Bulgaria with Noodles

Dear Peter, It was even more splendid than usual to get an e-mail from you, old fellow! I was a bit worried. As for me, you will not be surprised at all when I tell you that I have NOT been working hard. Yes, once or twice I have turned on the computer and maybe I have played NAPOLEON: TOTAL WAR for a few minutes. But I have also found the time to get beaten at badminton by my dear wife and to play ball with that naughty and rather smelly little dog. She definitely needs a bath (the dog, not my wife!) Irena is due to fly off to the Crimea on 3 rd September and she will not be back until 1 st October. That is, of course, assuming that she gets a negative COVID test in Veliko Tarnovo before she leaves and then another one in Simferopol, her hometown, before flying back. If she gets a positive test while she is in the Crimea, then I suppose that they will not let her get onto the plane. Then her Russian visa will expire if she cannot fly back to Sofia. Oh the joys of international...

Well, I am very sorry that, once again, you could not join us for breakfast this morning. As usual, we did our scoffing on the terrace. The view was wonderful and that naughty little dog was up to her usual mischief.  We have had a dreadful time with Irena’s Russian tourist visa. It has been a complete and utter pain, as well as taking flipping ages and ages. I mean, it is bad enough that she has to even apply for a visa to visit her own blooming country. Have you ever heard of anything so totally crazy? As well as the actual visa, you also need medical insurance. The application form takes a long time to fill in, as there are so many pointless and repetitive questions. In addition to the visa application form, there is also something silly called “a Russian tourist voucher”. We had to go to Veliko Tarnovo, in order to go to some tourist agencies. The only problem was that these agencies did not know anything about this stupid voucher thing, so I had to buy one online. The next hur...

It is really quite impressive. Rohovitsi waterfall is about ten kilometres from our house in Daveri. Just round the corner, really. You drive into Maryan, then take a left turn and then walk for about twenty minutes. Tina was not very happy. Tina had a great time, but she was not very keen on swimming. Although Irena did go for a swim, she said that I was not allowed to put any photos of her in a bikini on Facebook or my blog. Sorry to disappoint  you. As for me, yes, I did get a bit wet. The things that I do for the readers of  my blog! On the way to the waterfall, with all of her clothes on.

  This morning we went to Yokovitsi Reservoir, about 6 kms from Elena. This man-made lake is absolutely HUGE. It was a beautiful day, very sunny and hardly any clouds.  Tina, that naughty little doggie, thought it was all very exciting and so she had to have a little dip in the lake to cool off.

I am sorry that you could not join us for breakfast on the terrace. My dear wife Irena had cooked some yummy sirniki (these are a kind of little cake, made with cottage cheese) and they were delicious with smetana  (a kind of cream) and homemade plum jam*.  Oh yes, and lots of good coffee. I had been given strict orders not to take any photos of Irena, but I did manage to take one of her hand. Just in case you have not guessed already, Tina is a greedy little doggie. She was not impressed with the view of the garden and the glorious Bulgarian countryside that I could see from my chair on the terrace.   * Yes, you do like asterisks, don't you?

My beloved Husqvarna tractor mower, home at last! Yes, it is back. No, I am not talking about the return of my "Gardening Bore", although you are no doubt very excited about that. No, my Husqvarna tractor mower has been repaired and the service centre in Veliko Tarnovo delivered it to our home. Hooray! As you can imagine, it has had quite a bit of use recently and I am pleased to say that it has been working perfectly. There was a bit of a problem with picking up the grass, as the grass was so wet that there was a blockage and it would not go through to the bagger. Anyway, I cleared the blockage and everything was fine. Here is a photo of the spindle, a kind of axle for one of the cutting blades. It has snapped off. As you can see, the mounting for the spindle broke away from the chassis in four different places. (I thought that it was steel, but most probably it is aluminium.) In case you have not guessed yet, there is a clear moral to be drawn from this story. Husqvarna tra...

Dear Sally,  I was very pleased to receive your e-mail because it gives me the opportunity to say that I really am alive! Yes, still here and breathing. However, there have been a few changes over the last few years.  With some Chinese friends After five years in China, we left Shenzhen and moved back to our house in Bulgaria, about 60 kms north of Sofia.  Having been retired for about six months, I was a bit bored and applied for a teaching job at St. George's School in Sofia. Irena was quite happy with the idea of living "in town", especially as the school provided us with quite a nice two-bedroomed apartment next to a huge park. The park was particularly popular with our naughty little Jack Russell.  A tiny Tina, before she became bigger (and naughtier) After 18 months of teaching at St. George's, the pandemic came along and so did the lump sum from the TPS, so I asked myself, "Do I want to carry on doing this?" I retired again and a few months later we s...