Things are Hotting up…

The rain has finally decided to move along and left us with some blazing sunshine, for which we are truly grateful, especially as we have finished digging in the garden (for now anyway)! There is a problem though, sunshine is good when you have a glass of cold white wine and you are sitting poolside being waited on by some bronzed hunk…it is not so good when it is 34 degrees in the shade and you are sifting sand in the full on sunshine and mixing sand and cement by hand and carrying heavy buckets of the mixture up and down the outside stairs…and there was me thinking the external staircase would only be a problem in winter!!

Lots has happened though since we last spoke – my new washing machine is here and plumbed in, which caused some curiosity amongst the household when we set it going for the first time. We also took some time off and went to the Palamartsa Music Festival – as I said to a friend, much like Glastonbury but without the need for wellies and over priced beer. Seriously though we had a lovely day – got to listen to some really cool music, not least of which was Curtis Melody, who stole the show for us whilst we were there, it was nice to relax and spend the day smiling insanely and to meet up with some people we hadn’t seen in a while. Mainly Gemma Stephenson from Bulgarian Property Experts (and her sidekick Louis), who saved our bacon during our first couple of weeks in Bulgaria – she is an absolute angel and also Nidelka our old neighbour in the village…her garden is amazing – I have only ever seen this sort of thing in pictures on facebook from people I don’t know – but I took this picture and I will be trying this next year – she is inspirational.

We have bought all the wood for our new floors upstairs and once the rendering is finished they will be going down along with all the pipework for the central heating, the new bathroom plumbing and then we can finally move in. Both Dan and I have worked tirelessly in this heat to get the rendering done, admittedly he seems to be a lot better at it than me, but that’s fine – as long as the walls get covered, who does it really doesn’t matter and I grin everytime I see the progress at the end of the day…this place is going to look FAB!!

Our friend Paul is back to finish off the roof and has set to fixing all the ridge tiles in place, making sure there are no silly leaks, removing three of our chimneys, building a new one and replacing all the guttering – quite a task in this heat – but at least he has a pool to go home to (don’t you just hate people sometimes) 🙂

Despite the language barrier, we are getting along just fine, the man a the wood yard speaks at me as though I’m fluent and I catch the jist of most of it, my neighbours just ply me with buckets (and I mean buckets) of tomatoes, cucumbers and plums (most of which have gone in the freezer for winter puddings and sauces) and well the guys on the market just make me smile. My puppy (Diesel) pinched two (yes TWO) pairs of my glasses and hid them in the garden somewhere, well for those of you paying attention, the garden is not my first priority this year and therefore is like a jungle out there…finding them is near to (NO) it is impossible – so I went to the market to buy some standard reading glasses – found a little guy who helped me select the right ones for me (5 leva) and then proceeded to gift me a strap to hold them on with and a fresh peach – A PEACH!? I just love living here – where else would you get that?

It has not all been sunshine and fruit though, there have been some hard times – the rendering plays havoc with your skin and despite wearing plastic gloves under fabric ones, I have nonetheless acquired several deep holes where the cement has burnt through my skin (on my hands and even under my bra strap), this is painful beyond belief and I have now acquired some elbow length heavy duty rubber gloves – again not good in this heat but better than the alternative and am doing my bit for women’s lib, a few years too late I guess but hey.

There have been times where I have been tired enough to cry, but still I would rather be here than anywhere on earth right now…this is our little piece of paradise!!