More digging to get ready for tomorrow

I have just got back from a lovely meal with my parents at their hotel and am going to keep this update as short as I possibly can; I am exhausted from my efforts today and have an early start tomorrow picking up Bekir and Sally to come and work on getting me hot water in. More on that later.

First of all, an amusing tale which took place just after I finished the blog last night. I went out of Room 13 and decided to not lock it for once, went outside and locked the front door and then realised that, as I hang the house keys on the lock for Room 13 so I don't forget them.... you guessed it... I had forgotten them. No worries though as I just jumped back in through a window and grabbed them. It does bring it home just how insecure the place is really and I will have to think about getting the window man out soon to at least put some glass in all the downstairs windows.

Sassy having a morning drink

Anyway, I slept really well apart from waking up in the night when a dog ran across my land barking all the way. He kept stopping and barking, and then running and barking and eventually he disappeared and I was able to get back to sleep. I woke in the morning thinking it was overcast and cloudy but it was just really early and the sun hadn't yet come up; a few minutes later and I could see the first rays brightening on the wall of Julian.

My plans for today were to get Thomas down into the garage for the bit of welding and new "tampons" in the front suspension, meet my friend and potter and then she was taking my mum shopping in the main town while my dad and I spent time at the school doing bits and pieces.

Slightly out of focus, but I  love this pic

First of all I had to feed Sassy who has really started to settle in and was rattling and banging for her food as I came upstairs. As requested by various people I have taken more pictures of her; as S commented when he met her "it is like meeting a superstar" and I am fully aware that she is the true celebrity on this blog and I am merely her scribe.

Fire is great

It was too early for me to set off to the garage so I spent an hour or so wasting time on the internet (I need to pay attention so I don't just sit here all the time now I am connected) and then I went out and stirred the fir drum again. After a little while, and with a few strong blown breaths into it, I spotted a glowing and then a judiciously placed sheet of paper caught and within a few minutes I had a raging inferno shooting out of the top of the barrel. I have now managed to relight this every day and not used a single other match or firelighter in the process.

Fire sculpture 1

Fire sculpture 2

I stood next to the fire for about half an hour, feeding it and admiring the amazing shapes and the energy and mystery of the fire as it shot sometimes far higher than my head. These two pictures are two of the best which show the images you can see in flames when you look in the correct way. What can you see in these flame-sculptures?

The smoking missile

I was throwing handfuls of stuff into the fire at a time, not really checking what was in each, and at one point as I was watching there was a bang, crack and this flew up at an angle, hit the barrel and shot out the opposite way, coming to a rest about 2 metres from the fire and smoking! It was one of the little bottles of powder that we had been emptying into the fire the previous year, but this one obviously hadn't been emptied and had still had its lid on. It is a good thing I wasn't standing in the way when it erupted.

Stupid dog with very soft hair

I was not totally sure how long it would take to get to the garage as I was taking a bit of a different route, hopefully shorter, today. I jumped in Thomas and set off and, after about 15 minutes, I arrived. Really early. Half an hour early. I had prepared for this eventuality however as I had brought my kindle so I settled myself on a curb and read in the sun; it was very peaceful and this lovely dog with really soft hair came and made friends with me. He kept coming back and saying hello every now and then so I think I have made another friend there.

After about half an hour the owners arrived and they brought me a chair and a coffee, which was really tasty, and I sat there chilling for another half hour or so until my friend arrived. It was a lovely relaxing way to spend an hour and I think this garage is the only one I have been to that seems to have its own chickens! They were too far away to get a good picture, sadly.

The plan, as I have said, was to leave Thomas to get fixed and stay in town until he was done, then go pick the parents up and my friend go shopping with my mum in the afternoon. It was clear, however, as I watched the garage people not start working on Thomas that they did not have the part and this was confirmed when my friend asked and they were told it wouldn't arrive until about 10.30. We still had a chore to do (pay for the installation and line rental for our internet) so we went over to that office and paid it then decided to change things up a bit. My friend would drive and collect my parents, drop me and my dad at home and then they would go on to the shops.

My tools for lifting the paving slabs

This was accomplished, after a short visit to the hotel to see the suite, and we had a cuppa at home before the ladies left us men for a while. I got my pick axe and shovel out and continued on the trench where I had left it, as it turned towards the paving stones. My aim was to follow it under the stones and hopefully it would turn hard left again as it got need the slab and that would mean I had finished the job ready for the men the day after.

Dad picking up broken glass

While I was doing this my dad set himself to continuing the glass pick and he worked really hard and probably too long at this; I kept telling him he'd done enough but he wouldn't listen. Having said that he did a sterling job and every piece of glass picked up now is one fewer for me to have to do. I have so appreciated the help both my parents have been this week and we were just commenting on how it has helped me to settle much quicker, and I reckon it has really helped them to see where I am and understand just what I am attempting to do, in person.

This one was easy

I was meantime struggling with the paving slabs and working out a technique for extracting them from their place without them falling apart as I did so. I succeeded with some but not with others however by the time I got to the point where the pipe HAD to turn else it would be turning under the slab, I was getting quite good at it. This is a good thing as I discovered the the pipe did not turn and appeared to continue right down the front of the school. After a few curse words, and a little thought, I worked out that this pipe probably went on towards the toilet block and the one I should have been excavating was the other one, which was going towards the corner of the school.

I had a bit of a break and then went back to digging, this time following the other pipe. I do not have a picture (when I stopped I was too tired to even think about that and totally forgot) however I am about 1/3 of the way to the corner of the wall. This is frustrating as I really wanted to get this totally done before the men arrive tomorrow however if I can have assistance I am sure we can get it dug really quickly. I did briefly consider doing a bit more by torchlight but sense has prevailed and I kicked that idea into touch.

During this time the ladies had returned and eaten a bite of lunch and then we heard from the garage that Thomas was ready so, after I had 20 mins to get my breath back (I am terribly unfit) I set off towards the garage again in my friends car and collected him. The amount I had to pay was tiny and everything was apparently fine so I set off towards my friends house again to grab tools the men would need, and explain briefly to Bekir what was required.

After this I took the back route down to the new road and wow was that ever a bad road; at the bottom all the construction vehicles had used it as a parking lot so it was a mass of mud and ruts; I was glad to be in Thomas and he really ate it up. When I arrived home again my mother was on the glass pick (they are indefatigable and awesome) but I quickly persuaded them to stop and we jumped in Thomas and went to their hotel where I had a shower (wow that was lovely; I scrubbed myself all shiny and clean) and then we went down for dinner together.

Lovely beer and great glass

I had a bottle of my favourite beer and it came with a lovely glass; I asked the waiter if I could buy the glass and he said no, which was a shame; I would gladly have bribed him for it too! Oh well, I still need to go and buy myself some pint glasses as those tiny ones are no good for beer.

Really tasty green salad

Dinner was lovely and particularly the salad which was a much lighter one than the Shopska but very very tasty and particularly good with vinegar over it; I have never put vinegar on my salad before but here you do and I can recommend it. The rest of the meal was just as good, with calves liver and some crab in pastry (gorgeous) and followed by a mushroom omelette which was excellent.

And so I am back here and rushing to finish this so I can go to bed; I am collecting the men at 8am tomorrow so will not be staying up at all after I hit "publish" on this blog. Tomorrow is a big day with hopefully hot water arriving so there'll be lots to blog about tomorrow. I have to decide whether I am getting a boiler to install, or whether I'll get an electric shower unit; I will sleep on this and decide in the shop with Bekir.

Night.

EDIT.....

As I hit publish on this I heard a clonk and thought something had flown into the window outside. I was nearly correct. A bat had flown into the room and was flying about at great speed. I tried to get some pictures but it was too fast so I took this video on my phone; it is not very clear at all however I wanted to record it for posterity. What excitement!