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Elsa Peters
September 1, 2012, 4:40am Report to Moderator

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Saturday 1st September

No white rabbits to be seen and no hares and the only hair of the dog is Tommy/Socks scouring my burning pit for anything that he can manage to scavenge.  Nothing doing...I had a good burn-up yesterday.

Rotten night but I'm thinking that it is down to the fact that I have to sleep on my back and just can't move around in bed.  I might have to move back downstairs onto the Turkish mattress and see if that is any better.  It has a bit of a hollow in in from three fairly hefty men having used it over the summer but not all at the same time may I add.

Today's checklist is to see if a couple of the village lads can work for me next week to sort out the little, little house that has to be roofed before the winter.  It will protect the far wall of the little house and give me a decent workshop and wood store area.  A woman's work is never done so it seems....   To horse....
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Elsa Peters
September 1, 2012, 5:10pm Report to Moderator

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Saturday continued

My librarian came over today for lunch and we've had a lovely day.  Sat around drinking coffee and chatting about books and at five we went out to see the house that the man at the top of the village and his brother have up for sale.  It doesn't look much from the road but at the back there are superb views of the mountains of Pamporovo and Smolyan and the huge balcony at the back is over a summer kitchen and shower room....we both fell in love with the house.  It wasn't what we expected.  I'm putting a couple of the pictures on just so that you can see what I mean.  They are a lovely old couple but I think that he has health problems so they want to sell up and move to their daughters.  Life can get a little hard at times on limited pension.

So all alone now, the librarian has taken a few more books and has returned some that she has borrowed.  We discussed Kindles and I think we are both going to invest...it should save a fortune in diesel / petrol but I do enjoy our chats.   Just come in from watering the garden and what is it with these people.  Byser wanted to know what I had done to myself and insisted on picking up my t-shire to look for herself but then insisted on poking it...I screeched and she asked if it hurt...I responded that it did especially when she poked it....big ouches all round....Wait till she sets fire to her feet again and I'll get my own back for sure.

Not much into supper...still full from a late lunch....Did without extra tablets today and the rib is feeling much better but had to stifle a couple of sneezes and subdue one coughing session when a crumb went down the wrong way.  Big hurt....so...LN....going to curl up with a book.




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Elsa Peters
September 2, 2012, 5:08pm Report to Moderator

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Sunday 2nd September

Better night last night but I feel that my back is not used to not being turned regularly so that's another problem.  I can't turn over on to my side yet so stiffening up.  The bruise is coming out after applying liberal doses of Arnica and it seems to be better when I am on the go.  Woke up this morning and was about to go up to see my Avatar to see if she wanted anything else from the market and it suddenly hit me that it was Sunday not Monday and I had another day to rest.  

Breakfast was two hard boiled eggs from yesterday and dry toast...I do want to take some weight off for this holiday....lunch was the rest of my baby beetroot, tomatoes, onions, potato salad (again from yesterday) and another egg. The only liquids to have passed my lips have been water and black coffee since I've been on these tablets, the beer remains unopened so thereby a saving of several hundred calories me thinks....straight from the lips....on to the hips.

On the sunbed today for a few hours reading a book.  Normally round the garden I wear three quarter length trousers and a cotton top but it suddenly occurred to me that it was about time that I got the rest of my legs to the same colour as my lower legs and feet.  Holidays looming...if I intend wearing a swim suit on this holiday of mine around the pool then I better do something about it while the weather is still good.  The result of today's hard work...I am a lovely shade of pink...there was a wind and I didn't feel the heat and was too interested in a book that Kingdom had dedicated to the cause.  It's a bit of a chickflick so maybe it was Mrs Guds....not too sure but I got stuck into it and I'm enjoying it...Mark Haddon's ....A Spot of Bother.

Lifts arranged for tomorrow...I'm taking the grand daughters in tomorrow to the market in Djebel at nine to carry the ten kilos of apricots, black plums and carrots since I'm not going to undo the repair that's already been done to my rib number seven...

Supper is ready...sweet and sour pork with pasta so I'll say LN....I'm kitchen bound....LN
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Elsa Peters
September 3, 2012, 4:55am Report to Moderator

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Monday 3rd September

Rubbish night...up at two for a stroll round...it's my back giving me gyp not my rib number seven....back with another pillow...read for a while.....head down...up again at four and eventually got back off until six thirty.  Justice is metered out.  I've decided that a picture of the bruises posted on the bathroom door and the drinks counter should serve as a reminder that wet tiles and alcohol are evil if mixed together.

Dull morning and have been round putting some sawdust round the flowers on my side bed.  It seems to have done the ones at the bottom of the garden good and these do look in need of love and attention.  Gave them a good soaking so let's wait for the results.....I expect them to be a mass of colour by tonight

Quick shower and I am a little less pink this morning.  It suddenly struck me that yesterday Avatar said that she was not able to take to a sunbed because people are always popping round to her house.  Makes me wonder how much she would take off.  She appears guilty if I even catch her without the headscarf.

My librarian is off today to try to get the document from the bank to confirm that she has a certain amount of money coming in to her account regularly so that she can have her ten year residency permit issued.  Apparently this is new so that you do not become a burden on the state.  We should be trying this in England   That would sort the sheep from the goats so to speak.  You can bypass this if you have a large amount stashed away in a Bulgarian Bank and I guess one or two under pensionable age will not be getting their permits issued despite having a house here.  I suppose the other way is to prove where your income comes from if you have a job here or out of the country just so long as you pay you ten percent income tax.

Fun and games at OK coral.....  and now time to get on....catch you later....



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Elsa Peters
September 3, 2012, 7:27pm Report to Moderator

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Monday continued

Did the market.  They didn't have any apricots so my Avatar settled for peaches...ten kilograms of them, ten of plums and twenty of carrots. Total bill...thirty eight leva but the carrots will last her all winter along with the compote.  So that was what she was doing this afternoon and her granddaughters were helping.  

I sat outside and read for a couple of hours in the shade and for lunch made egg mayo sandwiches on fresh bread which were delicious.  So good in fact that I went inside and made another one but unfortunately there was one little cheeky fly that forced me indoors to eat the second. It kept flitting around and I just couldn't catch the bugger.

Took to my bed this afternoon and caught up on the sleep that I'd been missing. Finished my book....and must get going on another.  I was looking at Kindles on Amazon but I have been told by one that knows that I shouldn't order for a week or so...there is something in the pipeline and so long as I have it for my holiday...that will be fine.

Taking to my bed now...it's ten thirty my end...feeling really very rested.  Those clouds rolled away and we've had a beautiful day and a beautiful sunset....that adjective is really appropriate out here....LN...taking to my pit but one more glass of water before I go....yes....water...
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Elsa Peters
September 4, 2012, 5:32pm Report to Moderator

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Tuesday 4th September

I shall be so glad when I can move about the bed without it hurting....OK guys, I've done my penance...give it a break   Pretty dull this morning, an amazing sky and fortunately cleared up and was up in the thirties this afternoon.  Planted out one of my Jasmine in the herb bed so that it has a fence to climb up...it was looking a little sad in its bucket so let's give it a better chance at life.

Well the guy that I'd asked to clear out the little barn had work to do so his father arrived, the Kmet's brother.  I asked him how much he wanted for a days work and offered him 20 leva as an opener and he replied that it was 'malko pari' so we struck up thirty.  I explained what I wanted done.  He started at nine and I asked him to 'stack' the stone which I think got lost in translation.  He cleared out the shell, dumped it outside the framework, left the dust in with it, he did move the wood that was against the back wall and put it all together...he stopped for coffee at ten and started again and twenty past...went home for his lunch at eleven thirty and came back at twelve forty clutching a gift of a bag of tomatoes  and at two he said he had finished.  Well yes, technically he had but I suggested that he filled his day with taking off the tiles from the roof and clearing the rest but he said that was it.  So I asked him how much and he said thirty leva.  Now if I ask for a day's work ...I normally get it.  First time he has worked here...say no more.  OK it's not a lot of money but when somebody tells me that I have lots of money and asks me how much I pay my men....I have nothing more to add except that I worked for forty five years in England non-stop apart from high days and holidays and if I have money to do what I'm doing...it's down to me and it's very much my business.

So off to see my student and the lesson today was about the Sahara Desert.  Not that interesting but I put together a question sheet and I suggested that he made full sentences instead of one word answers.  Did a little shopping in Djebel and bought another couple of pairs of black cotton trousers for my holiday and all this has to fit into hand luggage...now there's a thought.  

Supper tonight is pork kebabs with rice which is waiting to be served up....I'm still on the water and have another three weeks of tablets to go but they are absolutely great.  I got a  translation from my student's mum.  They are anti-inflammatory, they've done my arthritis in my hands a power of good and according to the blurb...are also good for tooth ache so I look like getting a repeat prescription and keeping them by me for the holiday.  Well you just never know do you,

So supper calls...I can hear it from the kitchen and let's get these pickies posted.  LN...



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50
September 4, 2012, 9:44pm Report to Moderator
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Tree looks lonely!!!
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Elsa Peters
September 5, 2012, 2:06am Report to Moderator

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Wednesday 5th September at Silly O'Clock

Quoted from 50
Tree looks lonely!!!


It was OK when the sun came out later Danuta.....I went and gave it a hug and fortunately it can't hug me back in my state of health...
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Elsa Peters
September 5, 2012, 5:42pm Report to Moderator

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Wednesday continued

So I read for a while and eventually went back to sleep at five thirtyish waking at nine fifteen.  It's been pretty much a downhill sort of day.

Looking at the kitchen shelving I worked out that I had more empty jars than they stock on the market so decided to do something about it.  Cleared them all out...I've saved a few should I make more jam, the beetroot didn't get pickled this year since the cows hoicked it out of the ground and I had to replant, I renamed them 'baby beets'.  Two sessions and they'd all been eaten.  Note to self...need more beetroot next year and no cows.  I picked the rest of my tomatoes and with the ones given to me yesterday I have to do something with them tomorrow.  I dug over the old potato bed which I'm sure wasn't a good move in my state of health and the ground is so dry underneath despite watering.  Everybody's crops have failed this year....the tobacco is rubbish so I hear.  Just no rain.

So going back to my jars and shelving in my kitchen.  Pulled everything out and found some tiles up in the gods and now all the wooden surfaces have tiles on them.  It should make it much easier to wipe over and the jars have now found their was to my Avatar.  I popped up yesterday and the carrots are done along with the rest of the fruit and apparently she has fifty jars of peaches in syrup...seems like overkill to me but if that's what they like.  I'm taking my camera over tomorrow to get shots of Aladdin's grotto...if there's a flood or a siege...I'm moving over the road.

I've been a lucky girl today.  I've been told that there is a parcel on its way for me and is in Sofia as we speak.  I'm wondering how long it will take to get from there.....Another bit of news...my lovely MOS from this website has bought me a knitting machine, it's in his trailer and he'll be over with it next week.  It's very basic so I'm told, has a worktable but he will only hand it over if I follow the rules.  There are certain articles of clothing that I have to make for him otherwise...no delivery.  Better get my pattern books out.

Tonight's supper was the remains of last nights with curry added which was a wrong move on my part.  If it's a good curry, what does it make you do?  Sneeze!!  And what happens when I sneeze?  I hurt like hell....not a wise move on my part.  So here we go with the water again and tonight's tablet.  I need a good night...LN



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Elsa Peters
September 6, 2012, 6:40pm Report to Moderator

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Thursday 6th September

Six thirty start this morning, got up, watered the garden, made my breakfast of fried tomatoes on toast and sat out in the sun with a coffee.  Very pleasant morning and suddenly remembered that I had rearranged with my student for ten this morning so phoned his mum to check that he would be up and not lingering in his bed....and he wasn't.

Assembled the rubbish from yesterday, old bottles etc., got it into Beauty and set sail for Djebel sounding like a brewer's dray.  This became a tad embarrassing when one of the lads from the next village walking along and not exactly thumbing had to curve his legs round the bag in the foot well to get into the car.  Rib number seven stopped me from being able to hoick the bag into the back seat....oh well, he still got to Djebel.

Student over by eleven thirty and went towards the park to find student's mum, ended up in a cafe with her and the little one, learnt a new Bulgarian phrase and watched as it was applied to the child.  Apparently it's all to do with ears and listening to what's being said and the little one was being a pain.  Suddenly she grabbed his ear and twisted it and did he screech....and it worked.  I commented that I had never seen it done before and she said that it was common practice...pinch the ear and it seems to work better...more receptive so to say...

Home after a little shopping, tuna mayo on really fresh bread for lunch with fruit juice but I was let down by what I thought were chocolate eclairs ...but they turned out to be cake.  One out of five nibbled and the rest will go to Tommy tomorrow.

Really hot today and thought I would have a lie down at about four thirty.....and woke up at eight thirty hence the late update but I suppose rib number seven and a tidying day yesterday left the poor body depleted.  My only concern now is that I shall be up at silly o'clock without a good book to read so roll on Kindle.....I heard yesterday that it's coming via USPS and I'm hoping it doesn't get held up in customs in Sofia...I received the tracking number and there was no joy with it 'in that location'.... .  That's Bulgaria for you...they're probably working out the import duty as we speak.

LN...it's almost time for bed now and not an ounce of sleep in me...let's try and find something that I haven't read. LN
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