4th October 1971

4^th October 1971

Dear Mum and Dad,

It was lovely to speak to you yesterday-I hope it did not cost too much. I am sure Tony’s parcel will arrive in the next few days. I have not bought him a present yet- it is so difficult here where there is no choice in the shops.

I am feeling guilty today as I have stayed home even though my cold is almost better. I am still feeling weak but should be well enough to go to work tomorrow. Tony has not caught the bug yet but several other people in the office have gone down with the virus.

We are quite a big community now, Terry C the country manager, with his Bulgarian girlfriend Tanya, both good company and friendly; Vassel I the Bulgarian who works for us; Jan H our Australian secretary and the three family men Frano K, John N and Anton B.

Frano is Yugoslavian with a Bulgarian wife with a six month old daughter Iana who is British, because she was born in Britain. She has her own British passport. Frano was with us in Greece last weekend but could not get a visa for his wife to come with him. Anton B and John N are both English. John has a son Marc aged two and another child on the way. John has three children, Adam aged 6, Amanda aged 4 and Toby aged nine months.

We were surprised when we were all invited to the home of one of the British embassy couples as we do make rather a crowd, especially with all the children. This was last Friday and we had a pleasant afternoon, missing work until about 4 o’clock.

John and Carol and family dropped by for coffee on Sunday and we are definitely getting a better social life now there are more of us.

The British embassy is still generally depressing and we still grumble about them among themselves. We went to the film last night and had the usual reception which means the only time anyone from the embassy speaks to you is to ask you for the money for the film. They charge about 30p for the film and 10p for a bottle of bitter lemon. I am sure it is cheaper in England. Every time we go the British embassy club we resolve not to go there again. The club at the American embassy, run by our friends the marines, is so different- very friendly with cheap drinks, free films, pizza and popcorn- it makes one ashamed to be British.

One of the big bosses in ICL, Mr E is coming to visit for some high level talks with the Bulgarians. Tony has the honour of being one of the party meeting him at the airport and there is going to be a dinner in the evening at the Hotel Sofia- the best eating place in town. One thing is certain if he gets nothing else in Bulgaria we should be able to give him the ICL cold.

I have just realised in my list of ICL personnel in Bulgaria I forgot Jim M the engineer whose wife and three children are in England.

Do you realise we have been married 4 years this September. We forgot our anniversary until two days later so we did not celebrate. I think we have enough celebrations in our life at present as there is always someone coming or leaving or holding a birthday party or house warming.

We are having a party for Tony next weekend on the Saturday and have invited several embassy friends as well as ICL people. Needless to say most of them are from the American and Austrian embassy, though we did put out a general invite to the British embassy. We thought it would be nice to invite the neighbours and at least warn them of the noise so we approached the block chief who speaks some English. He was very enthusiastic and we have the feeling he is going to invite the whole block which as there are40 flats would mean a huge number of people. I wish I had you here mum so you could produce your world famous buffet with scones, sponges, trifles etc but I expect they will have to make do with my poor efforts. I hope my Margaret Patten book will inspire me and I can produce some nice cakes. However the flat is singularly lacking in baking trays so I shall have to try and buy some first- heaven knows where they are sold. We are hoping to cook some hot soup and potatoes in their jackets in keeping with the autumn season. It is quite autumnal here and the weather is very changeable, cold one day and hot the next. The heating in the block of flats is not switched on till the 15^th October so we have been very glad of our German duck down duvets in the last couple of weeks.

It seems incredible it was so much hotter in Greece only a couple of hundred miles further south but I expect the altitude in Sofia does not help.

We met two very interesting Americans last night- quite clean and presentable who were walking round the world with a donkey. It is the first time this has been attempted and they expect it to take about three years.

I had better close now and pop to the shops for milk and onions. There are three little shops only about 100yds away which are quite good for everyday needs.

I will write next weekend

Lots of love to you all

Gillian and Tony

We were settling into the expat life style after nearly two years behind the iron curtain. The scenery in Bulgaria was dramatic and beautiful. Our flat was on the edge of the large park inside the centre of the city and there were plenty of places to walk sledge and ski. The American and British embassy had film evenings and the British embassy had a club on Friday nights which we occasionally visited. They had a table tennis table and the occasional quiz but most people went there for the cheap booze. What was interesting was the strange people that occasionally turned up like the Americans walking round the world with a donkey. Often such people had a rosy view of communism and were quite surprised when they met the dour unhelpful Bulgarians. I suppose we were on one of the old trade routes between east and west. Drug smuggling was already a problem and the Bulgarian’s were particularly harsh with any westerners caught travelling through their country with drugs. In the West it was the height of the flower power era but one of the good things about communism at that time was the lack of drug use apart from the old favourite alcohol. Most of the world travelling hippies avoided Bulgaria and travelled to Greece or Turkey or further afield to India. There was a fashion at that time to take the bus to Australia, camping on the way and we saw examples of this during our camping trip to Turkey.