Daily life

Since my last post things have nearly settled down into a routine.

After living in a busy town center, with all major stores within walking distance, a one store village is a bit of a culture shock.

Mornings start early, not because the alarm goes off, and I have to drag myself out of bed; but because I wake up with sunshine coming through the window, the birds singing and chickens clucking. I have learned to sleep through roosters crowing - lol.

I really enjoy my first cup of tea, on an east facing balcony, while the rest of the house is still asleep. Sometimes I listen to radio 4 online to catch up on world events; but usually I just enjoy the peace and the views.
[View across the village from the east balcony.]



Sometime around 7am the woman from the house behind us takes her 3 sheep and 2 goats out to pasture. This is announced by the lazy sound of goat bells clanging as they amble along the road. The rest of the family awake between 7 and 8am, and breakfast is bread with cheese/jam/honey or porridge, as cereal is very expensive here, and just imported for the Brits!
[Tabby and Finn eating breakfast on the balcony.]



Soon the children are playing outside before the heat of the day hits. We soon realized the paddling pool just wasn't going to be enough to keep the kids (or us) cool, and are now working on plan B :-)





If we need shopping from town or a trip to the park..this also needs to be done early. The aircon in the mini bus, which works so well in the UK, struggles wit the extreme temperatures here, and the metal slides in the park are scorching by 11am.



By midday, the temperature in the shade is often over 90f, but in the sun it has frequently measured 130f! The children migrate indoors and while the younger ones play, the older ones have resumed their studies.


Cooking has been an experience. With a number of coeliacs on the house, we have been used to having much of their food mixes on prescription. Not here!

The first 3 weeks shopping trips were frustrating as we couldn't find what we would consider basic foods, and I couldn't read the ingredients on the packets to check for wheat, barley or rye. Wheat is hidden in so many things! I constantly ran out of things to cook, and despite going shopping most days, we ended up eating the same things.

The kitchen here is also very basic. I guess it was fine for the couple we bought the house off, but for family of 8 a standard, old electric cooker, a standard fridge with small freezer box, a standard washing machine, no dishwasher and a few cupboards = chaos; particularly when you have to cook gluten free and 'ordinary' versions of many foods. Mind you - this view from the kitchen balcony makes up for a lot!


A few more weeks have made so much difference. Thankfully I sent over my food processor, bread maker and slow cooker. Now I can plan a weeks meals and get them in one shopping trip. The little old lady at the tiny village store has got used to use pointing at items or miming, and our Bulgarian is very slowly improving, so I can buy bread, onions tomatos etc as I need them.

Now dinner goes in the slowcooker before 11am, so we can eat our evening meal whenver we are hungery, and don't have to spend the heat of the day in the kitchen. Gluten free bread goes in the breadmaker after dinner and is ready for breakfast in the morning. Cakes are made as we need them :-)
[Gluten free bread, fresh out of the breadmaker.]


Dave writes daily until after lunch, working on blog posts or his third book (which is slightly behind schedule and is egarlly awaited by the publisher!)


The kids tend to go to bed later than in the UK, as we eat later and they play out in the evenings when it's cooler. I tend to go to bed earlier than in the UK, and read books on my ipod touch.
[The evening view from the back balcony. Yes - it's more trees and another hill. ]


Last week Dave was in the UK to run a training weekend, and managed to get lots of blog shots. But he was on 'home ground' and knew the light and locations; here its trickier and is another learning experience.

Next week I am in the UK. I've got events and meeting booked everyday, so it will be exhausting. I've also been working on a new business idea which I hope to kick off while I am there. (More to follow later).

Skype is brilliant. It makes phone calls and video calls so cheap (or free) that our physical location and lack of phone lines are no barrier to business :-) Dave has now done two interviews via Skype; one for Photojack and another for Scott Anderson, and I've arranged several business events.

Facebook is my favorite ways off keeping in touch with friends, and Dave uses his for work too (Yes - we did get our vanity Facebook URL's - lol). We both use twitter to follow the world and see what everyone else is doing.

All in all, we are adjusting and it's working out - I just need to chill less and blog more!