Month: August 2016

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Zipping into Town

My current work project ends Monday and Max is going to be here for two weeks, so I’m “free” as of Tuesday to go exploring! So I wanted to go to town today to buy just enough groceries to get me through the weekend.

Unfortunately, I was up later this morning than I would have liked, but I finally left at 9:15, hoping I’d get lifts because I really had to get to work not too late!

Well, about halfway to the main road, I got picked up by a man who had picked me up a few weeks ago. He dropped me off at the start of the market at about 9:40. I did a walk through and was rather disappointed by the slim pickings today, especially the tomatoes. Most were of the cooking variety, with few big juicy ones to slice into sandwiches and those that were there were obviously a bit old. I guess the season for the “good” tomatoes has passed? I did find a few that would do me for the weekend and I did much better on the onions than I did last week. The only new fruit was grapes, but I really didn’t think I’d get those home unsmooshed!

Done with the market part of the day, I picked up a “kufte” (кюфте). This is what I got that first time that I thought was kebapche. But when I ordered kebapche last week, I got more of a hot dog type thing that, while yummy, wasn’t quite as flavourful. Kufte is shaped like a patty (so think kufte=”hamburger” and kebapche=”hot dog”) and has onions and more cumin in it. The lady held up an enormous piece of a bread and a small one. I asked for the latter and that gave me a much better meat/bread ratio than I had the last two weeks. Next week, I’m ramping up my game and will ask for cabbage and pepper sauce on it. Just need to practice saying “lutenitsa” (лютеница)! 🙂

I then popped into the supermarket for some sandwich stuff, bread, and sausage to cook up with a tiny cabbage I’d picked up at the market. There really isn’t much in that little store! When I have a car sometime in the next two weeks, I’m going to do another run to Kaufland. Since today was actually not that hot (it was positively cool this morning after it rained all night), I picked up a small package of frozen ground pork and a bag of mixed frozen veg (amusingly, their “Mexican” mix, with green beans, red peppers, carrot, and peas). I’ve found it hard to get green veggies here (I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen a broccoli, not even in Sofia!), so I’ll be glad to have that for variety. I couldn’t believe I came out of there for only 12BGN (9CAD).

The other food store has better produce and variety than does the supermarket, so I decided to pop in to see if they might have decent looking grapefruit. I finished the night before last the ones I’d bought at Kaufland and couldn’t get over what a treat they were! Well, the little food store had some and they looked really good! Grapefruit here is the same price as in Canada; like at Kaufland, I paid 1CAD each. These are the ruby red ones, not white, so that price seems fair to me. No point comparing with Mexico since this is an imported fruit here!

I headed out of town and had no sooner crested the big hill that the man who had given me a lift in pulled up behind me and gave me a “Well, you might as well get in!” look. He was loaded down with a lot of stuff and I wish I could have had the words to ask where he picked up his big bag of oranges! He lives here in the village and knows Max, so he was going to drive me all the way up to the house, but I told him that the guesthouse was fine because it’s hard to turn around up here (Max actually reverses down to the main street!). I thanked him profusely, of course.

By 11:00, the dogs had been petted, the groceries put away, and the coffee was perking. I wasn’t even gone two hours!

Now work. Then, I can have fun planning my next two weeks!

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Heat and Sun and Humidity Like I’ve Only Seen in Mexico!

Holy smokes, today was hot and sticky with an relentless sun! I’m lucky the house stays cool and that there is a good breeze through the windows.

I powered through work and a volunteer project before taking the dogs out this afternoon. They were really eager to go, but not even halfway down our normal afternoon route, they flopped down and gave me a, “You know, we’re good, thanks. Can we go home?!” kind of look. I brought them home, gave them their treats, and they had a half of a huge bowl of water each!

As for me, I faced a dilemma. My only option for dinner was yet more pasta. A) I’m sick of pasta and B) it’s too dang hot to cook! I could have had a PB and J, but that would have used up the bread I wanted to save for tomorrow. Would it be worth facing The Hill in order to see if the village store had bread and salami? What cinched it for me is that I knew they’d have beer and ice cream. 😀

I lugged all my beer empties with me and the look the storeowner gave me when she saw them was comical. She must think I’m a real lush! With a bit of pantomime, she made me understand that some of my bottles cannot be recycled and should be thrown out.

The meat and dairy cooler was full, thankfully, and so I found a salami that I hope will be good (haven’t had a bad one yet!). I also found a chocolate ice cream cone, they were full up of my favourite beer, AND they had a loaf of fresh bread. That was my best trip there yet!

One the way up, the sweet old lady at the end of my street came out to say hi. We had an honest to goodness conversation!

Her: Hello!
Me: Hello! How are you?
Her (taken aback that I’ve learned “How are you?”): Very good! How are you?
Me: Very good, thank you!
(She then said something and pointed to my bag. I took that as her asking where I’d been.)
Me: Store.
Her: Ah, store! Bread?
Me: And salami and beer and ice cream.
Her (laughing): Good, good!
Me: Goodbye!
Her: Goodbye!

I know how little progress that is for about six weeks in the country, but it’s not like I’ve really been in an immersion setting or interacting with Bulgarians daily. Sad, I know, but it’s what I expected and it’s not like I’m likely to use Bulgarian again. So, really, I’m pleased that I’ve made any progress at all!

It’s nice to be done early (very early today, in fact) two days in a row! It’ll be an evening for a couple of movies because it’s too hot to move!

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Good Work Days

It’s been a really good couple of days work-wise. I’m in the middle of another large project for a production company, but this time the deadline is reasonable enough that I can set a steady pace and still accommodate other clients within reason. These are the kind of days I dreamt of when I started freelancing, when I can quit at a reasonable hour feeling that I put in a good day of work and with the security that I have many such days ahead of me.

No, the money isn’t great, but my expenses are low in Bulgaria and should continue to be low-ish even with travel later this month, having to pay for accommodation starting late next month, and my property tax bill being forthcoming. Things are just… fine.

I am looking forward to slacking a bit starting next week to go exploring! Bulgaria is so small that I will be able to cram in a lot in the two weeks or so that I will be free from my petsitting duties. Max is supposed to be here tomorrow, so I hope we can finalise some scheduling details. For example, I’m hoping that he’s not thinking that I will be gone for two full weeks, as, really, that’s not in the budget. I’d like to go away for a week — a few days in Plovdiv and a few by the coast — and then take day trips from here. Whatever I save on accommodation will go towards hiring a car. I’ll still need to carry a light workload during that time as I’ve taken a lot of time off this year and my clients have told me they are feeling the pinch. Not good!

It’s just past 6PM now. The dogs have been walked and fed and I’m about a third of the way through my beer. I’m thinking of dinner, and then I’ll watch a movie or a few episodes of a TV show. You know, like “conventional” people do. Funny how much I fight against having a conventional life, but there are bits of it that I miss. I guess that’s what a life by design is all about, picking and choosing the best all possible options!