Finally home

Hello again it is the correctly christened Beard back at home and back bringing these updates once more. "Oh no!" I hear you cry and well you might, this one in particular is going to be quite long as it is covering quite a period of time for me, and a few days also for A while she prepared for my return. I've got loads of pictures to go through and only a faint idea of how to organise this right now but I'm sure I'll work it out as I go. All I know is it is so wonderful to be back with my family in my home and I hope I never have to leave again for so long.

Me still in Mechelen

I last did an update one month ago today, on 2nd October, and what a month that was. I'll try and compress it as much as possible while still retaining my memories in here of those weeks. There'll probably be a few sub-sub headings as well..

Modeling

The first section will deal briefly with my modeling attempts following on from the success of the river which is now sat in pride of place in the living room on display.

Water and cardboard go very bending indeed

Base coat of paint, and the "tarmac" entrance area

Loads of white glue to hold the gravel down

Dry brushed, grass scatter, and done

The first section of my model railway that I am going to do involves a carpark for the day tripping railway (and now a golf club also). There's many techniques for making a carpark so I decided to give one a try; using dirt from outside. Once more I was limited with my materials and had to make do with cardboard which kept warping really badly whenever I soaked it with water and glue, and I had to keep flattening it with weights. Anyway, it ended up coming out OK and I learned a lot in the process. It is certainly not as awesome as the river scene, but then it is a carpark and they are not very exciting at any time.

Yard-brush bristles for dry reeds

Flowers grow just at the edge of the stream

I was continuing to put some final touches on the river masterpiece while I was working on the carpark and this allowed me to try some other techniques out. I made use of an old brush and cut a few bristles off it to make a cluster of reeds at one end. These are held in place with superglue and they are really solid. I also made some flowers out of tea leaves mixed in paint and dried and then stuck them to the top of some spray painted toothbrush bristles to make flowers. I thought they would be really flimsy and not work but the superglue has dried rock hard and they are really solid - a very useful thing to know.

Wool glued with white glue around a plastic mold

Carving the boat shape from polystyrene

The bottom layer of cardboard held in place with pins

Thin strips of cardboard for the planks

Glued to an undercoated boat shape

One small fishing boat completed

Finally for this section I was having a play with some ideas for hand-crafting some boats. I'd seen one on eBay that I figured I could make using wool to represent rope and white glue to hold it all together. I gave this a quick test and was very impressed with the results. I then took some polystyrene and carved a boat shape to use as a mold. This I wrapped in card and then made cardboard planks which were glued on the outside. Finally I put a floor inside and this resulted in a really solid model that is so good I think it will have to go on the railway eventually.

There is a chance that all these "hobby" style updates will go to another blog that I am planning so this one can remain focused on things more related to renovation work; I've got to see if I feel like I have time to do that though.

Going out

Another aspect of trying to get through that hellish final month was getting out a bit more. This was assisted by the fact that work did a few things and then there was final meals for the project finishing and other things. I also made plans to see friends.

A really nice spicy prawn pasta

This looks so much better than it tasted

Very carefully pouring a beer

Cheers my friend!

The final table picture

First of all we had a meal to celebrate finishing development on the system and demonstrating it very successfully to the customer. We went to a place I hadn't seen before, behind the main cathedral where the food was very good but the service was so slow it was almost comical. We took about three hours to have a two course meal. It was a lot of fun anyway. My next excursion was to meet up with a friend who lives very close to me here, and who happened to be working in Brussels. We just sat and had beers at the bar near my work and it was a lovely evening all round. Next was the final final meal which was paid for by work. We started again at that same bar where Cis poured a huge beer and explained how the shape was from the time of horse and carriages and the glass could be hooked in to what was really the first ever car cup holder. Fascinating. Food was in a place I'd spotted in the centre of Mechelen and was superb and the service was much better. Afterwards we went for a few more beers around town and the night ended at mine with two of my colleagues drinking vodka and redbull while I nursed a beer then took myself to bed at about 3am.

Waiting for my friend in a very atmospheric bar

Pizza Calzone in Belgium

The Tiramisu was superb

That was supposedly the healthy option

I went for the beef stew and it was lovely

My final week I was determined to fill up as I was really struggling by this time. One of my colleagues who had left a little while before I had really liked so it was with pleasure that I made plans to meet him for a beer in town. We met up in a bar that A and I had strolled past and commented on how cool it looked. It really was a nice place as well and the company was good - thanks Joren. The second to last night I was in Mechelen I finally walked round the corner to the Italian restaurant on the canal. This was a very good decision and the food was superb. I had to run at the end, however, as an idiot Belgian man started sawing away at his spaghetti with a knife and fork and the noise was killing me. On my final day in the country the remaining members of the team went with me to a lunch restaurant and we had one final meal out - it is fair to say that this killed the afternoon completely but it was a lovely way to finish what was really a perfect contract.

Getting ready for leaving, and leaving

And so we come to the last part of this section. I really cannot express how much I wanted to come home and just how bad it was particularly in the final two weeks. I enjoyed myself pretty much up to then just with the challenge and interest of the job but the last two weeks were a drag and I had to really force myself to stay and not just walk out and fly home early; I did have the website open a couple of times looking at same day flights.

A lovely day for a walk by the canal

A box from work for my stuff

Very carefully wrapped and labeled

Rucksack ready on the final night

One of the ways I entertained myself was to get out along the canal whenever the weather was nice, which it actually was quite consistently. I went for a lovely long walk one Sunday which was really nice and another time I just took my kindle and sat by the water reading for an hour or so in the sun. This helped, so thank you A for suggesting it. Nothing, however, made me happier than when I was packing and making physical preparations to leave. Two weeks before my final day Ken came past to collect a box and my suitcase to ship back home for me. He stopped the night, having arrived quite late, and was off very early the next day with two very precious parcels. They arrived safe and nothing was damaged at all - I did pack everything very carefully. My final packing couldn't happen until the last day, of course, and so on my last night I ordered a Chinese and managed to fit nearly everything into my bags. My Chinese was less of a success and it took three hours to arrive, from the second place I tried, but at least it did arrive and it was tasty.

This bike was such a brilliant resource while I was away

Not much space for either of us

The last morning in the AirBNB I spent doing final packing, running the hoover round and generally making the place a bit cleaner. I then strapped the laptop bag to the back of Cis' bike and carefully cycled the heavy bike with the huge rucksack on my back to work for the final time. As I've already said the afternoon of that last day was a tough one - I was really busy and actually had to leave a job half done which I really hate doing. Never mind, I wanted to get home more and so I was on an early train and to the baggage drop two HOURS before it opened! Thankfully I had my kindle and A was texting and I survived this boredom. I got on the plane early as usual and then watched as the rest of the people filed on like they'd never been on one before - I actually witnessed some people sit in the wrong seats, which is pretty tough to do. I was in an aisle seat so I could stretch my legs but I had a huge man sit next to me who ended up being a really nice guy - he must have been so uncomfortable but he shared a can of beer with me and we chatted until my ears were hurting too much. Oh yes, I was also ill for the final week and flew home with a cold which caused my ears to block and it took two days for them to clear.

None of that mattered, however, as I was home and with A again. She had driven from home to Sofia to collect me and managed this despite the satnav breaking again - she met me in arrivals and I drove us home and I cannot remember being happier, even though my ears were really sore and annoying me a lot. It was a lovely drive and we were back by about 4am and had a brew and cuddled the puppies before hitting the sack and sleeping until about 10 the next day.

HOME!

So now I'm going to fill you in on the last few days since that trip home. Let's see how quickly I can do this and if I can get it done before A calls me for dinner (probably not) as she's headed down to cook a little while ago.

Getting ready for our cheese feast

A lovely view across our village

The super strong cheese

Saturday was a really lovely day and after a very lazy start involving me unpacking things and sorting out presents for A we took our lunch on the roof terrace which involved the cheeses I had brought back from Belgium. They were pretty awesome but it was the setting and the company that did it for me. One of the cheeses in particular was really amazing - it was a Stilton they bought in and then aged for an unspecified amount of time in their own cellar. All I know is it was brown and tasted superb. I was planning on cooking steak for dinner, also brought back, however we were invited at the last minute to the neighbours for dinner. This was a lovely evening, as you would expect (though I struggled to hear anyone what with my blocked ears) and it was a shame we didn't get any pictures. The evening ended with A playing LOTR SBG with me and enjoying it so much we did two scenarios. This is good as I've bought a bit of this to play over winter to keep us entertained.

Stew being cooked on the kitchen stove

Into the oven at a steady 200 degrees

Just a few more peppers to process

Deseeding

This little caterpillar got lucky

Sunday morning I got stuck in to changing the tyre on A's bike so she could finally ride it. We did tie Rambo up as he is often a pain for those on bikes, but the puppies were really good and ran along with her as she took her first goes. She even rode it up to the village and back to get bread. I then fixed my bike up, though I really need to get some oil on it now. A was back in the kitchen again making an Irish Stew using the new petchka and being very pleased with herself indeed as she used the hot plate and the oven to make food. I can't blame her really - it is pretty cool! My task, after fixing the bike, was to harvest the rest of the peppers and this I got done with A giving a hand at the end. We had loads more and so we both got stuck in to de-seed them and with two hands working at this task it didn't take too long before they were all done. We just bagged the lot up and put three bag fulls in the freezer for over winter.

Our home - and what a lovely place it is too

Stringing up chillies to dry them

Better than any artwork

Cooking my signature dish on the new stove

Ready to tuck in, but being delayed by me with the camera

I have taken back over doing the daily photographs which A has done really well while I've been away. We're nearly to the end of this now, only another couple of months and then I can create the video for you to see. On the way back I snapped a photograph of the school looking superb in the afternoon sun and you can see A having a brew sat by the kitchen door if you look closely. With the larger peppers all seeded and frozen A strung the smaller chillies and hot peppers to be hung to dry and these are now looking amazingly like artwork as they hang under the stairs. For dinner it was my turn to make use of the stove and be amazed at how well it cooks things - the butter fried mushrooms and onions were just perfectly done. I think I could even have done the steaks and maybe for the next time I will.

A beautiful start to the day

Puppies on the big pile of cardboard

Starting to build up the bonfire

We have quite a list of tasks which we want to get through this winter and one of the first is to build a bonfire for our second annual bonfire party occurring next weekend. On Monday we got this built though I only have photographs of the base part, made with cardboard we've collected over winter. The puppies had a lot of fun climbing over it as if there were rats but we found absolutely no evidence of them at all. This is very good news indeed. I cannot remember the rest of Monday as I think I was pretty battered and I went to bed at 7pm and slept right through.

The garage all clean and tidy again

Getting ready to start shoveling

One load done and ready to take to dump

A with a load of pepper plants

Tuesday was a very productive day for me. I got the garage fully tidied and ready for allowing us to fit a car in over winter which is really good. [[Dinner just happened - this is how far I got]] I then headed outside to get on with a really unpleasant job that is right at the top of the list of priorities - clearing out all the coal from the lean to next to the chicken house. I shoveled it into Thomas who was backed up to the entrance then drove up the hill and shoved it out onto the rubbish tip before coming down for another go, obviously stopping for a brew before going again. I only did two trips but made enough progress to think that if I can keep at it I'll get it done in a week or two. It needs completing before I can start on the grey water as I have to back Thomas up over where I need to dig. I was absolutely filthy, of course, and had to have a wash and a shower before A would let me in the house. A headed out while I was having my shower and pulled all the pepper plants up to give to the Little Lady for her cattle and I caught her just about to take them over.

Deciding what to have

I had no doubts what I was having though

We went out for dinner to our favourite restaurant and were given our usual table to sit at. I ordered the dish I like the best, Lamb Kavarma, but A changed her mind from the Lamb in the Oven (her usual staple) and went for chicken strips, duck hearts and chips with cheese. It was so nice to be back and we had a lovely time, though I was again feeling tired by the time we left. It is getting dark so early it wasn't even late by then so when we got back we set up and played another scenario of SBG which was really enjoyable.

Singeing the peppers on the stove

Awesome ragu being prepared

Working in the garden to prepare for winter sowing

Three puppies staring at one toy

A good quantity of ragu for the winter

And so we come to today and the end is in sight for this epic update. I woke up feeling like being productive and determined that I would get out and shovel some more coal but after eating breakfast (bacon and eggs cooked by myself) I realised that I really wasn't feeling great and dozed for most of the morning. About the only thing I achieved was putting the exercise bike attachment together so we can ride inside. A was getting loads done, however, cooking up the peppers and tomatoes she had harvested to make into a ragu. I did assist with the singeing of the peppers on the stove but that was about it. After lunch I shook myself and A suggested we head out into the garden and that was a great idea - it was a gorgeous day and I felt a lot more energetic. I hauled seven wheelbarrows of manure from the village heap and we spread them in the raised beds and around the olive trees and then watered them in. The puppies were loving being outside and where all playing together. After this we spent some time working out how we want to decorate the nook and dining area and then I've come up here to type this while she split up the ragu for freezing and then cooked a lovely fish meal for tonight.

So there it is. I'll try to be back quicker and certainly to keep the next one shorter. If you stayed the course and got this far then congratulations and commiserations in equal measure.