Final week, then back to blighty

Hey, hasn't it been a while since I updated this. The lack of update has been caused by just having no time at all, what with legging it back to the UK on short notice.

It's early Monday morning now and we're getting Bekir and the boys back today hopefully for at most a week to finish off the final tasks of the year, so I figured I'd better clear this update out the way before more stuff happens.

Moving the big work bench

Production line of wood to be stained

Sun trying to break through

Wahoo Sally is back!

Bekir measuring and working out the humanure work

More tiling happening

Two weeks ago began with moving the big workbench in the workshop out of the way so Mesut could finish the tiling. It's a hefty lump and took four of us to shift. With that done the crew moved to their tasks, with Sally and Okhtay painting all the remaining wood with stain, while the sun tried to break through the fog but failed, and Bekir cleared the brush and worked out plans for the brick wall I am having made for the humanure collection point which, after three years, is falling apart and rotting. Mesut inside worked away as he does, steadily and efficiently.

This room is so badly in need of tidying

They are playing, honest

A martinitsa that was tied to the tea trees

Butterflies still flying around

Back up the scaffold

Grouting done

One of the tasks for the men before they leave is to move the wood store from where it is now, in the old tool room, and fit it up in the new workshop. This is for two reasons. Firstly I need to organise that room so next year the final fit electrics, dust extraction etc can be fitted but also now we have our new arrival on the way this messy room will be turned into a bedroom and play room and a door will be knocked through into the kitchen, right behind where the wood rack is. So it needs moved. I went in and did a bunch of shifting, but not much tidying, to make that extraction easier when it was reached. Outside Bekci and Rambo were having a play, they are getting on much better all the time now and we've even seen them playing together on the back bank on their own (and Rambo has taken her for his rounds of the perimeter which is just awesome). The sun had finally broken through and it was a glorious day, with butterflies fluttering around, while Bekir and Sally were up the scaffold fitting the soffits that had been stained in the morning. Mesut had finished the tiling and was grouting and cleaning where the work bench would be put back; this time it was being rotated 90 degrees and going underneath the window, a far more suitable position for it.

Where this bench will stay

Okhtay starts digging

Up the scaffold as we left

Still up the scaffold when we got back

On Tuesday we were not around much as we had to go to see the hospital and meet the doctor where A is going to give birth. We still had the men in working and before we headed off I helped shift the workbench into place. Mesut was carrying on the grouting in the rest of the room while Okhtay had the task of digging the foundations as we waited for a delivery of blocks and cement for the wall to be begun. We left Bekir and Sally working up the scaffold and when we got back after our visit, which went well and was easy though we did go to the wrong hospital first off and had to be directed down the road to the correct place, they were still up the scaffold but it had been moved to the last position. So close to completed.

Final stretch

Puppies so happy to have the fire

My wood storage rack is removed...

... and shifted through

Mesut's floor is clean, briefly

Wednesday was the final workday for the men, and going to be a short day as well. Bekir and Sally finished the final few bits up the scaffold and then very quickly completed on the roof terrace and that is that task complete. This autumn has actually been quite warm however we're slowly getting to the fire time of year and the puppies are very pleased about this; they love their fire. With the soffits done, and the scaffold stacked neatly waiting collection from the truck bring the blocks and cement, Bekir and Sally went into the tool room and I helped them clear away the wood from the racking before they took it down and shifted it into the workshop. I then struggled for a bit with whether I wanted that racking to be put back up (I was feeling like it wasn't all the well made and maybe a proper construction would be better) and so I thought about it while they paused for lunch. Mesut was cleaning away after finishing the grouting; he laughed to see the dirt being tracked in on his nice clean floor.

Bekir fixing up the damaged door

Wood storage being fitted

Trimming the bottom to fit over the tile edging

We are THIS happy about the pahlenka

Bekir had spotted that the Green Building door was looking very battered - it had been blown off its hinges by wind and that damaged the surround so it was falling apart. He jumped on to fixing this up over lunch and now the building is secure again, which is good. I decided after talking with A to go ahead using the old racking and with that decision made Bekri and Sally spent the rest of the day trimming and fitting up to make sure it would be as solid and much better than before. They got the first upright in place and it is certainly secure and solid. I took the men home at about 4pm and then headed off to town for the scan that we had booked, which was awesome and we even got videos of bubba, and then we headed up the hill to have pahlenka and other lovely food as a celebration meal. It was just a perfect way to end the day. We chilled out, didn't rush, took our time and headed home full of good food and happy.

On the bus and cramped

Raining as I leave

Mum enjoying her chinese takeaway

Fish and chips to finish the week

My absolutely wonderful Nana

And so Thursday came and I was on the bus to Sofia and then on a plane to Birmingham for my trip back to go see my Nana, who has suddenly become very unwell. The journey there was cramped and uncomfortable and I was very pleased to reach my parents' house and get some sleep. The week went very well, as well as could be expected, with loads of visits to see my Nana, and also getting to see some family I don't see very often. We had chinese takeaway, and I teased A with a picture of my mum enjoying it, and then later on we had fish and chips and another tease picture had to be taken. The final day was pretty tough as I was saying goodbye to my Nana; she is comfortable and not in pain and surrounded by family however I will miss her.

I am welcomed home by Louise

A beautiful and dramatic morning

Thelma stretching in front of the fire

Such a glorious view

Probably the nicest steak I've eaten in Bulgaria

I stopped in Sofia in a hotel, having landed late at night, and got the bus back and was welcomed very happily by the puppies; they missed me and so did A. I was pretty tired from the week and am only now just starting to recover actually. The sun came out for my return, it having rained continually while I was away, but it was still cold and the puppies were loving the fire as always. I've just had to light it now actually, and it's raining once more, which isn't what we wanted with that wall to be built outside. Oh well. Last night I went out with a friend for food and a few beers to celebrate bubba, something that I do not do very much, and it was a lovely evening. Bless her we couldn't find any taxis at all so A came out to chauffeur. What a star.

So there you have it. A is heading back with Bekir and Sally, but only those two, and hopefully this week the final tasks can be completed before we pack up for winter. Thanks for reading.

Blasting through to up to date

I've woken early on this Saturday, after an early night last night, determined to catch this blog up to date even though this covers a huge amount of stuff. I'll just sweep past things, zoom through, and hopefully it won't be too long but even if it is at least I'll be up to date.

The very size of the task of catching up was what was preventing me from starting; not a very sensible thing to do as this just made the backlog bigger and bigger and bigger.. So. Onwards.

A wonderful visit from the parents.

That was the title of the blog I was going to write dedicated to this awesome visit but let's compress it into a paragraph or two. It's now mid September. This goes back two and a half months to early July.

Parents in the pool with their hats

Sparking up a rare BBQ

Our new place in the mountains

Moving a rock from the lane

The weather was warm enough to get the pool filled before they arrived (and you already know that we had Bekir come out and fit the new gazebo to the balcony so we could use it again this year) however the weather ended up being not that great, either raining a lot or when it wasn't raining, being too windy, and so outside didn't occur as much as normal. They were pretty tired, however, and the rest was welcome. I did go out and purchase the new place in the mountains (another thing giving impetus to this update. Stuff is about to start happening again regularly) and took them up there a few times. We also made it up to the lake at the top of our hill, where Rambo had a swim, Thelma found a stick and Louise had a Mad Half Hour. Great fun.

Not really "sitting out" weather

Afternoon sun and playing puppies

A sunset and a bird

A large wasps nest

As I've said we had some weather, this year has certainly been unusually wet, though at least it wasn't the miserable grey of last winter; there have been some lovely moments also. One thing that was worth noting was watching some wasps take apart a dragon fly carcass on the balcony; it was almost entirely gone before very long. We got some lovely photographs of the sunset from the roof terrace one evening, and marveled at the wasps nest under the overhang around the edge. Of course we don't mind wasps normally however later in the summer this particular colony attacked both Thelma and Louise (who were not bothering it at all - just walking past) so I've had to remove it sadly. This is before that, though, and Louise serenaded the village with a lovely song.

The 'rents up the top of the tower

Looking down over the new excavations

Dinner at the Water Wheel

Dinner at Elite

Dad's birthday Kebab

Lunch at the lake (I was really REALLY hungry!)

A monster pizza each

Final meal before they left

We got up to Perperikon, though A wasn't feeling that well so it was just me and my parents. We had a brief shower while they were climbing the tower (I stayed down with Thelma who still doesn't like heights) and on the way we were dragged into the new excavation area by one of the archaeologists who proceeded to talk very fast at me in Bulgarian about what he was discovering. What a wonderful country this is! Other than that I have a large number of photographs of us eating meals at various restaurants, including my dad getting his traditional Birthday Kebab.

Mum sat on some awesome chairs at the beginning of the walk

Heading off up the hill

It was very steep in places

The stream was lovely, full of life

Some damaged trees; wind, a lightning strike?

Looking across at some of the crags

We finally reach where most of the fossilised trees are

Not sure who spray painted it

A very still pool

This Dragonfly settled just long enough for a picture

Two butterflies dancing above the water

Some of petrified trees on display

More notches in the cliffs

There was a lot of scrambling to do

I was far hotter and sweatier than I look

With the way the weather was my parents got some games in on our pool table (which has since reverted to a storage system, sadly) and we had a round robin tournament which I think my Dad won, or maybe A? Later on my mum was very proud to have beaten my dad, a very notable achievement considering how sore her shoulder was. We did get the chance to go out together for a walk (they went on a few that we didn't join them on) to the Petrified Forest; it took a bit of hiking and was actually quite hard work but it was very worth it indeed. I can't wait to get back there with A and show her. The puppies also loved it, Thelma even had a swim! Of course I was not able to limit the number of pictures as much as I should but it really was an amazing place.

So there you have it; longer (of course) than "two paragraphs". Who is shocked. Not me? It was a great visit as it always is and I'm already looking forward to next year (while hoping the weather is more suitable for July).

Onwards.

ArdaCon

We had a little while in between the visit of my parents and us heading back to the UK for the weekend of gaming that is ArdaCon.

Finally a morning nice enough for breakfast on the balcony

It was actually starting to be a bit warm

Arty morning shot

Up above the new place

Inside the new place

Ironically enough the sun came ot and we were able to spend some time on the balcony and even get a morning brew routine going (which we have continued as much as we can ever since, though now it's cooling down towards Autumn and we've missed a couple of mornings recently). We also took a quick walk up the hill behind the new house and it is lovely indeed, though the building is going to have to come down. We had a lovely pair of couples come and look after the house for us, parents of one of the guys in the SBG community, and after welcoming them and showing them around a bit we were off for the crazy busyness that is three days of solid play.

In the bar before the carnage begins

The 51 point batrep begins

Friday Breakfast

Flags in the hall

Beard brothers

Much excitement for the new boxset

Chaos in Arda kicks the weekend off

A room full of nerds having fun

Me and my awesome doubles partner

James and Tom on stage

We drove up to the airport, parked successfully, and flew over without any real dramas. I did my usual rush through the airport, trailing A (sorry love) and then we were at the hotel, greeting our friends and settling in. I ran a comedy competition on the Thursday night which involved far more than I expected turning up with a tiny warband each to play against whoever was free. The prize was a lovely picture painted by A of Gollum and was won by one of my favourite people at ArdaCon who brought the most crazy list. I almost went unbeaten throughout, which was a surprise and that didn't continue for the rest of the weekend. The hall was looking amazing, with the many flags showing just how international this event is, and pretty soon it was time to let the masses in. I helped out throughout the weekend, my first role acting as bouncing with The Viking as Forgeworld was pre-releasing some awesome toys and we didn't want a rush. The first day went very smoothly indeed, and I even managed to win one of my doubles games. A was having a great time also; the community is amazing and they are the most welcoming and awesome people you can imagine.

Breakfast with Evan - tradition is good

An Easterling-off (and I bought some of my models from Mel)

Thelma, Louise and Rambo in miniature form

A during one of her games; not just blokes playing

This game ended up being closer than I thought it would be

The Uruk was certain I had a Dwarvish beard

A large group for steak dinner

Worked up an appetite

A whisky with Devan

Empty reception area; until next year

I have many many pictures but I'll not show too many here, of the actual weekend. Suffice to say both A and I had a wonderful time, ate some superb breakfast, played some memorable games, met some wonderful people and just all in all had an epic time. It was also a crazy busy weekend; I helped the scoring between matches to speed the transition so didn't get much time to mingle but I did get threatened by a friendly Uruk-hai several times. At the end of it all we went for steak at the super place downstairs and then afterwards I shared a whisky with Devan from America. It was a sad thing that it all ended however now we begin planning for next year.

Thelma parked herself on my lap immediately

A meal to say goodbye, and thanks

Bekci

Rambo and Bekci get along OK

One of many sunrise pictures

We got back and drove back to the Old School and were greeted by our amazing house sitters who had strimmed and stacked wood and tidied and generally proven themselves to be wonderful people. They had also got very good use from the pool and enjoyed themselves immensely. The puppies were also very pleased to see us. We went out for dinner a couple of times before our guests had to go, one time not very successfully as the service was appalling which is unusual, and then they headed off and it was just me and A again. We did welcome a new member of the family as we picked up a Cane Corso puppy (now called Bekci - the "c" is soft like sh) who will be our guard dog as Rambo gets older. She has started to settle in very well and the initial struggle with the other dogs, particularly Thelma, is slowly getting better. The weather has also generally been improving, as I said about five thousand words ago. We have got to sit on the balcony most mornings (I'll be going outside shortly now as A is awake now) and one morning in particular we were treated to the most amazing performance by some starlings sat on the Old Pear Tree. I've increased the volume as far as I could but you may need to turn your volume up still.

More guests

And so to the final section. What a long update and if you've got this far - thank you!

Out for dinner again

A misty start to one of the days

Bottle kill in the gloaming

Coffee and Louise for breakfast

Nice enough for a BBQ

Getting a quick game in

We finally got to eat our two cockerels

Louise helping us with our game

Rambo with ear decorations

Two of our friends from the UK wanted to have a working holiday, just a change of scenery, and we were very happy to welcome them over. They stayed for a week, didn't intrude in any way, and were just the perfect guests. We even managed to BBQ and set the sides on the gazebo one evening, sitting out into the gloaming and managing to achieve a bottle kill in the process. We played a fun game of SBG, ate food, went up to the new place and generally had a relaxing time. This is a nice short section because it really was just relaxing. With Bekci there's a new routine with me getting up normally to let her out for a wee then A feeding her breakfast. I've enjoyed those mornings, and got to laugh at Rambo with seeds on his ears and other amusing things. 

The week with our friends finished too quickly and I took them back to the airport and we stopped on the way for food at the Italian we had discovered with my parents a few years back.

But wait.. there's... MORE?

Sorry, I lied. This is actually the final section.

I always appreciate a palindrome

It is always lovely on the cheren put

Preparing kindling

Bekir back to work

The cause of our electrical problems

Fixing the tiles I broke

This building must come down

It is deteriorating fast

Bekir purchasing a pigeon

Before our guests arrived we had a brief power outage with a circuit breaker going which we thought was a brief blip but then while I was taking our guests the power went again and we could not recover it so a call was put in to Bekir who reacted and was able to come straight out the next day. I collected him, went past the shop, and got back to find A breaking firewood - it's that time of year again. Bekir stripped the offending switch off the wall and we found it was quite a large problem - it's a good thing this didn't cause a fire! While he was here he also fixed the balcony wall and wood store roof that I had damaged a few months back. I did some tidying in the tool room while the power was off. In the afternoon I went up to the Mountain house and showed it to Bekir who is going to put together a team to demolish this house and the one next door (which I am currently buying as well) so they don't fall down and damage the remaining good materials. It was lovely to be up there again. The neighbour was around and Bekir even bought a pigeon off him!

Lots of cuddles

I will leave you with this, the 80th photograph (!!!!!!!!) of this update, taken yesterday as we sat in the shade outside the kitchen door. Bekci is growing fast and is super friendly too.

Thank you for reading; at least I've caught up to date now!