Well the evenings and early mornings are getting colder now and not to far in the future Winter will be upon us but hopefully not Like last Winter. Now I found that last Winter was a bit of drag for me as I hadn't been here long and I had nothing really set up for entertainment,So during this Summer I had my house refurbished and got down to sorting out the TV side of things.

If you have a half decent internet connection there are a few things that you can do with it. As I mentioned before there is Filmon.com where you can watch all the UK stations apart from Sky etc. There is a Bulgarian web site called "
My On Video"
which has loads of films and series that you can watch and if you have Google Chrome(you can down load it) it will translate if you cannot read the Cyliric alphabet for the menus but the titles are in English .At the moment I am going through various web sites to see what there is and I will pick out the best and post them if an intersest is shown.The only draw back with "
My On Video is that there are loads of Pop ups like Bet 375.com but once you get passed that it is very good. If you have trouble loading or anything just reply to this post and i will explain.
Now then to watch stuff on your lap top or PC is not ideal in most cases as the screens are not that big or the PC is not very mobile. Here is a solution or two to this problem. What you need is a USB port on your PC and an HDMI port on your TV which are quite common these days on both so have a look if you are not sure as they are marked on most equipment.
If your lap top has an HDMI port and your TV you have cracked it as all you do is link them up! Then load up lets say Filmon.com and the picture will appear on your computer that you wish to view. With the mouse place the cursor at the top of the picture you are looking at and left click and drag it to the right and you will see it slowly appear on your TV screen from the left as you drag it across then center it on the TV screen the go to full screen by clicking the little square box at the top right of your screen next inbetween the minus and cross sign and park your cursor in a lay by somewhere on your screen where it doesn't distract you.

If you don't have an HDMI port on your laptop/PC but on only your Tv then not to worry as Netgear has solved this problem with a sender and receiver for wireless viewing so no cables all over the floor.The rule of thumb for transmission is only around 10 feet in line of sight of the sender and receiver. It comes in two parts a small sender that plugs into your USB port on your laptop / PC and a mains powered receiver that plugs into your HDMI port on your TV.The system comes with a disc which loads everything onto your PC with a manual included on the disc which is easy to understand.You need to buy an HDMI cable if you do not have one as it is not supplied with the equipment.The beauty of the HDMI cable is that it transmits sound as well as picture. I bought this product from Amazon UK and costs around £125 and had it delivered to my brothers house and he then posted it on to me as Amazon doesn't seem to like sending stuff to Bullgaria for some reason.

Now then I have a problem if anyone has the answer as I bought my wife a KIndle Touch screen E- book reader and can I get this thing to work?
It powers up and shows the menu bar so I tap the screen and goes dark to show that it has recognised the tap and nothing and just sits there. I have a router which enables a wireless connection but I cannot connect it as the menu will not show it's drop down menu to enable me to do this. I have done a hard reset on it as prescribed by the information a I dragged from the internet but it just does exactly the same and now I am at the moment left with a piece of exspensive hard grey plastic!

Moved from 'Information about buying property and living in Bulgaria'

A lot of good information there Speedgunner and those that can follow your instructions and need so much entertainment. Thanks for taking the time.
As to your Kindle problems. Did you buy it in Bulgaria? I ask because my children bought me one in UK from Amazon but gave my address in Bulgaria when they tried to register me. Bulgaria comes under US apparently, so it says on the back of the written instructions. It gives a phone number to call in the event of problems. It took my daughters hours to finally get it sorted by using the phone in UK and explaining that we were actually in UK at the time. Otherwise I would be paying for books in dollars! I don't know if this is of any help because you are the whizz on techy problems but I have read that others in Bulgaria have had problems with their Kindle.

I had the Kindle Touch sreen delivered to my brothers address in the UK and he sent it on to me as I do with most items that I order.The problem I have with a return is that I need to get a returns number and Amazon has a "
Ring back"
service to aquire this number. The trouble as it they will only ring back with the returns number in the UK as it starts with"
+44"
so I may be using Skype and get my brother to ring whilst I am on Skype with him.Thanks for your help any way oldun.

Once me and Mrs Eq eventually get to move to BG, I envisage I will will spending winters drawing/painting.

I enjoy painting in what spare time I have and have exhibited in the NEWA (National Exhibition of Wildlife Art) and sold a few paintings mainly wildlife/pets to friends.

In 2010 I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with a bunch of work colleagues to raise funds for Black Rhino conservation and painted a couple of rhino pictures which were then used to create prints to raise money, so the combination of rhino print sales and other fundraising events I managed to raise over £1500.

At the moment I just simply do not have time to get to paint due to work commitments and the general rush of day to day life here in the UK which again is one of the reasons why me and the missus are looking at moving to BG.

Although the winter can be cold its a different kind of cold and I would think painting some of the fantastic scenery over the winter period would be very rewarding indeed.

Well for those of you are artistic good for you! However not all of us are gifted so we need simpler things to entertain us which includes watching the box. I am writing a book but I cannot do that all day as my mind siezes up after two or three hours and have to have a break and reading a book is not the answer as I cannot concentrate on it so I watch TV which relaxes my mind. When I was learning to fly helicopters with the Army Air Corps after spending time in ground school I used to go and watch TV which freed my mind up a bit allowing me to refresh my mind for the next days bible lessons on the theory of flight and the mechanics of a gas turbine engine and the whirly bits. So this is why I venture into the practice of getting TV over here in Bulgaria and all the associated bits to provide said entertainment.

Thnaks for the TV advice anyway Speedgunner as the OH is definately a TV fan.

Equinus wrote:

Thnaks for the TV advice anyway Speedgunner as the OH is definately a TV fan.

..............when she can't get out into the garden! He makes me sound like a couch potato...chance would be a fine thing. I like to have the telly on in cold weather while I am browsing the internet or reading, it's company. But I like the programmes to be either useful in an entertaining way, or factual. You can keep your Jeremy Kyle and soaps, silly comedy or hopeless talent. Sometimes I like a film, but it has to be gripping or I am asleep in no time!

Guilty pleasure? Casualty and Holby. Used to like Loose Women but am over that now.

My other interests while the telly warbles on are embroidery and card making...and cooking, not good for the waistline!

Mrs Eq

This is quite a good topic here. What do I do in the winter? Well, I've taken to reading a lot lately especially biographies. I am endlessly interested in other peoples' lives and how they got where they were. I love cooking. Being on a very strict budget, I have to be very creative in using everything and throwing no food away. Any morsels are given to animals so nothing really goes in a bin except wrappings. I realise that home-cooking can be difficult when working 9-5 so its nice to have the time. Some recipes are time consuming which is great in the winter. We also eat more. I walk the dog a lot although my hero bans me if its too snowy because I have had a few falls!
I like TV for company but am quite choosey. I love films but judge how good a film is by if I stay awake! I like factual stuff and love Pawn Stars and Restoration and Ice road truckers although I have weaned off a bit on that and I do get tired of all the American accents. Love Animal Planet and all cookery programmes. However, I have my slingbox and admit to liking Loose Women a lot but it depends on subjects discussed and the guests. I get mad when the internet is off and its always when a favoured guest is on!
I don't see anything wrong in admitting to watching tele. In fact, I would be suspicious of any anti-TV snobs (it is snobbery in my opinion) if they never watch it during a Bulgarian winter.
Of course, if you are a craft or hobby person you will find lots to do indoors and there are games like Scrabble. For men it might be more difficult although MY Hero seems to manage to keep busy. He loves working outdoors and spends hours chopping and stacking wood in order for our stove. Baskets and baskets appear around the stove, outside the back door under shelter and out in the woodstore.
The winters aren't really so bad depending on where you live. Again choose your village with care! Its true its a different kind of cold and I acutally feel much colder when in Britain because there always seems to be a cold wind and the houses are not so warm due to cost cutting because of high fuel bills!