It's been a year!

A year ago today A and I were packed up in Harrison and driving away from our little house near Manchester towards my parents and then onwards to the ferry, wondering what was causing the clonking sound coming from the front left wheel arch. Yes, it is a year since A left the UK permanently and she has been here, apart from a short visit to her parents, ever since. Wow. How time flies! It's also not far off the two year anniversary of when I arrived with my parents after that first epic drive across Europe. So many memories, and so much appreciation for the efforts put in to keep this blog up to day; I've been reading through the updates from those times and been reminded of many happy moments, and that time when Harrison collapsed and died on us in Hungary, which you'd find hard to recall reliably without photographs and words. So I'm renewed once more in my determination to keep this record going.

Anyway, onwards!

Friday

Normally a non-working day, for me this week I was having to cover for a colleague on holiday so it was computer based work all day, and very little else. I also have been coming down with a cold and it was just starting to hit me on Friday so my energy levels were particularly low.

Very low clouds above my parents' hotel

Stripy clouds in the morning

Now we have two potato towers

Some fluffy looking clouds, with a storm bubbling up as well

Clouds blowing away to the North

Thursday night I received an email with the updated quote from Sezgin for the basketball court and what he asked for was just too much. I went to bed stewing on it and after a few minutes I got up and took myself through to Room 13 to write an email saying it was too expensive. After that point I went back to bed and fell straight to sleep. I thought I'd given the impression that he should just stop working on it now. The next morning, however, Nikolai arrived to work and I had the awkward task of telling him to go home, while making sure he knew that I didn't have a problem with his work at all. He did seem to understand and shook my hand before heading off home. I'm gutted that his boss is trying to overcharge me for everything at the moment, I like the guy. Anyway, the forecast for Friday was for rain all day and it certainly looked threatening when we woke up. There were low clouds across the valley and a chill in the air which made the fact that I was having to be "in the office" slightly easier to bear. At lunch time I took a break outside and quickly put together another spud tower; we're expecting our seed potatoes to arrive any day now (I think we've now been told they'll be here on Tuesday) and as we have three varieties we want three towers. One more to go. The wind was starting to pick up while I was outside and that did encourage me to work fast. The wind wasn't just blowing me to work harder, it was also clearing the clouds and it turned into quite a nice afternoon in the end, if breezy. So much for lots of rain. I was pretty battered during the afternoon and spent some time laying in bed reading, but trying not to sleep so I wouldn't spoil my night. We watched a film after dinner and then took ourselves off to bed to get ready for our day out on Saturday.

Saturday

The forecast for Saturday was for a lovely sunny day with no rain so we booked ourselves to go up and see Chaz and Ivan for the day and take the trailer up so we could bring the door they had kindly given us the last time. My building cold was a bit of a worry, which is why I rested so much on Friday, as A isn't allowed to drive with a trailer but when I woke up I felt a lot better.

Avoiding the fact that it is time to get up

It was a foggy start to the day, and chilly

On the road (or just pulled to the side, rather)

The alarm went off at our normal mid week time which was not the greatest thing on a Saturday and we ignored it for a bit before I got up to make brews and get ready to leave. The puppies were not happy about this early start and A stayed in bed to keep them company, but eventually everyone was up and moving about, if slowly. We had a few brews first thing to get ourselves warmed up as it was actually quite chilly; cold enough that I didn't wear my sandals to drive in which is unusual. We set off a little later than my initial plan called for but made really good time through town and up into the mountains. As we climbed we got above the cloud level and the temperature rose from 4 degrees to about 12 in half a mile. It was a beautiful day, as forecast. We stopped a couple of times for toilet breaks, saw some more buzzards, what I'm sure was an eagle in one valley, and what was absolutely definitely a stork so our martinitsas really can come off now.

Ivan cooked us a great fried breakfast

Cleaning up the pool furniture for our afternoon in the sun

Thelma just loves this toy

Covered in mud from the ploughed field

Looking cool wearing A's sunglasses

Thelma looking at her toy, in the swimming pool

When we got to their hotel we found Chaz and Ivan having a much deserved day off. Ivan got busy in the kitchen and put together a very tasty indeed Full English, with superb fried bread, that we all scoffed down very fast while sat inside. It was such a beautiful day, however, that staying inside was not a good option so the pool furniture was dragged out onto the terrace and we spent the rest of the afternoon sat outside with some music going, beers for everyone else (I refused even one beer, because of the trailer) and the puppies having a whale of a time running around the new land. A had brought Thelma's favourite toy and so that kept her, and us, occupied. I accidentally threw it into the middle of the swimming pool at one point and that frustrated her as she couldn't get to it. I threw her in eventually and she swam around for quite a while but of course wouldn't dive under - neither of these puppies likes the water. It was so hot there that A caught the sun and has quite a good tan now. What a lovely day. Ivan showed me the pump-house that they have just had completed and it was a very impressive, clean and well organised space. I so want a swimming pool of our own!

Driving towards the setting sun

The sun looked huge through the trees

Birds resting before heading to their roosts

The sun disappears behind the mountains

About four pm it got to the point where we had to leave and so, reluctantly, we gathered ourselves together and hit the road. Ivan had helped me carry the double door to the trailer which was quite a mission as it was awkward and heavy, but it fitted in well so that was good. The sun was going down as we headed along the country lanes towards home and A had the camera out taking many pictures as we drove along. It was a stunning display and these are just a few of the pictures she got. We stopped at the big hardware store as we drove past as I need another saw horse however it appears that no where in Bulgaria sells them. Very strange, and slightly frustrating, but never mind. It was dark when we got home and I had some fun reversing the trailer onto the drive so we could unload the door. I wired the two doors together before we tried to lift it and that made the task much simpler and right now it is stored in the garage. I'm hoping that this will be the first thing Bekir and Sally will get on with, and we're still not aware if they are working tomorrow or not. Hopefully they will be. We were both pretty shattered after six hours in the car, and a day sat in the sun, so after eating pizza and garlic bread we went to bed quite early and slept right the way through.

Sunday

And so we get to today. The main reason we came  back last night, and didn't stay over night as we may have preferred, was because I was really keen to have a productive Sunday, following on from losing Friday to work and Saturday to traveling so there hadn't been much progress on anything at all.

A beautiful early morning sky

It gets very pink before the sun appears

There it is, though the promise in this picture did not fulfill itself

New drill bit before use

And after use - not great

Four attempts, none successful

We were not disturbed by the puppies at all during the night and it was about six when Louise made it clear she needed the toilet. The sky was starting to get light so I headed onto the balcony with the camera to get a bit of a picture. Neither of us got back to sleep after this point, though we stayed in bed for a while longer. I went out another couple of times to get photographs as the sunrise developed and it was a lovely sight indeed. Of course all those clouds around which make for a nice sunrise also prevent the temperature from rising as the sun gets up and so it proved today, with it being cold and windy with very little sight of sun all day. My urgency to have a productive day bounced off a lack of correct tooling, and then a lack of energy to do a different task. I'd bought some long drill bits to try and put this hole through into the roof space from Sassy's room so I can bring the power in however all I succeeded in doing was ruining the drill bit. I think I hit metal rebar every time I tried and the deepest I got was about 5cm so I gave up before I burned the drill out and I'll try again when I have the SDS back. Prior to attempting to drill this hole I had swept through and put the rugs out to air and also put a load of washing on so it wasn't a total dead loss but still I felt pretty rubbish and decided against starting the other job, which is to begin the suspended ceiling.

Reattaching the legs to the balcony table

This table cloth was given us by Venko

Painting the propellers very carefully

It's started to brighten up, late in the day

Lush grass growing that will become hay later this year

All of our plans for today have pretty much not occurred as A was hoping to get the wooden boards that she primered last week and take them outside to put a first coat of white paint on them. The temperature, and winds, have put paid to that idea. It has been a fantastic drying day which means a couple of loads of washing have gone through, been hung out, and brought back in dry. Indeed it was a close thing to losing some of our sheets. I was moping a little bit and decided that if I couldn't get stuff done in Sassy's room (and of course I could have put those beams up but I just didn't want to) I would get my model plane out and get back to doing that, something I've been feeling the urge to do more and more recently. A suggested that I fix the patio table up so I could steal the dining table for my modeling so I got this done then set myself up in the window by the banana tree and painted for a couple of hours. It was really satisfying to get back into it and realise that the lessons I learned a year and more ago have not been forgotten. I'm making a Sea King helicopter at the moment which is quite a challenge and I'll be sure to keep updating progress on here. The wind has continued to howl all afternoon though now, just before we have an early roast dinner, the clouds are finally blowing away and it's brightening up.

Other stuff

So there's a few other bits and pieces I want to write about now that aren't specifically for any picture. First of all when I cancelled the work on the basketball court the sense of relief was quite marked. I wasn't sure initially why but now I think I've been quite unhappy with rushing ahead with this (yes, I know I've waited all last year to start so it isn't REALLY rushing but bear with me) without planning correctly. We hadn't taken into account drainage, nor had we accounted for the gravel path I want to run around the outside and the flower beds to go outside that. I was really stressed as soon as the workmen arrived to begin the court and I think all these concerns were there bubbling under the surface. I'm now able to take a step back and really plan it correctly, maybe even including the coloured concrete I wanted to use to mark out the lines on the court. It's a pretty major undertaking but right now I'm thinking that me doing this myself is the best idea. This week I'm going to survey the site properly and do some drawings so I can know for sure the scope of the job.

I've also spent some really interesting time researching about grey water systems this week. It has led to some interesting alternative thoughts around the vehicle route onto the top bank that I'm keen to retain, and has also taken me to another blog which has a fantastic description of how he did his grey water. As this is something that we really need done this year, as part of the kitchen build, this goes to the top of the list for decision making.

Regarding the insulation we're definitely not using Sezgin for that however when it'll be started is still not sure. It could be a couple of weeks before the alternative builders are available but Chaz and Ivan are helping so much to get this sorted out. I would rather use their builders as we know they are reliable but that all depends on the chap wanting to stay away from his family for a month or so to do the work. We shall see.

Sassy with her fluffy bum

Louise cheerfully saying hello

So, dinner is about to be served so I'd better get this published. I'll leave you with Sassy taken just now, watching me watch her and Louise, jumping up to see me after coming in from having fun outside.