Back in VT

We had to go to Veliko Tarnovo for a few days, as I needed to take the car into the Toyota garage. On our way back from the airport, we had a small accident. The Toyota people reckoned that they can get it all sorted by Friday afternoon and that was good news. On the way to the garage on Wednesday morning, some of our neighbours were pointing at the bumper and so I stopped the car. The bumper was nearly falling off, but fortunately the neighbours found a piece of wire and fixed it on again.

We have been watching some things on Youtube, as here in VT we have a "smart TV". Well, the one we have back in Daveri is a very stupid one, as the only things that I watch are CNN and DVDs. We have started on "Down Abbey" again, all thirty or maybe forty DVDs. Perhaps normal TV programmes will become a thing of the past, just like VHS replaced Betamax.

Although my old friend John Cann has had his hip replacement operation, he has found it pretty tough going. He has had to go back into hospital. This is bad news, as he was hoping to go to America to see his daughter.

I am thinking about some a replacement operation for our apartment here in VT, as it looks as though we shall have to replace all of the windows. This can wait until next summer, I think, but it certainly is not going to be cheap, as our apartment is FULL of windows! The good news will be that modern double-glazed windows will allow more light to come in and this should make the apartment feel brighter. I think that proper windows will also help to keep the apartment warm in the winter. But how much is it going to cost? Two thousand? More like three or four, I would have thought.

The problems in the UK seem to be never-ending. The latest one, as you probably know, is inflation. Things are getting more and more expensive, assuming of course that you can actually buy them at all. The government has done little or nothing to solve the problem of not enough HGV drivers and gas prices are going up and up. I reckon that prices for electricity will soon be going up as well. Oh yes and let's not forget that COVID has not disappeared and probably will not go away sometime soon.

As for the car, I went to Toyota on the Friday this morning and the new front bumper looks great. The paint job matches the old paint really well. In fact, Toyota did such a good job that I am thinking of getting the rear jumper resprayed as well, as it does not look good after its encounter with a garage door. The garage door was not too happy either! Altogether, the repairs cost me 488 leva and that is 240 euros or about 200 pounds, so really it could have been a lot worse. 

The news re. the jacuzzi is not so good. She does not want it in the far corner of the bathroom, as she says that the new thing must go where the shower is. Then we would not be spraying water all over the floor whenever we have a bath. This means that we have to buy a different model to the one I was thinking of getting, as there is not enough space in the shower area for the one that I wanted.  

However, there was another little problem that I had when I went to the big PRAKTIKER, the DIY store in Veliko Tarnovo.  They would not let me in! Bulgaria has new COVID restrictions and you cannot go into any large shop without a vaccination certificate. It can either be a paper certificate or one on your mobile phone. My guess is that the UK government will introduce this sort of regulation soon, as the situation in the UK is getting worse all the time. The long and the short of it is that I am going to order our jacuzzi from VICARD online, rather from PRAKTIKER. I shall have to pay extra to have it delivered, of course. 

Irena tells me that in Russia only about 30% of the population has been fully vaccinated, so guess what? Infection rates are rocketing, ICUs are full to bursting, doctors and nurses are exhausted, and there is no end in sight to the pandemic. Well, old Putin is not one to shillyshally and he is introducing tough new laws, so that anyone who does not get vaccinated is going to find their life more and more restricted. Although Irena keeps pleading with her family to get vaccinated, so far none of them have had their jabs.   

In America, only about 50% of the population have had both jabs and of course the Republicans are doing everything they can to encourage every American citizen to think that mask mandates and vaccinations are an attack on freedom, the rights of individual states and the American Constitution. It also looks as though Trump will be re-elected President in 2024.  

Meanwhile the latest Climate Change conference is already doomed to failure because a lot of countries that produce fossil fuels are actually going to increase their production of oil, gas and coal over the next ten years. A few more electric cars on the road will not make much difference if most electricity is generated with fossil fuels. 

With all of the anxiety and extra stress caused by COVID (not to mention Climate Change and all of the other rubbishy things going on in the world at the moment), some mental health experts in the UK are now saying that there are already more and more cases of divorce, depression, mental illness and suicide. 

On the Thursday evening Irena and I had a few glasses of wine with another Brit who lives in Veliko Tarnovo and his Spanish girlfriend. Adrian Lilley is quite a character. He has a strong London accent and he is a bit of a rough diamond. He is a builder, but he has also worked for an agency that buys and sells classic cars.