The Strange Case of Dr Gunchev and Crazy Ludo

By Turlough
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The Strange Case of Dr Gunchev and Crazy Ludo
16 November 2025, Sunday
Hasan’s silver dream machine goes from nought to thirty in under an hour. It runs off electricity which is perhaps a bit risky as our village is without power almost as often as it’s without water. I asked if the lead would stretch to the shop from where he plugs his kettle in. He showed mild irritation and the place beneath the seat where the battery’s stowed. Today I became his БФФ (best friend forever) because I suggested he keep it in our spare parking space. The Hell’s Angel in me was hoping he’d let me have a spin on it.
17 November 2025, Monday
In Bulgaria there’s a coffee vending machine in almost every street. Many town centres have whole banks of them. The drinks they vend are usually alright as fresh beans are ground within the machine, so they make our country a happy country.
The adoption of the euro as our unit of currency on 1st January will present problems. It’s illegal to change the machines before that date and a logistical nightmare to change them all on the day. The same applies with machines providing parking tickets, chocolate and condoms. We might have to wait until March for a cuppa, etc.
18 November 2025, Tuesday
Veliko Tarnovo’s posh new electric bus (the number 100) just about connects Mechanical Nikolay’s workshop with our favourite restaurant ‘Etno’, so we were able to simultaneously tuck into delicious zelevi sarmi (зелеви сарми, meaning ‘stuffed cabbage rolls’) and have our toxic emissions checked.
It was the day for the godishni teknicheski pregledi (годишни технически прегледи, meaning ‘MOT’) so we were nervous, not wanting our car to be the first ever in Bulgaria to fail the safety test. In 1972 a Dimitrovgrad driver initially failed for having full ashtrays in his Lada Niva but earned a reprieve saying his cataracts had prevented him from seeing them.
19 November 2025, Wednesday
News surrounding the switchover to the euro currency intensifies daily. They’re giving us extra public holidays on 31 December and 2 January to get used to spending the new money, but they’ve overlooked the fact that shops don’t open on public holidays.
They’ve also said that bank cash machines and card transactions won’t be available for a few hours late on New Year’s Eve, so we’re going to have to sit at home and see 2026 in with tea and biscuits. No change there then. In fact, us having a night out before Easter’s unlikely.
Euro crisis? What euro crisis?
20 November 2025, Thursday
During an afternoon visit to Scottish friends in Momin Sbor, Priyatelkata was completely lost as we discussed how much Glasgow had altered down the years, but sprang to life when the subject turned to the changing face of Veliko Tarnovo. We’d all lived there long enough to be able to include the phrase Eeh I remember when that was a …. in conversations. We then talked at length about the new plastic temporary roundabout outside the Law Courts, hoping that the good people at the Council would put it in the appropriate recycling bin when it was no longer needed.
21 November 2025, Friday
It didn’t rain and it wasn’t cold but the sky was black all day and it was Friday. I’d been hearing constantly about this Black Friday thing on the radio and on the internet, and the only way to stop my head exploding was to turn them both off. They’ll stay off until Yordanovden when I can be sure all the consumerist crap’s behind us. Why have this awful event at this awful time of the year anyway?
I went to Billa for some bread then I went to bed for some peace and stayed there until Black Saturday.
hashtaghatewinterandallitbrings
22 November 2025, Saturday
In the whole of Bulgaria, absolutely nothing at all happened today apart from the weather being strangely warm and a bit windy. I looked at older journals to see if previous 22 Novembers had offered more.
Seven years ago I fell down some icy concrete stairs in a dark car park. In the process of doing so I acquired a variety of cuts and bruises on legs and elbows, and a big hole in the knee of the new trousers I had bought only the day before.
Since then I’ve never bought trousers on 21 November and I’m still alive.
23 November 2025, Sunday
Weather forecasters predicted rain for the whole morning and the whole evening. It was nice to see they only got the middle bit wrong.
Another slow news day during which I read that on 23 November 1946, the English actress Diana Quick and the American political activist Bobby Rush were both born, but unfortunately historians failed to mention fictional character Billy Whizz.
And although this sounds like a schoolboy joke, today was also the anniversary of the death in 1803 of Roger Newdigate, an English politician after whom the scandalous behaviour of numerous subsequent English politicians could have been named.
24 November 2025, Monday
In warm sunshine, whilst sorting the year’s seed collection retrieved from the shed’s dark recesses for planting next March, I had reggae and ska classics playing on my phone. At the same time, the legendary Jimmy Cliff was dying of pneumonia in Kingston, Jamaica. A mere coincidence or a surge of Rastafarian energy? I didn’t know we’d lost him until late in the afternoon.
Neighbour Hasan had never heard of Jimmy Cliff (or even reggae music) but I enlightened him. In the street I encouraged him to sing ‘Прекрасен свят, красиви хора’ (Wonderful world, beautiful people) and I learnt the Bulgarian word for bemused.
25 November 2025, Tuesday
I really thought the problem of Crazy Ludo’s wounds was behind us, so we let him out for the first time in three weeks. At dusk I braved rush-hour bedlam to deposit him at the vet’s with a brand new huge gash in the same spot on his leg where his two previous huge gashes had been.
We love him to bits but we’re fucking sick of his disasters (pardon my Punjabi). Astonished vets’ eyes rolled like cherries in a one-armed bandit as I entered the surgery.
‘We need to be careful,’ said Dr Gunchev ‘Cats have only nine lives.’
26 November 2025, Wednesday
I really thought the problem of not having an adequately functioning teapot was behind us until the mother of all teapots, purchased only thirteen days ago, sprang a tiny leak. It was obviously all my fault because I made the mistake of washing it with a soft cloth, as instructed in the owner’s manual. In doing so I dislodged a minute chip from its fragile base. Vowing never to introduce hygiene to the tea-making process again, I scoured the house for a teabag for making a brew in a mug and wept almost as much as the cat’s wound wept.
27 November 2025, Thursday
Papa’s got another brand new teapot, the same as the previous one but bigger, and it’s from the same shop. Priyatelkata accompanied me to provide moral support in my time of pain. She even paid for it. Remembering me from last time, the shop lady’s eyes rolled like the eyes of the vets.
We didn’t get a brand new cat but the old one was mended. Dr Gunchev suggested the cut was caused by an altercation with rusty metal, so only five stitches this time.
As the euro’s approach gathered speed we could no longer do bank transfers in leva.
28 November 2025, Friday
During our lunchtime visit to restaurant ‘Pizza Uno’, I ordered our food and paid for it using only words of the Bulgarian tongue. So I was disappointed that the waiter said ‘Bye!’ as we were leaving.
Lessons with Adelina have revived my yearning to attain fluency, but the best words are the ones that I will probably never need. For example, pud-pud-duck (пъдпъдък) is the word for quail, because that’s the noise the birds make when they want to make babies. Humans are lucky to be called humans as our species could so easily have been burdened with the name ow-about-it-luv.
29 November 2025, Saturday
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People had me feeling inadequate. On a day of shitty weather in a small village hidden up a Bulgarian valley there was barely anything I could do to show support.
Two or three years ago I’d have walked to the shop for a KitKat to brighten November’s gloom, but I’d rather it stayed dark than see my money go via Nestlé to the Zionist genocide programme in Gaza. It still goes on, despite their so-called ceasefire.
What did you do in the war, Grandfather?
I had a homemade scone with my afternoon cuppa.
30 November 2025, Sunday
The iconography’s long gone but Sofia’s imposing Stalinist architectural gems remain as the seat of our hotchpotch general assembly. Following Wednesday’s big demonstration there, the Finance Minister shredded the draft ‘tax everything’ budget. He had to because otherwise the crowd wouldn’t have let government members go home for their tea.
Pat McFadden at Britain’s DWP (Down With Pensioners) sent me a one-off, tax-free tenner to help with festive expenses. Not being the festive type, I felt a little embarrassed. So I deposited a corresponding amount in the tin of the blind man who plays the clarinet outside the post office.
Image:
Out and about on a November day in my little town. My own photograph.
Previous Part:
Papa’s Got a Brand New Chainsaw
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Comments
Papa’s got another brand new
Papa’s got another brand new teapot. Ah yes...a Pigbag reference from my teen years. Always a joy to read your monthly updates, T.
[We won't mention the footie *cough*]
Keep 'em coming. They are an inspiration to many of us.
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Seven years ago I fell down
Seven years ago I fell down some icy concrete stairs in a dark car park. In the process of doing so I acquired a variety of cuts and bruises on legs and elbows, and a big hole in the knee of the new trousers I had bought only the day before.
Since then I’ve never bought trousers on 21 November and I’m still alive.
If you're looking for a conspiracy theory Turlough, I think this is as good as it gets!
Thank you very much for this follow up to the first part - both very welcome updates from Our Man in Bulgaria
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I've never fell down any
I've never fell down any stone steps. I did fall off my bike there times in one day. But I was fine as I landed on my head. My partner suggested a bicycling helmet. But that just takes the hell out of it.
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Loved today's Diary :0) So
LOVED today's Diary :0) So much made me smile! Does Hasan know how famous he is becoming? He and Johnny Ten Levs and the old ones who sit by the fountain when the sun shines. Your vet!
I am glad if you have a better tea pot at last :0) Did you ever come across a children's story called Dribblesome Teapots? It cheered me up a lot. I wonder if the author might have experienced the same trouble as you :0) Here is a link if you would like to read it for free online https://archive.org/details/dribblesometeapo0000hunt
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My son asked me if you wrote
My son asked me if you wrote about the protest? He showed me photos on Google. It must have been HUGE! Did you feel the energy of it, where you are? I guess it is because you have so many young people, in Bulgaria?
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That's interesting. Do you
That's interesting. Do you have lobbying in Bulgaria? I think that, and party donations, is why Democracy doesn't work so everyone is getting fed up with it. I hope Mamdani does well in New York and proves that there is a better way, even with billionaires conspiring against you. As far as I understand, Polanski wants to raise funds from the top 1% here. Do you have super-rich who could help in Bulgaria?
ps. I should have mentioned I understand about being embarrassed going to the vet as I go way more than most people too. When I was younger I had a lovely lurcher come live with me, he cost a FORTUNE as he couldn't help running into things, and I couldn't bring myself to keep him on a lead. Since moving here, a very sweet and ladylike cat we were lucky to take in has always had what I think she might describe as a delicate constitution, which has necessitated many trips to the vet whom I wish you could see, he has a bushy beard and very twinkly eyes and glasses on the end of his nose and she GLARES at him so affronted, and though he respects her dignity at all times she still rises regally from forlornly reclining on their table to biff him up
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Good evening Turlough,
Good evening Turlough,
Wow! You've been busy with your diary. I'm intrigued to know what kind of vehicle Hasan's dream machine is that runs on electric. I was presuming it was a motor bike, but wasn't sure.
I used to spend a lot of time with guys who rode bikes back in my younger days and took some great trips as a passenger. There's nothing like watching the world speed by and the air in your face to feed your energy.
I'm like you as far as black friday goes, just hate it. Because me and my partner are retired, we take in our neighbours parcels, we don't mind, but it gets annoying at this time of the year, because parcels are delivered more frequently, that's when I wish we could just have the January sales.
It must be getting so embarrassing and worrying with the anxiety of taking Ludo to the vets again, there seems no end to his escapades, it's a shame your poor cat doesn't learn from experience, you would think Ludo would have a fear of ever going out again with what he's been through.
I was going to mention that after your disaster with the teapot, I know you've got a new one, but I'd be tempted to buy a stainless steel teapot, you can't go wrong with stainless steel. I inherited one from my mum and dad which goes back to the 1970s, we scrub it, and it's been dropped many times and still works even today.
Enjoyed reading your November diary entries as I always do. Thanks as always for sharing.
Jenny.
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Oh! Dear, so Hasan's dream
Oh! Dear, so Hasan's dream machine would probably suit the likes of me and my partner,..she says grinning
Just a joke, I love walking too much, but you never know in the future I might just be getting around on one of those.to do things like shopping. Yikes! I'm such a bad driver I'll probably end up running someone down, so maybe have to tihink about what I'll do in later life. ![]()
Glad you've got a teapot that works, it's so important for tea lovers to have the right equipment don't you think?
Well I'm off to dreamland in a bit, so I'll say Good night.
Jenny.
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