First topic message reminder :

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Berni, I thought you might like this little poem
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I was with my Mum last Thursday, she will be 99 years old in February and still weeds her garden and does her house work, she also does her weeks shopping in Morison's having got a lift with a next door neighbour. I am her POA and we went to organise and pay for her funeral and I can say now we will not mourn her death in black, we will celebrate her life and her will to get the best out of life, it will be a carnival send off

I am also living with the knowledge that I will loose my lovely wife who is only 70 years old with that dreadful disease dementia. Life can be very cruel and you sometime ask, why me, anyway we will continue to live our lives to the full and enjoy whatever time we have together and hopefully make many more visit to our lovely Bulgarian home to be with our

Ah that's lovely Willow thanks a million.

We've had a really silly day, weatherwise...started about 7.45am, with almost clear sky and 15 degrees, when I was standing out on the patio. I was just enjoying my smoke and a coffee when I felt a sudden chilly, but very soft air movement...a great wall of fog was rolling down the street towards me and with a minute or so, the temp dropped down to 10 and a bit and visibility was down to a few metres!
It stayed that way for more than an hour, but gradually cleared again. Full sunshine until lunch time and it started to sprinkle again.
The afternoon alternated between really pleasant and really crappy...sky is clear again and we have a great view of the 'super moon', but how long that will last is anyones guess.

Good morning All

We hope you had a great Christmas with your families so now we must look at the next party which is New Year therefore, have to share this advice Keep Safe

Drink driving, please learn from my experience!
As you well know, some of us have been known to have had brushes with the authorities on our way home from an occasional social session over the years.
A couple of nights ago, I was out for an evening with friends
and had a few beers. Knowing full well I may have been slightly over the limit, I took a taxi home. Sure enough, I passed a police road block but, since it was a taxi, they waved it past. I arrived home safely without incident, which was a real surprise as I have never driven a taxi before and am not sure where I got it or what to do with it now that it's in my garage!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.

Here's hoping 2018 is the best year yet.

Stay safe.

as 2017 draws to a close , may 2018 see you with the love and comfort of those dearest to you, the stability of a happy life...and grant you a peaceful and healthy year

Thank you VG...your words mean more than you will ever know.


PS. Let me know if you need some more reading material.

Wishing all you lovely people a very Happy New Year and please God 2018 will bring health and happiness to you

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Think I am going to be on Radio Shumen today between 3 and 3.30 but not 100% sure why. They will be ringing me today at 3. Should be fun if the interview is Bulgarian and does not speak English. My Bulgarian is ok to get by but not for interview.

For those who need them...two days left to get your new annual vignette. I'll collect mine tomorrow and there's any change in paperwork required, I'll post on here, probably about midday (BG time). Stay tuned.

Hi Justbazz
No change to paperwork, apart from stating when you want it to run from and they date it, Friend did theirs last week and they observed the expiry date of current one and dated new one from 01/02/18, so no problems

Bill

I got mine Saturday...they did not even want to see The talon or take reg number !!!!

That's very interesting...I wonder how they are going to track which vignette belongs to which car. For the last couple of years, the garage where I've always purchased mine, have always recorded the reg number of the vehicle it's going on. Guess I'll find out tomorrow....

I've been giving this some thought since I wrote the above about an hour ago...

I only need a vignette to travel up to my farm which is out of town...at this time of the year I go up there every month or so. If I go up tomorrow, or even on Wednesday (legally), I can put off the purchase of the new vignette until the beginning of March. Another thought crossed my mind...traffic police down this way work sensible hours...8 to 5, so it would be very rare to see them during the evening...sometimes in the city, but never on the country roads. Maybe they are scared of the dark, but more likely because they don't get paid extra to work unsociable hours, so the chances of getting sprung are very slim.

Have to say, same here, depends on place of purchase, done one in the past where the took the number by asking which car, and one where they ask for the talon, details recorded on issuing sheet.
Expiry easy to see as punched out now like the insurance talons. sounds like an area to area thing ?

Hi Bill

It's a strange set up...and I really think that one has to 'be on the ball' to keep up with how things work in your particular area.
For instance, down here, the traffic plod are pretty reasonable and they might set up a speed trap/document checkpoint around a kilometer past the last business address on the road leading out of town...well past the " vignette" sign and the speed limit signs.
I asked a mate of mine (KAT officer) why do they do that and the answer was refreshingly intelligent. Why should a driver, who doesn't need a vignette within the town limits, have to buy one just to go 500 metres up the road to buy a bag of cement etc. Also, why should he have to speed up to maintain the speed limit and then slow down again to visit the business selling the cement?
For the benefit of those drivers who don't know...apart from maximum speed limits, there are minimum speeds which apply on certain BG roads and you can get zapped for not driving accordingly.

Anyway, having devoted a fair bit of time to the subject of annual vignettes, my family and I have come up with what we feel will work. Like many people over here, we own two cars...roughly described as "his and hers", for the purpose of this exercise. Mine is the VW 4wd, the other is a little Toyota. Now that the weather is getting warmer and drier (no snow) the little car will get an annual sticker...the VW will get hers in December or so. Both can be driven around town 24/7...summer trips can be undertaken at any time.
The 4wd will be ready and able to be used when the weather gets crappy...I could probably just get a 6 month sticker for the VW, but having an overlap seems more workable. We are going to try this for 12 months and see how it goes...

Hi Bazz,
Yep tend to agree with you, and every area is different, so you do have to have a wide knowledge, we live in a very rural area, its 4km single track road from our village before we hit the main' vignette' road, and then its left or right turn to the nearest large town and then 20- 25 min drive either way, and in all the time I have been here, (10 yrs) I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen the Police on them, until you are entering the towns themselves, but we also have the advantage of what are known as 'Black roads' the old back tracks used by donky and cart and now the farm vehicles, where we can go across country from village to village without touching any main roads, and in most cases, without hitting pot holes

We, as you say like many others, have 2 vehicles a 4x4 and a saloon but opposite to you, we use the 4x4 all year and the saloon as and when, mainly a backup vehicle, so this new format will allow us to spread the cost and overlap, so like you will adjust and see how it goes.
Every day a learning experience living in Bulgaria

Bill