An overview of my trip

So I am back; the building trip which I have been looking forward to for so long is over and now I am on the long and exciting slide towards leaving for good. Actually (I realised earlier) five months from today - yesterday as I will publish this tomorrow.

I wanted to write a blog looking back on the trip and giving a more general overview of what happened, and how I feel about it all, from a perspective improved by a few days of sleep and resting and this is what this post will attempt to be.

The large hole we arrived to

As I was writing the blog last night and, to some extent, while I am writing this one I am feeling very strongly that until this trip I have been playing at this plan. I know I have been really serious (obviously) but all the blogs, and all the preparations, almost feel like they were badly focused, unnecessary in a sense, and possibly misleading. Did I really need to be thinking about buying 2-way radios for the vehicles (or even the vehicles at all) or should I have been waiting for this trip and then only now put those efforts into motion.

Having said that I think this feeling is probably less a position of wondering whether my plans have up til this point been worth while (they certainly have and all the advice and suggestions I have received on here have been helpful, not even mentioning the fact of having been able to codify my thinking by writing it all down). But maybe now this whole adventure is starting to become real. I spent ten days in Bulgaria, worked for six of them with the men, and loved every single second of it. Every day I fell in love with the country a little bit more and every day I realised just how correct I was to buy the school.

What's not to love

This is the feeling I have as I sit here, back in my office on my lunch break and both looking back and looking forwards.

When I consider what we achieved over the ten days it amazes me. Within a couple of hours I had running water, I also now have a connected official supply which is signed off. The men also got onto the roof and fixed twice as much as I thought needed fixing. I got to go around the building, making it more secure from weather and animals and also tidy the roof-stairs and the last rooms in the main building which are not full of hay. How could I have hoped to end up with that much stuff done.

Before and after on the roof

I also think back to the stress I was feeling on the Wednesday when we still hadn't started the roof; it is really excellent to be able to sit and think "well actually that wasn't a terrible place to be and it all worked out" and it is a lesson learned that I need to realise that I do not know always how long something will take. I can see next year being more of a challenge around this as I don't think I'll have Bekir and Sally for most of it so I hope the workers I do end up with are reliable and work as well as those two.

I feel like I've woken up after a long time of dreaming about something, and the reality is right in front of me and that is an amazing feeling.

Having looked back, a little about what is happening now.

So, tomorrow (today as you read this) I am getting the bill paid for the electricity (tok) to be connected and maybe there might be some more things done on the building as my friend is taking Bekir to get it all signed off and sorted. The paperwork will then be passed on to Veselka to be included in her project.

Talking of which, I've not yet received the contract from Veselka so it looks like out of sight, out of mind and I may need to put a bit of a chaser on her to get it done.

I have the plans printed out five times on A3 paper and I need to get some time this weekend to draw in and label what I want done; these will then be scanned and emailed to Veselka to get included in the plans. Hopefully she has been down to my local Obshtina this week to get the PUP process started; nothing can happen from her point of view until that is done.

Now for sale....

Lastly I finally have received the V5 for Pierre so if an of you want to buy a lovely camper van which I have hardly used since I bought it please shout. He is great; just not left hand drive so not suitable for me.

Flying back... for the last time

So I am getting back into my habit of publishing my blogs first thing, as I am no longer doing interesting stuff day by day.

My plane didn't look like this one

This one is the final little bit of the blog from yesterday as I ran out steam quite suddenly and couldn't be bothered to go into details about this part of the trip.

Not that it is very exciting really.

The most interesting thing about this is that this flight back was the last flight I will do before I am over there permanently. I will never have that horrible feeling of "oh god, I'm going back to England and leaving this behind, maybe for ever" again. What a great thing to realise.

I was standing on the bus (in Sofia they take you by bus from the departure lounge to the plane, about 100 yards away, for some strange reason) in the special area for Speedy Boarding customers (though this doesn't seem to have the cachet it once did and the area was positively packed with Common People *shudders* hah) and I recognised a chap I was standing next to from a previous flight. He also recognised me and opened the conversation with "I am just pleased that, other than one more return trip, this is nearly the last time I have to do this". I was exceptionally happy to reply that this was my last ever flight and the next time I would be driving over.

Some people!

From over hearing conversations on the bus, and talking to this chap, it does seem that there is an increase in the incidence of people deciding to retire out there for good. Though one particularly annoying man who was complaining about everything had "an apartment here and I come over in September"; the sort of person who buys in an expat community and talks loudly about how rubbish "they" are at everything. If you don't like it, don't move to the country.

So the flight was OK, I fell asleep and woke with a sore neck, and read and chatted a little to the friendly guy (past the huge Bulgarian bloke sitting between us) and then suddenly we were landing and through security and on the train and away.

Mmmm a nice pint

In the pub with my friends after it was observed that modern transport is so strange; it took me about 4 hours to get all the way from Sofia, but sometimes it can take that long to drive 20 miles on a motorway.

So there we are, I'm back and I won't have to put up with that flight again for a while.

That's it for today; I'm all typed out for now.

The last two days

Wow.

I am sat back in England right now after a non stop two days. Chaz did have internet and offered to let me use it but I felt so much like a train had hit me (and I had no cable to get my pictures off my camera) so I demurred and decided to do a post today covering both days.

This entry may not be so easy to read as I am totally knackered right now from all the travelling so please do bear with me. Even in the few sentences I have written so far I have had to go back to correct typos about twenty times. Four times typing that last sentence!

Beautiful Sunset

Anyway, rewinding my memory (such as it is ) back to the end of Sunday. After I wrote my blog I went and sat outside with a beer and then, as the sun went down, I migrated myself to the front of the house. The View was immense and I had to take some pictures. I must have sat for about half an hour in the front ditch (yes, literally with my feet in the ditch, sat on the bank) watching as the colours changed over the valley. Stunning.

Super foggy morning

So, after lovely lamb in honey dinner (with potatoes at my request which slowed the whole process down), to bed and then awake the next morning to a really foggy misty start. When I saw this I thought "ooooh that could slow my drive down" so jumped straight out of bed however as I was drinking my morning brew in the front room chatting to my friend the sun already started burning through and by the time I left, about 8am, it was clearing quite nicely at our level.

Gorgeous view across the valley

I drove through along the narrow road from her house and the view across the valley (actually towards my school I think) encouraged me to park the car up and get out and take some pictures. The way the fog catches in the valley, but the sky is such a rich blue, it really is stunning and I did find myself watching the views a little too much sometimes :) Maybe I hit a few more potholes than I would otherwise.

So to fuelling up in the main town and onwards. The drive to Chaz from our region is about a three hour drive and it goes from the mountainous region we are in across many types of countryside and eventually to a flatter location.

Military convoy crosses

Just as I was leaving the town I was stopped by a military policeman (well, the car in front was) and a convoy of military vehicles pulled out of the side road. It took about 5 mins for them to all proceed and then the MP, with AK47 slung over his shoulder, waved us on.

An armoured car

For the next ten or fifteen miles I was leap frogging down the convoy in tandem with another car as the huge trucks were not really able to get up a good speed. There were many different vehicles including troop transports, fuel trucks and armoured vehicles. Further down the road, coming the other way, was another segment of this movement of materiel comprising trucks towing mobile artillery pieces; I was not able to get a picture of these as they were going the other direction.

Looking up and down the river from the bridge

On the way there are many amazing sights but this time I had (with the fog clearing) timed it such that I had plenty of time to drive slowly and appreciate the geography and scenery I was driving through. About half way you drive over a bridge across the most AMAZING of rivers; it really is stunning. So wide and calm and I hope that when I move I will drive just to this river in the summer to swim in it.

Straight road with autumn colours

Further on the road follows extensively the previous road building efforts of the Romans and, at this time of year with the leaves changing, it is a riotous corridor of colour and texture which again prompted my to swerve to the side of the road and snap some pictures. Would that I could just be meandering around Bulgaria all the time; it is such a beautiful country.

Lunch of soup and stew

Anyway, I arrived at Chaz's in plenty of time and we headed into the town (giving a local kid a lift to the market so he could buy himself a school uniform; imagine an english kid doing that?!) however Veselka and the translator had been delayed so went went back to the same restaurant as before and had the workers menu; a lovely soup, lamb stew and a pint for less than £2 each.

After this we went over to Veselka's office however they still were not there so we parked the car up and walked into town for a coffee. Upon returning again she still wasn't there so into the car and off to some building merchants to grab some stuff for Chaz's builders; it seems that even after eight years you're still having to go around to collect bits and pieces for the renovation.

The final time we returned they still weren't there but a phone call was placed and it was determined that Veselka was on her way. The translator arrived first and cracked on with getting the power of attorney translated and then, after a while, Veselka herself arrived.

And so started a very stressful few hours.

I blogged earlier about some questions about the contract which did not seem to reflect what I was expecting. The long and short of it (Goredol, as it would be in Bulgarian) was that she had got the entirely wrong end of the stick and the amount quoted did not actually include any planning permission for the main part of the build.

After an hour or so of increasingly frustrated discussions (with the translator and Chaz joining me in getting slightly heated) we eventually established what I expected and then she tried to say that she couldn't quote as she didn't know but we managed to extract a figure from her eventually which I agreed with. This has more than doubled the cost of the Architect however it is in line with what other people had suggested it should be.

By the time we got to this stage it was getting on for when the legal offices start to shut and we still hadn't managed to get the Power of Attorney sorted out. The translator rang ahead to let them know we were on our way and it was a task of no more than ten minutes to get it all stamped and registered, and about 10 lev taken from my pocket for the pleasure, and then we were on our way back to Veselkas to agree the next steps and pay some cash to act as a deposit.

I am now waiting on a contract to be emailed to me, and have basically bought the plans which I posted a few weeks ago on here. She is off to the Obshtina to start the process and I have been told that "if it isn't done by March she will be so annoyed because she just wants this project done with". She has also sworn off ever doing another school. Whoops.

So about six hours after leaving his hotel we went to the supermarket, picked up some whisky (and coke for him... people who know me will understand how much I had been affected by the experience in the Architects that I didn't even slightly question the coke) and back to his, there to open the bottle immediately and have a large measure poured.

Chaz cooked in the evening and made a curry, in honour (I think) of how much I like and go on about curry while I am here. It was really REALLY tasty. We had guests, two locals came round, grand ma and granddaughter came for drinks and a meal. After dinner I rang home and while I was standing outside on the phone a drunk strange man came up to me. I retreated saying "Ne" and shut the door. About half an hour later he appeared in the room and it turned out to be the father of the girl, and the son of the grandma. He was off his face and, just before he left, harangued me about my beard. All I can think of is he thought it was a religious thing (HA!) but my response was simple; it is my face and I will have on it that which I chose.

Strange man.

Sun rise from the hotel window

They left and after another whisky, and a cup of tea, I retired to bed where other than a disturbance as I slept when I thought I heard an intruder (I think it was in the end either Chaz or Ivan locking up) so I went to investigate, I slept like a baby and woke just before my alarm to an amazing sun rise again.

It seems this is common to all of Bulgaria, this amazing sun art.

After a full English breakfast that Gary from the Stawberry would have been jealous of (and sorry for the lack of photograph, I was way too busy eating it to stop) cooked by Chaz I left on my way to the airport.

Very flat, as far as the eye can see

An interesting rocky outcrop; the motorway just below it

The way led up country a bit towards the motorway and the contrast between this part of Bulgaria, and the mountains where I have bought, was striking. It is a country of farms and lowlands and miles and miles of flat views. It is beautiful in its own way, with some stunning scenes as your eye roves across the land.

After miles of very boring motorway driving I reached Sofia airport and onto the plane. That however is a subject for another blog and I am now really really exhausted so I am going to stop this right now and hit the sack.

Cheers

And on the seventh day (they) rested

Today is my last day down in the area I'm moving to as tomorrow I am off to see Chaz and the architect and then Tuesday I fly home. Booooo!!!

The morning sun glints on the mist in the valley

There was very little planned for today so the alarm was left switched off and I woke at about 8am local time to another beautiful morning with mist in the valley and the sun glinting off it and quite a chill in the air. There had been a frost again last night and the ground was still frozen but what an amazing place this is to wake.

Washing had run through the night so I was on hanging-out-to-dry duty outside and then I cooked breakfast while my hostess tidied around as she has not had much chance to with the long days we have been having working at my school. Breakfast was fried bread (again, and better done this time), some ham which I sliced thinly and fried like bacon (as close to real bacon as you get without making your own; guess what I will be doing) and fried eggs. Wow it was tasty and the brown sauce was out on the table to assist with the flavours.

Butterfly

From then I sat in the sun on the terrace for a while and managed to capture a huge butterfly which was flitting from flower to flower; it was prettier than the picture suggests with lots of very subtle colours through its wings. My friends garden really is a lovely place and I take loads of pictures from it. I won't bore you with them all though.

BBQ lamb at the fete

The main thing we had planned for today was to visit the local fete which was happening in the centre of my friends village. We walked up just after midday and it was packed, with stalls selling everything from clothing to toy guns and food stalls everywhere.

The crowds at the fete; brilliant

As we entered the scrum we were accosted by two stall holders who spoke English and said they were from 'Belfast'. We established that this is where they worked sometimes. Such is modern Europe as normally no one around this area speaks any English at all. They are very pleased when they can, though. We made our way through the whole length of the show, stopping to talk to people (including the owners of the small restaurant from earlier in the week) and finally reaching the end and looking back down the road.

Then we decided to try and find a beer and took a table in the eating area. Beer was brought to us then I went to a stall selling lamb from a BBQ pit and bought a chunk. This we ate with bread and washed down with the beer it was a very tasty snack. We had enough left over that is now cooking in honey downstairs for our dinner.

It was nice that we managed to bump into Bekir and Sally as well as a few other people who my friend knows and we had some nice conversations with them, me struggling to keep up with the Bulgarian but I am getting better all the time, if not at speaking at least I am now giving it a go at making myself understood when they ask me something.

The dog sniffs some bread

This next is not meaning to be a judgement on Bulgaria but there are a lot of street dogs and they are all very hungry and act very much like they are at the bottom of the pack. One of them was pacing around just outside the eating area and we, along with a few other people, started throwing meat and bread to him. He must have thought it was Christmas. It was funny because he would start eating bread, and then someone would throw a bone and he would go straight to the bone, dropping the bread. Clever doggy.

After an hour or so we went back to my friends house and drove over the school. Bekir had left a bag which gave further impetus to our visit, but we also stopped at a shop on the way to buy some chocolates, and a bottle of drink, for my ever-so-friendly neighbours who had let me plug into their tok (electricity) without allowing me to pay for it.

When we got there we located Bekir's bag and then the first task was to roll the fire barrel (yep, still smoking) towards the dump site. My hands got FILTHY but I have no pictures because they were too dirty for me to use the camera. We emptied the barrel and it did actually briefly burst into flames but we were ready with water in bottles so put it out quickly.

The neighbour (and the quiet one) with coffee

My neighbour arrived with a tray of coffee for us so we stood around the table tennis table drinking and talking and then, once I'd finished mine I went to complete the other tasks; namely putting padlocks on the final two doors which were lacking them.

A padlocked door

I have spent a fortune on padlocks and ring bolts but I think it is worth while as the building is secure now and people cannot just walk in.

Finally I went and rolled the fire drum inside and put it into a lockable room; they are sought after and I am quite pleased to have one (even if it currently has melted plastic dripping out the bottom; I will have to give it a good clean next year).

And so I locked up for the last time and left; it is strange to think that the next time I drive up to that building it will be me arriving to stay there for ever. Wow.

We took an interesting route back to my friends house cutting off the new road up a steep bad road and finding our way though lots of small lanes until we arrived at her house; the short cut is established.

The sheep on the hillside

And so I am back at hers, pretty much packed, beer in hand, and about to eat the last supper. It has been an excellent trip and the peace and tranquility of her house just makes me excited to have it for myself next year. All you can hear in her back yard is the sound of the sheep walking home with their bells attached, and the gentle conversation of the ladies as they herd their cows back into their night time accommodation.

I do not know if I will be able to blog tomorrow; that will depend on me getting access to a computer at Chaz's so don't worry if there is no update.

I will be back in dear old blighty on Tuesday. More's the pity!

Well that was a busy week

Today was the last day I had the men, and was an extra day on the schedule due to the slight delay with the water connection taking so long.

Mist in the valley and peach skies

I woke before my friend this morning (well, after she woke first, but before she got up if you see what I mean) and the sky was an incredible colour - almost peach at the horizon and changing to a lovely deep blue as you went higher. I took a few pictures during the morning of this and then the sun suddenly shot up above the mountains in about two minutes. Stunning.

Frozen car

When I went out to the car it was all frozen over so I started it up, turned on the defroster, then went to collect Tanir from the next village and came back past for my friend. The ice on the front window was so thick that despite scraping it (with a casino membership card no less) and having the heaters going full for ten mins, it was still not cleared until I was driving towards the men.

Frost in the shadows

Today we went straight to the school and they went directly up onto the roof to keep working; we had no need for any additional materials or to visit any departments for services. The shadow of the school on the back land was still fristy-frosty until the sun progressed down the bank as it rose.

The view from my 'bedroom' window

I decided to climb the ladder in the attic and look at the village in the morning air; this was rewarded by the sight of my local woodpecker dipping across the sky then landing on a neighbours chimney stack. It was bright green and stunning to see, however I didn't have my camera with me. What a shame. After a few minutes it flew off and I watched it leave, then went downstairs to what will be the bedroom window. The view across the valley to my local town was stunning, and I was able to appreciate some other birds flying past.

Fried bread for breakfast

First order of the day was breakfast and my friend had made the mistake of suggesting fried bread so into the frying pan with some oil, and a couple of slices of bread were turned into magnificent (if I say so myself) fried bread.

The first fire after stirring

Fire alight

From there I went outside and stirred the fire which was smoking before I did this and immediately sparked back into flames. This is a little bit of a concern as tomorrow I need to go back over there and recover the barrel into the house so no one steals it and I hope it is cold enough to move! We had the end room to continue clearing and several wheelbarrows of rubbish was brought down and stacked by the fire.

Sally fitting a support beam

I then went to see what the men were doing and they were hard at work putting the framework around the chimney. Because I have had the thought that I would like to have a petchka in Room 13 in March when I arrive we have decided to not take the chimney down but leave it there so I can have the petchka with no fuss. This has increased the complexity of the patchup job they have had to do as they are having to build around the chimney without attaching anything to it (as it is a bit unstable).

The 'kitchen'

I watched for a while and then continued some shovelling of rubbish and my friend tidied up our 'kitchen' preparatory for dinner.

Bread with mayo, chicken frying

Dinner was more of the fried chicken put into bread with mayonnaise; food fit for a king indeed!

Bekir applying the finishing touches to the water supply

At the end of lunch Bekir checked the concrete around the water supply and it was ready for the wood to be removed and the padlock to be fitted. My friend had kindly brought some polystyrene for insulation so he cut this to size then attached a handle. The key was left with my friendly neighbour and her smiling husband so when ViK come to check the water meter they can open it for them.

After this Bekir realised that we needed some batons to hold down the roof felt they were about to start applying so we legged it to the friendly builders merchant at the bottom of the hill. Helpfully Bekir had written (well, he had said the words and my friend wrote them on a pad) what we wanted so we were able to show this to her and I went to collect the packs of 1"x0.5" (I think?) while my friend spoke to the owner of the yard, who was driving a mercedes!

Bekir reclining, look at the blue sky!

Back to the school with this and Tanir was waiting at the gate to take the wood off me and rush it up into the loft for Bekir and Sally to use. Sally was relaxing on the roof waiting for it and we had a good giggle at pantomiming sunbathing at him so he complied and laid back like a sun worshipper :) very funny.

The window before we filled it....

So I had been pretty lazy for the morning, but after lunch energy came back and first of all we went to tackle the open window in what will become my garage. We used spare rough wood, and the wastage from the men taking the old roof down, and within about forty minutes or so had a completely filled window.

... and after; what a great job huh

The aim of this is only to keep goats, chickens, sheep and children out so it didn't have to be that solid but I think the end result is pretty good to be honest.

Laying bitumen on the roof

The men were continuing apace with the roof, laying the bitumen and using the batons we had bought to hold it down. They were then collecting the tiles and laying them around the edge, and over the top, to provide as close to a water tight seal as was possible.

We went back to filling the burner up with rubbish, as it had been about 3/4 full before lunch but by this point it had sunk to about 1/4 full. It is amazing how quickly things disappear when burning them, and the flames that were achieved were pretty impressive indeed.

Flaming hot, it was

With all but the last few bits burning, and no more room to put those in, our last task for the day presented itself. The window in the bedroom was wide open and, as it faced the prevailing winds, was a priority to seal up to stop huge winds gusting through, and loads of snow being deposited inside the house this winter.

A slightly shoddy joint on my frame

We had bought the polythene the other day and so I got the wood we had put aside from what the men were using, measured it carefully, and then hammered together the frame.

It was only when I offered it up to the outside of the window that I realised that the dimensions outside were slightly smaller than those inside. After a few minutes of sitting with my legs dangling over the edge of the balcony and thinking "I really am rubbish at joinery" I worked a solution out and sorted it. I then had help from my friend to wrap it in four sheets of polythene and nail some strengthening beams to it.

The audience gathers for their photograph

At about this time we suddenly had an audience as the Quiet One from next door, along with another son and a gaggle of grandchildren appeared. They were happy to have their photograph taken but when the other son said 'We will come up there?' we had to firmly say that there was no door, and the children were not allowed up. We went inside and shortly they left, meandering across my front yard and leaving slowly; they will have to get used to not having free access from next March when I fence it all off :p

Our polythene window

So we went back to our window building and with a bit of hammering and bashing managed to get it secured solidly to the window frame. I was, however, on the outside and so had to jump off the balcony to get back inside. My other neighbour (from the farm below, and who is keeping their hay in my green buildings) had joined me on the balcony and confused my friend when he started speaking to me, as she didn't know where he had come from.

Blossom after frost

This completed, and the windows inside with a few more nails on them just to keep it all solid should a major wind come in the winter, we took a bit of a wander around the grounds and one of the interesting things was this fruit tree had come back into blossom; strange as it had been below freezing the night before and lots of people had lost their peppers (on the way into town we drove past a couple of acres of pepper plants looking very much the worse for wear).

The mechano which I have managed to save

So it was coming towards the end of the day and (other than a short visit tomorrow to pull the fire drum inside) the end of my time at the school this year so we started tidying up and pulling things into secure locations. Room 13 is the most secure of all the rooms so most things were brought into there.

At about 6pm the men came from the roof, having got it as good as they could in the time available and yet we had more work for them. First of all to put a few more supports under the storage units in the end room, and then to try and put some windows back in the re-fitted one from the other day. They achieved this, apart from not being able to find a window to go in the middle but maybe I'll do that with polythene tomorrow.

The horse exchange, with sunlit hills behind

As I was counting the money to pay the men my Walking Man was coming up the lane, and a lady was leading a horse down towards him and they met and he continued with the horse. The setting sun was glowing on the hills and the town in the background and it was a lovely scene.

So to home and we dropped the men off with a bottle of special drink each to say thankyou and then back here where I have cooked pork belly in home made (not by me, by my friend) baked beans and they were lovely.

So I am going to sign this off to the sound of Gershwin from downstairs, and go and refill my now empty beer glass. Tomorrow is a day of rest (mainly) and there is an event in the village which we will be going along to.

Good night.

What a good day

As the title suggests, today has been a cracking day and we have got loads done.

Once again it is about 7.30 and I've not been long home.

There were a couple of little things I forgot to post about yesterday, mainly we had a visitor from the centre of the village wanting to "borrow" (read: have) a table as someone had died and they were having a wake. Who was I to say no, so Bekir (having refused to allow me to do so) toddled off with this table on his back for these ladies. I think this is going to be a regular occurrence and they work out that an Anglachenin has bought the place.

Anyway, that is yesterday tidied up.

The sunrise this morning

This morning I woke with the alarm and found my friend watching the sun rise. It was epic and amazing! I've not seen anything like that for a fair while, and hope to see many more when I am over here for good.

We picked the men up and were able to see the first snow of the year settled on the tops of the distant Greek Mountains; this was greeted with much comment as we have been discussing the potential for snow every day this week.

Removing the windows

Once we arrived at the school the first task was to sort out the big window from the end room which had been blown in (or attempted to be stolen possibly) and was blocking efforts to clear the room out. First of all the men removed each window whole, in its frame if possible, and stacked them outside in the next room. Then we (and I did help) lifted the window down so it was no longer precariously balanced.

Lifting the window back into place

Once this was done some nails were hammered in to add rigidity and then it was lifted up and pushed into the hole. Every corner but one went in easily. Isn't that always the way.

Making a ladder

No problem though, the men quickly made a ladder and then clambering like mountain goats the window was secured in place in no time. I then asked the men to put the big storage unit which had been knocked down by the window back up and so they lifted it into place, and them hammered a wooden brace to keep it upright.

Up the ladder hammering in the replaced window

All this was achieved in the first hour.

After this I took Bekir to the VeK and left Sally and the new labourer we had for today and tomorrow to keep working on the roof. The visit to the water people went well, with us first seeing the Russian lady (who recognised me as I walked in) and then, after a short conversation, going down to the clerk downstairs to fill in paperwork (in triplicate, and with no photocopier, so poor Bekir had to keep writing my name and address out; bless him) and then hand over 20lev for the registration fee.

From here we were to get a new cup for the new worker, breakfast in the form of more Banichkas, and a weighed amount of three different sizes of nails.

Sally on the roof

Back to the school and I was impressed with the amount Sally and Tanir had got done in our absense. My friend had also been busy, taking the opportunity to start stripping the horrible pink/purple paint from the lower half of the walls in room 13 (our store room).

The men got back on with the roof and we went to the end room, now accessible with the window and storage unit moved, and started to sort through the crap on the floor. I have now got a large collection of mechano, loads more magnets, and quite a lot of very interesting chemistry style glass ware. We spent a good hour or so just sifting and sorting through the rubbish before deciding we had enough, and were throwing more and more rubbish out of the window preparatory for our burn.

The fire starts

I brought the oil drum round onto the basketball court and the used the wheel barrow to bring the rubbish from below the window and my friend lit the fire and before long it was roaring.

Roaring fire

I did two or three more trips with the wheel barrow to below the window, and then several more into the end room and we burned all of this; when we left this evening it was still smoking.

This warmed us up as today was not a greatly warm day again, though the sun was out more than previous days.

Sally putting new beam in

We went in to do a bit more wall stripping, and I went upstairs and saw that Sally had climbed through the hole in the roof and was attaching a new beam; my camera was quickly fetched for a photograph.

The men really were making excellent progress now.

At this point I started feeling hungry so my friend and I went down to the town for a kebab; these really put the yucky ones in the UK to shame. While in town I popped into the bank and picked up my new card and PIN so now I have a fully operational bank account here.

The sagging part of the roof, now fixed

We headed back to find that the sagging hole which had been worked on first was complete and had been boarded; all there is to do now is to put bitumen over and baton that down.

On the other side now

The men were now working on the hole around the chimney and had removed most of the old ruined wood and were putting up new wood to support the new covering.

Around this time a chap turned up and started speaking to Bekir. It turned out he was a chap from the next village (maybe he saw our smoke signals) and he wanted to buy the old tiles. He was told to come back in March but this is a good thing; maybe I can offset the fact that the tiles are a bit old and rubbish and it looks like I'll need entirely new set, by selling them for an amount. We shall see.

'Elf and Safety?! Pah!

I took my bravery in hand and climbed the ladder and took a few pictures standing with my head through the roof, mostly inspired as my friend had done so before me and I didn't want to be shown up ;)

View from the roof

I spent a little time considering what to do regarding spare rooms and guest showers etc; it is almost certainly decided that I will build at least two, and maybe three, but the dimensions and layout is not clear in my head just yet. After I post this blog I will be getting pen and squared paper and drawing some ideas out; these I will take to Veselka on Monday to be incorporated in the design.

And so the day ended, with enough work to keep us very busy tomorrow, but such that it should be easily finished in the day.

I have decided to keep the chimney, just remove the bits which are precarious. This means that when I arrive next year I can put a small petchka straight into room 13 and make it warm, which is really a big win.

Tomorrow is Saturday but the men are OK to work and so I will be back tomorrow with my final building update of the week.

Steak and red cabbage for dinner tonight; can't wait.