Letters from the beginning !!!! Part 3

And on we go :

Well hello all, sorry its been a while but i have been very busy
with work type stuff.

Right so the first topic today is transport:
In Bulgaria there are many modes of transport and here are a few
that seem to be most popular:

Horse & Cart : For the dashing Gyspy around town this is a must.
The horse (or donkey for the little lady) looks as though it has been on
the planet for 1000 years and never been washed. The cart is a master
piece of bodgery . This will usual have a vans chassis as a base, after this
they take any non essential timber from their home and bolt it on to
fashion a crude cart. These are used for any type of work and generally cause
the most problems when they decide to move from field to road without
any indication.

The LADA : Two versions The Lada Car or for people who dont want
back problems at the age of 20 the Lada Niva Jeep !!. The jeep is a good
vehicle and quite competent on most terrains , so lets look at the car. This
is a classic,no power,no style and no brakes but do not fear,the bulgarians have cracked the style issue.
To improve the looks they will smash the headlights, pour salt water on the body daily to rust it and to top it off they will hang various religious icons from the interior
mirror (if they have not pulled it off). Its a master piece. Now usages for this vehicle can be anything from 6 overweight people to 1 and a half tonnes of bricks. One thing is certain though, there will be a lunatic at the wheel who has had far too much to drink and no driver training whatsoever.

The Modern Saloon : So you are probably wondering what the young
trendsetter around town will dare to be seen in. This can be classed
loosely as a modern saloon. It arrived from germany by strange means
,has 150,000 on the clock and, only if you are extremely well connected
will it have 4 wheels that match.
They come in all shapes and sizes, the best i have seen so far was an old model vectra, the bodywork was held together with chewing gum and the tyres were bald, BUT, it had 4 brand
spanking new alloys and the owner had even taken the time to paint the brake
calipers the same colour as the car. Unfortunately he forgot to add spots of
rust to match.

The rest of the population use buses that have been sold to them
after that classic show " On The Busses" finished in 1964 or using some
form of Scooter that is nothing more than a seat shakily tied to two wheels
and a hairdryer.

Letters from the beginning !!!! Part 2

Here is the second rambling installment from my entry into Bulgarian Life....please enjoy ...:

Well guys ,

We are fairly settled into the chaos which is our life on a building site. So lets have a look at Bulgarian building traditions and work practices.

The group of men working on the house seem to share one set of lungs and as one is working the others rest through lack of oxygen.
They're scaffolding is a work of art, the basic foundations are as you would expect , metal supports with the standard planks to stand on. As soon as they need to do any high work they then attach a variety of chairs and ladders as support, it takes building to a new extreme level.

The outside of the house has recently been painted in the classic style , which is a light textured affair.
To achieve this they use metal tins full of bristles attached to a rotary device. Fill it with paint , turn the handle and hey presto ,paint on the walls ,windows ,next door neighbour and the stray dog which is trying to get into my caravan and steal my biscuits.

Yesterday we were able to use the lounge for the first time , it is a vacuous room with great acoustics, we set up the Sony Stack System , The DVD Player , The satellite and the 14" T.V, yes that's right 14" , it was great , surround sound afforded by the Sony hifi and a stinking headache trying to squint at the minuscule screen in the corner of the room trying to watch The Last King of Scotland.
The film by the way is great, in an upshot its about a silly Scottish lad who decides the best way to spend his first year out of university is to shadow a vicious dictator in Uganda for a laugh. Boy, what a shock he got , the stupidest part is that even though he realised that this leader was a maniac, who enjoyed putting people to death more than golf , this young Scottish lad sleeps with one of his wives , shock, horror, when his life takes a turn for the worse.

Anyway folks, Must bring this to a close as we, my dad and i are going to build a shed. This should be a laugh, I have ridiculed the Bulgarian Building practices , now they will get the opportunity to see how the Brits do it....... Shout at each other for 3 hours , break something and then let them use their ridiculous practices to get it right.