Bulgaria with Noodles

You will probably be pleased that, for once, I am going to be writing about something Chinese, not about Bulgaria or the Crimea, even though I started writing this piece in Mamulichka's datcha , with the chickens clucking in the distance. (In fact, there is one chicken less the next morning, but the soup was delicious.)  My young friend Francis, who also used to teach a Year 5 class at Green Oasis School, recently got married to a very pretty Chinese lady, who was in fact the mother of one of his students. (This rather reminds me of Evelyn Waugh's hapless Paul Pennyfeather and Margot Beste-Chetwynde in Decline and Fall .) Anyway, Francis is a lucky chap! The yummy mummy is also quite seriously wealthy and she has taken her new husband to Japan, as well as off to America over the summer. (Francis's most recent WeChat message was from Las Vegas, on the way to the Grand Canyon. Marry a Chinese gal and see the world! ) An old friend was staying in Kalotina recently, so ...