot water and brandy and an early night....with a book now that I have a whole shelf full of them unread....

LN....off to have a shower and get into some snugly PJ's, stoke up and warm up....

Happy Birthday. Sounds like you had some nice goodies come your way. Sorry I am abit late, but went out with my friend on Friday night as her B/day also. We had a nice meal and she a few drinks as I dont indulge these days. But we had Coopers Beer bater Fish & chips. It was very nice. So I hope you enjoyed your cake. All the best for Friday gone. Loving the photos. My Mum wishes you well. Take care. Linda & All.

Sunday 19th February

Morning and it was a cold one...silly me fell asleep in front of the fire and woke up without one...chilled to the marrow  so decided that I would be active this morning.  Took down the pipes from the biggie and gave it a spring clean...moved the new little one from the kitchen and replaced it with the old that seems to burn better, got the hoover out and broke a cup of coffee spilling it on the hall curtain...cursed with a smile in my voice since it was my fault....and carried on regardless.   The old woodburner was the one that the men used in the wreck and when I tried to remove the ash can from it, it was obviously frozen in place so I had to light it and the water dirtied the floor beautifully....so washed over the floor, sponged the curtain and no harm done, got lunch underway and prepared to meet my librarian sometime after eleven.  Hands feel like sand paper but since George Clooney isn't expected in the next few days I didn't worry too much about it.  Lunch today was meatballs with overnight soaked beans tarted up with honey, onions, tomato paste and a dash of chilli flakes...delicious if I may say so myself.

Played around for the rest of the afternoon and had lovely chinwags as women do when they get together, stoked up the fires and flitted from fire to computer and eventually decided that it was staying in the hospital for another night or two and I'll deliver as and when....it's been a bugger...Tell me why Microsoft wont allow Google Chrome to be run and brings up the  dreaded security firewall warning...why can't they all be friends.  Had to go on with Blank since it wouldn't go into Internet Explorer either.  The laptop hasn't been used for a couple of years so we met the first interruption in having to alter the time and date...and it's been down hill from there...but at last we seem to be getting somewhere...I'm on the internet using Blank as I said and everything that was loaded has now decided that it needs to be updated...that's computers for you...

Well, it's well over the yardarm...didn't tell you but it's been a beautiful day today but cold. and now on to the brandy snifters to make sure that my old bones don't get chilled tonight....  The old new fire is burning slowly and as it should...the other one rocketed through the wood and didn't seem to retain any of the heat so another problem solved in the kitchen but why did it take me until February to come up with the solution...DOH...well I knew it, just didn't do anything about it....double DOH.

LN...got to think of something for supper now that I've eaten well at lunch time... Taking my shoes off to to bare foot into the kitchen but there is no danger of having to complete the phrase....LN....pickies tomorrow...I've been far too busy....

Monday 20th February

Really cold overnight and what thawed out yesterday was frozen solid again.  Oh my beauty little woodburner...still chugging away this morning where the new one would burn everything up and have no heat left in it.  The new one is sitting outside the front door....I really must get it into the wreck ready for when, no if, the men come back.  It's too cold at the moment but looking at the end of this weeks weather forecast...we are into positive figures of two figures at the weekend and night time looks reasonable too.  Well we are almost in March and let the festivities begin...it's the ladies' month.

So today managed to sort out my librarians laptop and got her connected to the internet, downloaded printer drivers and got that working, free virus protection, Google Chrome and an email address.  Sweet as a nut but tried to download printer drivers for mine so that I can get the scan function working and I spent about three hours on it and it still hasn't worked.  It tells me to put in the cable and switch the machine on and then warns me that several screens will be updated and what does it do?  Flaming well sits there and nothing happens.  So I've given up...I can always use my laptop with the printer attached if I have something really important to do but  hey...CBA....

Sunshine today and didn't even light the biggie until five o'clock this evening but it's going well now.  Just about to put this to bed....I've had enough of computers for one day.  Reading a book about a woman who walks through the stones in a henge in Scotland and ends up two hundred years previous with the men in the glen....I've managed one hundred or so pages and they are attached to the cover.  The next two hundred are unglued so I'm doing a page at a time and then putting it down.  I just hope I don't fall asleep reading it...it would take me sometime to sort it.  

Supper tonight was leek, onion, carrots and potato stew with tomato paste and a little chilli.  Absolutely delicious and had it with hot buttered toast.  Maybe not so healthy if you look at the whole package .

So LN....I'm sleepy and its nine o'clock here.  Going off early in the morning to get the fan belt tightened on the Beast to save it squealing, get the oil topped up, off to Kardjali for a few things and then back for my student in the afternoon. LN.....going down for a warm, a little beer and an early night with a very frustrating book.

Hi Elsa
Been reading your diary for ages and Dom and Annies.   Only found out recently that they used to live in the same small village in Wales that we do now.   It is lovely to see how you cope with each day, and all the friends you have made.   We also would like to move to Bulgaria, but our house has been on the market for six months now and the market is just dead.   So one day hey.   Keep falling in love with houses on the net, one near Plovdiv at the moment but I do not want to become to attatched.   Hope you had a nice Birthday, I tried to write to you on your birthday, but the lap top just would not let me sign in.   Your house is looking beautiful, you have come so far, and all your adventures with the cows make me chuckle.   Well take care and hope it feels a bit warmer for you soon.   Sarah

Tuesday 21st February

Quoted from scarahfluff

Hi Elsa
Been reading your diary for ages and Dom and Annies.   Only found out recently that they used to live in the same small village in Wales that we do now.   It is lovely to see how you cope with each day, and all the friends you have made.   We also would like to move to Bulgaria, but our house has been on the market for six months now and the market is just dead.   So one day hey.   Keep falling in love with houses on the net, one near Plovdiv at the moment but I do not want to become to attatched.   Hope you had a nice Birthday, I tried to write to you on your birthday, but the lap top just would not let me sign in.   Your house is looking beautiful, you have come so far, and all your adventures with the cows make me chuckle.   Well take care and hope it feels a bit warmer for you soon.   Sarah

Thank you Sarah.....I really miss Dom but hopefully one or the other of them will be out soon.  I like my 'Annie' time....we shop in the nearly new shops in Kardjali and she's the daughter that I don't have out here.

So what's happened today?  Cold overnight, fires still burning slightly so salvaged.....I love my little one in the kitchen...apart from tonight but that's a story for later...Bonfire, wood in and then a little visitor came to visit.  Mikey B will remember quite well when I thought that 'Socks' (as we called him then) was actually Tommy and belonged to my neighbour.  I think he's got schizophrenia ...but I did tap him on the nose yesterday when he insisted on peeing up my columns on the patio...If anybody is going to do that...it's me...it's mine...and my privilege.  He's really a sweetie though and loves it when I scratch his head...don't think dogs get much attention here.

Had a shower, washed my hair, prepared a text for my student, started the Beast who was due for an airing, returned a letter to the main post office that was delivered by the Mayor and just because it had 'Peters' on it they thought it was mine.  Sat out in the sun and watched the sheep...they are back...it must be spring.

My student was a little grumpy when I arrived and I think it was because it clashed with his basketball....he hadn't done his homework so I read him the riot act in English and not sure how much he took from it but I said that if he didn't cheer up....I was off....

Beast down to the garage for a mini health check...anti-freeze OK, fan-belt OK, oil needed one litre, gearbox oil 'super", and set off for Djebel to book the hotel for this weeks visitor...and I put out my best Bulgarian and then she told me that she could speak English....I got her with 'central heating and radiators' when I asked about room heating,,,,she told me that they had Petchka...so I said 'Parno"....Da...my Bulgarians not as bad as they think it is.  Went down to visit my tile man to get a quote for a new bed for the second bedroom...gave me the cost for a big one and then I asked about two smaller ones to give me the same size...he frowned and said that it would be more expensive....we did the calculations...it is cheaper.

Shopped in Billa and Lidl....came home to no heating and those bastard fires took ages to light...I was swearing with a smile in my voice...well you have to talk to them and at last they are doing what they are supposed to.  Put a couple of onions in a cooking dish with a sliced potato and put five chicken wings on top...into the oven and it should be ready about now so I'll be leaving you with that thought....

LN....I have food to scoff...with a little beer tonight...I'm driving in the morning....LN