data again

It’s already April, we have been in Bulgaria now for near on a month! Can’t believe how the time has flown past. Yet at the same time, it feels as though we have just landed here.

We have experienced some truly wintery weather, which, I know, is a novelty for us, and surely the rosy glow will fade, but as we do not have to work outside, or get out of bed really early to ‘go to work’, we enjoy the serious change in tempo. Also really appreciate second fireplace the Van Tonders installed upstairs and the electric blankets we brought along in our luggage.

Revisiting places and people is rather wonderful.

Our focus has been primarily language but work on the house is a continual backdrop to our everyday life too.

Before leaving South Africa Rita was battling with a really troublesome wrist… that has not changed, and language learning acquired a whole new vocabulary boost when dealing with local doctors here. The villagers are very happy to cook meals and treats for the handicapped foreigners, though Jean-Pierre has been a model husband taking care of cooking and cleaning as well as his forays out and around the house.

 Take-aways take on a whole different shape here as it means food and goodies taken from other homes to ours.

Right now Spring is certainly in the air and summer is hard on her heels. I always wanted a “savage garden” definition being “untamed”, erm the garden here is more than I dreamed? Wild flowers everywhere, definition of wild flowers… weeds! And, methinks it will probably remain this way for a while yet.

Some crazy quirks of the house…the fridge sounds like a chicken cowering in the corner of the kitchen. When you run water in the kitchen sink, the radio gets all excited and loses its station (have since relocated said radio).

When you work on outside walls upstairs, debris falls in little puffs downstairs (similar to moving a toaster…little bits everywhere). If one sneezes loud enough an electronic rooster crows and the resident cat meows like a duck. (not when one sneezes – all the time)

On a more serious note we are here on a Type D visa on invitation of the Bulgarian Consulate in Pretoria, this means we get to apply for temporary residency. We have a few hurdles to climb before it is granted, however, one of them being that we need to present an unabridged marriage certificate, which has been applied for, but we have no idea how long it will take before we actually have it.