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Elsa Peters
January 21, 2023, 6:00pm Report to Moderator

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Saturday 21st January

Not a very good night. a worrying time for some people and some of the angst has worn off on me.  I eventually got to sleep at four this morning, woke up at seven, up and active and made coffee.  I remembered that I'd found a pack of decent bacon in the freezer when I was putting the shopping away so I made bacon and egg for breakfast and then carried on with kitchen duties.  I washed up, took the pork belly slices from the fridge that I'd put ready for tonight's supper and made a marinade of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, passata, oil, tomato sauce and a little vinegar, poured it over the pork, covered it with cling film and put it in the fridge.  I also put a load of washing in the machine so lit the fire so that I could dry it in the bathroom on the airer.  Outside it was dry to start with but as the morning wore on the rain started to come down and it's done just that for the rest of the day.  The promised snow between seven and eight this morning I may have missed but don't think it happened.  I had lovely interchange on What's app with my daughter this morning....we were fighting it out with emoji as to who loved each other more and it ended up a draw.

I made my way to the bathroom and ran a bath.  I needed to mentally work through the sleepless night, thought I might go so sleep in there but didn't.  I emerged from the tub at eleven thirty, slathered myself with a new body lotion containing Argon oil for dry skin and it seems to have done the trick.  I get itchy sometimes, tried various washing powders and eventually gave up my blood pressure tablets and things seem to have sorted themselves out.  I keep checking my blood pressure and that seems to have settled down too.  I got dressed into warm clothes, the fire hadn't taken so that was my first job and took the washing from the machine and hung it on the airer.  I've just checked it now and it's ready to put away.

I caught up with sleep this afternoon, put supper in the oven around four thirty with jacket potatoes and that was ready around six so an early supper for me.  I followed it with a chocolate pudding, I'm stuffed to the gills, it's eight my time and I'm ready to settle down to mind numbing television unless I find a new series on Netflix.  Two that I've been watching should be delivering new episodes later this year....not a clue when, so it will be when it will be. LN.....Time to throw a log on the fire.....LN
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Elsa Peters
January 22, 2023, 5:28pm Report to Moderator

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Sunday 22nd January

Again I had a very sleepless night and was awake until four this morning despite several attempts at getting my head down.  Bad news this morning, a very dear friend has passed over, he's the one that I saw in hospital when I came over to the UK in December.  So sad, so young and so quick but at least I got to talk to him twenty four hours before his goodbye from this world...I hope I gave him some comfort before he left....I offered support for those that he left behind.  I'm sorry that he's gone but more sorry that the cancer got him, he had all his ducks in a row and the fox came and blew so many lives and dreams apart.

I lit the fire and got the morning going, made a bacon and egg sandwich, my phone turned into a little hotline and it was eleven before I'd looked round.  I was very calm. he was suffering terribly. I'm sad for the family's loss but not sad that he's no longer suffering.  He was and still is such a strong character, the body runs out of steam, in my world the soul carries on.  As for the rest of the day my only exercise has been getting two loads of logs into the porch, clearing the drainage pipe from the yard to the front of the house and making sure that the ditch between the road and my front wall draining into the underground pipe was clear, so that the water didn't spill through my front gate.  It rained all night and most of the day. there was a brief burst of sunlight but that soon went behind the clouds again and with the temperature at nine degrees, there's little chance of snow.  It's not normal...there again what is these days.  Not sure about supper, I've picked at biscuits and peanuts, might get round to cooking later but there again...maybe not.  LN.....Tonight I'm hoping to sleep well to catch up on the last two nights......LN
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Elsa Peters
January 23, 2023, 5:37pm Report to Moderator

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Monday 23rd January

So another bad night and a cold, dismal morning.  At least when the snow arrives you can go out and clear the terraces or remove the snow that the snow plough as left blocking access to the clear road...doh...I'm getting bored now.  I agree my brain isn't in the right place to tackle difficult issues, I did boot up my new computer that brought back from the UK but unfortunately they have made changes to the screens that I used setting one up there and I suppose that's the trouble with buying anything new, Microsoft is constantly making 'improvements' that the rest of us mere mortals have to negotiate.  In the end I closed it down...it's for another day.  

I did one or two things that needed doing and that included watering the pots of flowers and shrubs from last year that have overwintered in the little house.  I'd emptied the rain water butt into eleven litre bottles and it took five of them to top up all of the plants and give them a good post December drink.  I'd not really looked at them since I'd been back and only spotted that one was dry when I looked through the door from the little house terrace and I was amazed at how many are still flowering.  There are lots of seeds that have germinated and are now sizeable enough to go out except...winter hasn't arrived yet and they're about three months early for potting out.  Since there were no full water bottles left I decided to drive up to the spring so put the empties in the Nipper. went inside the house, made coffee and sat watching the television before I set off.  At this there was a knock on the window, my neighbour that wants cutting of anything that I have had arrived so I let her in and she came bearing gifts.  She'd made some fluffy pancakes and had brought me three to have later, I made her a coffee and we had a catch-up.  She gave up her last job to help her mother out doing some renovation work in her little cottage and starts her new job hopefully in February.  I mentioned that I was going to the spring and did she want to come and we agreed that I would pick her up at three, it was now half two.  I'm really not sure where the morning went.

I got the Nipper out and she was waiting for me in the bottom square, I loaded up her five bottles and we kept them separate from mine.  Mine had had roof run-off water in them, hers was spring water purely for drinking.  Just a few cows on the road as we made our way to the spring and when we got there there was so much water gushing out that it was really difficult to fill up the bottles.  Eventually we managed it but there was one heck of a catastrophe.  There are wooden seats either side of the two spring outlet pipes and I'm not sure how she managed it but the wood on the one collapsed. she fell forward grazing her shin on the concrete surround and fell to the floor.  I wasn't really paying attention, it all happened so quickly but she continued filling up the bottle that had shot into the base of the spring.  She tried to explain, we loaded the bottles and she pulled up her trouser leg and there was a trickle of blood running from the gash but there was one heck of an 'egg' mid shin.  She was going to use iodine on it when she got home but I bet she's going to hurt tomorrow.

I dropped her off. put the bottles into the little house, made more coffee and took to the sofa.  I suddenly remembered that I'd taken a pack of mincemeat from the freezer that morning so set about making a spaghetti bolognaise for this evening, I've made enough for tomorrow too, cooked my pasta, ate my supper, washed my cream coloured sweater (bad choice with tomato sauce) and cleared the kitchen ready for the morning.  Student tomorrow. English lesson and football training.  LN....Never thought I'd be doing that at my age.....LN
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Elsa Peters
January 24, 2023, 7:35pm Report to Moderator

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Tuesday 24th January

Well the temperature is definitely dropping and snow is supposed to be on its way....oh yeah.  Another night when I fell asleep watching my favourite quiz shows and woke up to the last ten minutes of University Challenge with one team running away with the win and on to the next round.  A reasonable night's sleep, not measured by my Fitbit since that was on charge but woke up  refreshed so that must have been OK.  It was very dark when I woke so played silly games for an hour or so until there was a feint morning glow but we still had rain but more of a mist coming down that raindrops.

Breakfast was the remains of the fluffy pancakes that my neighbour had brought round yesterday with peach and mango yogurt, breakfast things cleared away and the kitchen tidied until I remembered that I had ham in the fridge so I made a ham sandwich and that kept me going until lunchtime.  Another morning of hotline messages, people asking me things that I didn't know the answer to so I had to find out and circulate responses and it was soon one o'clock.  I did managed to have a shower and wash my hair this morning to be presentable for my student, printed off a text in readiness but I had a mare of a morning with the fire.  It burnt quite low but I thought there was enough just to put a log on but ...wrong.  Two firelighters and starter wood and this particular log just wouldn't light so I put on an extra jumper instead and at least this evening it's coming to life.

I was in the Nipper at two thirty and headed for Djebel.  My student was still at school so I sat in the shop with his mother and had a catch up, eventually when he arrived he went up to the flat and I followed him about fifteen minutes later.  We had a quick kick around before we started the lesson, when I realised that there was no way he was going to let me score a goal I pulled rank, pulled out the text and we were away.  The one that I had today was in two parts, the first told a story of a mother reporting her son and her car missing to the police and the second part was the police following the trail and managing to find him and his girlfriend tied up on the beach beset by people smugglers.  The intention was to complete part one but we both wanted to know the end of the story so we carried on with part two and acted it out together.  We managed the questions at the end of the text having to use parts one and two and then it was time to end the lesson, score a few more goals and go down to the shop.  My lovely little student had pestered me to ask his mother if we could go for a pizza early evening, I said that it was up to him, he did and she said yes.  His father had already closed up the garage due to lack of customers and at five thirty they literally closed up shop and we set off for the local restaurant.

A very gentle evening in the restaurant, four very large pizzas, drinking chocolate to start us off and warm us up since it's gone down to zero degrees.  She translates for her husband, I add my Bulgarian, the boy chips in in English and sometimes translates both ways and it turned into a very good evening with everyone included in the conversations.  We paid up and left the restaurant and walked back to the shop/ apartment, I got into the Nipper and set off for home, stopping off at the supermarket for bread after I threw the old stuff out for the birds.  Fire is lit and going well and am just waiting for the first run of hot water through the radiators and I'll bank it up well hopefully to go through the night.  I noticed today that the japonica has started to flower, I intended a photo but forgot this morning and it's too late now so it will have to be photographed tomorrow. LN....Fire needs a poke and I need water......LN
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Elsa Peters
January 25, 2023, 4:52pm Report to Moderator

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Wednesday 25th January

So another silly night.  I woke up at half four this morning and just couldn't get off again and it's been a very lethargic rest of the day.  I did make poached eggs on ham for breakfast, threw out all the stale bread for the birds and they've had a field day.  It was a cold morning and the temperature has hovered around nought degrees all day, the wind was bitter cold and there's snow on the top of the mountains over towards Greece and the promised drop of the white stuff didn't occur but might do overnight.  I managed to take my camera out and take shots of the japonica which led me too go round the garden and photograph the other flowers that I spotted.  Lots of daffodils on the verge of coming out so I hope the snow doesn't fall for their sakes.

I topped up the log basket from the log carrier and took both log carriers out to the log store so that I have plenty in if the snow does come tomorrow.  I've had the fire going all day and managed to get the house up to nineteen degrees and that encouraged me to get my head down and catch up on a few of the zzz's I'd missed overnight.  I woke up groggy but eventually got my act together, found the large sheets of paper I have for writing up the ancestry charts, also found out the folders for writing up individual family lines where there are lots of children and made a start on the one that I'm doing for my nephews ladylove.  Lots of children on some of those families and I've been following them through to see if I could find the ones that went off to America...so far no luck but there are more to go.  Around the years that I'm checking I was amazed how may records there are for those that did manage to get over the pond with the same names as in the chart but so far no one is related.

It's been put to oneside now, it's just after half six my time so I'm thinking of making supper.  I've still got half of the bolognaise sauce left from the other night so only spaghetti to do and heat it all through.  Having said that, I did attack the biscuit tin this afternoon with a hot cup of coffee so the sauce might live to fight another day.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow so far, no need to go shopping, the freezer is full, I bought bread last night so I've one in the freezer and one on the go.  Another day on the ancestry chart tomorrow and I might even get the old machine set up on the table in the stairwell, it's a bit too cold in the sewing room to sit there for a few hours.  LN.....Winter's neither here or there this year....please get back to normal.....LN



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Elsa Peters
January 26, 2023, 4:32pm Report to Moderator

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Thursday 26th January

So I reasonable night's sleep, seven thirty when I woke up.  I meandered downstairs, checked emails and FB, made coffee and since there was nothing else to do, put the news on and spent the next half an hour swearing at the Good Morning programme.  This morning's master or ceremonies has the very rude habit of speaking over the 'experts', asking questions before they've even had chance to answer the previous one so I had to turn over.  The Beeb wasn't all that good either so I switched it off and settled on the sofa with a book.  It was then that I glanced up to see that there was a very fine layer of white on the wall, the previously dry terrace was now wet and nothing was really settling and that was the story for the rest of the day.  The temperature hung on at about zero, so the flakes were dissolving as soon as they hit the ground.  I didn't bother getting dressed but put my fleece coverall on, the only place that I would be going today was to the wood store to fill up another log carrier, the height of the excitement for today.

I did a little work on ancestry and toyed with the idea of bringing the old computer down to the table in the stairwell and instead felt it was a better preposition to fix up my new one, take up the Microsoft offer of a few of the base components of Office and use that to write up the charts in Excel.  At least I can get to use the printer, save the file to a memory stick and get it printed off on the largest paper that they do in my stationery shop in Kardjali.  It will make a more professional product than me writing it out by hand.  So that's a job for tomorrow, I might even be snowed in by then.

I prepared supper for tonight using the spaghetti bolognaise left over from Tuesday, added more tomato puree to it, a tin of kidney beans and some chili flakes and into the slow cooker with it.  I settled on the sofa again, watched Countdown and around six I served up a portion of the new mixture and was really surprised at how spicy hot supper had turned out.  Fortunately I hadn't bothered with vegetables so had lots of bread to tone it down a bit and as I grew used to it, it didn't turn out too bad.  The rest of it can go in the freezer tomorrow and will come out and be made into a lasagna so that the chili is absorbed into the pasta.

The fire is going well, the boiler heater is on, all curtains are drawn and tonight I shall linger in a hot bath...and why not.  The snow is now coming down very heavily, the temperature dropping and let's see what the morning brings.  Nowhere to go so it's not going to impede me much.  LN.....Looks like my winter had arrived.....LN



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Elsa Peters
January 27, 2023, 8:32pm Report to Moderator

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Friday 27th January

Fantastic night's sleep last night, woke up quite refreshed at seven on the dot.  There'd been very little snow overnight, the temperature was going up and it disappeared very quickly through the day.  It's up to three degrees and we're back to wet and miserable and can't see much more snow heading our way for a while.  Bacon and egg for breakfast with fried bread which kept me going until tonight....I've just cooked croquette potatoes with some chicken nuggets but first time I've bought this type and it will be the last.  They don't really taste of anything but I'm hungry and if I don't eat I'll be waking up at silly o'clock and looking for things to pick at.  The remains of the chili from the slow cooker went into the freezer for another day....it was so spicy hot last night that two nights in a row would have been to much for my constitution.

I put in a load of washing since the fire was going well and it would dry near the radiator in the bathroom, while I was up there I ran a bath and was in there for about an hour.  Perhaps not a good time to have one but the house was warm and I was doing nothing else.  I'd fiddled with the tv and found nothing worth watching, got frustrated with the presenters and shouted at them a little, didn't want to disturb the sheep and cows, so switched it off and found an alternative...wallowing.  I did watch Countdown and then decided to get on with ordering cards for upcoming birthdays, sorted out an issue with FMP ancestry site and somehow I found myself carrying on with Ancestry and at last I've managed to write out a chart from top to bottom and I had the right connections.  I've only got to add in a few more marriage lines but throughout the chart, they have all had loads of children and I resorted to put first names only backing it up with census printouts which show the children in date order and so much easier to follow.  

At nine fifteen I realised I was hungry, got the slow cooker out and prepared my food.  It's almost gone now, unfortunately I had Winter Watch on and there was a very good description of woodlice and earwigs....great.....I'm not very good with creepy crawlies.   Ten thirty my time so almost time for bed said Zebedee....I had to relight the fire since I'd forgotten about it but the radiators have warmed up already and it's just a topping up before I go to bed.  LN.....And it won't be too long......LN
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Elsa Peters
January 28, 2023, 5:49pm Report to Moderator

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Saturday 28th January

So where has this month gone...nearly into February and no snow to write home about...this year is all topsy turvy.  It was eight when I woke up this morning so even later that yesterday and I think I owe it to having a late, or should I say a very late supper.  I started the day with baked beans on toast, didn't bother lighting the fire but made sure that I had plenty of warm clothes on.  It was another dull old day, the snow's all gone except for the tops of the mountains and it's not so much rained today but has been exceptionally damp and the terraces haven't dried up.

I went upstairs and put yesterday's washing away and somehow carried on with ancestry that I was working on yesterday.  I've now charted most of the four grandparents back links and printed out most of the support documents, checking my work as I went/  Most of the names were very prolific and when you make a search even quoting the area of England, lots of records were presented and that's where the real detective work comes in.  It's easy to go down the wrong rabbit hole.

At three this afternoon I was feeling cold on the upstairs landing at the computer so I went down and lit the fire, topped up the log basket from the log carriers outside so that there's no running out tonight.  The house is up to temperature and I settled into Netflix and watched a French film with quite a few episodes and lots of twists and turns.  Villains fell and so did a few heroes but overall, something to spend the afternoon watching.  I started off a chicken curry for tonight but somehow didn't fancy it so that will sit in the fridge overnight in the saucepan, it's supposed to be better the second day anyway.  It will go into the slow cooker in the morning and will be ready for lunchtime.  Almost eight my time so time to shut down the pc and settle down for the night.  Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow except to start to write up the chart in Excel which might mean getting my new laptop sorted so that I can do both things at the same time, check the details and enter the data.  LN.....It will be good to finish it and present it and then on to the next.....LN
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Elsa Peters
January 29, 2023, 4:05pm Report to Moderator

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Sunday 29th January

Horrible, horrible evening and night....I watched the masked singer until the judging so missed it, slept through the next programme, woke up for the next they staggered off to bed and popped wide awake and really didn't get off again at all.  I was using all the techniques I know to nod off and nothing worked.  I was trying to concentrate on creating 'white light' in my mind's eye and only disjointed faces were appearing so instead made a coffee, played a few games of Solitaire and in desperation got out of bed at six, washed up and put the television on .  I checked on the outside and inside thermometer, it was on zero for outside and when the sky eventually lit up I noticed that  we were experiencing very fine snow, not much of it and with the terraces being wet, nothing was sticking.  I lit the fire from last night ashes and went to get dressed since it was only fourteen degrees in the stairwell with the big curtain closed, once it was open and the fire going, we sere soon up to eighteen degrees.  Eventually I made beans on toast for breakfast, used the remains of last night's tomato sauce with added curry powder and three chicken drumsticks to make tonight's curry.  It all went in the slow cooker and bubbled away nicely while I got on with other things,

By now it had stopped dropping 'stuff' from the sky so I took the rubbish from the conservatory and had a bonfire.  I eventually got it going, the burning bucket is getting quite full and needs emptying but I managed t squeeze the new bags on top of the old.  I noticed that the wind had changed from southerly to northerly and it was cold but with had, gloves, boots, many layers it was good to get some fresh air in my lungs.  I came up from the garden, grabbed the log store keys and the empty log carriers from the porch and headed for the woodstore.  Two loads of logs in in quicksticks, filled up the log basket in the house and exchanged the half full starter wood container for a full one from the porch.  I toyed with the idea of sitting out for a while but soon changed my mind...that wind was a little more than chilly.

So I played around with my new computer this morning and tried to sort out why my internet television programme was stop starting.  I reloaded the internet, played around with some settings and changed others but this evening it was working well and back to normal so I don't know if it was the internet having a wobble on or not.  Also I'd noticed yesterday that the house water pressure had dropped but again, it was down to the company, it was OK this morning.  

Fire re-lit, supper was very tasty, washing up awaits and then an early night for me.  I need to catch up on the sleep I missed out on last night.  Nothing much on the agenda for tomorrow, I've decided to invest in a new pair of wellies so might go to the market to check it out and get a few more sweet things for the goody box, it's looking bare.  I've just remembered I've got creamy yoghurt in the fridge....rude not to.  LN....Now time to relax....LN



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Elsa Peters
January 30, 2023, 4:22pm Report to Moderator

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Monday 30th January

So I nodded off watching the television last night, woke myself up and headed to bed and slept like a log until seven thirty this morning.  My Fitbit scored the sleep at good and just over eight hours and for me, that's not just good, that's brilliant.  So I set to straightaway, lit the fire, last night's leftovers out for Ms. Cat but even though I called she didn't appear so it was fair pickings for two of the others and the birds had a good go at the rice.  I made my coffee and took it back to bed until the house had warmed up and it didn't take long at all.  

I wasn't too hungry but suddenly the urge overtook me to make a couple of boiled eggs with toast and I took it to the table in the stairwell, I'd given them six minutes and expected them to be hard but they weren't...just perfect.  It's been a day of inactivity, I decided that I didn't need to go into Djebel so I've spent most of the day keeping the home fires burning and resting.  The temperature has hung around zero for most of the day, it started off in the house at fourteen degrees but once I'd opened up the curtain to the lounge and the wood burner, it steadily climbed enough to be comfortable without doing any activity.  I did notice that the two ginger sister cats were gorging themselves on the leftovers and there's been no sighting of the black cat all day.  Maybe it's found somewhere else with better pickings.

Supper of barbecued rack of pork ribs is cooking and a handful of chips will go in the air-fryer a little nearer the time.  I've just checked the weather report for tomorrow and it looks like we're in for some snow starting in the morning and on and off all day.  The terraces are dry so it might stick and enforced labour might drop from the sky...terraces need to be kept clear and so does my access to the road.  LN....Let's see what we get overnight......LN




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