Last Weed And A Cut Finger

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Just before I was to leave the farm today I saw one weed that had been missed. #it was a perennial and I had to dig my fingers in deep into the earth to get the full root. As my finger went down a piece of glass that was buried there went deep into my finger. Blood everywhere and I know a painful finger for many days to come. If only I had left that last weed!

Turn Up For Work But No Work

Image by Flickr

Today was meant to be my first day working at a factory as |I prepared my packed lunch. When I got there the boss wasn’t there and after waiting for over two hours I went back home. Typical Bulgaria and now it looks like I will have to try again tomorrow. Will the same thing happen again? Knowing my luck it will!

Another Lada Door That Doesn't Lock

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Today there was yet another problem and another fault to add to the catalogue of faults with the Lada. Not only now does the driver’s car door not lock, but the front passenger’s door doesn’t’ lock either. This morning it just jammed up and won’t budge. Well if one door doesn’t lock it won’t make that much difference to two doors remain unlocked! It’s been a year now with the car parked in public streets unlocked and no problems of break-ins, bedsides, who would joy ride a Lada anyway?

No Cold Beer Due To Cooking Pepper Day

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Getting back to basics in the village we had all been working very hard in hot weather barbequing 30 kilograms peppers for freezing as winter food stock. We all deserved a well-earned break that evening as we looked forward to a cold beer. I walked to the local shop to buy 2 litres from the fridge that stock them. When I got there I was only to find a notice on the door saying that they are not open this evening as they are closed for pepper cooking day! What a coincidence, but no beer for us this evening, just our luck!

Bruised Forehead Banged On Bathroom Tap

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Whist washing this morning I ended up with a big bruises on my forehead. This was quite unreal as I do the same routine day in day out and never have had a problem before. As I the soap was applied to my face and rubbed over I ducked down to rinse it off under the running water from the tap and by forehead whacked against the protruding tap. After the initial pain subsided I looked in the mirror and there was a bump there and now this evening a bruise, which is painful to touch. Why this happened on this particular day is a complete mystery.

Earthquake Destroys Wall

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Having just got back from a break I arrive at the farmhouse only to find that there had been an earthquake whilst I was away and one of my outbuilding walls had collapsed. I had to get a support knocked in immediately to stop the roof caving in and this is a big job to get repaired. Money involved of course which I haven’t got, so it will just have to remain as it is.

A Margarine Beard

Wikipedia

The sweet corn I grew this year is fantastic. We are eating it every evening at the moment. I like to smother mine with margarine that melts on the hot boiled kernels. It is traditional to just add salt here in Bulgaria, but I like it my way. This evening the meal was eaten and a guest calling interrupted us. I go to the gate to see who it is and talk for five minutes telling them that we are all hiving dinner right now. When I returned the whole family were laughing as they saw a yellow beard of margarine on my chin. I had been talking to a visitor with that there all the time – How embarrassing.

Ripped Jacket - Twice

Bryn Jones2008

On the farm there is a metal gate with a catch, which is just made of a piece of wire. As I walked through he open farm gate this morning my jacket got caught on this wire that was standing out and ripped a 10 cm hole on the side. On top of that when I walk back through it later in the day it got caught in the hole that was now made and made the rip double the size! Who says lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place!

Ruined Rakia?

Boby Dimitrov

The rakia I am making was going very well, but over the last tow days it had stopped fermenting and I couldn’t understand why. It was only when someone told me that in the morning when I am there the barrel is not in the sun, but by midday when I have long gone the sun rises and hits the barrel. It is then too hot for the yeast, which dies. So now I have put it inside under cover and see whether is starts fermenting again. Why didn’t people tell me this before it was too late? 240 litres of hard earned sliva (plum) could now have gone to waste!

Cup Smashed

Wikipedia

I decided to do the washing up for Baba today as her leg was playing up. As I started to gather the cups, plates and knives and forks all was going well as Baba thanked me for helping her out. Having not done this for ages there wasn’t a routine that I had and this led to a cup being know of the draining board and shatter on the floor. Was it really worth trying to help when my luck caused things to break and cost money to replace?

Two-pin to Three-pin plugs Not Around In Bulgaria

Wikipedia

Trying to find something simple such as a plug adaptor is never easy, well what do you expect with bad luck happening everyday. I needed a two-pin socket converted to the three-pin socket (UK) plug converter. Every shop I went to only had the three-pin plug to the two-pin plug not the other way around. I must have visited around 20 shops over two hours and nothing. I just gave up in the end!

No Work Today

Wikipedia

Faced with a big day of work today writing, I was trying to decide where to start as the laptop was loading up. A couple of paid blog posts were decided on before I did anything else. There are many jobs but they don’t pay much, maybe around $1 a post, which I usually don’t touch. Today there wasn’t one single job on offer, not even at $1 a post! As luck would have it, there is no work today. There used to be a time not so long ago where jobs like these went for a minimum of $5 and there were loads of them – Huh the recession, who needs it?

Lights Out By Rats

Wikipedia

Looking in the garage in the farmhouse, there has been poison for rats and mice laid down for at least two years now. I went to turn the garage light on and it didn’t work, so I changed the light bulb and it still didn’t work. I then turned my attention to the poison and saw that it had all disappeared presumably eaten by the vermin, but how long ago I don’t know. I do know now though that rats have probably eaten into the electrical wiring as I curse putting more poison down. I will have to look at possibly rewiring or at the very least trying to repair the cable now.

Rust Stained Shorts

Jo Naylor

Wearing the right clothes for the right occasion is a habit I am now well verse on now, but ever now and again this slips as it did today. The car was playing up and I was in my walking in city clothes as I look into the water-cooling system in the engine department. As I took the cap off the water-cooled radiator it spray rusty water over my beige shorts. I now couldn’t be seen in town with rust stains shorts so it was back home for a changer of trousers before my trip to the city centre eventually happened.

Chipped Tooth On Unpopped Popcorn

turkguy0319

Popcorn is a great food and we had some tonight along with some cold Bulgarian beer on this balmy evening in the yard. All was great as the evening fell into night. Then a church, on popcorn that hadn’t popped had been bitten into and chipped my tooth. As the rush of air was felt it was another trip to the dentist no doubt tomorrow to see if it can be repaired.

One Battery Missing

Wikipedia

I went to the town centre to take some pictures today as there was a jazz band playing a concert there. When I got there the camera wasn’t working. I check the batteries and found that there was only one in place; it needed two! I went to a shop and bought another one and the camera worked perfectly, but it was a mystery why only one battery was in there. When I got home I found that Galia had taken a battery out last night to put in her electronic nail filer and that’s where it was right now.

Prank Calls!

CrunchBase

A call from the UK on skype, I hear it in the garden, by the time I get there the call had gone. It was from my brother. I called back and no answer from that end. So it is back in the garden and the ringing tone happens again and I miss it again by the time I get there. I call again, no answer again. This is a mystery! I wait by the computer this time as it rings again, I answer and my brother speaks. He didn’t want to talk to me he had clicked on the wrong number a few times and when I called he was on the line to someone else. What a hellaboloo!

Watering Crops A Day Later

Wikipedia

Another hot day and a long cycle of 37 kilometres to the farmhouse. I expected no water when I go there for a shower that kind of bad luck always happens. What I didn’t expect was to have no electric either. So I was without water and the electric pump was inoperative to get supplies of water fro the well. The only reason I went to the farmhouse was to water the sweet corn and other crops and that can’t be done now. The electric didn’t come on until 10:00 that evening too dark outside to water now though. Both were working when I woke up at 6:30 in the morning though – but still a wasted day gone by.

Solid Rock Washing Powder

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Ants always used to present a problem until I found that washing powder laid down stops them in their tracks from entering the house. So every month a fresh batch is laid down after vacuuming the old washing powder away. This time it was different, as luck would have it that we had some very heavy thunderstorm a couple of weeks ago. What I didn’t’ realise was that the rain had got inside and mixed with the washing powder and now it was as solid as a rock. It was ages chipping away at the rock based washing powder before is could be vacuumed up. More work for something that would have been so easy.

Sticky Sugary Shopping Bag

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Today I took some sugar to put into the plums I had picked a few days ago to make rakia. 6 kilograms in 1 kilogram plastic bags were put into a shopping bag and into the boot of the car. When I got to the place, as I took the shopping bag out the side it caught a metal part of the boot and the shopping bag was pierced. Not only that it when through on of the sugar bags and the sugar poured out. After emptying the content into the plum in the barrel, it left a stick mess at the bottom of the shopping bag. Another cleaning job on when I get back home.

Overheated Car - More Expense

Image by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos

Yet another car problem as the temperatures of the summer hit home. This evening I was driving back from the factory and the car temperature dial was edging towards the red. I stopped and could hear bubbling coming form the engine department I dare not look. I waited ten minutes for it to stop bubbling and just made it home as the bubbling commenced again. Looks like another cost of repair according to my next-door neighbour who is a car mechanic.

Rain Hit Cyclist

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It really wasn’t my day today as I was cycling back form the village to town. It hadn’t rained for nearly three weeks here and the day I chose to cycle it rained! Never a light shower but a heavy thunderstorm with open countryside surrounding me it was left for me to just cycle through the rain. I didn’t carry any raingear so my T-shirt and trainers were soaked through within the first minute of the downpour. Luck eh!

Kiwi Fruit Escapes

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It was an early rise again at 6:30. No need for and alarm I was already awake with the sun rising behind the window blinds. The routine began making herb tea for Galia ready for when she wakes up and peeling and slicing a kiwi fruit for breakfast. As the kiwi fruit was peeled I began to slice and when it got to halfway whole unsliced part of the peeled kiwi fruit shot out from my grip onto the floor and under the fridge. There was no way to retrieve it without going into the garden to find a long piece of wood. Needless to say we only had half a fruit for breakfast and a bad start to what promised to be a good start.

Padlock Locked? No!

Image by zebble via Flickr

I wanted to get back home after some harvesting and the big gates on the entrance to the farm were locked and that was where my car was. I went to find the security guard with the keys to let me out. I searched high and low around the farm grounds but just couldn’t find him. At the other end of the farm there was another exit so I took that and walked 1.5 kilometres around the fields onto another road, which led back to the main entrance. It was hot I have a big bag of vegetables I had to lug along, but finally got to the car after a twenty minute walk in the heat of the day. When I go there I found that the gate wasn’t locked at all the padlock was hanging there but not closed and I could have just walked out quite easily nearly an hour ago!

Boza Floored In Banitsa Shop

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I went to by my daily banitsa today and fancied a bottle of boza, a favourite wheat fermented drink regularly drunk in the Bulgaria. As I took it out of the fridge the door automatically closed and knocked my hand with the bottle in. It was displaced and fell on the ceramic floor and the contents spilled in a lovely mess, half on my foot with socks and sandals on. Needless to say it had to happen to me. I had to pay for the drink as well!