It's May Already

Firstly my apologies for not having done a blog during the whole of April, but it was quite a busy month out in the garden. Also Net was over in the UK for the birth of our youngest granddaughter for a couple of weeks, so I was left with a LIST. Even though I didn't complete the list, the vast majority did get done, I managed to feed myself and the animals, look after the house, do most of the garden and still managed a couple of games of snooker. We have managed to make both of the car boots at the VT Camping Ground, so that managed to cut down on my shopping list for Net to bring back, but I am very pleased to report that she brought me back loads of goodies and a Kindle.
So recently we have had a new family move into the village, at the moment it seems like it is just a holiday home for them, but their brother also wants to buy in the village. There are also unconfirmed reports that an Irish couple have bought in the village too, it will soon be a mini league of nations here. Already the foreigners make up about 10% of the village population, but that isn't difficult in a village of this size.
So it has been a long weekend over in the UK, starting with a day off for the Royal Wedding on Friday. I have to admit to watching part of it, my excuse being that I was suffering a bit with a head cold that Net very kindly shared with me. It all seemed to go well for the happy couple, and credit has to go to whoever organised it all. It just goes to prove that when it comes to Pomp and Ceremony that the English do it best. One bit did disappoint me, I don't know if anyone else saw the cartwheeling priest but apparently he has been disciplined. It was a wedding, and aren't they meant to be a happy occasion? If he did it during the service I could understand him being disciplined, but he waited until it was all over, just goes to prove how stuffy the Church is and they wonder why congregation levels are falling. I'm still a bit puzzled by the presence of the trees inside the Abbey, who invited The Ents from The Lord Of The Rings?
Saturday and I was feeling a wee bit better, which was fortunate as Chris turned up to give a hand fiddling about with the Satellite dish. The long and the short of it is that we now can get some of the Sky Free to Air channels. Net now has a plethora of News channels to choose from to keep up to date with current affairs, and for me I now have plenty of radio stations to keep me happy. The radio stations in Bulgaria do seem to have improved since we arrived here, and we are no longer subjected to Boney M, but their presenters do leave a lot to be desired. Shortly after Chris and I had finished Claire and Pete arrived, Net decided that maybe we could do with a twin LNB so that the signal could be sent to both ends of the house. It was a nice day and once Pete and Claire had finished their coffee and I had put my tools away it was off to Popovo. On the way over I thought that Pete and Claire were taking their time until Net reminded me that they still had a get you home tyre fitted. So once we got to Popovo Pete and I quickly changed the wheel over, so much easier doing it on solid level ground. We knew of 2 likely places to get a twin LNB, the first was closed and the second only had single LNBs. Claire then decided that she wanted to price up kitchens, but guess what, that was closed too, so we went over the road and into a shop that was open. Whilst in there we were followed by a member of staff, Claire wanted to know how to say that we were just looking. I replied 'Shufti', but kept a straight face as I said it, Claire was just about to repeat it to the staff member, when she must have seen me and Pete nearly wetting ourselves and thought better of it. After a largely wasted trip round Popovo we went for coffee near to the bus station, Claire decided that she wanted to get rid of a lot of her change so the waitress ended up with a pile of 1, 2 and 5 Stotinki coins. We did find the AgroApteka open and they were able to get their weed killer and vines so maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Net managed to get some plants to do our hanging baskets too.
Onto Sunday and the forecast rain didn't happen, so we were able to spend the day in the garden. The grass has all been cut, well apart from the bits out the front of the house, the flower beds have been weeded again, and the remnants of my bonfires have been cleared away. We both caught the sun, and even though we might have looked red and burnt there was no discomfort at all, not even when we had showers later that evening.
Which brings us nicely to today, Claire and Pete had been given some duff information about how no banks in Bulgaria would accept English cheques being paid into an account. We took them into our local branch of First Investment Bank and no problems whatsoever. While they were doing their paperwork, I was round at MTel trying to find out why I haven't received a bill yet. I know it sounds a bit daft to chase up a bill but we don't really want to be without internet. In one way it was worthwhile as the problem is down to their billing department and from looking at their computer screen I pointed out that I was being double billed for April so that was sorted out there and then, I'm still not paying until I get the actual bill though. Once everyone had been sorted out it was time for a coffee, mainly so we could find out if the Kindles would work in a so called WiFi cafe. We've noticed that some say that they are WiFi, but when we have asked we just get blank looks, at least this one worked and the coffee was good too. Then onto lunch at a little restaurant up a side street. Net likes going there for their lunchtime specials when we are in Gorna, The only problem being that the lunchtime specials are hand written, if it is printed I can just about decipher a menu but hand written absolutely no chance. So we asked the waitress, who unfortunately couldn't speak any English, so she got her friend over to try and help. This unfortunate girl had no front teeth and Dracula like fangs, but she gamely tried to help us. Net wanted to know if there was any Chicken, but got blank looks, even asking for Chicken in Bulgarian didn't help. I blame the head colds and bunged up sinuses, not to be outwitted by a menu I started doing barnyard impressions. After which we worked out that there was no Chicken, but they did have Pork and Fish. Claire and Net were all but wetting themselves, the waitress and her friend probably thought that I had escaped from an asylum, and Pete sat there deadpan. In the end we all ended up giggling like a bunch of schoolkids, what a great way to spend a Bank Holiday Monday, good food and good company.