On the March long weekend, I was lucky enough and privileged enough to attend a gathering of a fairly large group of people with whom I attended school, way back when. We’re the Ol’ 55s…born in1955 and turning 55 this year. We were even lucky enough to have our old headmaster, Arthur Richards, along for the weekend…he started at Albany Senior High School the same year we did, 1968, and he’s now an extremely hale and hearty 88 year old.  But you know what they say: 88 is the new 78, and he certainly doesn’t look 88.  Mind you, if that’s the case, then 55 must be the new 45 and I have to say, we all looked pretty damned good.

It was a wonderful reunion and a terrific weekend…there’s so much more I’d like to say about it but time and circumstances mean I just have to make this a rather large pictorial journey…

I got to make the welcoming speech and a friend suggested I put that up here as well…so I will.

So, here we go…

” I guess the first thing I need to do is to say a very big welcome to you all. It’s a welcome back for the brave souls who took the leap in 1992 and a special welcome to everyone who’s taken the step this time.

I’ve never been one for reunions…. I was asked years ago if I’d ever attend one if someone organized it and my answer was a resounding ‘NO’.  Why would I…I didn’t like school…I wasn’t very good at it and when I’m not good at something, I tend to avoid it like the plague.    So it really was somewhat ironic that I ended up organizing the first one in 1992…and that was thanks to our very own Shirley Parer.  It had been discussed, vaguely, as she has made one attempt to get one organised, but life, family, children etc, got in the way and it was put on the back burner. Would I be interested in picking up where she left off?  Not really…but before I could say no, she flung a rather large envelope at me and said ‘this is where I’ve got with the organising’…and promptly ran away…

I stared at it for many months, trying to muster a little interest and eventually, my curiousity won the day…..

And what an experience that turned out to be… a lot of memories were ignited.  I laughed when I remembered some of the funny times and felt a great sadness for those who hadn’t even made it as far as 36 years old….I started to realize just how lucky my life had been and it sparked something in me that made me very determined not to waste the rest of it and to stop saying ‘ I should…’ and ‘I wish I…’

The reunion was terrific but I never settled down after that and just 6 years later, I was living a new life in Scotland and seven years after that, another new life in Bulgaria.

As I was leaving Australia, I handed that same envelope, albeit a little larger, over the Ann Maria Ladergaard…she was always saying we should have another one, so I told her it was up to her as I wouldn’t be here….

I waited for the email to tell me that reunion mark 2 was happening… not a whisper.

I had to wait until I returned here to Australia ten years later….

and one day, there it was, the email I’d been waiting for informing me that the seed had been planted …all it needed was someone to nurture it and feed it, and reunion number 2 would happen….Oh, and by the way, was I interested in helping organize it…

As I was writing a book at the time and had already turned my thoughts back to returning home to Bulgaria, I politely declined, but thankfully, Shirley was not deterred. She took that seed of an idea and  watered it, fed it and tonight all the care she has given it, has come to fruition……the tree has blossomed…and here we are.  AND I asked if she could get it happening before I headed home, and she hasn’t disappointed me…..

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since school and since the last reunion…we’ve all had our share of joy and our share of sorrow. Some of us have buried partners, lovers, soul mates and some tragically have had to say goodbye to their children…more than one of us has woken up one day, looked at the person sleeping next to us and asked the question’ who is the person and why am I in bed with them?’ and for better or worse, got up out of that bed and walked away to a new life, perhaps new relationships or perhaps just some time alone…

And there are some of us here who are literally fighting for their lives….and some who can’t be here because they have lost that fight…

If there’s nothing else in the world that should inspire us to embrace our life with gusto and live it with passion, then this should be it… we’re all here, now… we have great hopes and optimism for the rest of our lives…let’s not waste it.

I’ve got some toasting and thank yous to do, but before I move on to that there’s a little something else I’d like to say…

There used to be an old fella here in Albany called Harry Riggs…..Harry knew my father when he was alive and used to pop in and visit me at the ABC and have a bit of a yarn.  One day he asked me how old I was. I did that silly thing that we are all inclined to do and told him that women never discuss their age. He wagged his large farmer’s hands index finger at me and said ‘listen to me girlie…” and yes, he was the only man on the planet who got away with calling me girlie…’you should celebrate every day and every birthday like it’s your last…because one day it will be’ and that has become my life philosophy… perhaps there’s a little something in that for all of us. “

OK, let’s start with where the main reunion gathering was held. One of our old schoolies, Rob Lucas, and his very hard working wife Jo,  run Camp Quaranup in Albany and the decision was made to gather there….and what a place to gather:

Here are some of the folk I managed to photograph before I had too much wine

And then, as always after too much fun, there was the morning after.  Jo Lucas provided the perfect breakfast for a gang of old and bold after a big night out:

A few contemplative moments on the verandahs gazing across at Albany:

And then it was time to return to the real world…

It was interesting, it was extremely enjoyable , it was fabulous…and we must do it again before it’s all floral frocks, harry high pants and mobility scooters…

This is got to be one of the easiest diary entries I’ve ever done……Gina’s little darlings are just growing like weeds and I can’t help but share them with you.  I can’t stay away from them and keep going to the garage and just staring at them  and holding them and being so thankful that they’ve survived….

And God, they are just as cute as buttons……get ready  to be cuted out  (Yeah, I know there’s no such word…but just see how you feel when you look at them)

And their little eyes are open……

though not very often…they do love a big days sleep.

And when they look at you, they’re completely cross eyed and can’t focus and their eyes kinda wander around in different directions….most disconcerting, but very funny.

I guess the fun is about to start as they get ready to move around now they can see and I’ve asked Ivan to build me a dog house with a small fenced area so they can run around without escaping.

And just in case those pics haven’t melted the hardest heart in the world, get a look at these ..

Every Karakachan I’ve ever met loves to show you their underbits, and they very often sleep flat out on their backs….Obviously a genetic trait that shows at a very young age……  

But let’s not forget their very protective mother.  Gina does not like me taking pictures and I have to sneak in and do it while she’s away from the littluns…

Today, she even left a bone to come and sit over the pups when she found me taking pics

How’s that for a ‘why dont you P*** off and leave us alone ‘ face !!!

That face isn’t quite scarey enough to make me stop though, so I’ll keep taking them…and really, if I give her a big hug, she tends to relent a little anyway, but always keeps a wary eye on me while I click away.

For now and because these little sweeties are taking so much of my time, I have a million, trillion, zillion things to catch up on…so I’m away to try and make some headway.

Enjoy the littluns..because I certainly am 

First there was one…my lovely Gina

then there was four

and now, after one of the most fraught weeks of my life and with just a touch of sadness, there are just three

But I’m so pleased to be able to introduce my two (surviving) fat bottomed girls to you  and aren’t they what !!  these little darlings are only seven days old and take a look at the size of them !!

And they are heartbreakingly cute and gorgeous.  Not the prettiest girls in the world, but certainly very precious, especially as their sister didn’t make it……

But let me backtrack just a little…

I realise that October hasn’t even got a look in, but little did I realise that the month would be quite so topsy turvy, and really, not a lot happened that was worth reporting on. It was pretty much all about getting ready for winter and taking care of my girl.

I mentioned last time that Gina was in very poor health when she came to me, so a lot of October has been spent getting her healthy and fatter so she would, hopefuly, get through her pregnancy and the birth of her pups without incident.  Even my vet, Maria, was concerned about her ability to see the pregnancy through, but by the time we talked about aborting, it was decided that it might be too late and her life would be in danger, so, with some trepidation, the decision was made to get her through it as best I could… 

And Gina obviously knew what she was doing…she spent most of October eating and then sleeping off the food in the warmest spots in the house she could find.  She started off sleeping next to my bed but after a couple of weeks, she moved into the loungeroom…which was a blessing, because she snores like a bloke   

And, as the weather got colder and I put a small radiator in my bathroom to keep it warm, she promptly moved in there……

I could see that this might become the preferred birthing spot but didn’t want the puppies born in the house so I decided that the garage would be better…but the garage was just a bit too draughty and cold, so I got to work and, with the help of my lovely friend and work colleague, Krassie and my lovely friend Louisa, I made this

a house of hay, that looked like a pretty good place to give birth…I reckoned anyway

And madam seemed to agree

I took her out there once to show her and she went straight in for a bit of a lie down. After that, every now and again, she’d disappear and I kept finding her in her hay house, fast alseep usually and as comfy as could be.

Anyway, last Saturday week ago she moved out there and nothing would get her back into the house.  She seemed perfectly happy out there, but not doing a lot of anything….usual Gina thing, sleeping, sleeping, eating, eating.

Monday I had to go to Yambol and checked her before I left.  She was, surprisingly, fast alseep and just managed to lift her head when I said goodbye..

By the time I returned four hours later, things had changed completely.  I don’t know if she was waiting for me to get back, but within minutes of me walking into the garage, the contractions started and she just wanted me to rub her tummy….

Yeah, yeah…I know she’s a dog, but this is a dog who was more used to being kicked in stomach, and from the time she started to trust me, she has always enjoyed a bit of a tummy rub. She’s also a dog whose previous pregnancies have been miserable affairs where she’s had no comfort or love and has either lost all her pups or had them taken from her, so I decided this one was going to be different for her if I could make it that way…

And so, there we were, me and Gina, her restlessly moving about, me rubbing her tummy when she let me, and suddenly, the first little bundle slipped out..and it was alive, something else we weren’t sure would happen because of Ginas general state of health when she got pregnant.

Anyway, before I knew it, there were three….but that was all..and this was a good thing, again, because of her health issues.  I figured the last thing she needed was ten pups, because that’s not necessarily unusual in Karakachans.

Everything seemed to be going great guns until Wednesday evening when I found Gina had pushed the pups away and there was much distress in the house of hay. I got just a tad distressed myself and called the vet, who came all the way out here to take a look. Gina’s history was known by both vets in the practice and they knew how much Gina’s safety meant to me.  Anyway, he found she had quite a bad infection and told me I would have to hand feed the pups…..

So, Wednesday night was spent in the shed desperately trying to get the pups to take formula.  Only one of them would and the other two just kept returning to feed from Gina.  I tried milking her so there would be nothing for them, but they fought me every inch of the way.  The first born, who was taking the formula, just got weaker and weaker and her little cries were breaking my heart…and fighting with the other two was really starting to wear me down…and Gina just got more and more distressed…..I wasn’t prepared for this and ended up exhausted and besides myself…..

A new day dawned, and things weren’t looking any better for the weak puppy.  I decided to take her away from Gina and bring her inside.  I didn’t want to remove any of them from her, but knew this one was doomed if I didn’t.  In fact she was doomed anyway, and with just a few whimpering cries the poor little thing died…and I’m still distressed about it.  And, the hardest part was Gina’s distress…her little one was gone and didn’t come back.  She was then a little wary of me and even hid the other two from me….she’s a very, very protective and loving mother.

The pup that died was the first born and a clone of Gina and ever so cute.  Much to the confusion of my Bulgarian neighbours and Ivan, I buried her in the garden … and planted a climbing red rose on top of her, so if the rose bush survives, there will always be a little reminder of her.  The Bulgarians do have the attitude that if something lives it lives, if it dies it dies…that’s life, that’s a fact, so they’re all a  tad confused by my emotional involvement with the pups and their mother….. 

And the other pups ??? Well, they’ve just gone from strength to strength and really are a couple of tubby, little cuties.  Gina appears to have forgiven me for taking her first born and not bringing her back, and even lets me babysit the other two while she goes outside for a break. In fact, today the sun was shining and it was warm and Flossy disappeared outside. I’m inside with the pups waiting, waiting, waiting for her return. When there was no sign of her, I looked outside and found her basking in the warm sunshine while I stood there with her little squirming bundles in my arms.  And yes, I’m allowed to hold them and they are just so sweet…little fat, roly poly, big bottomed girls 

And I know they’re only just over a week old now and things could still go wrong, but they are very strong and seem to be getting bigger and stronger every minute of every day, so I’m going to be optimistic and look to a bright future for both of them…and their mother.

and just ‘cos they’re so sweet, here they are again…..

And for me ?? well, it’s time to get back to work.  Having been let down by the person that was supposed to build a new website for Krassie and I, we are now seeking someone else to do the job…..anyone out there who thinks they have what it takes, get in touch with me…I’d love to talk.  And it’s time to get back into the world of Real Estate, so anyone looking for property here, feel free to conact me through this site for now or contact either Krass or myself through his existing site at …  http://www.bgyambolproperties.com/index.php 

We have loads more houses as well, but because I’ve been completely occupied with keeping the animals of my life alive, I haven’t had time to get them online.  Just ask, you never know we might have the perfect place for you 

And, just in case you think I’ve forgotten, I’m also starting preparations for Christmas….yes, the queen of Christmas lives and is about to swing into action.  The fairy lights are being dusted off, the decorations dragged out into the light and the Christmas tree getting a good dust down ready for another Festive season…my third in this country !!!  Jesus, where has the time gone ???

Hopefully,I’ll get back to this again soon……certainly before Christmas anyway.

until then, caio, caio

OK…..lots of questions about where I am.  I am back in BG, I’m as busy as a B****** and somewhere between now and when hell freezes over, I promise I will get my diary up to date….I have so much to tell, so much to say and just not enough hours in the day….suffice to say, Australia was incrediblely good for me and my battered spirit……but that’s a whole diary entry.

Soon………………

An addendum to my latest diary entry….

Unfortunately it’s going to be the last until I can get my site sorted out.  It’s slowly but surely grinding to a halt..It’s just taken me four hours to get the last entry up and even then, it’s managed to publish completely scrambled.

If I’m lucky enough to track my web guy down, then he may be able to resolve the problem and I can get back on track.

Fingers crossed

mercer

And so the second year of my Bulgarian adventure gets underway.

Once again, I’m sitting at one of my west facing windows and tonight my diary writing is accompanied by great bolts of lightening striking the ground around me. I was on the phone earlier…and yes, I know you should never stay on the phone when there’s lightening about, but I did, and sure enough, there was an enormous strike, a very loud bang in my ear and the phones went dead…Ooops. !!

Fortunately, there’s no wind with this storm tonight…Unfortunately there’s plenty of rain, and guess who’s missing 25 % of their very large roof ?? Aye, that’d be me then…F***. Still, I guess it’s a bit much to ask the rain to hold off for a month, because that’s about how long the roof renewal is going to take. It’s hell up there.

It’s bad enough that the roof is in far worse condition than I had been told by builders that inspected it before Ivan came on the scene, but under every tile that they’re lifting is a wasp’s nest. There’s hundreds of nests and thousands of wasps. Poor old Angel got stung on the face the other day, but here’s a thing. I was offering all sorts of potions, but no, he wanted ‘chesan’ (garlic), which he crushed up and applied to the area where he’d been stung and guess what? No swelling, no angry red marks, almost no evidence that he’d been stung. I reckon there’s more to this folk medicine than we realise.

I’m really feeling sorry for the guys working up there. It’s really, really hot…..I mean, like Hades hot, they’re battling wasps and having to constantly be aware that just about every piece of timber up there is liable to break under their weight. The guy working outside is roped on, but I’m still very nervous about them being up there. I’ll be very glad when this part of the renovation is over.

Just watched Volcho bring his donkey in again, tonight in pouring rain. No letting the donkey walk home without a rope and playing his naughty games tonight. Volcho is walking very determinedly home, pulling the donkey behind him. Obviously his patience doesn’t extend to walking home in the rain.

The old earth mother has been busy in the kitchen again. Yesterday I bought in another batch of home grown veges…

And today I made this, the famous Enid Mercer Tomato Relish…..

And ‘yes’, I hear you say, ‘but you made that last year’ and indeed I did….but see that bowl of domats in the first pic ?, well the bottom pic is what they look like now. !! Last year my relish was made with bought tomatoes, but not this year…..this is the genuine article, straight from garden to pot. And I’ve got another big bowl off them picked today ready to be ‘relished’ as well. Sadly, I had to buy the onions because I suffered crop failure there this year, but that’s OK. With any luck, next year it’ll all be out of my own garden.

And it’s good to have relish back in the house again…it ran out some time ago and I’ve got a few people with orders in, so this first batch will disappear pretty quickly I suspect. I’d best get back into that kitchen and churn out a few more gallons of it.

And I’ve been tucking into those spuds as well…God, they’re good I’ve got a big bag of them stored and as many still in the garden to be dug over….maybe in a couple of weeks. Not enough spuds for a whole year, but certainly nice to have a few months of home grown.

And on the village front……well, I’m a tad concerned. There’s some fairly major road works happening on the roads in and out of Miladinovtsi. When all the big machines and trucks arrived I thought ‘Fab, this will make getting in and out of the village much more pleasurable’. The roads are pretty bad in places…but, of course, I then realised that it will make it easier for everyone to get in and out of the village…..and is that a good thing or a bad???? And they’ve patched all the holes on the road leading up the village centre…the place is starting to look far too much like a new pin. I wonder if the work is being funded by the monies raised selling the local school to my mate Stuart?? Do I get to blame him if the village gets too busy??

The local gypsies work for their dole here, so they work on cleaning up the verges etc. Usually they just do the curbs and the road but today they’ve done the whole pavement, so my place is looking mighty tidy as well……fabulous !!

It was stinking hot when they were working though and I managed to grab a quick pic of them at rest time…..

I had the electrician in today as well and I’ve, at last, got some half decent light fittings on the floor that I live on. Until now it’s been a length of flex and bare globes, but no more…the place is really starting to look like someone actually lives here, not just someone camped in the place.

The rain has stopped at last but I don’t dare go up and see how much water is in the roof space…I just don’t want to know.

I’m sitting here now drinking wine and eating a kinda cheese spread that Christina has made and bought over to me. Of course, I missed the name when she said it, but it’s divine. I’m dipping crackers into it and that, with wine is my very healthy dinner tonight…….

God, I just watched the weather forecast….we’re in for some mid to high 30s temps over the next five days. Might have to squeeze my ankles into Lyla’s paddling pool…that’s about all of me that would fit.

In fact, for all the rain that’s fallen this evening, the temperature is still very warm and muggy…another hot and sweaty night tonight.

And on that charming note, I’m going to fling myself down upon the couch and watch the idiot box.

Until another day

Dovishdane

mercer

Bulgaria 14/07

Bloody Hell !! Just how long do you think I can resist this……

And, believe you me, I can feel my resistance weakening….Ivan really knows how to get to me with these little darlins’. I want them all !!!! And get this…the cute little white one with the patchy nose is called….wait for it…..Sue !!! I’m not sure whether to be flattered or insulted. And the one he wants me to have, is the one next to the guy with the eye patch….how cute is he ??

It’s really hard because I might have to go back to Scotland for a while and just can’t accept a dog when I’m not going to be here to take care of it, but they’re starting to chip away at my stone heart and it’s getting harder and harder to resist. God, I hate having to make decisions……….

Things are still very busy here. I have a full house and I’m really starting to run a wee bit ragged here just now. If this B&B takes off, I’ll definitely have to look at getting some help….not as young as I used to be.

Meanwhile the work on the house continues and this is the sight that greeted me when I rounded the corner on Thursday And when I walked into the house, this is the sight that greeted me there

And Janet, one of my house guests took this pic

And I have to confess, I burst into tears. I didn’t realise just how attached to the cupola I had become. Ivan was very concerned about my reaction and went to great lengths to draw me a picture of what the house would look like when he had finished….right down to the addition of a weather vane if I want one. I have to admit that a very funny conversation transpired when it was ascertained that what the house needed on the roof was a large cock……..of the feathered variety, of course

The guys working up there are still giving me nightmares the way they’re leaping about the place and waving when they see a camera appear…Ye Gads !!

I am very sad to see the cupola go though. I really think the house has lost a part of its character with the loss of it …even though Ivan has showed me just how dangerous it had become. The supporting timbers were so rotten, I’m surprised it hasn’t collapsed before today. And the roof timbers in general are in such appalling condition, that the guys are having to build platforms to work on because the woods is too rotten to support their weight…..and these are not big men working up here. So I reckon everything that’s happening up there just now is for the best and I do have enough faith in Ivan to accept they he will not leave me with an unattractive house.

I’ve also had to find myself a lawyer, as apparently some of my paperwork is not in order. I’ve found a lovely bloke in Yambol…he doesn’t speak a word of English, but with the help of Stefka, we’re getting things sorted out.

Now, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but half the people I speak to here seem to think that what I need is a ‘good Bulgarian man’ and I’m being told this quite a lot.

Bear with me…this is going somewhere.

The other day I went to see my lawyer and found him settled outside his office taking coffee, something they seem to do often here. He had with him a young fella who’s studying law and is spending his summer holidays shadowing various lawyers in Yambol.

One of my lawyers clients appeared so he disappeared up to his office telling Pradon, the law student, to look after me and bring me upstairs when I’d finished my coffee. Pradon and I were then joined by a rather dignified, older gentleman with a shock of thick white hair, who I then find out is Yambols’ oldest and most respected lawyer….75 years old and still practicing law. Anyway, he then proceeded to ask me a million questions about who I was, why I was in Bulgaria, where I came from, where I lived and why. He asked me what Bulgaria had done for me and if I was happy living here, to which I replied ‘well, for starters, saved my life’ and yes, I was very happy. And then came that statement I’ve grown so familiar with. Even Yambols’ elder statesman of law said to me, that to make my life in Bulgaria complete, I need …wait for it……..Yep, ‘A Good Bulgarian Man !!!!’ Gotta love this place……..

He really seemed quite taken with me and was in no hurry to end our conversation. Before we parted company, he did inform me, that if I should ever need the best lawyer in Yambol that I mustn’t hesitate to contact him. Hopefully a service I’ll never need, but nice to know the offer is there.

I’ve also taken some time to spend showing my guests around the area and also using the opportunity to get to know the region a little better myself. I piled everyone into the car the other day and we headed up to the massive monument that stands on a large hill just outside of Yambol. Even with a map, getting there wasn’t that straight forward but we did have a lovely drive in the countryside and when we eventually reached the top of the hill, the views were outstanding

A tad hazy, but the day was very, very hot and haze is part and parcel of that kind of weather. We wandered over to a restaurant that sits on the side of the hill and had a really enjoyable couple of hours enhanced by fantastic views right around us. On the way up there, we also found a small monastery, but couldn’t work out if it was open to the public or not. The gates were locked and all was quiet, but perhaps it was because of the day of the week…or something. It certainly looked like it was worth further investigation.

Today, I’ve despatched the guests to the big toon again so that I have a chance to get this house cleaned and organised. It really has been chaotic for the last few weeks and I feel myself falling behind. Time to get my house in order, so to speak.

so, for now, Dovishdane

mercer