Welcome, Guest.
Please login or register.
NOVEMBER 2013
Forum Login
Login Name: Create a new account
Password:     Forgot password

Elsa Peters living a new life in Bulgaria    General Boards    My Diary by Elsa Peters  ›  NOVEMBER 2013
Users Browsing Forum
No Members and 28 Guests

NOVEMBER 2013  This thread currently has 19,829 views. Print
5 Pages 1 2 3 4 5 » All Recommend Thread
Elsa Peters
November 1, 2013, 8:20am Report to Moderator

Diary Admin
Posts: 6,110
Gender: Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
Friday 1st November

So not so much as white rabbits for the first of the month but a grey cow...as I looked out this morning I really thought I was dreaming....there was a cow prettily framed in my fence.  The rest of it was outside but it's head was firmly through and I though I'd just received a present from the cow farmer....Semile and I looked for the bow of ribbon round its neck.

All hands to the pump or rather to its horns but no amount of wrestling by Bekir could get it back from whence it came.  The beauty was released by removing an upright from the fence so it could get its horns out.  Looking at the pile of 'droppings' on the other side it must have been there for a good few hours.  When it was free, the first thing it did was to go to a pile of mown grass and start eating its fill and as Bekir commented...it must have been really hungry but as Bekir commented, it was probably no good for the freezer since it was old and the meat tough.   And it's name...Youzier......now youzier'see's it, and now you don't....

Let's get on with the rest of the day....
Logged Offline
Site E-mail Private Message
Elsa Peters
November 1, 2013, 8:23am Report to Moderator

Diary Admin
Posts: 6,110
Gender: Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
And here are the pickies



Attachment: i_did_a_double_take_5966.jpg
Size: 179.39 KB

Attachment: well_and_truly_framed_1567.jpg
Size: 157.40 KB

Attachment: and_bekir_to_the_rescue_2172.jpg
Size: 168.97 KB

Attachment: in_its_full_glory_2183.jpg
Size: 134.49 KB

Logged Offline
Site E-mail Private Message Reply: 1 - 40
Elsa Peters
November 1, 2013, 6:06pm Report to Moderator

Diary Admin
Posts: 6,110
Gender: Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
Friday continued

So the one that was called away and paid off was forced to return at lunchtime...we needed the cement mixing for the top of the wall.  It is now done.  It's been a very hard slog and not even finished by the light of the moon...there wasn't or even isn't one tonight...we'll there probably is somewhere but not here.  

I've just demolished fish fingers and chippies, having a little beer and feel that today has been good...the wall is near completion...my wood is still uncut but that's a days job and just hoping that the weather holds until it's safely stored.  LN....tomorrow I'm finishing putting my plants away for the winter and tidying the wood so that I know where it all is....LN...I would say that I've got fish to fry but I only had its fingers and that's been done...LN



Attachment: its_a_long_old_wall_9669.jpg
Size: 107.67 KB

Attachment: nearly_there_3116.jpg
Size: 103.55 KB

Attachment: and_there_is_no_moon_7434.jpg
Size: 113.43 KB

Attachment: last_legs_8828.jpg
Size: 129.63 KB

Logged Offline
Site E-mail Private Message Reply: 2 - 40
tcinbg
November 2, 2013, 4:38pm Report to Moderator

Big Poster
Posts: 63
Gender: Male
Posts Per Day: 0.01
Location: Varna
Are you sure their is not a bull in that field?  

Like the wall, quite impressive considering how long they have been working at it.

Trev
Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 3 - 40
Elsa Peters
November 2, 2013, 4:57pm Report to Moderator

Diary Admin
Posts: 6,110
Gender: Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
Saturday 3rd November

Lazy start this morning since I had a bit of a restless night.  The flies have descended on the roof space and the buggers were dive bombing me as I wrote my blog last night and when I went to bed one, but only one decided to terrorise me so I upped my quilt and headed for the downstairs bedroom...Bastard I thought!!

All quiet on the western front tonight though and I'm sitting here with baited breath...and I never know how to spell that before anyone picks me up on it....and Chicago is belting out downstairs ...it's been a very quiet day.

What did I do?  Very little.  Having the men here most days means that I'm ready for action and jumping to the coffee pot as required but today was mine.  I played on the internet until nine or there abouts...showered, washed my hair, pedicured my feet although I don't know why it's called 'pedicure'...there was nothing wrong with them that a good scraping, cleaning and polishing wouldn't sort out...it's not that I had athlete's foot or anything.  Anyway I digress.  Feet done and decided that I'd settle down with a book but that didn't last long.  As the eyelids descended downwards I got my head down for a couple of hours on my 'not much activity'centre that never quite made it outside this year.  The sun was shining...I woke up, read a few pages and had a few more minutes and that went on for a while until lethargy was tossed to the wind.  I lit a fire, dug out some of the old plants from the garden, swept the patio, had a bonfire and food was beckoning.  Raided the fridge and in its deep dark depths found a packet of ham so peeled a couple of potatoes for chippies and I know that two days in a row isn't entirely healthy but bugger it and to add to it...I shoved an egg in the chop pan and that frothed like a pyroclastic happening.  Having said that...it all tasted remarkably good and now I'm set for the night.

As I said, fire already going and beer is going...kitchen finished but now I'm heading downwards.  New book is proving interesting but seems like lots of short stories to date but the last one by this author was peculiar in the beginning so I'll stick with it.  So 'Chicago' is over...Yentl is now gracing my two little speakers and I'm about to go back to my book.  LN..have a good evening everyone...LN



Attachment: love_the_suns_rosy_glow_2555.jpg
Size: 113.03 KB

Attachment: tobacco_still_going_2854.jpg
Size: 89.35 KB

Attachment: and_my_petunias_5896.jpg
Size: 154.42 KB

Attachment: still_got_a_few_left_8237.jpg
Size: 111.50 KB

Attachment: and_now_its_off_9831.jpg
Size: 166.00 KB

Attachment: and_now_its_gone_9417.jpg
Size: 177.24 KB

Logged Offline
Site E-mail Private Message Reply: 4 - 40
Elsa Peters
November 2, 2013, 5:06pm Report to Moderator

Diary Admin
Posts: 6,110
Gender: Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
Quoted from tcinbg
Are you sure their is not a bull in that field?  

Like the wall, quite impressive considering how long they have been working at it.

Trev


Sorry Tev she's a milker...and was missed at that morning's role call.  As for the wall...they're frightened of the whip...good blokes I have working for me....LN
Logged Offline
Site E-mail Private Message Reply: 5 - 40
tcinbg
November 3, 2013, 12:02am Report to Moderator

Big Poster
Posts: 63
Gender: Male
Posts Per Day: 0.01
Location: Varna
Quoted from Elsa Peters


Sorry Tev she's a milker..


In that case, you should have got out there with your bucket whilst she couldn't move  

Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 6 - 40
Elsa Peters
November 3, 2013, 3:59pm Report to Moderator

Diary Admin
Posts: 6,110
Gender: Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
Sunday 3rd November

Five o'clock start this morning but then managed to settle back down and lifted my head from the pillow at seven thirty.  I was creaking a bit this morning...the downstairs bed isn't as comfortable as the upstairs but at least the pesky flies seem to have work themselves out so back upstairs tonight.  

Carried on reading Amy Tan this morning and am getting more into it but remembering the characters is a little disconcerting.  Over to my students and on my way there was an old man hitching a lift and it's pretty normal in Bulgaria to stop and pick them up.  I slowed the car and as he tried to get in with his bag on his back he had this huge axe that stopped him sitting down so he got out again, he took his bag off his back, I told him to put the seat belt on and the said bag sat between his feet.  At this point I'm wondering if I have picked up a stray axe-man but by the end of the trip he was wondering, I'm sure, why this English woman was living in Bulgaria.  He did tell me that he had a sister in my village but I didn't pursue it...we were safely at the end of the journey...and me in one piece.

So greeted by the family, the elder sister was making lunch and I was intrigued as she made this traditional Turkish dish that I shall be trying some time.  Meat, onions, rice, black and red pepper, fried potatoes, filled to the brim with stock and hot water and braised until the rice was done,  It was then turned out onto a huge dish and surrounded with sliced tomatoes, grated carrot, onions and it was delicious.  Enough to feed the five thousand and yet again but this time there was only one guest...his wife had gone off to visit the neighbours from the town she was born in and the husband had gone gathering wood from the forest.  After lunch we sat around and the old man who was wearing an hearing aid had heard that in England they were much more delicate than those issued in Turkey and he was pestering me to bring him one back on my next trip home.  I tried to explain that the diagnostics and matching process was performed by professionals in the UK and there was no way that I could assess what he wanted,  This didn't sit too well so I suggested that he scoured the internet for what he wanted.....made more sense to me.  Also learnt a way of how they remove the bottom stray hairs from eyebrows and upper-lip hair with a piece of twisted cotton but it costs two leva to get it done by the lady in the village...bit of a no brainer really....

Back into Djebel...fuel for Beauty...cash point wasn't having any of it so moved to the next and the link was OK so I can pay the men tomorrow.  Sat for a while reading and worked out it was time to light the fire, ran a load of washing which is now on the airer in the bathroom and on the radiator.  Chicken legs have gone in for tonight's pickings....I'm still full from lunch but at around eight I'll probably need something to help the beer along.  My nephew confirmed that he has booked his flight and arrives in two weeks time.  One of the first of my clan to make it here...I'm thrilled but I've told him I'll get the bike serviced so that he can go out on it but please leave the lycra at home and remember the shin guards.... there are  one or two stray dogs in this neck of the woods and lighting bangers down hill on a bike is not an easy option.

So..load of starlings in the garden tonight eating goodness knows what....tomorrow is a workday and we'll see what the men plan for tomorrow and I hope it's the wood to get it out of the yard.  Fire going beautifully.....I'm about to check my chicken legs...well not mine...the ones in the oven....LN....my evening starts now,,,LN



Attachment: theyre_up_in_the_tree_4729.jpg
Size: 126.53 KB

Attachment: and_down_on_the_ground_5962.jpg
Size: 138.13 KB

Attachment: and_taking_to_flight_2884.jpg
Size: 99.25 KB

Attachment: up_on_the_wires_9288.jpg
Size: 79.14 KB

Attachment: and_back_again_5137.jpg
Size: 125.20 KB

Logged Offline
Site E-mail Private Message Reply: 7 - 40
Elsa Peters
November 4, 2013, 5:34pm Report to Moderator

Diary Admin
Posts: 6,110
Gender: Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
Monday 4th November

I've just found out a new word for all those that are training their moustaches to terrorise the neighbourhoods....POGONOPHOBIA.....fear of beards.  Steady Andrew...I'm not exactly afraid...just wary...

So today has been a good day.  It started off with me reminding the men that we had to pick up materials that if they wanted to build the rest of the wall that they had to get metal and cement.  There was an..ooh...ahh and so we went down and spent about seven hundred leva on materials.  We took bets...this was supposed to arrive today but looking back on the history of Ysat.,..not a lot happens on the first day so a two leva bet ensued.  Every car that made it down the road was scrutinised but nothing materialised...until....four thirty tonight and the wagon approached.  Thirty bags of cement....metal to complete the panels and enough other metal to provide a stairway to heaven or so it seemed.

Realised that I had enough money to pay the bill for the materials but not enough to pay the men so off to Djebel at quite a late hour but I need more money for the sand wagon tomorrow.  All bills paid, Ysat finalised although my workmen reckon that I have months to pay him...Bekir and Sally paid for last week and enough for the ballast wagon tomorrow...

Telephone call from Gouldjan advising me that her mother owes me for the sugar that I purchased for her...I'm going to go hungry for sixteen leva...

Men home, me home, fire going, chicken curry about to be served...Contact with a school friend this evening which she initially denied but now as an after thought thinks there might be some miles in it..I'll await the reply on facebook....LN...I'm down to serve supper to the deserving...me...LN
Logged Offline
Site E-mail Private Message Reply: 8 - 40
Elsa Peters
November 5, 2013, 5:20pm Report to Moderator

Diary Admin
Posts: 6,110
Gender: Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
Tuesday 5th November

Five thirty start with a book and no 'Angry Birds'.  Well there was one because I'd woken up so early but having said that...I felt OK so what's the panic.  Few flashes of lightening this morning and I think that and the thunder woke me up and so I looked out and yes, it was chucking it down and I was thanking the men for wrapping up the thirty bags of cement in polythene so professionally before they left last night.  thirty times ten leva a bag...lot of money to lose.  The rain has been none stop all day and when I say none stop...it was really heavy with it and the thunder and lightening has been rattling around all day.

Toyed with the idea of phoning them and cancelling today but they have made themselves very useful today.  I made a list a few weeks ago of the jobs that I wanted done...sort of a tagging list and two of the jobs have been knocked off today because it was too wet for them to do anything outside.  I'm not sure that Sally likes being in but that's the luck of the draw.  Had a visit from Semile this morning and he's never been inside the house before and was he surprised and kept telling me what a 'thinking' brain I have...he can come again.  He loved the house.

So what have they done from the list....my rockwool insulation that has sat up in the roof space for a couple of winters is now down in a double thickness for most of the roof and I have only three rolls to buy to complete the job.  They were also running up and downstairs with half bricks and buckets of cement so they've really filled in some of the gaps.  The loft ladder has been 'dimensioned' and is going in tomorrow...weather permitting which means if it rains it's going in ...if it doesn't it get's shelved for another day.  Their priority is outside work with December rapidly approaching.  I have a lovely job for the third man should he appear tomorrow.  The workshop took in quite a bit of water today because the outside soil level is far too high.  I've got some of the drainage pipe to go down the bottom of a trench so tomorrow...he digs the trench.....bummer but someone has to do it.

Final Suffolk door latch is on upstairs and two more tomorrow...one for the kitchen and the downstairs bedroom and then I'm complete with two left over.  I have a couple of door hook hangers to buy for the back of the kitchen door now that butcher's hooks have to go....

Men home at five thirty and they're off to their favourite cafe tonight so goodness knows how they'll be tomorrow.  If it's fine they're out, if it rains, they're in and I can find lots more jobs like architrave round the doors....I've just put some pork into the oven that I got out of the freezer this morning.  So much for my watching the sell by dates...this had got 2011 on it but I thought I'd give it a go.  It looks alright and smells alright so it probably is alright.  If you don't hear from me ever again and the blog suddenly stops...you know it wasn't alright.  

LN..must check up on the pork....and then some 'Angry Birds' me thinks... Oh and a quick one for D of S...you brought the rain with you I guess...it's normally your better half that does that......thanks but this time every cloud has a silver lining...I'm getting the jobs done that I want...LN




Attachment: late_wagon_on_monday_537.jpg
Size: 121.98 KB

Attachment: my_morning_glimmer_of_hope_8830.jpg
Size: 56.50 KB

Attachment: with_scudding_clouds_8722.jpg
Size: 73.37 KB

Logged Offline
Site E-mail Private Message Reply: 9 - 40
5 Pages 1 2 3 4 5 » All Recommend Thread
Print

My Diary by Elsa Peters (only location)

Thread Rating
There is currently no rating for this thread