Saturday 9th August

Had a lovely evening with You-Tube last night.  At the end of this month I'm off to an Andre Bocelli concert in Sofia so I thought I'd catch up on some of his recent performances and now I'm getting really excited about it.  After that I moved on to Leonard Bernstein and watch his making of Wet Side Story with Jose Carreras and it really took me back to the time that I had the video and would watch it.  LB was such a charismatic character and so passionate.  

So a couple of glasses of port were drunk last night and I slept really well until six, down for coffee and it was again a bit of cloudy morning but it cleared and it's been beautiful all day. Breakfast was the remains of last nights potatoes and onions refried with some bacon and an egg...way to go.   I had a brief spurt of energy this morning and used the mole heaps to pot up some more of the Lonicera that I've rooted and gave the container plants a good drink before the day really began.  I've looked at my excuse for a lawn but haven't done anything about it today...I'm still tempted mind, and there's lots of light left ....As it happened, my lethargic self decided that a day on my bedroom balcony in very little clothing to try to even up the tan would be well worth the effort along with the Kindle.  I stayed out until even I couldn't stand it any longer and moved on to the bed and continued reading...Another book finished and on to the next.  This author has written about thirty books but you can do them in a day more or less and it amazes me that they come up with so many ideas and some say that he churns them out but he has a nice jokey way of writing.....and Robert B Parker is the name....Private detective is his game...

Super moon tomorrow night again and a meteor shower so I read on t'internet...so I'll be looking out for both.  There are just a few clouds in the sky tonight but it's perfectly still so we should be OK and it will be out the camera again....I got some good ones last time just as it was rising.  As for the meteors....I've got so little light pollution here that if it's clear it should be a good show.

Little bit of a kerfuffle going on outside and poor Remsier donkey and cow didn't want to go home...They were in Haciber's yard where there is a lot more grass than on the hillside and decided they wanted to stay there.  Eventually she got them moving and homeward bound but with a little difficulty.  It's a good job that I don't know Turkish swear words...I might have blushed.

So supper tonight is what I can get....I've not got much appetite when the weather is hot but it's been a day for water and lots of it.  Off to water the garden, tidy up outside and get the toys put away...LN....that lawn might even get done yet....

Hey all, just a quick note to say the due to internet connection issues the update today will be at best delayed until much later. So don't worry if it doesn't arrive until tomorrow even.

Come  Elsa stick 50 stotinki in the meter!  

Sunday 10th August

Mikey B.....you know me as tight as a duck's whats-it....I' don't put money in the meter it's fixed up to my bike and I'm peddling as hard as I can but I've been swimming all day and the energy levels are depleted...   And nice to know that you are still supporting the poorer nations with the odd comment here and there...and love you to bits and hope you are all keeping fine and the little lady is not proving to be too much of a deva....and taking too much after her father....

Seven start this morning but I lingered in the pit until just before eight and down for coffee.  I had a phone call from Gouldjan this morning and I said OK...what time do you want picking up from the bus stop since I knew that she had to give her Bulgarian lessons this morning.  Out to Beauty and the blessed thing wouldn't fire up and I really must get everything that makes it fire replaced...I hate having things that don't work.  So my next task should I choose to accept it was to get the Beast out of the garage without knocking Beauty's nose off which after a few backwards and forwards and shunting I managed to get it into the road.  Gouldjan was waiting and I relived the horrors of the new boyfriend between here and Djebel and then rousted my swimming pupil out of her virtuous couch and into swimming gear.  Off we went and found the hotel that I stayed at with Mrs Kingdom, paid over the fifteen lev for a day by the pool and my task for today was to try and get the big one to be confident in the water and take the first steps....or first sloshings without support.  This we managed to do....I had to keep telling her to keep breathing and if in doubt to smile and it seemed to work...I was trying to build up her confidence and not to have fear of the water and she managed a couple of lengths just holding on to my arm and for a first time...I was impressed.

We had lunch at the restaurant and the boy should have written it down...he missed one of the main courses and then back to it with some more swimming but the hotel was beginning to fill up and it was much busier than the morning session.  As it was I was pleased with her and she was pleased.  From just having the vision of 'I need to swim' I'd got her to appreciate that the water does most of the work...you only have to move around a bit.

Stopped at Lidl at about four thirty and picked up some goodies.  Back to theirs for coffee and a run down to the parents about what she'd achieved and also to grandfather.  Had coffee and grapes and came away with a plate of home made Banichka for tonight's supper.  And it was rather nice that grandpa said that he knew that his grandchildren would be alright because he recognised that I cared.....nice touch....

So home for  six thirty more or less....quick try for the internet but as you could see...nuffin....Watered the garden, the swimming gear is in the washing machine and programmed to come on while I sleep at cheap rate and can I just add that's the electricity at cheap rate and not me...before anyone jumps to conclusions.   Now down to get the Banichka and a glass of Ouzo  to make the medicine go down...LN....I've had a lovely day in the sun and swimming...what could be nicer..and tomorrow, Kardjali for my new residential documents...LN

Love you too mummy P... Always here skulking in the background getting my daily update   ...and as for mini me, she reminds me of you! Strong headed, knows what she wants and how to get it, but annoyingly lovely with it too     

Yeah!!  That is me back with you Elsa. ( Not that I have ever been away )   Thanks very much.  Love your photos of the moon.  It was too cloudy here last night to see it, but had a good view the night before!

Monday 11th August

Back to you Mikey B and DS,,,,it's not that I need a following but it's just good to share the beauty and the experience with you.  In fact this applies to all of you that visit the site and thank you....

So this morning five am start and don't ask me why...the mosque didn't kick off until six but now that it's a super volume it's best to be prepared.  I have a friend who shall remain nameless who has offered to put out the relays from the mosque in Djebel for two weeks free accommodation...but having said that I've never charged him yet...doh....but I'm sorely tempted to invite him over....and his wife of course.

Fresh bread with butter this morning for breakfast...it was enough.  I phoned the Librarian for a chat and a catchup and showered and shampooed and then off to the smoke to get my residency sorted and finalised and hopefully to get my UPS sorted for the central heating sorted,  Off in the Beast and I do love it, Kardjali was heaving with lots of Greeks trying to buy the place up and the car parks were full so I ended up having to pay.  Now it's one leva for one hour and after Brighton prices...I can afford that on my pension,,,and I said to the man as I was leaving that I thought I'd gone over and he said that no,,,I was right on time.  

Down to the Immigration and now I have a document that will allow me to travel to Europe without using my English passport....I'm semi Bulgarian,  It was explained that they want my English passport and my Bulgarian to run consecutively so this card is on,ly valid until next October but when my passport is renewed, I have my Bulgarian for the next five years and so on and so forth,,,  I went down to the hospital to register with the doctor but she is on holiday until the beginning of September so I'll leave it until then.  Good service all round.  Delivered my UPS to a new shop since the central heating shop that got it from is no longer there and she offered to send it to Sofia to identify the problem.  Now I reckon a service is about the same price as a new one so she's going to phone me when she has one and I'll make a decision.  On my way to my material lady I spotted a man who might know about UPS and he investigated and said that he thinks it's the board not the battery so I think it has to be a new one.  So on to my material shop and five meters of pure cotton for making a quilt cover at two meters forty wide...seven leva a meter...and as Princess would say...it would be rude not to.  I ordered five meters and paid thirty lev...I think there was a little discount thrown in there but I do recommend her to a lot of people.  

Into the underwear shop and got a pair of white trousers and a green top for ten leva, on to another Mania and a blouse for two, over to Kaufland and bought more potting compost, Billa did not have the fillet steak that I love so bought nothing and in Lidl, the price of Ariana had risen so it was a very small bill in there.  Delivered a packet of butter to my student's mother since I'd talked with the two girls on how good sweetcorn is with salt and English butter, stopped off at the garage and told him that I want a new battery for the little one and we#ll continued investigating from there since there has to be a solution.

Hope for three thirty....not a lot done until the temperature went down and now chicken cooking, lawn done, chicken nearly ready and beer opened...what could be better....couple of days doing nothing apart from waiting in for my new battery to appear and be fixed...LN...that chicken sure smells good....

Tuesday 12th August

What a night.....I woke up with cramp at about three this morning and it was almost as if my toes were paralysed so I spent about thirty minutes walking around on the cool tiles.  It was very hot last night so out with the Kindle for an hour or so and eventually went back off, woke at seven and lingered until eight and the day just seems to have flown by.  Decided that I needed a breakfast this morning so got out a tin, yes a whole tin of baked beans, two slices of toast and lashings of butter and demolished the lot.  More coffee and then out to the garden and repotted the oleander cuttings and three of them have roots on but the other two look suspect so I've dipped them in rooting gel and we'll see what happens.  I might have have lost a pot of petunias...I dug them up and the soil was so dry and solid and it appears the poor roots were getting nothing out of it so they're now in a bowl of water and tomorrow...into compost with them....such a pretty colour and I don't want to loose them...I paid good money for them from the damaged section in Kaufland...   Gave the garden a really super watering this morning ...the temperature was rising and I knew that I wouldn't be out there for long but those poor plants had to face the day....

I came in at just after one....two loads of washing on the line.  I'd removed the covers from the lounge sofas and generally tidied round but then it was down with the book and into the lounge for rest and recuperation.  I was toying with the idea of going into Kardjali...I'd seen some quilt covers in my cheapy shop but if they're there the next time I'm in they were meant for me...it not...I hope someone else enjoys them.  I thought they would have gone on the two sofas in the lounge...and made a change.  

Shut up shop and went to lie down with the book at about two thirty but I slept in a disturbed fashion.  I dreamt really vividly and was amazed when I woke up to find that it was only just after three so off for a shower to cool down and on to the internet.  Not much happened this afternoon...the book and a Sudoku kept me out of mischief...the garden is watered, I'm getting watered and I have cold chicken for supper so  all in hand.  LN...I'm going to have another lazy day tomorrow I think...LN

Wednesday 13th August

Caught the moon last night but it's started to lose some of its roundness already and up before the sun this morning.  It had the makings of another hot day.  Out to the garden with my coffee and saw the tail end of Haceber wheeling her wheelbarrow up to the communal dump two gardens up from me and the last time I managed to offload a couple of cucumbers and this morning was no different.  She couldn't manage to wheel and carry so I carried them up to her house. On the way I noticed my Avatar in her garden working away removing grass and I asked her if she wanted a cucumber as well.  She refused the offer so I asked her if she had any and she didn't so back down the road with one a minute later and I'm amazed that none of the neighbours have them. She was just off to get some bread from the mobile van and I asked if she could get me an unsliced and now we have a tussle on...she accepts the cucumber but won't accept the lev for the bread so she ends up throwing it on the grass verge and I end up rescuing it and dropping it down her top and of course they have so many layers that she's probably still looking for it....   Back home and double poached eggs on toast for starters and it was still only eight thirty.

Watered the garden and decided to harvest some of the beetroot and I was surprised how big they have grown.  I washed them outside and broke the tops of and straight into the kitchen so that the fun could begin.  Now I have this fear of poisoning everyone by not washing the jars properly and I suppose I get paranoid about it.  Anyway...while it was cooking and before the assembly process began, I decided to design and print eight labels thinking that was about how many jars I would have.  No...I have three and for the effort I would ask if it was worth it....but they all 'vacuumed' up successfully so now into the fridge and then into a dark place.  

So hot outside that I took to the bedroom with the Kindle since there is a cool breeze with both balcony doors open.  Nodded off for a while but was awakened by the phone and it was the garage asking if they could come out and fix Beauty's new battery so out he came, job done, he tested some other things, we had a coffee and he walked out on to the terrace and took in the view and said how wonderful it was and I had to agree.  He hasn't really seen the house since the other terraces have been done and they notice the improvements where if you live in it you accept it and move on.  Back to my book with a couple of cheese and pickle sandwiches for a late lunch and I never did get out again to do any weeding.  Went round with the hose and touched the surface...it really is so dry and will do it again tomorrow morning before the sun gets up.  

Off to Kardjali tomorrow to give the new battery a spin and to see if those quilt covers are still available...well it's worth a try....I might just have to summon up the enthusiasm to do the rest of the beetroot and potentially make chutney and the rhubarb calls out to me every time I water it..... jam or chutney..... but I'm certainly not a domestic goddess.  So LN...let's see what tomorrow brings...LN