BOO!!!

So much done, so little time…

I got a  bit of a bollocking from my friend Brian….he of the apricot jam and instant coffee, way back in 2006 after my operation.  He even rang to see if I was still alive, and indeed I am, but it really has been all go here…

There’s been work on the house, a lot of work…I nearly lost my Mia…and there’s been the sacking of the builder, but lets start with the house.

The front has been rendered..not the best job I’ve ever seen, but it has made a huge difference to the appearance of the place

I’ve had a couple of local blokes working for me, sanding and revarnishing the wooden windows and repainting all the parapet around the balconies, and this has made a huge difference to the look of the house

I’ve been back on the brushes and the third floor is looking really good.

Because of water damage inside the house, I’ve had to pretty much redo all the painting on the third floor.  Ivan was supposed to do some work on the house while I was still in Australia, but this work was not done.   Apparently, winter was extreme and there was water running down the sides of my house for months and the walls inside were damaged.  I got a guy in to repair all the plaster and have been repainting like crazy to get the place back to prettiness.  I think it’s looking pretty good now.

And Ivan…well, what can I say.  I guess there’s no fool like an old fool, and when I was here last August he was at his charming best and I fell for it.  We talked about work that was necessary on the house, mainly to get the water away from the building.  I told him to go ahead and do the work and left money with him to carry out said works.  Can you see where this is going yet ???  Yep, no work AND no money.

I’ve been back three months and his behaviour has been slightly erratic, to say the least.  One day, all over me like a rash and having lunch together and the next day, an unhappy,angry man.  We talked about him doing the work and he kept fobbing me off with stories of the amount of work he had to do with his sheep and he kept saying ‘tomorrow Sue’. But as we all know, tomorrow never comes.

Anyway, I gave him three months and last week I rang and asked him to either do the work, or give me my money back.  his response ?  to shout at me…a lot.  Like I’ve said, I’m not the pathetic, weepy creature that left here two years ago…I’m back and I’m as strong as an ox, mentally and physically, so I didn’t get upset, I didn’t shout at him.  I remained perfectly calm and just kept saying ‘Ivan, it’s my money and I want it back’  He just kept shouting and getting more and more worked up, so I quietly told him to keep the money and hung up on him.  “Goodbye’ was the last thing I said to him.

I got straight on the phone and organised other builders to come out and give me prices..this has been done, and I have someone starting work here on Wednesday.  And Ivan, who I suspect might have money issues just now, gets no more, not a single stotinki from me.  His loss, not mine.

I am deeply disappointed about the loss of the friendship and his company, because when he’s good, he’s fantastic. But it seems he has fallen out with half the district while I’ve been away, so at least it’s not so much of a personal thing.   Male menopause perhaps ???

Now, my lovely Mia…

Mia is the happiest dog I think I’ve ever met.  She is full of joy and energy and constantly brings me joy and smiles with her enthusiasm and total love of me.

this is the big silly face that greets me every day and brings me great joy.

Last Tuesday she was not her usual self  late in the day around dinner time.  She was very lethargic and listless and I could smell a strange sickly sweet odour around her.  It got worse…she suddenly started to vomit, really, really violently, then she collapsed (in her vomit) and lay on the ground with her eyes rolling back in her head.  Was I getting a little distressed. ??…indeed I was.  I rang Maria, the vet, and she said I needed to get Mia to Yambol as quickly as possible.  Can I lift 55 kilos ??  Indeed I can’t.   I called Gina.  Why ?? I don’t know. Maybe I thought she could help…I don’t know, I was getting very distressed by this time.  Anyway, when Mia saw her mother, she struggled to her feet, which was my chance to maneuver her towards the car and get her into it. I had called some friends, Janet & Keith, in a nearby village and they said they were on their way to help me, but as I managed to kind of body slam the poor thing into the car, I rang them and said I was on my way to Yambol.

They met me on the road and Janet accompanied me to the vets.  I probably shouldn’t have driving, but Janet can’t, so it was a fairly scary trip into town for her I think.  I was crying and barely able to focus on driving because I thought I was losing my lovely girl.

We got the vets and there was a glimmer of hope when she dug her heels in at the front door and didn’t want to go inside.  It was the first sign of strength that I had seen since she started being sick. Anyway,  after blood tests, that showed all seemed to be OK, tests to make sure she hadn’t been poisoned and a couple of injections, Mia started to show signs of recovery. I don’t know if it was something to do with whatever made her sick, but she also dropped an enormous amount of hair….all over the surgery.  It was really odd.

I had been mowing the yard all day and was absolutely filthy, both in clothes and in body.  I went to town like this…hey, my dog was sick and I wasn’t really thinking about how I looked.  When it was all over and it was time to return home, Janet asked if we could stop and grab a drink and maybe  something to eat.  ” Of course”, I said, because I was feeling a little hungry and thirsty myself.  We headed off to the Kebache caravan outside a local supermarket and I told Janet that perhaps I shouldn’t go in, considering how I looked, so off she trotted.  It was very hot, so I got out of the car and stood next to it.  Mia, by this time was pretty much back to her usual self and had her enormous, smiley face hanging out of the car window, and Janet and I were standing there eating great big sausages between slabs of bread….we looked at each other and just started laughing.  We must have looked a sight to all the shoppers…10.30 at night, standing in a car park, me looking like I’d been dragged backwards through a muddy paddock and Mia’s huge face smiling out onto us both…..we certainly got some looks from passers by.

And what was wrong with my Mia ? well, we don’t really know.  it had been a very hot day and Maria thought maybe the heat had got to her.  I did explain that my girls spend the hot days like this

downstairs, sprawled out on the lovely cool tiles.

We did discuss the fact that she is too fat…they both are, and so they’re now on a diet, which is making feed times very funny.  You should see the looks on their faces when I place their simple and small dishes of food in front of them.  It’s like I am personally torturing them or something…they look so hurt and pathetic.  Are they dying of hunger ? of course not…they’re fine.

Since that night though I have found out that five other dogs in the village have been sick, with one of them dying, so maybe it was poisoning and maybe because of her huge size, she was able to survive it.

And the final word on that night…I’ve mentioned before that Karakachans have these amazing spotted tummies.  They’re like an inside out Dalmation and because she had to be shaved for an untrasound at the vets, I can now show you what I’m talking about.

Isn’t that the cutest thing. Under all that hair lurks a cute, spotted body, because the dots are all over her, not just on her tummy…she has a nasty shaving rash, but at least she’s OK.

I have more, but my time today for sitting at the computer is over.  Time to get ready for a little socialising. I have a BBQ to go to tonight but first I must go downstairs and give my girls a hug.  🙂

ciao for now