All change, please

How quickly it comes round to time to do an update again, how happy I am that I no longer try and do these every night. It's going to be a quick update as I want to go out this evening for dinner at our favourite restaurant, not that I don't love A's cooking but we haven't been there for a while.

Tuesday night

Yes, once again we have a bit of an overlap from the previous update, the evening after I finished my update last time and once again it's a BBQ evening.

Happily resting on the balcony together

They stole A's chair

A bit sneeze from Thelma

Chicken and burgers sizzling on the grill

Salad, largely from the garden

So after the update was finished and published we were disturbed by the neighbours who had come over with the ex students and teachers who come every year to see progress. It was a lovely visit and the lady who hasn't been before was literally in tears when she saw the refurbished school sign. It's so lovely to show them round, they're always welcome. After this I went straight out onto the balcony where I kept careful watch on the coals on the BBQ while cuddling Thelma who fell fast asleep on my lap which was lovely. I did have to disturb her to put the meat on and after this both puppies went onto A's chair and relaxed there. Fortunately the horrendous sneezing fits from a few weeks ago have stopped for both puppies but Thelma had an attack, a very short one, which I caught on camera - they look so funny chewing just before they erupt. Bless her. The food was superb, with homemade burgers and the salad was lettuce and tomatoes fresh picked from the garden. Unbeatable. Our watering afterwards wasn't all that long as the pressure stayed high just long enough. It's still really unstable though.

Wednesday

It was a good nights sleep in the end with no disturbing noise from that illegal outside nightclub which is causing me such fun at the moment with repeated emails to the obshtina, and no reply to any of them yet.

Stone chips on my chest

Sassy enjoying produce from our garden

They tracked down their quarry once more

Lizard after being attacked by the puppies

The morning was again me outside swinging my pickaxe and shovel digging a path while A was watering before the heat of the day came on. I did have some stone to chip at and got the traditional spattering with white marks, held on by my copious sweat. We went onto the balcony after a brew to do our exercises and Sassy was munching away on some cabbage leaves that A had put in for her, and she was loving them. It was a busy morning for work for both of us and I had an interesting conversation with the CTO of the company I'm working for where I was told they didn't need me any more as there's no work for me, but he got my notice period all wrong so I still don't know what is happening next week, whether I'm working or not. No matter, I'm sure it'll work out and I have already got options. We were disturbed at one point by lots of barking outside and A went to check and found a lizard, cornered by the puppies and trying to fight back to escape. She put it into a pot on the windowsill to recover but they found it again so I ended up carrying it to a sunny spot where it started to revive.

Rambo laying on the concrete path in the shade

Pathway dug up to the gates to the fenced garden

The route to go on to the patio

Dramatic clouds while I was watering the orchard

Flowers appearing on our pepper plants

When it came to the end of my work day I went outside to take advantage of slightly cooler conditions at that time than we've seen recently. The sun was in and out from behind clouds but I was able to dig the path all the way to the entrance to the fenced garden area, while also mocking out roughly where we want to have the path going towards the patio. It was hard work but satisfying and I was pleased when I went inside and had a lovely shower, having completed the task. Dinner was lamb cutlets with home grown spuds and cabbage and we ate it on the balcony enjoying the fact that the wind, which had been howling around, was a lot less. Then it was time for watering and this time the pressure kept up all the way. Things are growing well, and we've got a fair few flowers appearing on the peppers, while my vine is growing across its guide already.

Early evening sky as we relax on the balcony

Sunshine behind a chain link fence

Huge sky just after sunset from the roof terrace

A strong glow as the sun went down

Very new moon

We spent the rest of the evening reading and drinking tea on the balcony watching the sun set and as usual it put on quite a show for us. We even went running up onto the roof terrace to get a clearer view and it was worth doing this as you can see - the sky is huge from up there. We aren't spending as much time on the roof terrace this year as last, which is just how these things go I suppose. Later on the moon suddenly appeared; it is a very new moon (hence Bayram and all the sweets for the kids the day before) and was quite beautiful to observe. And so, relatively early, we got bed and had quite a good nights sleep until the early hours...

Thursday

... until about 3am when the music from the nightclub, audible earlier than that but very much quieter, suddenly became very loud and the DJ was shouting and I was up and emailing the obshtina again to complain. I went into the guest room and actually slept OK after that but it was so loud it even disturbed A, who sleeps much deeper than I do.

Action shot with flying stones

The aftermath

When I did wake up it was a bit later than usual but that can't be a bad thing and I still went out to work on the path. My challenge today was to reduce the bedrock that is in the way; too proud to just pour sand and stones over, but not high enough that it would protrude above the stones and could be left. I swung the pickaxe with a will and did more than I would have been able to do a few weeks ago however it was very hard work, and I have blisters again, and I think I'll be getting my machine back from the neighbours to break this up rather than spending a week chipping away at it very slowly.

And that is the last picture from today so far. I've been working very hard (I don't quite know why with how badly the company is treating me right now, maybe I'm just too honourable for my own good) and I've also been arranging and taking an interview for a potential immediate contract so it's certainly not all panic here. I still do not know if tomorrow will be my last day so we'll find out but it doesn't matter to me either way now. We're about to go out and meet SandS for dinner at our favourite restaurant so I need to go and freshen up and head out. Catch you on Sunday.