7/7/07
Serendipity – I love it – I hope Mel is reading this – she’ll know exactly what I mean! The other night I watched a DVD of David Attenburgh – definitely one of my Dinner Guests – and he was talking about the history of the planet and I suddenly realised that I’ve always wanted to be a geologist. I was immediately distracted from the DVD as I started to think about how I could fit that (3/4 years of study)into my current plans – it would have to be a University in an interesting place – Australia maybe?
Anyway – the next day I had a lovely hostel guest come to stay – Mike from the Boro decided to get off the beaten track and check out Voditsa. He was a great guest – good company, interesting conversation and he worked for his food. And he left a book to add to the library here – the book is a history of mountains and of course that means its mostly about geology. So now I’m reading this book and the little planning track that continually runs through my head, alongside my life, is thinking about how I can make this happen –it doesn’t fit very well with the Boat Plan – hmm – but the Universe will provide in good time meanwhile I’m going to check out the rocks around here.
The weather has been really strange the last few days – it has been windy! There has been a pretty strong North wind blowing for three days – this is the first time since there has been anything other than a light breeze. The temperature has dropped – it was actually deliciously chilly last night but I’ve found it a bit disquieting. I had an email the other day from a woman who was sitting in a caravan near a Northumbrian beach –I could smell it and feel it and of course it was windy. I was feeling nostalgic and then, serendipity again, the very next day the North wind did blow. My head has just got used the stillness of the air and now everything is moving.
I’m taking a break from the field and decorate the hostel room – actually I’m on a roll with it and its going to look brilliant.
8/7/07
This is turning into a diary – I quite like that because I’ve never really kept a diary before – tell me if it’s boring!
A little message for the people who love me and are wondering what to send me for my birthday – here are a few things that I really miss: marmalade, Patak’s Aubergine pickle; anything in a jar by Patak; Bisto; Birds custard powder – what else could possibly go with these million apples? Marmalade; Stilton – how ripe it would be after 5 days in transit! Any cheese that isn’t white,soft and comes from goats or sheep; marmalade; anything sweet and delicious that doesn’t look like it’s got a shelf life of 5 years; Basmati rice – I’m getting used to the stuff here but its like glutonous Japanese rice; mindless magazines. The things I’m running out of are Norwegian fisherman’s handcream, thatlovely pink foot stuff from Lush, The address is on the website! All Red Cross parcels will be happily received and I’ll stop with that train of though as I’m getting carried away.
The weather has gone back to melting today. Since I came here in the middle of April, it has monsooned for about 4 days in mid May and there hasn’t been a drop since. The ground is like rock with big crevasse’s like you see on parched desert scenes. I water the veg about every other day but my neighbours can’t afford water – they have virtually no income – and all their water has to come from the spring which is now a trickle. Pretty serious stuff because for them, the food they grow now has to keep them in the winter and spring and everything is dying. There was also no snow here last winter – a unheard of thing- so the water table is already very low. I gather most of the missing rain has been falling in the UK!!
I went to buy paint the other day and I was reminded of a visit to B&Q last year when I was astonished to see a whole aisle of different types and shades of white paint. Here its just white paint! But I have to admit,there were a few times when I thought longingly for non-drip paint.
Another nice thing about Mike the Smogy, he left me some great music – I cant get the Mark Viduca song out of my head! and he had DVD’s.I watched the whole series of Blackadder II.
I bought and SLR camera in a charity shop before I left and now I’m practising to be a famous photographer but I don’t under stand the numbers on the lens about the light – can anyone tell me – simply and untechnichally.
Had an email the other day from 2 people who want to come and camp in the filed for 6 weeks – that would be so great – I hope they come.
My Bulgarian is coming along – I’m kind of getting the hang of the grammar now. They don’t have a subject pronoun in the sentence – its implied in the verb ending so I’m practicing with that bit now but I’m still in the present tense. I have hit a couple of snags though – whilst I’m getting my sentence construction together, my pronunciation is obviously appalling because people don’t understand me! Also, when people write, they write a whole load of letters in a different way – like D becomes g and T becomes m – how confusing is that? I’ve also started having practical Bulgarian lessons –I learned how to make plum compot the other day and tomorrow I’m making walnut banitsa – its like a baklava I think but that reminds I need to set aside an hour or so to shell a couple of kilos of walnuts – I’ll think twice about every buying whole walnuts again –it is so hard to get them out in one piece and some people have to sit there and do it.
The people who drive around with the loudspeakers buying things came today and Jorge brought one in to buy Alan. He was very confused when I said no. I really can’t decide what to do about her –there are so many different ways to look at it. 2 people are coming to stay this week so they can help me decide – I could have website poll! “Shall we eat Alan Shearer or not?� vote here!
After gushing about the wild flower meadows, I have to tell you about the stars last night – when there’s no moon, there are always lots of stars to see but last night I could have been on the Enterprise! It was really marvellous. I lay in the filed for a while and got carried away in to infinity and thought about the poor people living inn Manchester. I’ve now added a telescope to the list of things I need.
I wonder what evil spirit was around when I decided to paint the dull grey ceiling with white gloss! What an idiot I am! Its not like I’ve never decorated before and remember we are talking about drippy paint! Anyway the rest of the room looks great.
Lots of love to everyone.