Oops 3 in 1

Because it's nearly 3 months since the last update (and I normally waffle on a bit) we're trying a different format this month - few words and many pictures.    Normal service will hopefully return next month. 


Tracey decided to 'improve' the old light fittings she had acquired, although after she painted the egg holder pumpkin orange the paint had to be confiscated to stop the whole house becoming orange.

She also revamped some old window frames and offcuts of boards to make, pin boards & blackboards.  The mirror was originally dark wood and painted as she wanted to check out the colour she, had already, bought for the kitchen wall

She also stained the stair stringers and some beams with a homemade (vinegar) concoction





 

The treads were done with a tinted varnish

As the last blog ended our 'kitchen' was a blank room (with a planer thicknesser in the middle of it)  walls needed plastering/boarding, a staircase needed building before we (Paul) could  start laying tiles and building units.     It's still a long way from finished but ...

Somebody, we won't tell you her name, had the silly idea of stone cladding the end wall.   Although Paul started it off he did receive help, Tracey took random literally and didn't realise she was supposed to be using a system.   Seemingly you can tell more than one person was working on the wall.

As well as the inside work, planting and 'other stuff' has been happening outside, this has mainly been the work of a Belgium workawayer  (Speedy), who has learnt to adapt his techniques to use what is available than automatically buying in materials.  

Just under half the barn area has had the rubble dug out and a concrete floor laid, this will become the home of Paul's toys aka his workshop.   Having this area done was upsetting for the first couple of days (starting area of fire) but now we can see the potential here, whereas before we discussed ideas but made no decisions..

Because Paul and Speedy didn't seem to 'gel' when working together I needed to find another project for our enthusiastic Belgium - upcycling stones, bricks and burnt rafters into a covered sitting/dining area, seemed like a great idea.  The tarp is temporary until Paul decides what he wants to do for a roof - favourite idea at the moment is woven saplings. 

We haven't been working all the time,    Tracey got a 24 hour pass to travel to a friends birthday, Paul, Tracey & Speedy went to a local restaurant for another friends birthday, and we all took the time to admire the few flowers currently in the garden.  

In April Pita, Krava & Tinkerbell joined us.    They were intended as breeding stock but the temptation to put the little darlingss in the freezer is growing   teehee

We've probably missed loads of our activities  from the past three months, but you'll no doubt find them mentioned in future posts.     Hopefully see you all in a month

Quite a good little month

So what have we been doing since we returned from our French jolly?   Quite a lot, or at least that is how it seems.   Our home rebuild is definitely moving forward probably not to a level where I should be thinking of decorating but that isn't stopping me.


Beginning of February didn't get off to a great start with a visit from the police.   End of November we were going to help some friends out about 80 km away when a police officer decided to flag us down, at the last moment.    Driving along a dual carriageway, near Veliko Tarnovo we see a police car with 2 inhabitants,   as we reach the car the roadside door opens and as we pass the police officer gets out holding a stop sign, we assume for the vehicle behind us.     Approximately 5 km later we learn of our error when sirens and flashing lights stop us.     Paul, as driver, gets a right ear bashing for failing to stop, no explanation is given as to why they were requesting us to stop but he's eventually made to sign a piece of paper which he's told says he admits failing to stop.  He is also told it will be passed to a higher authority to decide if any action will be taken.    December passed, January passed and we heard nothing so forgot about it.    4th February local police turn up, with the Kmet's (mayor's) daughter, as translator.    Upshot is  Paul received a 200 leva (approx £75) fine and 6 months driving ban.  We could contest it, once we'd paid, but it would mean going to the police station local to where we were stopped and requesting a court hearing.   As I drive, the mileage and time involved made us decide against this course of action so I am chauffeur until the beginning of August.       Just as well Paul is going to England to collect his children for the summer, otherwise collecting me and them from the airport could have been complicated.

mezzanine floor has given us a safe surface for working on the walls

as well as extra storage space, for building materials

My first drive of the van, which I've owned since October 2011, was to visit a builders merchants for 18mm OSB which we were planning on using for the mezzanine floor down, unfortunately Paul decided we would do our standard, as many jobs as possible in one trip,  excursion which meant driving, and parking, in the centre of Popovo.    OMG  center of town equals pedestrians and other road users, luckily I hit nothing and killed nobody, but it was scary.  


So mezzanine floor is now down and electrics have been run over to the extension consumer unit and from there to sockets and switches, meaning we no longer need to trail extension leads from the cellar and can work in the evening.   This stage of work was done in short bursts with regular trips to the main house,  so we could defrost in front of the fire with coffees.    The wiring of the extension didn't go totally smoothly as, initially if we put any load on the system it bypassed the secondary consumer unit and tripped the main unit.   Thankfully Paul's engineering brain enabled him to locate, and resolve the issue.    For those wondering about us having a secondary consumer unit, we will eventually have 4 - the main one, in main house, one in the extension, another for the summer kitchen extension and finally the outbuildings will have the 4th, it's a system that will work for how we will be using the premises.  

Insulation and plasterboard being fitted

 Holes for sockets and light switches cut out before boards go up

Consumer unit will be accessible once staircase is in

Unsurprisingly my 2nd drive of the van was to a builders merchants, a different one this time, where we purchased rock wool, plasterboard, plumbing bits along with a few other odds and sods.     The upper level of the mezzanine now has 100mm of insulation on the walls, ceiling still to finish,  and has been plaster boarded out.   We originally planned on plaster boarding the ceiling but we're now playing with the idea of covering it in ship lap, especially as we reached the decision to plasterboard downstairs rather than lime render as originally planned.

Corner where staircase will be boarded out

Oh joy of joys, I get to drive the van again - by the time Paul gets his licence back I will have perfected the knack of the double declutch needed from 4th to 3rd.     This time no builders merchants involved but a trip to a friends house who was acting as go between in Paul's purchase of some new toys.  He is now the very happy owner of proper (designed for heavy use) planer/thicknesser and a slightly less heavy duty bandsaw, along with hand planers, clamps and other bits and bobs.    Add these toys to his lathe and other bits and I'm expecting some fantastically beautiful bits of wood to make an appearance in our finished home.

One of Paul's new toys, which will NOT be living in my kitchen

Despite us putting glass into the  front door, and blocking the cats main form of entry they haven't left home yet, neither has Paul despite cake making taking very much a back seat this month.   I started repurposing some bits and pieces which whilst aren't vital, at this stage, will be incorporated into our home.   They are  projects I can do whilst waiting for Paul to get to a stage he needs help that won't suffer from me just dropping   and returning however long later.

Checking the blackboard painted OSB offcuts fit in the frame before varnishing

Frames painted, ready for black boards/pin boards inserts

Ooh La La

Those of you who have been following our ramblings (thank you) may recall a friend inviting us to France, in fact she went as far as to pay for our travel.   How could we refuse the opportunity of our first trip away together, not just since the fire but since we moved to Bulgaria nearly 3 years ago.

Well even though our friend was paying for the travelling I was still determined to find the cheapest way possible which wasn't via Paris but Stanstead.     What kind of crazy world is it when it's substantially cheaper to fly into another country and then take another flight, rather than fly to capital city of destination country and take the train?     We also investigated bus and train from Bulgaria to France, again both were more expensive, than flying, and in addition took days rather than hours.

So drive to Bucharest, leave car in offsite carpark, fly to Stanstead, on to Dinard, spend 5 days in France, with friend, before returning by same route.    It sounds so simple.


Drive to Bulgarian/Romanian border was accompanied by drizzly fog but otherwise uneventful, although we did forget to stop in Ruse and pick up some spare tobacco.    we stopped at a supermarket on the Romanian side of the Danube and although the Bulgarian version sells tobacco, the Romanian one only stocks cigarettes, but we did manage to get some ingredients for an 'as we drive' breakfast.      About halfway to Bucharest we passed a plain white car with it's engine running, without a second thought - until we got pulled by the police about 4 kilometres up the road we get pulled over by the police who informed us we entered a 50 kph area at 71 kph.  Paul's passport and driving licence handed over we wait for 30 minutes watching them pull in other cars in between dealing with the paperwork.     Eventually one of the police officers returns with passport, driving licence and a piece of paper, all in Romanian, that he wants Paul to sign.      From what we understand of what he said it was notification of a 195 leu (about £33) fine but he gave us no directions on where or how to pay!!!     Anyway forward ho!    The directions given to the offsite carpark were brilliant and even though we arrived 2 hours earlier then expected the staff were great at transferring us to the airport and explaining that they would pick us up at departures, rather than arrivals, as that way they didn't need to pay to enter the area.     Nifty tip for when we need to pick up visitors from Bucharest Airport.    Flight to Stanstead was uneventful but we got a shock on arrival when we found it wasn't a transit airport.     We would have to take the transit train to the arrivals hall go through passport control and then go through security again before our next flight.


This wasn't an issue on the outward journey as we had 13 hours to kill but only an hour   between landing and the gates closing for our 2nd flight on the journey home.  The 13 hours were occupied with speaking to airport security, about our return flight,   they responded that they advise 3 hours to reach your departure gate after landing - Ouch.   Next we spoke to the airline staff who informed us that the gate actually closed 10 minutes after the time on our boarding cards and  we should be able to make it if we ran, but if we missed the flight it may be cheaper to buy fresh tickets rather than pay the transfer fees.  The on to the people manning the Fast Track service, who informed us that we would be allowed to use that option but it normally only saved 15 minutes over standard departure security.  15 minutes may make all the difference.   Now we'd done all we could regarding the return flights we settled down to read, people watch and snooze.   Stanstead airport have removed most of the seating to persuade people not to spend the night there - it's a perfectly good place to spend the night, if you have an early morning flight AND something to put between you and the cold tiled floor.

Dinard airport is very small, even smaller than the one at Limoges, so no problems spotting our friend as soon as we exited airside,  with her was a German girl who we later learned was there Helpxing.  Luckily friend is as much a coffee addict as we are so the hour long drive to her home was interrupted by a coffee stop in a small village, one of the things I love about France is the availability of coffee and the friendliness of the people, even to strangers.

Friends home


The day after we arrived  was our friends xmas eve, followed 3 days later by her birthday celebrations (she moved both events back a month due to work commitments).    Most of Friday passed in a catch up session interspersed with not a lot else, other than much admiration of a bowl Paul had made, and taken as a present.     Saturday I was asked to make something with a pile of pigs lights for the lunch event a number of locals were coming to the following day.    Taste wise I was happy with the finished article but would have preferred access to a food processor to make the texture smoother.   

Pork Lights Dish




Paul and myself also helped Lisa make a scarecrow to put at the entrance of the driveway.    We didn't giggle and laugh at all when building Scarey, Honest Gov!

Scary ready to welcome guests



Sunday was not our type of thing, really, but I still feel a bit of guilt about escaping to the kitchen, with Paul after about an hour.   Most of the guests who attended were ex-pats who had resided in France for upwards of 6 years, with one French neighbour, who spoke no English, present.   Lisa, the German girl, not the most popular nationality in Normandy, was the only person present who made a real effort to communicate with the French lady.    One of the reasons I escaped to the kitchen is my French is too basic to small talk and it was embarrassing to listen to all the ex-pats talk to each other excluding the French person, simply by their choice of speaking their native tongue.  Makes me more determined to improve my Bulgarian language skills.




Monday we had a trip to the coast, not Monmartin-sur-Mer or any of the typical Normandy landmarks but a smallish fishing town.    Lisa came with us but preferred to do her own thing rather than accompany Paul and myself, whilst our friend when to visit someone she knew in the local hospital, arranging to meet us 5 hours later.    When we arrived the tide was fully in so we started with a wander into town for a cashpoint as we were out of tobacco, this lead us to finding the fishing harbour, but unfortunately it was too late in the day for buying catches fresh from the boats.  We then had a lovely, if gusty,  walk around the peninsula finding some evidence of the defenses used during WW!! as well as fantastic scenery and that lovely sea air smell, which I miss living so far inland.    Unfortunately the cameras batteries had died and the spare ones hadn't been charged.   As it was a bit chilly on the cliff tops we decided to find a cafe and have a late lunch in town, this led to a wonderful talk between Paul and a young local lad about all kinds of subjects and ended up with us being shown the lads website and Paul being asked for input on business plans.    I think it's just as well we had Remi/Julie and Guillaume/Pauline staying with us last year,   I hadn't realised how much Paul's french had improved.  After a typical French lunch, about 2 hours we went back down to the coast to do some beach walking and foraging.   Muscles were collected for eating, and we filled a couple of the daysack's pockets with empty oyster shells for an idea I'd had for friends birthday, the following day.    It was so nice to have a full day of 'killing time'  and seeing Paul relax for the first time in a couple of days.    For those of you who hear killing time as a negative it isn't in our world, it's an opportunity to relax, think about everything and nothing and generally go where the day takes you.    We don't seem to allow ourselves enough killing time days, and to be honest I don't envisage another one for some time, but that is our choice at this stage of our life.     One thing that did surprise us both was the number of closed down businesses and those who were opening for part days. The retail industry in France seems to be under more strain than it is in Bulgaria, if you go purely on the percentage of empty retail outlets and the number of signs in shop windows advertising 70% discounts off previous selling prices.

Tuesday was our last full day in France and the local town had a market on, it is also renowned for it's copper industry so we were looking forward to a saunter around the market for a while in the morning, a leisurely lunch followed by a museum visit or 2.      Unfortunately the day did not go to plan as just before lunch time Paul got rather ill, it wasn't as a result of me dragging him around the market - he actually bought more than I did.    Thankfully we knew a car was returning to our friends village shortly after he took ill so were able to cut the trip short and get him back to the house.  Unconnected to Paul being unwell we had both realised we were looking forward to the following day and returning home.   It seems a horrible thing to say after our friends generosity but we both realised we were more comfortable in our own surroundings and nice as France is, it's not home

Following morning was an early start to the airport for the journey home,  after farewells at the airport, and provisional plans to revisit in 2019 we tried to get our seats on the plane changed to ones closer to an exit,  desk staff told us this was not possible although once on the plane the stewardesses found us seats very near an exit and we were the first off the plane in Stanstead.      Luckily we had landed at the terminal which contained passport control so didn't need to wait for the transit 'train'   a rapid trot meant we arrived at a passport control empty of passengers, although they did seem a bit suspicious about our intentions.   Because the flight, from France, had landed early the gates for our next flight had not yet been announced so we took the opportunity to nip outside for a smoke before going through security into departures.   Flight into Bucharest was uneventful, the car parking company picked us up about 10 minutes after we phoned them.    Unfortunately the flight time meant we hit the centre of Bucharest in rush hour traffic,  even at that time going through the centre is much quicker with better quality roads, than using the ringroad.    Once we cleared we started discussing the speeding fine and decided that they would probably make us pay it at the bridge, as this is where they check you do have a vignette for driving in the country, so must be computer linked.     Nope we left Romania with the fine unpaid and have since spoken to a friend who has a collection of unpaid fines in his vehicles glovebox,  from his frequent trips over the border.   The weather was atrocious but it was nice to be home, or at least an hour away from our actual home.   When we arrived at our house the cats mobbed us, although the other animals didn't seem to have noticed our absence, when we let them out the following morning.

 

Looking Forward

New Years Eve in Bulgaria is a noisy affair with many fireworks and gunshots and whilst in past years we may have watched the displays this year we welcomed the new year snuggled up under the duvet.    Thinking about it, ending a day, let alone a year, cuddled up to the person who loves you and you love in return is a pretty cool thing to have in your life.

New Years Day morning is not such a personal time.  The village children come with the survachka, a branch is decorated with all kinds of coloured threads, dry fruits, peppers and popcorn, and and chant a verse chasing away evil and bad things that have happened so you have a happy and prosperous new year whilst lightly being tapped on the back with the survachka.  This tradition, called Survakane, was originally performed by young boys and men, rather than children, and we've been told it is still conducted in cities, although in that case only family members receive the blessing rather than neighbours.   In return the children get money and sweets, although I prefer giving fruit to sweets.     Later that day Paul and myself indulged in my first attempt at pulled pork, not as good as I remember from mums birthday trip to new York, but worthy of tweaking the recipe .  

(Survachka, a picture found online)

During the month I also experimented with cottage cheese and orange cupcakes (variation on last months cottage cheese and cinnamon ones) and banana and coconut cake.    The cottage cheese and orange will be a regular occurrence but the banana/coconut recipe is on back burner until I want to experiment more with it.

Because we were uninsured for last years fire our savings took a bit of a hammering so we have a new financial policy this year ... cash only purchases and all purchases to be recorded on a spread sheet.    This is currently a temporary measure until we can stop concentrating on the house and start generating an income again but if it highlights serious areas of frippery it may become part of everyday living. 

We received a summons to the house of the neighbour we animal sit for as the English speaking neighbours were in the village.    Despite our limited Bulgarian and his non-existent English we can normally  occupy a large amount of time and communicate enough for rakia and coffee conversations.   The summons suggested he wanted to communicate without confusion, he did but it was nothing serious and more an  excuse to ply us with coffee and wine.     We ended up agreeing to animal sit for another weekend whilst he went to visit his daughter and on his return got plied with bottles of cornoil, packets of cigarettes and bread vouchers (for the village shop).   This was much more than normal thanks, but we accepted as we thought he felt he was thanking us for the 3 weeks he'd been in America. as well.     The male half of the other English family in our village was also at our neighbours, for wine and coffee, and I took the opportunity to ask if he would feed our animals for us while we were in France.   I didn't want to ask Illiya because of his age and health, although I suspect I may owe him an apology for not asking.

A friend who was leaving Bulgaria offered Paul and myself a double bed, and a single bed for mutual friends who live reasonably close to us.    As we would need to take the van for the double it was just as easy to collect the single at the same time.     Unfortunately the night before I decided it would be a good idea to poison the pair of us...I knew there was a valid reason for me rarely cooking English food, mince and dumplings is just too fatty and stodgy, especially when served with pasta because you're ran out of potatoes.     Thankfully by the time it came to depart, for friends house, our bodies had excavated most of the nastiness.   

When we delivered the single bed it gave Paul a chance to look at a bandsaw and thickness/planer that were surplus to owners requirements.    The downside of the delivery trip is his workshop needs to move up the priority list, if I want any of my cellar to be useful in it's original guise.   Although an upside is the workshop will be attached to the barn so that may be rebuilt and housing sheep and/or goats sooner than anticipated.


Although this winter has seen little 'proper' snow it has seemed much colder, this feeling in confirmed when water coming out of taps like slush makes teeth cleaning an interesting   experience.    A few days after cleaning teeth with slush we found the bathroom pipes, including the hot water supply, frozen solid.   No problem - light the petchka (woodburner) pipes will defrost and then we can each have a nice hot bath in a warm room,   mmmm it took over 10 hours for the pipes to defrost but we were lucky as the the room stayed warm overnight and prevented burst pipes which a number of friends experienced as the temperature dropped further.

Tracey's second trip, within a month,  to Veliko Tarnovo was another lunch appointment although this one was tinged with sadness.   A friend whose past year has been tinged with much misfortune was returning to the UK ready to start work at the end of the month.  12 females and one slightly drunken male attended the farewell lunch, which seemingly got much more interesting after the group from this area left, with the remaining females managing (deliberately) to lose the male.   
  The mild weather, i.e. not under a metre of snow, meant our gamble of not rearranging things so we had a winters worth of pre-chopped and stacked wood piled close at hand paid off.    Sunny, warmish, days found Paul chainsawing both bought wood and those rafters which are too badly damaged to repurpose.  As Paul loaded the sawhorse with the next batch of logs to cut Tracey  bagged the sawn wood ready for lugging over to the area we're living in.     The use of female logic meant Paul moved most of the bagged timber whilst Tracey made coffee, a system that works well.


So last week of the  month approaches with a mad hunt for passports, they were where there should have been, a place we obviously didn't check as we're both terrible at returning things to their rightful place.


 Not sure why we haven't taken pictures this month but we'll try to improve on that in future posts.


 

Paul showing the first effects of cabin fever?

Ok its cold and I’m in semi hibernation which gives me time to trawl you tube.

I happened across a link to The Citizens Hearing on UFO disclosure.   This is where people who have had experiences and interactions with things not of this planet have the floor to deliver their statement under oath to a panel of retired congressmen and women and ex senators in the Press Hall near Washington.    I believe they in turn will take that information to the senate and congress to try and get full disclosure of UFO encounters etc.

http://youtu.be/SgucayRlc-U 

A few months ago I researched an encounter in Rendlesham Forest after watching a film called Hanger 10 , as interesting as it was I passed it off as just a film.   However since watching the video of   The Citizens Hearing on UFO disclosure in which  2 USAF officers disclose first-hand under oath what exactly they saw and experienced, I'm not so sure.   Aside from the possibility of there really being 'something out there' there was a much more important issue arising from this hearing,  that was the admission by the panel that the President of the USA is not in charge of the country!

They admit that there is a secret financial/military/oligarchy which rules the USA.   For many years I had heard the term Illuminati and assumed that that title covered just about anyone in the halls of power, again, now I'm not so sure.

I'm not sure if I am going insane now that I’ve seen that video, but the more you look the more things start to connect.   Mentioning UFOs usually makes people switch off or start mocking, however if you leave out the whole UFO part of the debate, you’re left with a huge information hole of secrecy which separates the ordinary members of congress and President from the people who really run the USA and maybe the world.

Its a long video, in fact the hearing lasts a whole week , but this one in particular is worth watching to illustrate my point , consider that there you have the panel who have served the US government watching in awe the things they’re being told.

Please comment on this page as to what your views are, for the sake of my sanity  :)
Thank you.

Cakes and Cars

It's the last day of 2014 and I know many expect us to be saying good riddance and hoping next year is a better year.   We're not,  2014 was a GREAT year.    Yes we had some hiccups but those hiccups gave us  a fantastic opportunity to rebuild our home, even better.   They restored our faith in the goodness of people, friends and strangers and showed us that together Paul and Tracey are a great team.


In the spirit of team-work December has been a month of weight gain for me as the experimental cakes I've been making to feed Paul's sweet tooth have been shared equally.    It took many attempts but the recipes for Peanut butter cupcakes, Cottage cheese and cinnamon cakes, Choc and ginger cupcakes are now perfected although the Chocolate and Banana Juice cakes need more work as the banana flavour wasn't strong enough.    Oh I forgot the coffee and walnut cupcakes which by now have become my fallback 'need cake' bake.    I made a double batch on one occasion so I could thank Baba Bonner (lives across the green from us) for the terlitsi she made us.   The gratitude with which she accepted the cakes, with some goose feathers she'd requested, was humbling after all the things she has done for us this past year.

Terlitsi (yes I always wear odd socks)
  

Paul and I went out for a day of builders merchants and supermarkets and it was only a few hours after our return that I realised I hadn't felt a sense of pessimistic dread on the approach home.    previous trips out have resulted in a stomach sinking and general tensing up in the last few miles  expecting to see our home burnt to the ground.  Illogical I know but it happened and I'm pleased to be over that stage.

Following a flippant comment I made (do I make any other type) about a friends heart shaped Yorkshire Puddings a trip to Ruse and shops was arranged so she could increase her kitchen supplies.    As our cats seem to enjoy eating silicon cake moulds I thought it a good opportunity to obtain some replacements,    The tray, bread tins, cork sheets, board game and a few other pieces all magically jumped into my hands as I was walking around the store and refused to be returned to the shelves.    During the trip on of our friends mentioned that a friend of hers needed a house sitter over the holiday period, the money originally offered seemed low for such a last minute request for a time most people want to be with their families.  The possibility of earning some money for building materials did hold some interest, so I mentioned it to Paul who had no objections to us being apart over the festive period.    Negotiations over financial reimbursement started being conducted via email, the outcome was not as much as I think it should have been but it meant we could obtain 120 square metres of good quality insulation materials without dipping further into savings.


We had an enquiry from a Taiwanese guy via Helpx who needed a host on fairly short notice.    My initial response was 'sorry, not this time of year' but after I mentioned it to Paul my decision was over-ruled and we contacted the guy to say he could come for a few days to give him a base whilst sorting out a longer term host.    It kind of went wrong from the start with Paul not taking a phone with him when he went to collect and then the potential helper had decided to get the train not the bus (stations miles apart) but it wasn't a disaster and we ending up hosting someone who found jobs to keep himself busy for a couple of weeks.    I do think if we hadn't specifically requested him to move on he would still be here but my mindset wasn't   geared to having others around.   Winter is Paul and Tracey time - little work gets done but we play with ideas, chop wood,  potter with numerous small jobs and generally just live.


Mid December some of the 'ladies' I know organised a lunch in Veliko Tarnovo and although I didn't want to go I did want to go.  I'd missed the previous two through either being busy with the rebuild or too injured to drive the 90 kilometres, each way.   A couple of friends in the area mentioned they fancied going so I volunteered to drive, this would prevent me from finding a last minute excuse for cancelling. I''m pleased I did 'con' myself into going as it was a great relaxing, and fun, time.   However, the day before did witness me having a major 'hissy fit' when I found mice had nibbled at clothes which hadn't been protected by cinnamon sticks.  We arrived in Veliko Tarnovo early as we knew there was a seasonal market on and I'd managed to get Paul a pair of long thick socks at last years, which unfortunately got burnt - he ended up with 4 replacement pairs.     Driving back wasn't great, getting used to this scenario,   thick fog meant the last 16 kilometres took me just over an hour to drive and I didn't see a pothole which meant I buckled another wheel rim.   Thankfully Paul's judicious use of a club hammer sorted the buckled rim.

The Ladies in front of Veliko Tarnovo Market

A couple of days before me leaving to do the house sitting a friend in France video Skyped us, a conversation that reduced me to tears.     Because she is always busy with work at the end of December she celebrates her birthday and Christmas a month late (we have crazy friends what can I say) her birthday present to herself was going to be airline tickets for Paul and myself to help her celebrate.    We accepted her statements that we needed a holiday away from here, together but also knew that money would be better spent rebuilding or home, and therefore live, here.    Initially we didn't want to accept, what we saw as, charity but the fact that she said she wanted us there, made us swallow our pride and accept the offer.      A deciding factor was the fact that she said she wanted to see us, she's as stubborn about admitting attachment to people as I am.   So, weather permitting, we're off to northern France end of January for a week.     We still need to find someone to feed the animals for us whilst we're away but that shouldn't be a major problem.

Paul and myself had a day to ourselves between the helpxer leaving and me going off to house sit.    I have no idea what we did other than enjoy each others company.

House sitting was uneventful and slightly boring, although I did manage to do some crochet and read 3 books.      I often believe that we do not do as much as we should here but being put in a situation where the only thing that needs doing is dogs walked and dogs and cats fed made me realise how much our pottering does achieve and satisfy me.    The lady I was house sitting for must have thought I was an idiot with my questions about when her wood burner flues were last cleaned, but I'd noticed straight away she had no fire extinguishers, or fire blankets.     Initially she had been planning on getting a bus to her daughters, about 4 hours away but because of the quantity of stuff to take decided to drive.     When I contacted her on the 26th to enquire about the time she expected to be returning the following day I was very surprised to learn she was returning via Sofia, as the weather forecast was not good.    

I left there on the 27th about 1730 hours not looking forward to the drive back in the dark and snow - although I knew once I got out of the valley a friend lived 15 minutes away and had told me to go there if the conditions were too dangerous for getting home.    Desire to get back to Paul may have clouded my judgement but once out of the valley the drive home looked as thought it would be easy, unfortunately conditions deteriorated about 15 kilometres down the road.    In addition to the (heavy) snow fall I now had fog to contend with, logically I was closer to friends house than home but ...   Anyway I drove on, at a snails pace, but it wasn't long before Paull got the first of a few 'phone calls   I passed a road sign for a place name I didn't recognise so became convinced I'd taken the wrong road.     With the help of Google maps Paul was able to tell me I was on the right road and also told me upcoming landmarks.   I went back to my plodding along and luckily nobody else seemed stupid enough to be one the roads as I didn't acquire a queue of traffic behind me.     Eventually I got to roads I was familiar with and started feeling more confident about reaching home,  oh dear, that confidence was misplaced as I swerved to avoid a big pothole and went into a skid.    This, obviously,  resulted in me phoning home again not because I expected Paul to come to my rescue but as I'd stopped inches from a ditch I needed to talk to Paul in order to calm myself down before attempting to reverse back onto road.      I was a bit naughty as I told Paul I'd phone him once car was on the road but because there was now traffic around I took the opportunity of a break in the traffic to continue the homeward journey.   He did get a 'phonecall about 30 minutes later when I needed to stop for a wee break, and spotted a layby not covered in deep snow.

It was nice to get home, even though Paul did complain the meal he'd prepared for me was burnt and probably tasted awful - it was great.        The following day I unloaded the car and was pleased that despite the work they require Paul liked the lights I had acquired at a reasonable cost.     They will end up costing us more than new lights but the shape and style will go well with the vaulted ceiling.


The large one was one of a pair, unfortunately t'other one didn't survive the fire .   The 2 smaller ones are the new purchases.

I know those reading this have seen numerous pictures of the roof from inside but thought you might like the picture I took earlier this month showing the new roofline from the road leading to the house.

I hope some of you, at least, will return in 2015 to peruse my ramblings and in the meantime we wish you all the best of years.