Category: 2016

Isn't amazing how different we all are. One person's dream is another's nightmare. But and here's the thing, we all have dreams, ambitions, fantasies, call them what you will, but we all strive to be somewhere different, doing something differently, but few of us think about what it will take to get there and interestingly not many (if any) of us consider what it will actually be like once we arrive at our destination. I certainly didn't! Oh yes I was more planned than most - that's what I do…planning…I drive people crazy with it, but it's what makes me, me. But what I didn't do was think about what it would actually be like. I travelled through the country and looked at what seems to be a million houses to decide which one fitted the bill (by the way I bought three that didn't) and this is where I ended up…but I didn't talk to people living here to ask about...

These last couple of weeks I've been on my own so I've had TV on in the background while I've been working to keep me company (or drown out the barking dogs)… One thing I've noticed is how depressing the news is and how it is always 'bad' news. The obvious reason for this is that 'good' news doesn't pay, but then I thought maybe there are two sides to every story so I started looking closer to home…and this is what I found! This week I have lost two chickens to our local fox. One of our chickens was sitting on 5 eggs and the fox took these too. Now whilst this may be annoying for me and pretty disasterous for the chickens, there are however some very well fed and cared for fox cubs enjoying fresh chicken and protein this spring…and I have less chickens to feed. So it got me thinking, for every bad story there is a good...

I came across a friend's post on Facebook a while back that got me thinking. It was a list of interesting places to visit, incredible events to attend and extreme things to achieve and the idea was you went through the list and ticked off what you had done and what was left was your bucket list …to do before you die. I'm not usually so obedient but thought it would be interesting to see what I'd done and what I had left to do…. Now when you take these sort of tests you can be left feeling two things: 1) Excitement for all the things left to do in the world or 2) Disappointed at not having done that much with your (in my case) 50 years on this earth. That is if you let the internet dictate how you feel about yourself…I don't, I just don't…so I started thinking of some of the things I'd done. I have show-jumped in...

I think the question I get asked the most out here, by other expats, those thinking about moving here and the Bulgarians themselves is, why Bulgaria. My answer is probably very similar to everyone else's, 'because I always wanted a house in France'. This is the truth, since returning to the UK in 1989 from Belgium, I always wanted to go back across the channel and Provence had a wildness about it that appealed to my nature, but then it became popular and out of my price range. So I saved a little more and the French just kept putting their prices up, it was like they were trying to tell me something and despite my belligerent nature, eventually I listened and looked further afield. We found Sicily and fell in love with it, we bought a cheap do-er-upper and had a good friend and French architect complete the renovations for us, only to find that while we'd been busy plastering, painting...