Water Water Everywhere

 

Water Water Everywhere

 

1 October 2025, Wednesday

At 11:00 p.m. I read that at 11:00 a.m. today the civil defence sirens were tested across Bulgaria. We heard nothing. Perhaps the electricity company had cut the supply for essential maintenance purposes. Perhaps our sense of hearing had abandoned us. Perhaps there really was a nuclear attack, which currently would have been just as likely as my other two suggestions, and we’re all dead and this is just a dream.

Live each day as if it’s your last, they say. The highlights of my day were shopping in Billa (their marmalade is lush) and putting cream on cats’ scabs.

 

2 October 2025, Thursday

Today’s highlight was going to the vet to get Gaïa the Shih Tzu’s anal gland unblocked, making yesterday seem like one of the golden periods of my life.

It rained all day so we had the lights on in the house all day, apart from a three-hour stretch when the electricity company cut the supply for essential maintenance purposes. A nuclear attack might have brightened things up a bit.

This was a gloomy wet day to celebrate as nature’s tears bathed the parched earth. Those plants still alive in our garden this afternoon would survive until next June at least.

 

3 October 2025, Friday

My dear old Nan would say ‘it never rains, but it pours’ when two or more problems cropped up simultaneously.

In the last 36 hours Bulgaria’s had more rain than during the rest of this year so far. Coastal areas were hit by strong winds, extreme flooding, and even tornadoes. Elenite (pronounced ‘elen-ee-tay’) a seaside resort village, was virtually destroyed as flood water surging down a valley met opposing tidal waves. Roads and bridges were washed away and three people drowned.

Meanwhile in the Pirin and Rodopi mountains, and along the North Macedonian and Serbian borders, there was heavy snow. 

 

4 October 2025, Saturday

I try to keep this journal whimsical but today was a struggle as all the talk was about yesterday’s disaster in Elenite, and whose fault it was. Trees had been cleared from a valley to enable the building of a holiday village including homes, hotels, restaurants and a water park, without any consideration for nature’s wild extremes. All fingers pointed at builders and local politicians. Cleaning up and rebuilding would require huge amounts of time and money but may never happen as holidaymakers are unlikely to return.

Forecasters’ predictions of another equally intense weather system arriving on Monday bothered us.

 

5 October 2025, Sunday

Today’s warmth and sunniness surprised us but the muddiness didn’t. The disappearance of all limpness from garden flora delighted us.

Our scrubbing and cooking for the visit of Echo and Aleks was in vain as they stayed only ten minutes, leaving behind produce from their garden. Rough estimations suggested we’d dine on apple, egg and chips for twenty-three days.

In Tsarevo, the entire contents of a car park company’s office were swept into the sea during Saturday’s storm. The badly damaged safe washed up on the shore provided a refreshing change for beachcombers gathering banknotes instead of driftwood. Leva galore!

 

6 October 2025, Monday

The vet confirmed that Manoushka the Magnificent no longer had giardia in her gut but we’ve still no idea why she’s vomiting piccalilli, and what surges from the poor cat’s other end could be mistaken for mango chutney. We’re clearly in a bit of a pickle.

Examining Snezhinka the Wonder Dog, he said her tumour had slightly reduced in size and we should continue with her tablets. This was great news on a day we’d expected grim news, even though the medication causes her to be intercontinental all over the kitchen floor every night. It keeps us on our toes!

 

7 October 2025, Tuesday

It rained heavily every single minute of the day. Apart from enduring a little boredom we were fine in our house, but the Black Sea was full again. From all the poor people in Tsarevo who’d spent the last few days shovelling shit from living rooms, streets and amusement arcades there could be heard a collective ‘what’s the fucking point?’

While our country’s main exports were tomatoes and yoghurt we felt quite secure in today’s wicked war-torn world. Unfortunately, we’re becoming Europe’s major manufacturer of military drones which will bring in lots of money but possibly also lots of bombs. 

 

8 October 2025, Wednesday

Adelina became my fourth Bulgarian teacher and vowed to succeed where flawed geniuses had previously failed. She’s also proficient in French, German, and Greek, and dabbles in Norwegian, but we agreed that when haggling over goats in Pavlikeni market, only the mother tongue would be of any use.

Still it rained, all day long, and not just drizzle. The government issued red warnings, which meant that galoshes on feet and Kaufland carrier bags on heads were essential for those venturing out. We’re boycotting Kaufland because of you-know-what so we stayed at home all day.

Wildfire worries had finally fizzled out.

 

9 October 2025, Thursday

Our beloved walnut tree was ten to twelve metres high, too fat to hug in one attempt, and older than me. Totally majestic when I arrived here but struggling after last year’s hailstones, it finally gave up the ghost during last night’s deluge and this morning lay prostate across the garden. One of many to suffer the same fate locally.

In weak sunshine we stood on Vladishki Most (Bishop’s Bridge) to admire the swollen Yantra as it raged off towards the Danube carrying more dead trees. 

I hoped winter would be kinder than the early days of autumn had been.

 

10 October 2025, Friday

On World Mental Health Day, the Washington Overlord announced a ceasefire in Gaza but we’d be insane to recognise it as such while bombs were still going off and Palestinians were still being killed. And he forgot to mention the accountability of those responsible for the genocide.

While there’s a World Potato Day and a World Chess Day, I’d say a single day’s insufficient to adequately embrace psychological wellbeing. Might there be a touch of PTSD in Gaza? A month would be more appropriate provided it doesn’t clash with World Deny Human Rights Day, which seems to be every day.

 

11 October 2025, Saturday

It rained again, I was a bit hungover from World Mental Health Day, and freshly baked soda bread wafted from the kitchen, so I stayed in all day. Reading and writing have become as difficult as when I was five, but I had a stab at both for sanity’s sake.

Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski reckons Priyatelkata and I are otroverts, craving emotional independence and loathing the thought of being part of any group of people. Frida Kahlo, Franz Kafka and George Orwell were also otroverts. Were we not otroverts we’d be delighted to be members of a group that included them.

 

12 October 2025, Sunday

You know the mess it makes when a bit of toast falls on your carpet, buttered side down and all that? Well it's even worse when a seventy-year-old walnut tree falls on your garden. But it had been dead a year so in truth I should have done something about it before it toppled.

After a day spent grappling with the branches the job was half done and I was completely done. I too fell, but only exhausted into bed. Unlike the walnut, I had no beetle infestations, fungal growths or necrotic cells, at least that I was aware of.

 

13 October 2025, Monday

The Bulgarian government's planning on taking up a strategic role in the EU's Drone Wall defence initiative. They’re building factories to churn out sneaky death machines round the clock, expecting us to be Europe’s leading producer by 2028. Our Finance Minister’s rubbing his trouser pockets with glee as every new war will generate cash to build new schools and hospitals. Considering the current way of the world, I’d be surprised if we didn’t all end up with a school and a hospital each. What happened to those days when we’d just pop down to Argos whenever a drone was needed?

 

14 October 2025, Tuesday

We’d kept Crazy Ludo indoors so his badly wounded leg and allergy-related weeping sores could heal. He wasn’t happy about this but neither were his cohabiters, especially me and Priyatelkata. Today he’d finished his four-week sentence and his fluffy, mostly white fur made him a contender for a prize in the village cat show’s Formerly Scabby category. So we rewarded him with a couple of hours of freedom. He returned bloodied and limping. Looking like a bit of a dandy, he’d probably been roughed up by homophobic local strays. He later took the silver rosette in the Still Scabby category.

 

15 October 2025, Wednesday

No one can say Veliko Tarnovo’s behind the times. Today a new place called Trampoline Land opened near to the pigs’ and goats’ accessories shop on the retail park. I’d never heard of any other city boasting such an establishment. With winter approaching, Priyatelkata and I were incredibly busy darning holes in our underwear but we were excited about visiting the attraction sometime in the next two weeks when our work would be done. We’d read that there’s a lot more to it than just jumping up and down on trampolines. There’s also a bar and they serve Mexican food.  

 

16 October 2025, Thursday

Our nation mourned the recent death of Dobromir Zechev, the only Bulgarian footballer to have played in four World Cup final tournaments. He was 82 and probably in better shape than most members of our current national squad who this week lost 6-1 and 4-0 to Turkey and Spain respectively.

Such good news that after a week of persistent heavy rain our reservoirs were no longer empty. Not so good, however, that a large proportion of their contents was mud. As cappuccino-esque fluids flowed from our taps, purveyors of water in plastic bottles rubbed their hands with glee and disinfectant.

 

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Image: My own photograph of our lovely River Yantra when it had turned into a cappuccino.

 

Part Two:

Coming Soon!