Bulgarian life
How we make cider
I say ‘we’ but this is mostly an annual Rob endeavour. I help out with the picking and chopping of apples, then I entirely check out of the process until it’s time to drink the stuff. Writing this post therefore meant shaking the details out of Rob’s head via a...
You know it’s autumn when…
Yes, yes, the leaves are turning interesting shades of gold and rust. The entire internet (okay, middle-aged women on Instagram, which for me IS the entire internet) has become obsessed with ‘spooky season’. There’s pumpkin shit everywhere. And we all know what...
September and that New Year feel
Don’t know about you, but September has always given me New Year vibes. It doesn’t just stem from childhood and starting a new school year, with new teachers, fresh exercise books, new shoes, etc. It’s more than that. It’s in the air. It’s the shortening days and...
The curse of the inflatable pool
I jinxed the summer by buying a big, dumb inflatable pool. That’s what I did. We had all these plans for August. We had our Sinemorets trip with family, then we were looking forward to a week of quiet time just the two of us, then we had more visitors coming from...
Mushroom season
It’s been a dry month, with hardly any of the afternoon storms that usually punctuate June. Which is great. The garden has enjoyed the abundant heat and sunshine. But it’s not so great for picking mushrooms. Every time we’ve been mushroom hunting this season the...
Lost in Lyulin
After so many years here, it’s always fun to find a new Bulgarian thing that confuses me. I mean, it’s not always fun at the time but it generally makes for good blog fodder. And so we found ourselves wandering around Sofia’s Lyulin 5 neighbourhood – a nice, leafy...
Why doesn’t everyone just move abroad?
UK readers, please tell me, why are you still there? Why haven’t you buggered off abroad yet? I don’t want to come off as an ingrate. The UK did alright by me. I turned 18 in the late 90s, a particularly optimistic time to be a Brit. I went to university when it...
Recommended reading
I’ve got just the thing for you this week. A good book to lose yourself in, but something deeply thoughtful – so you can distract yourself from the scary state of the world, but with something a bit … worthy, if you know what I mean. Look at me, recommending an...
Priorities
Someone on Instagram was recently talking about life choices, particularly the things they choose to prioritise (time, mortgage-free living) and the things they choose to sacrifice in return (big house, plenty of disposal income, a retirement plan). I needed to...
Sexy Paul. Also, more bread
Right, so I caught a bit of that Beatles documentary Get Back and I have FEELINGS on the matter. Confusing, sometimes sexual feelings. Mostly about Paul McCartney. Which is very weird because, for me, Paul McCartney has always fallen into the same category as Bono...
Plugging back in
Long-time readers will know I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. The idea that I’ll suddenly learn to enjoy exercise, start saving money for my old age, or gain the ability to meditate, just because it’s January, is laughable. We all know I’ll be the same...
In praise of winter
It’s harder to appreciate winter in the UK, isn’t it? Especially if you aren’t lucky enough to work from home. I remember it being dark when I got up in the morning, dark when I left the house for work, dark for the last hour of working in the office, dark on the...