Monday continued

Well the best laid plans of mice and men and me in BG......I did nothing this afternoon.  I'd made my mind up to go tomorrow instead and now plans are set in concrete. Gouljan has just phoned and my little Cinderella is overworked with all of this four day holiday so we are off to Kardjali at ten.  Now I'm not sure why she phoned because I sort of hogged the conversation but I think it was hopeful that I would rescue her from the kitchen.  Her mother has ten cows and some sheep to look after, makes yogurt, cheese, butter and sells her eggs to make a living so yes, she is busy.  Her other daughter is over from Turkey with the grandson that tends to play up when mother is around. 'Rods for own backs' springs to mind when you make children into Princes and Princesses..

So the girls are out to play tomorrow.  I've got to break it to Gouljan that I wont be around for a while so she might want to move in for the odd weekend to keep the place lived in.  She would have a bolt hole and I would have a guest who is no trouble at all.  Boots blacked in the morning.....student worksheets knocked out early, lunch in town and a little mooch around for a few clothes for my get away.  

Supper was a deliciously hot spicey chicken curry with rice....although I say it myself, and there is enough for tomorrow.  Out of beer so this is the first day of abstinence.....I have about a stone to lose.  It's all uphill from here.  LN

Hi Elsa, Hope to see you in the New Year then, all being well. Shame its not a couple of days. But never mind, it will be awesome just the same. Linda x

Quoted from linda g

Hi Elsa, Hope to see you in the New Year then, all being well. Shame its not a couple of days. But never mind, it will be awesome just the same. Linda x

Thanks Linda...I've emailed you with the actual dates and again I would add that it's a shame it's not a couple of days but I don't think I could swim to catch the ship up if I miss it no matter how hard I tried.

Seven o'clock start this morning and again the best laid plans of mice and me went awry.  Gouljan phoned to say that she could not come into Kardjali and had obviously had a better offer so I went round to check with my Avatar to see if her grand-daughters were off to Djebel or lingering in their pit.  Ten fifteen was set and during the journey it transpires that not only have the parents absconded to Germany but she is only going to study at Munich university for four years.  The die is caste.....Angela has one more babe in the fold.  The other little one is due to live in Kardjali until she is eligible for university so that will be the whole family off leaving mother on her own with no cow to look after.

Made it to Momchilgrad after dropping the daughters off and have arranged for the men to measure up my windows tomorrow and it makes sense that they should be done before I leave.  I shall phone my men either tomorrow or the next day now that their religious festival is over and ask if they want work until I leave these fair shores.  Also managed to order my bed which is being delivered tomorrow.  Who's been a busy girl then????

Little bit of shopping.  Managed to but three pairs of cotton short trousers and three tops for twenty one leva...bargain...and got home just in time to turn round again to head off for my student.  Discussed chapter one of Les Mis and showed him the trailer for the film.  Got home at about six and the procession of guests arrived to view the changes to the house from when they knew it.  Suitably impressed and I might have an English student on the back of it who has currently finished his social media degree in Turkey.  Why go to England to speak English...most of them don't speak it anyway.

So supper was the remains of the chicken and rice...delicious...Brought a bottle of grapefruit juice and the vodka mixed with it makes a good cocktail.  Ten thirty my time...I am late tonight and I owe it all to a telephone call from the UK about the cruise.  Sorry....I promise it won't happen again....well not today anyway...LN....my glass is empty and I'm thinking chocolate of which I have none...aaarrrggghhh...LN

Wednesday 22nd August

What a stupid night.  

I'm in the land of Nod when the 'tzzzz' of a mosquito wakes me from my slumbers.  Such a little thing and such a loud noise at two in the morning..........so it's light on and I am standing over the bed trying to locate the blasted thing.  No joy.  I am now holding out the insect zapper hoping that it will home in on it instead of me, still no joy and I still couldn't spot it.  Out comes the fly spray and I'm consoled by the fact that there is no reason to believe that one of the solutions hadn't worked so again, lights out, zapper now suspended from the open fly-screened door, I pulled the covers up to get back to that part of the dream that I was enjoying.  And there it was again.  In desperation I decided to swap beds. I negotiated the stairs and went into the downstairs bedroom thinking I was entirely safe  Unfortunately I'm coming to the conclusion that the spray had sent it downstairs a little quicker than I had made it down, it must have successfully negotiated the other zapper hanging in the hallway and it thought it was safe from me while I was thinking I was safe from it.  I got into bed, pull up the covers and then it came again.....tzzzz.  At this point I am a little beyond reason and out came the spray can again but this time I fortunately picked up a 'non-smelling' one and goodness knows what it did to my lungs during the night but never heard another sound.  I am now searching for the bodies and they will be buried with full ceremony.....ggrrrhh.  Don't you just hate them.

Wednesday continued

I have my mattress, I have my bed frame, I have a bed but the journey to the bedroom was not to be repeated.  The man arrived with the mattress.  Now usually Bulgarian delivery men deliver...they do not help into the house etc.  So him and I lugged the mattress off the van and into the house and I asked him whether he could give me a lift up the stairs with it.  We viewed the stairs and decided that because of the windows and the tight corner there was no way Hose...The light came on and I said 'Balcon' and we both thought it was a plan.....we managed to get the overlong ladder from the 'soon not to be such a wreck' and wedged it against the main bedroom  balcony.  Now this mattress is large, almost five feet wide and is build of a wooden construction and is....well there is only one word for it....heavy.  We secured a holding strap round the mattress, the delivery man got underneath it and pushed it against the ladder and upwards it started to go.  Now the temperature today was well into the thirties and I could see the rivers of perspiration beginning to gather on his t-shirt and the absorption was really very obvious.  He told me to go upstairs and out on to the balcony and I managed to grab the support strap and was directing operations from the top while being told to hold it, wait and considering that there was a mattress between us it began to get quite comical.  Eventually it was at the point of no return and I dragged it onto the balcony and he appeared at the top of the ladder and we wrestled it into the bedroom.  He was then about to leave by the ladder but I suggested he took the stairs instead....it was so much safer than having to go back down the ladder.  I almost felt a Victor Borge moment coming on but we managed to complete the job unscathed.  He did earn a little money for his effort...I couldn't let the moment go unrewarded.....there might be others at a later date.

The next catastrophe was the ladder that had been up to the roof in the wreck was now lying down on the floor where he had left it.  My problem now was that I was having the window's men call later for measuring up and they would need to go to the second floor.  Now I maneuvered it through the hole but no way was it going in straight so two support pieces of wood and I reckoned that someone would do it later if they really wanted to get up there.  

Went back to making the bed frame and got out the plane and took the old wood off and left it looking good.  Planed one of the side rails and unfortunately, this had warped and I thought, bugger it, tomorrow I will make it properly but tonight it be in place, dressed in its finest and will provide a resting place for my head and the rest of me.  It is done.  Not far away from the original design that a little bit of interpretation will correct and cheap at half the price...take one chunky beam, one chain saw, one man and a little bit of women's intuition.....sorted.  My Avatar arrived with supper of meat and rice so I had no cooking to do at all today...sheer bliss and it was a welcome break from planing.  The skies darkened, it looked to be raining over Samodiva and why ever not....KingDom and his lovely lady are descending on us today from Wales and we really like them to feel at home so...hence the rain.  We avoided it or rather it avoided us....little thunder, lots of dark clouds but not a drop was spilt,

So my men came...we measured up and there were only a few question marks and most of it depended as to where the floor would be raised to so they are going to do their plans, give me a quote, back for final design and they should be in in a couple of weeks....that's how good they are.

My librarian paid me a surprise visit this evening returning the outside table that she had borrowed.  We had a very pleasant evening sitting outside with a bottle of beer between us and she left about half an hour ago.  We've made a date for Friday to 'do Kardjali' and now after my update, I'm about to get my book out...I need to have an early night and chill out but in these temperatures it does make it nigh on impossible to do so.....anyway...LN....I've got a drink to get and a bed to try out....LN...

Thursday 23rd August

And I am ready for my guest so to speak.  Just need to clean through in the morning, beds done and tomorrow night I have had an invitation to a pre-wedding occasion.  I think it's all to do with henna-ing the bride so I'll be there with my proverbial boots blacked at eightish along with KingDom and his lovely lady.

Had a change round on the terrace this morning and moved Mikey B's bench further to the right as you are looking at the terrace, moved the activity centre down towards the walk through to the wreck and moved some of the logs so that the plastic chairs can go under the kitchen window in the shade for my local guests.  It was all a matter of sweeping it off, umbrella up and then down with the Mayor of Casterbridge for a brief session.  Played around in the garden and weeded various weedy zones leaving them now weed free and bonfired the departed.

Lesson this afternoon was a bit slow.  It's at the point where I'm now asking him what he wants included since I remember with Gouljan where I thought that some of the words I was expected to learn I would never use so what was the point.  Lessons need to be more relevant...I must do better.

Cooked a chilli con carne and the beans are in the slow cooker as we speak.  Librarian is about tomorrow so we may have lunch or it could be freezer fodda.  I have four days of a guest.  Gouljan came round tonight telling me the saga of her nephew and the swing and deciding whether she should take him to A & E.  Bit late now...real problem and he would be kicking up daisies apart from the fact that there aren't many of them here...much too dry.  I asked her about Istanbul for a few days but she is really short of funds after the fiasco on the Black Sea and won't take charity.

Dropped her home and it was a bit like your life in their hands...the bottle of beer that I started at six is well on it's way to oblivion so maybe I shouldn't have taken to the wheel....but hey...done and dusted and home now so no problem.  Cooked a couple of sweetcorn just before she arrived and on her departure covered them with butter and salt and munched my way through them...delicious.

Enough for tonight....almost ten my time and now it's cracking on for bed said Zebedee.....LN.....I have an early start tomorrow.

Friday 24th August

Up at seven this morning...had cleaned through by eight thirty and was just coming out of the shower when my librarian arrived so that we could go to Kardjali.  We did the ride of death in my little Beauty and she seemed to be hanging on for grim life...not used to a small car.

So over to immigration to get her documents sorted and she needed yet another piece of paper.  She has the local passport with photograph, mine is numbered seven and is without so I inquired if my has to be updated and the reply was that it was valid until 2014 so why bother and bearing in mind that the system will probably change and yet again....I'll leave it as it is.  So she had already paid eighteen leva towards it, had to get another document and that set her back seven leva but she was short of a declaration to say that she has something in the bank that is regularly received from England, namely pension.  This she has to get on Monday from her local bank.  So back she goes....another day in town,

Walking from bank to bank we managed to find this super shop with lots of big pillows in it so I've got two and so has she.  I think the girl thought that Christmas had come early or Byram a little late because I also bought three sheets that manage to fit the new mattress and the old one.  On to the leva shop and I picked up a pair of trousers and a blouse to match at the princely sum of seven leva fifty...grand total for just under four pounds and the joke is that I shall be flying over China with that in a suitcase on our way to Australia and it is probably from whence it came.  

Home made chili con carne, sweetcorn and crusty bread for supper.  We picked ripe plums for pud and I sent her home with a bag of pears to do her stuff with.  

Out tonight for the hand painting with Kingdom and leave here at about seven so need to get a move on.  Andrew should be arriving round about eleven thirtyish from Plovdiv...all being well.  I haven't had notification that he has been delayed so I am working to the earlier schedule....

So into the shower and get hair washed...pick up camera, phone and wallet and off to see what the evening brings.  Not been to one before but there appear to be lots of guests invited ...going to be a bun fight I reckon.  My invitation was through facebook....and we know what happens to those...

I'll update if I get time.  Otherwise, see you tomorrow....LN

Friday continued

Back at ten thirty or thereabouts and still waiting for my guest to arrive.

Got to KingDom's house at about seven thirty as planned and we sat about until eight thirty and started the walk down to the bride's fathers house.  We were immediately ushered into the house and sat down on the floor with the close family and had a quick supper...not so much quick but the courses arrived swiftly and it was cleared away equally as swiftly and then it was outside with the music, dancing and beer.  What a send off.  The bridegroom arrived with his family and they exchanged a hug and flowers were given and the happy couple had the last waltz first and were quickly joined but several other on the floor and now the celebrations began.  What a night...there must have been about three hundred people there.  The cars were still arriving as I left to wait for my guest but had I have know that he would have been this late I would have stopped longer.

The photos really don't do it justice but under the moon, on a beautiful summer's night, there was a lovely atmosphere and I wish them both well for the future.  I have been invited to the wedding but wont go because I have a guest and am unsure what we are doing over the weekend but the memory of that night and the couples transition from boyfriend and girlfriend to husband and wife was a happy affair.  They certainly know how to party.  LN

Saturday 25th August

Managed to sleep in until eight since my guest didn't arrive until one and we had to have a couple of beers before lights out....as you do.

Breakfast over....boiled eggs and we set of the see the house that is for sale at the end of the lower village by the river but nothing doing.  Of touring this afternoon and we walked for quite away to find a couple of the villages...the property company didn't want to come out to play so we kept ourselves amused.

Supper was sweet and sour pork with red cabbage and before anyone asks, a couple of spoonful of each. The wedding went off so successfully so I hear and everyone is peaceful and sitting out under the stairs.  Catch you tomorrow...tiredness has over come me....

Sunday 26th August

What a lazy day it was but it picked up steam by the night time.  We were going swimming but there was neither the will or the desperation so we decided to chill if you could possibly do that when the temperature reached forty five degrees.  My guest sat in the sun and read his book until he was forced into the shade and I played around with photographs until I decided that a little sun would be a good thing.  Over at five to pick up Kingdom and his lovely lady since they are car-less, we got out the beer, I headed for the kitchen and came out with the goodies, the water melon remains intact which is more than can be said for the beer and the wine box.  

I was the first to leave closely followed by Ms Gud and the boys followed on after that finishing the night with little tots of whiskey or so they said but there was an air of 'well who'd have thought it' hanging over the place this morning.  I left my car key with them so that they could get home this morning / afternoon at their leisure and we went off house hunting for my guest at eight this morning.

Just a few pickies....from the last few days