Wednesday continued

Forgot to mention...I've tracked my parcel to Sofia...it should be here in a few days...

Wednesday 15th January

My parcel has arrived in Sofia...Let's see how long it takes to arrive in Dushinkovo....

Thursday 16th January

For those of you who know Kevin Bloody Wilson...I've had an absolute c*** of a day....those of you who don't...it's very funny but ignore the swear words.  So what went wrong?  I took out the pipes to the wood burner and it went ladies anatomy skywards after that.  So taking the pipes out is easy, cleaning them is easy, repositioning them is easy...so why the problem?   When I put them back there was smoke pouring out of every joint. I removed them, substituted what I thought were the cranky ones with others, put them back, lit the fire and still the smoke was pouring out.  I'd noticed that there was a fair amount of smoke in the bathroom which is where the pipe goes up to the chimney so I hammered that home and secured the others or so I thought.  Lit the fire again and still enough to call out the fire brigade so into Djebel and bought a whole new set of pipes and thought that that would solve the problem...Did it?  Did it buggery and tonight I am sitting with the windows open and thank goodness it's about twelve degrees outside.  Me thinks there is something stuck up the chimney and I might even invest in a callout to Bekir...sort the flippin thing.....

Apart from that quite a good day.  Gave Gouldjan a ring since I was in town and saved her from the four o'clock bus and deposited her at around three fifteen at her lane.  Hacibar came round with a pot of her home-made yogurt and that will be my breakfast.  Supper tonight was a chicken breast dutifully flattened by Lidl and served on toasted bread with tomato sauce and mayonnaise.  Not exactly part of the fat-free easy diet but very substantial for a smoked out individual.......I'm sleeping with all the windows open tonight...don't want to die in my bed...LN.....I'm too young to die...LN

Friday 17th January

What an exciting day.  The weather has been absolutely fabulous for January and I've been out gardening most of the day.  The old wild roses in the little garden have mostly gone and will flourish from being severely cut back.  I've discovered another couple of Japonica Keria so they will be planted out against the new wall.

I left my phone in the car overnight.....by accident and when I checked it I had had a call from an unknown number so I phoned it and it was....my parcel and they were checking whether they could deliver or not so they did...'sled ovet'...this afternoon.  As well as that excitement I had the post lady call and thank you Linda, the calendar arrived along with the card and she made me sign for it since it was recorded and wanted the customs declaration slip from the letter for some reason and I had to sign that as well.  Another parcel...my cable has arrived from the UK so I am back to getting my photos from my camera in the conventional way...thank goodness.

Just to recap on the heating.  I took all the pipes out this morning, replaced them, tested a candle over the aperture to the chimney from the bathroom and there was barely any movement of the flame so I had little faith that the new pipes would work.  True to form, the downstairs bathroom was filled in next to no time and I called Bekir for his take on it and he comes out tomorrow.  My knight in not so white shining armour if there is soot involved.  

Battened down with my woollen sweater on and a book.  Neil Diamond doing his stuff and a glass of red at my elbow and all's well with my world.  Beautiful moon tonight complete with halo...and surprisingly, no heat but the house is holding its own.  LN....back to my book and by the way....I'm on the tenth Jim Butcher...I'm not a slow reader...LN

Saturday 18th January

Beautiful morning, beautiful clouds and sunrise.  As for the rest of the day.  After breakfast I decided to try to unblock the pipe from where the soot is supposed to come out and the flue from the fire is supposed to go in.  Now the soot out pipe is situated about a meter down from the chimney in pipes and I'd reported a blockage to Bekir a few months ago and I'm told that there is nothing wrong with my chimney.  No I take umbrage at this...I have cleaned my pipes and woodburner religiously and the only thing that I see between the in pipe and the roof is your frigging chimney bricks.  

I spent the morning trying to clear the bottom half of the stack and I had this sudden image of Colditz.  I'm there trying to clear the top with a calving knife and the bottom with a length of wire and I suddenly got the giggles.  I interspersed this with a book and more breakfast until my knight in not so shining white armour looking at him when he'd finished.  Bekir was adamant that the chimney was clear..so up he went on the roof with a pole and a flue brush and started to ram down the contents of the chimney and what came down was a surprise to all of us.  Lots of bits of old brick, chimney linings and not too much soot as could be expected from three years of fire burning.  I think he was embarrassed. It was all due to bad workmanship but now everything in the flue pipe is rosy so to speak...no soot...no smoke and everything as it should be.  I rest my case.

As for me now...my fire is going, Neil Diamond is still singing his little heart out and I might even venture in the kitchen to see if there is anything worth cremating.  Tomorrow I am off to see my student and the family...all peace is restored in my neck of the woods...LN

Sunday 19th January

Now I've had a very chilled day and not in bodily terms now that my chimney is fixed.  I did fall asleep on the sofa last night and woke up at one thirty this morning with the fire still ticking over and forced myself into bed.  I tried to go to sleep straight away but it wasn't happening and I know better than to lie there and hope...on with the light...out with the book and I read for about an hour.  Straight through until seven this morning, made coffee and decided that it wasn't worth lighting the fire since I was out for my student at ten this morning.  I've put my newly acquired pet on my desk.  Not new to me but new to Bulgaria....he came over in the box.  My son bought it as a present for me several years ago and he's made of suede, that's the turtle not my son, and beautiful to stroke....

I had a very long lazy shower to get rid of the smoke and grime from the last couple of days, the bathroom tiles need washing down due to the fact that there was so much smoke happening in there.  I'd opened the window to let out the smoke but it seemed to force it to condense so it I have rivulets of dark stuff on the white tiles and that will be my task for tomorrow.  But getting back to me...washed me, my hair and went upstairs by which time the sun had burnt off the morning mist and warmed up the house despite lack of artificial heat.  Dried my hair, went for the black and grey look putting on my leather long waist coat that my daughter insists on calling my dustbin liner but I still wear it....and call it now 'classic'.  

Over to my student for about ten thirty and her parents were working in the garden getting rid of the weeds that are springing up.  As I've said...winter has been kicked out of the way by a very early and unusual spring and looking at the long-term forecasts...there doesn't seem to be any real threat of snow and minus temperatures.  My student was cooking and had prepared part of what was to be lunch.  The family came in and we discussed my trip to England and theirs to Istanbul and my student gave me a gift of a pashmina in a mustard colour.  I think it will become a favourite.  We didn't do much of a lesson but I'd taken a couple of Ladybird childrens' learning books on grammar and spelling that I'd picked up from the charity shop at home and the father and mother set about trying to read one of them and I think my student needs to look out.

Delicious lunch and that will do me until tomorrow morning.  We had beef cooked with potatoes, yogurt, grated carrots with pomegranate vinegar and my students banitsa...all prepared by her own fair hands.  I stayed there until three....back home, lit the fire and got some more wood in, put a load of washing in and at seven, thinking about a glass of the red.  The house is back to what it should be without a hint of smoke swirling around and I did get a call from Bekir this morning to check that all was well.....I think he was more than a little surprised what came down the chimney...LN....I think I'm going to make a work of art out of the chimney droppings and keep it in the little house for when they start on the chimneys....LN

Hi Elsa, Photos are great as usual. Glad u got the calender, It took its time...lol Love the turtle toy. Take care Linda & All.x

Monday 20th January

Thanks Linda...not sure why it took so long but the local post girl is new and she was really unsure whether I had to sign the custom's declaration and she had no idea why she was to take it and capture it for posterity.  Pleased you are all well and I promise to take care this year with the ice and snow but having said that....there is no ice and snow.  I'm told that it's not good since it since it will not kill off the 'microbes' and everyone will have the flu....are that old chestnut.  Hugs to you and gentle hugs for Rachel...

Well it's been a 'bitsa' day.  Six thirty start and the fire was still smoldering so I stick some kindling on it and it took about an hour for it to burst into life.  I realised that I had to get in some wood and for that I needed the wheelbarrow that was resting on its side from the last effort with the rose pruning and burning.  Now to do that I decided to clear out the burning stuff and get the bonfire going to clear the rest of the pruned branches and while I had the wheelbarrow in the garden I might as well remove the fence relics and stack those on the heap at the back of the workshop and so it went on.  The outcome... cleared the garden, burnt the rubbish, also cleared out the new polythene mine that I'd uncovered by the wall, got the wood in and it was more like an 'in tray' exercise that you put infront of students.  I passed.

Came in when the wind got up and I'd worked up a bit of a sweat...I could almost feel a chill starting.  Settled down with my book and before I knew it I'd gone out for the count for an hour or so and woke up from a dream where I was on the telephone to a new prospective employer (and where did that come from) and some one was berating me enough for me to put down the phone and sort them out.

Settled in and made a shepherds pie and delivered half of it to my Avatar and in return I got a dish of home-made yogurt.  That's village life for you.  It's gone really warm again tonight...when winter comes back none of us is going to be prepared for it but in my Avatar's house this evening it was so warm...but only in one room.  Thank goodness for central heating....LN....I'm going to shower, get in my pj's a curl up with my book...LN

Tuesday 21st January

Tonight it's going to be quick.  It's just started to thunder and I'm going to have to put this beauty to bed.

Woke up sixish, read for a while and then the clouds burst at about seven thirty and it was an amazing sky.  Soon clouded over though, we had a little rain, the wind got up and it brightened up.  It's been a cold wind all day with bits flying all over the place but I had some cards to make so I've been up on the pc most of the afternoon.  Two visitations ...one from my Avatar returning the dish so hers went back with some biscuits in it following on from the tradition of not returning it empty.  My second visit was from Haciber telling me that her grand-daughter of one year old have just come back from Sweden for a holiday and my present was a box of Peppercoka ginger biscuits.  What a lovely surprise that was so she sat for a while, she told me that the little ones are now walking around the furniture so they must all have their hands full with two little ones.

Supper tonight was the remains of last nights shepherds pie only tonight it was fried up and served up with...wait for it...HP sauce....delicious.  Harry Dresden is no more ...I have come to the end of the books that I have but the next one is called 'Ghost' but he's lost his magic apparently so maybe he's lost the magic as far as I'm concerned...have to find something else to go at.  LN....one extra large clap and I really must say goodnight....just got one photo from this morning...LN

Wednesday 22nd January

Beautiful sunrise this morning but just lately it seems to be par for the course.  It caught me by surprise...I'd not bothered with the fire since the temperature was ticking over at about fifteen in the house so I went up to sign on the computer, looked up and there it was in all its glory.  I'm just amazed at how different it is so I grabbed the camera, went out onto my balcony from the upstairs bedroom and took the photos from there when suddenly I heard a crackling and I couldn't work out where it was coming from and then I spotted it.  My neighbour in the next village had started one heck of a bonfire and it was that I could hear and a few seconds later I could see.  Took a few more and came inside and thought they were worth posting on Facebook and once into it, there's always the next comment to make but it's rather a pleasant way to pass an hour or so.

Finished making the birthday cards that I started last night and realised that they ought to get posted and not linger on my desk.....so into the Beast...off to the post office and received my official receipt for postage...(they don't have many letters going out) and they put the official stamp on by hand.  Decided that if I got the things on my list locally that I'd be home by one thirty so I had this calling to get myself into Kardjali.  The Mania shop was calling out to me and I managed to pick up a pair of dark grey jeggins, a green linen summer jacket and a merino wool Banana Republic role neck sweater for...total...just under ten lev...that's a fiver to you and me.  It was also a good excuse to go into the bank and demand my annual calendar and to top up my electricity and water account so that I didn't get near the mark again.  All achieved and left with a calendar....I went to the stationery shop and they will order any cartridges that I want for my new pen and managed to get some more 170 gram cartridge paper and the boy was determined to try out his English but it was a good job that I had some Bulgarian...

Stopped off at Lidl to get a few things and back to Djebel to my student's mum's shop for a chat and an update.  Left at four thirty and picked up eggs and bread from my local supermarket, home for just after five and fire going by five fifteen and shopping unpacked by five thirty.  Relaxing with a beer at six and all in all...I've had a lovely day.  It looks like Beauty might have the kiss of life tomorrow....my student's mum is determined that she shall live...LN...that second beer is calling me from the kitchen and I have to sort something for supper...LN