VT Walkers


I have discovered a group called VT Walkers on Facebook. One member of this group of expats described them as "drinkers with a walking problem", as their forays into the Bulgarian countryside usually end at a pub.
 

Most of them are retired Brits and doggie people, so of course a pooch or two comes along for the walk. I went for a walk with them on the other side of VT, when we met near the art gallery and then went for a long walk in the huge park, the one with lots and lots of steps (and then some more). 

Today we were walking around Arbanassi. Tina wore her red doggie coat, as it was decidedly chilly. During the walk I had an interesting chat with a lady who has a house near Cambridge and she has recently returned from the UK to Bulgaria. Why is the UK such a flipping miserable place at the moment? (Regular readers of my blog will know that this is an issue that Claire has raised in her excellent blog, Auntie Bulgaria.) Maybe the UK has always been a total dump and I have never noticed.
As I have noted before in my blog, yes, it is true that often British expats take a certain perverse pleasure (I think that the Germans call this Schadenfreude) in discussing all of the problems and the miseries back in Good Old Blighty. But sometimes the impressions and the reality are one and the same thing. The situation in the UK really does seem to be pretty blooming awful. The NHS was already in crisis, but now the nurses and the ambulance drivers are on strike. You cannot even go away on holiday, as there is chaos at the airports and many trains are not operating. Prices for just about everything are going up all the time. A recession is coming, or else it has already arrived, and there will be plenty more of the same for the forseeable future, as a General Election is still about two years away. 
All of these UK-related problems seemd to be far away today, as we strolled around Arbanassi, the Belgravia of Veliko Tarnovo. Most of the walkers also visited a convent, but alas I had to stay outside with Tina. 

It was VERY cold, but the company was good. As predicted, the walk ended at The Wine Club, what is becoming one of my favourite restaurants. And yes, there was a big log fire and I did have schkeme chorba, yet again.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the Cards, Part 1

Image
Getting our new Bulgarian residency cards from the Microwave Oven Woman Rejoice! Let's celebrate. Hallelujah! At long last, the Microwave Woman has given us our new Bulgarian residency cards (BRCs). As a special treat, just in case you do not know what a BRC looks like, here is my old one.  My dear wife suggested that I should "black out" certain bits, as there are lots of evil people out there on the Internet, all gathering my personal and financial details in order to swindle me or involve me in some dreadful scandal or some such nonsense. Of course, no one who reads my blog could ever do such a nasty thing!   Getting our new BRCs means that we can go ahead with our applications for our Russian visas. Then, maybe two or three weeks later, our passports will be returned to us, with new Russian visas stuck into them. The other good news is that the insurance agent in Dragoman did not lose my car registration document. When she had finished giving me my new car
Read more

Educaring, Part 2

Image
Not so long ago, I wrote a post for my blog called Educaring . Please do not misunderstand me. I really do believe that teachers, youth workers, parents (and indeed anyone involved with young people) all have a duty to protect children and teenagers, to keep them safe. As I argued in my previous posting, I also believe that the task of protecting children is becoming more and more difficult - almost impossible, in fact. Yes, the Internet has a lot to do with it, I am sure, but there is another problem that is hardly ever discussed.  In a nutshell, anyone who genuinely cares about children finds it very hard to imagine how evil and how subtle child molesters and pedophiles really are. I think that is probably why many teachers and parents just do not know when a pedophile is "grooming" a child and why they often do not believe it, even when confronted with the unpleasant truth. Michael Green at Windlesham House School I knew Michael Green when I was teaching at Windlesh
Read more

Hello once again, Peter

Image
. Yes, he was supposed to be on holiday, but while Peter was with us he fixed the lights in two bathrooms, mowed all three lawns and repaired the hob of the cooker in our apartment in VT.  Now he is back in the UK, having a rest.
Read more