Back in Bulgaria

What a 36 hours this has been.

Mmmm whisky

I am sat in Bulgaria right now sipping a Bunnahabhain and feeling like I may pass out at any moment. Last night I attended a tweet up in Bethnal Green with a bunch of really interesting people, then went straight from there to Gatwick.

When I got to Gatwick at about midnight Departures was shut and so I had to try and get some sleep on a bench with arm rests splitting it into four sections. Suffice to say this did not happen and so when they opened Departures at about 2am I was there, about the 6th person through. I found a very comfortable bench and slept on it until 5am, when I bought a cappuccino, then the aforementioned bottle of Bunnahabhain, and then went straight through to my plane.When I say I slept on that bench, I dozed for about ten mins at a time, checking the time about that often, as my mobile phone battery was on its way out and I did not want to miss the flight.

On the plane I managed to get another hour or so, but without a neck cushion it was rather uncomfortable again. I jumped straight in my hire car (Savoy Rent really are excellent; even though I arrived an hour late they were waiting for me in arrivals and within five minutes of walking through the gate I was sat in my car and driving off) and got to my friends house down here by around 2.30pm local time.

Tired me

To say I was starting to hallucinate while driving is to indicate just how tired I was and after a short catch up (and a gift giving to say thanks to her for being so amazingly helpful) I got an hour or so shut eye before we went into town and bought (though I may have forgotten some stuff):

• A large gas cannister
• A 2 hob hot plate
• Some gas hose
• A gas regulator
• Some hooks and padlocks to secure more doors
• Some cups, spoons and knives
• Washing up liquid, scrubby things
• Tea bags and milk

Thus I am ready for Monday when I will be meeting Bekir and Sally for the first time and starting working finally on the school.

About that, there is some quite momentous news. My friend spent a very frustrating day last week at the electricity and water boards trying to arrange for the actual connections to be made so we can start work correctly next week. To cut a long story short the water is pretty much sorted; I actually do have a free spring on my land and will be putting a standpipe in first thing on Monday to this (with Bekir the master plumber doing the work) and also the mains (charged) supply will be connected either Monday or Tuesday.

Electricity is another matter, and has highlighted a potentially extremely serious situation.

They refused to agree to a temporary supply based on the fact that the Change of Use from Educational to Residential is, apparently, against the law. According to the head Kmet of the region (whom my friend had a short and sharp word with) the law changed in 2009 so they are not allowed any more to change use for old schools. The short word was "Well why the hell did you sell it to him then!?". Outcome being the Kmet has said "never mind the electricity board, I will run a cable to your school for this week" (we shall find out if this happened on Monday) and I think they are going to have to have a good long think about what they will let me do.

Frustration

I am going to see Veselka tomorrow so I will be asking very bluntly whether she is aware of this, and what the hell she is going to do about it. As far as I can see, if I don't need a change of use, I won't need architects plans or anything else to renovate the building. I may register it as a school, and my little flat will become a 'caretakers residence' for the purposes of insurance etc. This is something to research and something which I cannot do anything about until I have spoken to Veselka.

Talking of which, she has just changed our meeting from 2pm tomorrow to 12 midday so at least that'll happen sooner.

It is great to be back and I am really excited still, despite this uncertainty from the change in the law. I think I may get in touch with Georgi Stankov of "Bulgarian Properties for Sale" as well (the agent who sold me the school) to see what he knows about this and what advice he may have.