Bulgaria with Noodles

I love Bulgaria. A committed Bulgarophile, I am now in the process of buying our THIRD property in this country. That does not mean, however, that I like everything that is BG-related.   A real Bulgarian electricity bill! For nearly two years, those scumbags at the Bulgarian electricity company have been overcharging us. We had no option but to pay, as they will disconnect you faster than saying "Nyama tok!" (No electricity!) I thought that an e-mail would do the job, as there was a long queue at the electricity company's office, just along the road from the Lions Bridge (you can't hide your lion eyes). Well, I should have known better. Just because they do actually have an e-mail address does not really mean that the electricity company will answer your e-mails. And even if they do, it does not mean that they will refund you all of the money that they have collected because they have been overcharging you.  First I sent to the electricity company all of the photos of...

Who are you? Where, when and why did you move abroad?  My name is Simon Hill. I am from the UK, but my wife Irena comes from Russia. I was a housemaster at a boarding school near Salisbury. We left the UK in 1998 and went to Kenya for two years, then Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Romania, Qatar for five years, the UAE and now China. This is in fact our fifth year in Shenzhen, just around the corner from Hong Kong, where I am a primary teacher at Green Oasis School. During our years of wandering we have also bought a house and an apartment in Bulgaria. What challenges did you face during your move?  Moving to China was a bit awkward because the HR people at my school told us that we had to leave, after we had only been in Shenzhen for a week. The Chinese Embassy in Qatar had given us business visas instead of working visas (the blue Z visas). It took nine weeks before we could get a new passport for my wife and the proper Chinese Z visas. When we finally returned to Shenzhen,...