Bulgarian Life

Having now relocated several ex-pat's to Bulgaria one thing is becoming more and more obvious. When someone moves here full time they soon find a local Bulgarian who becomes thier true friend and helper (with the language). Sometimes it is the neighbour or a local villager nearby, or as in our case a friend in Veliko Tarnovo.
These people are great to be friends with, we get phone calls to advise us if it is a special day or if there is something going on that we should know about.
Maybe the person does not speak much English, so it's time to sit woth your phrase book and do it the slow way. Whichever way it happens, believe me it happens, I always try to explain how nice the locals are, but it's not until you move in that you really find out.
So never fear that you'll be on your own, soon you will have gift's of fruit, vegatables or flowers arriving. The nicest way to repay these people is to give them something small from England, biscuits, chocolate, cheese, anything they may not have seen before, they will show all of their friends and be proud of whatever it is.
We are now having Bulgarian lessons from Veselina, it is a hard language to learn, but you need to keep at it. Please think of me when your reading this, struggling to learn my new words and phrases!

Sally's Big Day

June 3rd saw Sally reach a milestone........50 years old........I know your not supposed to give a lady's age away, but as I have thrown a surprise party for her, most people know now!
The day started as usual, me making a cup of tea in bed for her, so she can wake up gradually. My parents were here on holiday, so when we were all up Sally opened her birthday cards and pressie's. As we sat discussing the day ahead it was decided that we would go into Veliko Tarnovo for dinner out in a restaurant, Sally chose the place.

The service for dinner was awful, there was Sally, my parents, Shane, Annie, Veselina and myself. The last dinner was served 1.5 hours after ordering and 45 mins after the first dinner was served. I complained to the manager who agreed to pay for the whole meal. Nice man!

After this we came back to Resen and home, several friends arrived during the afternoon to wish Sally well and bring cards. The last left at 6.15pm.

It had already been decided during the day that we would go down to Meggie's cafe for a drink in the evening, we were having an early night as my parents only arrived the day before and were tired from the travelling.

Around 7.30pm we left home and arrived outside the cafe, Sally said "That's Bruce's car, and there's Pete's car". I said well it looks like other people have the same idea about drinking out tonight.

I made sure Sally went in first, she was stunned! There were 40 people inside waiting for her, she turned around and tried to walk out, too late I was there, she was crying and very surprised.

Meggie had done us proud, there was a full table of food and wine, the tables had all been moved around and the cafe had balloons and banners. It looked lovely.

Sally spent all night going around talking, telling people off, especially those who had been to our house that day. Collecting cards and presents and generally having a good time.

The party finished around 1am, we went home and Sally had to open all her gift's before bed. She has never been more surprised. The crazy thing is during the day we were talking about parties and she said that if we had a party here we could not get 35 people who we know to come! So it was a great surprise to her to hear that there were 40 people there.

Sally is well known and liked this much is obvious, she is called mother hen by one couple and several other names by others.

I like to think I did a good job, keeping this quiet for 9 weeks was not easy, making sure everyone who needed to know knew. It would have been nice if our daughter Teri was here, but it was not to be this time.

For more pictures of the day please find me on Facebook.com there are a lot more to see.

So ended another great day in Bulgaria.

A little story

A few weeks ago I was introduced to a lovely couple who had arrived here in Resen to locate a property for a new life. John and Lil "bumped" into a couple of my previous clients in the local restaurant, they phoned me to come down to introduce me.

After talking for a few minutes, John informed me that they were going out viewing with an agent in Veliko Tarnovo the next day. So we agreed to meet the day after to discuss if they had found anything interesting or not.

So we met and the previous day was not sucessful. Veselina and I then started to take notes of the kind of property required, this was a Saturday, John and Lil were going home on the Friday so just 6 days to fulfill thier dream.

Sunday was a finding out day for Vessie and I, so John and Lil relaxed.

There was "no pressure" for me to find them a home, just Lil who had every confidence that I would do the job for them. Also, when I pointed out that I MAY not be able to find them a house with such short notice, Lil says, " You will, or I will be getting back on the plane crying".

We showed a property that was very close to fitting the bill, but it did however have a Bulgarian cart in the garden, soon this became a requirement!

In Hotnitsa there is a house that fittes all the needs, but it was not quite right. The first thing about this new home was that it should be ready to move into........tomorrow!!!!!!!!! The Hotnitsa house was ready but just too small. Then Lil decided it would be nice if the house had a tortoise!

Yes that was added to the list.

Two more properties were shown, but after the first of the two, we needed to go no further. We had found the dream home, being renovated by a Bulgarian builder who listens to British needs. Ready in five weeks.

Oh! says Lil, I'll need a dog.

The list is getting longer. Ok, house found and secured, I was keeping an eye on the development and emailing new pictures every couple of days.

Good news, I found a cart for the garden, even a three legged tortoise (how rare is that!) Then it was just the dog. It had to be a German Sheppard says John, black and tan, dog not bitch, pedigree and understand English.................

I found a breeder in a local village he had three litters and five dogs, so we reserved one. But they were selling fast, I wanted Lil and John to choose the one for them, but I had to do this in the end.

John and Lil moved over full time just ten days ago, the house is complete, cart in the garden, tortoise packing his bags in my garden awaiting his big move. Furniture has arrived along with Tu's (that's the dog's name) cage. Last Wednesday we collected Tu and I think Lil is "made up".

However, I think Lil has gone bonkers, every time we see her or talk on the phone she keeps repeating the word's "I love my house".

I like to think Veselina and I have done our job, and hope they have many happy years ahead of them in thier new home.

This is Lil and Tu the day he came home.............

Trouble with laptop!

Well after what seems like forever I hopefully have my laptop working again. I was able to turn it on, but it decided on it's own when it was time to finish, then turn itself off!
I had to save as much information as possible from my hard drive and reset the thing to factory settings. This meant that I have had to re-install word and works, it appears that other things have also gone, but at least it's working now.
It's not until something like this happens that you realise how much you need your stored info. I had a lot of pictures that I assumes were safe, what I should have done is to store them on line. I know a bit slow aren't I! But they are now stored correctly.
Back to normal.

Tsarevets Fortress

The fortress, John & Tess. Sally & I, what a view!

It has now been 2 years since we first came to Bulgaria. In all that time we have never been tp the fortress! Even though my office window, and my "second office" both overlook it.

John and Tess are staying with us this week and it was decided it was about time, and the weather is just right (around 25 degrees) to go up and take the tour.

The whole site is still undergoing renovations, a lot has been done, but as you can see John and I were dragged in to help put a Roman column upright again!

The views from there are fantastic and it should be on everyone's list of places to visit when coming to Veliko Tarnovo. Be warned though, it is on a hill and there is quite a lot of walking.

Health and Safety. This has not arrived here in Bulgaria, so be very careful when visiting this place as there are no safety rails like there is in the UK.

A good day out, followed by a lovely piece of cake in "Sunday's" cafe.

New Addition

It has now been 10 months since we lost our Sasha (dog) Sally has been asking for a puppy for a while and finaly I have given in!

On Friday last week we went to the next village and viewed three litters of German Sheppard puppies. We were able to see the parents and pups together.

These are pedigree dogs and the owner is in the German Sheppard kennel club. He has won several trophies etc in many dog shows. Although the kennels are not quite the same as we are used to in the UK the dogs are so much cheaper. Our bitch was 250 Lev (£120 approx.)

Her name is Geri and she is settling in well with Heidi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP6k0XQTRrc&layer_token=3f9d289dae75db62

You can now see the dog's playing, or Hiedi putting Geri in her place by clicking the You Tube link.

New Addition

It has been 10 months since we lost our smaller dog Sasha, so it was now time to bring in a new puppy. I heard through our local pet shop that there is a breeder of German Sheppard dogs in the next village. We went yesterday to view them.

Yes, we came home with a little bundle of fluff!

The breeder has won several cups and has all the certificates etc. He is part of the German Sheppard kennel club. There were three litters there, the pup we chose is 42 days old and is lovely. Both her parents were there for us to see.

Now it's just a small matter of training her to our ways! Let's hope she does not train us in her ways instead.

Just having my first sleepless night, she does love to play, then flop's over fast asleep, that's in between weeing everywhere.