And so the weather changed again

Another red letter day and another very late start to typing my blog. The update yesterday didn't end up being as short as I expected as I typed really fast however I am going to keep this one down; I'm tired and want to relax. Anyway, the beginning to the next sentence was planned in my head in the early hours of the morning.....

.... twas a dark and stormy night and wasn't it just. As I went to bed the flickers I had seen in the distance when I popped out to get my torch had become accompanied by distant rumbles and it started raining about 10 seconds before I stepped out of the door, occasioning me to adorn my head with my rain hat for the first time for a while. As I lay in Julian listening and counting the time-gaps went from about 24 seconds down to 14 and then 11 and then 4, while Rambo howled and barked until the rain got too heavy for him to stand outside like a stupid dog and he finally took cover and shut up. I attempted to sleep but the thunder was so loud it was actually shaking Julian and once, when I did drop off, I was awakened with a start when the largest bang crash wallop of thunder sounded as if it went off just outside the camper van. I was asleep for the flash so I don't actually know but it surely sounded close. I grabbed this video a bit earlier in the night and you can see how the flickers were fully illuminating Julian, and the thunder was rumbling a lot.

No storm, but still raining and cloudy

I did sleep eventually, after my heart stopped racing, but woke to continued rain (no storm any more) so stayed in bed til the last possible minute (7.50) as there was no requirement for an external watering round today. Upon emerging I was pleased to see my little spider (and yes, it is little; those pictures were just closeups) had survived the deluge in the night however the clouds were low and threatening across the valley. Rambo was up as always waiting for me but he had to wait for a brew to be administered to me before feeding time.

My brew was finished, and I had had a lovely conversation as per usual, before I went outside and fed him which must have confused him as we went back to the old routine of no rounds for watering. He didn't seem bothered in the slightest and stayed to wolf it all down very fast as usual. I did take a quick turn around the land just to see if everything had survived the night and it had which was good. The tree on the left of the gate, the second last one to go in, is currently the least healthy of them all however while a large number of its leaves have gone brown and are falling off there seems to be enough green healthy branches to keep it alive. I hope.

So today was dominated in my head by one thing and one thing only; I was going to collect my residency card at some point after 3pm. My morning however was focused on paid work and Sassy. I have been wanting to give her a proper clean out for a while but with the water off it hasn't really been something I can do. Today, with water available and too much of it outside, I set myself the goal of getting her cage completely cleaned, and her room swept and tidied. I took her cage away from her and emptied out all the hay and sawdust for putting on the compost then carried it downstairs and washed it out. I realised that I would need a scrubby brush and some washing up liquid so returned to Room 13 just in time to answer my morning call from the office. They remembered me and it was really nice to have a quick chat with a few of them informally before signing off.

This is not a summer view

The call went well and I have stuff to do so I quickly finished the scrubbing of Sassy's cage and then returned to Room 13 to work on. Looking outside was a miserable sight that I hoped I wouldn't see until at least next year now with rain missering down  outside and while I do appreciate it watering my plants it is nearly June it should be Summer by now! The forecast does not look good either, though of course they don't really know what is going to happen, but it is forecasting no sun at all until 8pm Saturday night which will be just enough to give me a good sunset. Horrible.

I got a fair bit done work wise before I noticed it was already 2pm and I should be eating before heading into town and so I did with dry and slightly stale bread around cheese. Nommy. Or something. For some reason a nervousness had been building inside me all day and by this point I was feeling quite unsure of myself. The simple meal did actually do the trick of grounding me a bit and also some lovely words of encouragement and reassurance helped me no end. I have been thinking that post residency card I would go and register Lucy in my name however I think a large part of my nerves was down to worrying that I wouldn't be able to do it and then they may impound her or fine me massively or something. Just silly worries but they don't half build up. I decided to play it by ear around Lucy, and made plans for Lubo to help me out on Monday by meeting me at KAT (the vehicle licensing place) to act as a free translator.

Yuck!

When I left I turned over the base of Sassy's cage to allow it to drip dry a bit better (it has cooled down so much today that it still wasn't dry) and as I was about to do this I noticed there was a huge house centipede sat in it. Who knows where this had come from however they are known to be nasty and they bite so I tipped it out into the trough and left it to either run away, or get washed down the drain before my next shower. And yes, this IS very big.

Identity cards

And so I set off to town having put Rambo away and I had even more things to be stressed about as the petrol gauge was on and below the red line all the way. I cruised at a really steady pace and made it to the petrol station without running out so that was a relief. I parked up and, still wearing my rain hat and getting some glances from a few people, made my way over to the immigration office. I walked in and no one was being served so went straight to the desk. They saw me as I walked in and (obviously) recognised me. Within about two minutes I was walking out with a white card (my temporary card) and a coloured one with my photograph on it which was the permanent one which I paid a bit extra to get quickly. What a quick service and I am now officially allowed to stay in the country.

I left immigration and walked over to my bank to get my account upgraded to a full one, which could only be done with the immigration card and my usual lady was sat there with no customers so I was able to go straight up to the desk and get served. She joked that the card was still warm as it was so new but with a few issues (helped out by her colleague) my name was changed from Roman lettering to the Cyrillic and the address was changed and then I was allowed to apply for a debit card. There is not free banking here and I get charged 20 stotinki for withdrawing my money from their machines, and 1 lev if I use a rivals. I have just realised that I forgot to get my internet banking upgraded but no worries there I need to go back next Friday to collect my card and I'll do that then.

After this I decided I would go past Kaufland for my drying racks (the weather is set in and I really want to have some clean clothes again so I will reset the washing maching tonight (I didn't actually set it going last night which I realised pretty quickly but left because of the weather forecast) and I can at least spread things out inside with them even if they do get dusty) and also find out if they had a toilet as I was starting to get a bit desperate. I parked up and was walking toward the trolleys when I noticed S and S come out of the shop. We stopped and chatted and I got the update on their progress and they were jealous because they hadn't known they could pay extra to get the other card very quickly but I was aware of my need for the loo and so didn't stop with them as long as I wished. I hope to get over next week to see their place as I have a week without workers.

I dashed around and only grabbed a Raid plug in for the flies, and two racks, and my need was too great so I bailed before looking for the other things I need. My drive home was swift and I caught up with S and S just before they turned off towards their place and peeped my horn to which they peeped back which was nice then I was home, past the road which is heading ever upwards towards my village and was in and relieved very quickly. Rambo was also happy to see me as he had been in his compound while I was out.

Where Sassy lives, and it is not clean

When I got back I made a brew then sat and watched the Giro d'Italia as I have missed the last couple of days. I was going to finish cleaning for Sassy immediately but the excitement of the race distracted me and actually on reflection I think I'm glad that I did watch it. The final day of racing is tomorrow so it is nearly over. I stopped and watched it all and then, after Quintana had won the stage (and probably won the whole race as well) I grabbed the broom and started sweeping.

Very dusty room

After a few minutes the dust got so bad that I had to go and get a face mask to keep from choking and even then I was struggling; maybe this is what Sassy had been made ill by. I think I need to do this more often. My first task was to pick up the big and burnable bits which didn't take long and then I removed the three windows she had been hiding behind (as all of them were broken) and went and found one with a complete pane of glass in to replace them with. Then I lifted the huge wooden ladder Bekir had made last year out of the way and started sweeping. Here you can see the dust I raised in the first round of sweeping.

All gathered into little piles

Because the dust got up so quickly I swept little areas of the room into localised piles and then moved on while the dust resettled before returning to finish each one and in this way I worked my way round the whole room and got as much of the dust and other rubbish as I could collected together. I went away for a bit to let the dust settle and grabbed one of the wheelbarrows to carry the dirt out of there. All this time Sassy had been in her cage sat on the landing and she was eating the food I had put in; her second feed of the day and a really good indication that she is feeling much more herself now.

Dusty forearm

While I was waiting for the dust to settle so I could go in and remove the piles I noticed that I had entirely grey arm hairs from the aforementioned stuff. It was so marked I snapped a picture of it; this is what my arms might look like in 40 years time when I have gone completely grey. How awesome

Removed from the room

After a bit of waiting around the dust was dropped enough to go in with the dustpan and brush and lift it all out with the wheelbarrow however there was so much I had to get one of my buckets and I filled that too. This lifted even more dust into the air so I decided to leave Sassy out on the landing until it had settled again. The spoil in the barrow and bucket I emptied into the hole out the back door as it was raining, and then I went to start my blog and cook dinner.

Dinner was an onion and nardenitsa omelette (with chili in obviously) and was lovely and tasty washed down with a beer and as I get to the end of this blog I have just poured a small whisky to celebrate friday night with. Sassy was put back into her room a bit ago as she started getting irritated with being confined to her cage and when I checked the dust was all down. She is much happier. The weekend may involve chicken purchasing tomorrow or it may not, but I definitely need to take Rambo for a walk as he has largely been left to his own today. Anyway, that is to be found out huh. Later.