Just got back from 'gross' britannia - two weddings down, one to go in September, although offers still piling in. Come on people, better do it soon or you're fingers will be too fat for a freekin ring! That said, had a great time, if a little short and sweet. Congrats to Digits/Debbie and the Barbarian/Steph. If you weren't there and would like to see some piccy wickies, why not ask them why you weren't invited to see it live in the first place. (Only kidding clays) I'm sure someone will tell you where they are online. Besides, this blog isnt about them... it's about me me me. Talking of photos from weddings, I do need to do a bit of 'housekeeping' (always wanted to say that.. haha - management idiots), so following last blog poll, here are the results:
black tie - 0
blue linen number - 12
Bikini - 4 (you're sick people)
Canary yellow bulgarian - 12
In the event of a tie I decided to save money and I hope you are not too disappointed:
New poll this time to your right ->
I have also added a new bulgarian influenced mix tape for your listening pleasure above - let me know if you want any cd's burned and be sure to pass them on.
When I was back I also mooted the idea of a Bulgarian Summer Camp (yeah alright strictly speaking September is Autumn - as if you can tell that in the uk with all your lovely rain) where I am hoping that we can get some hard working and conscientious volunteers to come over and help us with the construction works. Sounds tempting I know - using a few days of your hard earned holiday to come to some ex commie, backwards, scruffy farmyard to sweat to death hauling stones around and digging. Jesus - I might not make it until September myself. Perhaps a photo of the pool up the road might be of assistance - and yes we were the only ones there.
Anyway, this working holiday you're all planning, will in fact be disguised as a cheapo holiday and could be a bit of an eye opener/adventure. Flights are around 50 sheets return and accommodation will be free ( I might even throw in a bit of tripe soup with extra salt if you're lucky too). The booze here is horrendously expensive and I have many arguments with Irena in the local shop over this issue... the diving pound is also taking it's toll with half a litre of beer rising sharply to around 34p of late. You'll spend nothing, when you're here, nothing! Nishe, nought, piss all, sniff, but i will work you until you are at least down to my new slimline body weight of 117kg - they dont call me Barry Bethal for nothing out here you know. (http://tinyurl.com/6dpw97). The dates were are looking at btw are Monday 15th sept onwards for as long as you can bare... postcards to me please if you're keen as a bean.
Ok enough sales patter (i was never any good at that, something about ice to eskimos or boyzone tickets to Taylor I was told) here follows a quick update on life here in the last week or two and some photos of the project.
Summer is officially here, had heat exhaustion this weekend, just over it. The worrying thing is that it was only about 33 degrees which doesn't bode well for August. Hoping to acclimatise. The lush green hills are slowly disappearing into a range of browns as the entire country gets burnt. It looks more like the Serengeti than eastern europe at times. We've had a great week with Anna (a friend of ours from Bristol) who we took to the seaside for some hardcore tanning amongst many other delights whcih mainly revolved around fried cheese it has to be said.
So after a few days sunning myself, I realised it wasnt me that's on holiday! Shit! So since, Ive been working like an idiot trying to be Mr environmentalist in our roof, well insulating the new and completed timber ceiling actually. Obviously insulation itself is great in terms of reducing heat loss in winter and retaining cold air in summer, both of which are high priorities when living in either -25C or +45C. The environmental benefit being that less energy is required to power heating or air con (which also obviously saves a bit of cash in the longer term too). Anyway, being the green little bitch that I'm trying to be, we decided that simply insulating a building we are recycling anyway wasnt enough, so we decided to create a mix of soil (from the garden and ground floor of the house - recycling again oh yes) and a substance called perlite to achieve this.
Two weeks later and with only half a ceiling complete we decided to say fuck the green crew and get some cement involved and are now nearly finished 3 days later (costs, time and my physical/mental health also matter sometimes I guess!). We'll all argue about whats green and whats not another time, but for now, its in and we're happy that it will do all thats expected and more. And there is more. In an attempt to further damage our ethical and moral high ground, we have also constructed a small septic tank - I say septic tank, it's more of a soakaway if truth be told - which means that we will soon be discarding our black and grey waste (poo, piss and washing up water) into a hole in the garden and then into the ground water system - "oh how very environmentally friendly" I hear you cry... well next time your turds and washing up water go off in a nice little pipe hidden behind the plasterboard walls to the sewerage treatment plant, make sure you think about how lucky you are (and about how much water you're wasting if I dare complete that lecture - read on). Here in rural Bulgaria there are very few sewers for waste, let alone a separate system for rainfall as we have in the UK as I'm sure you all know. If sewers exist here, they do not end up at a local processing plant, but rather are ejecte rather quickly into a mountain stream, where people go and fish and swim on hot days - nice. Furthermore, being in rural bulgaria it is not yet possible to hire 'a man' to come and help us create a wonderful eco solution which will heal the world and sort out our shit. So until we get some kind of sewage system that works better than that, that will be that. We do have a list of things to do which will minimise our impact, such as install a dry bog to separate poo (thats poo as in the stuff that comes out of your anus) and create compost with it for the tomatoes. We also plan to use chemical free cleaning products which are imported here from Germany (how green, only 2000km away). But these things take time and money and at present we have neither, so we're cracking on, green credentials in semi tatters. The old hippy (Tsanka) over the road is particularly worried about our pit, telling us that our shit may pollute her land. Possible, but at the levels we're talking about, unlikely. Furthermore, I struggle to feel too guilty about that when she washes her clothes in a mud pool next to the spring in a field nxt to the goats, has no apparent toilet facility in her home at all and only appears to eat sunflower seeds (which I suppose ensures her 5 a day?). I do kind of admire her though.
So the lesson of the last few weeks has been that to make significant progress, you have to cheat (a little bit), feel bad about it, then cheat a little more. Hopefully we will regain some of our greener credentials further down the line, and after all, we have saved a building made entirely from natural materials from almost certain ruin which in itself has got to assist the balance of the scales - hasnt it?
Ok, its nearly 11pm and I'm still sweating - i'm off for a cold shower and a sleep.
Let me know if you'd like to come and experience the 'fun' first hand - be great to have you, whoever you are.
Ciao ciao i leka nosht
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