What a day

Today has been one of those days where pretty much nothing has happened like I expected it to. It hasn't, by any means, been a terrible day however I'm pretty tired now I'm sat down to update this and I wish I could leave it but I'm not going to. I have potatoes bubbling on the cooker, some chicken I'm going to fry with some bacon and peppers, and some puppies that are determined that I ignore the food, and this update, to play with them. Let's get on with it anyway.

I slept well last night and wasn't woken up by the puppies at all though when the alarm went off I found that Louise had snuck up onto the bed and was curled up next to me again. It's good that they aren't getting me up in the night but I'm a little concerned at the habit they appear to be in now of joined us on the bed. Anyway, there was no way I was going out to chop wood first thing as it was cold and damp so I stayed for a brief time snoozing, then went and let the puppies out and dashed straight upstairs so I could go to the toilet as well. It was only as I was leaving later that I realised this meant I hadn't let the birds out yet and they were less than impressed at this. I picked up the Little Lady and her Even Older Friend as planned from outside the Little Lady's house and they clambered into the back of Thomas without my help and off we went.

Garage door reinforcing frames being assembled

They were nice and chatty all the way which was actually quite nice for a change and when we reached the village, having collected Gyuner on the way, they said thank you and went off for their day with their relatives. It was an uneventful trip back and I got home to find the other workmen had arrived and were making progress on the reinforcing uprights for the garage door. The really nice man (I don't know his name - I must ask him tomorrow) was back and working with Nikolai to build the frames.

The wood chopping continues

Once again Bekir was outside helping Hikmet by cutting up the logs to be split. The puppies (who had stayed in their cage very quietly while I was gone, being still asleep when I got back to the room) were outside running around and frankly this has been all they have done almost all day.

Sally adding water to the mix

Sally was on with mixing up the cement to go on top of the first pour from yesterday. The purpose of yesterday had been to bind the dirt below together and the slab was now being done with the aim of completing it in one day. There was a LOT of cement to be done and this was only the first of many piles of a similar size that they went through during the day.

So inquisitive; they love to be involved in everything

While I was stood out watching the progress the girls came over to see what was happening on the drive way. I just had to snap a picture to put on this update; they were stood like that for quite a while watching as each square piece was held in place with a small amount of twisted wire. Such inquisitive lovely puppies, and the workmen all them them both.

Sun just about visible through the mist

It was such a misty start, the drive had been quite slow, and it was taking quite a long time to burn off today. I was stood on the balcony for so long, able to get the previous puppy picture, as I was waiting for the fog to shift slightly so the sun would appear through the gloom. After a few minutes this finally returned and I got the shot I wanted. Lovely. I need to start taking my camera in the mornings as I had the chance for this shot as well on the journey from near the men's village.

I was just settling back down to work when my Bulgarian phone rang and it was the Kmet, stood at the side gate. I went down to let him in and the day changed as he had two people from the Obshtina with him, one spoke a little English but not enough, who had been sent over because the chap I bought the school from, Georgy Stankov, was back to attempting to cause problems. Fortunately Gyuner was there to translate a bit, and Bekir is also able to help me out, and they had not come with the intention of causing me problems but to find out facts so they could tell Georgy to go away. We left it that I would head into town later, with SandS who they also wanted to see, to sort everything out. Initially this was due to be almost immediately but I decided Lyubo should be there and this meant we arranged to meet at about 2.30pm

The slab is now being poured

With that stress a little settled in my head I checked out what Gyuner and Sally had achieved on the back porch. The progress was very gratifying and the slab they are pouring is coming on very well. It's stunning to see such progress, really.

And concrete is being poured here also

I was fully stuck into my work after this which didn't really go as planned either. I was trying to install a separate boot partition with Linux on it and first of all got the wrong version, then downloaded the right one but then was advised to get a different distribution however when I tried to install THAT I broke everything and so when I left to take the men back I was without a computer. Fortunately (as you can tell) I fixed it but that is a work-saga to continue tomorrow. Anyway I wasn't that hungry at lunch, having eaten some of A's gorgeous cake, but I forced a quick sandwich down to tide me over before heading out side in a sulk. I found that there was quite a lot of progress happening out there and most of the cement had been poured on one of the columns by the garage door.

Birds eating bread in the hot sun

I took out some bread for the birds, and also went and stood up their filter which they had again knocked over. It doesn't actually stop it working however I like the little fountain effect. The birds were very pleased for the bread and it was lovely to stand there in the gorgeous weather (it was feeling very warm by now) and watch them eat.

Two is quicker than one

Out the back the cement work was ongoing with Sally and Gyuner working away together to mix huge piles of sand, gravel, cement and water and then shovel it into a wheelbarrow to be poured into place. The longer this goes on the more it would have been worth getting a cement mixer right at the beginning of this build. Now it feels like it's not really worth while as most of the cement pouring wll be done this year. Never mind.

Bekir wiring in using my Dad's technique

Bekir was continuing working on the electrics and when I went on this particular exploration with the camera I found him in the roof space, sat under the eaves, putting together the wiring circuit for the lights. He has taken my Dad's idea of using the joint strip bars and putting them in boxes to keep everything tidy - this is great to see as it'll make future changes so much easier to achieve. He's also using my cable tidy idea as well. We've run out of zip ties again though so I'm adding that to my shopping list for first thing tomorrow right now.

I headed outside with the chainsaw and chopped up some more of the walnut tree. The time was much later than I thought, however, as SandS arrived while I was cutting, and we had to rush off to make our appointment in town. Lyubo was a little late but joined us up in the architect office to help with translations. The Kmet was also there which was great and the upshot of it is that there doesn't seem to be a problem at all. I've left Lyubo to find out what exactly Georgy has accused us of but anyway, I think I'm in the clear. I'll have to keep on top of this however.

When I got back I did a bit more on my laptop, which resulted in it finally breaking completely, and then leaving it to try and recover I headed out to chainsaw again. I got there to find that Thelma had what can only be described as a small tree trunk which she was playing with. I threw it and she pushed and carried it back to me so I got the camera and worked out how to shoot videos then tried to get her to repeat the trick. She does do it a bit, and also she makes the crazy noises that she does when she is playing on her own. What a wonderful pair of puppies they are.

I tried my hand at proper chainsawing

As I was about to get started on chopping up more of the walnut tree I noticed the Hikmet was without any more logs to split. He was working away shifting the huge pile of split logs into the wood store however I decided to give chopping up some of the monster logs a go. I went at it and only stopped when the chainsaw ran out of fuel and it was good fun, if very noisy as I neglected to put my ear-baffles on. Check out the size of this last log which is the one I had to stop in the middle of cutting.

Digging out the space for the steps

Nikolai and the Nice Man had moved on from making the reinforcing columns (as they were finished) and were now well on the way to digging out where the steps will go up from the drive way to the back bank. This is a bit of a "nice to have" but will make our lives a lot easier from the patio at the front and the back door onto the back bank, especially if and when our hot tub goes in.

Plug sockets, and switch for outside plug socket

Bekir had completed the wiring of all the plugs in the living room by this point, bar one as he had accidentally bought too few sockets. This isn't the end of the world and it'll not take him long to wire that last one in. This does include the external plug, however, which is great as it means the workers on the balcony don't have to run a lead into the bedroom any more. The bedroom is now Out Of Bounds for builders, finally!

What a beautiful space

Talking of which the tiler had made use of it in the afternoon and he had also made a lot more progress on tiling the wall. I am a little concerned that we haven't bought enough of these tiles to do the wall and the top of it but this should be obvious in time to go and pick more up if need be. We haven't ended up with the stacks of left over floor tiles that we expected either, but we may have just enough to do the back patio; we shall see. It is looking really good now and my worries about the colour have, as expected, vanished.

Bagga Machine is back

I was back inside, I can't exactly remember what I was doing apart from maybe panicking about my bricked laptop, when I heard the noise of a bagga machine (Bager is correct spelling, but I don't care). I popped onto the balcony with the camera and sure enough there he was clearing the driveway. This was most unexpected but the rubbish was piling up. I got Bekir to go and ask him to clear the pile at the back as well and this was also arranged.

Happy puppies

I was talking to A, who by the way is having a great time with her family though I am missing her loads, and she asked for a picture of the girls to show her Nan. I popped out and got this one which was so nice that I had to share. It's taken on my phone before anyone complains about the picture quality.

Back patio cement completed

Sally and Gyuner had worked like demons all day today and by the end of the day the entire slab at the back was laid and completed. It looks brilliant and is exactly what we wanted. This will now go off and then will start the process of building the steps. I'm currently debating this as to whether we should buy some prefabricated metal steps or get them to pour more concrete. This will be a discussion for later I think. Anyway, it's looking brilliant.

Bagga Machine working into the dusk

Driveway cleared

It was then time to take the men and so I left the bagga machine going for it and we scooted them home. It was an interesting drive with more conversation on all our parts, about the excitement with the Obshtina mainly, which is great as you know casual conversation with them is what I want the most. The Little Lady and her Even Older Friend were waiting in the village centre for us to arrive but my decision to go the normal way home, down the cheren put, backfired as it took nearly five minutes to descend at the speed I limited myself to. I normally do it in about 1 minute flat. Oh well, they were happy and really grateful for the help to go on their little holiday. When I got back to my gate I found that it was still open and, sure enough, he was still here shifting rubble, by this time from the pile at the  back.

What it lacks in presentation it made up in taste

I returned to my desk (waking the puppies up again from their sleep) to find that my laptop had recovered just about which is a relief. I wasn't feeling at all hungry so I did loads of things like walk around, play with the puppies, helped the bagga machine man out of the land (the telephone wire above the gate has fallen off its makeshift support which will need fixing tomorrow) and just avoided thinking about food. Eventually A persuaded me I should cook and I was happy that I did as it was really tasty and just what I needed, and now I have a pan with cold potatoes in for an interesting meal at lunch tomorrow. The puppies got some chicken as well and the scoffed it and then scraped their bowls clean.

So here I am, about to let those self same puppies out for a bit of a run before I turn in and then it all starts again tomorrow. Cheers.