Am I finally starting to feel stress?

For the most part, as I build up towards this massive change in my life, I've not really been feeling that concerned.

Stressssss

Mainly this is because I have been really super organised about everything, far more so than I normally am about anything in my life, and so the concerns and fears around "will I be prepared" really have not been relevant nor have they appeared in my head very much (other than those moments in the wee hours of the morning).

Lots of people ask me "aren't you stressed" or "wow you must feel really nervous" and I have to answer in the negative to all these questions as truly I haven't been feeling that at all.

I am sleepy

Today, however, I wonder whether it is finally sinking into my thick skull that yes, something really major is about to occur in my life and maybe it is time for me to react to this. My main reason for thinking about this is I have had a lovely family meal today (blog to follow another day) and have come back to my parents and basically passed out with exhaustion. There is no physical reason for me to be so tired so I am wondering if I am starting to build up that "stress" that everyone has been banging on about for so long.

Looking back over the last couple of weeks I can maybe recognise some other indications; I had a tremendous migraine which flattened me for 36 hours solid (though I do get these) and I also went to bed at 8pm a couple of nights last week and slept right through.

To be honest I'm not too worried about this as I think it would be unusual to not feel any pressure or stress at all about something as dramatic as this. I just find it interesting to try and note down and observe what may be happening.

Three weeks to go and finally it is sinking in.

pahahahaha

This is really happening.

My scribblings on the plans.....

I am continuing to fulfill my tasks for the architect, even though I am not sure how much is being done at the other end.

She requested that I send her over my thoughts for how things should be (as you will have seen in a blog post a week ago) and I have finished doing my sketches and marking my scribblings onto her excellently produced plans. These were emailed this morning (a nice 15MB email; isn't it funny that for email you STILL worry about the size of files, but no where else...)

So, you lucky people, I am going to record here my thinkings and let you see and comment on my plans. Many people have asked me questions and hopefully this will provide more information than the probably lacking answers I gave previously.

So, without any further poncing around....

Scribblings on the Ground Floor

Scribblings on the First Floor

These have been posted before but they were a dodgy photograph of them and now I have nicely scanned in all my sketches so here they are again. This is the "what are you going to DO with all that room?" plan, and also a summarisation of the changes which I want to make and which I have detailed in the following drawings. One big thing is the layout of the guest suite, with thanks to my friend for her advice, where I am putting a shower and toilet (humanure, obviously) in a small room between the two larger bedrooms.

Bedroom access to the balcony

I want to change this window into a door with a window above and next to it.

Interior window into Bedroom

To ensure plenty of light gets into the top corridor, and so that I can put my sofa at the end of said corridor on the landing and see right through to the balcony, I want to fill in the current gap not fully, but with an internal window. I can then draw the curtains should I have guests, and open the windows in the summer for a full draft through.

Access to bottom corridor

This door is really really narrow. The bottom corridor is dark and dinghy. To fix this I want to widen the doorway and make it into an arch, with a display shelf knocked to the side; this will bring the entrance hall and back corridor into one space and improve the light and movement of air. It is hard to explain so hopefully this diagram helps?

End of Living Room wall

Lastly for my awful sketches, I want to have windows and a door in this wall. This sketch is not accurate, though, and I will have to redo it. The door will not reach to the top of the windows (See the door in the Bedroom with windows) so I will probably bring the windows in on each side to butt up against the door, and have a pane across the top. Plenty of light. I will be putting wooden shutters on the outside so I can lock it down for winter, and leave just the door un-shuttered for access to clean snow off the balcony.

Water plan - ground floor

Water plan - first floor

One thing which I wanted to make really clear to the Architect was the simplicity of my water requirements. I want one spur running down the front of the building, feeding the upstairs bathroom and then carrying on along that wall and past the kitchen to my wet rooms. The rest of the building does not need access to water. Hopefully this will make things easier for my build, and for her water planning survey thing.

Warmed zone - ground floor

Warmed zone - first floor

Finally for those who have asked me (very sensibly) about heating and staying warm, the red-hashed areas are the only ones which i foresee as being "warmed". As I want to use a Rocket Mass Stove and this will be an interesting experiment regarding heating a back boiler and radiators, I don't know at this stage how successful this will be. I may end up with a Rocket Mass Stove in both Kitchen and Living Room and then pipes taking the heat into the associated spaces but this will be something I will work out when I get there. Fortunately I don't think I need to provide this detail to get the permission to build so yeah, just my thoughts and imaginings about this right now.

So there you are, lots of diagrams and drawings and hopefully you have a slightly better insight into what I am planning on achieving with this amazing building.

A quick update; tomorrow (today as you are reading this) I have the camper van man coming to look at removing the fridge, and sorting all the electrics in Julian. Very excited about this, it'll be nice to have a fully operational camper van and hopefully it can be done before my next camping trip; the tweet up on November 23rd.

Software and Books to learn the language

A few days ago I wrote a blog about how I was learning the language, mainly with help from my friend called Boris, but also I hinted that I was using some software for this.

As I ran out of room in that update I am putting this short collection together with the software and pulp based books I have used or had recommended to me, along with a brief summary of how useful they are. I hope you find this helpful and if you know of any which I have forgotten please add them to the bottom with the comment form.

Two screens from BYKI Bulgarian

The first suggestion I would like to make (and actually this goes for anyone learning any language, not just Bulgarian) is check out http://www.byki.com/. They have a free offering you can download from that website which allows you to select one language which you want to learn. Alternatively you can pay for the full service which includes LOADS of languages. I am currently using the free version and in my opinion this software is the best I have come across. The best thing is their concept of learning is the same as mine; you want to learn words and phrases and then how you plug it together follows. It has an easy to use interface, and doesn't only focus on the listening and speaking, but also expects you to learn how to spell the phrases back in Bulgarian. I'm not being as disciplined as I should be however I think you could spend ten-fifteen minutes a day on this and make very swift progress.

The Lonely Planet two way phrasebook

Next are a couple of phrasebooks which I have and have found to be useful. The first is the Lonely Planet Bulgarian Phrasebook. This has a two way phrasebook so if you are in a restaurant and there is only a Bulgarian menu you can (with some guesswork) find the word and translate it into English. This is more useful than you might think.

One Way phrasebook

The first phrasebook we bought was the English to Bulgarian Phrasebook. This is not just a dictionary and phrasebook, however, as it contains pages of explanatory text and cultural information. On our first visit I can remember sitting in the restaurant trying to work out how to order food (without the two way phrasebook) and then sitting and reading this book while waiting for whatever it was we had ordered to arrive.

Finally is this DVD which battsby has recommended to me; I have not yet used it but he tells me it is full of useful phrases, mp3 files which you can listen to via your phone on the go, and various other helpful things. I will give this a go at some point and report back.

I do have another piece of software which was given as a birthday gift which we used for a little while; I cannot remember the name of it (my fault) and can't find the install disks either at the moment. I will update this page if and when I do. From what I remember of using it we found that the pronunciation was a bit off and confused us slightly from what Bulgarians actually say to you in person. I think this could be the case with a lot of these online systems and ultimately you have to live immersed in a language to really get fluent with your local dialect.

Yeah, that's me

There is also a free website which I was a member of for a while which seems to have shut down recently. This was quite good, but not as good as Byki. Again I've forgotten the name of it.

Why am I doing it at all, and why Bulgaria?

Another question I get asked a lot is "why do you want to leave the country?" and "why Bulgaria?" which I suppose is pretty understandable. Most people would not consider leaving the country, or if they did would be able to persuade themselves to not go because of all the things which could go wrong, or some imaginary ties they have with people or places here.

This makes anyone who has taken the opportunity to leave appear either crazy or lucky to these less adventurous people.

So, first of all, what has prompted me to decide that I want to leave the country?

Here you should imagine me looking at you as if YOU are mad as I really cannot understand why anyone would want to stay! I should warn you that he be politics and angriness.

The cost of living over here is disgusting, increased by punitive taxes which target those who go out and try and make something for themselves to punish success and restrict and control us.

The friendly British Bobby on the beat

On top of the taxes the state is inserting itself further into a position of total hegemony over every individual and all the choices they may take. For one example I no longer have any power to allow or deny a customer from smoking in my studio. The state has abrogated this to themselves. All of this offends me but the state would consider my offense a crime if I were to act upon it however, if I were to say anything to offend certain minorities (or even to cause someone to THINK that I may cause offense by my words) then that offense is now a criminal matter.

How much more broken can a country get?

English weather

On top of that is the weather. It sucks.

There are many more reasons around wanting a new challenge, being excited about learning some new skills and wanting to become self sufficient and therefore remove myself from a daily grind of being stuck in offices, but I won't bore you with this any more.

Why Bulgaria, then? It is cheap to buy a property (I was looking at houses about £5000 until I found and fell in love with the School) which means the risk in buying out there (if that were a worry to me) is massively reduced. The cost of living over there is pretty low still (so long as the Euro keeps away) and people in the villages where I am going still live a life very close to the soil; this means that when I move I will be able to learn from them, rather than just relying on books for my training. Bulgaria has a flat rate tax system which I think is the fairest form of tax. The people there are lovely; very welcoming and always happy to share what they have with you. Finally, the weather is real weather with a very cold winter with snow, and the rest of the time nice and hot.

Happy sun

What's not to love?

So there you are. I will not be introducing politics to this blog very regularly but I could not avoid it with this one.

Money - how do I plan to earn?

Probably the second most common question I get asked (after querying my ability to speak the language) is "How will you earn money out there" or "How will you support yourself then?"...

These are stotinki coins, up to a lev

Some people ask this just out of interest and some ask it because they are contemplating checking out of this rat race and going to their own little retreat and hope that I may be able to divulge some incredible ideas which will enable their plans.

I'll answer the question but my answer is very personal to myself and I don't really have any excellent business idea to sustain myself which is easy to apply to other people; this answer is very much making use of my skills and the luck I have had to end up in the industry I work in.

So, how do I envisage supporting myself financially when I get to Bulgaria.

These are lev notes

First and foremost for the last seven years I have been funding and building up a business in England, which is a recording studio based in the centre of Blackpool. This has taken some time get going but in the last couple of years has really started to become a mature profitable enterprise. When I leave I will retain my stake and will become a silent partner and this will pay me a certain amount every month as a profit share. This amount I see as being my bread and butter money, paying my regular bills such as food, electricity, water and rates. Should the business do better than expected I may even be able to save something every month.

Secondly I am a software developer and so am hoping to be able to get some small contracts from a few friends and old companies I have done work for previously. I only want to really work a day or two a week total and this will build my building fund over the summer, and replenish my savings. Depending on who I tap up for work I could be earning as much in a day as the studio will pay me every month.

Next I am currently saving like a lunatic (though not as fast as I want to be, but that's the same old story) and I hope to be taking enough in savings to pay for the whole renovation, and possibly to live off for the first two years. Ideally I will not be touching my savings for living, as the studio income and development contracts will be enough.

Scrooge

Lastly, and hopefully it won't come to this but at least I have the option, if I do not get a remote contract while I am over in Bulgaria I am considering whether I may have to come back the first winter for 3-6 months to earn at UK rates and save as much of it as possible. This is, as I say, is by no means my ideal plan however one must be flexible to succeed.

I have absolutely no plans whatsoever to run any business at all over in Bulgaria, apart from my development work. One of the reasons for going is to extract myself from that kind of life so it would not make sense to move all that way only to return to that for my income. Others I know do make successful business over there, particularly if you are a handy man then if you go to nearer the large collections of ex-pats you will be able to earn as English like to pay English to do their work. Another friend is planning on doing some art holidays and finally there is the option (which many have said "oh why don't you do this") is to have a guest house or B and B.

Frankly everyone is different and only you can decide what the most efficient way to survive fits your needs and desires.

This is how I am planning, and is particular to my situation.

Learning the Lingo

Learning Bulgarian with Boris

A question which I get asked a LOT is "how are you doing with the language?" or "can you SPEAK Bulgarian?" or "isn't the language really difficult?". To these people I have promised a blog and so this one is for you.

When you are emigrating to a country where English is not widely spoken then the language is one of the first things that you will start to think about. Being able to communicate with your neighbours is vital and will mean that you can integrate much quicker. It is also really helpful if you can make yourself understood when in bars, restaurants or shops.

The Bulgarian Alphabet

This challenge is made greater when the language you need to learn is based on a different alphabet; you find yourself not just trying to remember words, but also not able to just pick up a dictionary and read a word as you have to memorise the pronunciation of unusual letters.

But what is life without a challenge, hey.

As in many parts of this whole process I was lucky in that around the time that I decided to move to Bulgaria, I was in a position to influence the hiring in of a Bulgarian developer to the company I worked at. Boris since then has proven his weight in gold (it is he who has been my main nagging weapon with the architect has he has willingly phoned her a few times, and also he who rang the Kmet about the house in the woods) and he has been teaching me Bulgarian.

The first words

I can clearly remember the first lesson where I took my notebook (front page pictured above) and the list of words which myself and my girlfriend had come up with, and attempted to pronounce "zdraste" which means "hello".

Our strategy was to pick up words which would be useful, and not worry too much about language structure and grammar at this stage. We spent all week working out what words to add for the next week and then took Boris out for dinner over which we proved what had learned the previous week, while adding new words for the next.

I really struggle with languages and found that I was only able to really pick up one or two new words a day, and sometimes not even that. Many times J managed to learn every word for the week in the first day, and then spent the rest of the time patiently trying to hammer those same words into my thick skull.

This process has slowed down since I changed jobs and don't see Boris every day, and pretty much stalled completely as things finished between me and J. In the last few days I've started taking the notepad into work and getting colleagues to assist me in breaks at work. Scottish Mike takes particular pleasure in requesting that I repeat the words with the correct angry accent (which is amusing as I've always found the language sounds soft and lyrical when locals talk).

There have been any number of examples of how useful it has been to know even the few words that have stuck; the pleasure of being able to say "studeno" (cold) when given a warm beer, and then have the warm beer removed and one with ice on it passed over is amazing. We were also able to walk into a village and communicate with a villager that we were looking for the house ("kushte") for sale ("prodava li se") and it was a flash of amazing inspiration when I understood as he said "ahhh eto tam" which means "over there" and follow him.

This blog is plenty long enough now so I will leave it here. I will do another blog covering specifically software and books which I have found useful, bought, or had recommended to me.