Rila Monastery

We hired a taxi for the day to visit on of Bulgaria's main attraction the Rila Monastery - far cheaper than paying for a coach excursion.

It took nearly 2 hours to arrive at the monastery.

One of the major problems we had was finding a parking spot - it is a very popular place especially on a Sunday.

It looks very austere and gives no clues as to what lies behind the walls.

All around the monastery you can see tall wooded valleys - I guess that from the colour of the vegetation it rains a lot up here ..

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World Cup - Where were you when England lost ??

Where were you when England lost to Germany ??

Well we were down some little side street in Sofia watching on a little TV with Bulgarian commentary and the usual ghosting - not that it mattered WE LOST ....

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The rambler returns ..

The Rambler has returned from rambling around Bulgaria for five days so hopefully there will now be a summer season of photographs from Sofia and surrounds - not too much of a bore I hope ...

easyJet now takes you direct from Manchester to Sofia in just over three hours - it is a totally different world out there - so different from the UK .. and we had a really great time !!

So as soon as the pics are loaded to the iMac we'll be away and cooking on gas...

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Allotment 14 - Potatoes

Hopefully one of the more successful "plantings" this year will be the potatoes - here we have Duke of York and Arran Pilot - both now coming into flower.

We are expecting great things ..

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Manchester Parade

OK this is the last of my Manchester Parade photographs ... hope you liked them.

Here's to the next parade .

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Manchester Parade

Yes - more photographs from Manchester Parade ...

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iTunes - Single of the week ..

For those with iTunes did you know that you can download a free music track each week?

Click on Music and then select Single of the Week.

I've collected tracks that normally I would never listen to and found some quite good - so go ahead and you may come across something different ..

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The Budget - part 2

Well we've had the speech in parliament.

Watched it on BBC 2 and started to fall asleep.

We are to get a VAT increase in January and income tax reduction from April.

What are they keeping up their sleeves though and not telling us about - usually there is something !!

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Manchester Parade

More photographs of the parade ....

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Budget Day

Well today is the BIG DAY - no not football but the government's emergency budget..

What will go and what will stay ?? - we should all know this afternoon ..

Will there be crying and wailing ? I guess so ..

Watch this space.

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My World Tuesday - Manchester Parade

Welcome to My World Tuesday and the Manchester Parade that was held in the city on Sunday to celebrate what the city is ..

The parade " paraded " around the city centre in the afternoon and had all the usual floats and bands and seemed to be well received by the general public on what was a warm and sunny afternoon..

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Manchester Parade

The Busy Bee or is it a Bumble Bee - not sure ?

However it is the symbol of Manchester and represents a hardworking and vibrant city.

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Manchester Parade

Today the Manchester Parade was held - and for the first time.

It is a celebration of the city and it's people .

So sorry but a week of photos - took nearly fifty but will not be showing them all .. thank goodness you say .

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Allotment 13 - Greenhouse

A new buy for the allotment ..

Well not a great expense - the greenhouse came from ALDI and was around £20.

I was not prepared to spend the money for a permanent glass greenhouse - so we'll have to see if it's a waste of money. At the moment we have tomatoes and chili peppers - which all seem to be growing. Time will tell !!!

World Cup - England Algeria ...

What a bore !!!

England 0 Algeria 0

England will certainly have to do better than this - they were very poor and lacked any commitment in tonight's game.

After the USA game the goalkeeper was blamed but tonight that blame has shifted to the manager Capello. How long will he remain manager if they fail, which is quite likely given their lacklustre performance.

We await with some trepidation England's game with Slovenia next week.

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