Friday 28th August

Back to normal...six start and with the door to the balcony open I listened to the morning come to life.  There were some really noisy woodies out but I knew that it wasn't light enough to photograph them so I left them to it.  There was a noisy dog down in the next village which I tried to ignore which eventually gave up...the workmen arrived and he had company.  I made coffee, took it back to bed and played a few games, put a load of washing in, pegged it out and it was only seven thirty.  I thought I'd check up on Rosie to see if she was hanging around the cranberry tree but I got quite a surprise.  It was Blue Boy who had made it on to the workshop terrace and was having his own mare of a morning trying to keep a fallen tiny pear in place to breakfast on.  As Blue bit into it it kept moving away from and the front leg had to come into play.  I deliver cranberries which it chose to ignore so I left it to it.  Plenty of pears had fallen so it had lots to go at.

I didn't need to water the pots...they had a super soaking last night.  I realised that I was short of bread and remembered that it was Friday and no van today so I whipped up three eggs and made myself a cheese omelette using the remains of the Gouda cheese and two cheese triangles.  As for the rest of the morning, I took to shouting at the television, it makes me mad that there are three presenters on and a guest and they're complaining that there are limited opportunities for none whites and not a white in sight.  It also winds me up that most adverts have mixed families in them, everything seems 'staged' and nothing is normal.....it all seems politically correct.  Too much emphasis and it's contrived......what is society coming to.  The nice thing is, it doesn't really affect me...only when I put the TV on...when I switch it off and walk out on to my terrace or garden...it doesn't matter at all.

Checked my emails and my guest had sent me one saying that his flight had been cancelled and having done that work yesterday sorting out his packing for him.  It was too early to phone him so I went on to EasyJet site and they were still taking bookings for the outward flight so I thought he'd made a mistake so I checked the email that he'd sent to me and it's his homeward flight that's been cancelled but there are flights either side of the date that he'd booked so I didn't see he would have a problem rebooking.  I sent him an email and he said that he was tired last night when he received it and hadn't really read it.  Update....he leaves one day earlier.  I checked my messenger and I had a message from my Fotinovo buddy, his car had gone into the garage and he had two hours to wait in Djebel...did I want a coffee.  I messaged him 'fifteen minutes' and arrived in time at the restaurant in the square.  We chewed the fat killing time, walked to the main road, I went to the hardware shop and got the replacement waste pipe, dropped him down the garage and went back to the garage shop for five minutes with my student's mother.  I stopped off at the little supermarket at the bottom of the town, bought bread and a few more items and headed home.

Shopping unpacked, waste pipe replaced with more brute force and ignorance because the screw fixing had rusted on to the shaft.  I sprayed it with WD40 to no avail so with the aid of a kitchen knife and a pair of scissors I got the old one out and replace with the new....done and dusted.  Washing in and put away, cheese and onion crisps for supper so far and that might be it.  LN....Interesting day.....LN

Saturday 29th August

I'm not quite sure how it happened but I was still looking through Parish Records to see if I could find my great, great, great and I think there's great in there....Thomas.
I had this thought that if I followed his parents marriage record through to his first daughter's birth record in 1741, they might have been baptised together...it can happen sometimes, there was no legal requirement for the birth to be registered.  There is a note after the record but I couldn't decipher it so I printed the screen and added it to the PowerPoint record of the chart,  I was too tired to worry about it last night.  

I slept through until just before eight, made coffee and started out where I left off last night and was still working on it at ten thirty and suddenly it hit me that potentially the lady from the bottom of the village that's having the baby party for her son's new arrival might be arriving at my door expecting me to chauffeur villagers to the party.  Now most times a bus is organised so that the villagers are taken and brought back to Djebel but she was trying to do it on the cheap relying on villagers with cars and most didn't want to get involved.  We just don't like being manoeuvred so I washed, dressed and decided that I would head into Kardjali.  I took my swim gear with me just in case but as it happened, I didn't get that far.  I checked with my Avatar before I left to see if there was anything that she wanted from Kardjali and I jokingly mentioned why I was going out for the day and she said that only one car had gone and they were people over from Turkey....not one of the usual locals had gone.  Never mind...I had made my mind off and I was off.

First stop my leva shop and I hadn't been there for several months.  I got my coat hangers describing to the  assistant what I wanted because I didn't know the word and she took me to the fixture.  They were stacked upright not on a hook so were easy to miss....one item off the list.  I got a new t-shirt for me that I'm going to 'doctor with scissors' because I like the colour, a couple of boxes for sorting 'stuff' in to, Nivea shower cream for the downstairs bathroom and two bars of local soap that I'm going to need when I made the polish from beeswax.  I carried on to the cheapy shop and bought a pair of jeans and a shirt for my guest I reckoned I could afford sixty pence for him.  Kaufland, Lidl and home, shopping unpacked and chicken wings in the oven with mixed veg for supper for Avatar and myself.  

Final of the 'Voice Kids' tonight so this is a short post since it's just started.  LN....Just time to get a chock ice from the freezer.....LN

Sunday 30th August

So I watched the Kid's Voice and I was so impressed....the little girl that won it was much older than her years, they all seemed so friendly and they're all off to Disney together with their families.  I hope the thirty thousand pounds that the winner got towards her career in music is spent well.  Off to bed playing games on the Kindle and woke up with the light on, finished the game, put the tablet on charge and went off to sleep until seven thirty this morning.  The sun was up, I should have watered the garden but didn't but I've done a good job of it tonight.

For breakfast I cut the Galia melon, took half over to Avatar who was mixing a bowl of cement and was about to coat the outside of her stone wall on the road side with cement to protect it and to stop the rain getting in...she's a game girl.  I put the melon the the fridge, picked up my dish from last night and headed home.  She was making me feel rather lazy but we've agreed she can finish the little house for me and I offered to pay her for it but she said she'd do it for nothing...our little joke.  So I came back and had the other half of the melon, very healthy, made more coffee and finished a small packet of banana cream biscuits...just to balance the scales of life.  

The rest of the day it was too hot to be out there again.  It was teetering on thirty five degrees so I stayed indoors and carried on sorting out the documents that I've accumulated on the search for the past.  I bought some plastic wallets yesterday, threw out duplicates of printout and eliminated some of the copies that I've put into ta computer program...they're not really necessary and I really just need a hard copy to substantiate the information that I have gathered.  I've still got a few questions outstanding but now that I've sorted out the main characters, I'm assembling the chorus so to say.

Supper was the remains of last nights chicken wings and I'll be heading to the goody box to see what I'll be following them with.  The washing up can wait until tomorrow...I'm toying with the idea of going in to Kardjali tomorrow...I've spotted something that is a very good bargain and I'm gong to have another look at it.  I might need to organise help to get it from the car to the garden,,,there should be plenty of help at the shop.  The moon is coming along nicely and I've just realised that the month is nearly over and in ten days I'll have a guest,  LN...Time to get the hoover out.....LN

Monday 31st August

Splendid night's sleep apart from the fact that I woke up early and the only thing on my mind was the items that I'd seen on Saturday and thought about buying and trying to work out how to do it.  I saw Avatar watering her garden so went over and asked her why she wasn't mixing up cement to finish the wall and she's run out of cement....but she has replacements on order with the man from the bottom of the village so she should be at it anytime soon.  I asked if she has seen my painter who's been noticed by his absence and apparently the government food scheme where he used to deliver food to the oldies of the village has stopped.  Apparently the money has run out.  I said that if she saw him could she mention that I wanted to see him for a little 'work' but there's no need...I managed to sort it.

I didn't bother with breakfast and at ten I set off for Kardjali via the back lane and parked up near the store where I was about to make my purchases.  Now let me explain....I'd seen some very large glazed garden pots and I was going to get one for myself and one for my Fotinovo friends.  They were large, they were lovely and as I entered the store I was aware that they could have been sold already and couldn't see them when I walked in.  I carried on further into the store and there they were, where I'd left them.  I attracted the attention of one of the assistants, said I wanted to buy two and she was quite surprised.  The one that I really loved is just too large, I'd seen a similar one in a garden in Thailand with stones, water and fish...attractive but the cats would have the fish at a guess.  So we made it to the cash point and on the way we discussed transport but the more I thought about it, if they delivered them to my door, I still had the problem of getting it down to them so the more I thought about it, if the store loaded them into the Nipper, I could drive down to Fotinovo and we could manoeuvre it into position.  Theirs went into the back of the car via the back door and mine was in the front seat with bungy ropes and a seat belt to stop it crushing me as I drove.  I made the phone call to see if they were in in Fotinovo today and they were and I explained that I had something to deliver which confused them even more.  So Kardjali to Fotinovo and parked up and the look on his face when he saw it...magic.  I said that it was an early Christmas pressie and no way could Santa deliver in and it was too heavy for me.  Together we carried it slowly and surely to the terrace and put it in place and it's now ready for tarting.  We had lunch in their village, I drove home, mine is still sitting in the passenger seat but tomorrow they are coming over to help me get it to the terrace and then I'll be sorting out a plant to go in it.

I slept for the afternoon, the excitement has just been too much for me and I noticed that the moon was up and remembered that I needed to water the plants.  I went out to take my pickie of the pot still in the car and noticed that the lady from the next garden to my house had left a bag of potatoes freshly lifted from her garden.  She works so hard, as I arrived back from shopping she was walking up the road with a bag of cow manure in a sack on her back so it was one bag in and I'm not sure how many bags of potatoes she picked and it was thirty six degrees out there when she was working.  No supper after out late lunch maybe cheese and biscuits later.  LN....An idea carried through, and completed......LN