Sunday 1st January

Well I managed to see the New Year in with the London fireworks...but on the TV.  I suffered the Robbie Williams concert...oh how he's changed.  I found it amazing how he got the audience to sing most of his songs for him and as for the dancers, prancing around tied into their costumes....at the outrageous price for the tickets....I reckon they were done but as he said...they seemed well on the way and were bound to enjoy it.  First rant of the year over...

Normal seven thirty start, read for a while, crumpets for breakfast knowing that I was out for a carvery later so didn't want to get thoroughly stuffed before the occasion.  It was and still is a horrible day out there....I don't think it's stopped raining all day.  I got photos from home today and they have snow....I suppose ours would have been if the temperature had dropped.  Shall we all blame global warming for the lack of the white stuff.  I lingered in the bath with the Kindle and it survived, ended up in the third bedroom sorting through toy cars that are now going on to another home via either the charity shop or a man who has a market stall.  I suppose if you know about old cars there's money to be made but I don't so I'll have to trust a man who does.  

Ready for the off at just before one.  I'd bought my daughter another present after Christmas from the sales and I wanted to give it to her before I went back.  I found a card and cut out the word 'Christmas' and printed 'everything' on the inside and ordered her to 'stay happy' which she normally is.  So all round soft drinks...what lightweights we are but in some cases it's more down to Mr Plod than anything else.  They've been lots of sightings of roaming law enforcement around Brighton....and rightly so.  So we went to the pub that we were at two weeks ago and boy has this holiday gone quickly.  So over to the buffet.  I went for standard while my lovely daughter, husband and grandson went for large.  I think the difference is only in the quantity of meat and the size of the Yorkshire Pudding.  The rest of the veg are free flow so you can help yourself and we did.  Roast, mashed and chipped, carrots, sprouts, parsnips, peas (two types), stuffing, onions and all the sauces you can imagine and the rule is that what fits on gets eaten.  Most of it went...we cleared our plates, grandson buckled but we reckoned it was down to the chocolate consumed for breakfast.  It's a boy thing....when they get to the age he is....you don't really monitor the intake and expect them to take responsibility for it...

So I have work to do over the next few days.  I have to sort a box and courier out and contents.  It's all piled up ready and we'll see how much fits Cinderella.  No supper for me...stuffed to the gunnels...about to see if I can find anything worth watching on the TV....Filmon seems so uncomplicated what with two remotes to negotiate.  LN...Three hundred and sixty four days of blank canvas left....LN

Pickies from today

I forgot to mention...I'm still getting used to the new camera so not many to publish....

Monday 2nd January

Don't know what you did last night but I caught 'What we did on our holiday'.  Never heard of it before or seen it but the children's acting was second to none.  Very gentle script and humour with a lovely twist.  Catch it on catch up if you missed it....

Eight start, toast for breakfast and got on the phone to arrange my taxi for Thursday morning for the unearthly hour of four fifteen.  Today has been one of activity.  My suitcase is packed and the box is in the hall with the consignment note waiting for the driver.  Going on to the web to find a carrier for the parcel was daunting.  No one seemed to want to give a quote for carriage and I hate it when it asks you to put in your card details before you know how much they are going to take from you.  Anyway...better than I thought and it's supposed to be delivered within three to four days.  I'll wait and see....it was longer than that last time.

Over to Angela and John's this afternoon.  My host had run some security programs on her computer the last time we were there and it hadn't been the same since.  She couldn't get into her emails at all so bells were ringing for me.  I kept the conversation flowing while he slogged away and played with her five year old grand-daughter who was convinced that I was the real one out of Frozen.  Six thirty and we ordered the takeaway, progress was being made on the computer, the food was delivered at seven fifteen and my first chicken dhansak was underway,  Hot spicy and almost worth staying in the UK for...well almost.  Home for fine fifteen which is the reason that the update is late and not a decent photo to show.  I'd had to use my Sony phone and everything at sixty plus was very blue and blurred and not worth publishing.  Minus two tonight on our way home and I've just checked out the Bulgarian temperatures for Thursday night and it looks to be in the really minus figures...Friday minus eleven and Saturday....minus twenty one....something to look forward to and I better get the home fires burning as soon as I get home to warm the house up and get the extra quilts out.

Sorry no pickies....LN...A book at bedtime for me...LN

Tuesday 2nd January

Sleepless night...it's a pity I wasn't off to the airport this morning I would have made the taxi at four fifteen.  I don't know why except that I fell asleep reading and went into a deep dream sleep that was exceptionally vivid and I could relate it to my host later.  It was to do with his daughter and I don't know why she should have been in my thoughts.  Second wake state was at seven thirty, down for coffee and toast and I headed for what used to be my little study/my son's music room and found out the old photos and newspaper cuttings.  I've lots of my parents, their parents, me growing up, my children and my sister's three and I was going to take some out with me but instead I took photos of them...much easier to carry.  I did find an interesting newspaper article about a horse crashing through the window of my grandmother's fish and chip shop and thrashing around on the floor.  I'm going to put it on FB on the town page and other photos from the area of some of the older citizens on a day out to Wedgwood's pottery factory.  There will probably be several that recognise their mothers or grandmothers having an away day.  My mother is the youngest on the photo...I think she went along to keep the others in line and make sure that they brought everybody home again.  I also found an article about the first headmaster of the grammar school I went to recounting how he was the youngest applicant for the job.  The things you find when you're not really looking.

So today was a clear up way in lots of ways. The new charger unit and two batteries for my new camera arrived so they've been packed already.  The cover for the camera charger point looks a little fragile to me so it will be good to charge up and load with the spares.  I started looking at some of my old books and came across one on astrology telling me how to create a birth chart.  Now me being a lazy so and so decided to see if there was a freeby on the internet that would do it for me without having to use sidereal tables and I found one.  Thirty seconds and four to six hours work was done and now it's just the interpretation.  All the planets in the right houses and telling me which star signs were influencing them...Shimplesss.

Princess was back to work today and came round after work and it was time to spend time with her without any one else present.  We reminisced about people and events from the past and got back on to familiar footing.  I do miss her when I go away....maybe this year.

That's about it for this time....Mrs D of S did message me on FB and suggested that I top up with lots of goodies on the way through Djebel on Thursday.  Apparently the cold snap is longer than the two days that were predicted and the snow much deeper.  Mr D of S is supposedly heading back to Sofia...we'll have to wait and see if that happens.   I might be snowed out...he might be snowed in.  I'm down to the warmth....and then an early night for me,  I'm building up my resistance to tiredness ready for my mammoth especially if there's snow about.  LN..Another book at bedtime...LN

Wednesday 4th January

Seven start again this morning and back to bed with the Kindle.  The pickies that I'd put on FB yesterday caused quite a lot of activity, there were lots of ladies about my age whose mothers, aunties, grannies were captured on film and this hadn't seen the light of day obviously.  I have lots more...in those days it was normal to take photo to record events....I shall have to keep digging.  At least those are out there now and memory joggers for quite a lot of people.

So realising that it's going to be so cold in BG I've revised the list of clothing that I'm actually carrying in person and not in my carry-on.  One more sweater with and extra layer of sleeves since tomorrow's temperature appears to be going to be minus four especially at four fifteen.  I also realised that some of the clothing I was wearing had yet to be packed so it was out with some of the clothes that are staying here and into the case with them.  Silly really...I could have put them in the box that was going to BG and done without them for a few days but I never got round to it.  The courier arrived at about twelve thirty, scanned the box and entered it into his system and away it went.  I did ask him if he could give me an estimate to which he replied that it could be there tomorrow.  Perhaps I should have gone DHL and not EasyJet...

This afternoon has been one of managing to hold my nerve and temper.  My host decided that he wanted to reline the lounge curtains and I was sort of roped in to it much to my chagrin and in my estimation, it's time that they were thrown more than repaired and when the clamps came in from the garage and a huge plank of wood so that we could line things up....maybe not my way of doing things but back to normality soon.  Lovely conversation with my son today though and we've both agreed to keep in touch more.  He's busy with a family and job but again it's all down to discipline and on my part too. Hand written to the children would not go amiss.  Princess has just phoned to wish me a safe journey and she'll be looking out for my blog tomorrow.

Horrible day today....by about lunchtime it was black as you like and now the temperature has dropped.  I'm off for a bath and an early night....three thirty is going to come round quickly and can't keep a taxi waiting.  LN....Fingers crossed for on-time flights and straightforward onward journey....LN

Now if you'd have said when I saw you... I could have helped to put you in a box for DHL!      

Now no sledging until you get home!!

Thursday 5th January

I'm home, both fires are going and the hot water boiler is on.  It's a little bit chilly with minus five outside but at least all is safely gathered in with the thread of rain or snow at about nine tonight so not long to wait.  I shall be sledging tomorrow Mikey B when I go to fetch more logs in.

So the alarm went at three forty five and did I have a mare setting them on the mobiles.  They hide these in unusual place but eventually one had got a normal alarm and one a chicken and it frightened the life out of me when it went off and I couldn't turn the blasted thing off so the phone was switched off.  Out for the taxi at four ten and he was waiting for me and Gatwick for four forty five.  So why do that change things?  I was travelling only with hand luggage but they've changed the process for scanning your boarding pass and there were several dippy daydreams that were supposed to be helping out passengers but their conversation was obviously more important than my confused expression.  Not an ounce of proactivity between them.  I negotiated that and then they've change the security process.  You lose sight of your luggage and there were two other trays between my toiletries and suitcase and I ended up waiting with boots, toiletries, belt and passport in hand and I hadn't a clue why my suitcase was behind plastic and I couldn't get at it.  One of the guys behind the counter said that he would be with me in a minute and I racked my brains to think what I could have missed and not declared.  As it happened, I didn't have to open it up...another process changed.  So on to departures and I was approached by a lady doing a survey on the changes they've made to the processes...and did I have a field day.  Loading was cleverly approached until the end when it was a free for all.  I was one of the ealier ones to board and had chosen my seat in advance so putting my luggage in the overhead was no problem at all,  As the flight filled up this became more difficult...they'll be charging for hand luggage soon....watch this space...Flight was on time, the captain made up fifteen minutes on the journey and I made the twelve o'clock bus down to Kardjali.  The next bus was waiting and I was in Djebel for four thirty....a record for me.  The Beast was waiting for me outside my student's shop and after stopping off to do some shopping, I was home for five.  

Fires going, the air is cold but to be expected but getting there, boiler is on for a shower, case unpacked, cream profiteroles and coffee made it go with a swing.  No photos again.  I'd packed my camera in my suitcase and it stayed there until I got home.....I'll be back to normal tomorrow I promise.

In summary I've enjoy my time in the UK but my hillside looks just as good as it did.  It was the same as when I'd left it, nothing had changed or moved...everyone left it alone.  LN....I'm off for a shower to warm up the bones...LN

Friday 6th January

So I was in bed by eleven last night with my hat on and the fire going strong.  The intention was to keep it going all night and I did.  I was awakened at two thirty this morning by the mother or all thunderstorms.  It was flash and bang without much interruption and it kept going for about an hour or so.  Now I've never known a thunderstorm when it's snowing.  I'd checked last night and it had started raining and the snow must have started but the terrace was glittery as the ice crystals formed before it finally took purchase.  I did notice that there was a light in the yard and I realised that I must have left a door on the Beast partially open so at four I was out there and made sure it was shut properly and the thunder was still knocking about,  I read until six and then went off again eventually coming to at eight thirty.

A quick wash was on the cards, the snow had really started to come down and there wasn't a glimmer of my free central heating so it was on with the layers, another pair of pyjamas on top of the ones that I was wearing, padded trousers, another pair of socks and my alpaca jumper followed by a heavy wool zip up cardigan.  On with the beret, snow gloves, wellies and it was log top up time.  I was down to one in the house so desperate needs result in desperate measures.....so out I went. carrying my trusty log carrier.  Firstly I cleared the snow to the workshop and from the door to the Beast so that I could have a clear run at it.  Three loads in, another load of kindling and small logs for the kitchen wood burner and all is safely gathered in.  It should do me for a couple of days and I got the second log carrier dug out from under more prepared kindling and that ready loaded with big stuff.

I sent a couple of emails with pictures of the snow to my daughter who is now in the process of doing the snow dance.  I've got it...she wants it and I spend the rest of the morning sorting out cables and chargers for phones and cameras.  I didn't bother with breakfast but I did put the chicken wings with potatoes and onions into the oven at about twelve and lunch was ready at one thirty.  I'd added a baked apple with honey, brown sugar and raisins and using the adage of  full tummy requires rest, I spent the afternoon on the sofa in a state of hibernation waking up a six.  Fire duties, everything loaded for this evening and the temperature in the house has risen from nine to fourteen so it's heading in the right direction.

It's still snowing and the wind has got up blowing the snow into drifts.  You can't see where I cleared it but with my trusty snow shovel...it really doesn't take long to do it.  I'm in for the night....sledging tomorrow Mikey B....I might even make it down to the bread van to see my neighbours....I haven't caught sight of anybody since I've been back only the back of the bread van as it was leaving the village this morning.  I'm back to my book....I'm back on the second of the Harry Bosch that I bought in the UK and again the style is reflective of a documented account of collecting evidence to prove his case.  Thirty percent to go....I should be through it tonight.

The fire is calling me...I have work to do.  LN...Time to throw some logs on...LN

In that case I want pictures or it didn't happen  

I see Google is still well and truly out of date....

Saturday 7th January

That would explain why my son doesn't want to visit Mikey B.  I've had to take the photo off but I'm trying to get it back for comparison.  It screwed up the format of eBlah....   I have posted one that I took earlier so I shall give you the proof and I'll contact Google to let them know that it's time we had an update....

The house is warm...lots of minus last night and tonight is going to be even colder.  I went out this morning and noticed that the snow plough or tractor had in fact been down the road dumping the snow over the drive and making it nigh on impossible to get out even if I'd wanted to but there was no chance of that....Had a bath this morning and lingered for a while.  The bathroom is directly above the wood burner and the pipes to the chimney so it was really toasty in there.  Straight back into double layer of new pyjamas and vest, pyjama top and fleece jumper....I leave nothing to chance.  A couple of poached eggs for breakfast and then it was into the wood store, two wheely bins of logs into the house and enough to keep the little one going with smaller ones...a log for every occasion...big ones, small ones and I bet those of you that know the song will be singing it later...I went out and cleared part of the terrace but it started to snow again so I thought it was wasted effort.

I settled down on the sofa to read for a while and there was a knock at the door.  My painter had arrived, he'd seen the snow and asked for a shovel...he was going to remove it for me.  I invited him in, he was reluctant since he was wearing his boots and I had to tell him a couple of times that it was OK...Eventually he came in and sat down on the sofa and I went into the other room and brought out his Christmas present.  I hadn't seen him before I left...apparently he was working in Momchilgrad and that's why he had been to chop my oversized logs and he obviously felt pretty bad about it.  He guessed what it was....a bottle of Smirnoff so I guess his afternoon was OK.

We went outside and he was interested in the work that the men had done and he was really impressed,  He hadn't seen the terrace or the steps down and approved of the plans.  I got the shovel for him from the workshop and he set to to remove the snow plough droppings.  Why they do it I haven't a clue...the other side of the road is all fields and it wouldn't make a jot of difference if it was dropped there.  We worked together and it took about ten minutes but not that I'm going anywhere.  Off he toddled with his bottle and I settled myself down again.

Not a lot of activity this afternoon.  I did find some curtains out with the intention of putting some up on extending poles to act as a airlock on the big windows.  One curtain is up but I need to get to the workshop to find another rail and the next two can go up.  It's supposed to be minus seventeen tonight...a little chilly.  

Nearly eight my time...I've got the cold chicken wings tonight...I was going to make soup but the afternoon was taken up with other things...and tomorrow is another day.  Other curtains tomorrow...they will do as a temporary measure for this cold snap...A little Filmon and then down to the fire.  LN...I hear the kitchen calling...LN