Sunday 29th July 2018

I don't understand how I ever managed to hold down several jobs simultaneously as my days now seem completely filled with goodness knows what. All I can say is that the goodness knows whats are definitely nice things (with a sprinkling of stress now and then to shake up any complacency) though there are increasing numbers of times when I realise it's 9 o'clock at night and I've yet to have an evening meal. (Don't worry, I have plenty of tummy reserves to stave off several weeks of starvation!)

Last Friday I headed off to Sofia to have a stab at the written language test as part of my citizenship preparations. More nerve wracking than the prospect of the test was having to phone up a few days previously and ask for my candidate number and to confirm the test time. Can you imagine? There I am ready to roll up for a language proficiency test and on the phone every other second I'm saying 'pardon', 'can you repeat that'. I would not have been surprised had the lady suggested perhaps I wasn't quite ready for this step.

The test centre is quite close to a metro station a couple of stops away from the city centre, so I bought an amazing value public transport pass which for 4 levs gives you free access to all the metro, bus and tram routes for one day.

I didn't realise at first but you need to go to the ticket office each time to get the ticket scanned before it will work in the barriers. Luckily it wasn't rush hour so I didn't cause any disruptions other than personal embarrassment as I tried my ticket at every barrier before asking for help at the desk.

I checked out where the test centre was and then found a nearby shady bench to sit and have some lunch and do some last minute futile revision of vocabulary from the example tests which naturally were guaranteed not to be on the real thing. Just after 1pm I headed back to the centre and was surprised to see a substantial queue already.

No, not a trick photo. This was taken when I arrived earlier in the day, but shows the gates where you queue up to go in.

Once we were allowed through we went round the back of the building where lists of names were published with which room we were to go to. A quick scan told me that most of the other candidates were Turkish or Ukranian, and I was the only Brit.

In the room you sit at any desk, and one of the examiners comes and checks your ID card. You then fill out a brief form with your name and country of origin, and then after some introductory spiel (no talking, nothing on the desk except a pen) we began.

The test is multiple choice with a passage to read followed by 20 questions. Some are comprehension based on the text (one flummoxed me when it asked about a certain historical character who I could not recall being in the text at all - panic - till I realised it was referring to a picture next to the writing), others are grammatical, spelling and punctuation based, or things like 'eye is to face as page is to book'. The results are published in about a week's time, so I shall reserve judgement till then as to whether I found it horrendous or not too bad.

I spent a bit of time in the city centre afterwards, of course taking in the huge Alexander Nevski cathedral during my walk.

Another jittery moment when I got to the bus station only to be told the 4 o'clock bus was full. Luckily there were spaces on the final bus to Gabrovo at 5pm or I'd have been on the hunt for a cheap B&B for the night.

Back in Gostilitsa preparations continue for the HorsePower Festival and endurance races later this year. I'd come up with ideas for the horse race routes which would hopefully cut down on the amount of tarmac/stone the horses have to go on, and also keep them off the farmer's fields (a big bone of contention last year). Here I am making some last minute adjustments to the route with my eyes closed! Using the force, Star Wars style.

Today the chief official came over with her hubby to start checking our routes to ensure they are suitable. We've had an abominable amount of rain all summer so far, so even with the aid of the jeep we were in it was a hairy ride with several sticky points as the wheels headed into deep ruts hidden in the overgrown weeds. The good news is that with a couple of little changes the 30km route was approved, so now I need to gather some willing volunteers to start pruning back branches and clearing some of the growth to make the paths clearly visible to the riders. Next week I think we may be heading out again to check the 20km route, so fingers crossed that the weather starts turning a bit more seasonal to let the land dry out.

Surprisingly, amidst all of this, I've still found time to start processing veggies into jars or the freezer, and have even started a batch of apple cider vinegar. I've never made or even used it before, but have always been curious about it as it's supposed to have a myriad of healthy uses. Anyway, here are the apples all chopped up in a jar of water and some sugar where they'll stay in a dark warm spot for the next month or so and hopefully start producing lots of fermented loveliness.

It's exhausting just recalling all of this! Time for another cuppa and to sit and watch the pond skaters for 10 minutes.