Snails Pace

I'd planned to blog today about autumn and the changes it brings to a Bulgarian household. Some of the wonderful sights and usually quite mild weather. I may even have included a few photos of the garden and scenery, but no, I'm sorry I've changed my mind and am gonna have a rant instead!

Don't get me wrong, I've not had a bad day at all. In fact it's been an ok day. The rain stopped, all the animals enjoyed their time outside, the kids helped with feeding etc and I even had an online chat to hubby. But tonight the internet is driving me mad! Unfortunately living in a rural Bulgarian village has it's downsides at times. We're 22km's from the closest town and surrounded by fields and hills. It's quite olde worlde where we live which also means that unfortunately technolgy here just hasn't quite caught up with the rest of the modern world.

In all the cities and towns internet speed is very good, wi-fi is offered in a lot of places and life goes on at a rather hurried pace. Here things are slightly different. Our internet currently runs at less than dial-up speed and that's on a good day. We're limited on options as to how we connect to the internet and have to use a dongle which to be frank is absolutely pants! We curently use a M-tel homebox which is supposed to supply our internet and home phone service via wireless and works very much like a mobile phone. Of course that is when it wants to work - the internet is usually ok (apart from being slow) but does get affected by the weather, the phone part rarely works and people get tired of trying to ring us and to be honest I understand why. We also have pre-paid mobile phones with the same company and they work great if you want to stand in the middle of the field with one leg in the air, shouting like a lunatic because the person calling can't hear you and freezing your backside off in the colder months...........grrrrrrrrr. Maybe it's time for a change I can hear you all saying, but the truth is we haven't found anything else that works for the kind of money we have to spare (not a lot).

Well that's my rant over for today. Hopefully the god's of internet will allow me to post this quickly then I can drag myself off to bed with a book. Night night x

Winds of Change

Whilst catching up on Twitter tonight I had a slight relevation...or maybe it's the sour cherry liqueur I'm drinking. A fellow twitterer (is that a real word?) has changed his username as he felt that he needed a change after posting under the same name since 2004. What it made me think about is if we ever realise how we're constantly changing and what we want from life is possibly changing too?

Back in 2004 I was quite unaware of how much my life would change. Going from day to day living in an ex-council house and working enough to pay the bills and not much more. I had animals then too, they've always been a large part of my life as far back as I can remember. Our first family pet when I was small was a goldfish called Chips, who ate any other fish we tried to put in the tank with him and lived until a ripe old age (well for a fish he did). When I left home the first dog came along (and stayed with me until she was 19 years old), then cats, followed by horses, goats and anything else I could fit on a rented 5 acre allotment plot.

My kids went to school locally and were doing ok, life was passing me by at an alarming rate and then I met hubby whilst I was working in a hotel. We were friends for quite a while and each went about our usual lives, until one day, when he felt sorry for me (it was my birthday) and invited me to an impromptu dinner party he was having at his house. And I can honestly say we've barely been apart since. It's strange how fate can suddenly take hold and alter your life forever.

Moving to Bulgaria was something that really came out of the blue too. Of course we'd talked about moving away but to start with it was little more than a drunken conversation after a night out, 6 months later we were on a plane and heading into unknown territory! Oh and it feels so long ago. We went from semi rural (supermarket 10 mins away, fields just outside) to the middle of nowhere really. And to be honest I much prefer the life we have here, maybe it is what we're meant to be doing with our lives? Who knows? As long as we do the best we can then we aren't letting anyone or ourselves down. I read somewhere once a quote that said "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO- HOO what a ride!".

How has your life changed over the last 10 years? and maybe more improtantly how much will it change in the next 10 years?

Are We Nearly There Yet?

I've not heard from hubby today so will presume the drive back is going ok. It's not easy to cover 2500 miles in a couple of days with a car full of stuff and an 8 year old but unfortunately that was the way it had to be done this time. Here at home we've managed to move everything that needed moved and now just have a big tidy up to do. I've no idea where to put half of the stuff we're storing but will work it out at some point. At least now I have an excuse for having an untidy house!

Weaning the piglets is going well and they've all settled into their new arrangements and seem quite happy, feeding times haven't changed so that makes them easier to handle in theory. Vasko is having a bad day today and has fallen over a couple of times, the colder weather seems to be affecting him quite a bit and I don't want to leave him to the point when he'll suffer so I have decided that he will be put to sleep in the next 2 weeks which makes me sad and also angry, angry because his former owner let him get in such a state in the first place then wasn't bothered about having him back when he turned up here. We've heard that the first person to ever be prosecuted on animal cruelty charges went through the Bulgarian Justice system last month so hopefully that marks a step in the right direction.

We've now got both of sister in law's dogs here and her 2 cats also. The dogs have settled nicely and are asleep in their new kennel in the garage overnight. Hopefully one will be going off to a new home in about 2 weeks time and the other will also find a permanent home soon. I think the 2 cats may end up staying here though, the little female has started adjusting nicely and sneaked onto my bed last night, but the tom cat who only arrived today (he'd gone off outside when I went to collect him yesterday) is still hiding behind the sofa so needs a little more time. Another week or so and I expect they'll be used to everything and acting like they've always been here :)

I'm missing hubby but manging to keep myself busy and know he's gone for the right reasons, at least I know he'll be back too and then everything will seem better. For now though I'll have to make do and snuggle up to a hot water bottle in bed until he's home.