66, Not Out

Yes, I am now officially an OAP. Being 66 is not really too bad. It is a lot like being 65.

As I shall soon be receiving lots of extra cash, courtesy of His Majesty's government, I have been thinking about buying a new car. Well, a new second-hand car. The second-hand car market in Bulgaria is rather different to the one in the UK. Most Bulgarians cannot afford to buy a brand-new car, so of course they buy a second-hand car instead. Furthermore, Bulgaria is the dustbin for write-offs and worn-out cars from all over Europe. Clocking is widespread and the Police seem to do nothing about it. This means that buying a second-hand car in Bulgaria is rather more difficult and expensive than it is in the UK. Yes, I am sure that a BMW might be more reliable than some other brands, but BMWs are more expensive and so are the spare parts, if anything goes wrong.

I suppose that a Toyota Rav 4 might be the obvious choice, but I have not been impressed with the Toyota garage recently and there do not seem to be any second-hand Rav 4s for sale. All of the second-hand dealers I have seen so far have loads of rubbishy Citroens, Renaults and Fords, but no Rav 4s.

What about buying a second-hand VW from a VW dealer? Is this a bad idea or not? I had the impression that buying a second-hand car from a main dealer might mean that you are less likely to buy a junk heap and get swindled.

The big news is that Irena’s twin sister died a couple of days ago. She was semi-paralysed and an alcoholic, so in some ways it was not a surprise, but of course Irena has been very upset. As if her sister’s death was not enough, Irena has also been in a lot of pain because she has had some major work on her teeth. She has a big swelling on the side of her face and she is finding it difficult to eat. The stitches come out on Saturday and then maybe she will start to feel better.

You would think that these things would be bad enough on their own, but unfortunately it gets even worse. Irena’s brother is also an alcoholic and he managed to lose his sister’s death certificate. Well, it could have been Yevgenny’s fault or maybe it was Irena’s mother who lost this very important document. Mamulichka, my mother-in-law, is a sweet lady, but she is 86. She gets very tired and confused sometimes.

On top of all of this, Lena, Irena’s twin sister, left a will, leaving her apartment to Irena. Of course, there is nothing that Irena can do with this apartment, as she cannot go to the Crimea. It could be worth something, if it was cleaned up a bit and repaired, but Irena cannot do anything about it while this war drags on.

I have watched several videos on YouTube that have suggested that the Russia / Ukraine war could be over quite soon. No, I am not suggesting that Donald Trump is going to put together some wonderful peace deal. That is not going to happen. What is going to happen is that the Russian army will collapse. You recall that the fall of the USSR happened very unexpectedly and dramatically. While the fighting is still going on, it is easy to believe that Putin is still in charge and his army might even win. The reality is that a lot of Russian military equipment is poor quality and more or less useless. Most of the Russian tanks that are left are 40 or 50 years old! The Ukrainians are dominating the skies over the battlefield, thanks to better anti-aircraft missiles from the UK, F-16s and Mirage jets. Total Russian army losses are nearly one million men (captured, wounded or killed). Morale is at breaking point.

Trump! Each day, he seems to wake up in the morning and he thinks of some new outrage, some new way to smash the American Constitution and undermine his country’s laws. As well as wrecking the world economy and damaging NATO, Trump is now taking aim at the top universities in the U.S., in addition to the chairman of Federal Reserve Board (the American equivalent of the Bank of England). While some of the universities have bowed down to Trump, Harvard has stood firm. It is going to be an interesting battle and my money is on Harvard.

Recently Irena and I were in VT and I bought a replacement water pump, as well as some new hoses. Yesterday I moved a lot of the junk out of the Reserved Room, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The two big water tanks need to be emptied, the broken pump and the piping must be removed and the rotten wooden floorboards need to be ripped up. Then Mark and Will are going to do the new concrete floor.

More bad news. SKYPE is going to be closed down soon. Yes, I will give HMRC one more try, while SKYPE is still working. I cannot say that I am hopeful. I just want to know when they are finally, finally going to tell me how much I need to pay in missing NI contributions and where do I send the money. It is so frustrating.

Some good news! We are having a superb asparagus harvest this year. When we came back from VT, we collected some many asparagus spears that we could only eat about half of them. Absolutely delicious with bread-and-butter, my dear wife’s homemade mayonnaise and - yes, you guessed correctly – a glass or two of Bulgarian Chardonnay! On my birthday, I had some asparagus with scrambled egg and very good it was too.

For lunch on my birthday, we went to the rather good mehana in Elena. The stuffed peppers were yummy, as usual.