Bulgaria, Plovdiv: My Memoirs

- Flying in and being amazed with how it goes from completely flat to mountainous.

- Wondering around trying to find the apartment. I asked a Bulgarian man, and he (like every other the whole trip) was incredibly helpful, regardless of the huge language barrier.

- Walking around the crazy city. It seemed so derelict in parts. The pavements were very broken, and seemed quite in the past. The nicer buildings had their architectural features painted on.

- Climbing the biggest hill in the city, with a statue at the top of a man holding a Tommy Gun.

- Going to a restaurant. The most expensive dishes were £5. Liam asked for some kind of meat, and the waitress said "no... that is... no good...". Avoiding the 'pork knuckle'.

- Playing Ring of Fire. Liam and Ash being 'drinking buddies', and between them finding every single 'double up' and 'drink' card available.

- Drunken grappling.

- Craig's fry up in the morning. Sausages, 'meatballs', bacon, beans, eggs, toast. Awesome way to start the day.

- Getting the train to Asenovgrad. Asking for 5 tickets and being charged 6 Lev's (£3). I then had to ask twice to make sure that is really for 5 people.

- Driving to Bachkovo. The taxi driver being inches from every parked car, and reversing in the snow through the tiniest gap.

- Going into the Bachkovo Monastery. The Christians were taking it very seriously, crossing their chest as they walked in.

- Climbing up the snowy Rodopi Mountains in completely impractical shoes. I didn't think it would be snowy. Many snowballs were thrown. Liam ran, lost his shoe and fell over and we drank from natural springs.

- Trying to save a weird beetle thing that was walking really slowly because of the cold. I wanted to get it to a tree or rock or something.

- Going in the abandoned building on the way back down the mountain.

- The awesome cakes in the town. Liam had soggy doughnut things, and I had a weird chocolate cake. No idea what they actually were, and the language barrier stopped us asking, but they tasted nice and were cheap.

- Looking for Grill restaurant Craig saw on the way in. He said it would be a 15 min walk, but over 7km and many "it's just around this corner"s, a satellite dish that was no where near the building it went to, and a big metal entrance cut into a mountain (Soviet secret base style) we finally found it.

- Ordering loads at the restaurant because it was crazily cheap. I had a double whiskey for 55p. We pretty much ordered 5 plates of meat, a bit of rice and some vegetables. Including drinks it came to less than £1 each. It was so cheap that we gave a big tip, and the waiter loved us. We shook his hand and shared a magical moment.

- Getting a 5 man taxi... which in Bulgaria is a 4 man taxi with tinted windows. The 30km journey I think it only cost £2 each.

- Buying a bottle of white wine for £1.10, vodka for £3, whisky for £3.50, and a bottle of Morgan's Spiced for £10 (you have to push the boat out sometimes).

- Playing BattleShots (battleships but you take a shot when you are hit). Liam losing two boats almost instantly. The fear of your boat being hit, after already having too many shots. Chilling out after with drunken Charades.

- Not wanting to move the next day after hiking and drinking, so randomly wandering around the city, attempting to look for old stuff. They didn't seem to care that they had 2000 year old ruins around. It looked more like they just couldn't afford to move them.

- Finding Captain Vestman among the graffitied ruins of a Roman tower, overlooking the city.

- Eating the worlds dirtiest kebab. A wrap, dipped in grease, then rubbed against the kebab meat, then filled with a sauce, 'salad', and 'meat' dripping with grease. It was nice, but the guilt almost made it unenjoyable.

- Playing more Battleshots and Ring of Fire. Mixing shots of vodka with cheap white wine, and getting rid of the taste with cheap whisky and coke. Stopping midway to go and buy more alcohol. Buying another bottle of vodka and rum, which we found the next morning mostly unopened.

81) Explore 10 derelict buildings: Part 2, In Rodopi Mountains

I have kind of been struggling to cross this off the list. I occasionally find abandoned buildings, but people I am with never want to go in. I am then quite easily deterred, as for some reason I find them overly creepy. Even smaller ones, where it is clear there is nobody there, I get apprehensive going in.

When I went to Newport towers (first for a photoshoot, then with Neil) I had somebody else who was eager to go in, but that seems to be rare.

Anyway. In my recent trip to Plovdiv, Bulgaria, we took a train out to Asenovgrad, and then a taxi to Bachkovo. After visiting the monastery we walked up the mountains. Along the way there were some abandoned buildings. I couldn't quite figure out what they were from the outside. Most of the windows were closed with bricks, but one was open.

I wanted to go in, but my friends wouldn't stop so we continued.

On the way back down the mountain I decided I wanted to go in. I climbed over the open window, and Mike followed me in.

The inside was empty, with rows of rooms with nothing but big windows and a glass door. I have no idea what they were supposed to be. The first room just had some pants and a condom (can't imagine how that combination came together). The second room just had some litter.

I wanted to look in the other rooms, and perhaps go upstairs, but I sensed my friends were getting impatient outside (judging by the snowballs constantly hitting the windows), so we took a few photos and left.

I may not have completely explored it, but the rooms were all very similar... so I'm counting it!

Year 'Dating' Anniversary and Big Jigsaw!

Wednesday it was mine and Brandi's first (and only) year anniversary. One of the things she got me was a 5000 piece jigsaw. This means I can attempt to cross off "127) Do a 5000 piece jigsaw" when she comes over. I am apprehensive. 1000 pieces took ages (and 3 attempts). Though it will probably be a blessing since we won't be able to afford to leave the house for a while.

Speaking of the house, I'll put pictures up if and when the mortgage is accepted and everything goes through. Don't want to jump the gun just yet.

113) Find 10 geocaches: Part 7, 8 & 9

Part 7

When Brandi came to stay in Moseley we were looking forward to Geocaching. It may sound nerdy, but it is pretty fun. On September 11th, not two weeks after she had been here, we set out on a weekend day to find a Geocache.

The first one we looked for was difficult. We looked all around the trees and bushes, but it wasn't to be found. We decided to go onto the second hope. I was a bit worried about this one, for two reasons. Firstly, it was called "St Mary's Church", when the GPS pointed to another church. Secondly, it was a "nano". If we couldn't find the normal, I didn't expect to find a nano.

The church as just off a road that was used a lot. We didn't want to start looking around too obviously, as we would draw attention to ourselves. Thankfully, there isn't too many places you can hide one, and we surprisingly quickly found it, attached to the bottom of a gate with a magnet, was "Moseley St. Mary's Church Nano".

Part 8

Towards the end of September, on the 18th, Brandi's mom and brother came to stay with us. Trying to show them some of England's countryside we went to the Peak District. We had a nice walk along a disused railway, and decided to search for another Geocache.

This one, "Clapgun is 40 #3 – MR Clapgun", is by far the easiest we have found.

Part 9

During Brandi's stay we met up with Lee and his girlfriend Gemma a few times. Lee is a guy I got on really well with when I worked at Birmingham Midshires, and endeavoured to stay in touch with. He is a really good laugh, and we have a very similar sense of humour.


We had told them about Geocaching, and they liked the idea of it, so on Saturday 24th September we decided to help them find one to introduce them to it.

This was easier said than done. The Geocache we were trying to find was in Kinver. Kinver is a really nice countryside area, and one of the few places in England where you can find snakes. The snakes weren't a problem though... but the trees and the lack of GPS when in the was.

We decided to cut away from the path to save time, and literally follow the compass. This led us up a pretty steep hill, and having to jump over a barbed wire fence. We gave up with the initial Geocache after the GPS would tell us it was a meter away, and then decide it was 50. We carried on walking in hope of picking up another signal that will be more definitive.

We walked into more trees. Thankfully the GPS was being a little better here, giving us more chance to find it. After a quick search we managed to find an ammo box (how cool!) hidden under some foliage. Finding it was almost as hard as figuring out how to open it!

After finding "'End Of The Way' Kinver" I now only have one more left.

108) Learn to do Rubik's Cubes in under 2 minutes

When I worked at Switch, Jon once bought in a Rubik's Cube, and casually solved it, like it was nothing. I was in awe. I had given up on all Rubik's Cubes when I was young, and assumed they were impossible to solve. I then thought of the question (that I made up) "If someone said they would give you a million pounds if they could lock you in a room until you solved a Rubik's Cube, would you do it?". The catch being, if you don't you will starve/dehydrate to death. I wouldn't do it... but if ever that chance came up I wanted to be able to.

Anyway, I decided that I wanted to conquer Rubik's Cubes, something that from a young age I learned I'd never do.

I started to learn it, and in June I managed to solve my first one. I had learned how to do it all but the end, but this single time the end, by chance, didn't need to be done. A girl was sitting next to me at the time, although she did well to hide it, I am sure she was impressed. 

During a trip to London I sat in Hyde Park trying to improve on my speed. I saw a group of Japanese tourists taking a photo of me. They probably went back saying "In London they have people sitting in parks doing Rubik's Cubes!".

For the last few months I had got my time down to around 2 minutes, but I couldn't consistently achieve it. I wouldn't count it as being completed until I could always do it in under 2 minutes.

Without further ado, here is the evidence.

*I should also point out, my nephew Sam very proudly filmed the bottom left video.

Awh. Nice Spotify!

I write a lot of "strongly worded emails". It seems to be becoming a hobby. I am one of those annoying people that customer services hate, that complain about the wording on the package. It is mainly out of boredom. The only example that has ever made it onto the blog is the whole Bloomex affair.

Last week I was annoyed that the council summoned me to court over council tax payments. It's more annoying that I didn't see any reminders. It's not an issue, I paid it, it just cost me an extra £62 that I could have done without paying. Needless to say, it put me in a mood.

When I got to work I put my laptop on so I could listen to music and put me in a better mood. I use Spotify. It's awesome. Apart from this one time... it had deleted all my songs. I cracked my fingers, ready for a "strongly worded email".

After saying a few things that annoy me (the songs redownloading, the mobile app sometimes crashing) I ended it with saying that I was sending it mainly because I was having a bad day.

I had a reply from them the next day... at the end of it, Tom, a guy who everyone would want to be their best friend, wrote:

What a gentleman. I then found this picture attached at the bottom, entitled "Have a great day Andy.jpg":

It did, indeed, put me in a better mood! Especially considering the "strongly worded email" to Groupon the same day had an annoying, default response.

Leaving our First Home

At the end of July I signed the contact for a 6 month lease for mine and Brandi's first place together, for while she was here. She moved in in August, and we had a great time. Here are some pictorial memoirs...

Today I am handing my keys back. I moved back into my parents just before Christmas, after Brandi moved out on the 8th December.