The Mother of Invention

by JaneNo Comments
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

by Jane2 Comments
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

by JaneNo Comments
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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Chinese New Year, A Fire Horse and a Cabbage

by Jane2 Comments
As many of you know I teach English online to professional adults around the globe and thus get inside knowledge on many of their varied customs. A better known one is obviously Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year so… In my attempt to build rapport with my students I talk about what they do to celebrate etc. expecting parades of people wearing enormous dragon costumes, eating large bowls of noodles and setting off lots of fire-crackers late into the night. What did I get? Well I got tales of women cleaning their houses, not just wiping over surfaces with a damp cloth and spraying Febreze at the curtains…oh no…when they say 'cleaning' they mean 'decluttering'! So as you know I am not one to rush to get out the duster and the furniture polish and I continue to claim not to understand how the hoover works (that's a blue job - ask Dan), but…organizing, decluttering and generally taking back control, well...
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Word of the Week…

by JaneNo Comments
Ever thought of getting out of the rat-race and taking the plunge into a simpler life like we have? Can't say I blame you and it's easy, honestly you just have to make the choice and then plan! However if you are coming to Bulgaria there are another few adjectives that you may want to consider, like 'patient', 'inventive', 'willing' and 'adaptable'. It is the last word that comes into play frequently if you are thinking of taking early retirement, I mean Bulgaria is cheap but it is not free, so you have to be able to support yourself and your animals. You don't have animals? You will have when you live here, even if you don't want them, they just move in…(Picture - Exhibit A).   You will be living a self sufficient lifestyle so you don't need to buy food…really?! Let me say we all have this intention, if not self sufficiency then at least a little more self reliance, but it...
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Out with the old…

by Jane4 Comments
Well here we go again, a new year has started and I must say I am relieved. I mean we all cast out the old and ring in the new when we get to Jan 1st but I have never been more glad to see a new year in, in fact I'm usually in bed by 10 and barely flinch when the fireworks start.  This year I was up barking with the dogs and marveling at the coloured flashes as they exploded across the sky.  Well how can this year be any worse than last. Seriously I'm not just talking personal stuff here, I'm still happily plodding along in my new life, largely oblivious to things going on around me, however some things are difficult to miss. 2017 provided a gigantic fruit salad of poo around the globe didn't it. Lets take a quick look! The 'majority' of us (by that I mean the uneducated, mildly racist, easily-lead part of Britain) apparently voted...
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Our Adventures

by Jane Comment Closed
Life in Bulgaria is surprising, fulfilling, heartwarming and just a tiny bit frustrating at times. Please read and enjoy our outlook on life in Eastern Europe as we work towards a more simple life....not always as simple as it seems! The gate is open...come on in......
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Cold Turkey

by Jane8 Comments
No this is not the story of what we did with all that turkey post Christmas, or about me stopping class A drugs, but rather about my radical decision to spend an entire week without going on Facebook. If anyone had asked me, prior to this experiment, what that would be like, I'd have shrugged my shoulders and said 'no issues, I don't spend that much time on there anyway'. Well that is not quite true! By not going on Facebook this week I have noticed a couple of things: 1. Just how much time I actually spent on there and 2. Just how hard it would be not to… I documented each day to understand how this affected me and so I would realise just how much of an addiction this had become, this is the story of my week living outside of social media. Day 1 My old routine of logging into the 'world' first thing in a morning became blatantly obvious as I...
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Dreams

by Jane2 Comments
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...
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A Positive Spin

by JaneNo Comments
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...
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