In which Thomas goes local

Last night was unfortunately another late night and, what with having to be up so early in the morning to meet up with Lubo in town, I set my alarm. I slept really well, nicely back in my bedding and not in the colder sleeping bag, and I don't think I woke at all in the night; I don't remember waking up anyway.

Good morning Rambo

The alarm went off at what felt like the middle of the night but I gave it just one snooze and then I was up and moving around. Last night I had deliberately left Rambo out over night; I'm undecided whether I should or whether putting him in his compound is a good habit to get into, but I really wanted to see how he would react to it. He was still snoozing on the porch (on his blanket) when I walked round and got up, looked at me and then suddenly did a huge stretch. I know the picture is blurry but it was so funny.

Cloudy sky, cloudy valley

The day had dawned, as have most of them recently, really cloudy and overcast however there was a slight difference today when I popped out onto the balcony in that the valley had its own little section of cloud that had not lifted; this shows that the sun was not burning through at all at this stage. My brew was fully drunk before I did anything however this morning was very unusual so at about 8.45 I said goodbye to her and went to feed and water him, then was straight into Thomas and heading for town.

Reflections in the lake

I got to KAT dead on time (as per usual) having gone past the cash point at Bila to get as much cash as I possibly could; I had no idea how much this could possibly cost but didn't want to be caught short. By the time I parked up the day was starting to warm up a bit though it was still really overcast and I hopped out of Thomas to take a few pictures across the lake that dominates the centre of town. After a few minutes my phone rang and it was Lubo who had decided to go straight to the shop where I was buying the lights from rather than meeting me at KAT as we had arranged. No matter I was with him in a couple of minutes, collected the lights, and then followed him (via a quite dangerous U turn across four lanes of traffic - I really am becoming a local) back over to the garage to get them fitted.

Bit of welding, bit of bodging

The Mitsubushi is arranged such that you need to take the radiator grill off to allow the lights to be changed and this ended up being quite a faff. The first screw came out OK after being hit with a hammer a few times however the second was completely rusted in and the attempts to undo it had totally destroyed the posi head. This is where ingenuity came in as the mechanic pulled a welder over and welded the screw bit to the screw, and then undid it with main force. There was a funny moment when a spark set fire to something (I think it was a rubber cap) and there was smoke until he splashed water on it.

Setting the angle of the lights

After this it didn't take long to get the lights fitted however we found that I had picked the wrong ones; I should have gone for the lights with motorised main/dip control and the ones I had bought didn't have that. How I was supposed to know about this who knows but it wasn't a problem as we took Thomas round to another unit on the same estate and a young lad in there got a machine and manually adjusted the angle until they were correct for standard dip beam. It does mean that I have no main beam on Thomas but that isn't a major issue really.

After this we went back towards KAT and at first (due to the grumpy policeman that kept telling me to move) I went over to the carpark and Lubo went to see if I could go into the garage and then he waved me over and we were off. The first check was for the lights and they were a go; no request to put main beam on. Then he checked the indicators and brake lights, and the parking lights, but fortunately again didn't ask to see the hazards as I still haven't put the fuse in to make them work. He then asked to see my safety equipment and wouldn't you know I had totally forgotten to pick everything up so I walked round to the shop next door and bought a triangle, reflective coat, first aid kit and fire extinguisher all for the equivalent of about £12. Bargain.

After this came the proper vehicle inspection involving lights on bendy stalks and lots of tutting and looking concerned when they thought the number of the plate on the engine didn't match that on the chassis. IF this is the case, then there is no way of registering your car in Bulgaria. That's it. You must have it matching between these two plates, and your V5, or you're stuffed. The inspector got some paint stripper and rubbed away at the chassis number to double check if it was a "D" or a "0" and, after a few very concerning minutes for me, pronounced it all OK and that was it. Someone came and removed my old number plates and I was told to move the car out of the garage.

I parked it, then moved it again and paid someone a token sum for the service of putting a tiny sticker on my windshield and then we were into Office Number One from the other day and the paperwork began. Bless him poor Lubo must have had writers cramp by the end of it but he gamely filled in all the forms and kept at it while I was called out to once again move my car. We went to Office Number Three to pay the bill and then it was back to Office Number Three and a bit more waiting around. After a while I was given two new number plates (unfortunately the old ones were thrown into a box for disposal; I would have liked to have kept them. Never mind.) and that was pretty much it. Lubo had to leg it to an appointment he had already put back a couple of times to help me out and he left me with strict instructions to go back to the same counter to collect both parts of the official registration paperwork.

What a star. I can tell you I would have had no chance whatsoever in completing this registration without him and he did it just to be helpful, giving up hours of his week (when he is busy with work) to assist. I may have been frustrated with him before but now I am starting to forgive him and I hope this continues.

I got one of the people to fit the new number plates, including a pin that had to be embedded in the back to stop you from changing that, and at the appointed time returned to the office where I was recognised, had to put my name on the bottom of one more form, and then I was let go with my documentation. I was done. Thomas was a local.

Time for Rambo walkies!

It was a quick trip to Kaufland for some supplied (bread and milk were the urgent requirements, but I also picked up a small BBQ for when my guest comes back) and then it was home and a feeling of great satisfaction. I had missed out on breakfast because of my early start so was quite hungry and a couple of cheese and tomato butties sorted that out. Two cups of tea later and a short telephone call and it was time for Rambo to have his walk. He was super excited as always, but also pretty obedient in allowing his lead to be fitted, but that is what you expect from a big dog like him. Once again we set off out the main vehicle gate and turned left going down towards the river and Rambo was sniffing everywhere as we went.

Tobacco in the field

At the very bottom of my cheren put, just before you cross the new road, there is a field which has tobacco growing in it. I have watched the farmers, over the past few weeks, plant all of this manually from seedlings (I don't know where they start them off) which took them a week or so, bent double and going every day and now they are in there with a hose pipe watering them painstakingly and hoeing out weeds. Not an easy job at all.

Once across the road I took us down the bank to the gravel by the side of the river and then, after making sure there was no livestock around at all, let him off the lead. He was over the moon and bounced in and out of the river, shaking himself dry as he is wont to while still standing in the shallows every time he was on his way out. Here is a video I took, though the wind was quite high and the wind noise is a bit bad. He really is a mad dog but he's always very happy so who's to complain about a small amount of madness.

Rambo bounding out of the water with his rock

And then running away with it

The stone that stars in that video really did turn out to be a favourite and he grabbed it and ran around with it in his mouth for quite a long time. Even after he had dropped it and we had walked a bit around up and down the sand spit he kept going back to it and sniffing and scratching it. I loved both these pictures so sorry, but there are two. I love how when he is running he is always looking back at me to see where I am; so cute.

Getting myself involved in the water fun

Not wanting to be left out of the fun in the water I decided to paddle a bit myself. I'd changed into sandals but decided to leave my combats on as when I left home the clouds were still largely around. They dry really quick and were totally dry by the time we had walked back up the hill and got home again. The water was not that cold and it was really refreshing to keep dipping in and out. It was far warmer than when me and The Electrician had gone walking through the river up near the abandoned power station that isn't.

War memorial

As we were heading back up we went past the tall white war monument next to the bridge. There was a small posy that had been left there a little while before. It made me think about the fact that today is the 70th anniversary of D Day and, as I have this evening finished the final book in the Reich series which I have been reading for months now, it is all very fresh in my mind just what the world went through back then. I do not think this is a WW2 memorial but it still has the power to evoke and all wars are hell.

Jesus walking around a bit

Walkies done with, Rambo wanted to play kong as always but I was thirsty so after a few chucks I went upstairs to brew up. Both the boys were up and about strolling around in the sun and I snapped a couple of pics for posterity. Mo had once again tipped himself while I was out sorting Thomas this morning but again I righted him before I remembered to snap a quick picture and I am not going to put him on his back purely to take a photograph. I will remember as he does it at least once a day.

Finally got some flames

So it was time for me to finish the chore that I had set myself yesterday but failed due to headache. I put my mask on and went and completed the packing up of burnable items from the area above the stairs. I did hold back slightly on going underneath the damaged section of roof as it looks set to come down totally with really rotten timbers. I'd hate to disturb it and have it land on my head. Of course I wasn't wearing my hard hat either. Anyway it only took about 20 minutes to do that final bit of collecting so I went down, made another brew, and then took a pile of stuff outside to burn. It once again proved difficult to light with the high winds so I actually resorted to a firelighter this time.

Not the greatest fire ever

The trouble I had was I was burning large chunks of paper based stuff and this just compacts and collapses on itself as it burns so if you put too much in, you have to keep digging in and rotating it or it just goes out with masses of unburnt material underneath. It also doesn't burn that hot or stably and so keeps nearly going out. I spent about an hour stood next to the drum with my fire stirring stick (I broke one today so am now using a length of wood from the old windows) continually stoking and trying to keep it burning. As it happened I did not get very much burned at all and I decided to let it burn down naturally and give it another go tomorrow.

The next steps for clearing was to take the stuff down that I had found that I wanted to keep, and then start shifting the broken tiles downstairs. I have decided to start a new pile for these as they may prove useful for interesting crazy paving when we start to do the garden paths. These are broken tiles and not whole ones which will be stacked up out front in case we can sell them, or maybe even use them somewhere else. I may put them in the long green building where I had the excellent suggestion to store the wood from the roof as well.

I did four big bucket fulls of tiles but then got distracted trying to chase a couple of swallows which had flown into the main living area out; their droppings get everywhere and I don't really want them on my stuff. I got one out but the second one just kept flying round and round so I gave up after a while and left it. It'll work it out but for a good time it was sitting on the door onto the balcony and then kept flying back inside, silly thing.

That's much more like it

With my working done for the day I popped some F1 qualifying on and started heating the remains of my stew through and then scarfed two bowl fulls which has good and filled me up. I then started typing this blog but after about a paragraph and a half I decided that it was no good to be sat in here when the weather had become so lovely outside so I poured a beer, grabbed my kindle, and went onto the balcony. It was so lovely and warm that I took my t shirt off and then sat there for about forty minutes, reading and sipping my beer and appreciating the views.

Sunset time again

I stayed there until the sun went down and then came back inside to continue tippy tappying away on this. I have found it a struggle today as my mind has been on many other things, most of which will become apparent over the next few weeks but I'm not going into now. I also distracted myself with a very welcome telephone call and have heard, via my friend, that Lucy cannot have her rear end raised like I wanted so I will need to get over to the garage early next week to find out about it. I'm not sure how I'm going to juggle the cars to be fair; I'll work something out I'm sure.

Say "Goodbye Rambo"

And so I'm going to hit publish on this, a blog written as if wringing blood out of a stone. Tomorrow there is an England rugby game that I am going to watch. I need to try and get up to see my uncle who is over for the weekend not that far away, now I have a car that is legal, but looking at availability I'm a bit concerned I may miss him. Thanks for reading.