Better late than never

It's Thursday morning and I'm just sitting at my desk, having worked for a few hours, to try and get this update done and dusted. The migraine, which I now recognise probably actually started on Tuesday, really kicked in yesterday and prevented me doing the update and contrary to normal habit it hasn't cleared over night, despite pill-taking, and I'm still suffering now.  I hope this update is swift.

Monday

Sunday night was really strange as A was quite unwell and I had to sit up and look after her until she settled. Fortunately it wasn't that late of a night but it was n unsettled one so I took a bit of a lay in on Monday morning (she woke feeling absolutely fine which was great) and then got on with the day.

Beautiful sunlight streams through a gap in the overcast

Low clouds over the peak behind my parents' hotel

One of my twitter readers, who is reading through from the beginning having been late joining this journey and is a way off catching up to here, messaged me the other day about Crepuscular Rays as he spotted that I am quite obsessed with them. True to form, then, I open with Monday morning and the overcast and cold beginning that it was. Certainly the forecast was for it to brighten up but it wasn't looking too hopeful first thing. I took this picture sat at my desk and it is an example of persistence working out. The rays disappeared when I first saw them, in the time it took to get the camera, but a few minutes later they were back.

As forecast, the clouds cleared away fast

New leaves on the banana tree

A plate of homemade sausage rolls

Scraping the walls in Sassy's room

An hour later and the weather had changed completely, with the clouds blowing away towards the south leaving gorgeous blue sky behind. When I had got up earlier in the day and opened the curtains, even though the sun was hidden, I spotted a really exciting thing. The banana tree which had been damaged by the cold while being delivered to us has put out a new leaf and every day this has been growing more and more. It seems I didn't cut too much or too little off and the location we've picked for it is perfect. Breakfast was all of the sausage rolls that A had made on Sunday, heated up and wolfed down very quickly indeed. We shared these; that plate wasn't just for me. The rest of the day was taken up with a trip out to town to try and pick up a heat gun (hadn't been delivered yet) and get quotes for lino for Sassy's Room (much cheaper at my local place, and nicer also) and then I went out again to the big town to try and get my hammer drill back (another ten days until it's fixed, apparently) and then I cheered myself up by buying A a plant that I knew she'd love. Late in the afternoon I cleared out Sassy's room and took the scraper to the walls and found that I'm going to have to do some plastering to fix some large holes that extend to the exterior bricks. It was an early night for us both and that wasn't a bad thng.

Tuesday

I woke up feeling really blue on Tuesday morning, just ill in a very non-specific way. As I say I now think this was the beginning of the migraine that is still affecting me but then I just put it down to a little funk and got on with it.

A lovely start to the day

Hello Sassy!!

It was a clear start, with some clouds, when I first got up and got to work. I made quite a lot of progress on Tuesday with the paid job which is always good but as the day went on I felt less and less good. Sassy was fed and watered, as usual, early in the morning and she came out to see me so I snapped a quick picture for you. We then headed down into town to try and pay the year's taxes on the vehicles and the house, pick up the hot glue gun, and for A to try and get some more egg cups. This was a mixed bag as the glue gun was there (and far cheaper than I expected) but the tax office was really busy so I didn't even try and A was only able to get 2 extra egg cups as the shop has run out now. I headed down again during the afternoon for another attempt at the taxes and this time was successful I also attempted to use a postage paid return on an item I'd received twice and was told "come back tomorrow" as the lady didn't understand what it was, even though it was in Bulgarian.

Thelma after her vets visit

Cleared and swept ready for fitting as a workshop

Other than that, it was a quiet day. I saw the owner of the firm who was supposed to be starting the basketball court this week (no show, of course) and I got to say hello but he was on the phone and disappeared in the minute I was inside checking the queue at the tax office. I've emailed a couple of times and no reply; we'll see, I'm starting to get annoyed at him now. His quote for insulation was way off also which hasn't helped. With A's help we cleared the tool room together to make more space and decided that it would become our workshop and wood working room, with a wood-rack along one wall and a workbench the length of the wall underneath the windows. The end of the day was my day in microcosm; we were down on the front lawn and I went to throw a stick for Thelma and managed to drag it across her eyeball, causing her to scream and yell (but still chase the stick). Of course I felt terrible and we jumped in Thomas to take her to the vets to get checked out. He was closed when we got there but walked up as we rang him which was great timing. Louise was very unhappy at being back there but he checked her at the same time and was so pleased with her little scar. He gave us some drops for Thelma (didn't seem too concerned) and sent us on our way with a smile and a tiny invoice. I've stopped beating myself up for hurting Thelma now but it took some doing to get over that scream.

Wednesday

I woke up yesterday feeling a lot better; certainly no echo of a migraine early on and the blues had passed.

Three little dogs, playing together

Overcast start to the day

Thelma with one eye closed

Sun trying to break through

A let the chickens out and did that part of the morning chore while I was working away but I went onto the balcony to get a picture of the clouds and saw that the little puppy from the farm, a very cute little bitch that likes to crawl under the fence onto our land, was in and playing with Thelma and Louise. This went on until Rambo noticed and came to check it out and the little thing legged it; can't blame her really. We had to do Thelma's eye drop first thing and she coped with it rather well. Louise was more distressed I think. It was a cloudy day but still really warm and the sun was attempting to break through during the morning. I was stuck into my work and making some excellent progress when all of that came to a screeching halt.

We had ordered the kitchen tiles last week (as regular readers will know) and arranged for them to be delivered. I received a phone call from a lady speaking very fast Bulgarian that I guessed was about the tiles but could not work out what she was trying to tell me. Here, Lyubo came to the rescue (not for the first time) and rang the lady to find out what was going on. It turned out our tiles were in town and she wanted to know if we wanted them delivered. I thought this had already been arranged but never mind, I asked Lyubo to say "yes" and left it at that. A while later I had a call from him saying that the tiles had left the shop and would be with us in about 15 minutes, and for me to go to the centre of the village to wait and show the way. Ten minutes later I was stood out there waiting and there I stood for the next hour or so. No sign of the tiles, though another van arrived with my plywood order which I dealt with while A took my place in the village. I returned to my spot and then the phone went again and it was Lyubo saying the driver had gotten lost and was at a town about twenty minutes towards the Greek border, but for me to wait as he'd be there soon. I waited another forty minutes and then gave up, going inside for a drink. Of course just as I sat down with a glass of water I heard a car coming along and then the phone went and it was Lyubo, who had driven out from his office to find this truck and guide it to me. What a friend!

Finally the tiles arrived

Hefting a packet of tiles

The tiles for the cooking area in the kitchen

And those for the rest, including dining area and nook

Thelma's eye is fine when she's playing with a stick

Some more of Angela's babies

Anyway, I got the van reversed up onto the driveway and we put a pallet down to start the unloading process. A went to help but after a little while she gave up as they were just so heavy and the delivery man had to break apart the packets so she could shift them. As it was I could barely manage one at a time on my shoulder and by the end my back was aching. (I've just been to weigh them and one packet was 32.3kg and there were fifty five packets!) Anyway, here the tiles are and we've been able to stack them so Thomas can still fit in the garage which is excellent. They also look even better in bulk than they did individually when we were at the shop so I'm really buzzing about them getting laid - it's going to looking amazing. While I was unloading A was playing with the puppies and exclaiming with delight as the bulbs she planted against the wall are starting to come through.

A begins her making task

She is watched closely as she works

Carrying the completed frame into the chicken house

A roosting perch of awesomeness

Sassy says hello again

Moon out in the day

Clouds came in later on

Ducks having a swim

After this exertion I was straight back to my desk and onto a tele-conference that had been delayed by the delivery and after that I went outside for some fresh air. It was as I was outside that the first real headache attacked and since then I've not really shaken it. I went into bed for a bit to rest but that didn't help so I got some headache pills, pulled the mattress onto the balcony, and rested out there. It helped a bit but not much. I did some more work and then stopped at 5 and rested. I was in bed by 8pm! While I was on the balcony A was working away on the driveway below to make a perch system for the chickens. She gathered some rough wood left over from the old roof and made it into a framework which she has put inside the chicken house. I don't know if the chickens are using it but I think they will; they certainly like to roost on the opened window frames. Sassy came out to say hello to me while I was resting and the moon was also showing, in a clear blue sky at that point. The clouds did come in towards the end of the day though, to give another beautiful sky display.

Thursday

I've no pictures for today but it's late enough that I'll do a quick update to avoid having to write about it on Sunday.

View from Room 13 window right now

I slept pretty well until about 10pm and woke up with my headache back and worse than before. I took some more tablets and got back to sleep but then was quite disturbed so headed into the spare room for the remainder of the night. I woke with the headache still present and as I type this my legs are still wobbly and I'm going to head to bed once I've published. I've worked most of the morning, though, so I only have a bit to make up tomorrow. A has been out shopping, collected my new band saw from the shop and picked up plaster for Sassy's room, as well as all the shopping for the week. Thelma's eye is a lot better today again and she is outside playing while Louise runs around with her. The weather today is pretty nasty; a cold breeze and very low overcast (actually just taken one picture for this to capture today) and I don't expect it to improve at all. SandS are coming over in a bit so I'm going to rest before they get here. I'll update after this point on Sunday.

Thanks for reading, y'all...