Wow Socks has grown since we last saw him!    Give him a tickle under the chin from me!

Any news on Stara Mush? Is he ever coming back?

Great to see the not so little socks  !!! he's not so silly   knows where to find the best of cuddles, food, and a nice kind woman called Elsa  

Wednesday 22nd February

Happy Birthday to Martin...it's his birthday today...

Now to answer your questions Mikey B....Star Mush as I understand it is on long term stay in Turkey....the house is so damp that his daughters wont let him return and I believe have destroyed his passport.  He was a lovely man but age has taken its toll....it was a hard life living as he did here and despite help...he was the sort that you couldn't really help...he despised it.  As for Socks...he's had his tickle for today but with regards to feeding him, I don't do that and if you knew me...created by me for you....I'm not that soft...well may be deep down but you have to dig and maybe he has...

Cold this morning but not as bad as it has been.  Went to sleep last night in front of the fire with that loose-leaved book on my chest, sat upright and all the bloody pages disappeared southwards.  Picked them all up or so I thought and put them on the settee and recognised that it was a job for the morning not when it was silly o'clock.  Got the fires going and found that there was one page missing and thought that without it...the whole story would go pear-shaped and it had drifted under the settee. Only fifty or so pages to go and then I reach the glued part...I can hardly wait.

Delivered the computer to my librarian today and they were having enormous problems.  The central heating was playing up and I suggested three weeks ago that it was probably the pump...no...they had had it checked...it was one of the connectors in the regulator I think but what was it today....the pump.  So new one purchased...and then found out that they needed new aluminium piping and so it goes on.  Everything they need has to be fetched from one of the towns and I have got my men into the mentality of ...what do we really need and how much...it costs to get backwards and forwards....and found another problem upstairs because the pipes had frozen in the wall with the extreme cold and wanted replacing....so I asked them if they could put stopcocks in the pipes to save it happening again and their little eyes lit up...of course we can...so measure the pipe and write down everything that you want...jobsagudun.   Left them to it and came home.

Got back and went down to have a chat with my neighbours who were out for fresh air...my Avatar threatened me with a snowball so I picked one up in defense...realised that there was so much water in the snow and that it would be dangerous so we declared a truce and dropped them to the floor.  Peace reigns in Dushinkovo....the peace pact and ongoing cordiality is recognised between nations....

Lit my fires again and spoke to them rather sharply before I started...I wanted no nonsense tonight.  Supper is the soup from a couple of days ago with fresh bread followed by cheese and biscuits...I'm off to see what's left on the alcohol front.  I know there's a wine box but starting it can prove fatal and I have guests this weekend...LN...I'm off on the soup trail....

SOFT NEVER !!!!!!!!!!!!! kind was the word I used not that I know you just an observation from reading your dairy  
Jackie  

Thursday 23rd February

Thanks Jackie for that....kind...yes ...up to a point...I help those that help themselves but not to my things...I pay for the first round, might even pay for the second but never pay for the third.  

Cold, white over, really frosty overnight, fires going and joy of joy, I have got to the end of the unglued pages this morning now the book should be plain sailing.  Yes you've guessed it, woke up last night in front of what at one point was a fire before it went low, the book was on the floor again and I really couldn't be bothered to sort out the pages.  This morning, job complete at seven o'clock, floating pages finished by eight, more logs on the fire and now just a quick update before I face the day.

My visitors should be at the airport round about now, full of fear and intrepedation for their first visit.  Wishing them a safe journey down from Sofia...I still take the bus, backwards and forwards and insist that all my visitors do.  It costs twenty two leva for a four hour journey...now I call that economy.

The day starts, well not, starts....continues here.  Destined to be sunny all day once the morning mist rolls away, it should be a good day....catch you later....

Hey visitors is exciting for all concerned eh

22 lev is about 10 pounds sterling?

It's a little rainy here in Cardiff today :\

Well not all hey Elsa.... I seem to remember  

Although we did get the bus back... I remember using my last ever holiday inn points for the room in Sofia infact!

T-Mobile had its uses occasionally... allowing me to build up lots of free nights and room upgrades!

Thursday continued

I hear it on good authority that the plane has landed and I shall know nothing more until the morning...I don't pester.  As for visitors Bob....thanks...I had to get the hoover out...you know what it's like...but only for about two minutes..takes me as they finds me.

Yes I know Mikey B that TM had it good points...I still have them..three nights at the Holiday Inn...four years later.....

Did my student this afternoon but on my way into Djebel my belts were squeaking like pigs in a sty so decided to buy the stuff that you spray on them and it goes away and it went away.....a trip to the garage and all in the garden is without squeaks but as I say, they pay me with one hand for teaching their son and they get it back in the other for things that go wrong with my cars.  Now when you buy a car here or a car changes ownership, you have to go to a solicitor to make it all legal...now I bought the car from the parents of my student and the ownership details have never been transferred to me. So today I mentioned that I had got the part of the transfer document that stays in the car but never the part that stays in your house...they  looked at me as if I was telling porkies but no...I had never received the transfer document.  So at that he went down to the garage and came back with...the official document and the spare key that had remained in the garage for the last two years.....result...I have a spare key and I am now official if only to the last stage when I must visit a solicitor with the man on the document and really make it mine...  Bulgaria...

Tidied the house a little, got something in the slow cooker just in case we eat tomorrow....beef in red wine...now back into my book now that the unglued pages are history as is this novel.  Sun was red going down tonight which made a change from the cloudy hues....now going back to my book....I don't feel hungry now...maybe munchies later...LN

Lovely looking sunset!

I awake to some tweets from a certain person who was in Kardjali and was last evening laughing about how many "skodas" he was seeing!!

I'm tempted to buy a load of land and just sit on it Why do I think these things are a good idea?!?!?!

Hope your day is most enjoyable (I'm sure it will be) and that the weather (and guests) are kind to you!

Friday 24th February

Well he didn't count the Skodas today...he was too busy concentrating on the road Bob, missing the potholes and keeping up with me....

Decided to take the Beast this morning and the bastard thing decided not to start.  It did go down to minus six last night but I don't think that's the problem with it...So having sorted out my insurance for Beauty yesterday, I had to remove last year's sticker from the window screen and stick on the new and it all seemed to be taking time this morning that I thought I was going to be late for this morning's meeting at the hotel.  Then my Avatar shouted over and asked it I could take her granddaughters back to Djebel and I replied that two minutes and I'd be going.  Girls delivered and carried on  and arrived there at just on ten...perfect timing.  Two people putting luggage into a vehicle and we met on the car park....everything the previous night in the hotel was fine.  I suggested coffee so we sat and talked and prepared for the Kardjali tour.  Into the Leva shop so that a hat could be purchased since there was no need for the balaclavas....the sun was out and I didn't feel in the mood to do a bank that early in the day...I got a few more picture frames since I never know when my ladies come a calling to the photo studio....and two more pairs of sock.  My visitors were impressed at the range of goods and the first time I went in about three years ago, you feel so obvious that you don't notice anything.  Went on to my second hand shop, back to the hotel and picked up the car and went to the other end of town so that they could see the markets and when hunger called we went into the restaurant that Mikey B decided was the best in the area and had a whole chicken with bread and soft drinks....cheap as chips but unfortunately the chips were cold.  An old lady sat at the next table and since we had not picked the chicken carcass clean she asked for it so I handed it over, also gave here the remains of the bread that we hadn't used, took the straw out of the half drunk Fanta and handed that to her as well.  Cost of the meal for three....thirteen leva...well really for four...the little old lady dined well.

Settled in the hotel....back to mine for the conducted tour and I've given them maps and suggested routes for the next two days.  They've gone back to the hotel to warm the room up for tonight and I'm meeting them later for a meal in Djebel.  So just going now to finish off sewing the sequins on to my ball gown.....for a night on the town....hardly...it's Djebel we're talking about.

LN....I've got to throw logs on the fire and warm this place up.  No fires today it's been beautifully sunny but now the sun's gone down the temperature if falling rapidly.  LN....time I did something else....