Wednesday 1oth July

Bloody, bloody sheep...not just one but there must have been thirty at least risking impaling on the barbed wire surrounding the place and the wrath of the English woman.  I managed to keep them away from the vegetable patch though and down the bottom of the garden so the only things that they devoured were the wild plum suckers and the grass that hasn't been subjected to the lawnmower because of the few big rocks down there.  Problem was that it was a hole that only the most intrepid would go for and it meant a hop, skip and a jump against the barbed wire and that's not so bad coming in but going out you've got the assaulting crowd and there are some big ones at the back.  But all safely out and tonight I must bridge the gap or they'll all be in tomorrow.

Missed the dawn this morning...bit of a late start at six thirty.  Had a visit from my Avatar with one of the local workmen asking me if I wanted to sell my old roof tiles.  The answer was 'no' but he wouldn't come into the garden without he had a chaperone.  Out in the garden and I've cleared the blackberry roots and stamped the ground down getting rid of most of the bank.  ..   It isn't perfect but tomorrow I'll get loads of water on it to settle it down and put some grass seed on it or move some of the grass from the grass seed that's sprouted on another 'once was bare' patch.  All go in this neck of the woods.

Got an invite out for supper tonight but unfortunately it came after I'd sunk a couple of beers because it was so hot working outside so couldn't go out to play tonight.  Rearranged for tomorrow night and it might even entail a night away so all the more reason to get the fence fixed...while the cat's away...I don't want those sheep to play.

Picked a few more tomatoes and it looks like breakfast is going to be tomatoes on toast for the foreseeable future.  They seem to be coming thick and fast and I only got twenty plants.  No wonder my neighbours are always offering me some...So down to the kitchen...not sure if I want food or not...I'll leave it a little while and see how I feel later.  It looks like the weather has settled at long last so it will be morning duties, siesta, afternoon duties and early nights....Off for a shower...need to feel clean after a day of digging and ripping out roots...LN....good days work....

Thursday 11th July

Gardening early and over to my students carrying Gouljan as a passenger.  Apparently they have the world and all its friends staying and she was looking for a quiet place to be...and my car was it.  Rushed into my student and we did the lesson, down to sit with his mother in the shop and it suddenly hit me that I didn't remember switching the car lights off.  As I left the shop I told her that I would probably be back and sure enough, opened the door with the key but the other doors were reluctant to open and my other brain kicked in.  So back to the shop and she telephoned her husband and up he came to the carpark and using my jump leads, ready for any emergencies, he got me going in quicksticks.

So I had a shower, washed my hair ready to head off to the Librarians at about four but Gouljan appeared looking absolutely shattered, asked if she could have a nap and I promptly stuck in the bottom bedroom while I filled in the gap with gardening and a bonfire .  All my preparations were a waste of time so off she went at six, made my phone call and now I'm ready to leave.

Tonight's agenda has not been set in stone...chicken wings in sauce and salad stuff with the family or I might even suggest we leg it down to the motel at the bottom of the road.  I'll see how we feel when I get there.  Enough for now....tomorrow we might be off to Zlatograd and round the tourist shops for the tourists...LN....in my car for a pleasant evening with friends...LN

Friday 12th July

Lovely evening last night with the family and sat out until the mosquitoes drove me inside.  I'm still unsure of the use of these things on the planet!!

Breakfast of toast and marmalade and we were ready for the delights of Zlatograd by about half nine so into the back of the jeep I went when there were tow men from the village who wanted to go into Benkovski for the Friday prayers at the mosque.  It's special now...it's the first week of Ramadan and everyone is watching everybody else to see who breaks the dawn until dusk fast.  Found a few new clothes in a couple of shops, got a new suitcase for the English short break, and sourced and had minced up for me a kilo and a half of decent beef.  Problem is when you buy it from the supermarkets it is of mixed meats and I think that most of the beast is put into it...but in this case I saw the meat and watched it being minced and it worked out at about fifteen leva a kilo.  Slightly more expensive but the taste was superb and was proved tonight.

So off we went to visit the church just before the Greek border and noticed that a couple of camper vans were turned back at the border control and we could only presume that they were too wide for the road.  It's very twisty and turny and not very wide going over the mountain pass but what a disappointment for them if they had travelled there especially to cross over.  Clouded over a little and there was a hint of rain but the heavens opened when we got back down to Zlatograd and it continued until I left for home at roughly eight tonight after a super spaghetti bolognaise supper. My Avatar was waiting for me, wondered where I had been since I didn't have time to tell her where I was going this time, and she informed me that a friend of Bekir's had stopped by to take photos of the house so I must make enquiries tomorrow.

Looks like I have guests again next weekend but that means that I shall have a lift to the airport and meet up with the rest of the travellers before the flight.  It's approaching very quickly!!  So ready for getting my head down.....settees are alright for sleeping on but noting compares with the feel of your own bed...LN....rain has stopped and hoping that it stays away for the rest of their holiday...LN

Su

Saturday 13th July

Well I've just come in from a barbeque down by a lake and it would have been beautiful if the weather had been warmer.  We lit a fire, toasted the front and turned to toast the back by which time the front was cold again.  Where have our summer evenings gone??  The men and boys were fishing but it's a good job we took plenty of food otherwise we would have gone very hungry.  The two three year olds thought it was great fun to play with the two small fish that were managed to be landed but needed a miracle fo feed the eleven of us.

As for the rest of the day...out to Kardjali shopping and it was hot, hot, hot.  Ended up at Lidl getting the stuff that was needed to feed my student and his family but it was a bit of a strange one since we hadn't made a firm commitment for tonight, I didn't phone them to put pressure on because they both work all week and are stretched but they phoned me at six thirty and suggested the barbecue so the potato salad and coleslaw plus the honey baked chicken wings with potatoes and onions were dropped into the frying pan and transported to the site.  As I said, really calm night but it needed to be warmer.

So I'm home now....it's just after twelve my time and I'm ready for bed with a drink in one hand and my kindle in the other.  I reckon it will take about ten minutes tonight to be in dream land.  So LN...let's hope it's warmer tomorrow...

Sunday 14th July

Crazy day, crazy day.  I think I met myself coming forward and missed myself going backwards.  Woke up at five thirty, cleared up the kitchen and washed up the barbeque stuff, read for a while and then back to sleep for an hour or so, coffee, toast and on to the computer with a wicked sudoku.  Next thing I know it's my Gouldjan reminding me that she is using my house as a think tank to get some of her school stuff put to bed and I checked the time...nine thirty and she'll be here in half an hour.  At this point I realise that I'm still in night attire so jump to and ready for the arrival and she comes bearing gifts namely her home-made bread, cheese, tomatoes and peppers.

Late for my student...didn't get there until ten thirty but dropped off the suitcase for my other student so he could work out what clothes he is taking when we head for England next month.  Knowing him it will probably be packed, unpacked and repacked several times before we go but I'd rather he has it early.  I told him that the suitcase was a gift and his mother phoned me and said that he couldn't take it because it was new...scratch head...and tell her that he can.

So arrived at my other student's house and the family are ready with a picnic and we head off in beauty complete with axe and foodstuffs to a stream above the hot springs in Djebel.  Now the shoes I'm wearing are not on for galloping over rocky mountain beds and the shorts not suitable for the hundreds of flies that insist on landing on fairly cool skin instead of hot chicken wings......but it turned out OK.  

Back home for three thirty and Gouldjan is lying in the lounge recovering from a morning slaving over a hot computer.  She informed me that she had about another twenty minutes work to do, made her way upstairs, completed it then said fond farewells while I lay down to read my book and the outcome was that I didn't wake up until seven thirty.  Zonked....watered the garden, planted some pinks that were looking decidedly brown, no supper for me, I'm still full from lunch so a little drink and then bed.  Beautiful sunset tonight and as per normal...forgot my camera to take shots of the picnic site but they are going to send them over for me but as to yet...they've not arrived.

So full day to day...I think England will be a rest for eight days, then back here to fly out again with my student for fifteen days....better get a few early nights in...haha....LN....it's almost ten here already so this won't be one of them...LN

Monday 15th July

Early morning start, the sunrise was hidden by the clouds but they burnt off really well and it turned into a very hot day.  Student this morning and the text was about the collapse of the bee hives as we know them and how the super killer bee came into existence.  I like texts with a punch line to them.  So then we did further research on you tube and came up with a National Geographic documentary lasting for fifty minutes explaining it in detail so the lesson was extended but now we could write an essay on it...both if us....   I'd dropped the suitcase off for him yesterday morning and asked him what he thought of it.  He said it was great fun.  He was pushing his little brother around in it yesterday so a successful purchase had been made.

Down to talk to his mother,  She was busy in the shop so I quickly told her that I was going into Kardjali with Gouldjan and she was going to be the translator when I went to try to MOT Beauty in case there was a problem with having no tax documents.  We tracked down the original owner and we are going to the solicitors on Wednesday morning to sort it.  I've got a bet on with myself that he doesn't turn up at nine a.m. as arrange.  We'll see.

Off to Kardjali.  Gouldjan went to chew a strip off her dressmaker that had had the material for four months and kept promising completion.  The material was still as handed over and not even cut to pattern so she took it back and at one point the conversation seemed to get quite animated, so much so that I didn't dare ask.  We grabbed pizza for lunch, into the new 'Superdrug' type place and picked up a few things for holidays and into our favourite leva shop for a few things that neither of us could do without.  The pizza is sitting heavy so no food for me tonight.   A little beer to wash down the other and plans made for a visit to the solicitors tomorrow with the Librarian and her family and lunch at a nearby hotel in Momchilgrad so swimming gear is the order of the day.

Lovely night tonight without a cloud in the sky...let's hope that it stays that way.  LN....Garden watered and I'm going to take my book outside for an hour or so...LN...have a wonderful evening in England's heatwave....

Tuesday 16th July

Early morning and beautiful sunrise though tinged with clouds.  Scurried round a bit, shower, shampoo and shave of the legs.  I had work to do in Momchilgrad with the Librarian and then a trip round the market was arranged, lunch and a swim at one of the local hotels.

The solicitor stuff was lost in the translation so we had to get a translator and this slowed the morning up a little but the trip round the market was very profitable and I managed to pick up another couple of the lightweight bed quilts the same as the one that I got in Benkovski market.  Back into the jeep and over to the hotel and lunch just kept coming...fish, chicken, salads and cheesy chips along with beer and because I wasn't driving I could relax.  Lunch over we moved to the swimming pool and though it was cold to get in I was in there for about an hours and swam for most of it.  It's something I really enjoy doing and should do more of it and that pool is big enough to get stuck in.  

Back home for six thirty and coffee and tea all round for my guests and a whistle stop tour of the house.  They are back on Friday or Saturday for a meal with all the trimmings.  Clouds have come over again and it is the worst summer that I have had in the years I have been here.  The wind blowing round the pool this afternoon was quite cool when the clouds whizzed over and there is a cool breeze now.  I was going to sit outside and read but the lounge calls...it's much more comfortable without the wind blowing round the Urals.  Eight thirty...time to get stuck into my book...LN....I feel really chilled out after a day in the pool and sun...LN

Wednesday 17th July

Awake at five thirty and out doing my stuff in the garden at six.  Took out all the grass from the top garden and realised that no way is anything really going to survive in it unless I get loads of cow or sheep droppings to pad out the soil.  A job for this winter me thinks.  So having worked up a sweat I looked at the clock and it was only seven thirty....quick shower and then this morning it was to go to meet up with the man who originally owned Beauty to sort out the ownership.  I know that I bought it from the garage but it was originally registered to his mother as a disabled vehicle so that they didn't pay road tax or local tax but she's since popper her clogs and no way can I get to pay tax on it.  Apparently lots of rules were broken at one time but I want to be legal and have no one knocking on my door.  So off we went to the solicitors...I'd had a bet on with my student's mum that the man wouldn't turn up since I've made arrangements with him before but there he was with his boots blacked....and the advice was that he had to see the local Kmet in his original village and with his father and sisters he had to go back to the solicitors and sign a document that declares that it's his vehicle to sell and then he can officially sell it to me...three years later.  I can then go to KAT and have it registered in my name, new documents will be issued and then...it's probably ready for the scrap heap...but at least it's mine to do what I want with.

Went back to the shop and spent an hour with my student's mother and then back home.  Messed around for a while and picked up my book but realised that I wasn't going to make it until the end of the chapter so at one thirty took to my bed and woke up at five thirty.....not so much a waste of an afternoon....the weather has been cloudy/sunny and threatening rain which didn't happen so I've water the garden since most of the plants look like they need a good drink and are wind blown.

Chicken wings in the oven and browning up nicely......so I'm thinking that there are a few chippies in the making tonight....LN....I'd departing to the kitchen ...for a gastronomic delight....

Thursday 18th July

Silly night's sleep.  Yesterday's long sleep meant that last night's was very disturbed.  Bed at ten and awake at twelve, back to sleep and awake at three and finally awake at four thirty and so out with the book and up and at it at just before six.  Pegged out the washing at just after six and onto the pc to do emails and the likes.  Comments have been made about how early I was on but that means that most of my friends were arriving home at that time

Student's reading was about Robin Hood and then we moved onto the Disney version on the laptop and it sort of knocked mine into a cocked hat so to speak.  Sat with his mother and discussed various things and then into Kardjali to take the bull by the horns and MOT Beauty.  I was sitting sorting out the paperwork when the guy who runs the place came out and shook my hand through the side window, I handed him the documents and he tore up the ones that weren't necessary and handed the ones that were to his assistant.  He now has two where he used to do it all...times move on.  So the sticker was put on the windscreen straight away passing the vehicle, the brakes were checked and the emissions and I'm told that everything is normal and I'm out from start to finish in fifteen minutes at a cost of thirty five leva.  I'm not sure what they check but it passed and that's all that I'm worried about.

So driving back and I get a phone call from Gouljan asking if I can pick up her, her sister and her nephew in Djebel on my way through.  Mission accomplished and they were delivered to the end of their drive...

Remains of yesterday's chicken wings for supper but not so nice when they are cold.  Star Mush daughter is cleaning out the old house today and there have been lots of trips with the wheelbarrow up to the communal dumping ground.  Not sure if it is legal but the stuff was set fire to by the legitimate village workers...so it must be.

I've just come in from reading and am back outside when I've finished the update.  It's such a pleasant evening to sit and enjoy the solitude before I'm off to the UK on Tuesday.  Copied and laminated my student's passport so that we have a copy should the worst happen...belt and bracers to the fore.  So LN....I'm back outside with a little mastika....or ouzo if we are in Greek land....LN....I'm feeling very chilled...

Friday 19th July

Stupid night....because I had a sleep in the afternoon there was no sleep in me and I think it was every hour on the hour.  Eventually got up at five thirty and started the day.

Washing out nice and early.....sorted out the copies of the passport and laminated it just in case there are any hiccups or a passport is lost...goodness forbid but you never know.  Out to the garage and sorted out the insurance for the Beast realising that I had one day left on the old one but before I took it in to be MOT'd....I wanted the next instalment so to speak.  Registering the insurance there was a question...'do you want to take the car out of Bulgaria?' and by selecting 'yes' the insurance went up by two thousand leva....eekkks...I'll go for the Green Card later which costs seventy five leva....doesn't make sense.

So got the Beast washed and spruced up for it's MOT and into Kardjali to my other favourite garage and it sailed through...everything normal just like yesterday.  I got a kiss on the hand again from the owner of the garage so I thanked him, asked him after his camper van that I knew he had and he showed me the original complete with homing pigeons but then pointed out the other one.  I asked him if he took it to Greece but he replied that he goes to Turkey.

Did a little shopping in Kardjali and home for about three.  Washed a couple of pairs of trousers that I bought in my cheap shop and had a visit from Star Mush's daughter so we chatted for a while. she took a few seeds from my targates and off she went.  Gouldjan was the next visitor telling me that one of her relatives from the next village has committed suicide...it's all go here.  

I'd just finished cooking supper when I heard lots of noise from next door and they have the surveyors in probably producing plans of the property for probate purposes.  I did ask the daughter if she was selling but I think she might want to get some windows in and use it as her home here.  She complained about Bursa being very busy. not mush space and I get the feeling that she is no longer with her husband....just a feeling.

So supper over...tomorrow I have my Librarian and family over for lunch and I think it might be a picnic down by the lake at the bottom of the village...I have a barbecue and charcoal so why not.  Beautiful evening, not a cloud in the sky so out I go with my book, my glass for the next hour or so...LN...it's better than sitting here....