Friday 8th March

Special day here...Women's day....Happy Holiday or Chestit Praznik.....as they say here.

My Librarian came round this morning and we took her jeep into the garage to be fixed...windscreen wipers, brake fluid, new rear light, cleaned and polished....thirty eight leva.  Can't really grumble at that ...and she didn't.  My student's mum's mum is out of hospital and staying above the shop and I was introduced to her as I gave over some flowers.  Everybody gives everybody flowers and I came back from Djebel with enough for my ladies and some.  Such a lovely month in Bulgaria.  It starts with Grandmother Marta on the first and then this on the eighth.  

Gouljan came round this evening and delivered a vase of paper flowers made my the team in the school she works in....they are in orange, reds and white and the vase is covered with brown paper with a little note from all of them....such a lovely thought.  So tonight....into the hot spot in town...Seaka's restaurant and let's see what's on the menu....and pictures will be posted tomorrow...

LN...time to get ready to party.....taxi in and out so we can have a little drinkie...LN

Saturday 9th March

Firstly an update on last night...Called the taxi and foolishly did not book one for the return trip and I'll know for next time.  The evening went with a zing....lots of lovely thirty somethings, my restaurant lady, the Librarian and myself nudging on a bit but I did take the floor for a bit of a spin.  Couldn't do much with the holding hands dance and moving round the room...the wrist wasn't up to it but when it came to dancing round the handbags.....but without a handbag in sight apart from the pink one that Baba Marta was as she added weight to the occasion and a manly growth.  She gave us all a wrist band and luck for the coming season.  Food was good but always is there....a couple of beers each to wash it down with, a tombola where I think at the end of the night we were the proud possessors of one tea strainer, a toilet block and a lollipop.  We left at eleven thirty and I phoned the taxi company who apologised saying that he had had a little too much to drink and couldn't take us home.  We walked to the taxi rank and not one in sight but noticed that the supermarket was closing down and joy of joy, the young lad that works there said that he would take us back home after he had finished closing down and locking up shop.  What a little angel...it was a little out of his way and we arrived home to the fire still chugging out the heat and laughing at the turn of events.

Today was pleasant enough in the sun but we had a pretty slow start trying to load a few photos to Facebook but the connection was fairly buggered today.  Some days good..others rubbish but I eventually managed it so that the Librarian's family have been able to comment and I hope they don't think that I am leading her astray.  We managed poached eggs on toast for breakfast and thought it was about time we got dressed and faced the world at about twelve.  Hamburgers and onions for lunch and off she toddled at just after two and I lay down with a book and promptly got a few zzzeds in.

Few conversations on facebook....emails sorted...fires going...no need for supper still full from lunch.....March the 8th Women's day was a success....LN..let's put a few pictures up..

Sunday 10th March

Slept in for me...six thirty....beautiful sunrise and rest of the day.  Received a polythene bag of rice and a soft drink and I'm not sure if anyone has expired or it's a memorial...Hacibar didn't have the time to tell me.  Planted out the flowers that I got in Kardjali and I'm hoping that tonight is not going to be too cold for them.  Three quarters dug over the rest of the frog garden until the wrist hurt and then retired 'injured until the next time...like tomorrow to finish it.  

My student arrived at ten by taxi with her sister and we sat down and decided what we should do.  I've got the measure of it now but she arrived with a book that teaches accountancy...that she had copied and that's going to help then....I don't understand accountancy let alone the manual.  Otherwise a good lesson...we decided on the book and the modus operandi and I think I can help her out.  She just wants to be able to speak it better.

Phone call this afternoon from my lovely Princess but the parcel has got lost in the post....as for my son I think he has gone AWOL again...Happy Mother's Day to both Princess and my daughter in law.  I also sent out kind thoughts to my own mother...gone but not forgotten.

Supper was chips and eggs with mayo and tomato sauce...not exactly gourmet but did the trick tonight.  I have lots of homework to do to prepare for my next six lessons with my student so I better get on....Sunday is no longer a day of rest.  LN..my fire is belting out for all it's worth..kitchen is fully washed up and tidied and I'm now going back to my book....LN...I've got a murder to solve...

Monday 11th March

Six thirty start and another beautiful sunrise but the winds were scudding clouds over from Greece so it didn't stay out for long.  Brief rain shower and then cleared up so I was out with the garden fork to finish off the frog garden and then moved down to the lower garden and was amazed at the length of the roots of the baby dandelions.  There were millions (maybe slight exaggeration there) and they were asking to be pulled out....a bit like Donkey in Shrek...pick me, pick me.  I was at one point getting them to the bonfire but then it became easier to lob them over the fence for the animals.

Worked in the garden until one and came in for crackers and sheep cheese and stretched out on the hall sofa with my book.  Didn't want to push the wrist too much.  What I was actually staving off was sitting down with my new student's book and trying to make sense of a stupidly written text book and accumulate about ten questions that we could do together.  Instead I went back to some old texts and have prepared some for the next few weeks.  Made a saucepan of leek and potato soup and that should be finished by the time I finish the update.  Got the packets of seeds down and the intention was to get a few seeds into containers to get some underway but have worked it out that our season here is long enough to get them in the ground in April and they still have time to grow.  

So back down to see if that fire is doing anything.  I have been on the computer too long today and the typing is fixing my wrist in the wrong position so I'm out of here.  LN.....Soup and toast calls with a little red wine I think tonight...LN

Tuesday 12th March

Again another sleepless night..read for a couple of hours and then managed to get off again until six thirty.  I think my wrist wakes me and I don't know where to put it.  Bandage off, bandage on, cream on, cream off.

Pottered this morning, showered, shampood and into the garden awaiting my golden carriage to take me for my final sign off with the hospital.  My Librarian arrived at nine forty five clutching a polythene bag stuffed with wild primroses.  She'd been off filling the needs of her village taxi-ing various people hither and thither and had found herself with time to spare so put it to good use.  They are the most beautiful pale lemon and tomorrow will be put into the garden.

So straight to the hospital and my lovely doctor was doing an operation so was not available until after lunch.  A shopping trip was called for to fill the gap so into a couple of flower shops and I have daffodils that were just going over, narcissus and several 'shrubs' that were last year's stock that she wasn't sure of the names of, one of which ended up as a present.  So into the second hand shop because it would be rude not to and came out with a pair of bracers that are made like measuring tapes and a cotton sweat shirt and the grand total was three leva.  Stopped off for pizza and the local yogurt drink and that set us back just over four leva....

Lunch over back to the hospital, my consultant was surrounded by his patients, he spotted me and called me over, checked out the wrist, pronounced me fit to go apart from advising me that I should go to the Polyclinic to set up some physio.  Having said that, that would be left for another day.  We had shopping to do.  Billa called for food top up and I signed up for a discount card.  Picked up a whole fillet of steak for ten leva and it was a rarity to see it on the cabinet.  My shopping basket included a bottle of vodka and a three litre wine, the steak, fruit juice, tonic water and lots of other bits and on to Lidl where I managed to find a binding machine that I hadn't managed to find the week before and a heavy metal vice for my workshop.

Back to Djebel and delivered the instructions for my student for Sunday's lesson, stopped off at the free wifi and managed to register the Librarian's Kindle, back home, unpacked the shopping and where had the day gone...five thirty already!!

Lit the fire, cooked the steak with mushrooms, onions, chippies and fried egg and served with mayo and tomato sauce....absolutely delicious and I have frozen half of the steak to provide for another day.  Just woken up in the chair and they say that a full stomach requires rest so I'm thinking that I'm in for another fitful night......so LN....good prognosis and on to the phone tomorrow to see if I can organise the Polyclinic...LN

Wednesday 13th March

Two lots of washing out on the line by eight thirty this morning and I sat munching toast with sour cherry jam in the sun with a coffee to hand....and that's the good one. the toast was in the other and balanced.  Another beautiful day until the clouds rolled over and now I have instant flowering garden...the ones that I bough yesterday and the 'nobbled' primroses are scattered in the flower beds.  Working and bending over with my trusty fork I realised that there was a draught crawling up my back so into the house and bought out a long sweater.  Don't want any more problems.  Dug over a couple more beds and some of the long garden but gave in to the pain and headed for the kitchen at about one thirty this afternoon.  Got the washing in first though...looked like a serious chance of rain but the wind got up and blew the clouds away.

Wrist stopped play.....I'd done well with it....It seems to stiffen up after exercise but I suppose it's to be expected.  Tuna mayo on toast with a cup of coffee and that seems to be enough for me for the rest of the day.  Got stuck into my book...thirteen of thirty six....and am up to 92% so should finish it this evening.  Strange using percentages and not page numbers to tell you how much is left.  Suddenly felt very tired, closed my eyes and woke up an hour later.

Toot toot outside my gate and my mother's day parcel from Princess had arrived...delivered by my sheep farmer who was playing postman for the day.  He said that I had a present and I told him that it was from my daughter....that will keep the village happy. Thank you so much.....

So let's knock off the remaining percentage.  Going down to the fire.  LN.....and tomorrow I promise that I will get some pics of the garden...LN

Thursday 14th March

Short and sweet update tonight.  The electricity has been up and down like a bride's nightie and I've given up trying to reset the clock radio.  It can wait until normal service is resumed.

Damp start but I decided to get out there and try to finish the flower bed to the left side of the garden.  Stuck on my woolly hat since the wind was whipping up a bit but after half an hour out there I thought I was off over the hillside and desparately in need of crampons...so came in and declared the garden and the wind to be the winners in this bout.  Eventually that wind brought a further rush of clouds that decided to tip it's load onto the newly planted shrubs so as they say, every cloud has a silver lining.

Settled down with my book and promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours making up for the lack of sleep overnight.  It's not that I'm wide awake at night but I know that I'm not asleep if that makes sense.    Had another helping of the leek and potato that had been hanging around in the fridge for a couple of days and settled into a packet of Lidl's Jaffa Cakes.  Rude not to as they say in my old neck of the woods.

Done well so far with the electricity.  Going to take a shower to try to clear these sinuses of mine.  I can hear myself speak but it's like I'm in an echo chamber so hence the hat this morning.  Got the water bottle out and I'll rest my weary head on that and if all else fails I'm off to the Abteka in the morning for a decongestant.  LN...now positioning the candles and the wind up lamps...it could be a long dark night...LN...and it's still raining..

Friday 15th March

And did it rain last night and the wind howled.  My bench from the left hand side of the lounge terrace was deposited on the garden and the poor honeysuckle was smashed to the ground.  The lupin and the lone sweet pea was missed so with my trusty hammer in my left hand I reassembled the bench and my poor flowers in the metal bucket had to rescued and deposited in the garden so make sure that they didn't drown.  Not a nice night.

This morning was cloudy and windy but not as bad as last night but there was a chill in the air.  Got in plenty of wood in case it kicked off again but the sun appeared and dried up the terraces and quite a pleasant day by lunchtime.

A couple of my neighbours came round this afternoon and it wasn't until then that I realised that this sinus has made me appear to be in an echo chamber still and I could only hear them as Darleks...'exterminate'.  I'll give it the weekend and it's Monday to the doctors if it's not cleared up by then.  I'm just going though it a bit I suppose at the moment and I'm not very good at being ill...or having things wrong with me.  Almost tempted to take to the hillside with a shovel or the shotgun today.  Lots of baby lambs jumping for joy and that pot at the end of the rainbow is always a temptation.

So finished the soup off for supper with buttered toast...a couple of ginger cake thingies to finalise and I'm sticking to the tonic water tonight.  Fire going, back to the book and a fairly early night...  LN....and it's just started to rain again...ggrrrr..

Saturday 16th March

White over this morning....well just a little but it is starting to come down now with a vengeance.  Temperature has dropped too but we should be climbing again tomorrow...just a temporary glitch.  Had a couple of hours reading in the night and I think it's all down to lack of alcohol and exercise.  You don't wear yourself out flicking over pages on a Kindle.  

Thank goodness this morning the ears are starting to respond and the sinus seems to be clearing.  I suppose I didn't realise how bad it was until my neighbours came round yesterday.  If you only talk to yourself in your head and not out loud...you never see the full picture or is that using mixed metaphors!!

Fire going...breakfasted and decided on a really hot curry tonight to give those sinuses another healthy boost so I'm down to the kitchen to set the ball rolling and I have a yearning for cream of onion soup for lunch....culinary day I reckon...catch you later...

Saturday continued

Snow flurries for most of the day, it's all gone now but remained cold.  Had a visit this afternoon from my neighbour across the way delivering me a pot of home made yogurt and bringing me the photos of he new month old twin grand=daughters.  She was proud as punch and the family is due over from Sweden in May.  Most from round here have to go where the work is...such a shame.

Made my onion soup for lunch and added sliced potatoes to the remains for this evening and put them into the oven with some honeyed chicken wings...didn't fancy curry when it came down to it.  Thinking of calling off my lesson in the morning....I'm still sounding like I'm living in a tin can with this sinus stuff.  Ended up adding bowls of water around the place in case the wood fire is aggravating it because the air is too dry.  See how I feel early on and make my decision then.  LN...I'll keep checking on the internet for advice...LN