Bulgaria with Noodles

Yikes! We have had some serious, serious snow and it is still only November. I think that here in VT we had maybe 30 cms of snow. There were lots of branches broken under the weight of the snow and many of the villages round VT seem to be without electricity. So what is going to happen in January and February? The heavy fall of snow has damaged quite a few trees in the woods around our apartment. What a pity I left my chainsaw back in Daveri!

Things are a bit dull here in VT. I have had an awful cold for the best part of a week and now Irena has it. I also have to go to the dentist and I am not looking forward to that. That naughty doggie Tina spends a lot of her time looking out of the window, watching the doings of all of the local cats. I had a rather unpleasant confrontation with our Bulgarian neighbour, who does not like it when I park next to his apartment. Usually, I park a bit further down the street, but of course someone else had decided to park there. Good grief! Anyone would think that this part of VT is becoming another town in the UK. Blooming cars everywhere! Well, in the end I could not be bothered to argue with him and so I moved my car about 200 metres along the street. Yes, it is not long to Christmas and the government in the UK seems to giving out a few early prezzies. I t is good to know that my TPS pension will be going up again and so will my State pension, when I finally get it. Here in Bulgaria, th...

It seemed to be a really good idea, at the time, but then again disasters usually start that way. We went to the double-glazing company and they said that the work of installing the new windows would take a day "or two at the most". Well, it is now been two weeks and the windows still are not finished and our apartment looks a total mess, a bombsite. All of the furniture has been moved, as well as the carpets and everything else, so trying to live here is a decidedly uncomfortable experience. It is frustrating too, as we just do not know how long this is going to continue. On the first day, Monday, a heck of a lot of damage was done when the workmen removed the old windows and window frames. Chunks of plaster and even bit of concrete were gouged out, exposing the brickwork. I think that it was on the following day, the Tuesday, that an angry man suddenly appeared in our apartment. I honestly thought that he was going to start a punch-up. He was furious because someone had sma...

We had to go to Veliko Tarnovo for a few days, as I needed to take the car into the Toyota garage. On our way back from the airport, we had a small accident. The Toyota people reckoned that they can get it all sorted by Friday afternoon and that was good news. On the way to the garage on Wednesday morning, some of our neighbours were pointing at the bumper and so I stopped the car. The bumper was nearly falling off, but fortunately the neighbours found a piece of wire and fixed it on again. We have been watching some things on Youtube, as here in VT we have a "smart TV". Well, the one we have back in Daveri is a very stupid one, as the only things that I watch are CNN and DVDs. We have started on "Down Abbey" again, all thirty or maybe forty DVDs. Perhaps normal TV programmes will become a thing of the past, just like VHS replaced Betamax. Although my old friend John Cann has had his hip replacement operation, he has found it pretty tough going. He has had to go...