Bulgarian Break

A last minute decision to spend a week’s break in Bulgaria with my old friend Sue – between Christmas and New Year. While the catching up and spending time together was great, the trip was not without difficulties … starting with a 4 hour delay at Gatwick before the plane pulled up to the departure window – it appeared I would be flying on Iron Maiden Airlines! Well, on the aircraft that was advertising their 2008 world tour anyway…

Susie met me at Varna Airport and we headed into town to the Hotel Perfect – and it was. Off-season rates - cheap as chips and two old girls lived like royalty for the night. The rooms were luxurious, each with its own sitting room and balcony. My room even had its own courtyard, as big as the apartment itself.

Varna is a lovely town/city, especially with its Christmas lights - though I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to be there in the tourist season.

And so on to Miladinovtsi after a 3 hour train trip to Yambol, then a one hour drive through thick fog. That was Tuesday. Wednesday were blizzards which – as we learned 49 hours later when the power came back on – had bought much of Bulgaria and Romania to a standstill. So what do four Aussies (us two and two young guys from Perth – house guests) and two local Brits do in a blizzard without power? – off to the pub. Well, the local bar in the village.

And here’s some snaps of Susie with her new family of Karakachans –

Taking the pups for a stroll in the back yard:

Reading them the riot act …. (not really - they call the shots!)

So getting around was pretty interesting – we did a taxi ride into Yambol for a day out on Friday as we were all feeling a touch of cabin fever. The roads were indeed dangerous – a very slow trip – and the countryside was stunning beautiful with its thick cover of snow, and clear blue skies. And then Saturday I repeated that trip into Yambol, first part of the ordeal in getting back to France.

It went like this:

• 1 hour trip from Miladinovtsi to the train station at Yambol by taxi - on iced ungritted roads
• One hour train delay – temperature outside minus 20 degrees
• Slow trip - 3 hour train trip took 4 hours
• Arrived Varna airport to find it closed due to weather
• 2+ hours on a bus to Bourgas Airport
• Arrived Gatwick 1.20am
• Rescheduled flights and got into nearby hotel (compliments of BA) by 3am
• Being Sunday, first flight to Toulouse departed 3.15pm
• Arrived back in Bize 8.15pm

Door-to-door, 36 hours – about 1.5 trips to Australia!

Waiting for the train:

Despite the weather and travel trauma, it was a beaut break and all going well Susie will be over this way for a visit before the summer.

Building progress

A few pictures of the progress on the barn building up to the Christmas break. Although it’s now into January, the builders haven’t yet re-appeared, so hopefully they put in an appearance soon!

The upstairs balcony on the main house, now about two thirds original size:

And looking back at the house:

Before Christmas, the village walking group held a lunch at a beaut restaurant up in the hills. After a lovely meal, Illyette just happened to have bags of costumes with her, and some of us were lucky enough to dress up in traditional garb of other countries. It was lucky dip – I got “Miss Congo” and Illyette (on the right) got “Miss Senegal”. This lot love a dress-up .....

Sandra (Miss Egypt) and Jacques (Mr India) !!

Edgar drew the short straw – Miss France:

However, it wasn’t only a lunch – Illyette and Claude celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary in style – with Illyette wearing her original dress and cape – the birthday hat with candles however was NOT part of the original ……

There was also a repeat wedding ceremony – with lots of laughs - and Jacques relishing playing the part of the priest….

And a few winter pictures of the village: Mist on the river …

And a vide grenier held mid-December:

Christmas bits

The Christmas decorations have just recently gone up around the village – nothing too fancy or over the top. It’s common to see a figure of a Santa trying to get into the house, through a window for example.

But this one ….

appears to have been hung!

And elsewhere around the village, there are the normal lights strung across the streets,

also wrapped gift boxes adorning the plane trees ,

and some lucky people (but not me!) have even had them attached to their downpipes!

And here’s something that’s got nothing to do with me, France or Christmas, but it definitely has a ‘feel-good’ factor.

A friend in Australia (thanks Shirley, I love it too!), sent me the link to this video clip so I’m posting it here. I’ve also copied the story behind the making of the video below:

Aboriginal interpretation of Zorba the Greek

Frank Djirrimbilpilwuy from Milingimbi has been in the Indigenous Media Industry for many years and has been a long-standing member and supporter of the Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasting Association, TEABBA Radio. He has worked Independently in Music and Film for many years also.

As the man behind the camera and release of the video, Frank is also representing the dance group who call themselves "The Chooky Dancers". Frank has said that he filmed the footage at this year’s Ramingining Festival on the 30th September 2007 and knew it would be "something special" as soon as he saw the boys rehearsing. "The crowd went wild as you can see in the video, and the classic song Zorba the Greek has now become a hit overnight in the communities and now it seems, everywhere else too," Frank said.

In just one week of being released onto "You Tube" by the staff at TEABBA Media Services, the video has received rave reviews, been given a 5 star rating and has now been viewed well over 15,000 times.

"The phones have not stopped ringing at the TEABBA offices, all from people who want to know more about the footage," a TEABBA staff member has said. "Even the honorable Kon Vatskalis with the Territory Labour Party has commented on the video and suggested that they perform at the Greek Glenti next year."

The Chooky Dancers are a group of 10 energetic young men who had healthy living in mind when they choreographed the performance. Frank’s son Lionel is the lead dancer in the video footage at front and centre. "They (the Chooky Dancers) begun working on this just after this year’s Garma Festival in Gukula and worked very hard on it, they also do a Bollywood style performance which is also fantastic," Frank said. It seems that talent runs in Frank’s family, with Frank’s daughter also in an All-Indigenous Line Dance Group also who Frank actively plays a role in.

The "Zorba" video, which has not yet been given an official title, is just a sample of Frank’s works. "I edited that footage on "imovie" at the TEABBA Media Services video workshop and now have plans to make a documentary about my Yolngu families’ connections to the Greek culture". Frank’s feelings towards the Greek culture have been reinforced by his daughter Priscilla, who requires constant care and is currently being cared for by a woman of Greek heritage in Darwin. "Lillian is a selfless woman, who cares for my daughter," Frank said. "She takes Priscilla to church, weddings and all kinds of functions within the Greek community and they are all lovely people with strong cultural identity also which Yolngu people can identify to. I want to show through this documentary how 2 cultures can mix and this dance video is a fabulous start", Frank said.

Shameless self-promotion

OK, well as uncomfortable as this feels, I am going to use my Blog to promote my ‘other’ website i.e. my house as a rental proposition!

However, needs must …. and I figure that as I’m a late-comer to the holiday rental market, I need all the help I can get to get the information out there in time for next summer’s bookings.

So, even though some of my minor renovations / decorating bits in the house are ongoing, I have a fairly certain completion date for the barn, and therefore a date when I can make the house available for holiday rentals.

Leaving plenty of room for delays, the house will be available to rent from June 2008.

But, for MORE information, please see my other website.

And please feel free to 'spread the word' ..... it will be much appreciated.

There, it wasn’t too painful …..

Phew ….

A very big crane

They certainly brought in the big guns to move the beams of the roof. It was a huge crane that turned up the other morning from Narbonne – blocking off the street to the school for the whole morning. The community policeman even turned up to help divert the traffic! The builders had obtained permission to take the crane into the vacant block of land that backs onto the barn. But it was too wide to get through the opening in the stone wall.

Fortunately it was big enough to reach over next door’s property and do the lifting of the beams from the street. One of the beams was not in good condition and had to go, and another from the front was being used to replace it. Certainly had the townsfolk out and about having a look at the goings-on.

The first floor is down, precast reinforced beams in place, and a fresh batch of cement poured.

The walls of the first floor take shape, and the roof lining goes on.

Autumn colours

Having now spent nearly a full year in France, I’ve decided that autumn is definitely my favourite season! The colours of the vines – different shades of the different varieties – are just stunning. And of course all the other trees and plants are changing colour, too.

The photos can hardly do justice; however I’ve taken a lot and am posting a few of my favourites here.

This is taken standing on the bridge in Bize, looking down-river.

The weather has been amazing – hardly any rain at all, and none forecast. Not a good thing for the area – the River Cesse in Bize is scarcely a trickle and the river bed is as dry as it was at the height of summer. This is again taken from the bridge, looking back the other way. The swimming pool wall is still intact - normally by now the waters would have washed away the dam wall.

This is looking down on Bize from the Pech:

Looking down the Valley of the Cesse, again from the Pech.

There was another chestnut festival, just a week after the one in St. Pons. This time in the village of Olargues – again up in the Black Mountains. And the drive up there was beautiful:

And more chestnut market / fete photos:

But this was a little different in that there was a group of Frenchmen in Kilts - a Scottish pipe band was there for the celebrations! They’re called the Claymor Clan and are based in Provence:

It’s taking shape ….

Progress on the renovations has been going great guns – except for this week when the builders have been pretty thin on the ground. And not likely to return until next Monday – the boss is ‘en vacances’ in Spain, there’s a public holiday today and a lot of the manufacturing companies are apparently also on holiday this week. Not to worry – things are still well on track. I hope these are not famous last words.

Some HUGE pieces of stone that were buried (one of them was part of a set of steps) and had to be removed:

And being taken out through the garage. This is the smaller of the two rocks - I missed getting a photo of the removal of the huge one - they had to bring in an even bigger piece of machinery to get it out.

Some pipes go in:

The cement on the ground floor gets poured -

And the bottom half of the front wall is nearly done …

It looks awfully small from this perspective!