Tuesday 20th October

Six thirty start but with a dream so vivid that you wonder whether you dreamt it or not.  Read for a while and played on the DS and eventually made it downstairs to make coffee at about eight.  On to the computer and my phone started ringing and it was Gouldjan asking where I was.  I turned the question round and she said that she was in the bus stop and that she'd missed her lift.  I told her to ring me back if she was still stuck in fifteen minutes and she did so out with the car and took her into Djebel and to work.  I put the washing in before I set off and it was 'cooked' by the time I got back so pegged out and then it was toast for breakfast to get the day underway.

The weather was good so it was a 'what can I get up to' day and I decided to use the strimmer to take down the lawn but the last strimmer blades that were ordered were the wrong size and they keep flying off the spindle so it was out with the lawn mower and it's all down to manageable length.  I went on to the internet and have ordered forty of the blades that fit the strimmer and it's free postage from Germany...result.  I carry on with the long wall garden planting up a honeysuckle that had never done well where it was planted..  I watered the other plants that I'd planted there and currently all seems to be good.  I came in and went out for the rest of the afternoon and did work in dribs and drabs but I achieved a whole load down by the all.  I can see an improvement.

Washing in, wood in, fire going and everything in my garden is rosy.  Gladys has yet again moved but still seems to be more or less in the same place so she should be digging herself a hole soon.  Beautiful day after it warmed up....supper cooked and eaten and a little beer on the go.  Nothing planned for tomorrow..LN....I'm about to enjoy my eventing...LN

Wednesday 21st October

Woke up last night in front of the computer having fallen asleep watching Filmon.  Downside..I would wake up at silly o'clock and I did.  Four o'clock this morning and I was wide awake and had to fill my time with reading and DS until it was time to get up and get started.

Nothing much to report this morning except that it's cold out there but warm in the house.  Last night's fire just kept the temperature up and no need to get it going again until this afternoon.  I wasted the morning and eventually succumbed to Film on.  It was too cold to go out and 'do' so I eventually decided that the summer clothes should go away, get stored in my original coffin and the winter clothes folded and stored until they're really brought into their own.  Decided that it was chicken curry for supper so the chicken out of the freezer, into the pan and sauteed with onion, tomato juice, curry powder, dried chili and carrot until the frost was out of the chicken and then into the oven for a couple of hours,  The rice went on and onto the petchka until it was 'just softened' and served at about six...deliocious....and the rest of the sauce has been put into the saucepan with the remainder of the rice and will be soup tomorrow.

Bit if a 'non-day' tomorrow but the clothes have been sorted into 'keeps', 'charity' and 'is this any good for you'?  House lovely and warm, kitchen cleaned, finished and ready for the morning....No pictures today....I checked up on Gladys and she's roaming freely down the bottom of the garden...LN....and nothing on the agenda for tomorrow....I like it that way...LN

Thursday 22nd October

Well it has been a day of rain, rain rain and it has now turned in to a day of thunder and lightening.  My fire has been going all day today and there has not much been happening on the home front.  I got in the wood, lit the fire and kept the home fires burning.  I've been stuck into a book all day and despite the fact that I've slagged off the author of my latest series of books...I've lain on the sofa all day and stuck with it.

The internet has been really slow.  Facebook wasn't doing what it should have done and was really slow.  Messenger was reduced to a ...wait and it might be displayed but it might have been down to my provider that was impacted by the weather.  

Not sure how long I'm going to be on..the thunder struck...I'm going to cut off now...LN...and no photos...tomorrow is another day...LN

Friday 23rd October

Well I woke up at three this morning in front of the fire with my book resting on my knee.  So I checked my messenger to see if I was off to a meeting in Djebel in the morning and it had been called off because of adverse weather predictions for tomorrow which suited me fine.  Off I went to bed after confirming that the meeting would take place on Saturday morning...and so it will.

Seven thirty start this morning but the rain was still raining and the hillside was shrouded in mist.  This is not the autumn I know.  The weather this year has been not running to form at all.  I stayed in bed until eight thirty and finished my book with a cup of coffee and then down to the  lounge and cleared out the fire and got it going again and it's been going all day.  I did do a tour of the garden and decided that there was no need to water anything...nature was doing it for me and then out with the frying pan and bacon and eggs broke the morning fast.

Today has been a none day with regard to anything constructive.  I've realised that I have to take up a 'something' to fill in my days if the weather is going to be like this and today it's been Freecell and television.  I have a whole load of wool and lavender drying....I think it's got to be lavender bags for the potential church bring and buy sale that I'm trying to push for the church in JS's village.  We'll see.

So I'd got out some mince this morning and this evening I made my own hamburgers, used my painter's potatoes to make my chippies and they were served with tomato sauce since there was no more mayo in the fridge but it's on the list for tomorrow.  Fire going brilliantly and the house is super warm this evening. ...maybe it's a practice run for winter.  Tomorrow it's a nine o'clock start in Djebel.  We might take off for Kardjali...depends how the mood takes us.  LN...I have a little mastika on the go and a fire going....looks like it could be a very agreeable evening...LN

Saturday 14th October

Silly morning this morning....I woke up at four twenty and couldn't really get back to sleep so DS and new book,  Coffee and tried to get back but at six thirty there was no way wo shower, hair washed and ready to set sail for Djebel at the allotted hour...Mrs' D of S was waiting in a spot prescribed but not described sufficiently and I was waiting where I shouldn't be but we eventually linked up.

Off to Kardjali and lovely day.  Money changed. breakfast of pizza. clothes at really good prices. we bought coal so that we're both ready for winter which is a bit of an in joke between myself and Mrs D of S ....over to Lidl and into Technomarket where she bought the things that she needed.  Back to Djebel and internet paid for for the next two months....local supermarket and we both bought what we needed, leva shop and she picked up her picture frames and I bought a new winter hat for five lev and then into a coffee bar to take a rest from all out endeavours.

Drove her home and me thinks she protesteth too much about the distance and fuel.  We sat and chewed the fat over coffee and then I'm back to mine.  Firelit, wine box opened, chicken wings into the oven and now suitable demolished....

Cold and wet this morning and there was a steady drip dip from the roof that resulted in me placing a sock over the metal railings on the balcony....the drip, drip woke me up at four...and the sock cured it.  Weather got better all day but now it's calm but the wind is cold....and now focusing on the rubgby...well somebody has to....Not sure who the good guys are....LN...we'll wait and see...LN

Sunday 25th October

Well I remembered to put my clocks back last night before I went to bed but then got confused because the Kindle didn't automatically update.  I was up by four which would have been five in old money so to speak....and eventually went down for coffee and it's been quite a long day.  It was cold this morning and it took ages for the mist to burn off.  The sun was there but there was no heat in it and I ended up putting a scarf on and not taken it off all day.

I managed to get the washing done, stopped the bread van for a fresh loaf and bread and jam for breakfast.  My painter came round at around eleven and I told him that there had been a delivery of beer to his shop in my garage and he asked if I could get him some virgin olive oil the next time I went into Kardjali.  Now I'd bought one for me and not used it so I hoiked it out of the kitchen but he insisted that he paid me for that and the beer.  I reminded him that I wanted some manure for the garden and no sooner the word than the blow.....He said that he'd asked Remsier's husband if he could deliver a cartload of the stuff but he decided that he would go with the wheel barrow and he delivered four barrow loads and three are spread on the garden and the fourth is ready for me to repot some of my plants.  

Lit the fire at about three this afternoon...I got the feeling that once the sun went down so would the thermometer and I was right.  The washing is on the airer in the bathroom...despite the sun it was still a little damp when it came in.  Nice to see a sunset after the last few days and there is a clear sky tonight with an almost full moon.  I've got the rugby on but watching it on Filmon is a bit stop and start.....but come on Argentina but it doesn't look like it's on the cards.  

Just received a phone call from my son and it was good to talk.  I've got my invitation for christmas...I'll have to be looking for flights.  Back to the rugby now....it's in windup.  Nothing on the agenda tomorrow...I think I'm coming down with a cold, I've had some unusually big sneezes....and there's a tickle in the back of my nose and throat.....I'll be stoic and try to work through it.  LN....hot bath and an early night..LN

Monday 26th October

Four o'clock start and with a bit of a temperature, blocked nose and unable to breath.  Don't you just love colds.  I think you know what I mean...you are hot one minute and cold the next so you put a sweater on and then you have to take it off.  I did do a little on the computer, copied my Bulstat and laminated it since the original coating is not as good as it was...I'll have to ask for a new one that's if they still provide them.

Breakfast of a couple of boiled eggs...feed a cold and starve a fever and I was unsure what to do but it's done me for the rest of the day.  I lit the fire at around one despite that the sun was shining and it was a glorious day but I was determined to get settled on the sofa and get my head into a book...I really didn't feel like doing anything else.  I did get my head down for an hour or so but it was only cat-napping.  I'm trying to regulate my sleep pattern to take in the clock repositioning.

Hacibar came round this afternoon and brought me another dish of the meat and rice and I picked out the meat, ate some of the rice but really had no appetite.  I was doing OK until suddenly the nose blocked up again and the back of the nose seems really swollen but fortunately I found a packet of menthol throat sweets that I'd bought from England about a year and a half ago and they seem to be doing the trick.

Well all arrangements that I'd made for tomorrow with Mrs D of S and the Librarian have been shelved...I don't want to share my germs...they're mine all mine.  There will be other days....LN....it's time for a hot toddy...LN

Tuesday 27th October

Not a bad start this morning and I went to bed sleeping upright so that I didn't have the blocked nose.  It worked ...sort of...but I didn't feel too bad when I faced the day.

Down to the kitchen and poached eggs on toast...the first one stuck to the pan so it had to be a second one that met my criteria.  Thoroughly buttered toast...way to go.

I realised that hiding my head in a bucket was not going to work so I went out to the garden, checked on Gladys and she appears to be doing OK.  She doesn't seem to be moving much but that might be the routine of the beast...I'll check her out tomorrow,

Sorted out the pallet shelving and swept up the leaves that had accumulated...seeds are all in the little house and so is the patio umbrella. It was time that it came in and it's safely ensconced too.   Bring winter on ...

Fire lit at four thirty and it's chugging along nicely.  Two chicken legs in the oven with a jacket potato...I thought that would suffice for tonight.  I can smell it from the kitchen so it's near to fruition so I'm going to say LN...my supper is ready and my evening is all before me...LN

Wednesday 28th October

Well with the curtains closed last night in the bedroom I had to get up and open them to see what the morning offered.  It was clouds being whisked across the mountains and a sun trying desperately to break through which it eventually did.  I coughed and hacked myself through the morning but eventually made it down to the kitchen but it was only for coffee. I lit the fire and settled into a new book series that I've found but I think it is for children and a fairy tale probably set in Wales but it's quite a joy to read after my desperate Swedish detective....

So read for a while and went out and walked the garden.  Dear Gladys doesn't appeared to have moved and I hope she's or he's OK....but he/she will do her own thing...she just happens to be in my garden.  Got the wood in and then settled in the lounge reading my book and that's about all that's happened today. Took some photos of my little house on the opposite hillside tonight...bang in the middle of the photo...one day it will be fixed...  

Countdown, Pointless. Eggheads and Strictly and then I'm in for the gymnastic championships...see my choices are variable.  And now....everything is settled in for the evening...LN....there might be more activity from me tomorrow but there's no guarantee...it's all down to the flu germs...LN

Thursday 29th October

I've had a very slow day today....the head cold appears to have gone but it's left me with a hacking cough that seems to be removing nothing from those two air filled sacks....I'll have to keep trying...

Another beautiful day but with a chill wind so I walked the garden and that has been the sum total of my exercise.  Gladys hasn't moved much either and she'll have to dig a bit harder if she intends making herself a burrow for the winter.  No way is she moving in.  I put the joint of meat into a roaster bag and into the oven at just after two.  When defrosted I identified it as lamb and was an offering from my Avatar's daughter when she came to visit last time.  Don't think the butcher had certificates for his butchery skills but it tasted OK.  I roasted sweet and normal potatoes with onions, added peas towards the end of the cooking time and almost used up remains of the Bisto.  Unfortunately I feel like I used to after a Sunday roast in the UK...stuffed to the gills until the following morning.

Mrs Posta delivered two letters from my UK bank and there was a request that I contact them.  They'd tried contacting me without success.  So it was ten minutes to get through to the first person and through security, I hung on when I was transferred to the second department and after twenty five minutes I was still hanging and the phone went dead.  In for a penny I thought so again five minutes this time before I got back on to security and then ten minutes before speaking to the correct department and then twenty minutes for them to explain why documents I'd sent to them as proof of address were not adequate...even though I'd written all the details in English and translated it for them.  I mentioned that since I was phoning because I'd received a letter from them, I suggested that the address that they had on file could be verified...still not enough said the supervisor.  Just to add insult to injury...they cut me off and no way was I going to phone them back and they managed to get me on my mobile and again I had to go through security......I can do a passport on-line in nine days door to door....what's so difficult about banking....   Mrs Post also delivered my strimmer blades from Germany so I can strim to my heart's content and I have forty of get through.

Gentle evening...couple of beers...soft sunset and now to chill after about an hour on the phone to the UK..LN and I still have to send them one more document...aaarrrgggg...LN