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Thursday 20 January 2011

R.I.P Anne, Last Blog New Blog!

This is going to be the last blog of this series. This last year has been a ba****d for me & I want t o bring it to an end. I have started a new blog which you can access from the links.
The last blog here is very sad.....
Bulgaria & British pats lost a wonderful lady this week. Anne was loved by many, her husband & family have suffered a huge loss combined with a massive shock. Anne was a very gregarious, warm hearted, positive, funny lady & was someone who was very supportive to me in the 6 months Nigel was away. I know the terrible shock & loss her family are feeling as my brother died in an instant with no prior warning. It is a terrible pain & such a sadness envelopes you along with the constant re recording of the words, but why?????
Unfortunately there is no answers we can understand but eventually the pain dulls & visits occasionally & life goes on, though it takes time. Time to grieve a terrible loss time to grieve such a emptiness inside.
My heartfelt condolences go out to Anne's husband Colin & all the family & to all Anne's friends personal & Facebook. To everyone who has come into contact with her she was a sunny lady, I want to call her a girl as she was young at heart.
Goodnight Anne, but for a short while xxxxxxxx

Saturday 1 January 2011

Chestita Novo Godina, Happy New Year! Grip.

Well after Christmas spent with friends came the grip! Grip is what Bulgarians refer to in the case of cold or flue & if you sneeze just once or make the mistake of coughing once you have the grip :D Well I have had something which has wiped me out. More pain though than anything else as I seem to have has affected sinuses & weak. Most days I have been in or on my bed & when I have got up to do dinner I have been weak as a kitten, trying though!
So New years day calls for change, not in the resolution way though as they will be broken by the 2nd!
What do you want to see for your 2011?????
I want a year which will see us both earning money, no working in UK for Nigel, no death's in the family, no theft's or car crashes, a bit of renovation on our house (though this is not as important) & a revelation of Gods plan for us here! These are off course alongside what we always want which is health for our children & grandchildren as well as the rest of our family & friends! I'm sure I could fill a million blogs with the things we want in life on a daily basis!
The first day of 2011 was again one of blue skies & sunshine & farting cats & dogs, poohwee!!!! No idea why I have the smelliest domestic animals n the world. My days are filled with smelly farts, roll on summer.
 My goals for this year..... not you understand resolutions but goals...... lose weight is obviously one of them, sigh, yet again I have gained far too much, it's been over the last couple of years but I have let it go & it's probably the main reason I have had high blood preasure so at some point soon I must start the slimming world recipes again!!!! Be happier, too much unhappiness this year. Even if Nigel goes back to UK I must just get on with living, but how, we will see, I would guess its a state of mind so I have to give myself a talking to :D Walk the dogs more, this will be good for me too & I actually like walking in the snow. I am 2 mins from the countryside so its lovely to walk them here. I used to take Reg but he is too strong for me now my hands are worse so I will take the pups & leave Reg & Sophie to Nigel! At least I don't have the insurmountable mountain of giving up smoking to climb :D That is one I conquered 13 months ago, woohoo!!! Now lets see what I can change for the better this year!

Chloe ,my new grand daughter the best thing from 2010, I pray she lives a blessed life!!!
What do you want to see changed in your life, not the world peace blah blah's real significant changes that will make a real difference to you every day????? Happy new year everyone lets hope 2011 will be significantly better & absolutely different xxxxx 

Friday 31 December 2010

Our Christmas in Bulgaria Chestita Koleda


Polski Trambesh Tree
 Phew what a few days, I'm fair knackered now like most people across the Christian world! I hope you all had a very lovely time with family, friends or both!!!! We started Christmas morning with the mark of Yovo! We asked about church at Christmas & was told yes 10am so we said we would be going. Yovo then reminded us again Xmas eve 10am I confirmed the time over & over as I am aware of his foibles! Huh yep Joanna that worked we got to church at 9.50am & waited till 10.45, no Priest!!!!! Bloody Yovo!!!!! When we saw him he was all blah blah other villages, no sorry!!!

Baba Ivanka's Donkey awaiting her work
It wasn't a wasted morning though as it was the first time I had ever been out for a walk on Christmas morning & was great meeting everyone & exchanging greetings & Chestita Koleda's! It was also a beautiful sunny 20c day & a really nice start :D  
The man ringing the bell calling us to church
I spoke to all my children, grandchildren, mum, sister in law, niece & step son on Christmas day, which was superb :D I started preparing for Christmas on Christmas eve by cleaning a functional but unfinished kitchen. before any cooking was to be done Nigel & myself donned the invisible rubber gloves, hot soapy water & polish & set to cleaning the
whole downstairs. It took till the afternoon just to get the kitchen clean of all the brick dust & plaster along with everything in it. Nigel was at the rest all day :D Its amazing though having a lovely clean sweet smelling sink with hot & cold water coming out of one tap! Also being able to have the washing machine & dishwasher on at the same time, with no hoses hanging over the sink, so I could use the sink to clean the kitchen!!! Just like a normal developed world kitchen :D :D :D Then followed three days of cooking!!!!!
I made Mulled wine which was delicious & went down very well with everyone who partook, I will most definitely be doing it all year never mind just winter, its bloody lovely cold too! I adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe, so its a JaimJo brew & I recon in the summer it will be beautiful with ice cubes, yep lets break all the rules & try it like a pimms mix! I also promised Pavlinka a apple & cinnamon cake so that was next. Yovo true to form instead of bringing the turkey he killed for dinner, at midday xmas day, bought it round xmas eve afternoon instead, so that put me out too, not for long though! Well I was so looking forward to our first freshly killed Turkey i was at first a bit shocked! It was the skinniest bird I had ever set eyes on weighing just 5lb!!!! I was really concerned about how it would cook & if it would be moist, but I wanted a traditional English dinner with a Bulgarian twist & this was it. No force fed with God knows what cage reared Turkey for us, I just needed to be extra careful with how I cooked it! Yovo proudly showed me under the Turkey was all the bits like head feet heart etc, he had obviously found out that we have giblets in the cavern when we buy one & thought I needed them to stuff the bird :-( I decided not to disappoint & spent hours over the next two days cooking giblet gravy then used the meaty bits at the end in the stuffing. NEVER again!!!!!
Step 1 million in preparing giblet gravy
The gravy took flipping hours of preparation at different stages & hours of cooking to give something greatly lacking in flavour. In hindsight I should just have chucked in some white wine! The stuffing too was yuckydah. The Turkey was good, very moist I cooked it slowly with plenty of basting so I was well pleased, & I took extra care to roast the potatoes so they were lovely & crispy.  Christmas dinner started with a Russian salad, pickled hot peppers, cheese banitza & hot Rakia, so by the time we had eaten everything there was no room for Christmas pudding which is quite normal in my house but we were then given a plate full with Pumpkin banitza, my Apple cake & something else I nearly died :D Again true to form the food I cook & took round piping hot was left to go cold & soggy even though I drove home the importance of it being HOT, yep to them luke warm & tepid is hot! Christmas dinner as we know it was ruined :-( So the next day I had some good friends, Net & Neil round for a roast pork dinner with yorkies too & got my fix :D We never got around to putting up the decorations. The tree broke, its a fibre optic & this is the first year it didn't work so we threw some lights over it & wrapped some lights around a beam & that's it, a fitting end to 2010 as far as I am concerned!!!
This was our first ever non consumerism Christmas & the cheapest ever in the history of Christmas's!!! No big tins of chocs no loaded up bags of pressies no trolly's full of food, it felt real good to have no waste & we enjoyed all we had. My friend from UK gave us the xmas pud stuffing mix & a box of mince pies. My mum sent over a huge jar of mince meat & my friend here made the pies for me. Mum also sent over some after eights & fruit jelly's we had Walnuts & hazelnuts from the garden & I made cake. I did however miss my family, Christmas was not the same without you all :-( :-( :-(
I hope you all had a wonderful couple of days!!!!!

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Church on Christmas Day, Cooking a Freshly Killed Turkey, Buying Freshly Killed Pig & Waterworks

So today Yovo informed us he can't get the turkey, whole, in his small oven. In Yovo's house all meat is chopped into bits & burnt till you can't tell what it is ;-( So I have been given the job of cooking it Christmas day. I have to say that makes me both happy & nervous, as its walking around with the chickens at the moment & I have never cooked a fresh turkey, especially one this fresh ;-) Still at least we have a chance of a decent bit of meat. Right so now I am cooking the Turkey, roasties, stuffing & yorkies :D Oh & making Apple & cinnamon cake & cooking the Christmas pudding, I just hope they enjoy their first traditional Christmas day dinner! I know Yovo is very excited & I have to admit I am looking forward to it big time! Trad Bulgarian accompniments will be great too but I am soooo going to miss cranberry sauce & parsnips ooh & pigs in blankets will be sooooo missed, I wonder if I can get cocktail sausages in Metro??? Nahhhhh! 
Blimey I hope I have a kitchen to cook it all in! 
Nigel is doing the water pipes today. The main huge steel pipe came out with difficulty, but thankfully Nigel is very strong, his grip is vice like! So now he is re plumbing the whole set up, but as is the norm he has run into a problem & is now as I type investigating various options. Now I do not understand the ins & outs of plumbing & water supplies so I will leave him to it & see how he is getting on when I go to sort him out some lunch. lets hope its done today.

Yovo also came to invite us to a pig kill today but obviously we couldn't go but we can buy the meat for 3 lev a kilo thats 1.50 in UK woopwoop!!! I am going to buy 20 kilo, the pig weighs 130 kilo's so next year I really want to buy a whole one. Mmmmmmm till you have eaten home reared fresh pork you don't know the real taste. It's beautiful nothing like the shop bought stuff & one of the advantages of living here is very fresh meat oh & poultry. The disadvantage is the beef, very expensive & not much about. I have found beef mince, which is very very nice, but I cannot afford the meat, so Pork it is :-)  Ooh I smell burning plastic which means some pipe work is going in :) ;)
My Christmas day is going to start with an Orthodox church service at 10am in our village. I am soooo pleased after all it is what Christmas is all about!!!! I won't understand a word, there will be no music or worship but that does not matter on Christmas day I will be in a beautiful church to say thank you & happy birthday :D My first non family Christmas is shaping up to be a good one!!!!
Can you believe the temps reached over 24c here today, snow on the ground sun shining, lovely!!!!! The sun warmed up the house so we didn't have to light the fire till just before the sun went down!
On a lovely lighthearted note my new grand daughter Chloe has started smiling this week. Look how she shines :D

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Skanky sink, Abscess & Fab Pizza

The snow is still here, starting to melt though as we have reached 11c today! Its still difficult in places to drive but Nigel has managed to drive to Polski Trambesh twice in the last few days. Me never again in the snow :D too scared now :-(
Nigel has been making shelves, rebuilding kitchen units to take the Belfast sink & smashed out the old skanky smelly sink.
Oh & we found out why it stank all the time, the waste pipe was almost completely blocked, how the water from the washing machine & dishwasher managed to run away is beyond me as there was only a tiny hole left open! I am so excited to see it gone :D & can't wait till tomorrow when the water will be re routed & we have gotten rid of all the ugly pipe work.
The kitchen area will be sorted & usable for cooking all the Christmas goodies but not finished as we have all the sealing painting shelf building & trim fitting to do but that's not an issue this week. Thank goodness I am not hosting Christmas here I would never get it ready for guests :-) I have been living upstairs in the bedroom as the living/kitchen is full of dust & everything is everywhere so I & the dogs were best out of the way so Nigel can get on with all the dirty messy work. I had a night where Nigel finished early. I cleaned a little square of top so I could make homemade pizza. I have never made it before, not even on a bought base, but I have had an urge since a facebook friend Libby made one a couple of months ago & it looked so lovely I really wanted to try. I found a recipe for the pizza base & added tom puree, mozarella cheese, cirene cheese, cheddar cheese, salami sausage, garlic. peppers, sage & olive oil. I am telling you it was the best pizza I have ever had other than in Italy itself (who can beat them!!!) I am now a complete convert & will NEVER buy a frozen pizza ever again!!!





I am so looking forward to tonight as I plan on making another :D





Today I have produced yet another abscess on yet another tooth, that's my third on three different teeth, yes I know I need to go to the dentist but this will have to wait. \here we live on a very small amount of money & the money for a dentist is not available added to the absolutely terrifying phobia I have it's not on the cards anytime soon. Anyway I have managed to get rid of the last two & Nigel has got me some anti biotics so here's hoping it will be gone for Christmas!

Friday 17 December 2010

Snow, Brrrrrrrrrr & Christmas

Well the snow has settled in nicely here, in fact yesterday it didn't stopped but it still seems minor at the moment, 6 inches at most. Others are reporting 18"  & 2' so I am really hoping this will not be the case :-( The forecasts are so different! The temps are meant to be rising at the weekend & we are hoping it will melt & go away for a bit so we can get out of the village & get the plumbing bits we need for Nigel to finish the kitchen! Hmmmmm in the Bulgarian winter you cannot count on anything. In the past we have left the house in blue sky & sunshine to go to VT 45 mins away & left VT at the first signs of light snow to be stuck in it in the middle of nowhere trying to attach snow chains onto a Luton box van! Not good at the time as it was pitch black blowing a blizzard & bitter, bitter cold. In fact Nigel who NEVER loses his temper had a right tantrum throwing the chains hahahaha, I think it had something to do with me & my I told you to try them before now speech  (they were still in the box & shrink wrap), it's a bit hard to read instructions in the darkness of deepest darkest forest land!!! No I definitely didn't help the situation but have learnt a valuable lesson. That was in a good winter, last year was worse, goodness knows what we will be faced with this year. I have a feeling it could be better as the UK has had it worse than us so far so we could be ok (famous last words!) our temp's are pretty bad at the moment -10c days & -13c real feel nights, oh well only three & half months till spring :D





The pups are loving it







No so good for Reg though as he suffers more now with pain in his hip!











The wood burners are wonderful & warm in fact we get too hot & our indoor attire is spring/summer collection with an added thick wooly & boot for trips to the bathroom which is via the outside staircase  :D
Well Christmas is almost here & its still a very emotional time of year for me. I can't help but think of people who need help & how this time of year is sooo painful for them! It wasn't that long ago, 10yrs, that Christmas was very painful for me & with only 15.00 a week to raise my daughter on for food clothes & cleaning I would burst into tears in Safeways while people had trolleys overflowing with Christmas goodies. I didn't have any money for my 3 children's presents let alone Christmas treats, it was truly awful. The loveliest thing was when someone put my name forward to the local charity group & I was given a hamper with some bits & bobs in, nothing much but it was the fact that someone had thought of my plight that touched me so much!! Christmas is a time for love, giving & family & when that's not there it means not a lot! So my Christmas this year, well I have found a way, My Bulgarian friends are going to receive a brand new electrical item from the UK (with new plug) one which they would love to have but would never buy themselves as money is not for luxury items! I would spread some money around but they are better off than us at the moment hahaha! Did I say I love Christmas!!!!! Silent night makes me cry & I love it even more with the snow & the log fires, Mmmmmmmm.
I am excited now as we have organised Christmas day with Yovo, Pavlinka, Svetlana, Anton & anyone else at a loose end :-) It will be a traditional Bulgarian/English dinner. I am cooking the roast potatoes, stuffing, Christmas pudding, custard & Apple & cinnamon cake, Pavlinka's favorite & she has put in a request! Also I will be providing mince pies & cream. Yovo will kill the turkey & asked how we cook it in England I have said it is roasted whole in the oven so if he can get the women to cook it that way it will be a huge bonus :D Pavlinka will cook all the traditional Bulgarian accompniants so a good day I think!!!! On Christmas eve I want to go caroling with mince pies & had a romantic vision of the snow softly falling while we are all wrapped up, like last night but the forecast is for warmer weather :-(





still I am looking forward to it loads & plan on us wearing our flashing father Christmas hats :D :D








Today after Nigel did all his winter chores, as all Bulgarian men must :-) Before anything else happens on a snowy winter day Nigel has to do snow clearing, wood chopping or gathering in, fire cleaning, fire lighting then he can get on with whatever renovation work he is doing on the house. I do feel sorry for him but this year my hands are really past carrying the wood sacks upstairs or even up to the kitchen so its all down to him now :-( I did do it for a bit when he was away but it did me more harm!!! Anyway today he has been building the cupboard that will house the Belfast sink. The sink is soooo heavy & the cupboard has to be reinforced to carry that amount of weight. If he can get out to Polski tomorrow or the next couple of days we should be all set by christmas but I don't think the kitchen will be painted or have all the trims attached. Still I will not be complaining if I have the worktop & sink installed by then :D

Wednesday 15 December 2010

5 Weeks Later........ Chloe, Snow, Friends, Poorliness, Dogs & Mini Kitchen Renovation Oh & Life Back To Normal

Wow it's been over 5 weeks since I wrote my last blogg! can't believe where the time has gone but thinking about it we have done loads & seen loads & been living loads Hurrrrrrahhhhh!!!!!!
Now don't get me wrong I don't need a man to validate my existence but I love my husband & it has been a hard path to tread! Also I have found out not only was I missing him & obviously lonely but I was also quite poorly which obviously didn't help the situation! Well I am not happy that I'm poorly but I am happy that I wasn't a complete weak willed lump of mush hahaha, here is a round up of the last 5 weeks.......

Nigel made it over in 3 days of sensible driving & sleeping! I don't understand the stupidity of people who drive straight through. It's ok if they want to take themselves out but invariably they take out families too! So he slept in the car upright but at least he slept. The Kia & trailer was so packed solid it was quite a sight to see & took two days to unpack!
It's lovely having him home & also having help disciplining the dogs who are a lot better behaved & love all the attention :D

I have also become a Nanna for the third time! Here is the beautiful Chloe, isn't she gorgeous!!!! Born on the 13th Nov, a lovely unexpected little girl, she was predicted to be a boy!!!! NEVER believe the hospitals!Well she has been a real joy & Daniel & Katie are over the moon! This is when I miss being in UK, it's a hard price to pay sometimes!

It's been a lovely time as we have some new friends, I have finally found some ex pats on our wavelength! We have had lots of fun & it's been great seeing Nigels little boy part of his personality resurface, he is having fun being silly & his funny voices have come back. The ones that no matter what accent he is trying to mimic sounds like his native Bummie or a Pakistani, he just can't put on accents but to his ears he sounds welsh hahahaa which does make it quite funny!!!! So its been Nigel & Jo & Net & Neil out & about trying different chicken kebabs in different towns :D we have been to monasteries, towns, markets & shopping lunch trips & had a great time!! Net & Neil make me laugh & Net has been invaluable to me in helping me feel better as even though Nigel was home safe & sound it didn't make the depression go away! First Net cut my hair which helped me feel better in my appearance then as she has trained as a nurse she made me go to the doctors.  It turns out I have high blood pressure & was retaining water, the doctor put me on water tablets & almost immediately the pain I was feeling all over my body went away!!!!!  This was amazing, I was in so much pain even I was concerned not all was well! So now I am being monitored, BP is back to normal, pain still subsided & I am just waiting for an influx of energy please!!!!! Talking of super energy that describes Net she has so much energy it puts me to shame & I think how unfair she has too much & I don't have enough :-(
We have also been visiting a friend who comes over every month for a long weekend (even in the winter) & Nige is helping her re wire her house at the moment & while he is working we are chatting & visiting :D So we have met new people who have moved into her village since Nigel went to UK. Its been great. I love meeting new people & making friends. I have always been a people person & until I moved here have never had trouble filling my life with lots of people, but here it is different. I think maybe its that in the UK we have a choice & make friends naturally but here it can be very unatural. UK culture is very diverse, I am from South London (& proud!!!!!) but have moved & lived many years in Kent, the South Coast & Midlands all these places have a different culture to my upbringing & I have had to adapt & make friends, but it has seemed harder here. Just because we all have the love of adventure & Bulgaria in common does not mean we will automatically get on! Anyway I digress. The last couple of months for me have seen a new mix of people who I hope will all be good friends & we all want the Bulgarian way of living with friends in both cultures mixing with both as there is nothing like sitting & chatting rubbish when you have spent the week struggling & trying to remember words to communicate. Oh don't get me wrong I enjoy it, it's great fun & makes for lots of laugh's but easy chatting is needed to. Also knowing there is someone who understands the word emergency without having to say it 100 times is a great thing to have in my life :D Friends from all countries, sounds good to me!

Nigel is busy renovating the kitchen area for me :-) He came home with a small kitchen & Belfast sink so we can at least have a workable kitchen for the next couple of years while he turns a cow shed into my super duper kitchen & the cellar room into our dining room! It's a work in progress but time & money dictate all. So he has been re wiring, plumbing, ripping out, smashing down, plastering & that’s just the prep work bless him! He is making me shelves as we have loads of wood & its really lovely to have shelving that’s been part of the property for donkeys (& cows & chickens & pigs & goats & sheep & people hahaha) it keeps the history & its better than burning it all :-)



Nigel is altering the few units he has bought over (purchased on ebay for 42 uk pounds) & then its just a matter of painting the walls & sealing & painting the ceilings.



The sink is going to be the worst as it was built in with the house & he has to re plumb everything to the new septic tank, we will see, I am hoping it will be finished for Christmas, if not painted, as I really want to get the dec's up :D







Oh & the snow has arrived, so our winter starts, but for those of you in Europe, well you have had it worse than us so far! We have a inch maybe but temps falling to -13 feel last night! Our temps are worse but the snow will eventually be up to Nigel’s thigh & we will have to dig our way into our house soon enough LOL we have outside stairs so in the winter we have to clear the steps & dig the path to get in downstairs :D

This photo is from Feb on a mild snow day :D It gets a lot worse!!!!


Well that’s long winded enough I will continue this in another blog but for now enjoy your snow!!!!!!!

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Old post 4 Days & Counting, Beautiful Sunshine, Sophie Returns Emaciated, & Yucky Recipes!

Somehow this post never got published so here you are a preview to the update I am about to undertake!Woohoo 4 days & I will be a couple again!!!! I miss my husband soooo much & it has been a tough 6 months I can tell ya! All, all, all, respect for wives & husbands of military etc you just don't think of the loneliness involved for the people left behind. I have just been talking to someone who had only been married a few weeks when her husband was posted & gone for two years!!!!!! My goodness I can't even......... How strong must that make them, I bet the divorce rate is phenomenal. I have had separations in the past when the kids were babies but then it was just the first two weeks that were awful then I settled into normal life with 3 babies to sort & the house to run & I had loads of friends & family around me, that made all the difference at the end of 7 months I was not that happy being together again, mind you that was also because I had moved away from everyone, hmmm. Today is a change over & busy day for Nigel. He has a bit of running around as he has to get a number plate for the trailer, but first he has to say goodbye to gaz, Kirsty & the boys. Then its a long drive from Birmingham to Hastings to stay with mum & see my sister in law Bren & nephew Mark, his wife Laura & my growing very fast great niece Imogen. I am hoping to speak to them all this afternoon. Then a day last min stuff tomorrow with mum & off he jolly well goes, fingers toes & everything else crossed that all goes well on the trip & nothing gets stolen!
The weather is really lovely here full sunshine & blue sky's 18c but indoors is well chilly to say the least, although my bedroom get the sun full beam through the windows so that is a nice room to be in. The fires are being lit & if I am indoors faffing with the wood burner alight its very weird with the sunshine too. I love the evenings though with the wood burning & the warmth, it's so different to central heating although I do miss that as my bathroom is verrrrrrry cooooooold & I have to light the gas fire in there an hour before I want to use it but this does not help needing a wee hahaha cold wee times!
Sophie came home last night after being gone quite a while & she looks terrible sunken haunches all her ribs on show & very sad eyes. So poor girl is now tetherd for her own safety & will only be let off when she is indoors, otherwise she will be over the fence again, stupid girl. Not much else I can do!
I have had this recuring day of  double vision & bluryness where I can't see properly with or without my glasses (varifocals) & this week I had it really badly where I could only see really badly if I squinted. It lasts from waking in the morning till I wake the next day? I have also had two disasterous baking results. Not as in didn't work out but just yuk as in no flavour or just not pleasant! I made some Apple Muffins & waited till the following day so they were developed but oh dear there was just no taste to them so they ended up as dog treats. I also made Pear Clafoutis which I was excited about & that was just all kinds of wrong. So anymore recipes with these two fruits will def have ginger & cinnamon added it makes all the difference & I do always use these spices but these were recipes I found on the net & I followed them as written, yuk! Never again!
Right lots of housework now first round for the week then tomorrow I am meeting a FB friend for the first time & going shopping, looking forward to that. I love meeting new people & since Nigel has been gone I have only  met one couple in Gorna & we met for lunch so this will be a good day, hopefully a good old chat!!!

Wednesday 27 October 2010

7 days & Counting....... Food Food Food, Happy Birthday Molly Moo!

Oooh getting excited & happier each day that passes! Can't wait to see my lovely husband again, it's been soooo long :-( Well true to form Nige thinks he can get everything into a small space quite comfortably, until the last minuet when he suddenly realises oh!!! So now he is looking for a trailer to buy in time to pack the overflow & be in Hastings by Sunday. I hope he manages it ok! Everything includes the kitchen sink hahaha. So Nigel has 2.5 days left of work then its, buy & collect trailer (hopefully), pack car & trailer, goodbye meals with children in Birmingham (ahhh), goodbye dinner with my family in Hastings then a day out with my mum then all being ok & ready its a three day trek across Europe to home sweet home! Busy busy time for him! Nigel works so hard & even here it seems there's never a day off for him, always something to do! I know everyone who lives in a Bulgarian village will know what I am talking about, even if your no longer renovating your property its a busy life. Winter is the quieter time out of all the year as it gets too cold or impossible to get out of the village so outside work stops, unless you have livestock.
Winter is a time of indoor renovating & cooking, I love the cooking so much but have put on soooo much weight this year its back to the slimming world philosophy & cook books to see what I can adapt! I need to get in my clothes next year &, more importantly, it's affecting my health!!!!!
I have been doing plenty of jam & chutney making the last few weeks. It's something I had never done before & I really love devising a new recipe & seeing if it works. I have had many disasters with my cherries made loads of batches of jam & everyone ended up in bin or dog, I give up!!! Major successes with the plums though but this was so nice that me who never eats jam has devoured 4 lg jars Oop's!!!!! still loads left & loads of jars of preserved plums too, lovely! I have made some Quince jam but not sure if it's any good I will let Nigel try it if he likes it fine if not I will chuck it & try chutney with it next season! Its all trial & error! I also unfortunately love baking cakes, oh dear, so out of lonliness & boredom I have been baking & eating, baking & eating, baking & eating. Nigel comes home to a freezer full of grape, apple & walnut cakes & various fruit filled muffins hahaha. There are also Soups Bob Chorba, Chili's & crumbles, I ran out of freezer space now just enough room for a few more cakes hahaha.
Success!!!! I have made cream!!!!! Well chuffed, I have been wanting to do it for yonks, I didn't realise just how easy it is, this was whipped too, Mmmm. So next step is to make clotted cream but I didn't want to chance ruining this as its been soooo long :D
It was my granddaughter Molly's 5th birthday yesterday, awe I miss the babes so much, they are growing so quick & I'm missing the best part of their little lives. It was wonderful to speak to her & my daughter Rhea, but sad too! Molly went ice skating & she says she was very good :-) She is also on half term so no school, now in my book that's a bonus but she doesn't yet know that haha. I sang happy birthday to her & she said thank you, oh dear, normally she giggles, but no, now she is a big girl :-(

Molly hasn't been here yet & it looks like it will be another couple of years before they can afford it, totally understandable but sad as she is starting to get a bit too old to really appreciate the ferial nature of village life for a little un, soon she will just be bored!







Well facebook is not working for me today so lots of housework & a rice pudding, problem is I have put my back out! Its a long on going problem I have had for years. The doctor told me exactly what it is but true to form I can't remember, doh, but its something I can get regularly or it can be years. Similarly it can be through doing too much or nothing at all. The only treatment is paracetamol & Ibuprophen mix & complete rest, for sometimes a day or months!!!!! Just have to let it do it's thing & hope I have stopped quickly enough, we will see!

Monday 25 October 2010

9 Days to go, Woohoowee.... Blinking Stupid Gas, Kokoshka Soupa

9 more days, Nigel leaves England on 2nd November, can't wait just hope his drive back goes OK!!!!!
Had a great couple of days, the weather is truly beautiful blue skies, full day of sunshine & really warm, too hot to wear a big cardi. Oh but indoors its blooming cold!!! So wood burners still being lit & the best of both worlds being lived hahaha. Mind you I filled the bedroom full of smoke last night, not very pleasant. I have no idea why, I normaly light it when I go up but because its been cold I lit it before I went up & walked into a fog! I managed to clear it best I could & by the time I went to sleep the room was fine! I won't be closing the flue down again though, just in case!
Well the gas bottle finally ran out on Saturday as I was starting to cook potatoes & pasta, typical,  so I cooked them on the wood burner. Now this is a kamina (just a fire) not a petshka (wood burning aga type cooker) but it still works just takes a lot longer as I am trying to keep the heat down, it gets too blooming hot in here if your not careful. Anyway I digress, again. Easy peasy I had already got a bottle refilled (only costs 10lv for 8 ltrs) but this is Bulgaria off course. Yovo came round to invite me to coffee the following morning & brought me up the full bottle but the shut off valve just would not fit on there without locking :-( very bloody anoying but I kept my cool & negotiated that he would take me to re fill the one we had just removed on the Monday. As it turned out I didn't need it on the Sunday.
Sunday I made my way to Yovo & Pavlinka's house 10am for coffee. Now again this is Bulgaria & could mean anything & could be any number of people.. The table was laid up bless them, they really make a big thing out of coming over for a coffee. There were plates of biscuits, choc with some sort of choky goo on top, poached pears, cirene cheese (feta) & when I sat myself down out came the cold eggy bread! Now if you have never had this its not pleasant but with some cirene cheese can be quite moorish, I reccon it would be very nice with some fruity chutney! Pavlinka was pasterising some milk & cooking Kokoshka soupa or hen soup, yes you guessed it, after the eggy bread etc out came a huge bowl of soup & a huge mound of Kokoshka oris (rice). The rice was very nice, but i am not a fan of chicken bones & skin so the soup was nice but I was put off with having to check for bits & hoik out unpleasant things. Suffice to say I did not need to cook any diinner!! I gave Yovo an English lesson before coming home laden down with Tikva (pumpkin), Mlyako (fresh from the cow milk) & 3 kilo pears & very please I am with them all. Anto, Svetlana then came to my dom & we made wine. I really enjoyed sitting in the gorgeous warm sun sorting through all the grapes very theraputic & fun. Mini & Kami were in heaven pinching the odd grape when I wasn't looking :-)  My ante room now resembles a brewery as the barrel of vino joins the barrel of Rakia already on the go. I am well chuffed as our vineyard was really affected badly this year & I have lost 3/4 of my grapes from the amount of rain we had early on in the season. I have been given a figure of 25-30 ltrs, we will see, well chuffed if we do as I was only hoping for a couple of bottles! Last years has matured nicely & we still have about 40 ltrs rich red wine which packs a mighty punch. By the time we have finished that lot this years will be aged sufficiantly. Its a shame the locals don't age their wine & rakia's they drink them as soon as they are ready & dont get the benefit of a great brew. All fired up & energised the way you only get from a good day i made a pear & ginger upside down cake & had my dessert when I would normally cook dinner :-)
Today was a trip to Polski Trambesh I havent been for months so it was really good to go especially as again we have a beautiful sunshiney day. I love the trip to Polski the scenery is so much nicer than the other direction into Gorna. The Autumn palete is truly beautiful golds creams browns various shades of green & the gorgeous crimson bushes dotted between a wonderful kontrasten Essen landscape. I so hope it stays this way for just a few more days so Nigel gets to enjoy it.
I tried to get some photos the other day, when I went to Gorna Oryahovitza but through the glass of a moving bus is a bit difficult, these are the best of them....  If you look closely at the above & below pics you can see the B of P.
The birds of pray are visible now, one of the wonderful sights of the next 6 months. Watching them soaring & swooping on their prey is special, but on Friday I saw two together, playing swooping towards & away from each other gliding through the sky together, lovely sight! I am looking forward to getting out one day with Nigel & the camera I want to just drive for the day taking photo's, how great would that be!!!!!
How can you not love scenery like this!!!!!! Unfortunately the rest were rubbish!
I bought a tub of hot corn to eat,mmm the guy puts on a choice of flavourings I had garlic sauce garlic salt & chilli stuff. Oh my goodness delicious & only 1.50lv a large pot! 

I then went & had a great pizza so basically spent the whole trip eating hahaha 

Have also been clearing the garden & bringing in the Lemon tree & Geraniums before we get a frost, I don't want to risk losing my Lemon tree it's done so well this year! We bought it for 40p & it was just a stick in a box with a tiny shoot so its a fighter!
So trying to make cream with the cows milk, clotted hopefully! Oh dear I hope Nigel hurries home so I can stop eating haha actually not funny!

10 Days To Go & Counting.... Cold Snap

10 days to go & I am getting quite relaxed, finally! Can't wait to be with Nigel again! He is very busy taking apart the kitchen units we bought, on the ever brilliant ebay, just hope they & the Belfast sink will fit into the Kia with all the other stuff! I will be well gutted if he can't get them home :-(  Well anyway the best thing will be him home again where he belongs!!!! Notice was handed in on Friday so all systems go go go!!!!!!! Ahh my Mum is going to really miss him & Seaney will be gutted, mind you his Xmas show will be taking up his time & will be all consuming for him, so its a good time of year for Nigel to be leaving as he will be easily distracted.  Sean, my 23yr old step son, was born with Downs Syndrome & I defy anyone not to love him. He is not all clingy lovey dovey he is his own person with everything that entails but his character is funny. Had Sean been able to easily communicate & live an independent life with a career then he would have made an excellent stand up comedian! Instead he & his Saturday club put on a production every Christmas & it is fantastic, his life from now will be consumed with nothing but talking about the "show". I for one am thankful for that!
We have a cold snap here but with glorious sunshine & blue, blue skies. Hopefully a sign of the winter to come, sunny & bright, it makes it so much easier to cope. We can keep toasty warm, we have a wood burner upstairs in the bedroom & downstairs, in fact  we have to wear summer clothes indoors as it gets so hot.  The main winter probs are the water freezing & the roads being sheets of ice or impassable with snow. Last year we had a spectacular crash when with snow chains on we went into a sideways slide downhill into a coach! This year we have a 4 x 4 Kia Sportage I just pray it will be a good girl & cope well over here. I used to say oh you don't need a 4 x 4 here its just scaremongering but after last winter I was wrong. The winter before was very deep snow but beautiful sun so we felt good & the roads were good. The temps were reasonable to, I guess. Last year it would snow & freeze then melt a little & freeze & on & on there were many layers so where it looked ok with soft snow there would be a thick layer of ice beneath. Well all we can do is wait, see what this year brings & make sure we are home early. The night of the accident we left a house where Nigel was installing a new bathroom & it was 7.30pm which was too late. That was the night temps dropped to -27c & don't I know it.  I was sat for three hours in the car with no window frozen solid while we had to wait for police & fill in forms. Well it may be cold but its beautiful. I remember the ice was like diamonds on the bushes & trees like something out of Narnia the winter version, fantastic! For the time being though it's warmer out than in!

Thursday 21 October 2010

13 DAYS TO GO......... Visitor & Dogs

I had a surprise visitor today, no idea how it got in but this is one reason I need Nigel to work on sealing the house. I have had numerous frogs in this year too, some I managed to get out others well I just hope they have kept the floor spiders to a minimum!
Well 13 days to go, now the countdown really starts Woohoo!!! Can't wait to get back to some sort of normality. Just how weird is it to be married but separated!!! It will be 6 months since I said goodbye thinking it would be for two months & how long it would be, wow I am glad I didn't know then what I know now!!! Anyway ordeal almost over then I can relax & stop being paranoid. I have so much respect & a little more understanding for wives of soldiers etc & the long periods of time they are separated for. Also for my mum she has lived alone for sooooo long. Now she is 86 & less mobile but has some great friends & neighbours who keep her company. I am not looking forward to having to do this again but if I have to I will. It's not like we can up & leave the house & we have the animals to think of too. Talking of animals, I have seen the baby Tortoise but I haven't seen the adults for a while. I hope they are readying themselves for hibernation! The baby has definitely grown So I am hoping she will survive another hibernation. I will be hibernating with them too if the winter turns out to be as bad as predicted, though just who it is that makes these predictions is beyond me! I shall have Nigel all to myself for 10 days & then he has a job lined up. I am looking forward to getting out with him & enjoying his company.
The weather here is mixed, we have had a few days without having to light the woodburners but today its chilly wet & windy so its been alight all day. Its lovely makes you feel all homey & comfy cosy. The pups get a bit hot though haha but Reggie loves it bless him! Kami & Mini play all over the place if Mini was human she would be described as ADHD she is truly manic but Kami on her own is a quiet little darling with a bit of pep to her, such a sweety this was them earlier, play fighting.
Minishka is very naughty but also cute & funny
Such a naughty girl!!!
Kamishka on the other hand is far more wary, she was treated really badly & its taking a long time to trust. She goes mental if you manage to pick her up, you have to catch her :-) but she has started to jump up & sit on my lap for a cuddle. Her quietness comes I think from staying out of the way, pretending she's not there!. When Mini or Reg nick her food she just walks away & lets them, I have to stand guard over Mini & as soon as she has gulped her food I have to pick her up & put her outside with Reg. She won't go near him now when he is eating!
Poor Reggie his hip & leg are getting worse, probably due to the cold. You can see his spine has twisted to compensate & his leg is in a funny possition too. Yesterday I noticed he had scraped his tail stump AGAIN. I don't think it will ever heal. Because he cant sit he has been known to just stand completely still for hours looking at the door which can't do his hip/leg much good.
You can see his leg here, bless him!
Kami is a house dog & spends most of the day inside at the moment. She barks at the door for me to let her out for a wee & goes off in private for a pooh
Minishka on the other hand is most definitely going to be an outside dog along with Reggie as she takes every opportunity to wee all over the house, even jumping up & having a wee on the sofa's & is a complete nuisance! she poohs all over the foot paths & on the stairs she even climbed up onto the garden table & poohed!!!! She has a bit missing I think :-)
Sophie has gone awol & comes back for  food a couple of times a week if we are lucky! She has a few families she graces with her presence & thank goodness she is well known now & well liked as I am hoping its that which will keep her out of trouble & pain! Sophie is a true street dog & loves her freedom but just doesn't see danger. She is such a trusting dog! When Nigel gets home we will have to tether her & she will get two walks a day, I am not able to do this at the moment as I think it cruel but I am very worriied about her. She is really happy to be here when she comes but doesn't stay. I think she comes home at night sometimes but for some reason can jump out over the fence but not back in, maybe she has hurt her leg or something? Oh well that's my dogs at this time lets hope Reggie can be helped & Sophie can be stopped! 

Monday 18 October 2010

One Month Later.... Only 16 days to Go

Wow one month ago I was writing really depressing bloggs, cause I was really depressed John! So how did I get to be here now feeling much better.... No idea but better I am even though I was offline for a month cut off from what was going on. What a wonderful thing that was haha, sometimes its hard to imagine life without internet but it was great & I seemed to have worked my way back to normal! I missed reserching & didn't realise how much I used Google, definately missed Google!!! Missed knowing what was going on with certain people, worst was not being in touch with my lovely family, but thats how it would have been years ago. It was quite liberating I was resigned to not being back online till November but it turned out it was Mtel at fault..Typicaly no one knows how or what to do so they send you home & fob you off with anything that comes to mind. I fell for this for 4 weeks every week it was a different reason & *88 never answers as there is a fault with this too. In the end when I decided after paying for my netbook to be reinstalled yet again, that it must be the homebox thats broken. I got Mary to bring her laptop over & hook up to my wifi & found out that way. The next day Mtel tried to tell me I had to take it back home & phone *88 even after I told her over & over that they hadnt answered for 4 weeks day & night this took 30 mins of arguing back & forth, nicely I didn't shout, & in the end I cried out of frustration & anger & hey presto problem fixed!!! The assistant that couldn't phone from the shop, phoned & it was a fault on the line when I got home it was fixed!!! Now in future when I hit the Bulgarian brick wall I am going to cry cause this tactic flipping works  :-)

Kami loves her sleep :-)
Reggie is better now he passed the stomach problem to the puppies & they too have recovered, Minishka was the poorliest ill for four days solid & just like when toddlers are poorly she just wanted to be cuddled on the sofa! She was really sweet & lovely now she is back to the hyperactive biting jumping dervish :-) Reggie is all amourous & wants lots of cuddles too & Kami is adorable as ever with a little naughtiness which coming from her is very funny.


The winter is getting ready to visit. Some days are warm & sunny others chilly & damp with a few cold ones here & there we have has - temps at night even.  We have distinct seasons here & its definately Autumn now. At the moment we are ok a bit chilly fires are lit all over the village & that special smell in the air reminds me Autumns here winters on the way & i'm in Bulgaria! I lit the fire for the first time on 8th Oct it had been a bit chilly before but I was worried about the chimneys not being swept.

Nigel will be home in just 16 days woohoo!!! So can't wait just marking time now & he will be driving back in our new 4x4 full of goodies millions of books, warm winter clothes (difficult to buy anything decent here) kitchen equipment (as its so expensive here) Sky + (thank goodness the end of 70's retro repeats) but bestest of all a kitchen complete with belfast sink & extractor fan!!!!!! Oh my goodness how happy am I? Well happy thats how :-) all we need is some work top & I have a full kitchen. Its a temporary measure as we are building a new kitchen extension to the house unfortunately this will take a bit of time & I have been without a kitchen for 2 years so far. Its pine so will fit in well as a cottage kitchen & we can always paint it if needs be then when we are sorted it can be used for guest accomodation. We won't be able to get our conservatory furniture over but we will buy a cubic mtr on a truck when we have the money & get it driven over.
Had wood chopped this week. we have loads & didn't need to buy any this year still have most of the logs we bought last year & have 2 animal houses full of it. One house has lots of old wood from windows, frames, beams etc & the other full of walnut branches which I use for kindling. So I have a huge box full of kindling & 14 sacks of wood for the Kamina's then the rest is in the new kitchen in a huge basket, plenty for the next couple of months. Then the barn is full of wood & beams from the collaps & this is still without touching the logs! I think we have more than enough for the aparent very cold winter ahead!
I have heard from a few different quarters that we are in for a very long very cold winter lasting 6 months! well I am not going to panic just have to hope its typical Bulgarian panic & overreaction. If its a sunny winter with loads of snow then it will be ok!

It was Pavlinka's born day last week so we had a tea party & she made her best Banitza yet, Mmmm I couldn't face fish soup, had warned them before hand so thankfully didn't have to upset them or under go a torturous experience. I am a wimp where fish is concerned & it would be full of bones I'm a bit phobic about choking on a fish bone haha. I baked her an apple cake which she loves. Ahh it was a really nice evening even gave Yovo an English lesson after dinner.






 I have done lots of cooking in the last month too & actually made a flipping fantastic Banitza the best in Vinograd hahaha well maybe not but it was truly delicious, the recipe is on my food blog









Mmmmm now I want to make some as it's made me hungry

Managed to collect about 3 kilo walnuts so far, a spit in the ocean compared to last years crop but better than nothing. Oooohhhh wish we had chesnuts would love to roast some in the Kamina Mmmm its that time of year back in Worcester!

Nigel says I have turned into a right Bulgarian villager as I am in bed when it gets dark & many evenings before its dark haha basically its warm & comfy & I can watch telly & drop off to sleep at will. I have the coffee machine & light the fire so cant see the point of staying up downstairs, this will change when he is home so I will enjoy while I can!
I apologise for all the spelling misshaps but spellcheck is refusing to work!

Thursday 16 September 2010

112 Days Dowm... 44 To Go... Gosposha (Mrs) Angry, Gorna Oryahovitsa & Poor Scruffy Boy Reggie

Well its been a while almost 3 weeks as I have been in a very bad place, very angry & feeling abandoned. Now my level headed side tells me that’s not true but my emotions which have gone into overdrive are telling me lies. Problem I am not hearing what I need to hear, I am not amongst loved ones & people are going out of their way to anoy me, at least that’s how it feels!!!
So 2/3rds of the way through & not long now, as long as nothing else goes wrong, 6 1/2 weeks till hubby is back home :D We will be very poor but happy! I'm not bothered about being poor, crikey I have spent most of my life with nothing, well nothing but bills that couldn't be paid! For 3 years I had £15 a week to feed clothe buy toiletries for myself & my children & clean the house an impossible task which was very depressing!!!! Lived off pasta :-( So this at least will be better than that, even when we can't afford meat I make a mean potato soup! As long as we have wood to keep warm money to pay the tok & voda & a gas bottle we will be OK!
Even better would be Nigel having renovation work to keep us ticking over financialy so we don't have to go through this again, he is already thinking about "next time", me that makes me want to give up!!!!! I'm fortunate that I was only well off for a few years not enough to have gotten used to it :D
Yes I am at the, had more than enough stage now, feeling like I can't cope on my own any longer but then I have felt like that a lot so I know I can, I just don't want to!!!!!!!
I must end this bit on the possitive, I LOVE LIVING IN BULGARIA, so please don't get me wrong when I moan :D This is the life we have chosen for this stage of our lives & we love our house even in this state as we see & feel the potential. I love having all this property! I don't want more as the people we know that has loads of ground can't do anything with it, so whats the point? & less would not be enough for what we want to do in the future :D  So love this house & property love my little run down village in the middle of the countryside, (wish I could drive though) & love the weather!!!!! I do not miss the luxuries we had living in England, I don't miss my business's I do miss going to Bali but one day I will get back there! I don't miss the rat race, I don't miss having neighbours on top of me looking over into my garden, lol, I do not miss anything about England other than family & friends! I do miss a proper kitchen sink!!!!! Also a kitchen would be a miraculous dream, one day my dream will come true!!!!!This is where I want to be, but oh I wish Nigel was here & oh my, I wish I had family close by!!!!!!
Right so what has been happening....... I have had a couple of trips into Gorna one on my own which was nice but I felt the loneliness, having lunch as the only person sitting alone & hunting out the smallest table. The second trip was with Yovo so was a 6 hour marathon again! An hour was spent in the vet & I didn't have Reggie with me!!!! Reggie became ill & a whole lot of non help exists here. Maya's compound turned up that was a good day! So what else, well lets see.....
My trip to Gorna Oryahovitsa the week before last was nice, good weather, I found my way around some other places but trying to find somewhere to have lunch was a nightmare! I really didn't want kebache or meat balls, spicy dry stuff they try to convince you is meat cooked too far is not my idea of lunch.



This place was packed with Bulgarians so you know its good! Or is it just because its the only place to eat for miles!


After hours of wandering round I finally settled for a pizza which was blooming nice & cost for a medium, which was too big ,less than £2 had coffee & coke & the whole thing came to just over 7 leva bargain!!! shall be eating there again especially with Nige when he comes home.








This is a table you see quite common & I play guess who has the money, that doesn't take long!
Normally bosses & workers 2 well fed 2 under fed!

The other table layout you see very often in cities are big men & tiny little sparrow women who push the food around their plate pretending to eat.

Yes I like people watching

So this weeks trip to Gorna was completely different! Reggie had become very ill he had black vomit & had black diarrhea & when I took a picture of his vomit to show the vet he tried to bite me & was warning me away growling. I heeded the warning & went indoors, burst into tears through fear & once again contemplated the sanity of Reggie? This was the third time he had a go & now I don't have him free around other people! I needed to get to the vet, Yovo had phoned the night before to ask if I wanted to go so yep I could get to Kaufland & do some shopping for heavy stuff then it became apparent I needed to get Reg some help. Yovo picked me up at 9am & he said he had to do this this this & this one of which was go to the doctor which I know means sitting & waiting. I managed to organise that I would do my stuff while he did his then meet him under the umbrella for coffee. best laid plans I was in the vets for one flipping hour!!!!! I have never seen so many people in there, all Bulgarian (brill) & as she doesn’t speak English I was having to phone my friend to talk to her then as the phone would come back to me for Mary to tell me what she said she would serve someone else or treat a rabbit etc Oh I was getting a bit antsy, but kept my cool as she was on her own without her normal receptionist lady :D After 3 phone calls & various conversations we managed to get her to understand it wasn’t Sophie, who she knows, that was ill & I came away with 4 different syringes of medicine to inject Reg with over the course of 4 days, yeah right!!!!! Instructions on how & told to get the vet from Kamen out to look at Reg! Thank goodness the whole thing only cost 11 leva as I really knew this was not going to work!!!! After going to meet yovo who wasn’t there I really needed the loo this is not an easy thing for me I am not a fan of very smelly holes in floor with no loo roll, do I really need to go on, I think not! I know a little pub that does a good coffee has a clean toilet & I can sit outside under a cover of vine, Nice!!! After 20 mins I went back to our meeting point to see Yovo walking down from where he parked the car with Anton in tow who we had dropped off on the way!!! Oh he can be very annoying but I didn't complain as the timing was right & I had enjoyed my coffee etc (see I told you I am angry)! Poor Yovo!!!  So after coffee Kaufland & home. I went to meet the Kamen vet in the centre so he could check Reg out, I had the muzzle all ready to put on him so he could do his stuff & intended to get him to give him the injections for that day. I had left the vomit so he could see it & had great expectations. The guy was over 6' tall built strong & youngish, I am 5' tall weak & oldish! He stood 10' away & left me to put the muzzle on then he faffed around saying tighter tighter till Reg got really annoyed & had a right go! At this stage I knew the vet would not go near him now & infact reg managed to get the muzzle of his nose & jaw completely! Too long faffing about!!! Well I burst into tears as I had convinced myself Reg was going to die & no one Brit or Bulgarian will help him as they are all scared of him! Well thank goodness he is on the mend now & my friend Steff who saved Reggies life & gave him to me has posted me some sedatives so if I need to get help I can sedate him & he will be manageable for other people!
Well where has the time gone, I have no idea! Have been poorly & dipping in & out of this blog for a week. needless to say I am still feeling poorly but getting a lot better mentally, still on a short fuse but its a bit longer now. Still have a head full of rubbish talking but I am trying to combat this with cooking so far this week I have made chutneys Jam/Jelly & walnut bars. I have had to rest the last 3 days as even the 5 min trip to the post office has worn me out very annoying!
Atanas & Kamilla have been bringing stuff over for me to eat, this started when I cooked for them so now I give them Jam or cake & this is there offerings.....

Biscuite torte.... No, I would not choose to eat this again I would if they gave it to me then sat watching as I ate the lot, like they did here!
Basicaly I have never even as a small child liked blamongue or however it is spelled! This is that on top of mashed biscuit. Not vomit inducing just not my cup of tea :-(


I  have to say this was lovely!!!!
Mmmmm fried so very bad for you & cold so I nearly threw it away but oh it was soooo nice with my plum jam on it too!
This picture is only half of it I had already eaten the other half  ;D





We have the salubrious SECRURITY sticker on the gate & it has been there for two weeks but still no one has collected my payment. Everyone is concerned that I have extra security, WHY????? because now they are SCARED hahaha when they talk of the security the motion with their hands thick necks & say ohohohoh! So no more breaking in through the roof even while someone is here!!!!
The outside tap has been dripping for a few weeks now & this has been worsening into a very slow stream. I had put the hose on it so that no water was wasted. Then, the other day it decided to give up the ghost, argh, the water was coming out full blast & the tap would not turn off at all.  With the hose on it spurted like a fountain from the side! I was not amused, as is my want these days, but my friends came to my rescue! I phoned Mary to ask for her to arrange for Plamen to come the next day & put in a new tap, this would cost a fortune, but needs must. I ripped up a tea towel & wrapped it around the fountain & fixed it with electrical tape hahaha It didn't fix the problem but it slowed down the rate of loss & saved me money! Well Mary phoned Yovo to tell him & he was round in a short time & turned off the water saying it will be 30 mins, he went off home was back in the 30 mins he has fashioned a rubber seal & low & behold its fixed. Well done Yovo my annoying lovely friend & hero!!!!! So disaster averted panic over & mood lifted for a couple of hours ;D

Right so I think I am getting back on track I will leave it here, as yes this was mamouth :D.....

Tuesday 7 September 2010

I Ain't Seen the Sea for a Year

Well here we are in September, where did that year go???? but also oh what a bloody awful long unhappy year !!!!! Thank God I love this country or I would certainly have gone stark raving mad!
I really hope never to have to repeat any of this last 12 months from the date of when my son went back home from his two week holiday with us. That was the last time I saw the sea. We had a lovely 4 days at the coast with my son Daniel & his mates Ad & Rich, I miss him & I miss being able to go places like that in the good weather. All I have to look forward to now is snow & - 20 temps last year was a lot lower lets hope its a warmer winter this year, it will be a miracle if we don't have3' of snow though!!! How blooming depressing is that! I haven’t been out for a meal or into Veliko T or seen Tzaravets, OK enough!!!
Having said all that it was not THAT bad as no one died, our family is still intact & a new arrival will be appearing shortly, so in all the mire there have been many blessings which also means I am blessed too!

This has been an ANGRY week for me, that’s a new one, so another level of disappointment being sorted I guess?
I am alone in my faith here, I have no one who believes in God around me, cor if I thought I was in the wilderness before, this is something else !!!!!!! I don't talk about God to anyone what’s the point? Its ok for people to not believe & express that opinion they don't come under fire or get thought of as weird or strange or just plain MAD, but if you are a Christian, woe betide. So I am alone in everything, it's not a nice place to be, not something I would recommend. So I am ANGRY at the world & everyone in it this week, & it hasn't dissipated as yet :-( Yes I know it's probably all ME, I'M being unreasonable AGAIN, but you know what? I am learning through all these horrid emotional things.

Just had some people round, volunteer’s from BSAPP & a builder to deliver & construct Maya's compound. It's very good & the people all very nice so I had a really nice reprieve from my anger :D I did warn them that the house was heavy but they didn't believe me it was a struggle even with three but they did really well& managed to move it into the compound so Maya has a nice cosy house to sleep in! Poor Reggie it's his house but he won't go in it!!! Nina hit the nail on the head I think when she said he is probably scared to knock his tail on the sides!



The compound will have rubber mat flooring which will stop the mud & be warmer & a camoflage net over the top to give shade from the sun, all in all a nice comfy home for Maya!








I have also just had a phone call from Yovo asking if I want to go to Gorna tomorrow, Off course I said yes lets hope it pulls me out of my anger as opposed to pushing me in even more!

Reggie is in a bad way this week too, he has been nibbling his tail & made it bleed & today he is off his food had to coax him to eat his breakfast then he was a little sick I hope he is going to be ok! He is farting away too & Reggie’s farts are something else Poohweeeeeee So for Reg to not be guzzling his food in seconds he must be under the weather, having said that I put some left over rolls & grape cake on the work top after I gave everyone lunch & forgot the door was open when I took Reg of his chain he snaffled the lot so he must be feeling better! I would say Reggie lurves my cooking but he has also been known to lurve to eat Sophie’s pooh too, not sure what that says about my food :D
Right as I am in a foul mood still, I find I can't be bothered to blog, talk or anything so I will catch up on the last 10 days or so soon.......