landed but still running

Well it has been more than a month since this spaced was scribbled on in any way.... reasons... who knows? I am glad to be back in South Africa again, though sad to have left behind stunning countries visited.
A few highlights of being away from home base are
1) reuniting with friends
2) discovering Bulgaria and subsequently establishing a foothold there.
3)time with my wonderful husband
4)many oppportunities to take great pictures :-)
5)the youngsters at home coping extremely well with any 'fires' that dared to raise their heads
6)returning home to do a major clean up and clear out of "stuff"
Catching up with things left undone during our absence is taking a lot more energy than we feel we are able to spare right now... but we will slog on! (As one is wont)

these are a few more pictures of things seen and done while away.

uncensored shots

Fun and games

We are having a wonderful time with friends! So much so that we are not even updating our blogs...But normally it is said "no News is Good News"
this is turning out to be absolutely true! Seriously though, we are really blessed to be able to just continue where we left off! After many years of separation, coming together again has been as if we were never apart. On the other hand going by the extra "laughter lines" and "highlights" we realise that years have sped by .
Pictures will follow as soon as the censor board releases them...:-)

UK at last!

It has been such a long time coming, many of our friends left South Africa in 1996 and 1997

At least three families came here to the United Kingdom, so now, for the first time we have made the step to actually come and see them.... the whole Mohammed and Mountain thing!

The weather.... one is supposed to talk about the weather whenone is in this country.... has been great! Promises from the weather forcasters of gloom and cold, but well some things are universal.

Gostilitsa!

What an exciting , precious time we have had, so far. House Hunting takes on a completely different meaning..... its there somewhere, under the overgrowth, one just has to hunt for it! LOL. This has been amazing experience. The reason that we are in this country...as far as we could see, (admittedly we are incredibly myopic) was to establish a "Foothold" in the EU. So ... the next 'obvious' step then was... oops, its Bulgaria! What about it? It's affordable - We'll take it!
So.... We did some hunting... and look what we have found! (Actually it was given to us on a platter by Father)

Now we are awaiting the response of the seller of theis amazing God Given Property to accept what we felt we should offer for the place ... and.... erm....
It gets really cold here.

There is a HUGE amount of work needed here.
It gets cold, but there is lots of wood for keeping warm....
Cost of living, erm, much the same as in Yioshne Afrika.

Russe to Turnovo

The van Tonders arrived on Saturday and its been go go go since then! Hanneke was very brave as she is the one who has a valid drivers license and she tackled the drive from Sofia to Veliko Turnovo on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, in a car where she would sit as a passenger normally, with road signs she could not decipher either! Well done Hanneke!

Jean-Pierre studying cyrillic

same thing, just spelled differently!

same same just different!

herewith a peek!

I s'pose these can be found anywhere.... well, just so you know, they are here too

Jean-Pierre's turn to do the laundry

Varna - so pretty

Dobrich- so far an absolute NO NO. We were not impreseed with this city at all.

Varna holds the third oldest Roman Ruins in the world... and this is a genuine "Ruin".... go figga.

Dobrich - one block of blocks upon each other ...eek1

more eek!

Varna has a beautiful centre... We realy liked this city.

So slack so slack!!

I understand that I have been extremely lax in updating you on this site.... excuses could be many but then again they could be of no consequence either. I am in love with this country. I love the people... weather is still a little warm for my liking but the temperatures promise to plummet soon... YAY! no seriously, I enjoy cooler weather above the hot humid sticky stuff that seems to signify the continuance of summer. Today I sat in the middle of a park with multiple choices of wifi connection.... free and no password needed either. What a bllessing that was. Okay that means absolutley no excuse for not updating this blog.... sigh. No, it is not a slog, this is a little space of creativity for me in a busy world. Pictures will follow with next posting as I am sitting at a PC that won't accept my camera card.... so till a little while... stilll withing this day's clock.....

what an honour

 
Being in a 'strange' land, meeting different people, hearing odd languages... what an honour!

Coffee ~ not quite a cup full but enough to put hairs on one's chest!

We have travelled rather extensively and apart from China, I believe this is the next in line for labelling a "confusing place".

Some local clown decided that those who cannot read their language can get lost~literally!

 But I honestly would not want to trade it for anything else right now. Having the assurance that we are where we should be at this time brings an incredible amount of inner peace.

honey pots - for honey in yogurt!

I am so thrilled with the progress being made with learning the language that I can visibly see a very large hand at work. It has basically taken ten days to be able to read the language and write it to a satisfactory degree. This is a huge help while driving (we rented a car for a few days) and for finding appropriate busstops! In a nutshell - God is good!

boats in Nessebar Harbour

a pretty

more birds! oh yes and a windmill upon entry to Nessebar Town/Island

 

A wonderful sense of history even if it is not my own...

Boats is boats is boats

Old town of Nessebar

birds, peppers and caravans