I'm going back to Bulgaria

Building season has started over in Bulgaria (as those of you reading E's blog linked on the right will know) and so E has booked her men in for a week of work on my roof. This means that I am going back over again in a couple of weeks.

Mmmm beer

I have booked flights out of London Gatwick at 5.55am on 28th as I am meeting up with some friends for beers on the night before. I was planning on going on my mate's narrow boat that weekend but the best laid plans cannot stand up to my need to make my roof safe before winter.

This trip is going to be my longest ever visit to Bulgaria (up until now I have been visiting for house viewings and flying in on a Saturday / back on a Tuesday) as I am staying until the Tuesday of the week after. Sadly this timing has meant that not only have I missed out on the boatring, but I am missing a family party as well.

So, sacrifices have had to be made.

The men are "mine" from Monday 30th September and for all of that week and E has said that next week materials will be ordered and a visit will be made to the electricity and water to see if more forms need filling in, or if they an get a jump and get this installed before I arrive. My plans are pretty much the same as in my recent blog post on the subject however I am also considering if I can get some glazing done on the ground floor windows, to improve security and make it REALLY clear that the property is now owned and not empty any more.

I want several of these

I am also planning on getting up to Chaz's place at some point, and get in to see Veselka in her office. I am still feeling disconnected from the architectural process and hopefully, going in face to face and sitting with her for a few hours might provide some impetus to the process, and will also help me to feel involved again. There were a lot of questions which Veselka had for me (regarding rain water collection for one thing) which I answered within a couple of days but do not know if this message got to her.

There have been gales in Bulgaria recently, including one which E described as "like a tornado", so I am a little concerned as to what I will find when I get over to the school. Who knows, maybe the chimney will already have gone, the beams will have collapsed, and I will legitimately be able to remove the roof in the interests of "local safety". It is crazy to me that I can't do this anyway but that is another story.

Onto other little updates, E has asked if "her family" can harvest the nuts from my five walnut trees which I obviously said "yes fine" so hopefully she will be taking pictures of this for this blog. It is good to build relationships with people and hopefully this family will be part of my support network over there.

A small proportion of my Whisky collection

I've also talked to a transport company who do regular trips between the UK and Bulgaria and the owner expressed concern at the quantity of whisky I wanted shipping. I quote: "its one thing to bring the odd bottle but 100 bottles is more than you see on a shelf in kaufland lol.". She is unsure if her drivers will be insured to drive this quantity (and this makes me wonder whether I would be insured myself!) and is going to research it and get back to me.

Nothing is simple :)