Sunday 29th March

So I was awake at six and it was shower and hair washed so that I could get over to pick up Bekir this morning to sort out my drainpipe issues.  Unbeknown to me...the clocks had sprung forward so I was an hour late but he didn't mention it and I didn't find out that the changes to the clock had occurred until four this afternoon.

What an eventful day.  I was at the restaurant to pick him up and over we went to Fotinovo to the materials yard for the replacement guttering and an extra tube of silicon so that the job could get done.  We stopped off at the shop and he brought bread and yogurt for a late breakfast but he left the loaf with me, he somehow didn't manage to have lunch.  He had to make do and mend.  The guttering was a different diameter size and it turned out to be a bigger job that he originally thought but it's done and the right one will be substituted when we get the right gauge material...he knows what a stickler I am for having the job look good.  So he mended my leaking tap in the upstairs bathroom and between us we found the right equipment for removing the crappy Chinese seals from the crappy Chinese product and it's reseated sufficiently for it not to leak any more but probably a new one is required.

I dropped him off and over I went to the Librarian and turned round in her lane very gingerly so that I didn't get stuck and suddenly things smelled warm and there was steam coming out of the engine and now I'm concerned.  I popped the bonnet while I was facing in the correct direction, left it a while before I removed the top of the radiator and noticed that there was lots of water running from underneath the engine.  Joy of joy.  Both locks on the Librarian's house were secured so I stood and shouted but I assumed she was asleep, back to the Beast and filled it up with several litres of water from the spring and nothing seemed to hold.  I started it again and it seemed to run OK and moved it down to the motel where there is also a garage but after all it's Sunday so there wasn't much happening.  I explained the problem to the garage owner's brother who got a torch out and tried to work out where the radiator was leaking from to no avail.  The solution was I left the car in their village, the brother drove me home, I phoned my garage with no reply and tomorrow I will try to find a garage with a trailer so that I can get the Beast back to Djebel.  What a bastard of a day.

Found a photo on the internet of my Avatar's grandson so printed it off and laminated it and took it over to her.  She burst into tears and I left a message on the FB page and he was so, so pleased that I took it over to her.  I love technology when it brings people together...

So conversation with the Librarian this evening...I think she feels that she has been let down somewhat by her neighbours and we all go through it from time to time and I think she'd got her head down this afternoon.  Tomorrow is a 'sort it' day and I will.  As for the weather, it's been nothing to write home about.  Slight rain and then it stopped and then it started...such is the way of this winter but at least I won't have rain pouring on to the terrace any more...LN..at least one problem has been solved...LN

Monday 30th March

So this morning the sun was a shining to welcome the day and it was the day to get the car sorted,  I had a phone call from the Librarian to see if there was anything that she could help with but I said that I was going to make a call to the garage at nine and see where it got me.  I got washing underway seeing that it looked like a good day to be getting it dried, hung it out and spent some time looking round the garden but realised that there was a nip in the air so back inside and prepared to head to Djebel with the car keys and the documents.

I called in to the petrol station to get some fuel into Beauty and remembered that I'd seen a trailer parked there and Ismael who owned it.  I was going to ask if they could get the car in but instead went down to the garage and we discussed the situation.  The guys at the garage were all for going down there to identify the problem and then try to fix it.  They said that the cost of getting it trailered in could be quite high but I said that their costs could equal the cost of getting it trailered in and eventually they had to agree with me but I handed over the keys and the documents and left it in their court.  Went to pick up the letter from my student's mum's shop and it was a CD of Elaine Paige and Friends but there was nothing in the envelope to tell me who and why had sent it.  Back to the car shop and we chatted for about an hour and then back home, I emailed my son and asked about and thanked him for the gift if he had sent it but the response was that it was probably form Princess and it was.

Washing safely gathered in, I was surprised how light it remained this evening and then I remembered that the clocks had sprung forward.  Early supper and lit the fire even though there was no real need to night.  Eight thirty my time and I'm about to get stuck into another Travis Magee...I shall be glad when I've finished the series.  Let's hope there's some movement on the car tomorrow, at least if it's in the garage they we can identify if I need to order the part from the UK and get it sent over.  LN....I'm heading down the wooden hills....LN

Update on the car....the garage owner fetched the radiator out of the car leaving the car where it is....I was right, it is the radiator...perhaps I could get a job as a mechanic...the part is being ordered tomorrow...LN

Tuesday 31st March

Who stole March....where has it gone but thank you Baba Marta...you have truly made it memorable.  Snow, thaw, more snow, no electricity, broken down trees and broken down car.  Roll on April...

So six start this morning and the clocks going forward has buggered up the sleeping pattern but as the BBC used to say...'Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible'.  Unfortunately today was not the day...breakfast of poached egg on toast, out to the garden to burn the hedge trimmings but everything was so wet that nothing wanted to burn at all.  Gris was out there looking to salvage anything that I'd put in the burning pit to the extent that I thought at one point that the whiskers would go.  My Avatar saw me in the garden and came in for a chat...she'd thought that I wasn't there because of the absence of the Beast and not lighting a fire.  My friendly neighbourhood watch.

After the abortion of my burnup I decided that I would take to the sofa with my kindle and unfortunately the eyes were heading south so I have in to nature and got my head down for an hour or so.  The sun was out but it was a little nippy and sleeping with the door open meant that I woke up chilled so at four I lit the fire, made a coffee and returned to my book and what a good fire it was.  The logs had come in yesterday and so were thoroughly dried out and picked up immediately.  It's not that it's cold but as I've said before it's comforting.

Update on the Beast.  I phoned this morning and they think that they've ordered the correct part number and it will be delivered tomorrow.  I thought it ended in 55 and in the catalogue it was a 56 so we'll see what arrives tomorrow.  At least they have removed the radiator so that they can do a comparison check.  I did phone the Librarian to make sure that the Beast is still lodging at the bottom of her road and yes...it's still there.

So nothing on the agenda for tomorrow unless I have to go in with the mechanics and bring the car back otherwise I am going to get rid of that heap of brushwood even if I have to put it in the wheelbarrow and drop it where everybody else dumps their stuff.  As for the rest of the evening....my book is livening up so I'm off the pc.  I have to get the computer into a repair shop though...the start-up fan sounds like it's about to take off into the stratosphere....it needs attention but at least I have a recommendation is Kardjali....next time I'm going.  LN....I have a sofa that requires my attention..and a Kindle...LN