Woohoo some normality to my evening routine has resumed!  

Very poor excuse having no electricity.... Get yourself a solar mobile phone charger and then you can do your updates by phone!   (Subject to you having upgraded from a Nokia 2110 ha-ha)

Phew, thats a relief, you made it! Longest we were ever without power was the 1987 "hurricane"; 7 days - we lived in Hampshire back then. But we still had a phone - the old fashioned one on a bit of wire, and the weather was not too bad. I remember being furious about the freezer - we had the contents on our household insurance, but when I made enquiries, the excess was more than I coud reaonably have had stored in there. Ain't that always the way of it!?
Now just go count those toes, to be sure there are none missing to frostbite.

Glad to see you back on line. Hope the leccy stays on for you. xxxx

Wednesday 18th March

Just counted them Jean, they'll all there and as for the electricity Linda...I'd just lit the biggie to get some heat into the place and it went off this morning so I'm assuming that last night's repair was to get us up and running and this morning they made it permanent....fingers crossed.

It was a long hard slog.  I think the worst part was when the light went at night and I was trying to read the Kindle using candles and a torch and the evenings were so long.  I'd got the little wood burner in the kitchen and I'd rearranged the kitchen table and moved the sofa in there but the rest of the house was cold.  The house did maintain ten degrees which isn't bad when it's minus five or so outside but you get two lots of pyjamas on and the woolly hat and don't anybody ask where was Wally...I certainly felt like it.  The digger came through on Monday to clear the road and I managed to get through to the driver that he was to push it down the lane and not leave it dumped in front of my gate and he was very obliging.  I'd started my own clear up of a way through to the woodshed and finding Beauty and then it was working out how I could maneuver cars and snow to get the Beast out with minimum shifting of snow. As the days wore on it was inevitable that the contents of the freezer and fridge would have to be dumped and the local cats had a real beanfeast.  They're looking very disappointed today....nothing left and I ended up tonight with beans on toast.  As for your suggestion Mikey B...I did buy a solar charger but it relies heavily on the sun and there wasn't a lot of that hanging about and as the days wear on....who gives one anyway.  

On Tuesday I was running short of clothes and so on Monday night it all went into soak in a huge tun and I had two lines full by lunchtime on Tuesday and fortunately it was a super day for drying.  Today has been spent repairing the fences and cutting down the bushes that have been damaged with the weight of the snow.  The plum trees have mostly broken off, the forsythia was flat so I've brought the branches into the house so that they can have a shot at flowering.  The broom was flattened too and it seems to be making a partial recovery but I shall lose some of the branches and we'll have to see what else has been damaged.  My little top garden hidey hole is no longer a hidey hole..I've had to chop down the branches..such a shame.  

So back to normal or thereabouts.  Djebel tomorrow and I'm gong to get some help on completing my annual company tax return.  The guy in there didn't want to help out as much as the woman did the previous year but it's just a matter of copying last year's details over but my Bulgarian writing leaves a lot to be desired so I'll ask my student's mum for a little support.  The document has to be in by the end of the month so I have a few days left.  

So off for a long soak now.  The boiler is working it's little socks off.  LN...now let's get a few pictures posted for the hard of hearing...LN..   

Beautiful pictures Elsa, but I can imagine how frustrating it must have been without any power! Anyway glad you're safe and well! x

Thursday 19th March

I am well MikeyB and just about safe from myself so to speak....xx

Just before seven start after a really good night's sleep.  The bath ran out of hot water before I was ready to leave it last night, I got my hair wet to wash it and the shampoo was downstairs which is where I normally wash my hair in the shower.   Bumma so to speak so I squished it through, rolled it in a towel and who's a curly top this morning then....

Coaxed the fire into giving it its all, more washing done and pegged out, completed the last six days of Daily Mail Sudoku, got the documents together, split a few logs and brought them inside, shifted cars around so they are where I want them to be now that the snow has more or less gone from the yard and off I went to Djebel.  Stopped off at the post office in Rogoche to see if my mother's day cards had arrived and no joy but in a FB message from my student who's father works in the post office...they have hold of them...what it is to be known.  My student's mum filled out the two copies of the forms which took all of ten minutes but my written Bulgarian looks like it's written by an English person and it sure would have been.  My student's school day began at two today and he had to catch the bus at 12.00 so I offered to take him in dropping him off at his grandmother's house complete with yogurt and eggs for her.

Went to the pay car park since there was no joy at the other, over to the revenue office and got to see a lady about my forms but unfortunately the system was down so I was asked to come back in thirty minutes.  Over to the bank to collect my cash point card and I was assailed by a man who was intrigued as to where I came from and why I was speaking Bulgarian.  His English was quite good and he told me that he had lived in London for ten years but that he'd returned to Kardjali which is his home to build an apartment block with shops underneath and offices and was quite insistent that I went with him to view the state of play and the plans which are posted on hoardings.  He proudly told me that he was sixty and I just said that age is a number and didn't give anything away.  I made my farewells and he said that if I wanted to phone him for a coffee, his number was on the hoarding...nothing like advertising.  I'll have to get the rundown on him from the Bank.  

On to the Lev shop and bought six more wine glasses since I seem to be a few missing but that's guests for you, back to the revenue office and all forms completed for another year at no cost at all, over to the cheapie shop and two pairs of trousers for one lev twenty stotinki since Thursday is the really cheap day and on to the supermarkets to restock the freezer and the fridge.  Gouldjan phoned me while I was in Billa and said that she and her boyfriend were in town and would I have a coffee with them which I did.  Finished off at Lidl, picked up diesel and back to Djebel for the last of the shopping.

Washing in first, car unloaded with the wheelbarrow for speed, fire rescued, chicken in the oven and washing put to air...time taken twenty minutes for all that but it's been a long day.  Supper finished, a little mastika on the go and it will be an early night for me, into bed with a book with electric light...luxury.  Nothing really on the agenda for tomorrow but I'm told that it will snow over night....I just hope I'm not into digging the cars out again..LN....I'm off to pray to the snow god/goddess to give me a miss this time...LN

Friday 20th March

Bit of a disturbed night again and read for a while.  I think it's the novelty of electricity after such a long time without but went off again until about six thirty but it seemed remarkably light outside and I thought  that it was much later.....Wrong....there was about five inches overnight and there's a joke there somewhere but I'm not going to make it...

Fire rescued and heaving, it's the first day of spring in Bulgaria according to Google but no one seems to have looked in my back garden before the decision was taken to accounce it.  All the normal tasks done, got stuck into FB to put a couple of pictures of the morning snowdrop so to speak and then off it went.  Firstly the internet and it came up with resolving host which means they're not having any joy getting out to the big world and then the electricity went off.  Now there's no immediate panic but I've just banked the fire up and does this mean that I have to ditch as much as I can into the little one to protect my pump and the system but then it came on again....and then it went off again...and then it came back on so I put the light on in the hall and used that as my guideline as to whether I start to dismantle of the electricity gods are going to be kind to me for no other reason than I deserve it...   And it stayed on but the internet didn't come back until thirty minutes ago so they've obviously had there issues.  Breakfast was a packet of bacon fried, an egg and fried bread with HP original sauce....sets a girl up for the day.

As for the eclipse...I could a glimpse of it when the clouds came over the sun at about half way into it.  That was enough...my eyes are fragile enough.  I'll wait for the next one in 2026.

Changed the house back to normal and wrestled the sofa from the kitchen into the winter lounge area, one of the elbows in the water downpipe system had sprung apart and the constant downpour from the roof onto the terrace was getting on my ladies' anatomy so I was trying all sorts to find a solution and ended up stuffing the guttering with bubblewrap and it will do until Bekir, my angel, can get here and replace it.  Took some mandarins over to my Avatar, she asked me how much and I said two eggs would cover it.....she gave me five so bargain.

I'm not going to my students for supper tonight....if it gets really frosty that drive back through the forest could be quite treacherous.  I did get the phone call to ask why I wasn't going but I had said that if the weather was bad I wouldn't be there and so I'm home alone apart from a new wine box and again it would be rude not to.  

So cosied up, and there is supposed to be more snow tomorrow but at least I did enough shopping yesterday to keep me going.  LN...let's see what arrives overnight...LN

Saturday 21st March

Six thirty start and realised that the sun  was already coming up.  Dawn is getting earlier.

Out into the garden after poached eggs for breakfast but the gas ran out.  The gods must really be on my side...if it had gone out when the electricity was doing its own thing it would have really been a problem.  As it is...I shall go to the gas station tomorrow and get it refilled.  As for my poached eggs...they were fine but overcooked having to use the electric plate but they were adequate.  I decided that it was a gardening day and it all came to pass because I took the house rubbish out to burn and I needed more stuff to burn.

Good bonfire, worked until one  and then decided that I was in for reading the exploits of McTravis who is my latest read.  I was just nodding off beautifully when the door when there was a knock on my door and it was my post lady delivering my mother's dy card from my daughter.  Thank you Princess....and as you were thinking of me when you bought the gift I was thinking of you this morning when I had poached eggs for breakfast.

Out to the garden this afternoon  and carried on removing the branches that had succumbed to the wind and dug over the little bed removing huge rooted weeds which was easy since the ground was soggy.  Supper was chicken with roasted potatoes and onions and this was had during the first half of the rugby/ .  Second half is with a little help from the mastika.

Now back to the rugby....LN...I'll update you tomorrow....LN