KAT

Yesterday I made the mistake of commenting on how we hadn't seen a cloud for weeks. I made this comment both in the blog and in person. A asked me not to but I still did; today it has been a little more cloudy though it stayed warm all day. As I sit down to write this update, having just been with Baker for a bit watching her eat very keenly which is great, it has clouded over a bit more and we may even be in for a storm this evening. To be honest it would be nice; there is so much dust after the Bagga machine and Kamion that a good downpour would settle all that and encourage grass and plants to start growing in the dust bowl.

Anyway to last night. We sat on the balcony again after I published the blog and enjoyed the evening once more. I had to take the torch to go lock the chickens away and on the way out I saw the firefly again. This time I did get the camera but unfortunately the video has corrupted and so it isn't worth showing you. Maybe I'll get to see it again later. Once more it was warm into bed and we had the fan going. I turned it off earlier in the night last night and A didn't mind so I'll probably do that again this evening. Neither of us slept that well though and morning once again found A up earlier than I (she just pulled the duvet up and Louise appeared and jumped around needing the toilet) and then me joining her shortly after.

Waiting for KAT to open

After two cups of tea A headed to collect the men and I had 15 minutes until I needed to leave to go to KAT with Julian. I had some toast to fortify me and then headed out with my bag of provisions, my kindle, and hope in my heart. When I got there I was far from the first and I took my place back in the queue to wait. We were all there before they opened and almost exactly 8.30 the door cracked and the friendly bald man who I had spoken with last week came out and spoke at length to the assembled people.

And inside the main office waiting

As he was turning to go back in he spotted me and called me forward by name which was great; I went into the main office and sat and waited and then waited some more. Eventually the boss turned up and to cut a long story short said "you have the paperwork, we only have copies, we cannot do this without originals". I was quite flustered by this as I was sure we had left them there last year but even with calling Lyubo to talk to him I was sent away with a flea in my ear and nothing doing. I was helped as well by a bystander who spoke a bit of English and this really does show just how friendly locals are; they don't look on a foreigner as an annoyance, but come over to help and there were a number of examples of this today.

I drove home (stopping on the way to go past the electrical supplies shop for some stuff for Bekir) feeling annoyed that I knew they had the paperwork; my plan was to have a quick look and then when I couldn't find it to talk to Dincher to go back with me to resolve the issue. I made a brew first thing on getting back and then started to look through the old places I had put documents. Along the way I also found the previously missing pet passports for Sassy and Rambo which was great and then suddenly, tucked away underneath a flip file, I spotted the paperwork for Julian!

Brilliant! I would rather me be an idiot and find it than have to go and deal with KAT with no paperwork at all.

The carpark near KAT

After finishing my tea, doing some paid work (and letting Lyubo know the good news) I jumped back into Julian and drove back to KAT, walking in to the office and spotting Stankov (the bald guy) waved the documents. He smiled and laughed and the process started again. One of the issues I had was the EcoTax (like an import duty) had been paid last year but the certificate had run out. I went back to the girl in the cubicle and left this with her, hopefully to get it sorted so I wouldn't have to pay anything. While this was happening they asked me to pull Julian over onto the onsite carpark which I did.

There then followed a very frustrating afternoon. At first I once again couldn't find the Chassis number that was the cause of the problems and then midway through the search it was lunch time so everyone stopped working. We then moved Julian inside over an inspection ramp so the search could continue and it was only when they came out with the picture taken the previous year (and yes, it was August so that part of my memory was reliable) that I was able to identify a location and find it. I was then given rags and told to clean it up which I did.

There was so much waiting around, expectant looking at various officials, broken conversations in English and Bulgarian with various people that the afternoon passed but very slowly. The policeman who was helping out (I THINK that they needed three signatures on the document to bypass the problem with the chassis number and he was one of them) was really friendly and we ended up chatting for quite a while. He is in a band and maybe we will be able to go see them perform one day; that would be very nice.

Old number plate hacked out

He left mid afternoon as his shift was over but his parting words were "this is nearly done; just one more signature and you're done" and this seemed to be true as they told me to get the number plates off. I managed the front plate but the back one was so badly rusted into place I got a technician who brought a drill and just excavated the plastic around each bolt to remove it. This was great but as it got to nearly 2 hours after and I was still walking around with the old plates in my hand, waiting for the new plates, I was wondering if I had jumped too soon and now I had a vehicle that REALLY couldn't be driven on the roads.

Finally putting the new plates on

There were other friendly people around also trying to get vehicles registered and I was again touched when the time finally came for me to go and get the new plates. Stankov came from behind his desk to show me to the cash desk and then as I was trying to fill in the blank bits on a form I had a crowd of people helping me all in good humour. Now consider that this was at about 4.30 when the office shut at 4.50 and I was pushing in the front of their queue to get this done. What a lovely people. I let out quite a whoop, and had a lot of smiles from everyone around, when I was given the plates. The nice technician (he actually looks grumpy but he isn't) put them on and I was off and away in a very nearly legal Julian. Now I just need to get insured.

Super grin from Louise

As I pulled up and parked A came onto the balcony and I gave a thumbs up and she was very pleased too. The girls were so happy to see me both of them smiling really widely and then coming to the stairs to greet me it was a nice way to come home, as exhausted as I was. A poured me a beer and told me to not bother about taking the men, she would, which was super as well.

Labels on cables

Talking of the men it has been a busy day here as well, all the time I've been out. Sally has been on with doing the plastering which is coming on a-pace and Bekir has been doing the wiring for all the electrics. There is actually quite a lot to do there (10 spotlights, four main lights, four uplights in the vestibule, a central light in the bathroom, the boiler, and switches for everything) so it's good to see it coming on well. It is getting quite soon to when the parents will be here now, not that I'm nervous at all.

Tomorrow should see the window people coming to do the next stage of windows and doors for us which will be super exciting but for now I'm gong to sign off and eat the amazing curry A has cooked which is now being served.