Dear William2

Dear William, 

Yes, I have indeed deleted your email address from my blog. No problem. We do not want the IRS or all of your creditors finding your email address! 

No, I am not going to give you an in-depth story of my many misadventures since leaving Northaw in 1998. I have written all about it in my blog www.bulgariawithnoodles.blogspot.com and so I do not want to repeat myself. (I mean, who ever heard of a teacher repeating himself?) I should, nevertheless, point out that you cannot be burned by boiling water. You are scalded.   

Now I have had some wonderful American colleagues at one or two international schools over the years, so I am not one of those appallingly stuffed-shirted Brits who always moan about our cousins on the other side of the pond, even though New Yorkers do some dreadful things to the English language. As Professor Higgins says in My Fair Lady, “There even are places where English completely disappears. / In America, they haven’t used it for years.” I must say, however, that I am a bit concerned about this poor American girl. What awful thing did she do in her life, to deserve the misfortune of being married to you? She is also rather pretty, so of course I think that she could have done a lot better. (Yes, I do know that Brits and Americans are supposed to have a “special relationship”, but someone should have warned her.) 

I was very pleased that you have become a Christian minister. After studying Theology at Oxford, I was pretty much an agnostic or even an atheist when I was at Northaw, but I came back to Christ when we were in Kenya. In fact, for a couple of years I was even an elder of our church in China. Yes, really! C.S. Lewis is brilliant, of course, but really the Roald Dahl of Christianity is David Pawson, so I am sending you one of his sermons. What about other religions? This is one of his best sermons and it is a topic that many Christian ministers hardly ever discuss. As we live in a world that is becoming smaller every day, this sermon becomes more and more relevant. David Pawson’s Bible teaching is, quite simply, the best there has even been. You would do well to read his books and listen to his sermons. I am also rather pleased that you have been giving some serious thought to the Christian faith and I promise to listen to your book! As confirmed old fuddy-duddy, I would prefer to buy a printed copy…  

You also wrote that Alice is now a barrister. Excellent! I think that she would be a very good one too, as she is a very clever lady and she has the sort of mind that can cut through what is relevant (and what is not) in a complex legal argument. 

To be honest, I am hardly ever in the UK any more. After my mother’s death a few years ago, there just does not seem to be any point in returning to dear Old Blighty. Bulgaria is now my home, that strange little country in SE Europe, next door to Greece and Turkey.  


We have a country house near Elena, the sort of rambling place that we could never afford in the UK, as well as an apartment in the old part of Veliko Tarnovo. VT is a most splendid and historic city, full of quirky charm and architectural oddities. We can look out from one of our windows onto the cobbled street, dating back to the 14th century, while the castle of Tsaravets, up on the hill and on the other side of the river, probably dates back to the Byzantines, although most of the major work on the fortifications started in the 12th century. I shall send you a few photos of our apartment in VT. It must be strange to live in a country like the U.S. of A., where anything dating back more than 100 years is thought to be very old. 

Well, if you are going to be in London in January, you could always get a cheap flight from Stansted and then you could be in Bulgaria in a few hours!    

Do I miss the UK? Not much. The UK seems to be a pretty unhappy place at the moment. We bought our first house here in Bulgaria about twenty years ago, so it really does feel like “home”. Yes, there are a few things that I miss, mostly food, friends and good English bookshops, but on the whole I do not spend all of my time longing to be back in the UK. Twenty years of being overseas cured me of that, I suppose. 

Best wishes from Bulgaria, 

Your old teacher, 

Simon  

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