Flat Out, Part 2

The lounge, but it could be a squash court.
I have not written a lot of blog posts recently because we have been very busy, moving into our new apartment in Sofia. Well, I say that it is "our" apartment, but of course St. George's School is paying the rent, the utilities and just about everything. 
We will have to bring some logs from Kalotina for the fire.
As you can imagine, Irena and I are very happy all of this! Our apartment is HUGE. You could probably have fitted all of our flat in Shenzhen into the main room of our new apartment in Sofia. Our kitchen in China was almost like a big cupboard and the bathroom was pretty horrible. 
In our Sofia apartment, the kitchen is a fair old size, big enough for a large table and lots of cupboards, plus we have TWO rather nice bathrooms. Regular readers of my blog will know that we used to live opposite Lianhuacun Park in Shenzhen and that was really convenient and very good for walks. Here in Sofia, our apartment is right opposite the park and in fact the park is one of a chain of green spaces that goes right into the heart of Sofia, as far as the NDK.

Other good things? It is about fifteen minutes' walk from school and very close to the Vitosha MTR station, as well as Billa (a big supermarket) and the Paradise Centre (lots of people call it "Paradise Mall"). What is not so paradisaical - "purgatorial" might be closer to the mark - are the prices for just about everything in this part of Sofia. 

There is something that I do not like about our new abode: the underground garage. The garage itself and the space outside are horribly narrow. Our car only just squeezes into the garage, as long as the driver does not breathe in while reversing. I am sure that I will scrape off a bumper or a mirror before too long.

It'stime to get a dog because we are right next to the park!


We have already made two trips from Kalotina, fetching all manner of bits and pieces, so the apartment is beginning to look more homely. Today we drove back and collected the TV from our sitting room. I had forgotten how heavy it is. In the evening, Nina and Angel, the owners of the apartment, came round to make sure that our double bed was repaired properly. The night before, the centre part of the bed had collapsed, creating a sort of sleeper's sinkhole. Anyway, their nephew came with them and he did some major repair work to the frame of the bed and now it seems much firmer and capable of doing its job.
The huge entrance hall.
Yesterday I discovered that my blog has had nearly 26,000 "hits" and more than three hundred hits in just one day. Amazing! I think that has to be the highest number yet. Well, dear readers, which post was your all-time favourite? What would you like me to write more about? Or maybe less?

Another interesting thing that happened yesterday was the arrival of my teaching timetable for St. George's. It looks as though I am going to have quite a lot of spare time, at least to start with. Then someone will be ill and I will down for "cover" for a week or two. Ho hum!  

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