Monday 31st March

What a day and I've been recovering eversince I got home this afternoon.  I set the alarm last night for six fifteen, I was up early because Kaufland had a Robo floor cleaner on offer for well below the prices in other stores and I thought it was about the right price that I wanted to pay.  The one that I complained about and came to befriend is due to go back home after its vacation and work away scheme.  My village lady arrived at seven with her sister, she was on her way to the doctor's surgery with a ailing thumb and wanted a week off work since her sister was over from Turkey but she was going to help me with my purchase.  The roads were empty and we parked up at Kardjali at seven thirty,the store is having an overhaul and the parking is nowhere near the entrance door so that was my first trek of the morning.  The store is full of early morning workers who when asked where the 'promotions' might be replay with a shrug of the shoulder or in some cases two and point you in the direction of another assistant.  Eventually Robo was discovered in a standard bin so the advertisers valued it's worth and discount with a store card but not the worker on the ground.  I also bought potatoes and a pack of forty eight toilet rolls on offer, my village lady was beginning to have a field day and her sister was addiing to the trolley when I called a halt to it....I was getting tired already.

They set off to find a bus to take them to the other end of town and her apartment and doctor's surgery while I parked up behind the Polyclinic and as I was descending the steps to the basement and my doctors room she overtook me on the stairs wishing me a 'good morning Elsa' and left me for the final descent.  By the time I got to the seating area outside the room, one person was already being seen to, I was supposedly next in but she chose to see one of the others who was in from the villages with various documents.  This took some time but it was still very early in my book, we went through my fall from grace in January, she said that she had not received any e-rays but there again I don't think anyone asked me who my GP was, I explained the pain that I was left with after two months and she arranged an immediate X-ray within the building.  Unfortunately the section was on the third floor so that was another trek, I recognised the person carrying out the procedure, she spoke perfect English and we met as friends and within fifteen minutes I had a CD copy of the x-ray which I took back to my doctor and had been told that everything was OK.  We'd already discussed maybe I should see a Ladies' doctor to make sure that nothing had 'slipped' in the accident and eventually I found her surgery in what looked like an apartment but we did the procedures and again was told that everything was where it should be and so again I reported back to my doctor.  By now it was ten thirty and the advice of my doctor was to rest as much as I could....I felt like I'd completed a half marathon already but achieved so much in such a short space of time.

I dorve home stopping for gas on the way for the Nipper, I couldn't park outside the garage shop so I turned round and stopped at the petrol station and put seventy leva's worth in the car, managed to park up nearer to the garage shop and stopped for around five minutes, my student's mum had the sneezing stage of a cold in progress so I was soon out of there and homeward bound.  I made tuna mayo and toast since I'd not had breakfast, settled myself on the sofa with my book and promptly fell asleep.  I filled up the log basket and lit a fire, back to the sofa and more book and more sleep.....I'd had one hell of a morning.  The advice from everyone today was that recovery is going to take time and I'm not going to do it any quicker that my body wants to so I've got to accept it.  LN.......My day of rest has started to day and now I have to pace myself.....it's eventually sunk in......LN