To Blog or Not To Blog

I love writing about our adventures, but why do it if there's nothing to tell, or if I seem to be just duplicating everything I've already put on Instagram or the Facebook page...I don't want to start boring you guys senseless.... Yeah I know not all of you follow my social media journeys...why, I don't know, because I am a photographic genius!! This may be a slight exaggeration, or even a downright lie, but you are missing some cracking adventures...usually me hurting myself or just making a fool out of myself and putting  my injured pride out there on show for all to see. In fact since I last wrote I have done a ton of things, from painting silly pictures - this one here is going up for auction in the UK to raise money for rescue dogs out here! I've kept running (mostly just to have some quiet time) and have made it to 5kms which is pretty amazing for me....
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Early Retirement Plans

Well now the snow has gone, it is full steam ahead with my plans for a new kitchen. As you may have guessed I have spent quite a lot of time planning layout and requirements in terms of pipes, electrical points, appliance, wall and door positions, but now it is time to get cracking! First the room needed emptying so we can see what we're dealing with, so I mentioned to Dan that we'd have to live with the mess for a little while, his response?! "What another 4 years?" Ha ha, how we laughed... So the chest freezer is now in the lounge (how this is more strange than it being in the bedroom I'm not sure), the large sofa is in the dining room, the bed and mattress are in the next door's barn (thank you Neil) and I have yet to find a home for the large wooden chest full of goodies...if all else fails it might have to...
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The Mother of Invention

They say that, 'Necessity is...' and that is where I found myself...and so I had to become a little inventive! It is not original, in fact it is done all over the country and many depend on similar set-ups for hot water supply, however what I am quite pleased with is that in the, now aptly named, Box Room from Hell, we already had most of this set up. All except for the little brass tap in fact, I am not sure why I am surprised by this as there is not a lot that is not in that room somewhere...but finding what you want at any given moment can be somewhat demotivating!   The black tank we have used is part of a Finnish wood-burning sauna system that we brought here...for obvious reasons but haven't yet had time to put it to use in the way that it was intended...but it is perfect for this temporary hot water solution. So now you would...
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Topic of Choice

The very British tradition of talking about the weather at every opportunity doesn't stop when you leave the country, in fact it just amplifies the situation. In the UK we have very little weather to talk about really, unless you count the summer of 1976 when we had sun once, but the moment you move abroad you have a whole host of things to fill those awkward conversational voids. I love to wax lyrical to my friends stuck back in old blighty about how we have four proper seasons and brag about our 70 degree temperature shift throughout the year, but in fact the weather here actually does dictate everything you do. Even the festivals are governed by mother nature. Where else in the world do we substitute the commercially recognised Valentines Day with cutting back vines and trying out home-made plonk, or wear red and white bracelets until we see our first blossom or stork and I, for one, have not...
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Country Surprised by Seasonal Weather

I was intending on being in the UK last week, to visit my Dad, who has amazingly made it home from hospital, but the weather made me think twice and eventually postpone my visit. Not because we had vast quantities of snow here, not because I live three hours from the airport and trains, buses and transport routes could be in chaos… No I postponed my trip because the thought of getting to Birmingham and not being able to get out again, filled me with dread. Planes, trains and automobiles ran like clockwork here, whilst trains were being cancelled left, right and centre in the UK….before it had even snowed a flake. While the UK struggled to cope with the 'Beast from the East', we here in Bulgaria were going about our lives as normal and have now decided on an alternative name for the 50cms of snow and -21C temps that we experienced over the last few weeks…we have called it...
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