Busy day off

Yesterday morning I awoke to darkness.  I thought it was the middle of the night so I got up to use the bathroom and quickly climbed back into bed for my second snooze.  I looked briefly at my phone to check the time and it was 6am!  Dark at 6am!  This will take some getting used to.  I must have fallen over to sleep straight away again only to wake drowsily to the alarm, so I snoozed it.  After the snooze I must have dropped off yet again - I was very tired!  It was light now and I panicked thinking I had overslept for getting the men.  It was 7am, so all was fine thankfully.

I popped in to say hi to Sassy.  She has been a little bit anti-social over the last couple of mornings and she was back to her usual curious self again.

Morning Sassy

This was the misty morning sun:

Cloudy start

I had gone out to put Rambo away before setting off to collect the men and just as I turned the ignition on my Bulgarian phone rang and sure enough, it was Bekir.  "Deneska, neh raboti, A". He did say something else, presumably trying to explain why, but I did not understand.  Bless him, he was practising his English also by repeating it in, I must say, very good English.  So, back to the School for me and Rambo was super excited to be let out so soon.

We were expecting some new workers to arrive to start the drainage works.  It was arranged through our architect, Lubo, who informed the Mr that they would be here on Monday so long as it did not rain.  So, the sun was out and I sat with my morning coffee watching and I waited.  After texting and e-mailing the message came back that the ground was still too soggy to complete any work.  This was frustrating, but fair enough as they will probably need a big machine in to start the clearing of the perimeter.

So, as per last week, my day was eaten into by work so there is nothing to really report other than by the end of the day I was exhausted, again and I decided I would treat myself to dinner in the restaurant by the river, a short drive away.

It was lovely as usual, but always very difficult to order when you are on your own as you inevitably want half the menu but can't have it as it is wasteful.  Here you can see an amazing lamb shank that was perfectly cooked and fell off the bone.  I absolutely did not* order two potato side orders.

A treat

I woke up this morning to another drab day.  A low level cloud had set in all around us and no sun was to be seen.  This was a shame, but it was due to brighten up.

Low cloud

Last night I promised that after I collected the men I would take Rambo out for another walk.  He loves getting out and although he is becoming more and more active around the land, I wanted to get him out for a while also.  Will do me good as well! Just as I was finishing my coffee and getting prepared to leave for the men, my Bulgarian mobile rang.  It was Bekir.  He spoke very good English initially which surprised me, telling me that they would not today, tomorrow, tomorrow and then something in Bulgarian about a hospital and that he would call me on Monday.  I could not quite make out what exactly had happened, but I do hope that they are both ok or whoever is in hospital has nothing serious!

So I made myself another coffee with a view to heading up the mountain with Rambo afterwards.  It was still very gloomy outside with that low cloud hanging down.  Off we went and as usual, Rambo was super excited and had to be held on a tight lead most of the way through the village as the villagers were letting their livestock out for the day. Here is the neighbours dog, relaxing in the paddock.

Basking

We headed back to the reed pond where he almost choked himself pulling on the lead in order to get to it (also helping pull me up the last of the hill).  Straight away he was in, paddling around.  I decided I would throw a stick in for him to fetch and as it landed I thought it looked a bit deep and sure enough, he went completely under the water and had to swim to get back out again.  I did not laugh much, honest.  Then he went back in again of his own accord.  He really is a water-dog. We made it back down home without incident and he had worn himself out, or so I thought! We came in and he got a treat for being good and sitting and waiting for me to close and lock the gates (I am a soft touch, me).  The dog is a machine.  Here is is, begging for more interaction, patiently waiting for me to take the Kong and throw it, as if he hadn't had enough exercise, I was beat!

Morning swimmer

It rained a misty rain the whole time we were out but it was still quite warm, so when we got back I didn't bother to change straight away and fed the two animals and caught up with the Mr as he got to work.  It was market day today and I had promised myself I would go as I needed a new pair of slippers.  The ones I had bought in the UK were literally falling apart.  After a short chat and a further coffee, I hopped in the shower and change my clothes before setting off. On the way down to town I stopped to pick up the Kmet as he was heading in also and I took my opportunity to moan to him about the lack of water situation.

As I drove through town I noticed that there were no stalls in the square and asked the Kmet where they were.  Apparently they had moved them all up to the top end of town, but I am not sure about why.

No stalls

I had to pop in to the solicitors to collect some paperwork for the Mr and I shuffled off up to grab the bits I needed.  As I was walking round I grabbed a pair of tracksuit bottoms for working around the School in as well as two pairs of slippers.  It was around 11am and too early for lunch so I parked myself in the usual cafe for a half an hour and was laughing as this little bird could not work out the concept of glass and why he could not come in - bless it. What make and model is it?  Do you know?

New bird

I packed up, deciding that I would just grab a bite to eat at home and forego the kebab - I know!  But I had much to do and wanted to go and take Lucy to the garage as the oil light had flickered the other day and as she has been sat all winter and is my only mode of transport here for a while, I wanted to take no chances.  I called in to the shop owned by the garage to speak first with Zak who speaks very good English thankfully.  I collected some documents that she had held for us over winter and she rang ahead to the garage telling him what I needed. When I pulled in I spotted them immediately.  Puppies!  Loads of them!  I got straight out of the car and called them from the other side of the drive so as to ascertain how protective the mother was, who was on a chain.  She seemed interested, but not enough to move or get up.  This little chap came bounding over straight away and rolled over at my feet!

Cute!

Look at this face!

 There were six in total and they were all very chilled out puppies lying, or trying to lie, in the shade of the curb.

Five of six

Do not even ask me what it took for me to walk away from the little fella once the car was ready, especially as our mechanic told me to take one.  I wanted them ALL! Anyway, I was strong and I left empty handed and with a lump in my throat.

Back home the sun was out and it was really quite warm.  I reckoned it was time I stopped delaying what the Mr has nagged me about since he left and I set to planting out some seeds.  I found the seed box (not knowing at this time that there is another in the garage) and pulled out the ones I wanted.  So, her you can see that we are especially fond of strawberries (me) and parsnips (him).  But I will plant some more of the others in another week or two so as to stagger the harvest.

Seeds sown

I was appreciating the stretch in the evenings and I took the new garden chair out onto the patio where I sat for twenty minutes in the last of the sun.  It was nice to sit out there again feeling the sun on my skin.  Then a huge black cloud came overhead and I legged it back in to start dinner.

Dinner was a quick curry.  I cheated on this one as I hadn't had time today to prepare one from scratch, but it was very nice and I was able to finish it off by simmering it over the petchka whilst the rice boiled.

Curry on the stove

So that was today and what a busy and good day it has been.  I am glad I organised to take a couple of days off this week as work was just horrendous and I felt like I was achieving none of the things I have been wanting to do because of it.  So here am I, signing out and saying goodbye to the day.

Mountains on fire

Leka nosht.

A x

* I absolutely did.