Back in England for Christmas (Part Two)

On Sunday morning, December 19th, I awoke to a watery sun trying to break through the light mist. After a nice hot shower and breakfast, I started the car and cleared off 5cms of overnight snow. As I carried on westwards along the Hungarian M1, I could see patches of blue sky ahead and indeed by the time I reached Austria there was clear sky and bright sunshine. Traffic was very light (I think trucks are banned on Austrian autobahns on Sundays) and most of the time I could cruise at the speed limit of 130kph. Stopping at a Raststation, I fancied a coffee and went into the restaurant. I had plenty of food in the car and intended to eat something after my hot drink but once in the restaurant I couldn't resist one of their large, freshly made waffles with maple syrup, strawberries and cream - yummy!

With the sun still shining, I continued into Germany and made good progress towards Wurzburg. Around 4pm though it was clouding over and by 4:30pm light snow was falling. Soon afterwards I passed an overhead information sign which was warning of snow ahead and advising HGVs to park up. Soon every Raststations I passed had a queue of trucks stretching back to the start of the slip entry road and many of the Rastplatz areas were also beginning to fill up with trucks. By 5:30 the snow was quite heavy and with speed down to 60kph, I began to look for overnight accommodation. By now the snow was settling quickly on the road and when I saw a bed symbol on the next Raststation sign I pulled off and parked up. Enquiring from the staff there, I was told that the hotel section was the other side of the autobahn but I could drive there across a bridge. They told me however that the hotel was expensive and advised me that if I got back on the autobahn there was a small town just a few kilometres away with a good hotel at a better price. Once again the food in the restaurant tempted me to have something to eat and after a big homemade hamburger with mushroom sauce and sauteed potatoes I felt ready to battle on for the short drive to the next exit.

When I set off again everything was covered by a few centimetres of snow and, because of the lack of wheel tracks, I thought I was driving on a long slip road but when another car overtook me, I realised I was in fact back on the autobahn! Five kilometres down the road I turned off at the exit for Weibersbrunn and easily found the Hotel Brunnerhof where I spent a very comfortable night and even caught up on my emails and Facebook posts via the hotel's free Wi-fi service.

Next morning I enjoyed a long, hot soak in a huge bath, then a large breakfast to keep me going and finally asked one of the hotel staff to fill my flask with boiling water to make tea on the journey. The hotel was only 50kms south-east of Frankfurt-am-Main which had been put into my satnav as the target for Monday afternoon so this meant I was actually doing extremely well in spite of the snow. I thought I might like to visit Bruges as there was time to spare so I reset the satnav accordingly and pressed on.

Arriving near the centre of Bruges around 5pm, I parked the car and crossed the road to ask at a filling station whether they knew of any nearby accommodation. There was, they thought, a small B&B in a nearby side street so I set off on foot to check it out. After walking 200 metres or so down a rather dreary looking street with mostly boarded-up houses - slipping over once on the icy pavement - I decided to drive further into the city. Back at the car I set the satnav to find nearby hotels and an Ibis came up about 1km down the road. After parking in an underground car park, I located the hotel but discovered it was somewhat over my budget. As it was only about two hours to "Tunnel sous la Manche" I decided to carry on. Bruges can wait until a daytime visit on my way back to Romania!

Stopping only to fill up with Belgian diesel at £1.10 per litre before crossing into France, I arrived at the Channel Tunnel terminal in heavy snow. I was booked to travel on the 6:20pm train the next day so I drove up to a manned kiosk and enquired whether I could get on an earlier train. No problem said the lady in the kiosk and I was booked onto the train leaving in just over an hour at 9:20pm. Brilliant! There was time to get something to eat at the terminal building so after texting my son to let him know I would be arriving on his doorstep around 10:30-11pm GMT, 21 hours earlier than expected, I tucked in to a Beef Extra meal at the "Quick" fast food outlet - a French version of McDonalds but with better food! At 9pm I was loaded onto "Le Shuttle" and ready to head for English soil.

Back in England for Christmas (Part One)

I am currently enjoying Christmas and New Year with family and friends in England. Back in the summer I decided to drive all the way thus allowing me to bring lots of presents/food/drink without worrying how to carry four suitcases and how much the airlines excess baggage charges would be. After booking a place on the Channel Tunnel Shuttle, I felt pleased that my journey would not suffer delays if the English Channel was whipped up by gales or if the Calais dock workers decided to go on strike yet again. However, when the snow and ice hit southern England, I remembered that last year trains were getting stuck in the tunnel because their electrical systems were packing up under extreme low temperatures!

Before leaving my home in Roandola, I prayed not only for God's protection on my house and possessions but also for safe travel since most of the countries I would be driving through had forecasts of more snow.

Having turned off the water at the pump in the cellar (which was incredibly warm despite an outdoor temperature of -6C), I opened all the taps to drain water from the pipes in the house. Gas bottles for cooker and portable heater were turned off, a final check made around the house to make sure I had loaded everything into the car and then the front door grille was closed and padlocked. My Dacia Logan MCV was warming up in the courtyard while I loaded it up - no worries for me about leaving the car running and unattended. Once out on the road, I closed the big gates and then bolted and padlocked the pedestrian gate, finally leaving the village at 10am.

The road journey between Oxfordshire and Transylvania can usually be done in three days (around 26-30 hours driving time depending on traffic and with two overnight stops). This time I allowed four full days to reach "Tunnel sous la Manche" as the whole of Europe was covered in snow to varying degrees. It was at least not snowing on Saturday 18th when I left Roandola, although the 8 kms of minor Road 143A to main Road 14 was covered in a layer of packed snow requiring gentle braking and slow cornering. Once onto the E60 at Sighisoara all was completely clear with no snow or ice thanks to the frequent passage of gritting vehicles. Although Romanian drivers are usually noted for ignoring speed limits and most other traffic laws, they do seem to exercise considerable caution in bad conditions - except for one completely mad artic driver who barged his way past with horn blaring in some totally unsuitable places. After overtaking several other cars and trucks in front of me at speeds well over the 50kph limit as we passed through villages, he was gone into the distance - and good riddance too!

At the Romania/Hungary border I purchased "vignettes" for Hungary and Austria and then with just a brief look at my passport, I was waved through into Hungary. Around 30kms down the road I ran into light snow which slowed the traffic quite considerably on the mainly single carriageway road. In one Hungarian town with an unpronouncable and unspellable name, the mad Romanian artic barged past again! I know it was the same one as I had made a mental note of his number in the hope of having the satisfaction of chuckling to myself if I saw him stopped by the police for speeding or overtaking in a "No overtaking" zone! He must have stopped for a check by Customs officers at the Hungarian border which I had crossed an hour or so earlier.

Eventually I reached the motorway network around Budapest and progress improved to being able to cruise at 100/110kph again. The snow continued for the rest of the day until I reached a motorway services with accommodation some 30kms west of Budapest. The room was basic for 31 Euros including breakfast but comfortable enough for this tired traveller!

Bad evening at Sibiu Christmas Market

Arriving at the central car park in Sibiu last Wednesday evening, I was full of anticipation for a great evening exploring the Christmas Market and buying gifts and Christmas Fare for the family. As I picked up my mobile from the car's centre console, I noticed two missed calls from Mihai who I was supposed to be meeting (car stereo on too loud to hear mobile ringing!). I called and told him where I was but he was still at his apartment, ten minutes drive away. Mihai said I should carry on to the Market and he would find me.

Piata Mare is about five minutes walk from the car park and I did a quick circuit of the stalls to see what was on offer. Just after 6pm my phone rang but stopped again by the time I retrieved it from my jeans' pocket. It was Mihai again so I pressed the call button and a voice nearby said "Hi Laurie" - Mihai was right beside me! We wandered around the market for about ten minutes then I bought some warm slippers (for myself!) and three items as gifts for family. I gave the stall holder a 50 RON note from my wallet and put it back in my pocket. After collecting the change we had walked no more than 20 metres when I reached into my pocket again for my wallet and realised it had gone. I checked all my pockets and the two plastic bags containing my purchases but definitely NO wallet. We quickly returned to the last stall visited and checked on the ground - no wallet. It contained about 120 RON (£24) in notes plus some coins, three credit cards and a debit card. Less than five minutes had passed from putting the wallet in my pocket to realising it had been stolen and it was straight away reported to a nearby policeman. He advised us to go to the small police office just off Piata Mare but there we were told to go to the Police HQ. Uppermost in my mind was getting the cards cancelled but my car park ticket was also in the stolen wallet! Thankfully there was an attendant at the car park, even though it had payment machines and automatic barriers. After Mihai explained the situation the attendant said to me, in English, he was sorry about what had happened in his city and he would open the barrier for us. I still had 1020 RON in my jean's pocket and offered to pay for the time my car had been in the car park but he wouldn't hear of it and both our cars were waved out without payment! I followed Mihai to his apartment where I could get on the internet and find the "Lost or Stolen Cards" call centre numbers for my UK card issuers. There was only one number on the NatWest website, yet for some reason, after reporting my credit card stolen I was passed on to a different number to report my debit card stolen! Calling NatWest and Nationwide took about half an hour, including the inevitable "Sorry, all our operatives are busy at present. Please hold" after which my prepay Romanian mobile was down to just 41 Eurocents of credit. To call the third card issuer, I had to use my UK mobile and by the time I had finished all the calls, I only had 30p of credit left on my second phone! Mihai had kindly offered me the use of his home phone but knowing the calls would take a while, I did not want to run up an expensive bill for him. NatWest told me that one card had been successfully used at an ATM just under one hour after being stolen. The thief had obviously deciphered some of my PIN numbers written as a sort of code on a piece of card in the wallet - silly thing to do I know but as the cards were seldom used in Romania I could never remember the PINs. Attempts had been made to use a second card but the PIN had been entered incorrectly three times and the card automatically retained by the ATM.

Just as I finished making the calls, Mihai's fiancee Ioanna arrived and said how sorry she was to hear about what had happened. I decided I didn't want to spend an hour at the Police HQ that evening so Ioanna prepared a meal for us and then we chatted about anything and everything but the theft to keep it out of my mind! With the assurances that all my cards had been cancelled and once I had spoken to the banks' fraud teams in the morning my accounts would be credited with the stolen amounts, I was able to sleep on Mihai's comfortable coltar (bed/settee).

Next morning we went to the Police HQ where I filed a complaint and was given a Crime Reference Number. Mihai had to leave me at the Police HQ to catch a bus to Bucharest. However, the police lady handling my complaint spoke English anyway so there was no communication problem. In the event I was only at the Police HQ for half an hour and then headed back to Roandola.

Back in Roandola I rang NatWest from my home phone and spoke to the Fraud Team who were able to give me times and locations of the ATMs used by the thief. These details have been passed to the Sibiu Police HQ who will check the CCTV cameras at the ATMs and throughout the city to see if they recognize the thief. I'm not holding my breath though!

As a Christian I have forgiven the thief although, I must admit, this is easier to do when you receive a text message from the bank confirming the stolen money has all been credited back to your account!

Mihai's trip to Bucharest was to attend an annual railway industry ceremony and the Sibiu-Agnita Railway had been nominated for an award. Admittedly the SAR was the only nomination in the category this year but nevertheless it's still a big feather in SAR's cap! Mihai has since emailed me about the event, confirming he received the award. It was quite a prestige event and all the other awards went to large companies or international consortiums involved in multi-million Euro projects to modernise the Romanian railway's locomotive fleet and infrastructure so it was quite daunting for Mihai to be in such company! There is a report on the ceremony at http://www.railwayinsider.eu/wp/?p=12934

Over the next couple of days I shall be getting things ready for the 2500kms drive to the UK for Christmas and the New Year. My car will be loaded up with presents for the family and lots of food and drink for the festivities - plus a 90cm satellite dish which an English friend from Mana Church has asked me to take for a Romanian who now lives and works in the UK but is missing Romanian TV! He lives in Yorkshire but his job takes him all over the UK so we will arrange to meet, either at an M40 service area or at Chieveley Services depending on where he may be working.

In Roandola there is currently about 12cms of accumulated snow and the 8kms of road between my house and Road 14 is snow and slush covered but the main roads are completely clear. I am keeping a careful eye on the weather across Europe as this will determine whether I leave on Friday or Saturday morning to get to the Calais Eurotunnel terminal by 17:00 CET on Tuesday 21st. Driving to Romania in April towing a caravan at a steady 90kph (56mph) took a total of 32 hours on the road, including at least two hours searching off the motorway for petrol for my rather thirsty V6 Audi! This time however, I'll be driving my diesel Dacia Logan MCV which has so far averaged 4.2 litres per 100 kms (65+ mpg) over 5500kms of mixed town and open road driving. One tank full should get me over half way to Calais, especially as from Budapest on I will be driving on motorways and hopefully be able to maintain a steady and very economical speed. If I get to Belgium in good time I am hoping to visit Bruges, something I have wanted to do for a while but so far failed. I tried to book a coach trip from Grove/Wantage last year but it was already fully booked. If I don't get to Bruges on the journey to the UK, perhaps I will get there on the way back to Romania although the reason for visiting on the outward journey is to get some of the famous Bruges chocolates for family and friends!

Snow and Christmas Markets

Christmas in Romania is usually "white" and last year the Sibiu and Sighisoara webcams showed snow most of the time, at least on the rooftops. This year however, the forecast, for the next two weeks anyway, is mostly mild with a mix of sunny days and rain showers. Any snow showers in the forecast are at night and will probably turn to rain by morning. From the BBC weather forecasts I have seen over the last couple of days it looks like most parts of the UK will have snow this year before Romania. Nevertheless I bought a set of snow chains for my car today as they are compulsory for driving in heavy snow and the police can prevent you going any further if you do not have them. Also purchased today was the snow clearing device shown in the photo. Both will be in the car when I drive to the UK in just over three weeks time as it looks like I might need them to get from the Eurotunnel terminal to Hindhead, Newbury and Grove to visit family and friends!

Last year I watched the Christmas Markets in Sibiu and Sighisoara on live streaming webcams. This year I shall actually be visiting both of them! Sibiu's Market is a huge event, open daily 10am to 9pm from this coming Saturday (27th) through to Sunday 2nd January 2011. It has only been going since 2007 and the first one was held in Piata Mica (The Small Square) with 38 stalls but it proved such a success with public and traders alike that from 2008 it has been held in Piata Mare (The Large Square). This year there will be 65 stalls, an ice rink and a funfair, catering mainly for children who are very much the centre of Romanian family life. The stalls will offer, according to the website, such things as traditional sweets, hot tea, mulled wine, handmade Christmas decorations, candles, toys, clothing and much more. I'm hoping to find some Christmas presents for family and friends in the UK. I will be going to the market with some friends who live in Sibiu and one of them has kindly offered me a bed for the night. Apart from not having to drive home in the dark, it also means I can sample the mulled wine! Romanian drink/drive law has a "zero alcohol" limit and the police operate random traffic stops (I've been pulled over twice in six months) to check vehicle and identity documents so it's soft drinks only when I'm driving anywhere.

The Christmas Market in Sighisoara's Piata Cetatii is a smaller affair with around 20 stalls and to date I haven't been able to find out when it starts! All I know is that as yet there are no signs of the stalls being brought into the square. Last year the first indication was some blocks of polystyrene foam appearing outside the antiques shop opposite the webcam location. The blocks lay on the ground for two or three days and were then assembled into a five metre high snowman so I'm checking the webcam daily and hoping the same happens this year.

The most important news since my last post is completion of the registration process for my company, Casa Cristina Roandola S.R.L. Hooray! As well as the colourful Registration Certificate for the primary activity of providing rooms for guests, I have a closely typed three page document listing all the secondary activities I am allowed to carry on. My lawyer, Ramona, spent quite a long time going through the list with me a few months ago and we ticked anything and everything relating to living in a rural environment and running a B&B so I can keep animals, grow vegetables, make furniture, do metalwork, repair cars, use my car to transport guests, hire out mountain bikes etc etc. There were very few boxes we didn't tick such as dealing in arms and ammunition, processing chemicals and refining petroleum products! However, I can repair aircraft and spacecraft - yes, really! I will probably never do 75% of the activities but it was easier to be registered now rather than go through another lengthy registration procedure if I suddenly decided to weave my own cloth or keep buffalo and produce mozarella cheese!

Is it summer, autumn or winter?

Yes, that's right 34C in the direct sun (21C in the shade) at end of garden today - 15th November! I've been told that it's the warmest November since the early 1970's but how much longer will it last? Next two weeks looking fairly mild according to Accuweather and mainly sunny with the odd shower, generally at night. However, I am preparing for winter with a second load of wood which was delivered by horse and cart. Some local men were recruited to carry the wood up the garden as my caravan prevented the horse and cart getting beyond the end of the courtyard. There was a bonus "delivery" left by the horse! I have also been informed that Romania is expecting the coldest winter for nearly 50 years so the extra wood may well have been a good decision. I thought I probably had enough wood already but when a local Roma came knocking on the door offering a cartload for 70 lei, 30 lei less than I paid for each of the first two cartloads, I said "Yes please". After all, if I don't use it this winter, it will be there for the next. Incidentally, I heard again yesterday that we can expect a very cold winter. It had somehow become the coldest in 1000 years but I don't think records go back that far!

Last week I painted the ceiling and upper walls of the en-suite and fitted the glass into the door so it is definitely finished now (see video). Cole has also constructed a new partition wall between the entrance steps and the kitchen which will go a long way to keeping the warmth in. The kitchen is the only unheated area in the house, unless the gas cooker is in use, and the main entrance is a pair of glazed double doors with a large fanlight above which resulted in rapid heat loss once the sun had gone down. Although the temperature in the kitchen area has, so far, not gone below 11C it always feels colder in the morning when I come out of my bedroom which is heated in the evening by one of three wood-fired stoves. Even though the house is 90 years old, the Saxon German builders knew a thing or two about thermal insulation and built the house with 500mm thick exterior walls, 300mm interior walls, wood floors, double (inner and outer) windows and ceilings consisting of 20-25mm of lime plaster, reinforced with reeds, applied to 25mm thick boards. It doesn't end there either - the roof space floor is more 25mm boards covered with a 25mm thick layer of lime mortar! Once the sun has gone down it gets cold very quickly outside and most mornings there has been a light to moderate frost on my car. If I light the tiled stoves in the evening and fill them up so they will keep burning for an hour or so after I've gone to bed, the room temperature by late evening is usually 21-23C. Because the tiled stoves act like night storage heaters and continue to give off heat long after the fire has gone out, the rooms will still be at least 17C next morning, even with night time temperatures falling to minus 8C as they did a couple of weeks ago. When this incredibly warm spell has ended no doubt the stoves may have to be kept "ticking over" all day and room temperatures built up to 25 or 26C in the evening but with my winter fuel stock now nearly 50% more than it was last week, I am confident that my 270 lei (£55) worth will keep me warm!



P.S. How do I get rid of the unwanted "suggestions" at the end of the Youtube video?

Fire and water

The "Family Room" is nearly ready! Once the building debris had been cleared, I fitted the new stove bought in September. I had already laid a tile base for it to stand on some time ago but the arrival of Cole and his team forced a halt for me while they constructed the en-suite bathroom. Now the work inside the house is finished, I will need to get the paint roller and brushes out.

The new stove can burn coal or wood, as in my case, and was fired up for the first time yesterday morning. It proved very easy to light and easy to control the rate of burning. Within half an hour it was providing plenty of heat and although the instruction booklet warned of a smell the first time it was used, this was not very evident. After adding more logs I let it burn for a couple of hours before allowing it to die down. Very satisfied with this new stove - German design, manufactured in Hungary. I may get another one for the back room as the ceramic tiled stove in that room has a few faults and is proving to be a so-and-so to light. As these tiled stoves are built in situ, it would probably be difficult to replace the broken bricks in the combustion chamber and make the warped metal stoke-hole door fit properly. I have tried to fill the cracks with fireproof filler but the gap is too large for effective sealing. Obviously a metal stove does not provide much heat once it has gone out, unlike the tiled stoves, in effect wood-fired storage heaters which continue to radiate heat for many hours after the last log has burnt out. However, ease of lighting and much more controllable heat output wins the day for me! The large tiled stove in the "Breakfast Room" will be retained as it is not only fairly easy to light and burns well but will also provide a feature for the room and a talking point for guests who have not seen such things before.

After Cole and team finished the en-suite I added a few fittings - towel rack, holders for toothbrush and paste, floor standing toilet roll holder with loo brush and a small pedal bin. I had to wait a day for the silicone sealant around the shower tray to harden before I could use the shower but at last I could have a shower. Unfortunately it was only a slightly warm one as there appears to be a problem with the instant heater. This is possibly due to the relatively high water pressure from the pump in my cellar pushing the water through the heater too quickly. The heater itself may be faulty of course and I will get Viorel the plumber to check it again when he comes to complete the septic tank installation. In the meantime I will just have a quick shower when necessary!

The washer/dryer is working superbly and has been well used in the first few days as I had collected quite a lot of dirty washing. Hand washing only really worked for lightly soiled small items up to T-shirt size. Although I had managed to wash some towels and jeans during the summer months when it could be done in the warm sunshine, rinsing out the soap suds usually required three lots of clean water and wringing out by hand was hard work! I really sympathize with people in Roandola and Laslea who have to do their washing either in the river or at one of the village wells because they do not have their own water supply.

Old vines and dying leaves

Over the last few days I have harvested white and black grapes from six of the nine vines in my courtyard and garden. This years yield looks pretty good to me and the grapes have also had a few frosts on them which I am told improves the quality of the juice whether it is subsequently fermented or not. Unfortunately one vine, which grows around the outside loo at the end of the garden, ripened in late August and most of the grapes succumbed to birds and the myriad of flying insects around at that time. Of the remaining eight vines, five bear white grapes and the other three, black. I have no idea what varieties they are but the three whites I have harvested so far are smaller than the black varieties which are large and juicy - and good for eating too!

The three white varieties yielded a total of 70kgs of grapes and the three black varieties, from smaller vines, totalled 43kgs. After crushing and pressing, the juice from both white and black grapes is stored in a collection of 5, 6 and 10 litre plastic bottles which originally held my drinking water. Once the remaining two vines have been harvested, I will spend a day crushing and pressing the grapes and then the process of turning most of the juice into wine will begin. Some unfermented juice will be set aside for soft drinks for younger visitors. One thing I have noticed is that the juice from the white grapes is more "rose" in colour, as was the bottle of "Roandola 2009" I was given earlier this year by the previous owner of No 130 and which I had thought at the time was a mixture of white and black grapes.

In reality making my own wine doesn't make sense economically as the crusher and press cost over £195 yet I can buy a 5 litre flagon of palatable Italian red or white wine for just over £4. So the money I spent on equipment would buy me over 230 litres of wine! However, there is a certain satisfaction in making your own wine from produce you have grown, whether grapes or any other fruit or even flowers! And of course the equipment is there for next years crop - and the next and the next.....

Autumn has sort of arrived. We are still enjoying clear skies most days and the night time temperature is dropping below freezing. Most mornings there is a heavy frost on everything until about 9:30am. However, once the sun gets over the hill behind my house, the temperature rises quickly to the high teens and even low twenties - warm enough for me to work outside in shorts and T-shirt again!

Most of the trees in the valley and on the hills are deciduous and the colours in the bright sunlight are quite stunning. I have taken some photos, one of which is reproduced here, but the camera doesn't do justice to the brilliance of the yellows, oranges, coppers, reds, browns and silvers of the dying leaves. There is very little wind in the valley and the leaves have mostly stayed on the trees, only falling off one or two species such as the pear trees which line the road through the village.

Looking forward to having a shower!

Work on the en-suite shower/toilet in what will be the "Family Guestroom" has progressed well. The walls were constructed and plastered and septic tanks lowered into a 3x2x2 metre hole by October 2nd. Then I had a couple of days respite from all the mud and dust until Viorel the plumber arrived to install water supply and drain pipes and connect up to the septic tanks. Viorel is also an electrician so after going to fetch some more drainpipes last Thursday afternoon, he came back with two mates and we went through the whole house noting my requirements so they could give me a quote. They left at 6pm and half an hour later Cole, who has been co-ordinating everything for me, rang to say the materials would be 1000 lei and the labour 900 lei. If this price was OK they would come and do the job on Saturday. This equates to £395 so of course I said "Yes, please carry on" straight away! Included in the quote was changing the rather thin wires supplying the house so they won't get fried when the 5kW instant electric shower is used. I might, on the other hand, make the lights in the rest of the village go dim if shower and kitchen water heater are in use at same time!

At lunchtime on Friday, Viorel finished his plumbing work for the time being and arrived with his two mates at 9am on Saturday wearing his electricians hat. They worked through the house room by room and only briefly interrupted the supply three of four times. Amazingly some switches, sockets and light fittings were connected while circuits were "live" but of course an electrician knows to only work on one wire at a time and uses insulated tools. All the cables for the instant shower heater and en-suite lights were channelled into the wall, new power sockets fitted in all rooms and new lighting fitted in kitchen to replace the non-functioning light which had forced me to cook by the light of a plug-in desklamp for the last few months! Power outlets were all replaced and most now have UK 13 amp double sockets I brought with me from England fitted alongside the Romanian type (see photo). This allows me to plug in my UK electrical items without an adaptor or having to change the plug and will also benefit any guests who arrive with a plethora of phone/iPod chargers, shavers, laptops and hair straighteners/curling tongs but only one Continental adaptor between them! To cope with all this new wiring, the main supply to the house was upgraded and as one of the electricians works for the electricity supply company, he had the equipment and skills to go up the pole (see photo) and carry out the work without me having to apply to the electricity company and then wait two or three weeks! The ancient screw-in ceramic fuse holders have been replaced with a master trip outside the house in a new meter box and five circuit breakers inside the house. They finished the installation around 6:15pm but then found that the new spotlights and power sockets in the kitchen were not working so they spent the next hour tracking down and rectifying the problem. When they left at 7:30pm, clutching their well-earned 1900 lei, I cooked my dinner by the light of four spotlamps instead of one desklamp! Oh joy! And the cooker hood I had installed myself was plugged in and working!

Today (Monday) Cole the builder/project manager has been here with one young assistant backfilling the earth around the septic tanks and constructing a strong platform of oak boards over the top. This is so that the heavy layer of earth on top of the tanks does not bend the thin metal tops and crack the plastic tanks contained within the galvanized sheet and tube frames. It will also make access for any repairs easier and allow them to be dug up if and when Roandola is connected to mains drainage - supposed to happen within a couple of years but I'm not holding my breath!

Tomorrow the floor of the en-suite will be tiled by Cole (I'll leave this to him so they are level and flat!) and then I will follow up with doing the wall tiles, which is something I can do. Once that's done Viorel will return to install the shower, WC and wash basin, connect up the drains and complete the wiring to the shower heater and lights.

At last I shall be able to have a shower and do the washing in my new washer/dryer. And of course I shall no longer have to go down the garden to use the toilet (daytime) or use the Porta Potti (nighttime/wet weather) - or is that too much information!

First train to Agnita

We did it! At 6:30pm on Saturday 25th September the Sibiu Agnita Railway carriage I have been helping to restore was lowered onto the track by a large crane. At 6:45pm I was in a group of about 16 people who made the first journey since the closure of the railway as the carriage was propelled to Agnita station by 0-8-0T locomotive 764-243.

Earlier in the day, John and Margaret Willemsen had accompanied me to a well attended Transylvanian Brunch event held on Agnita station platform where we enjoyed traditional fresh food. I met quite a few British visitors who had made the trip for this special weekend which also marks the centenary of the opening of the Sibiu-Agnita-Sighisoara Railway. The 47kms section from Sighisoara to Agnita was closed in 1965 largely due to the cost and difficulties of operating over the severe gradients required to cross the hills straddling the Mures/Sibiu county border. The remaining 62kms to Sibiu continued until 2001, operated by steam and diesel locomotives.

The Willemsens left for Cluj around 12:45pm and I took a walk along part of the 2kms of track which had been cleared for the weekend celebrations and took photos and video of the steam loco hired for the event. Around 3pm the message came through that the crane had arrived at the builder's yard where the four carriages are stored and I drove the short distance to the yard, taking some other SAR volunteers with me. Lifting the carriage onto a flatbed articulated truck was eventually achieved but not without some anxious moments. Fortunately Bill Parker, who runs a steam locomotive repair and restoration workshop in the Forest of Dean and who is the driving force behind the SAR restoration, was on hand to provide expert advice as loading/unloading railway rolling stock is almost a weekly occurence for him. Once "our" carriage was lifted clear of the other three carriages, the flatbed trailer was carefully reversed underneath and the carriage was lowered onto timber packing. Straps and chains were used to secure the carriage and after three hours the short, and very slow, road journey began from the builder's yard to a specially prepared area about two kilometres away. As already mentioned, the carriage was then lowered onto the track, the steam loco coupled to it and I joined the group in the carriage for the short trip back into the station area. Everyone was very pleased with this successful conclusion which had attracted considerable attention with cars stopping on the adjacent road while their occupants watched proceedings. They sounded their horns in unison with the loco whistle as we set off for the first trip on what I hope will become a major tourist attraction for the area.

All the British visitors except Bill Parker had left earlier to return to the Apafi Manor in Malancrav so I gave Bill a lift back since the village is in the next valley, just a few kilometres away from my house in Roandola. Bill invited me in to have a look round the beautifully restored house. Already at the Manor was Andrew Scott, a director of the Science Museum in London and former director of the National Railway Museum in York, who I had met earlier in Agnita. I was also introduced to Jessica Douglas-Home, the founder and chairman of the trustees of Mihai Eminescu Trust whose patron is none other than HRH the Prince of Wales. Having been offered a drink, I was then invited to join them for a bowl of soup but Jessica became so interested in my story of how I came to be in Romania and in my plans for Casa Cristina Roandola, that I ended up having dinner with them at Apafi Manor! This was first class networking with the person at the top as MET is one of the organisations which will be very useful to my plans. I eventually got home at 9:30pm, tired but feeling very pleased with the evening's events.

Today, Sunday, I was at the Sibiu-Agnita-Sighisoara Railway Centenary celebrations in Agnita where I met up again for further chats with the many British visitors. The celebration gala started with speeches from the Mayor of Agnita, Bill Parker, Jessica Douglas-Home, guest of honour Andrew Scott and two or three others representing railway preservation groups in England and Wales. We then had some lively traditional Saxon dances performed by three diffent groups of young people. The steam loco was providing rides hauling our partially restored carriage along the whole two kilometres of cleared track. These rides were proving very popular with the carriage packed each time and it was the third trip before I could get on board. As we steamed alongside the road, cars were sounding their horns and slowing down or stopping to watch. The people of Agnita hadn't seen a train on this track since closure in 2001 and we were attracting lots of interest!

Around 1:30pm a group of about 30 invited guests, including me, set off for a restaurant in Agnita where the Mayor had laid on lunch. More opportunity for networking! I had brought my laptop and was able to show people my video shot on Saturday and also provided copies on CD-ROM for Bill Parker, Jessica Douglas-Home and the Mayor of Agnita.

I eventually headed back to Roandola and, as had already been arranged, went to find Jessica Douglas-Home and Andrea Rost from MET who were in the village visiting the German couple next to the Lutheran church. Having located them outside the church, Jessica and Andrea came to have a brief look at my house and I think they were reasonably impressed with what I have done so far and with my future plans for conversion to a bed and breakfast. They also liked my grapes! Due to a need to get back to Sighisoara, they could only spend 10 minutes or so at 130 Roandola but I felt they went away with the right impression and I look forward to working with MET and being their eyes and ears in Roandola to help keep the village houses as traditional as possible.

What a fantastic weekend for me and tomorrow evening I shall be attending the 15th Birthday reception for Fundatia Veritas, Sighisoara for whom I have designed a new leaflet. This will no doubt present more networking opportunities so I must get on with printing some business cards in the morning.

Progress! Slow, but definitely progress.

Following my trip to Sibiu (see previous post) to obtain "Certificate of Registration" confirming my right to residency in Romania, I now have an appointment tomorrow (Friday 3rd) with a Notary Public who will, hopefully, complete the legal process for purchase of the land my house stands on. It is a quirk of current law here that any EU citizen can buy a house but only a Romanian national or Romanian registered company can buy land. This will change from January 2012 when Romania celebrates five years as an EU member and a few other laws will also change to be in line with EU legislation. However, it would be highly inconvenient for me to wait until then, hence the trip to Sibiu last week and tomorrow's visit to a Notary Public.

I had been in a bit of a "Catch 22" situation. Registration of my company, SC Casa Cristina SRL, had progressed as far as it could and to complete the process I had to own the land my house stood on. However, I couldn't own the land until either my company was registered or I had obtained a Residency Certificate. Now, providing all goes well tomorrow, I shall be able to supply the authorities with documentation confirming me as owner of the land which will be entered at the Land Registry in Medias. Once title to the land has been registered, all the documents completed so far for company registration can, at long last, be sent to Sibiu, the county town. In due course I will receive a nice Company Registration Certificate to display and a company number to use on invoices. I now have more official paperwork in my files after four months living in Romania than I acquired in sixteen years of self-employed trading back in the UK!

Progress on my kitchen has been somewhat quicker. On Monday I was able to pick up the final specially ordered 80cm base unit which was already assembled, not a flat-pack like the rest had been. Back at No. 130, it was unloaded, a hole cut in the side panel for gas pipe to go through and by evening it was in position and the worktop, which I already had, was fitted. Next day the wall tiles were done and yesterday and today said tiles were grouted thus completing my new kitchen. Total cost for all the units, stainless steel sink top, wall tiles, tile cement, grout and tools to do the tiling is 1530 lei (£306). The "white goods", fridge/freezer, gas cooker and oversink water heater, bought over a two month period, came to 2820 lei (£564), not much below West European prices. Still for a total of £870 and 3 or 4 days work I have a nice new kitchen. Video has been posted on YouTube - just ignore the related kitchen videos at the end. Hope you like the results of my hard work!

It's official - I can stay in Romania!

After spending five hours and walking all around central Sibiu, I have successfully registered as a Romanian resident. Now they can't send me back to England after three months!

As I've come to expect in Romania, the registration process involved lots of rubber stamps on documents and required a lot of patience on my part. I thank God that He gave me lots of patience!

I arrived in Sibiu around 11a.m. today (Thursday 26th August) and followed the road to the city centre. I had been told to go to the "Prefectura" so I asked for directions from my friend Mihai, leader of the Sibiu-Agnita Railway restoration team who happens to live in Sibiu. He said that the route towards the city centre would take me right past the building I was looking for. Sure enough there it was, so I took the first turning right to look for somewhere to park my car. About 200 metres along the road I found a space just outside the University Lucian Blaga. This is easy I thought. Five minute walk to the "Prefectura", check the signs outside the two entrances. One was Passports and Driving Tests the other was Driving Licences. No mention of Foreign Citizens so I went into the Passports door. Asked an English speaker in the queue if this was where I could also get Resident's Permit but he didn't know. Queued up for about 15 minutes in a rather small, overcrowded and stuffy area for the window which had "Informatie" above it. When I finally got near enough, I called across to ask if I was in the right office. "Just a moment" was the reply. Five minutes later, after he had finished issuing passports to a family of four, the official called me to the window ahead of the next person in the queue. He told me I should go to the Police Headquarters in Strada Revolutiei and wrote on a piece of paper the name of the department I should ask for.

Forcing my way through the now larger crowd of passport applicants, I found some space in the entrance hall to get my map unfolded and find Strada Revolutiei. It was about 10 minutes walk to Police HQ but once outside, the road junction didn't seem to match up with my map! Fortunately there was a policeman on the corner who spoke reasonable English and instead of just directing me, said that he and his female colleague were going in that direction so they would walk with me. I had a police escort to within a 100 metres of their HQ! On the way Mr Friendly Policeman asked if I was married and when I said "I'm a widower" he said he was sorry to hear that and asked if I would be looking for a Romanian wife! This seems to be the reaction of many I meet. Are they perhaps trying to find a husband for their unmarried sister?

At the Police HQ I was directed to a door which said "Serviciul pentru Strain", the French equivalent "Bureau des Etrangers" and the somewhat strange English translation of "Foreign Office". No queue this time and after handing over my passport, the contract for buying 130 Roandola to prove I had somewhere to live and my European Health Insurance Card, I was asked obvious questions such as what was my reason for coming to Romania and was I able to support myself financially. I had brought with me some of the documents and receipts relating to my ongoing company registration but they needed more information about my bank accounts. I was asked to fill in a form (a remarkably simple one for Romania), then told to go to the local branch of my Romanian bank for a statement of my accounts after which I was to go to the Primaria (City Hall) in Piata Mare to pay a registration tax of 4 lei (80p). Why can't this tax be collected by the "Foreign Office" at the Police HQ? Don't they trust the police to pay it into the county coffers?

The branch of Alpha Bank was about 10 minutes walk from Police HQ but, needless to say, in the opposite direction to Piata Mare! Obtaining a print-out of my account balances was easy and quick, for a change. Piata Mare was 15 minutes walk back along a pedestrianised street lined with bars, cafes and restaurants. In Piata Mare itself there was a lot of activity in preparation for a Medieval Festival due to start at 9p.m. this evening and run until midnight on Sunday 29th. Unlike all the other Primaria buildings I have seen, the one I was looking for did not have Romanian tricolour and EU flags over the front door which was just a tourist information office. I had to ask where to find the Tax Office, the door of which turned out to be round the corner and actually facing onto Piata Mica. Fortunately no queue here either and I left five minutes later with a receipt for my 4 lei tax which I would now take back to the Police HQ, another 15 minute walk.

By now it was 1:30p.m. so I bought a "sandvich" (spelt with a "v" - it's not a typing error!) which is in fact a decent size bread roll with ham, cheese, peppers and some relish plus a few chips! On the way back to Police HQ was a small park so I was able to sit on a bench and enjoy my lunch - excellent value at only 90p and very filling.

Back at Police HQ around 2p.m. I had my photo taken with a digital camera linked directly to the police computer and gave a specimen signature on a digital pad, also plugged into the computer. I handed the print-out of bank balances to the official who was handling my registration. "This is not enough, we need 'Extras de Cont' (statement of transactions)" he informed me. Actually this was probably my fault because he had written "Extras de cont" on a piece of paper which I had failed to pick up and take with me. So it was back to the bank again, who quickly furnished the required statements as efficiently as before.

This time I decided to fetch my car from where it was parked outside the University Lucian Blaga and drive back to the Police HQ. Being unfamiliar with the road layout, I ended up in the wrong lane and unable to get back in the right lane because of a long traffic island. I had to turn left instead of right but thought, "Oh well, I will take the first right and go round the block!" However, I had reckoned without a one way system which, after making the first right turn, then prevented me from going round the block. I could only turn left which meant I was heading away from Police HQ. Still, I had some time to spare as I'd been told to come back in three quarters of an hour with my bank statements. Eventually I got back to a junction I recognized from my trips to Sibiu airport and was able to turn left onto a garage forecourt and exit back to the city centre.

Arriving back at the Police HQ, I was able to park just across the road and after handing over the bank statements, a certificate declaring that I had been registered as having "the right of residence on Romanian territory" was finally handed to me. Oh no! They had put my address as 130 Laslea so I had to explain again that I lived in Roandola which, although it is administered as part of comuna Laslea, is a seperate village 6kms down the road. Whilst the amendment was being made by his assistant, the chief of the "Foreign Office" was chatting to me and once again when I said I was a widower, asked the inevitable "Will you look for a Romanian wife?" He then added "It is not right for a man to do the washing and the cooking - it is woman's work" which sums up the male attitude to women in Romania. Perhaps he also has an unmarried sister!

Finally, around 3:45p.m., I had my certificate of registration but by the time I left Police HQ, my plan to do a bit of sightseeing in Sibiu was completely scuppered. I just wanted to get back home. However, I did find a very scenic way back to Roandola by turning off the main road and following a minor road signposted to Agnita. It ran through a deep valley and on the climb out of the valley, I came round a bend to be met by a wonderful view of the Fagaras mountains in the hazy distance. Romania's two highest peaks, Moldoveanu (2544m) and neighbouring Negoiu (2535m), were easily distinguishable above the rest of the range. The road was unfortunately still under reconstruction for a four or five kilometre stretch - which in Romania means you are driving on uncompacted hardcore at no more than 15kph. Still, the views more than made up for the very slow progress. Certainly a route worth showing to Casa Cristina guests - once the road is properly surfaced, hopefully before the 2011 season!

Dacia Logan MCV and kitchen units

After three unsuccessful attempts to get a video of the MCV onto my blog I have now uploaded this video to YouTube. If you want to look around my new car, the link is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWxalDHe-HQ

Load space in the MCV was very useful today when I went to Sighisoara to buy some kitchen units. I spent yesterday morning planning a layout for the kitchen and in the afternoon I visited the furniture factory outlet shop where I had previously bought a bedroom suite, bed/settee, TV/video unit, coffee table and corner seating unit with table. Of the six or seven kitchen sets on display there were two which caught my eye. Both had glass fronted wall cupboards suitable for wine and beer glasses, but the one I preferred had a tall cupboard with four drawers in the base. The sets as sold total 2.6 metres in length and when I checked the sizes of the individual units making up the set, I found that one complete set plus an extra 800mm unit would fit the available space almost exactly without having to order made-to-measure units. It was too late in the day to get cash from the bank, the only way I could pay at this shop (cards not accepted) and as yet I cannot get an ATM card until I am registered as a Romanian resident. I told them I would return the next day and went to check prices for stainless steel sink tops.

On the way to Sighisoara today I noticed that my new English speaking friend Adi was home so I stopped and asked if he would mind coming with me to translate and make sure I got what I wanted since no-one at the furniture shop spoke English. Adi was happy to help, so off we went.

After drawing some cash, a rather lengthy process until I can get a cash card, Adi suggested we look at a couple of other furniture shops he knew of. However, both only sold ready assembled units which would have to be ordered and their prices were around 35% higher than the flatpack units I had looked at the day before. In addition, I would have to pay for delivery!

Back at the factory outlet shop it was confirmed that I could have the set I wanted straight away from stock but the additional 800mm base would have to be ordered and collected next week since the factory, near Brasov, was shut for the annual holiday period. Waiting until next week would not be a problem as I had a few days work ahead of me re-plumbing the kitchen then assembling and fitting the basic set of eight units - four base units, three wall cupboards and a tall cupboard. I was then told that the four drawer base and the glass fronted wall cupboard were already assembled - so that would make life a bit easier! After paying the 850 lei (£170) for the complete set, including worktops, we loaded up my Dacia MCV and set off home. After dropping Adi back at his house in Laslea, I got back to Roandola and unloaded everything into the house. Shade temperature was still 32C at 5pm so I decided to have a quick dip in the pool before I did anything else.

An hour later - floating around in the pool on my airbed was so relaxing! - I dried myself off and unpacked the flatpack kitchen to make sure all the bits were there. Tomorrow I must go to Medias to get the name on my electricity bills changed from that of the previous owner of the house and while I am in Medias I will buy a stainless sink top for my new kitchen. By tomorrow afternoon I should have got the new sink installed and the plumbing completed and by Friday I hope the rest of the units will be assembled and fitted with only the extra 800mm base unit to be put in next week. It will be great to have cupboards to put things in at last instead of having to keep eveything on the two tables which are my kitchen furniture at present.

Next project - a bed for the room which will become my private quarters. I already have a wardrobe and a chest of drawers, purchased with the house from the previous owner. With my friends John and Margaret Willemsen coming to visit next month, I want to show considerable progress towards opening as a bed & breakfast. August should be a busy month as I hope that Kary, my builder friend from Cluj, can start work with his team installing en-suite shower/toilet, drains, septic tank, central heating, new plumbing in the cellar for washing machine and dishwasher and new electrics throughout the house. Phew! Makes fitting the kitchen sound easy!

Dacia MCV and my "holiday" in England

In my previous post, I mentioned arranging to collect my Dacia Logan MCV and the problem I'd had finding out about trains to Odorheiu Secuiesc. In the end everything worked very well. On Friday 23rd I drove the 10kms to Danes station in my Audi and parked it on the station forecourt. Train arrived bang on schedule and away we went. I had a chat with a young lady who spoke very good English and was travelling the short hop to Sighisoara with her boyfriend (who didn't speak any English). The train conductor came along to collect the fares - tickets for this privately operated train are not sold at stations - and I handed over the huge sum of 5.70 lei (£1.15) for the 75km journey. Amazing value!

The train consisted of a fairly modern two-car diesel unit and was well utilised. Most seats were occupied as people got on and off at the twelve intermediate station stops and at one stage, for a few kilometres, it was standing room only. If my fare was only 5.70 lei, those making shorter journeys can only have been paying a fraction of that amount, literally a few pennies. No wonder the train was full for most of the journey.

We arrived in Odorheiu two minutes early (British train operators please note) in the middle of a thunderstorm! Luckily for me, Attila the Hun(garian), sales director from the used car lot, had told me to call him when I was at the station and within 15 minutes he arrived in his posh Mercedes. He took me to where my new car was being washed and valetted, gave me the key and asked me to follow him the rest of the way to his office. Once there we checked over the car together and after a couple of missing items were replaced from other Dacia MCV's in the compound, I handed over the 32,000 lei (€7,400) collected from the bank the previous day. The documents for the car were handed over and I was on my way back to Roandola, via the filling station next to Attila's office to fill up with diesel. At the same time I zeroed the settings on the car's computer display so I would know just how much less fuel this car used compared with the Audi.

I soon got used to being on the left hand side of the car and changing gear with my right hand! The best bit was being able to see to overtake trucks and slower cars! The drive back home was interrupted only by one stop to take a photo of a tall pole in someone's garden which was a deliberate attempt to get storks nesting on their property. There is a superstition in Romania that storks bring good luck (as well as babies!) and presumably it works for that particular house.

Back in Roandola I checked the fuel consumption. I was very pleased to see the figure 4.6 litres per 100kms - equivalent to 60mpg and considerably better than the 25mpg I got from the Audi. All that remained was to collect the Audi from Danes station and I did this with the help of my new friend Adi from Laslea. I drove the Audi back and he followed me, driving my Dacia which he said he enjoyed very much.

Three days later - 26th July - I had an early start to get to Sibiu airport for 7am flight to Luton and at one stage during the journey I caught up with two more MCVs making a nice little convoy!

Blue Air flight was on time as usual and we landed at Luton about 20 minutes early. I had booked a hire car to pick up at 9:30 but actually got to the car hire centre at 8:30. Needless to say my car wasn't ready so I had a sandwich and waited patiently. It wasn't too long though before I was called to the desk and by 9:10 I was on my way to Hindhead to visit my son Rob, daughter-in-law Ali and new granddaughter Daisy. Slow progress on the M25 (not unexpected while widening work is carried out) but arrived at my destination within ten minutes of my predicted ETA.

New granddaughter Daisy had grown and become even more gorgeous since I last saw her at five days old in May. Rob came back to work from home for the afternoon which I thought was very good of him. I stayed with Rob and Ali that night although Rob had to go to work the next day to prepare for a business trip to Canada. Ali and I went to the shops with Daisy, then had some lunch and I left for my daughter Louise's home in Newbury on Tuesday afternoon. Ali was going to stay with her mum in Highworth while Rob was in Canada and I was invited to join them for lunch on Friday so I would get another opportunity to see, and cuddle, Daisy before returning to Romania.

Wednesday was my birthday and I went to Lambourn with Louise and my other two lovely grandchildren, Noah and Martha. We had a picnic lunch then back to Newbury with a stop at Sainbury's to get some BBQ food for that evening. A very pleasant and relaxed birthday for me!

On Thursday I drove to Wantage for a visit to the bank to arrange the transfer of more money to Romania. For security reasons, I can only make a transfer from my UK bank to my Romanian bank account by visiting the branch in Wantage in person so I made sure that sufficient funds would be in Romania for the impending building work which I hope will finally start this month. After the bank visit, I went on to Grove for a prearranged lunch at Cornerstone with John and Margaret Willemsen and Trevor and Margaret Dodd. It was John who first introduced me to Romania back in 1992 when I joined a team of drivers in a small humanitarian aid convoy organised by churches in Grove and Wantage. Trevor was a driver on my second trip in 1993 and all of us had visited Romania many times since. Next month John and Margaret will be visiting me in Roandola.

After lunch I visited Michael Wenham, a new friend from Vale Elim Church. I had only met Michael and Jane a few months before I left the UK and now we are following each others blogs, I thought it would be good to meet for a chat outside the church environment which had previously been the only place our paths crossed.

Friday came too quickly but it was a day I had been looking forward to as I would be babysitting Martha while Louise went to work at her new job in Lambourn library - and I was also going to see Daisy again in Highworth. It was a most enjoyable day with Martha behaving impeccably (she kept her mischief to annoy mum and dad and big brother Noah!) and Daisy just kept smiling at us!

At the end of a wonderful few days, I got back to Sibiu at 2pm and was relieved to see my new car was in one piece with four wheel trims and the radio aerial still in place! It was a hot afternoon, 37C according to a street display in Medias, and I was very glad to have air conditioning in the car. I stopped at new Billa supermarket in Medias to stock up with some fresh food and arrived back in Roandola at 4pm - tired and hungry but happy.

My next visit to family in England will not be until Christmas and I have decided that now I have a car capable of 60mpg, I will make the journey by road. For a two week visit it will be cheaper than flying and hiring a car, especially as these will cost more during the holiday period. Plus I will have plenty of room to carry presents for the family and lots of cheap Romanian beer and wine for the festivities!

Beetles, bugs and a railway line that doesn't exist

The change from a mainly wet June to a hot July has brought forth a proliferation of insect life. My pool is acting as an effective trap so apart from lots of flies and a few wasps, two Colorado beetles have ended up doing breast stroke in the pool. These beetles are a pest, destroying potato crops, so both were quickly dispatched in a plastic bottle with a squirt of insecticide. Shield bugs come in many varieties and I have rescued some spectacular looking examples from the pool, mostly small ones with metallic colours which vary from green to brown as the light falls on them from different angles. The one pictured here though is larger and by far the most strikingly coloured to date. I have also removed some large orange bodied flies with ferocious looking mouth parts and the most amazing huge eyes which make up 75-80% of their head. Apart from the sheer size of these eyes, they are also beautifully coloured being dark blue-green with red and orange marbling. (Note to self: must find macro lens adaptor to get a good photo).

Sun continues to shine. Most days the shade temperature is 31C and most days also produce a thunderstorm in the late afternoon or evening. However, these are not always accompanied by rain and pass within 30-40 minutes anyway. I don't know if the thunderstorms are a result of just the heat or a combination of the heat and the local terrain as they usually roll in from the Tarnava Mare river valley to the north. They then work their way down one or more of the smaller valleys such as the Laslea river valley in which Roandola is situated.

Tomorrow (Friday) I am going to collect my Dacia Logan MCV from Odorheiu Secuiesc. The city is served by a branch line which leaves the main railway line a few kilometres east of Sighisoara. This branch crosses the road five or six times and although it looks disused, I know it is still open as I had seen a train on my way back from my first visit to Odorheiu in May. However, when I tried to find train times on the CFR (national railway) website, it kept telling me the branch line and station didn't exist! Other websites only covered the major routes so I phoned my English speaking friend Adi in Laslea and went to see him after he finished work. He got the same result as me from the CFR website, so he tried to phone Sighisoara station only to get a recorded message telling him of a problem with the phone. Next he rang Medias station and found that the reason we could find nothing about trains to Odorheiu on the CFR website was because the trains on that line are operated by a separate, privately owned company. Adi was told that the train starts from Medias and stops at every station and halt including Danes which is my nearest station at only 10kms from Roandola. Just to be sure we went to Danes station and the booking clerk confirmed the train runs daily, leaves Danes at 11:48am and arrives in Odorheiu Secuiesc at 1:35pm but I would have to buy my ticket on the train because it is privately owned and not operated by CFR. This morning I spoke to the sales director, Attila the Hun(garian), who told me to ring him when I get to Odorheiu station and he will pick me up. The cash to pay for the car was collected from the bank in Sighisoara this morning, so I am all prepared for my own left hand drive car which will make driving here so much easier, especially for overtaking!

On Monday I shall be flying to the UK to spend a few days, including my birthday, with family plus a visit to Grove, hopefully to meet up with some of you who have been following my blog. See you!

Buying a Dacia - Please don't tell Jeremy Clarkson

Sorry! Another long post but this has been an important day for me so pour yourself a drink first.

Six weeks after leaving my details at a used car dealer in the Hungarian area of the country, I was still looking for a Dacia Logan MCV Laureate, then, just like London buses, along come three at once! I had a specific requirement for an MCV with aircon and that meant Laureate or Prestige spec. My search was further complicated because I wanted the 7 seat version and preferably diesel. Seven seats because I want to be able to offer an airport pick-up/drop-off service for Casa Cristina Roandola guests; diesel because here the fuel is actually slightly cheaper than petrol - plus there is the obvious advantage of better fuel consumption. I knew diesel MCVs are more expensive than petrol versions but the extra euros I'll be paying for the above 1.5Dci model will be recouped in one year or less.

The sales manager, Attila Barazs, and yes, that really is his name which I suppose makes him Attila the Hun(garian), emailed me yesterday morning with photos of two diesel and one petrol 7 seat MCV Laureates. Rang him for prices and he said he would either call me back or email within an hour. Three hours later (I forgot that Romanian hours have 180 minutes) he emailed prices of around €7500 for diesel models and €7000 for the petrol model. By then it was too late in the day to get to the dealership in Odorheiu Secuiesc which is about 75kms away. A long way I know but used car dealers do not exist in Mures or Sibiu counties other than the Sunday "car markets" which do not, as far as I know, offer test drive facilities or servicing before you pick up your purchase. Bit of a lottery then!

This morning I made the journey to view the cars. Attila was out on an errand when I arrived so I was able to nose around without any pressure. First one I looked at was a metallic dark grey diesel version. However I noticed it had five or six very small but nevertheless noticeable dents in doors and bonnet and front tyres would need replacing fairly soon. Crossed that one off the list. Next was the above car in metallic "bleu extreme". First registered May 2008, no marks or dents, five good tyres and the underside was very clean. And it's a diesel. Finally had a look at the petrol engined version which was metallic mineral blue (sort of blue/grey) but the poorer economy made it very much a non-starter for me. Meanwhile Attila had returned so he reversed the "bleu extreme" car out of the compound for me to have a test drive. Despite being a diesel, the Renault 1.5Dci engine is remarkably quiet, even with the bonnet open. Car drove nicely, light clutch, precise gearchange and good acceleration from the turbo diesel. The aircon cooled us nicely on what was a very hot morning - 31C according to the car's computer read-out. Front brake pads were worn out so had to allow for that when braking but the car will be serviced and front brakes replaced. I didn't bother with test drive of either of the other cars for the reasons already mentioned. Price for the car of my choice was €7400 and I've paid €300 deposit.

Car buying in Romania is complicated by the fact that when a car moves from one county to another, it gets a new registration number. Currently it carries "B" plates from Bucharest but will eventually have "SB" plates as I live in Sibiu county. There is also the small problem of the fact that cars can only be sold to Romanian citizens or companies. As yet I have neither a Romanian ID card nor is Casa Cristina Roandola SRL fully registered due to the slow workings of the company registration system. But, as always in Romania, there are perfectly legal ways round these problems! I can either get a Romanian citizen to register the car on my behalf - which, just as in the UK, makes him the car's "keeper" but not necessarily its legal owner, and later, for a small fee, he would transfer the car to my name when I have Romanian ID. The other alternative is for the dealer to register the car in his company name and the car will then get "HR" plates for Harghita county in which the dealership is located. They already have quite a few cars on their books for others who, like me, are waiting for their company to be registered. Once I have a company number and the official certificate, they raise an invoice for the price of the car (already paid of course) and transfer it to me at which point I will then have to go to Sibiu for "SB" plates! What a performance! If I go for option two, by the end of next week I will have a left hand drive car which consumes less than half the amount of fuel my Audi guzzles into its 2.6 litre V6 petrol engine! And in time to avoid having to renew the tax on the Audi at the end of July. What to do with the old girl is a bit of a problem. It would cost as much, if not more than the car is worth to drive it back to the UK, put it on a ferry, sell it and then fly back to Romania! I shall probably be able to sell it here, either to someone looking for a cheap 7 seater (5 adults + 2 children in rear facing seat) in need of a bit of bodywork repair or just for spares. Apart from the damage sustained in a minor accident in Turda on my way to Cluj airport to pick up Louise and family (broken headlight/bent front wing/cracked plastic front bumper) the rest of the bodywork is in good condition for a 17 year old car, the 150bhp engine is still smooth and sweet, gearbox faultless and it has two brand new tyres on front wheels. It is worth €900 under the Romanian car scrappage scheme and people pay up to €500 for cars like mine as the system allows an individual to "cash-in" up to three cars against a new car! This was pointed out to me when the local Dacia dealer was trying to persuade me to buy a new Logan MCV Laureate diesel, list price €12,550 but only €9,750 with a dealer discount plus three scrappage vouchers - one for my Audi plus two more "bought" from others who have scrapped old cars but are unable to afford a new vehicle! Probably not in the spirit of the scrappage scheme but not illegal.

By the way, DACIA is pronounced dah-tchia, not day-see-uh as James May seems to think, and will probably verbalise on next Sunday's Top Gear when he will no doubt say "Good news! I've driven the Dacia Duster which will be coming to the UK". Ho hum, will someone PLEASE tell him!

"Up in the Roof" (with apologies to The Drifters)

Sorry in advance for this being quite a long post!

Two objects found in the roof space at 130 Roandola. The lethal looking "brush" has two rows of seven 125mm nails driven through a hand carved wooden handle. My best guess is that it was used to comb the thatch layer when topping off a stack of hay. These haystacks can still be seen in many gardens and are winter food for any cattle, horses etc kept by the owner. Second object is a tray carved from a single piece of wood. It is just over 1m long and 430mm wide with two carrying handles at each end. Best guess on this one is that it was used to gather and carry corn cobs which would also be used as winter animal feed. In some areas of Romania you can see timber built corn stores, usually about 2.5m high, 3m long and 1m wide with open sides and ends constructed in such a way as to contain the corn cobs but allow maximum airflow. This is achieved either with thin wooden lathes or sometimes metal bars. A roof of wood shingles protects the corn from the rain. However, in my house, as was common in the Saxon villages, the corn cobs were stored in the roof space and there is plenty of evidence of this from the remains of cobs under the eaves and under the floorboards where the gaps are large enough to allow smaller dried-out cobs to slip through. I have seen similar wooden trays on display with other agricultural items on the wall of an inn at Saschiz (about 40kms east along the E60) although those ones were either half the size or somewhat larger and all had a pouring lip so may have been used for other purposes.

On a completely different subject, I have noticed while shopping here that "use by" dates are often much longer than those I was used to on fresh produce in the UK - at least in my experience shopping at Co-op and Sainsbury's. For example, the semi-skimmed milk in my fridge was bought on 30 June and is dated 16 July - and no, it's not UHT. I also have chicken breast fillets dated 12 July, eggs dated 25 July and smantana (sour cream) dated 21 July, all bought on Monday 5 July. This is brilliant for me as I can now have plenty of produce in the fridge without having to shop two or three times a week as was the case when I lived in Grove. Being the only person in the house, it was sometimes difficult to consume everything within the "use by" date which more often than not only gave me a few days before consigning it to the bin. So the question arises, do UK shops, especially the large supermarkets, keep produce in their warehouses for long periods and only put it on the shelves when "use by" date is within a few days? This can result in more food waste if consumers forget what they have in their fridge, or buy more than they can consume within the date - and more profit for the supermarkets when binned food is replaced. The obvious question you may ask me is do Romanian foods contain more preservatives? This may be true for some products although much of what I buy is labelled "no artificial flavours or preservatives". So it looks like Romanian supermarkets have more frequent deliveries and quicker turnover from warehouse to shelf. Both the supermarkets I use, Penny Market (Sighisoara) and Billa Zilnic (Medias), are owned by German REWE Group and perhaps their warehousing/distribution policy accounts for shorter time from production to sales floor. I have noticed on some meat labels a packing date which is only 1 or 2 days before the day I have made the purchase.

I have been eating lots of salami, something I didn't do in the UK. There are usually about a dozen types to choose from and because it is a product designed for long storage, they have "use by" dates giving many weeks for consumption - some varieties even come with a loop of string at one end to hang them up. I have three types, bought as a "special offer" pack on 30 June and all dated 7 August so even if I don't eat them all before I visit the UK again in two and a half weeks time, they will still be OK when I get back on 31 July. While still living in Grove, I bought some Italian salami which had to be eaten within two weeks! I ask you, how ridiculous when salami is supposed to be capable of long storage!

Another consumer "bonus" available to me in Romania is that all the electrical appliances I have bought so far came with a standard TWO YEAR guarantee. No salesperson asking me "Would you like to buy an extra year warranty for that sir?" as they do in Argos, Comet, Currys etc. This applied to everything from a toaster (made in China for a Hungarian supplier), deep-fat fryer (made in Czech Republic for Philips), food slicer (made in Slovenia for Bosch) to my large Romanian made fridge/freezer. In addition, the guarantee form was completed, signed and stamped by the retailer, who did not require my details - unlike the UK practice of expecting the consumer to complete and post off a guarantee registration card which is really only a way of collecting your details for a database to send out loads of unwanted junk mail!

Back on food - I bought some very tasty and crunchy celery in Billa Zilnic. That may not seem so amazing but from previous enquiries, I had thought my favourite vegetable was not available in Romania where they use celeriac instead for soups etc. Thank you Billa!

Finally, I have just come to the end of the first of 12 boxes of 80 teabags I brought with me from the UK - dated Sept 2011. English tea is a rarity here, Romanians prefer green tea and fruit teas. I have seen Earl Grey and English Breakfast Tea but these are considered expensive luxuries and are priced as such. Penny Market sells Belin Ceai Negru Indian (black tea) produced in Poland and I have some of this, but it is quite weak, requires 5 minutes brewing time and the bags are only enough for a small mug. As anyone who has made me a cuppa knows, I like a BIG mug - the one I use most of the time holds half a litre - almost a pint!

Mici and mamaliga

Feeling rather pleased with my first attempt at making mamaliga. Used corn meal given to me a couple of weeks ago by Ileana (from #132) and some goats cheese, cottage cheese and herbs bought yesterday in Medias. I followed a recipe on mamaliga.com and served it with mici (pronounced "meetch"), plus a salad of tomato, red pepper and cucumber. For pudding I had some homemade fresh fruit salad of yellow melon, nectarines and kiwi fruit with generous dollops of smantana (sour cream). Delicious! The meal was washed down with a glass of "Roandola 2009" made from last year's grapes from the vines in what is now my garden and given to me by Paul during my visit to Viscri on Friday evening. Not sure if it is a very pale red or a rose made from a mixture of grapes as there are both black and white varieties in my courtyard and garden. Either way, the bottle Paul gave me is clearer than the one we sampled in Viscri and quite pleasant on the palate.

Earlier today I cut the grass outside the front of my house and then dug out the drainage ditch to improve the flow of rainwater and the floodwater pumped from my cellar. Yes, I'm still pumping daily as groundwater level has only gone down by about 20cms. As I was finishing digging out the drainage ditch, neighbour Ioan came over and told me he'd heard that when the workmen had finished filling the potholes in the road through the village, they would be coming to repair our gravel road, lay a new pavement and dig out all the drainage ditches! Oh well, my labours have at least made the front of my house look neater and considering it has taken the workmen over two months to fix the potholes in the 6kms of road between Laslea and Roandola, it could be another month before they turn their attention to our road.

Pruned a lot of non grape-bearing growth from four of my eight vines so the sun can get to the rapidly growing grapes. Tomorrow I will prune the other four vines. So far it looks like a bumper crop this year and if anyone fancies coming over in September to help with the grape harvest and getting the juice out of them, I can provide bed and meals for up to four people at a very special rate in return for a few hours labour!

I mentioned above that I went to Medias yesterday. It was a shopping trip and I first went to DOMO (branch of an electrical chain store) and now have a vacuum cleaner, much better than a broom and a handbrush and dustpan! Also went to Billa Zilnic (Austrian owned supermarket known as Billa Heute in Germany and Austria) of which my son-in-law is a fan! When Louise, Chris and the kids stayed with me in June we went to Medias and, to keep Chris quiet, we went to the new Billa Zilnic store, on the road to Sibiu, which had been open for less than a month. It is the third Billa branch in Medias and yesterday I went to the original town centre branch. I spent ages in the store but came out with a lot of the things I had been looking for to fill my kitchen store cupboard. Well, actually I don't have a cupboard yet, everything is on one of the two tables in the kitchen! The goat's cheese, cottage cheese and herbs I used for the mamaliga came from Billa as did some fresh and tinned fruit and veg, smantana, sausages, pork snitzels, chicken breast fillets, some food storage containers, cleaning cloths, five towels to supplement the few I brought with me from Grove, car washing brush and sponge, some Billa own label "ice tea lemon" drink and two bottles of Murfatlar, my favourite Romanian wine which is sadly not available in England. I finished up spending more than I had intended (420 lei - £82) but my trolley was VERY full and I now have enough food to last through July as well as most of the sundries I had been looking for.

Now, what Romanian cuisine can I have a go at tomorrow? Sarmale wrapped in vine leaves perhaps? After all I have plenty of large vine leaves to hand.