Gah!

Well today has been a day of contrasts.

Not a cloud in the sky

Quite simply put, it started off really lovely. I was up and about at about 7 and put the kettle on then went and did all my chores before making my morning brew. The weather was spectacular with barely a cloud and the sun shining and a slight breeze which helped keep the flies largely off my skin (not completely - they do love to land on my arms) but wasn't as gale force as we've been suffering recently.

This is for you

Rambo was his usual bouncy self and followed me around as I did the watering rounds (at least until his full bowl of food was put down in his house) and he even waited patiently while I took this picture of a lovely patch of poppies which is flourishing and spreading on the corner of the green building. I will not be scything here any time soon I can tell you; it's lovely to come home and see this splash of vivid colour.

Chilled out Sassy

Every morning I have been trying to get pictures of Sassy and every morning, as I take the camera out, she jumps up and runs around, mostly running over to the gate to say hello and therefore making getting a picture a bit difficult. This morning she was more relaxed and she stayed laying down as I took some pictures, and even still stayed without moving allowing me to swap the lens and steady myself with no flash to get this picture. She's so much better and was hopping around my feet as I fed and watered her. I do need to fill her water more regularly now the temperature is rising.

A wasps nest

The last section of this positive start to the day involves this snap of what I think is a wasp nest attached to the windowframe of one of the windows in the living room. I was in there as I had chased the swallows out AGAIN and was standing by the window waiting to whack them with the broom if they flew through again. They didn't but I spotted this. It is just another example of the varied nature around here.

Breakfast was a really tasty bacon and egg butty and I ended up being really pleased that I had decided to have breakfast before Lubo the architect arrived as I would have been starving by lunch otherwise. To cut a long story short the PuP has once again been turned down and Lubo is certain that there is nothing he can do. He gave me a scan of the letter, and also another one that suggests that the property should only have been sold with about 6000 square metrres of land rather than the 9200 which is on my contract. I sent these scans over to Chaz and Ivan who have experience with this kind of thing, and then headed with Lubo to town to get a new skitza (I thought I had one, but apparently it was invalidated by the fact that there was writing put on it before) and also to get the planning permission started.

Now this could get boring so if you aren't interested, jump down a couple of paragraphs. If you do read, please bear in mind all of this is from my own limited understanding and it could all be incorrect.

Right, my concern mainly is that the law which is being applied to my application (as far as I can tell) only applies to properties which are owned by the obshtina and funded either by the obshtina or the ministry of education. If my contract is incorrect in the amount of land which was available (because the obshtina made a mistake and missold it to me) then my contract could become invalid and that may mean I don't actually own the property. Could this be an indication that my ownership of the school is in question.

This is obviously a worst case scenario.

For now Lubo is saying that I can get the permission to do the renovation and improvements that I want without the PuP and then, maybe in a year when the law changes, apply at that point to change the use as it will become easier. My feeling is that if he only did it right this PuP would have been approved by now and I want him to keep trying to get it however if I can get some legal cover for the improvements then that is a short term win and I'll keep fighting for the PuP. I really do need to get my head around the concern around the ownership / contract legality with this question mark about the size of the property. Until I have this completely cleared up I will feel nervous.

Anyway, back to updates. After I got back from town (having been past the bank to collect my bank card) I gave the Little Lady her 12 lev back because Lidl does not have any of those buckets any more and then headed upstairs to have lunch. I was so stressed and upset about the bad news from Lubo that I poured myself a beer while I ate my heated up pasta from the other day. I have paid work to do and was cracking on with that, as well as I could with the mess in my head, and then I had a quick call from work where I was laughed at for having a beer in hand. I now have loads of work to complete which makes a change.

I tried to work but everything was battering my head so I took the other laptop out onto the balcony and watched the cycling, initially sat on my chair but after a while I grabbed the rug and lay down. After the stage finished I turned over, rucked the rug up a bit for a pillow, and fell asleep for a bit. This helped me a lot but I woke up with a really dead arm where I had been laying on it. The good thing to come out of this was, with the wind no longer at gale force, the balcony was really usable and the breeze just kept the flies away and kept me cool.

I did have a bit more bad news as Rocky will now no longer be picked up tomorrow as the guy who is dropping him off has had to leg it to help another of his friends out. No matter, I'll just rearrange for when it is convenient for him, and I'm still going out tomorrow to see Chaz and Ivan for lunch as the plans were made already.It'll cost me a bit more in fuel but I'm looking forward to seeing them tomorrow.

I had a missed call from Chaz while I was out sleeping and I got back hold of him. Ivan had been in touch with Sofia and there was some news. First of all, there is no problem (according to them) with the PuP, just the requisite documents had not been sent. Secondly, the question of ownership was not something that was influencing this so my fears there have been calmed somewhat. I had started cooking my veg for my dinner but when I rang Lubo to ask him for all the documents that he had sent to Sofia he was immediately available so I turned the cooker off, jumped in Lucy, and legged it towards town.

Two concrete trucks working in tandem

I say legged it, but I got about half way down my cheren put and then had to stop, stop the car and I had time to get out, go and check what was happening, have a chat with the Other Brother and, later on, the guy from the village below who had been to school in my place who walked past.

Getting the concrete poured

They were pouring concrete down the side of the road by where the lovely little sink hole had been. The Other Brother indicated that this was preparatory to widening the road and making a bridge here which can take two cars; there won't be a single track bridge with a passing place (which would make more sense, surely, and be far less work and far less expensive) like I had previously guessed. The guy was controlling the big arm with a remote control and the guy at the bottom was precariously balancing and slipping along on the top of the forms to ensure the concrete actually went in the right place. I think we were stopped for about 20 or 25 minutes waiting for this to complete but, with the weather so lovely, it wasn't so bad. I'd text Lubo so he knew I was delayed.

Once the blockage was cleared I waved goodbye to the Other Brother and we scooted down the hill and I was at the arranged meeting point quickly. There was a short conversation as I collected all the paperwork Lubo has sent to Sofia so far. He suggested that the reason the application for a PuP was rejected a couple of years ago (before the Obshtina sold it to me) is the reason they are now refusing to do the approval however this is not what Sofia is telling Ivan. He also said that the architect in my local town is more senior than the one who is being spoken to in Sofia. If that's the case, why can't my architect just override and change the use?

Anyway, all will be revealed tomorrow when we go through the paperwork with Chaz and Ivan and maybe call Sofia and also maybe get Ivan to talk to Lubo again to clarify exactly what is needed. I also may need to get a Power of Attorney drawn up for those two so they can talk to the Kmet in my local town who is (legitimately) refusing to talk to them about this. My feeling is he is avoiding the issue and would be quite irritated to have to talk to someone who knows what is going on but doesn't want to protect him.

My summary of the situation: the Obshtina made a mistake when they sold me the school. There is some sort of problem and now they are attempting to wriggle out of it. Lubo is protecting them and all the help I'm getting from Ivan and Chaz is causing problems because their avoidance is being found out. Eventually they will have to face up to the mistake (and it will probably be around this amount of land issue which keeps cropping up) and either I will loose ownership of the school (in which case I could end up in court with them) or they will have to resolve the issue some other way and allow me to retain ownership.

What a palaver.

And finally the sun sets

Anyway, I've eaten  and it was nice if the veg was a little watery, and I'm watching the cricket while typing this up and feeling quite frustrated. What good timing it is that I am happening to be getting over to see those two tomorrow for another reason just as this kicks up again. At least I have an immediate next step. The evening is another gorgeous one and the sun is setting in a slightly different way to when there are clouds around, but no less beautiful.

I'm going to have another beer, get on the phone, and then get an early night as I'll be up early to let Rambo out and play with him before I set off across country to my friends.