Tuesday 1st January

So I've just typed up the first message of the year and it's gone off into the ether and not posted.  Is this a portent of what's to come?...I hope not so let's try again.

Sleepless night and I was opening windows at silly o'clock to get some air into the room unlike BG where you want to keep the hot air in and the cold air out.  I eventually got off again and woke up to a really pleasant morning and I sun full of promise.  It stayed around for a while but no sign of it later in the day not that I saw a lot of it.  Long leisurely bath this morning and washed my hair and this time I didn't use Badedas in the bath so I rinsed out the shampoo completely and haven't ended up with sticky hair.  Breakfast of toasted fruit loaf which has sustained me for the rest of the day apart from the packet of sugar loaded Squashies Drumsticks that I've just finished and I've an idea that this could be supper unless I go on the hunt.  We had fish and chips last night at A's house and I came back with a carton of chips that were just too much for us to get through with the idea that I would make them into a Spanish omelette today and that's going to happen isn't it.  Our local fox should do well tonight.

Again it's short and sweet.  The New Year is here and now I'm in to planning what to take with me when I go home and if I have to book a bag for the flight home.  Decisions, decisions.  I've also spent the day looking at late availability cruises so I might be back since they all take off from the UK.  So now to plan the night's viewing on the tv and to attack the contents of the freezer that my host thought was going to last a little longer that day one of the new year.

LN....I'm on the scavenge....LN

Wednesday 2nd January

So last night I was still sorting out the records for my host's previous generations until one thirty this morning and took to my virtuous pit at just after that with a box of Belgium chocolates....a present from my grandson.  I did ration them out and had only three...they were so soft and squidgy...but the second layer is still complete...they should do me until the end of the holiday.  The box of Quality Street still lives to fight another day.  

I woke up at seven twenty, started on Soda Crush and managed to achieve the one that had held me up for a few hours on and off and managed to knock off two more until I'd had enough closing off my Kindle with 'lives' to go.  That's a nice feeling.  Down for a bacon and egg sandwich, I'd chosen the bread from Lidl but I've been popping seeds from it all day even after cleaning my teeth.  That'll teach me.  I tidied up the lounge and got rid of the recyclable stuff and it took me a while since I'm not used to it.  I don't recycle I burn and the vapours lift off onto the hillside and get blown away with the breeze.  I think the neighbours here would throw a wobbly and be dialing for the emergency services if I tried it here.  Lightweights.  

So today I've confirmed the dates of births, deaths and marriages on the genealogy notes from other members of my host's family and charted it up so that you can see who's who and who's with whom.  They started off in Scotland in the eighteen hundreds, some moved to Sunderland and the rest to Worcester but the Sunderland branch made contact and couldn't work out how they were related.  This system of naming the first after the father means that everybody seemed to have a William and a George, etc and it can get very confusing.  I've been using a couple of programs and I've now confirmed that the family came from the same 'many great' grandfathers and two brothers went their separate ways.  In fact seven brothers and sisters went their separate ways and I've logged some of them...others can remain unlocked...the main thing is that I've proved the mutual ground between two of them and my host is ready to spread the good tidings to the rest of the clan.  Clever old me...   I do enjoy it and I blame my autumn guest for leading me into the path of genealogy....thanks P.

The telephone today has been a hot line to BT with lots of incoming calls saying that we had a problem with the internet.  We don't....I think they're trying to sell in a different service so in a fit of pique I asked him for their company number so that I could complain and he gave it to me...strange.  Both kiddiwinkles are back at work and Princess is complaining that she has to get used to the lack of chocolates on the desk and non-alcoholic drinks and my son was deep in paperwork...first day 'sort outs'...I remember them well.

The weather has been dull and lifeless again...please, please send me some good stuff....I've had enough of it for now.  I've just check out the weather for BG....three degrees and raining, turning to snow overnight and continuing for tomorrow and Friday and a yellow warning for wind.  Better get the Rennies ready.  LN....I'm on the hunt for supper....LN

Thursday 3rd January

So I stayed up last night again until silly o'clock trying to track down the many great grandparents' birth dates and to no avail.  I have a couple of potentials but no firm proof so to date they stay on the chart with only a marriage entry to support their existence.  I took to my bed at two, started playing Soda Crush and knocked off about three games without much effort and I had to call a stop to the evening/early morning entertainment....I shut if down and closed my eyes and off to the land of nod.  It was an eight thirty start, another grey day so the promise of a new shiny year had evaporated already.

Eventually we managed to get down to omelettes for breakfast and I decided that George, the giraffe with a voice box message recorded by my grandson when he was five years of age, had to go for remedial treatment.  it only clicked and did nothing else.  Two years ago the old message had been salvaged and recorded on to a new voice box and my grandson is the proud possessor of the original and it was to him that I turned for help. Apparently it's up in the loft somewhere so I told him to leave it for a while and we headed in to Brighton on the trusty red bus and dropped off in Churchill Square and I headed for the Bear Factory with George stuffed in my shoulder bad.  So into the shop and the assistant said that they could do nothing....'we're not engineers'....and I explained that this time it had only lasted two years where the last one lasted ten.  She replied that the voice box had obviously been pressed too much and the device was worn out.  I explained that I lived in Bulgaria and George was resident in GB and her response was that it hadn't been pressed enough.  She did advise that I got him to re-record the message of 'Happy Cristhmas (with a lisp), nanny I love you' but I said that to get the same tone of voice in a nineteen year old would take a bottle of vodka and a helium balloon.  She didn't see the humour and considering she works in a Bear Factory maybe she should choose another vocation,  

Onwards and upwards and we made it to Poundland and I managed to buy some more telephone and data charging cables for one pound each...good value and they're different colours so that I can keep one for each device.  While in the shop, coming down the stairs was the store manager and we looked at each other and realised that our history went back a few years.  He used to be an assistant manager when I worked for a supermarket company and we were really surprised to see, and recognise each other.  So the old names came out and I mentioned that I new several of the oldies on FB, he said I hadn't changed in thirty odd years so I suggested he went to SpecSavers for a checkup.  He's going to message me on FB for a real catch-up.  Back on the bus and home for five, pot roast beef, roasties, swede and carrots for supper and it's going to be followed any minute now by a lemon cheese cake.  

Early night for me...the genealogy is put to bed except for copying it out on A3 so that it's easy to follow the lines.  I can do the rest back in BG when the snow is falling and the nights grow long.  My latest weather report is that it's very windy, cold and it's snowing so I suggested to Ms D of S to get back inside, put on a sweater and take a couple of Rennies to sort her out.  Just my little joke.  LN...I'm heading for the cheesecake and sofa.....LN

Friday 4th January

What a performance last night with the Kindle Fire.....for some reason Facebook has now deemed that it will not allow messenger to be run through it and that perpetual loop I found myself in has stayed the same all day.  This morning I checked out my other machine and that has successfully updated and Messenger seems to be working OK.  One out of two isn't bad I suppose and I'll soon have all the time in the world to get it sorted.  Up and about by seven thirty, Marmite on toast for breakfast, emptied the dishwasher as my contribution to morning and sorted out the clothes that I want to leave and packed the rest.  I somehow have to make space for my presents both given to me and those I'm taking back.  I settled in to write up the family chart for my host and it's finished more or less.  There are still people to investigate but that's putting the finishing touches to it but the link is proved between the two branches of the family.  I worked on it until four and at five we set off for A's house to say cheerio and to enjoy a curry supper from the local curry shop,  We arrived at six more or less, the order was placed and by seven we were sitting down to supper and it was my first Chicken Dhansak for a year  and it went down well,  Poppadoms abounded and it was followed by a strawberry cheesecake....rude to refuse.

I washed and dried up and sorted things out....she's having a bit of an issue with mobility so every little helps.  We sat around talking and generally chewing over the fat and at nine thirty we said fond farewells.  She has been out to stay with me in the early days and it would be good to see her out again but currently she couldn't manage it.  Maybe next year.  Lunch out with the family tomorrow, the restaurant is booked for one.  LN...Time for bed...I'm knacked....LN

Saturday 5th January

So today I've had the feeling that it's been Sunday all day not Saturday and I'm pleased that I've increased my packing time and have all day tomorrow to get the final stuff in that little case that seems to be getting smaller all the time.  Seven thirty start and I headed for the bath and washed my hair so that I would look presentable for the family get together.  I lingered longer than anticipated and could willingly have nodded off in there but instead knocked off about three chapters of Game of Thrones.  I dried my hair and it looked OK, was intending to wear it loose but instead ended up coiling it up out of the way, eventually decided what I was going to wear and was ready for twelve.  I had time to kill so went back on to investigating the other side of my host's family and managed to find one of his uncles and his family which adds to the list of people that he knew nothing of.  It's fun when that happens and I was hot on the trail and had to put it to bed and head off to the pub for lunch.

Princess and her family were already there and they'd found us a cul de sac table for the nine of us so we settled in to wait for my son and his family.  They eventually arrived about one fifteen, hugs all round for everyone and then the menus came out.  Most of us settled for the carvery, the boys went big and I even struggled with the standard.  I think my grandson had the worst of the deal, he'd chosen a baguette which seemed to take ages to prepare but he'd brought his origami kit along and was quite happy to be making oriental birds to perch on the glasses.  At nine years of age...I was impressed.  Having said that, he ordered a bottomless all you could eat ice-cream, so sister had the first top up, the second seemed to get passed round the table and the third was back to my grandson and my grand-daughter...cheap dessert.  We handed presents out and I had a very nice cotton throw and I think it's going to have to stay here until I come over next time....I'm not going to be able to get it back in my hand luggage.  Princess had a unicorn lamp that she has decided would fit perfectly on her office desk...it appears to be her trademark.  Out on to the car park and again it was a hug fest,  my daughter and family heading home for an afternoon on the sofa and my son and family heading down to the beach for a look at the sea.  We stopped off in the village on the way back....the lottery ticket I'd bought the first week I was here had won a lucky dip free ticket so let's keep fingers crossed for tonight's draw.  

Home for four thirty more or less and sang my way through the score of Oliver showing on the television, fell asleep when it ended and felt guilty that I'd left my update this late.  Nothing fixed for tomorrow but I might try and get in one final visit to church tomorrow night...they don't have my church in BG.  Update from home, the temperature is very low and the roads very icy but only two centimeters or so of snow.  Let's hope it stays that way so that I can get back to the village safely and get myself installed.  No supper required, stuffed to the gills, only two more sleeps or one and a half, the taxi will be here for about four on Monday morning.  LN...My bed is calling...LN

Sunday 6th January

Late to bed but up by seven thirty and I don't seem to have stopped all day.  I did contact Easyjet about getting a bag booked to save me carrying my luggage but it turned out that it would have cost me almost thirty five pounds for a single trip and I'm still able to carry it.  What she did notice was that my boarding pass was made out in the name of Mr so she changed it for me and I noticed that the incoming flight was in the same gender,  Maybe nobody dare say anything in the era of gender fluidity but on the other hand I didn't get any strange looks from the personnel along the way.  So I had to print out another boarding pass so they might think I came over for the operation...

I decided to check the lucky dip ticket that I'd obtained from a win the first week I was here and joy oh joy....I've won thirty pounds....perhaps my luck is changing.  So packing complete....incomplete...complete....and I think I'm there.  They can do what they like with me at the boarding gate...CBA...if they charge me because the bag is two centimeters over in the depth of the bag....I'll open it and put some more clothes on.  I spent the afternoon still looking at the female line of my host's family and got back another couple of generations.  I shall be doing a bit of research when I get home but not telling anybody about it.  The other side of the family are doing their own research but we set about it with different objectives.  Oh dear.

Bedtime for me....I've missed 'who wants to be a millionaire' so now I might as well get my head down for a few hours,  The taxi is booked for four a.m, my daughter has sent me the news that it's about minus three when I arrive at lunch-time tomorrow so winter has come John Snow.  I'll check in when I'm back providing my trusty steed is primed and awaiting ....I should be home by five thirty.  I have this horrible feeling though that if the snow has fallen, I have to dig out the water meter outside and turn it on so that I've got water inside the house.  I'll cross that bridge when I come to it and a new phrase I heard over the holiday is...'Build a bridge and get over it'...seems very appropriate in the present climate.  Just about to finish the carrot cake before I dim the lights.  LN...Wish me luck...LN

Monday 7th January

I'm home...it's been a  long day and it's going to be a cold night but hey...things can only get warmer ..

Three thirty start this morning and it was a first...my host was up and making coffee for me and actually stayed compus mentis until I'd left in the taxi.  As for nicking the silver there's none to nick so  he wasn't worried about that.  Safe and steady journey to the airport...the taxi driver was Romanian and he was slagging off the mafia in his own country and my lips were sealed....nothing to add.  The flight was on time, it was very full and there was no issue with any bags having to be put into the hold..The flight in charge was very humorous making light of his announcements which the English appreciated but totally lost on the Bulgarians.    I think he's seen the you tube video and I think it's on American Airlines...very funny and I did need help lifting my suitcase up into the overheads from a swarthy male but when the flight attendant was asked for help, he asked what was in it and she replied chocolate.  My swarthy man just did the job I asked him to without back chat.

Minus five when we landed and unfortunately we were the third flight in so the delay at the 'incoming' meant that there wasn't a snowball in hell's chance of me making the earlier bus so I settled for the one o'clock.  I tried reading but the words started to get jumbled so it was down with the Kindle and I must have slept almost to the coffee stop...a real catch  up.  Kardjali for four thirty and I decided to take a taxi on to Djebel...I didn't fancy waiting around for a bus...I had some settling in to do.  My carriage was ready and primed for action  outside the car shop so I had to go in and have five minutes with my student's mother to catch up on things.  She said that it was minus twelve last night and I think we are heading for the same.  It is  cold.  I headed to the supermarket for bread and a couple of spicy sausages so that I would have something quick and easy to cook.  The drive back was fun...the main roads were clear but when I turned off on my village road, it was sheet ice under a layer of snow.  I had one skid, corrected it and followed it closely with a second so I dropped it into second gear and after that everything was.  I negotiated the gate, got the Beast into the drive, turned the water on outside, unlocked the house, lit the fire, lost the car keys so checked where I'd been kneeling down to turn the water on and there they were there.

The house was six degrees when I checked the thermometer, it's now gone up to nine , the radiators are heaving and the boiler is on for hot water and the timer reset.  I've cooked supper and eaten it watching The Chase, my extra quilt is warming by the woodburner along with my feather pillow and it won't be long before I'm getting cosied up in my 'nest'.  I don't thin there's much danger of getting undressed tonight...but I will take my boots off.  

There's a little bit of snow falling, I need some eggs from the van tomorrow if he turns up.  It will be good to see my ladies again.  I'm too cold on the upstairs landing so heading down to the fire.  LN..Fingers crossed for a peaceful night...LN

Tuesday 8th January

I managed to sleep through until seven thirty...what a surprise but with the amount of clothes I had on to go to sleep in, it was probably the weight of the clothes that held me down.  The fire was still going so it was back to basics, ash can emptied, starter wood to get it going sooner and I had a blaze.  I boiled the kettle and made my first cup of coffee and took my Christmas decorations down.  I went to fill the kettle to made my second cup and surprise, surprise, there was no water in the system so it was emergency procedures brought into play...I went out and turned off the water at the supply just in case the frozen pipe was in the roof.  I checked the outside thermostat and it was down to minus seventeen, there was ice on the inside of the conservatory windows nearest the door and I went inside for my first cup of coffee.

Haciber was my first visitor and she said that she had water to the outside tap but not inside but I was welcome to fill a bottle should I need to.  She sat down for a while, told me the news about her son and daughter in law, updated me on the ladies of the village and didn't know if the bread van would be here or not.  I happened to mention that I only wanted eggs and left it at that.  My next visitor was the daughter from one of the other ladies in the village and she looked at my in supply for the water and said that there wasn't enough insulation and off she went and ten minutes later she came back with a bag of hay for me to stuff down the hole in the ground.  My further instruction was to put some warm but not hot water on the pipe after about an hour and so I settled down to a bit of Soda Crush.  I went back to unpacking my suitcase, put the perfume gift box back together and filled it with the perfume and hand cream and even put the plastic sleeve over the box.  You'd never know that I't taken it apart for transporting it.  Back to the water, removed the hat, turned on the supply to the house, poured the warm water over the pipe, there was a gurgle so I went back inside the house....all restored.  I returned to the hole, stuffed the hay back in in its bag, put the insulation back round it and fingers crossed it should be alright tomorrow.  We have another cold night coming up...

I went down the lane to tell my hay deliverer that everything was OK and stopped for a cup of coffee.  By the time I got back the egg fairy had been and left me a croissant breakfast, a pair of socks and a bar of soap and at this point in time I'm not sure who the good fairy is.  I'll find out at the bread van tomorrow.  Log baskets filled, fire chugging away and will be all night, spent some of the afternoon sitting on the sofa in the sun reading my Kindle and the rest of the day pottering.  I cleaned off the terrace but the snow is so powdery that it was difficult to move and cleared the yard and up to the wood store.  The sun didn't melt much...it stayed on minus temperatures all day.  

The curtain is drawn over the stairwell and I'm about to set up the laptop so that I can watch TV downstairs...it's much too cold on the landing.  I'll be having my bath in the morning and I'm looking forward to it.  I think it's beans on toast for supper...I need comfort food.  LN...I'm kitchen bound...LN

Wednesday 9th January

It was on and off napping on the sofa last night until I took to my bed but the Fitbit said that I'd had eight hours sleep...that's the best I've achieved in ages.  Same again please.   Fire still going, wood enough to last for a time, ashes out, coffee, the water was still flowing....everything is almost back to normal except that with the very low temperatures it's the devil's own game to get the bricks and mortar warmed but but I think I'm getting there.  At close of play tonight I've finished up at plus sixteen but I have lit the little wood burner in the kitchen this afternoon to help it on it's way.  Washed and dressed and it's all about putting on another layer and not disturbing too much of existing while the house is cold.  The bathroom is OK...the radiator is only small but very effective so I maybe linger longer there than other parts of the house.

Out came the cooking bacon from the freezer.  I'd decided that I was going to make lentil soup for supper and bacon and eggs for breakfast with fried bread...back into the swing of things.  I heard a car horn outside and thought it was the bread van but I was wrong..it was the animal feed lorry.  Beyser had also got it wrong but at least I found out who delivered the eggs and the rest of the goodies yesterday so I thanked her, we had a little chat partly because she only speaks Turkish but we get there.  I went back home, walked the garden,  fried off the bacon and an onion and got the soup underway, cooked breakfast and as I was sitting down to it I heard the van so left the food and went down to fetch new bread and more eggs.  Most of the ladies were there so we had a few hugs and on the way back I was invited with the rest of the ladies for coffee at the house that I visited yesterday morning.  I went back and finished my breakfast and headed down the road and met up with the other ladies.  Boots off, coffee, biscuits, oven roasted pumpkin and cheese puffs so I settled for the coffee.  No matter what they do to it I really can't take to the pumpkin.  The television was on so I had a diversion from the hour of Turkish banter.  Some of it was translated for my benefit but basically I get most of the body language.

At one we headed home and it had just started to snow and it's been gently falling all day and still is.  I did have one request for help.  Beyser had lost the key to her daughter-in law's padlock on the gate and I was presented with a pair of pliers to break through the chain...and no could do so I told them to hang on and I went back for my bot cutters and no messing around...I was through in quicksticks and they thing there is very little that beats me.  If only they knew.

It's been a lazy afternoon.  I did fill up the log carrier and topped up where necessary, both fires are going well and it really does make a difference with the kitchen one helping out.  The snow is still coming down, I blended the soul and had it with toast, washed everything up and tidied the kitchen so that it's ready for tomorrow.  I still have another couple of portions of the soup left so I shall have to think of something else to put in it like that lingering spicy sausage...two birds with one stone.  Curtains all closed, I've shut up shop for the night.  I'll see how much snow there is in the morning and discover my work load.  LN....Gives me something to do....LN