Bulgaria with Noodles

A photo of the Pirin Mountains in Bulgaria. Well, why not? Ever since I started writing one myself, I have become an avid reader of other people's blogs, especially if they are in any way connected with Bulgaria. Auntie Bulgaria, otherwise known as Claire Ruston, has been writing an excellent blog for quite some time now and you can read this blog by going to www.auntiebulgaria.blogspot.com Recently Claire was excited because her little lemon trees have at last started to produce lemons for the first time . (Gin and tonics, here we come!) Here is my comment and Claire's reply. A lemon tree, my dear Watson! I am very impressed by the citrus surplus that you are about to have, Claire. Lemons usually cost a fortune in Bulgaria. Did you bring your lemon tree into the house during the winter? Or did it somehow survive in the wonky polytunnel? What about the asparagus? Does it really take FOUR years before they start producing a good crop of spears? Any special asparag...

In his wonderful BBC travel series, Around the World in Eighty Days , Michael Palin says that his round-the-world trip could only be interest of interest to other circumnavigators and therefore most ordinary people would find it boring. I have to disagree with Mr Palin, as I must have watched Around the World at least fourteen times.  What has that got to do with blogging? As I have mentioned in a previous post, I used to bore to death all of my poor wife and my colleagues at Green Oasis School by talking endlessly about Bulgaria. (In fact at one point, I had the idea of marketing Bulgarian real estate here in China, but that particular attack of insanity did not last long.) Now I bore everyone to death with the latest news about my blog. “Yesterday I had nearly 200 hits!” and “Expatfocus have done the piece I sent to them and they also mentioned my blog!”  Et cetera, ad infinitum.   It is freezing in our apartment. Yes, southern China is supposed to be ...

Dear Nicholas, I had not heard from you for a while and in fact my dear Irisha said, “You really must write to Nicholas!” Then your splendid letter arrived on Friday, brightening up what would otherwise have been a rather gloomy day! Peter Adams, blog photographer That young Adams fellow seems to be suffering from a severe attack of Labor   Scholasticus , a most serious disease that poor and unfortunate prep school masters are prone to get, from time to time. Fortunately, it is not contagious! Well, my dear chap, it was excellent to read about your musical migrations. Yes, I am indeed planning to invite you to come to Bulgaria again, if you do feel up to the challenge. Flying from the UK to Bulgaria is not really any more difficult that getting from the depths of Cornwall to Canterbury! In fact, it might even be cheaper, as there are heaps of bargain flights to Sofia. Zlatka and Irena, at the garden fence However, it is difficult to think about inviting peo...

Being a blogger is really hard. I have promised my wife that I am not going to write anything nasty about the blogger (who will remain nameless and so instead I will just put the link to the blog http://www.adventurouskate.com/and-then-it-went-to-hell-in-bulgaria/ ) Anyway, this person wrote a dreadfully boring and self-obsessed blog but did include some great photos. (I liked the one of the cat on the roof tiles.) The photos were of one of my favourite places, the city of Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria. It is a funky place, V.T. There is the castle of Tsaravets, perched on top of the hill, the winding Yantra River and the picturesque old buildings in the twisting, photogenic cobbled streets. But the aforementioned blogger just wanted to moan about the bad Wifi and whinge about the lack of air conditioning. The Wifi is not very good here. The AC does not work properly. And I am really lonely. Yes, but what about the beautiful, historic churches? The view of...

The Red (and Ghostless) Bank of China Towers Yes, I have done it! After reading several other blogs about Bulgaria and asking myself, "Yes, but how is my blog going to be different ?", I have finally taken the plunge and made my very first blog. Bulgaria with Noodles is the title. Yes, yes, it really is going to be about Bulgaria, one of these days, but it is all going to start in China! All the other blogs that have be written about moving to Bulgaria start with lots of anxious posts about selling the house, scraping together the cash, buying a tumbledown house in Bulgaria (usually in the mountains) and then driving all the way from the UK to BG. Well, this blog is different because we already have a house in Bulgaria, and an apartment, and a smug smile. The only problem is that we are still in China. Well, dear reader, I say that it is a problem, but really being in southern China is not so bad, for various reasons. Firstly, it is now November and the weather here ...