Friday 11th December

Woke up last night on the sofa with the 'Durrels' playing to itself and it was a short hop to the bedroom.  I probably need to play the last episode again.  It was only eleven when I went to bed and slept through until just before seven so I must have needed it.  I did wake up once in the night to throw off the second quilt, I think I'd got the fire going too well yesterday and we were in a heatwave last night.  Trouble is though, with the sun being out today and the cloud base being minimal, the temperature could dip tonight and if that rain comes tomorrow, we might have snow so carrots at the ready.

I made coffee and went back to bed, started playing Soda Crush and the blasted thing kept bombing out on me and I noticed that they'd done another upgrade...just to make things better...but they never do.  After three attempts at getting it going I switched the Kindle off so that it could reload and it worked.  I managed to do an extra hard game first time and it must be the commanding way in which I talk to the Kindle and the program....expletives without stars and hash tags...on my mountain I can do that.  Boiled eggs and toast for breakfast and again I haven't put my nose outside the conservatory.  I have enough wood since I've only just lit the fire and it's been bearable until now.  Supper is in, the remains of the beans with my Bulgarian 'corned beef' now has a sliced potato topping , slathered with butter and it should be ready around half an hours time.  

I toyed with the idea of Djebel or even Kardjali today but instead settled in to ancestry and managed to get back to my grandfather x five on my mother's side....up to now I've concentrated on my father's history.  At three I had a shower and washed my hair and again thought about going just into Djebel to get batteries for the snowmen but again by the time I'd dried my hair I'd lost the enthusiasm so another day, another deed.  The hot water has made its first circumnavigation of the central heating pipes so it shouldn't take long for the house to get up to temperature and with supper on the way, that should raise my internal temperature too.  LN....Things to do....LN

Saturday 12th December

What a funny old day.  Again I went to sleep on the sofa downstairs and sauntered across the lounge and into bed and the sleep of the just until seven thirty this morning.  I opened the curtains to another grey day and it was still raining steadily and there were puddles on the grass identifying that it had rained all night.  It was cold so I lit the fire, no sense in suffering the cold when you have enough wood to see you through the winter and hopefully some to spare.

Supper last night went down really well and to top it all I used an apple cutter that I bought the other day that not only takes out the core but slices it into segments.  It was the devil's own job to get it through the apple but when I did I put it back together again minus the core in a small rectangular Pyrex dish, put sultanas, raisins, brown sugar, butter  and honey down the centre, a little water into the dish and into the oven with it.  One shepherd's pie out and one soon to be baked apple in.  Unfortunately the cream that I bought had got a hole in the lid so that was put into the rubbish...better safe than sorry.  The evening banquet probably caused me to fall asleep early and accounted for me sleeping in this morning.

Scrambled eggs for breakfast, I topped up the log basket and the log containers kept in the conservatory and that's been the sum of my achievements today.  The rain stopped around one thirty and the pools soaked into the ground but I think the rain's back tomorrow.  I was surprised this afternoon by a visitor and we had a very pleasant afternoon talking about various things.  I mentioned that I was off to the dentist on Monday and he offered to oblige if required but I said that I was catching the early bus and would come back in a taxi.....haven't had a tooth out in years so not sure how the body is going to take to it.  Nothing required for supper, I finished off the cream cheese with most of the cracker biscuits just before he arrived and the rest I finished off when he left.  We both had a bit of a whinge about the virus, ended up watching a few videos and he showed me the finer workings of Netflix.  I wasn't pressing the left arrow key far enough to get into the Netflix search screen so couldn't see everything that was on offer.

Just put another big log on the fire and that should see me through for the evening, I thought that Strictly was about to start and had forgotten about the two hours difference between UK and BG so it doesn't start here until nine or just after.   LN......Now I have a choice, bath or more Netflix......LN

Sunday 13th December

A brilliant nights sleep again and to what do I owe this pleasure.  No alcohol has touched my lips for three years or so so it can't be that.  Seven thirty when I woke up and woke up with good intentions of getting the hoover out and sorting out the house but the best laid plans of mice etc.  I made toast for breakfast and only buttered it and the washing up is still waiting to be done.  I also removed the Christmas lights in the conservatory and replaced them with another set that doesn't play Jingle Bells and other nonsense when they automatically come on with the timer.

It started well, I collected the house waste for burning and made my way to the bottom of the garden with the igniter and despite the rain and a very wet burning container I managed to get it going sending smoke signals to the world.  I filled up the log basket. got the hoover from the conservatory to the house showing intent and that's as far as it went.  I cleaned the tiles around the wood burner and the rest of the floor and then took to the sofa.  Yesterday I had funny dizzy turns in the morning which went away around lunch time but this morning they came back again.  I think a trip to the doctors might be in order.  I've had two bouts of labyrinthitis in the past and it almost felt like another attack starting off so it's put me in two minds as to whether I go to the dentist of not in the morning at ten thirty.  I'll take a rain check tomorrow.  I lit the fire and kept it going well all day since the temperature had dropped to four degrees outside even though there was a hint of sun and fog on the hillside.  The television has been my companion for most of the day and I've stuck to water and stopped the coffee.

As I said dentist in the morning but if I have any dizziness I'll cancel and get the bus in to Kardjali to see my doctor and take in my old tablets so that she'll know what I was prescribed before.  I think the last attack was around four or five years ago so perhaps I'm due one.  LN.....I'm not good when I'm feeling below par....LN

Monday 14th December

Woke up at six really wibbly wobbly again and the morning was full of decisions.  I didn't think I was sage to drive and although it's been said many times, I had the feeling that it was my labyrinthitis back again so I couldn't risk it.  I found out the old tablets from the box in the bathroom, the first were out of date in 2011 and were just turning to dust and the second lot in 2019 so didn't fancy risking it.  As for the dentist, I search for his telephone number, couldn't find it so phone my student's mum. she did the deed for me and cancelled  the appointment.  I lit the fire, stayed off the coffee and have stuck to water all day and have slept for most of it on the sofa.  It's only managed  five degrees outside all day and it's still damp and horrible.  As for the dentist I didn't want to give him more than he bargained for by having an hissy fit in the chair.

Nothing to report today at all.  Supper is done and dusted, a chicken fillet fried and made in to a sandwich so I'm obviously getting better.  I've just had to change the light bulb on the stairwell and was extremely careful hanging on to the banister and a few moment later could have caused a bigger problem, my student's mum phoned to find out how I was feeling.  I mentioned I felt definitely better than this morning and would drive into Kardjali to see the doctor as soon as I felt it was safe for me to be on the road again.  We only have two buses a week from the village at reasonable times and no way do I consider the six thirty a.m. daily bus a proposition.  Her husband is going to the doctor in the morning and suggested that they pick me up but I refused the offer, doctor's waiting rooms take some negotiating and I didn't want them to be waiting around for me or vice-versa.

Having slept for several hours today. I'm not expecting a good night's sleep but fingers crossed, I needed it.  Self diagnosis again....not to be relied upon but having had it twice, I'm fairly sure that my diagnosis is correct.....and as my doctor in the UK said to me....'Have you only come for a second opinion' when I reeled off what it wasn't, he knew me so well.  LN....Time to rest.....LN

Tuesday 15th December

Reasonable nights sleep and woke up feeling still under par and not sure what to get up to today.  As it happened it was very little.  Washed and dressed fairly early on and the fire was still going so I rescued it and set it on its way for the day.  I made a single poached egg on toast for breakfast and remembered that I'd got a chicken leg out of the freezer last night so fried it off to brown it, prepared vegetables and a thickened soup is in the slow cooker and it should be ready any time now. A little bit of effort is worth it and saves a lot of effort when the energy levels are low.

First job was to fill up the log basket in the house and the log carrier for the porch.  I huffed and puffed while I was doing it and according to my Fitbit pushed my heart rate into the 'fatburn zone'....not that I was interested in the health benefits of shifting logs.  By this time the sun had really come out and the temperature in the stairwell had risen to thirty four degrees and outside was eight so quite a variance.  Jobs done I took to the sofa and got my head down and woke up when the sun moved round and the temperature dropped.  I rescued the fire and that's all set for the night, we have a cloudless sky so it's probably going to be a cold one and there were some lovely reflections in the porch tonight.  I've so many big windows that catch so many angles.  I've just been down from the upstairs landing and realised that there was a draught coming from my downstairs bedroom and I remembered that I'd opened the window to get air through and had forgotten all about it.  Now all closed up for the night and I'm not heating the hillside anymore.

About to settle down to supper and I intend catching the second 'Full Monty on Ice' and what troopers they are for putting themselves through it for a good cause.  Most of us have been touched by cancer, I lost my mother and sister to it and so many lives, especially young ones are destroyed...cruel world isn't it.  Nothing on my agenda for the rest of the week I think...I'm fairly sure of the diagnosis but will take a second opinion when feel safe to drive again.  LN....The chicken calls....LN

Wednesday 16th December

Well another late night to bed, vivid dreams and woke up at just after seven thirty.  I still felt very unsteady on my feet and 'not quite right' so decided on another gentle day.  I've stayed off the coffee for the last couple of days and went for hot water with honey and salt and lemon would have completed it but no lemons to hand.  I manged to get washed and dressed, toast for breakfast, washed up from last night, took a couple of burgers from the freezer and those will be supper.

It was another cold miserable day so I set the fire but thought I'd see how long it was before I lit it and it didn't take long at all. I wasn't moving around the house and keeping active so by ten, the matches were out and the fire's been going ever since.  Temperature in, twenty degrees and out it's only risen to four but four with cold and damp is not good at all...bring on the snow.  So the television went on and the eyelids came down and I was dog dozing until around one and felt much better for it.  I'm not sure what's wrong but I'm feeling much better than I did so fingers crossed I'm on the up.  I had a phone call from the garage asking how I was feeling and it perked me up....and as for her husband's trip to the doctor, the doctor wasn't there yesterday so he's gone today and I must remember to phone to find out the result.

At around three thirty I had a brief moment of 'must do' and the two rosemary plants that have developed roots in water are now put into compost and fingers crossed they will go from strength to strength.  I also potted up a Bizzy Lizzie that's rooted in water and that's due to go down to Gouljan's mum in the next village when it's put a little more foliage and flowers on.  It will go in her Christmas bag and tomorrow if I'm feeling OK I'll be wrapping the ladies' presents and writing my final list for the rest of the villagers.  So now it's back to the television and the fire and it's mainly the fire that calls.  LN....Hamburger and onions...nothing fancy tonight....LN

Thursday 17th December

So another strange night.  I went to bed at eleven and hoping that I would make it through the night but nothing so simple. It was three thirty, I played games until five, put in a load of washing and went back to sleep around six until nine.  I managed to get my eight hours in but in shifts it appears.  It was really dark outside in the middle of the night, cold and raining so getting the washing done meant that it would have the day on the airer to dry...no chance of allowing the elements to get at it.

My last egg was poached for breakfast so at some point I have to tempt fate by driving into Djebel.  I pulled a pack of mince meat from the freezer, not sure at the time what I would do with it but this evening I turned it into a very good bolognaise sauce and served with pasta, that was supper.  I spent the morning on the sofa watch Netflix and the series I'm watching is up to series two, episode ten and I'm wondering how many more there are to go...they're really running out of plots.  At two I decided that I really should do something more even though the fire was very tempting and the sofa was comfortable.  I logged on and managed to find PowerPoint even though it was now online and had changed so much from when I used to use it regularly for presentations...and I was lost.  I eventually managed to make a Christmas card and print off nine of the same and they will do for my locals.  Not so fancy this year....it was just so different.

I carried on with ancestry and I've gone back another generation with my mother's paternal side and I'm getting a little cheesed off with the amount of emails that I'm getting from FMP....I'm receiving other people's trees and I'm wondering if my tree is being passed around as well.  I'm going to have to ask the question.  Downstairs and I attended to the fire, one big log and that should do me until I rest my weary head.  I finished the spaghetti and served it with pasta and there's enough left for tomorrow so I might be making a pasta bake with the remains.  And now into the evening, I'm feeling more like myself again, less holding on to door frames so I think I'm on the mend. I'm gong to try to fit in doctor and dentist next week...my tooth is still there despite my worrying it with my tongue.  LN.....Sun all day predicted so fingers crossed....LN

Friday 18th December

So the sun didn't manage to see the weather forecast for today....it went AWOL.  It's been another cold miserable day.  I slept well until three thirty, another early morning of games and back to reading one of the Last Kingdom books that I've read before.  There was no washing to be done this morning and a day of nothing really.  I did manage to put my nose out of the door at around twelve and was spotted by my neighbour who wanted to know if I was alright and I said that I was and didn't go into details.  Too much effort to try to explain.  She was off to the next door garden to get some cabbages for the cows, she's such a hard worker.  I really should have asked her for eggs but I forgot.  I lit the fire and my head was a little 'swimmy' when I bent down to put another log on so the secret is 'bend the knees and keep eyes on the horizon'.

I had to change a password yesterday and today it caused confusion with other things that hang on to it and eventually I managed to sort it out.  I did it on the computer on the landing and I've been there for most of the day.  I got stuck into ancestry and I'm trying really hard to try to find the three generation back relatives that went off to Canada but with no luck so far. I need to find relatives of my generation and ask a few more questions. apparently one of the grandfathers went and paid a visit so I need a few more names and areas.

This afternoon I spent in the bath, in a Badedas bath with the spa bath additive that was a Christmas present from my son.  I've used it sparingly and mostly have showers so at this rate it should last at least another year.  I went down and rescued the fire and the hot water is now rattling round the system again and I'm watching the TV on the computer.  It's not time to shut up shop yet and move downstairs for the evening, I'm currently watching 'A Place in the Sun' coming from Bulgaria.  It's interesting watching an outsiders view of property in the country that I've picked as home.  Supper is already prepared and just needs warming and then the move to downstairs and the fire.  LN....Back to the Bulgarian property tour.....LN

Saturday 19th December

Sleep on the sofa last night until two this morning, moved to the bedroom and couldn't get off again so silly games until five and then sleep until eight.  Not a bad trade.  The Fitbit designated that my sleeplessness in the middle as 'light sleep' so gave me a good overall score.  Fooled it.

I was up and about by nine thirty and started tidying up around the place , set the fire and then decided to checkout the wood burner for soot collecting in the space over the water boiler before it goes up the chimney and gave it a real good clean out.  I've been burning well dried out wood so there was nothing untoward but I managed to collect a rather large bowl of very dry soot that I added to the ashes outside.  It was now getting on for eleven thirty so I hoovered up the remains of the debris, washed the floor over, changed the mat on the table and put the emergency candles so that I knew where they would be should we have any more power cuts.  I think it's called getting prepared in advance.  I collected another log carrier of wood from the little house and filled up the log basket and another one from the wood store and dragged it into the porch.  I'd not eaten at this point so I made toast and marmite finishing off with three small profiteroles and the final burst of activity was to spray silver paint on the dried fir tree that had turned bronze, stick it in a bucket in the yard and decorate it.  I'm Christmas ready so to speak.

It was now getting on for two and I decided to watch a couple of episodes of the Netflix series and had a surprise visitor.  We were just settled when I had a unexpected call from my son and explained that I had a visitor and he's going to call back.  Normally I go to the UK at this time of year and arrangements are up the shoot in England, both son and daughter are still working and so are their respective partners so financially they haven't been hit so hard but it makes them more susceptible and at risk of the virus.  It means that my ex isn't able to visit but my daughter with plate up a Christmas lunch and deliver it so that he's not put at risk.  So many rules and regulations in place but so necessary.

My visitor left around half four and I livened up the fire, washed up the cups and did very little else before I sat down to watch Strictly' final and I'm so pleased that Bill Bailey won the competition.  He was the viewers choice, it wasn't down to the judges at all and considering how difficult it was to put on this sort of show, it was really well organised.  Any one of the dancers could have won but he did...well done for the oldies.  Pizza for supper and it was a family size one which was just as well since I left it in the oven for too long so the cats will have something to get their teeth into tomorrow morning. Apologies for being late with the update, I forgot all about it with 'Strictly' fever in the offing.  LN......'And now it's time for bed' said Zeberdee....LN

Sunday 20th December

So after this morning's telling off by my daughter I'm completing the update early.  Last night's was late...too busy with Strictly and Netflix...bad mother.  So off to sleep around two thirty and slept though until seven so not so bad.  It has been another day of catching up on things that I should have started a couple of weeks ago but I've had a good day.  I managed to get on to my bank and send the donations to charitable causes. i.e. family presents, update my daughter with the name of the parcel delivery service from UK to Bulgaria and arrange vouchers for birthday and other Christmas pressies.  Bank balance is a tad reduced but hey...it's Christmas in the words of Noddy Holder.  It's such a strange time this year. no travelling out of the county for some places and that's going to affect my daughter's family and no overnight stopovers....such a lot to take in.  

I had a visit from one of my neighbours bearing gifts in the form of frothy pancakes which get delivered so many days after the death of a person and they were from Zelinger.  Emula's mother brought them round and I invited her in and she spotted the photograph of the person who had died behind the television.  I hadn't delivered it yet since the weather hadn't been good to walk down there and not feeling that I was up to it so I packed it up for her so that she could take it back with her to Zelinger's house.  I explained to her why I hadn't been seen round the village but like most of the women in the village, her Bulgarian is not good mainly conversing in Turkish so I got nods and smiles and I'll have to go down and explain tomorrow.  She noticed the fire and said how warm it was, she's not been in the house before.  Off she went and I was determined to make a start on wrapping the pressies for the ladies and after three hours, I was running short of wrapping paper so that's on my list for tomorrow.  I also made more Christmas cards so on the whole a productive day.

No supper, the pancakes are sitting heavy so it will do me good to go without.  I've let my intentions be known that God willing I shall be in the UK for Brian Cox's Horizon Tour on 3rd October and fingers crossed everything should have settled down by then and it might even include a cruise but at least it's some sort of plan.  LN...And now to get back to my wrapping.....LN