Parcel Post


Hooray! It has finally, finally arrived. Yes, my old friend Peter sent this parcel from the UK. Twice. The charming and delightful Bulgarian postal service sent it back to the UK the first time, so he sent it again. Another lot of postage and another wait. Twice I went down to the post office in Palitsi, only to be told, “Nyama kolet!” Then my dear wife found an official-looking piece of paper stuck onto our letterbox, so it was a case of third time lucky.

So how much did it all cost? Too blooming much. Two lots of Royal Mail postage at £16 a time and then the P.O. in Palitsi charged me an extra 29 euros.


We are off to Samothraki next week and that is going to involve a lot of lying on the beach. Irena loves flopping beside the sea, so I must have something substantial to read. Yes, of course I shall be ploughing through The Wind in the Willows for the ninth time, but it is also a good idea to have something a bit more highbrow and intellectually challenging.

Napoleon the Great fits the bill. Yes, I am a bit of a Napoleon fan. I have always found the little Corsican a most interesting character. This book does come up with some new perspectives on Boney, although some critics seem to think that it goes overboard in its praises and skimps on the criticisms.

Yes, I do watch YouTube quite a bit, but I am one of those old-fashioned people who likes to have the DVD.

The Dream Team is a film I have seen before, but I think that it will be worth a second viewing. Peter will like it too.


James Fox in The Day of the Jackal is super suave and an essentially English assassin, but a lot of the film was shot (pardon the pun) on location in France.


Anything with Nigel Hawthorne in it must be superb, of course, and with The Madness of King George you have Helen Mirren as an added bonus. Of course he was absolutely brilliant as the Archdeacon in The Barchester Chronicles, although what really made him a household name was Yes, Minister.


Last, but by no means least, the very final, final part of the Downton Abbey saga.


I have played Napoleon Total War for many, many hours and I think that Empire Total War should be good too. It is set in the early 1700s and it covers just about most of the world, so there are going to be some differences from Napoleon.


Yes, I still buy music CDs, once in a while. Bridge over troubled water is a classic.      


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