Bulgaria with Noodles

One noticeable advantage of my dear wife being away in the Crimea for a month has been that I have been able to do some unusual and adventurous cooking. Moussaka (or Mous saka, if you are Bulgarian) is one of my favourite dishes, but Irena never cooks it. I love the aubergines and the cheesy / yoghurty topping.  Of course the Secret of Life, the Universe and Everything is not 42. No, it is Hollandaise Sauce with some asparagus. Yes, it is true that the asparagus does make your pee dreadfully smelly.  I was afraid of making Hollandaise, as I had always thought that it would be very difficult. White wine vinegar, egg yolks and plenty of melted butter: a symphony of creamy yumminess.  I also found time to play with my new toys, the Lego Mindstorms EV3 set. I have always been interested in robots and control technology.

There has been a lot of hullabaloo in the UK about a Maths question that appeared on this year's Year 6 (Grade 4) SATs paper for Mathematics. There was a big article about it in the TES. It's not that hard. It took me about a minute to solve. The trick, of course, is to understand that the two squares should not be the same size. Maybe that is why the examiners put the word "different" in bold type . (Do teachers ever tell their students to read the question, I wonder? Maybe they do.) The students should also know that there is not much point in panicking, crying and wasting a lot of time on a question that only carries one mark if they really have no idea what the answer is. This is just common sense and good exam technique. All of the exam papers that were ever written have had some questions that were harder than the others, so there were some that could have been done quickly and easily, while there were some that were more challenging and time-consu...

After church today I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant with Beth and Dave Kanelos, who were leading the worship. What really made it special, however, was that we had a real live Chinaman to keep us company during the meal. And, better still, Isaac Huang is from Shenzhen. In fact, he goes to the OCT church and knows quite a few people at SIF, Shenzhen International Fellowship, our church during our five years in SZ. Of course he knows Heidi, but then every Christian in Shenzhen knows Heidi. It was so strange (and so enjoyable) to hear someone speaking English with a Chinese accent and occasionally chatting with the restaurant staff in Cantonese. Isaac politely tolerated the few (very few) phrases of Mandarin that I still remember. The other strange thing was that meeting Isaac showed me how much I miss China. Five years is a fair old chunk of your life, I suppose, and part of me wishes that we were still there. Lianhuacun Park, Bill, Julia and the extremely naughty Diu...

Irena flew back to the Crimea on Friday morning. Now it is Tuesday and I am really feeling her absence. It is not a problem when I am at school, as there I usually have more than enough to do. (This morning I had the added joy of Grade 5’s charming company, with a double lesson of cover for a missing French teacher.)  No, the problem comes at the weekends, when I have time on my hands and I do not know what to do with it. There is just a big empty space. Coming home to an empty apartment is horrible as well, but being on your own for a few hours after a busy day at school is not quite so difficult as a long weekend. This weekend was extra-long, as we also had Monday off from school. It was Bulgarian Army day. Irena is probably with her mother, whom we usually refer to as Mamulichka , at her country house just outside Simferopol, usually called the datcha. Well, Mamulichka’s datcha has no Wifi or Internet connection, so that would explain why I have not had any mes...

This is one of my favourite photos of me. I remember reading somewhere, "Never complain about old age. It is a privilege that many people never have." So yes, I am getting older, but I am so blessed with good health and, of course, my dear wife, Irisha. And here she is, looking beautiful (as usual). Anyway, congrats to me on getting to the big six zero and yes, we are very predictable and so we had my sixtieth birthday lunch at The Happy Grill . (Salmon with roasted vegetables and a carafe of okay Chardonnay.) Patricia, Suhail and their daughter Danielle had lunch with us. Thery are some lovely Christian friends from IBC, the International Baptist Church of Sofia. Danielle is a medical student and Suhail is a nurse. A great photo of two great ladies!

Recently a teacher on the TES asked me about the cost of living in Sofia, compared to Shenzhen. To answer the question, I would say that Sofia is probably a bit more expensive than Shenzhen, but not much. When we were in SZ, the school's accommodation allowance covered the rent and it is much the same story here in BG. I can walk to school and back each day, just like I did in China. The metro system in Sofia is a lot more expensive than in SZ and also we have a car as well, so that bumps up our costs a bit. In the Middle Kingdom, I was usually drinking Tsingtao, especially with crispy dumplings fried in butter, whereas in Bulgaria this old hippo gets through those three-litre boxes of the local plonk. On the other hand, each month we are given 60 leva of Kaufland vouchers and that helps with the groceries. One big advantage in Bulgaria is the school food, the best I have ever eaten in more than thirty years of teaching. Very generous quality cuts of meat, cooked in d...

Several of the teachers at my new school, Saint George's, have told me that Sofia is the most polluted capital city in all of Europe. Yes, that is probably true because lots of Bulgarians drive old and badly-maintained second-hand cars. That is one reason why I always enjoying going away for the weekend.  This weekend it was wonderful to escape from Sofia and go to our country house in Kalotina. Even though it is still only April, the weather was really warm and all of the birds were singing happily. Lots of fruit treas were covered in blosssom and, best of all, our house was still there and nothing bad had happened to it. It was a bit sad, having to cut the lawn, as the dandelions and daisies looked rather nice.  My dear wife's tulips were making a good show and the parsley is also going well. There was absolutely no sign of the asparagus and the Jerusalem artichokes that I had planted about a month ago. On a slightly more positive note, there were absolutely no was...