Hi again, I have just found some spare time to get this written, so will try to get all up to date.

Last time I wrote after a revisit to the UK, I didn't publish my answer about whether we regretted our move to Bulgaria from the UK and now we have been back here for a while now, I have to say the answer really is no.

At times we have wondered and debated, but it comes down to the same answer, yes it is harder than we thought it would be, the bureaucracy and the stupididity of some offices you go to, the taxes on everything albeit small taxes, its all so laughable and really immaterial and to be fair expected in a foreign country when we dont speak the language, which is very difficult, you really have to want to learn, I do but I am too lazy and do believe you either get it or you don’t and I really don’t.

Velichka can tell me the same word over and over, but unless I see it written in front of me and use it over and over I don’t remember it.

I believe this is the single most important thing on getting along here that I can advise anyone wanting to not just live here but also to integrate, learn the language and try to live more as Bulgarian’s do.

Another positive thing for me is gardening; and I mean real gardening not just mowing the lawn and trimming a few bushes as I did in the UK.

It is so much more rewarding to grow your own things than to go to Kaufland each week and buy rotten potatoes although this year so far they have not been too bad and we now have Billa of course in Yambol, mind you mine have not yet grown so who knows maybe Kaufland will be an improvement on mine.

Another important piece of advice is to research your area of choice thoroughly.

We met a British family last summer who bought their house in a few days of being here. 

Pleased with their choice, they could never imagine that when they return less than a year later, that they don’t like it after all.

They didn’t notice the village has a big community of gypsies on their doorstep and though they are friendly enough there were a lot of broken windows and evidence that someone had been on their property, so the family did not feel comfortable with this, almost to the extent that they were going to quit Bulgaria altogether. 

That is until they visited our village.

It made them re think on the whole Bulgaria idea, and are not going to give up just yet which is great because as us who live here know, that despite everything Bulgaria has a huge amount to offer us, moreso than what the UK offers right now I think.

So when you are house hunting for your new life in Bulgaria, remember the village is more important than the house as you can change the house but not the area, so take your time and look around you not just at your potential home.

Ok enough of that now, what have we been up to since I last wrote?

Well basically, diy on the new house!

Our house is about 2 weeks away from being habitable.

We have a lovely fitted kitchen thanks to an excellent and conscientous Bulgarian called Todor who is local to us, we have had him do all the work in all of 3 of our renovations and he has never let us down, a very rare Bulgarian he turns up on time and does a good days work for a fair rate.

Though the taps in the sink need to be fixed in and the oven wired up, and some lights moved that are in the wrong place meaning we can’t open 2 of the cabinet doors, oops, but we are practically there.

We put some laminate down in all 3 bedrooms, good stuff and very cheap too from ABC in Yambol; it looks nice, Darren even did some of the floors himself after being shown what to do and it looks great.

Anyone who knows Darren will know he does not do DIY, but some of the work we have paid for, even he could do better so he has decided to do a lot more of what needs doing (now the builders are out) himself, with a little help from our good friends here.

Our bathroom is functioning so will be ok, though we were never told and never realised that the water pressure is very bad to our house, we are possibly the highest house in the village and right at the edge so it looks like we will have some problems.

There is no well, although a borehole in the garden, which is very deep but totally dried up.

So although the basin and toilet is ok, the shower is not, we have a lovely open cubicle style bathroom, with loads of space, but the shower gives us a trickle of water, not even enough for all the holes in the head to spray water!

This will of course cause problems with our plans for the vegetable garden, which has already been started by our Bulgarian friends.

I mentioned to Velichka I wanted to grow things in the new garden and a few days later we were marched down to the Yambol Pazaar and told we must buy onions, potatoes, and carrots and get them in the garden now.

So the very next day a couple of local lads came up with their horse and plough and messed our garden up for us and the fact that the house was not habitable was not an issue. 

We have been painting everyday, but I had to down my paintbrush and get out into the garden to dig and plant and get the lovely dark rich soil under my finger nails which have been taking some bashing lately, with Dencho and Velichka guiding and helping me.

Wonderful that the house isn’t ready but we wont go hungry this year!

Still it looks great, the onions shot through the earth first, then the carrots like little blades of grass, and soon the potatoes, I also have parsnips and cucumbers, though they need lots of water, so goodness knows if I will get any from them.

In fact Velichka said we couldn’t have cucumbers, as they need a lot of water, then one afternoon we came home to find 3 plants sat in the soil, many thanks to Dencho and Velichka who decided as we are not that keen on them we could have a few.

The garden came into life a few weeks ago, with a splash of deep red tulips, not to mention the fruit tree blossoms, so pretty, I absolutely love it here in springtime, its just so pretty.

Since the red tulips we have lilac, pink, white with thin red edges, red ones that turned a burnt orange when I thought they were dying and yellow ones.

I have never had flowers in my garden, they are fantastic, but I won’t pick them, as that’s where they belong, although I am tempted to.

We also bought 9 fruit trees that are all budding and have leaves on, so that is fabulous too.

Once the tiling is done we are going to move in, as there is just so much to do, that we believe if we live there we would do more of it.

We (well I and Darren agrees) have decided to stain the wooden veranda a dark teak sort of colour in the hope it will give the house a bit more character as the wood looks very new right now and its not what we wanted, so it will be the biggest labour of love I have ever attempted, as then it will need a couple of coats of yacht varnish and getting between the slats will not be an easy job, but once on the premises, I can do a little each day, malko po malko as they say here.

Also we have looked at the barn and found it is half stone and half brick, the top half being brick, so we are now thinking we might expose the stone as it is under a thick coating of sandy render and paint the render above on the bricks to match the house.

Again another labour of love, but we feel will add that character we are after when finished.

We have never done anything like this before but with some research on the wonderful world web I think it is something even we can achieve, of course we may actually regret ever starting it, but we shall have to wait and see if we ever get started then worry about it.  I think maybe its a job for the year after next!

A few weeks ago, whilst Darren was at the house painting, the ex owner Kalia and her sister from Stara Zagora came to have a nose.  It was the first time they had been in the house since the sale last August, and by the time they had got upstairs and saw Darren they were in tears.

They thought it was wonderful that we have kept the downstairs pretty much as it was except it is now with a kitchen and has been painted with colour instead of the white.

They loved the wooden veranda and enjoyed the views they grew up with as young girls.

They said it was all wonderful and beautiful and can’t wait to join us for coffee when it’s all completed.

If I had been there I would have been in tears too, as I have promised I will look after their old house and am so glad they approve with the changes we have made in our wonderful new home.

When we got back from our UK trip we were invited to a party, and then on the 14^th February there was a Valentines Party at the café Fox. 

Me and Darren, Jayne and Terry went, and for the first time since I have been here (and for many years in the UK) I got very tipsy, on a bottle of cheap vino, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Not that I don’t normally but I lost all my inhibitions and found I could dance every traditional dance perfectly well, why was it so hard when I was sober I wonder.

The day at the vets

Yanko the gorgeous English speaking vet in Yambol decided it was ok for Immy to be spayed, so me and Jayne took her and Nellie (Jayne’s) there one morning, they were given pre meds and we got to walk round the vets with them for 20 minutes, then they had the anaesthetic, and 5 mins later were both under. 

An hour and a half later we were called back from our lunch, as they were all done and just coming round from the anaesthetic.

So we were the last people they saw and the first when they woke up, and we reckon it was a better way of doing it than the UK way where you leave them all day.

Neither dog had any problems whatsoever with their stitches, they did not wear the collars, and healed very quickly, though Immy did pull out one of her stitches quite early on.

Immy is the biggest of the 4 dogs and yet she was the baby, she cried when she came round and the more fuss you made of her the more she cried, she cried when she was given the injection too, and Maria the vet says she is not a brave dog, though you wouldn’t think so if you heard her bark, she has a very loud and deep bark, and she talks to us too, I know you think I am crazy, but dog owners will appreciate this, when we come home from an evening out, she will make noises at us, as if she is talking, very weird but true!

Anyway I wanted to tell you about the vets to put your mind at ease about vets here, the best bit was the cost, 123 leva, (about £50) this was for the op, anaesthetic, painkiller which lasts for up to 36 hours, her pet passport and microchip.

We invited Karen and Nick from BRE estate agents for dinner, and shepherds pie was an easy dish, plus I made an apple crumble.

Immy is now big enough to jump up and lick the worktops, so I have to keep disinfecting them before cooking, when we are in the other house I want a barn type door, which can be done with the existing door we have there, but anyway, I went to greet Karen and Nick with Darren and took their coats, went into the kitchen and there was Immy up at the crumble, she had devoured half of it, it wasn’t even cooked yet!!  Hence she was thrown outside to sulk in disgrace, and we ate our shepherds pie, when about 20 minutes later we heard a bang on the door and it was Immy trying to get attention, Darren went out to se her, only to discover she was now eating Karen’s black stiletto heels!!!

OMG I could kill her, how embarrassing that was, she is just so naughty, we never had any of this with Kassie as a puppy!

Thanks Karen for being so understanding, sorry Nick that you had to fork out for a new pair!

Football Racism alive and well here in Bulgaria

There was a football match arranged between Inzovo blokes’ team and the Krumovo boys’ team (the ones Darren coaches) one Sunday.

Darren played on the Inzovo side, but really hoped that the Krumovo lads would win.

They didn’t.

They had their spirits dampened by the bigots on the sideline and on the pitch that continuously shouted racist comments to them (they are Roma boys) at one point one of the lads, Tiomere, who is always smiling was close to tears.

I was not aware of what was happening at the time, but I noticed some of the lads were not playing with the same enthusiasm they had to start and put it down to the Inzovo team being stronger and them being boys.

I was gutted to hear the truth.

I know it happens all over the world, but these are just kids, why are people so nasty to each other.

Today (19^th April) we celebrated victory over 7 other local teams in a 2 day 7 a side football tournament.  Inzovo School won the competition and took the cup, and were the players all Inzovo boys?  No, they were all Krumovo gypsies!  But they were treated like champions!

Darren of course was proud as punch that the lads he has been coaching since May last year won the competition, they beat Tenevo in the final.

Well done to them!!!

Tomorrow its Inzovo men versus Tenevo men, and Darren is still the manager and coach. 

Lets hope they can play as well as the Krumovo boys did today.

Flower Day in Inzovo

The 20^th of April started with glorious sunshine and there was excitement in the air as the annual Svednitsa Den began.

This year it will be in the park where the restaurant is, but in the centre of Inzovo last year due to rain and the year before Aussie Sue wrote and photographed it from the park as the weather was good then.

Darren and me walked down to the park for 10 am and met with Jayne and Terry. It was already very hot and busy with people milling around the various stalls on display along the walkway to the park.

The Mayor of Tundzha stated the ball rolling, and our mayor attended along with mayors from other villages that were judges for the competition of dancers and singers from around 40 village entries.

Some came from as far as Greece and Russia, but most of the groups were from the villages of Yambol and some from Sliven too.

It kicked off with our young girls and then each village took its turn one after the other and the headmistress of our school (which is closing in September sadly) was the host of the whole day’s events and did a fabulous job of it.

The day was filled with young and old folk, dressed from head to toe in beautiful colourful traditional outfits, and it was really such a wonderful day that will stay embedded in our memories as one of our best days here ever.

After the certificates were handed out to the winners we all joined in with the dancing, well some of us did, I think most were off to get a rest, but it didn’t stop me and Terry and even Jayne joined in for a bit.

We stayed the whole day and then into the evening as the lads from football where having a little party of their own further up the park so Darren had gone to sit with them for a while, then I asked Jayne and Terry to walk up with me to them, and Jayne said we are not going to another party, this was at 9pm so I agreed, me neither. 

When we arrived we were beckoned in, drinks poured and away went the next 2 hours.

Brilliant day had by all and not even a hangover between us.

Birthday Antics

It is Terry’s 50^th birthday party this evening, 2^nd May and we have all been invited to the restaurant for a meal. 

Jayne had mentioned dressing up in a ska theme, so at the last minute me and Darren put on our black and white clothes including a tie each and we picked Dencho and Velichka up and off we went for an evening of fun and entertainment, except me and Jayne were the entertainment!

We had a few too many to drink, not for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed dancing and singing, which sounded great we thought, until we watched the video evidence a few days later OMG what were we thinking!

Well we obviously were not at the time.

Video on You Tube 

The Day after the Night Before

I got up for the toilet first thing on the morning of May 3^rd, and felt quite ok, went and made some weetabix and the milk was off.

I started to feel a headache come on and so went back to bed, then Darren reminded me we along with Jayne and Terry were supposed to be going to Varna today to pick up Darren’s camera equipment.

I feel really ill now after eating that off milk, and despite trying to get in the shower, it was a definite no go today.

So I spent the day in bed being sick and having a blinding headache, it seems I wasn’t the only one poisoned by the milk lol, poor Jayne had the same as me, and when Darren came home it became very clear what the matter was.  Apparently Jayne and me had polished off 5 bottles of white wine last night, no way!!!

This was my first hangover in years and now I know why I don’t drink!

Never again, honest! 

7^th May 2008

Today we have started to move our clothes up to the house and various small items of furniture and bits and bobs.

We don’t have any boxes left over from when we moved out here from the UK, so we have to use suitcases, and then empty them and refill them.

We are lucky that we have nice big wardrobes fitted by Todor from Tamarino, he also did our kitchen and he has done a brilliant job for us, and is one of those rare Bulgarians who turn up on time.

So we are able to put all our clothes away neatly and tidily which is really helpful.

I try to keep on top of the weeds in the veggie patch every time we go up there, but I seem to be losing the battle, still everything seems to be growing ok, especially the spring onions!

12^th May

We are moved the larger items of furniture in yesterday, with Terry’s help and tonight we will be spending our first night in the new house.

We are absolutely shattered as it has been a really hectic couple of days and we couldn’t have done it without the help of Terry and Jayne and Dencho and Velichka.  Plus we want to thank Terry for doing our wooden floor thresholds and Billy for the tiling, though still ongoing at the moment, but we can live with it for a while.

Mind you it wasn’t without drama, first Darren went through a central heating pipe when clearing the debris before the laminate went down, then Terry drilled right through to the other side of a central heating pipe!!

Easily sorted though thankfully.

Our first night we didn’t actually get to bed until 2am, and then at 10 to 6 we heard the very lovely sound of the hoopoe on our roof.  We didn’t have any curtains so hadn’t really slept much though it wasn’t that light as there are no street lights where our bedroom is situated.

It was also Immy’s first night in the house and she desperately needed to be let out shortly after but she was well behaved.

Kassie had commandeered the couch at the top of the stairs and seemed very pleased with herself not to mention lovely and comfy and has a great view of the mountains, but we noted all the sofa cushions had been pushed off onto the floor as if she made Immy sleep on the floor rather than on the sofa.

I started my morning walks this morning, me, Kassie and Immy, Darren stayed in bed.

We went out of the gate and up the path between the fields and I photographed and videoed it.

Piccies of our house before and after coming sooner or later! 

It was really lovely that morning, the sun was hot and this was 8am, and the Stara Planina Mountains were clear in the distance and the Manastirksi Elevations too, it made me feel alive again.

Kassie wasn’t so happy as this was a bit early for her and she had been forced out of her comfy bed, she doesn’t normally surface until 10 at the earliest.

She wanted to go back, so the walk was cut short.

When we got back I decided to get my plants watered and so some weeding, this is the life.

For the next few days we spent tidying things into places and I started to stain our wooden veranda, the weather was so good, I thought this is going to be great.

We were still being woken by the “lovely” sound of the hoopoe at 10 to 6 on the roof every morning, why can’t he come to our roof later!!!

I am not so keen on the nature that is up here, Darren is over the moon, we get numerous visitors come over the house including orioles, bee eaters, red back and lesser grey shrikes, woodpeckers, European rollers, black headed buntings, and numerous birds of prey including the red footed falcons when they were here a couple of weeks ago.  We can see the quarry where the bee-eaters nest from the house, and it is literally a 20-minute walk from here, so Darren is in awe of it all.

I made some curtains for our bedroom, (the only room with curtains so far) and we now have a pitch black room, just how we like it and I have to say I am now sleeping so well, and Immy bless her has been fantastic, being that she was an outside dog and I have to say a very naughty dog to the extent I kept saying to Darren I wish we didn’t have her as she was making me so annoyed, now that she is in with us she has been so much better.

She can still be naughty of course, but she is much more calm now, as I suppose she isn’t on her own anymore, whereas before she would do anything to get our attention now she is contented and loves a cuddle in the morning as apposed to jumping up.

It is now the 31^st May and Immy and I are in our morning routine really well now.  She has stopped waking us and so has the hoopoe or maybe we have got used to it as I always remember when we first stayed in our other house on the first night we heard the dogs barking all night long, and we wondered what on earth had we done, but every night after that we never heard them, but I am positive they still barked.

She did wake us one morning though, it was early and she had spent the whole day before with her brother and sister Nellie and Smudge with Jayne and Terry.  I heard Darren go out to the hall where her and Kassie sleep, and he said “oh Immy” in a calm but annoyed voice, I thought she had most likely done a wee, I went and had a look and before my eyes was the biggest dog poo I had ever seen, but the worst of it is she had picked to do it on our really thick pile new rug which we bought back in 2006 before we moved here, and it had been in storage until we moved to this house.

I was fuming and told Darren she was his dog and he had to clear it up.

The Yambol Children’s Home and Football

We didn’t visit the home for a couple of months due to the bad weather and the fact that between us both we keep picking up throat infections and colds, plus the renovation of the new house has kept us too busy and we have problems with the car during that time.

We have been a few times recently, but the latest was with Vikki and her friend Elaine, who drove across from the UK and met us on the 22^nd we took them to the home.

Vikki has been before with hubby Cam, and they have 4 daughters in tow, so it was pretty hectic for them as they also support their local home in Sredets.

Anyway their car was loaded up with lots of goodies from the UK, kindly donated by people and from car boot sales and help from the local brownies group.

We went through a lot of the items with the director, and she and her assistant were very pleased with everything, there were brand new pairs of shoes donated from a sales rep and toothbrushes, paste, nappies, creams, baby oil, lots of clothes, blankets, mattress protection, toys the list went on.

We spent some enjoyable time with the kids who seemed to be really pleased to see us all, and we really enjoyed it too.  Lots of people who want to visit are filled with the misconception that it would be like the Romanian orphanages shown on the TV some years back, and yes there are homes like this in existence still in Bulgaria, but Yambol’s home is nothing like this.

The kids are healthy, clean and well looked after from what we can see, and given the other option of staying in families who cannot look after them it is the lesser evil of the two.

When we left Vikki stopped us and presented us with 1000 bgn to use as we wish, well we need a new water pump, lol, wow it was brilliant as only a few days before Lucy and Dudley gave us £240 from their leaving/birthday party.

We went home thinking about what to do with it, as we have the boys from football to think about too.

We are being given some flooring from Crystal Palace sports ground organised by forum member Paul (Twiggy) who is bringing it over in August hopefully, but the whole gym it is destined for is in a really bad state, and so it needs a good lick of paint after some repairs to the ceilings and walls. 

The floor also needs to be made stable before the new wood can be out in place, so we need money and volunteers for that also, so any builders out there or anyone handy with a brush or if there is anything you think you can help with please get in contact.

We are hoping we can afford to do this and the community can help paint their gym and we could have it all marked out for not just football but volleyball, basketball etc and then it can get lots of use and hopefully keep the children out of mischief.

But above all of this it will we hope give the children and their families something to be proud of and that they will take care of.

Short video Documentary of Darren and the boys by Sutrun Films

(please pause until the film has loaded then press play)

We came home and I emailed Velina at the Bulgarian Real Estate Online office in Yambol to ask her to mail Donka at the children’s home to find out what they need, and Velina soon came back to inform me that they need 30 new mattresses and a 10 kg washing machine, sost of 3200 bgn in total.

Obviously we cannot offord this even with the generous donations, so we got to thinking how we can achieve this, and Darren came up with the "sponsor a mattress" idea.

Within less than 2 weeks of appealing on My Bulgaria and Our Bulgarian World, thanks to Phil for setting up Paypal for donations and to the following people who have donated we raised our total amount required.

Piccies to follow once machine has been installed

Vicky

Karen and Nick & coffee jar money so far

Jeanette and Keith

Caroline UK2BG

Johnny and Paula 

Joe and Olive

Dave Sam and Kev

Billy and Carrie

Jayne and Terry

Harpe (MY BG)

Yeldud (MY BG)

Ann T (OBW)

Shane and Kate and Mum

Leigh and Brian

Angie and Patrick

Sheila and Paul

Sara and Martin

Lesley

Helen

We appreciate all the donations no matter how big or small as every little helps.

Karen in BRE Online has a coffee jar for collections of loose change and donations toward ongoing things needed for the orphanage i.e nappies and creams etc and toward the football lads in Krumovo, so anyone wanting to donate contact me and I will give you more details.

I am writing this now as there is no internet so I have nothing to do, well apart from housework, ironing wood staining and gardening of course, but I have just got back from Immy’s walk this am (6^th June) and we had a lightening storm last night, it was really big bolts of lightening and so the electricity was off for over an hour, and we I had to resort to playing cards and beating Darren hands down in candlelight, there was no cheating I swear!

But unfortunately the internet connection has not yet been restored and so I can’t check out a recipe for cherry pie and jam, as I was given a load of fresh cherries from Shirley and Paul yesterday, and they go off so quickly so I need to do something with them, but I have 3kgs of beautiful fruit which I don’t know how much that would cost in the UK, they are also expensive here too, but it would be criminal not to make something out of them.

Darren attempted to make apricot jam the other day, well what happened is, there is another couple here from the UK who are really living the BG way, but their BG neighbour gave them tons of apricots and they gave Darren a bag but then their neighbour came in and saw that happening, so off their neighbour went to get some more fruit for them!

We were going to throw them as we have never made jam ever and I don’t really like apricots, but I had a look on the net for a recipe and Darren set about making jam for the first time ever.

The recipe was easy but it really was too long on the boil, so the fruit went brown and there was a smell of burn in the air.

How ever it didn’t taste too bad at all, so we will have another go as its just so easy, I never realised how easy and with the amount of fruit we have and get given we can’t not do something with it.

400 Year Celebration of General Inzovo

This week is the 400-year celebration of the village of General Inzovo.

We have had the monument in the centre lit up and this coincided with the day that the heroes that fought for Bulgaria’s independence was celebrated.

The monument is very unusual and looks fantastic lit up at night.

On Tuesday there was a celebration for the 45th birthday of the kindergarten here, and there was a concert performed by the children of the kindergarten including 2 of the British children from Inzovo and Vidintsi.  It was lovely.

We are having a concert in the village Chataliste in the centre on Saturday 7^th June at 10.30 am for the village celebrations, and Darren was asked by the mayor to video it, so we are hoping the lighting conditions will be somewhat improved in there to get a good film.

Link to Pictures of the celebration

Ok well I think I am back on track now, we saw 4 newborn kittens yesterday at Jayne and Terry’s so if anyone is interested give me a shout.

Right I must get on with the housework, as the Internet is still not back.

26th June 2008

Sorry to say but just qucikly to let you all know every one of the kittens died, we dont know why it was maybe an infection, poor Lucy was a bit confused and such a good mum too, what a shame.

Well I was up at the crack of dawn this am, 5.55 am to be exact (I dont do early as a rule) but I awoke after a bad night of fighting mozzie's and heat.

We bought a mozzie net to go over the bed at a bargain price of 5.99 bgn from Kaufland, but the first night we ended up trapped in it as the opening is at the end of the bed! I didn't remember that when I wanted to pay a visit to the little room did I!

Anyway back to today and I thought I was about so see my first Izgrev (sunrise) from the new house, but no it wasn't to be as the sun was hidden behind a load of damp grey mist, but I could see it wouldn't be long before it appeared and now at 9am it has done so.

Today I also couldn't sleep as I am excited as Dominae is arriving for her 2nd visit since we moved here.  Again with her friend Helen and this time Darren's Aunt Pat is coming for her first visit to Bulgaria.

We started to get ready for them yesterday and lots to do today i.e cleaning, then we will have a siesta and then off to the airport at 8 pm for the 4 hour trek, we are going earlier as we want to have Kentucky fried chicken, haven't had it for over 18 months now!

The new garden is doing fine, I have to do about 2 afternoons of weeding, afternoons to top up my tan of course, but far too hot really I am starting to understand why the locals get up before the sun gets too hot, and I am having to check my potatoes as I have Colorado beetle not good, but not in huge numbers, yet!