One Day at a Time

Such a lot seems to have happened in the last week and I'm not sure where to start!

Firstly the trip to Burgas wasn't as bad as expected, ok so I did get lost in the city centre looking for my accountants office but the 3 hour drive there was goos, the roads were good and the scenery was lovely. Friends had given me easy directions as I'm a bit geographically challenged and that made the drive even better.

It was nice to finally meet the guy who does our company accounts too. I usually wouldn't use a company so far away but he is very, very good on price and helpful too, should have our company re-registration done and dusted before the deadline at the end of the year.

The airport was our next destination and I found that easily too, again thanks to directions from friends. Found a parking space, and unloaded the huge amount of luggage the kids had and set off to find their dad, who was waiting for them under the shade of some trees. I stayed with them for a while chatting but left before I got upset. I felt a bit of a coward on the drive home and was quite emotional too but would rather leave a situation where everyone is happy rather than sad. By the time I got home it was dark and hubby had cooked a lovely meal, all the animals had been fed and watered and tucked up for the night too.

I've been trying to keep busy and stay positive but I do really miss the kids, even though I can still chat to them online or on the phone - it's not the same. As it's too hot to work outside for most of the day now I've painted the living room and even made a start on making the curtains I'd promised to do over the winter months. My sister in law, her daughter and a friend with her children arrive Tuesday afternoon so they'll help to keep me busy.

We've had an amazing storm tonight which has saved me watering the garden, even the horses were happy to stay out in it as it kept the flies from bothering them. But the forecast for the next 10 days is hot, hot, hot so I think we'll be using the pool a bit more and maybe even having a siesta during the hottest part of the day.

Snowy Driving

Well we've been out today to stock up on much needed supplies, the kids had started complaining about being made to eat my "When the snow's here" winter stock piles of food from the freezer and we were almost out of dog food too (and vodka!).

Once winter has truly arrived we make the decision to stay at home with the log burner on and a good book rather than risk our lives and make unnecessary trips anywhere. It may seem boring to some but it's quite nice to be honest. Being able to slop around in your pj's all day is great too - although I do put on over trousers for going to feed and check the animals!

So our trip out today made a change although the roads were far from ideal and the temperatures dropped to -10 degrees C the closer to town we got. The closest large town to us is 22km's away and usually the drive takes no longer than 25 minutes. Today it was double that as the other half was going steady to avoid slipping and sliding on the snowy roads. We were amazed that the roads had been gritted though as in past years they haven't been - is Bulgaria moving forwards? I'm not so sure about that.

I do love to see the beautiful Bulgarian countryside all covered in snow, the trees looking sparkly and the fantastic icicles hanging everywhere. Hubby's not so keen and could quite happily never see snow again in his life. The kids aren't interested in sledging or snowball fights this year and the 2 spaniels come in from the garden looking like Yeti's. Although Yantra the latest dog has decided that her place is right in front of the fire and she's not moving for anybody.

All in all we're still happy in our little world, Bulgaria has, and continues to be full of new experiences and things we'll remember for a long time. Each year has been different and encouraged us to try harder. There were no new years resolutions made here but I'm hopeful that 2011 will be a good one. We'll just have to wait and see. Another few weeks and the snow will be disappearing, then we know it's only a matter of time before the summer sun will be back.

Achieving Things

I must have mentioned somewhere on this blog about things taking forever to sort out here in Bulgaria, and it is true, although occasionally the opposite does happen. Today I've been into town with a friend to see if we could enrol her children and my 2 into the school there. Now my Bulgarian language skills may be fine for chatting to the neighbours and ordering some building supplies etc but I still have a long way to go before anyone could accuse me of being fluent! So to say I was not looking forward to this task was a bit of an understatement. But I need not have worried as everything seemed to fall into place, an English speaking teacher was there to help out when conversation got a bit stilted and all 5 of the children are going to school tomorrow - Yay :)

I'm happy, the kids are happy (the school is newly refurbished and has good facilities), my friend is happy and the director was lovely to us all. Result! Yesterday was also a good day and hubby, Yordani and I went out to meet some lovely people in an area we hadn't visited before. The drive there went well and the scenery was fantastic and reminded me why we chose to move to Bulgaria. We spent a lovely afternoon chatting about lots of things and then drove home to find the animals had all been fed and tucked away for the night, the house had been cleaned up and the kids hadn't broken much - only the sweeping brush lol.

There are an abundance of creepy crawlies around here right now, spiders, beetles of all shapes and sizes and hundreds of moths. Last week I saw the biggest caterpillar ever too, it was amazing. Our new hallway in the extension has a double height ceiling and it's covered in moths at this moment, quite an amazing sight but something that won't happen for much longer as I'll be ordering the glass for the window we've recycled and used in there. I've actually been to see the window guy today for something else but forgot to take the measurements with me - Doh.

Well I best keep this short and sweet as I need to be up and ready early tomorrow for the first day of school activities. I hope all the children have a good time and make new friends easily.