Not the best news, but life goes on

I'm yawning as I start to type this after a ridiculously bad night, a combination of a bit of a disagreement last night, and then more loud music from that nightclub. Things have changed very fast over the past three days which has resulted in my booking an AirBNB in a place north of Brussels to arrive a week today and there to stay until probably the end of October. Neither of us are really happy about this turn of events but it has to be done. We don't ever argue much and our unfortunate evening is firmly behind us, and now we will be focusing on the next week, which A has taken off work and I'm not working of course, and trying to enjoy it as much as possible while also getting as many of those tasks that I had on my urgent list done before I leave.

Thursday evening

So anyway, to the regular update.

Waiting for our friends

A bigger group than planned

Our friendly musician

Sun goes down when we get home

A large spider in the roof space

I left you on Thursday just rushing out the door to go out for dinner with SandS. We got to our favourite restaurant and settled in our now regular table outside looking over the river. We were there a few minutes before SandS and when they arrived they told us that Dincher and his wife had just arrived and so we all shifted, found ourselves a bigger table, and settled down to what was a really enjoyable meal. While we do mourn the fact that the Lady with the Unfeasably High Shoes went to a better paid gig in the far north of the country they have replaced her with a musician who is slowly starting to find his feet and mixing his music up with not just western music. He always plays a song for us when he sees us and this evening he opened his set with "this is for my English friends" which is lovely. In no way did we rush through dinner and we got back just as the sun dropped and it was dark by the time we finished our watering but it is so warm that doesn't really matter. I was able to get the pneumatic drill from the Special One and ask him to look at this rather large spider I found in the roof that he said was fine.

Friday

On Friday I was hoping to find out that my previous contract was going to be continued until the contractual end date however I received a very early email saying that the company had decided that they would breach my contract. I now do not know if I'll be paid for the next three weeks as my contract states I should. My panic was minimal as I had the second interview arranged for the afternoon and anyway there is a lot of work around.

Pulling up the last of the cauliflower

Path needing a lot of drilling to get to a good level

The sofas are delivered

Happy on my new lazyboy

Nook sofa relaxation

Dirty foot prints on my new chair!

A's new rocking chair is revealed

Puppies trying out the rocking chair as well

I was working my last day, as they had asked me to do a five day week (makes you wonder why they think they don't need me if they want me to do overtime, but anyway) but we still went out early morning to water, harvest and check for those nasty Colorado Beetles. A headed into town to do the weekly shop and I stayed working, did some cleaning around while waiting for a meeting, and also every now and then went into the garden with the pneumatic drill to chip away at the stone in the way of the path. We were expecting our new furniture to be delivered during the day and had the call early in the morning and arranged for them to call when they reached our village. There was some confusion about where the centre of our village actually is but eventually I found them and so we took the delivery, paid the balance,and waved them off. There then followed a mad dash of unpacking and sitting on new sofas, and the puppies trying out each chair despite being told off. They are just perfect and even more comfortable than I remember them from the shop.

 

Theses shelves are a pain to work with

Storage in the pantry

A big lump of stone dug out

This is were it came from

The path, with less stone than at the beginning of the day

With this delivery out of the way A got another job done as she took apart one of the metal shelving units and stole the shelves to increase the capacity of another one. These are now in the pantry and doing a good temporary job of providing storage. Long term I'm going to be put floor to ceiling wooden shelves in but that will have to wait for now. It reached the end of my work day while I was on my second interview for the new job and it went very well indeed; so well that they made me an offer while I was still on the call. Of course it's good to be employed again but as I've already said it's going to be quite a disruption to our lives. I went outside after this, having done some housekeeping for the new job, and finished off my drilling. A came out to video me and typically I struggled to shift anything however just after she went in I dug out the last lump with only a couple of attacks at different angles.

Thelma taking a rest

On the balcony at the end of the day

A richly coloured sky

The moon top left, as the sun disappears

All day Thelma had been out with me when I was there, having her toy thrown (and as you can see in the video above, getting in the way sometimes) but it was very warm and she took a rest on the pile of lumber waiting for me to make more raised beds. Our dinner was a lovely chili that we ate sat inside for once, taking advantage of our lovely dinner space, and then we rested on the balcony, did the watering, and finished up watching the sun set and the moon rise and enjoying the peace and quiet. The music from the club did occur again however it wasn't that loud and didn't really disturb us which was a relief. I, however, just could not get to sleep early on and I had a nip of my sleeping whisky which helped me drop right off straight after.

Saturday

After a disturbed nights sleep we were both up very early on Saturday. All of a sudden it feels like I have a lot to get done before I leave, as the whole of the summer jobs must be crammed into one week.

Day breaks and we've already been outside working

A multi coloured catepiller

The new standard lamp

Plastic and sand round the corner and half way to the garden

Making her awesome burgers

Flames from old fat on the grill - it needs a clean

I went straight outside to get on with the path while A did the watering and it was good to get stuff done before the sun rose and it got hot. After what felt like a long time we went inside and got ready to go to town to the bank but it was still before 8.30 so we had to wait a little longer. The trip to town was a full success, including buying a new lamp for the nook to match the main light in there. When we got back I went back out to work on the path and got loads done before it was time to have a shower and wait for our guests. We were having Venko and his family over for the much delayed BBQ that we planned ages ago and so A made some of her excellent burgers from scratch. When I had received a call from Venko to say they were on their way I got the BBQ lit and actually managed quite well other than the old fat burning off when it got very hot.

Sat on the balcony having a chat while the BBQ sizzles

Venko playing my acoustic Ibanez while his wife listens

Three creatures with huge quantities of energy to burn

Not long afterwards I heard a beep of a car horn and went down and greeted our guests at the gate, letting them drive up while I closed it behind them. They haven't been over since February so there was a lot for them to see and while we were still outside Thelma, who I had left on the balcony while I ran downstairs, jumped onto the wall and looked over as if she was going to join us. That prompted me to run up and make sure she didn't do it again. After looking at all the changes I was joined on the balcony by everyone else and we cooked and then ate a huge repast. It was very lovely, and the weather was just perfect with no high winds for once. After food Venko played my guitars a bit while I kept dashing off to watch the tour de france. Their young son loves the puppies and spent all the time he could playing with them. It was such a good afternoon and so nice to see them.

Kat munching on a lizard

Stone edging and filling progress

When they left I went straight back outside to get on with the path while A did the watering. As I headed towards the stone pile on one of my trips I was aware of a lot of running around in the chicken house and saw that they had caught a lizard and were fighting over who would eat it! By the time I got A over to check it out the whole thing had been munched. Amazing. I kept working until I felt like going inside and got quite a lot of stones poured but it was clearly going to take longer than planned. It was then that our unpleasant evening occurred. Not good.

Sunday

Neither of us slept well, I actually ended up on the new double sofa downstairs because of the stupid nightclub which woke me and prevented me sleeping in our bedroom. We dealt with the night before early, which is always important, and got on with the day.

Early morning there was cloud about

Just the stones to pour to finish the job

Guests relaxing in the new kitchen

Adding carrots to the roasting dish

Louise chilling out on the lazy boy

Well and truly puppied

It was still early and the sun was slowly emerging from the early morning cloud when we headed into the garden to work on the path. A was helping me and she loaded stones into the wheelbarrows while I rolled them across the patio and unloaded and spread them. We worked together like this for a while and got quite a lot done. The stones are now up to the end of the dug section and we just need to fill the path to the garden. I think this'll take about 8 to 10 barrows which won't take long in the morning. We stopped and showered and I dozed a bit and so did A and then it was time to start cooking the roast chicken as our guests for today were due. They arrived on time and we settled in the kitchen on the new lazyboy and rocking chair and relaxed and waited for the food to cook. When it was ready we sat in the dining room, listening to classical music, and enjoying the really awesome roast. We then headed onto the balcony to relax and lazed in the sun until they had to head off.

We waved them off and I got to speak to an old friend which was very nice indeed. I had gone to show SandS the grey water sump and found that the filter was totally clogged so that got cleaned. Since then I've been sat here finishing this update while A has just completed the watering round; we're still struggling for water pressure and it is a slow process at the momeny. We're both expecting once again to be disturbed by the nightclub tonight so the Obshtina will be receiving yet more emails from me probably. Right, that's me done. Later