Week 54

.......... and the tyre saga continues.........

Monday morning we are up bright and early as Pammi wants to decorate the living room. It is soon cleared, plastic sheeting down and Pammi is painting away. It is a bright sunny morning so I quickly give the new stair rail a coat of preservative in the hope it dries before the forecast rain arrives this afternoon. That done I head off to the garage so that they can have back their spare wheel and get mine repaired. If only it was that simple. When they tried to put my spare wheel back onto my car they could not get the bolts to fit so head off to the tyre garage to buy new bolts. Three journeys back and forth later to get the right size bolts it transpires that the spare wheel in my car is not the right size wheel and there are no bolts that will fit the wheel / car combo. No problem they say and half an hour later all the bolts have been cut and remodelled so that they fit properly. I am told that it is perfectly safe now and can be driven at normal speeds. I am not so sure, but at least it is only for emergency use. So off I go to the tyre repair garage to get my punctured tyre replaced. He is too busy to repair it today so I must come back tomorrow. I am not convinced he can mend it but lets see tomorrow. When I get home Pammi has finished painting and the rain has started which stops me working on the campsite which I had planned to do, so an early finish for us today.

The campsite gate-sign 

Tuesday is very warm in the morning and it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day. Pammi is still in painting mode so gives the log barrel, her craft box and the new stair rails another coat of paint. Off I go again to the tyre garage. When I get there he is just putting the tyre on the rim and as he inflates it a large hole is blown out the side of the tyre. Definitely a new tyre needed then, which means a new pair. Great. He will have to order them so I must come back tomorrow. Back home I make a start on the campsite, felling a tree that is in the way of where the toilet will be. I have still not had the chainsaw repaired from last week so fell it using a bow saw and axe which was not a problem as the tree was old and rotten. The area now clear I was able to start digging the holes for the uprights to go into. The earth was so hard and it took over an hour to dig just one, one metre deep hole. It was a beautiful day but as you looked across the valley you could see fog rolling in and within minutes we were enveloped in fog followed by very heavy rain. It was late afternoon by now so we called it a day again. Pammi had made leek and potato gratin for our meal tonight which we had before setting the fire and settling in for the night. That evening we had a big thunderstorm and the rain continued most of the night.

Painting the log barrel

2nd coat on the stair rail

Old tree felled to make way for the camp toilet

Fog rolling in. Ten minutes earlier it was glorious sunshine

Wednesday Pammi is painting the kitchen (always the way, paint one room and the next looks drab and dirty). Whilst she is doing that I go off to get the new tyres fitted. Two new tyres later and a couple of hundred leva poorer I head off to Ruse to get a new jack and wheel nut lever as well as a few bits and pieces I need for the campsite toilet. On the way I get stopped by the Police, twice. Once for an ID check and once for a winter car check. It must be my angelic face that makes them want to keep stopping me. Still, no problems and am on my way in minutes. It was a successful shopping trip and I got everything I wanted for once. By now the rain is torrential and it is a cold miserable day. As I travel home my incredibly good karma surfaces once again (I think I must have been a saint or just an incredibly good human in a previous life) and I get the opportunity to try out the new jack and tools in the heaviest rain possible. I have another puncture. Pull over in the layby, hi viz on, warning triangle out. This is a very dangerous road and I do not want to be on the side of the road long here. In seconds I am soaked to the skin but at least I have nice new tools so this wheel change should be easy. A guy who is a tyre fitter pulls over and asks if I need any help but I think I will be OK so off he goes. The wheel brace gets the first of the wheel nuts off easily but on the last nut the wheel brace head rounds off and will not budge the nut at all. arrgggggh. The garages all use air guns now to tighten the nuts and the cheap Chinese tools are just not up to the job of loosening them. I resolve to buy the best tools I can lay my hands on in future. I stand in the pouring rain wondering how the hell I can get the last nut off and stare forlornly at every car that passes in the hope they will take pity on me and stop. Ten minutes later the tyre repair guy comes back in the opposite direction and stops again. This is incredibly nice of him and with the proper tool the nut is soon off. He gives me his business card and tells me no matter where I am if I need help to ring him and he will help. Amazing. My new trolley jack works perfectly and the wheel is changed in minutes. Absolutely drenched I head home slowly, not just because of the wrong wheel I am now using again but the roads are flooded and full of debris. If I had another puncture I would be in real trouble. Warm, dry clothes and a hot meal in front of a roaring fire soon makes the world a better place. The rain and storms continue all evening and we have the usual powercut for a short while, but I am just glad to be home.

Not a-bloody-gain

Pammi, Maizi and Marple collecting walnuts

Shelling more walnuts. The nutshells make great firelighters

Thursday morning the rain has stopped and the sun is out although it is fairly cool. Pammi puts the kitchen back to normal now she has finished decorating before making a lovely squash soup for lunch. As has been the story every day this week I head off to the tyre garage, give him the wrecked tyre, which is clearly irreparable as there are four huge gashes in the sidewall, and will return again tomorrow so that he can fit another new pair of tyres and relieve us of yet another couple of hundred leva. The rest of the day is spent repairing the woodstore roof which has started to leak again in all this heavy rain, then digging holes for the toilet uprights. At least the rain has made the soil a lot easier to dig now and I soon have three of the uprights in. Late afternoon Baba B pops in to look at our wine for us. Two of the barrels get an 'I'd drink it if I had to' look and the third gets a 'that is almost good' look after being tasted. Baba B is an expert so that is a compliment and we are so lucky that all these people come to help and guide us.

Making squash soup

The uprights are oak beams from when the barn was taken down

Friday we are back to heavy rain. Our plan was to get the tyres fitted then have a rest day in Popovo at the market and chilling out. No chance in this weather. We head off though to get the tyres fitted which are soon done. Please let that be an end to the tyre saga for this year. We start to head home just as the sun comes out and the sky turns blue. We do a u-turn and head for the market. It turns into a gloriously sunny day. We even managed to find an old, solid steel wheel nut wrench at the second-hand market which looks like it should last forever. No doubt we will find out soon enough knowing my luck. After a nice wander around the town we go home and the weather is now so nice we are able to sit out in the garden with a nice cold beer for the rest of the afternoon. As is usual now the temperature drops rapidly about 4pm so after a short stroll around the village we head indoors for Pammi to knit and me prepare tonights food. It is an easy meal tonight of squash wedges with banista. A nice end to our lazy day.

Looking over the village

The Turkish church in our village

Saturday the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day. Today Mark and Jules arrive to stay for a few days so we clean up the outdoor areas, double check their accommodation is ready for them and rake the piles of leaves that are all over the garden. They arrive early afternoon. After coffee in the courtyard then a walk around the village and a bit of a rest, we all head off to Opaka for a meal. We had a great evening followed by wine and chatting whilst all sat around the woodburner (although it soon became too hot and had to open the door and window!!) Great company and a great night.

Sunday we head off to Ruse for the day. We visit a few villages on the way as M&J are considering which region they want to move to here. By the time we get to Ruse the wind is really getting strong and it is getting bitterly cold. As it transpires there was a hurricane in the Ruse region with wind speeds of around 120km/h. It was horrendously cold and windy, at times really really difficult to even stand. But we still managed to go out for a lovely meal, have a tour of the city, the parks and then walk along the Danube which had to be cut short when the wind became unbearable. On the way home we picked up some food and wine for that evening. We also popped into Borko's house to see him and Ani which was lovely. The woodburner was lit when we got home and we had a great evening chatting, eating and having the odd glass of vino. M&J are a lovely couple and we had a great time. We cannot wait for them to visit again but tomorrow they leave to explore another region.

Tonight there was a Supermoon which unfortunately was mostly obscured by a cloudy night

That was short and sweet this week. Looking forward to a puncture free week.

Take care all.