A rant

This weekend I started to get really quite irritated with the situation with the architect and PUP/planning permission. Another whole month has gone by with absolutely nothing having progressed and now we are approaching the "four months til I go" date and, when I think about it, that is starting to make the timings look tight, and not comfortable.

Yep, time for this fella again

I had planned a really lazy day on Saturday but by the middle of the morning the frustration I was starting to feel drove me to pack my books up and load them in Thomas to take to the studio. I then decided that, rather than wait for the shutter to be done, I would get my stuff moved out of the store room in the studio (where it was starting to get a bit messy again) into the new unit. My trolley did show its usefulness doing this and I moved everything apart from the huge heavy top to my desk.

Saturday night my tiredness went away and I sat up watching films and rubbish TV with my mind stewing and when I finally did head to bed the following thoughts ran through my mind:

"I need to think about fitting a shower at the school as soon as I can... how will I be able to wash in the first couple of months... will I be able to fit the shower without planning permission... well at least I can sort out Room 13 without any alterations just need new windows...."

All of these thoughts are predicated on the fact that I now no longer believe that my PUP and Planning Permission is going to be done.

It took me hours to switch my mind off and then when I woke up (and I still hadn't identified the thought above; what can I say I'm not the brightest sometimes) I set to and packed up all my DVDs into a box.

It was only when J asked "what are you doing?!" that I was able to face up to the fact that my weekend had been displacement activity because of the frustration slowly turning into anger at the complete lack of attention and progress from Veselka.

I unpacked my DVDs.

So, why am I getting to irate about this right now; it's MONTHS until I go, surely there is time.

Time is melting, fast...

Let's quickly analyse the dates...

• 21/7/2013 - Met Veselka, received quote and told it would take a month to get permission to replace the roof.
• 22/7/2013 - Emailed Veselka with answers to the questions which she asked me.
• 22/7/2013 - Told by the head architect in the local Obshtina that I don't need planning permission for the roof
• 13/8/2013 - A promise that she will start work "next week" received by email.
• 16/8/2013 - Email received saying she will be talking to the Municipality about the roof (note that I had personal approval for this three weeks before)
• 22/8/2013 - Plans received of what is currently there. Confirmation that apparently the approval to work on the roof which I received was not the case.
• Silence.....
• 14/9/2013 - Booked my flights for a 10 day trip to do what I can with the roof, and meet Veselka to find out what is happening.
• 27/9/2013 - E finds out that we need PUP. Veselka has not told me anything about this at all. I communicated with her and am told "oh I know about that". Communication?!
• 29/9/2013 - Meet with Veselka. Receive contract which is incorrect, allowing only for planning permission for the roof, and only a concept for the rest. What is the point in that?! Take contract away to read.
• 30/9/2013 - Corrections to the contract emailed to Veselka. Arrangement to go back at the end of the trip.
• 7/10/2013 - Meeting with Veselka. Contract corrected after MUCH discussion and quote increased. Power of Attorney sorted. Promise that I would have the contract emailed to me by the end of the week to sign and return. Promise that Veselka would visit the Obshtina now she has Power of Attorney to start the process
• 14/10/2013 - No contract, but Veselka is going to the Obshtina today. It is Eid. They are shut. Where is the planning?
• 17/10/2013 - Still no contract, I now engage the translator to be my interface with Veselka with a promise of a weekly update on a Friday. It is requested that I send my vision to Veselka. This is the "concept" on the original, incorrect, contract.
• 18/10/2013 - Email from Dilyana. Veselka not sending contract and not able to confirm date of next visit to my Obshtina
• 21/10/2013 - Sent the plans as requested with my thoughts for the concept. Confirmation of receipt from Dilyana

And since then... Nothing.

We are now over three months since I originally took Veselka on to do the plans and in that time all I have received is the drawings of how the building looks now. She promised me a contract week ending 28/7/2013 and yet I still have not had one; this is after another promise of the contract made on 7/10/2013.

Looking forwards it is now 132 days until I leave. I can basically say that it is four months. In that time is Christmas. Also in that time is the snowy season and it has been made clear to me that the survey teams will not go out in the snow (they can't - how can the GeoPhys the ground if it is 3 feet deep in snow, at least) and they won't go to the school to do this scanning until the PUP has been approved.

You can't GeoPhys through this

Regarding the PUP. It seems we don't even know yet how long this will take to receive, or how much it will cost, and yet despite this Veselka hasn't even found out what she needs to DO yet, let alone started doing it.

So if I think it could take her another month to bother to get to the Obshtina to find out what is needed, and then maybe 7 weeks (and that is best case) we have two months gone. It is then January and the snow will not melt until February and so the GeoPhys can't go in. It then takes six weeks to get the approval to build from the Obshtina and that is all presuming (against all the evidence of my dealings with her so far that everything is expedited efficiently) that Veselka responds in a timely fashion to progress.

This is not going to happen and so I am sat here thinking "I am not going to have my planning permission when I arrive".

I do understand things are different in Bulgaria (blah blah blah) but there is different, and there is incompetent.

Anyway, rant over and while I don't feel any better, it has cleared my head now that I can really see what has happened with my little timeline above.

I haven't had an update from Dilyana since that first email so she is already starting to let me down. I am going to keep a spreadsheet of the agreed schedule of updates and whether she keeps to this. I'll not be paying her if I have to revert to my previous routine of nagging through friends.