Dear Malcom 5

 

Dear Malcolm,                               

You will be amused to learn that while I am writing this on my computer, I am also listening to Supertramp’s “Crisis? What Crisis?” album. Yes, the one with the grey and boring background and the chap in shorts, sitting under the yellow umbrella. I find that music takes me back in time, back to a room in Sutton House, one with the strange wallpaper that looked like wood, a cuckoo clock and a big poster of a young lady who was not wearing a lot of clothes.

So have you drowned yet? Saudi Arabia seems to be permanently under water, with floods drenching Mecca and turning the desert green. Is this a sign of the End of the World? Or just another indication of climate change? It would help, of course, if the civil engineers in KSA had designed the roads properly, so that there were proper drains to take away the water.

I keep getting rubbish from LWC, inviting me to drinks parties and golf. Of course, what they are really hoping for is a generous donation. Recently they wrote to me, suggesting that I might make some contribution for some silly raffle or competition that they are arranging, in order to raise more money. I am just a retired primary school teacher, living in Bulgaria because I really cannot afford to live in the UK. There is such a thing as adding insult to injury.

I cannot remember whether I mentioned it to you or not, but LWC, aka the London Water Closet, made a big fuss about the death of _____ and there was some sort of memorial service for him. Yuck! I always thought that he was a nasty piece of work and the reckless, thoughtless and selfish way in which he lost his life just confirmed my opinion. I mean, what kind of plonker goes mountain-climbing on his own, in the middle of winter? If you want to commit suicide, why not just shoot yourself? (I think that they have a few guns in America.) Anyway, it was a bit sickening, the way LWC tried to exploit his death for publicity purposes. It was quite the opposite with RTD's memorial service. Rumour has it that the O'Gorman brothers had to PAY for the use of the Gavin Hall! On the other hand, Roger was just a teacher, not a movie star, so why should the college show him any respect?

At the moment we are still in our apartment in Veliko Tarnovo, but I am hoping that soon we will go back to our country house near Elena, about 50 kms from VT. My tractor mower is waiting for me. When we were back at our country house about three weeks ago, just as we were leaving to go back to VT I saw a huge tree that had blown down. It just made me want to get out my chainsaw, so that I could help myself to a lot of free firewood.

As for my dear brother, aka The Sheep, Andy has now published two books, “Dead Drift” and “Bloody Butcher”. They are both crime fiction, mostly set in the New Forest. So far he has had some very good reviews and hardly any money. I suppose he might get rich if his books were to be televised or made into films. After his second divorce, he became an alcoholic and then he went bankrupt. Now he is sober and already working on his fourth and fifth book!

I had some news from James Pratt about our old friend, _____ . He became a doctor and in fact he was an anaesthetist in a big hospital. Anyway, James said that he made a mess of things, caused the death of a few children and got struck off. I do not think that he is a murderer, but I remember at LWC he could (at times) be amazingly stubborn, bloody-minded and unstable.

As for me, I do not do very much. I eat too much and take the dog for a walk. My blog, www.bulgariawithnoodles.blogspot.com, has had more than 100,000 “hits” and it has been going now for about six years. I started it when we were living in China and that explains the silly title.

Trump is a complete scumbag and so is Putin. Trump has no less than ninety-one felony charges against him, so perhaps he will be spending the rest of his life in jail. He also has to pay nearly half a billion in fines for fraud and saying some rather unkind things about Jean Carroll, as well as assaulting her. All of this is happening in America, so of course lots of Americans think that Trump is wonderful and that he is an innocent victim. Nikki Haley seems to be a sensible and decent sort of politician and that probably explains why she is getting so few votes.

All of the problems of the world seem a long way away when we are in our country house. A good lunch and the view of the beautiful countryside are perfect antidotes to the insanity of the modern world.

Best wishes from Bulgaria,

Simon

 

I have left out some names from this post, just in case someone wants to sue me. I have included the food-related photos because they look yummy and I do not know where else to put them.