91. Switching on spring

91. Switching on spring

I don’t want to be one of those awful English people who move abroad and complain about the heat, but (she says, limbering up to complain about the heat) … it’s 30°C here today. Thirty degrees! In Bulgaria, spring often starts like the flicking of a switch and it’s...
88. February squared

88. February squared

I’ve been trying hard to blog more frequently in 2016. Like many resolutions, I did really well in January then fell off a cliff in February. Not updating the blog for five weeks is the writerly equivalent of sacking off the gym and eating a whole bag of doughnuts...
85. Five winters in

85. Five winters in

Usually around this time of year I start reading one of Rob’s old books on Buddhism in a futile attempt to become more zen and live in the moment. This year I’m screwing that off in favour of looking backwards. Not in a gloomy way, you understand, but a reflective...
80. Love letter to Sofia

80. Love letter to Sofia

Sveta Nedelya Church, Sofia   Moving to a Bulgarian village is like moving to the 1950s. In our village, they could easily film one of those TV programmes where people live like Victorian farmers or Tudor doctors or something: everyone knows everyone, chickens...
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