We Didn't Come Here for This!?

We've learnt a lot about ourselves since starting over in Bulgaria. We came here searching for a slower, more meaningful way of life. Something simpler, more grounded, more resilient. And in many ways, it worked. We've discovered we're more resilient than we ever realised. We're learning to accept and even love a deeply different culture. We've become better problem solvers, more hands-on, more capable than we ever were before. We're planting our own food, bringing piles of old junk back to life, learning skills we never needed before. But somewhere, along the way, something didn't feel right. We didn't come here for this. For as long as we can remember, our self-worth has been tied to how productive we are. And separating the two feels almost impossible. When you live inside a constant work in progress, it's hard to see anything else. Everything starts to feel like one giant expanding to-do list. And that's when the question hits. Is this really the good life? What we've got to do is select a few that we want to keep and cut the rest. Because at the moment, it's literally unmanageable and it's grown everywhere. This is going to take a very long time. We've got all of this to do. I don't know how possible it's going to be. So, let's get going. I've got quite a few strings that I've found already tied up on the vines. I'm going to redirect some of the vines that have newly grown onto the trellis above. Now that the weather has improved and the sun is up and it's warmer, I'm going to go and find a nice spot for the garlic to be planted. Whilst digging the ground, I saw quite a lot of red worms. This is a good sign for the garden. I'm going to use some stones to border the planting area, just so that when the grass starts to grow, I remember where they are. And now I'm going to get the garlic and put it in the ground. It's starting to sprout. And this was in the molehill mixed with mud. I came up this morning and wasn't planning to go anywhere. And I noticed that my rear tyre, this one, keeps going down. It's got a crack in the rim. And I've had this many times because this has got 22s on it and Bulgaria hasn't been very nice to it. So, I'm going to have to now drive 35 or 35 kilometres down the road to a tyre place where I can get it fixed. I have contact with a company that can do it, so I'm going to see if they can do it for me. Right, let's go. Right, guys, quite often you see this in Bulgaria. Nice people. Drasti! Hi, my friend! Yeah, that's it. He's a farmer. I think he's Gypsy as well, but he's a lovely guy. I don't know where he's going. I wish I was going with him on his awesome cart somewhere. It would be quite good to experience that. Although it's cold. Oftentimes you'll see things like that on the road. Awesome carts, donkeys and carts, kids with a donkey and a cart. You'll see it all on here. You may even see the Gypsies and some Bulgarians drive those cultivating machines and they attach it to a trailer and they go down the road of it with the family. Sometimes they've got furniture, sometimes they've got wood. You may see one of them today. If I do see one, I'll show you. I absolutely love Bulgaria for this. I love the whole thing about the naturalness and the pureness of Bulgaria and the fact that people can just live free and do what they want. Stop complaining about life. Yes, we do have things go wrong in Bulgaria. Things do happen, which can make you question a lot of things. But when you look at the life you left, like in the UK or wherever country you've left for whatever reason, I let things slide over here. I just let it slide. I mean, road rage, I let it slide. I might get a little bit upset or maybe feel like saying something, but I sometimes think, you know what? Let people live. Just live and let live. Let people get on with it. There's no need to be creating unnecessary aggro on the street, on the road with people. It just ruins your day. Although sometimes it's unavoidable in some cases, but you've just got to try and just look at the life you left and look at the life you've got now, wherever you are. This is not about Bulgaria. It's wherever you are, people, and you can see that things could be a lot, lot worse and there's people in much worse situations than you around the world. Try and stay positive, people. Try and stay positive. Get out, network. Go and see, create communities. Support your local businesses. It's important. I've been saying this for a long time. Support your local, small, independent businesses. They are literally shutting down all over the world right now. We've got our way to support small businesses because it's important. Your green grocers, your butchers, your farmers, all that kind of stuff. And I'm talking about farmers with F-A-R-M. Farmers. Support those farmers. It's a full field which are cold at the moment and snowy and it was only a couple of days ago that I was out there. Yesterday was actually quite warm but they're going to be out again at some point. They're going to be cultivating this or planting. So I've just got a feeling they're going to be out in the next few days as they always do and they will start grating the crop to feed the people. They're going to be out there working hard for us, guys. Grating food, making sure we're fed, making sure we're not hungry, making sure our children are eating healthy food. Look forward to seeing the tractors out again. Right, so I thought I'd show you that awesome car and tell you a little bit about our journey in Bulgaria. I've still got another 20 minutes. I'm driving at reasonable speed and I don't want to hit any potholes because I've got a damaged wheel. The roads in Bulgaria are not bad. A lot of people say they're terrible. A lot of Bulgarians say the roads are terrible. I mean, they're mainly bad on the small roads but not on the main roads. The main roads are really good. I mean, they've got a section of one or two or maybe three or four potholes in certain areas and on average, it's better than the UK. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain about Bulgaria at all. There's some sketchy driving behaviour over here but that's expected in any country. The UK is getting as bad if not have always been bad in terms of driving practices and behaviour. So I'm not going to complain. It's Bulgaria. It's the culture. I absolutely love it. And one thing about Bulgaria, if you're driving, if you break down, people will stop and help you and you'll find that. To stop in a peculiar spot for a while or somewhere that looks like slightly unsafe or maybe you might be at risk of being, you know, in some kind of danger, somebody within one or two free cars going past you will stop and ask if you're okay, do you need anything? Do you need water? Do you need them to take a tyre to the tyre shop? And often, quite often, the tyre shop is seven, eight kilometres away from where you are or one will be up to 15 kilometres away from where you are if you're out in the rural areas. Yes, it's very icy. I don't see a lot of gritting on the roads. Like the UK, you get a lot of gritting going on in the winter or used to. I don't know about now. But yeah, the roads are reasonably good. No problems at all. Don't be an idiot on the road. Just drive sensibly. Just drive, just drive safe. So yeah, I'm on my way down to Veliko, or down that way anyway, to see if I can find a wheel repairer that can repair this wheel. I've spoken to a couple and they have said to come down and have a look. So we're going to see if they can do it. Because in Bulgaria often, I've been told a lot of times, they can do something. I've gone there and they said, no, no, no, I didn't mean that. I meant something else. And it's quite annoying, but I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. There's more things to complain about right now in the world. So that's the least of our problems. But one thing I need to do is make sure that the car is safe. Yes? No problem. Yes, very good. I show people how good you are. I'm a YouTuber. Yes. Right, guys, I'm at the garage getting my car fixed. They're going to fix the rim, take it off, have a look. And then they're going to weld the wheel off for me. So we're going to see how bad the crack is. But it's small, which is malleable. So we're going to have a look. Right, guys, I've just left the wheel shop. And the guys are fantastic there. But as I suspected, the gentleman there said, yes, we can do it. Yes, we can do it. I've turned up. I've waited a couple of weeks now. I've turned up. And the guy who does the work says he doesn't do welding. Right, I need to get this wheel fixed. I've got days to get this wheel fixed. I've got places to go. And, you know, I don't want to keep driving it with a cracked rim, especially if it's 22 inch, because it's not good for the wheel, not good for the tire either. So I'm now off now to get some phone credits. My phone credits run out. And in Bulgaria, do not want to not have phone credit, because if you run out of phone credit and something happens, you're going to be in trouble if you break down. So I want to get phone credit, just so I can make sure Elaine and the family is OK at home. I finally found somewhere in Veliko, this place here. He took my wheel off. He's repairing it. As you can see, guys, he's getting on with it. I only went to the shop, but he's already welding. I will bookmark this place for future. This is part one tires, I believe as well. Right, guys, I'm back. And the wheel is fixed. And a grand total of 40 euros for the repair and remove and fit the tire. 40 euros, all in. I'm really happy with that. I've got back safe. It's starting to snow again, so I better go and get some breakfast, because I've been out all morning and I've still got more work to do inside the properties. Thanks for calling and joining me. And remember, if you are driving anywhere and it's cold and snowy, drive safe. So maybe the problem isn't Bulgaria, and maybe it isn't simple living either. Maybe it's us, because we didn't come here for a bigger to-do list. We didn't come here to rebuild the same pressure in a different country. We came for space, for meaning, for something slower. But when your self-worth has always been tied to productivity, slowing down feels uncomfortable, almost irresponsible. That's the part nobody talks about when they say move abroad, escape the system, live simply. You can change countries, you can change houses, you can change lifestyles, but you can't outrun the way you measure yourself. So maybe this isn't failure. Maybe this is the real work. Learning that worth isn't earned by exhaustion. Learning that progress doesn't have to feel like pressure. Learning that the good life isn't built faster, it's felt slower. And maybe we didn't come here for this, but we needed it. Today we are putting up our CCTV cameras. We're going to have them all over the place, all over the building, on the garage, everywhere. More for wild animals coming in, if there is any, jackals, but also security as well. So we can remotely access the cameras and watch them from anywhere we are. Careful. Oh, does it just come on? Yeah. Oh, so it is working then? Yeah, it is. Yeah, it turned on. Right, that one, that one. Yeah. It'll get brighter, it'll get brighter. See, it just turned on. Yeah, it'll get brighter once it gets charged. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't have much charge, it'll pop out. That's the old one. That one should be working. Where's the other one? I've got another one in there. Oh. No, I must have put it on the other side then. Oh, okay. Yeah, as they're coming in, look. Yeah, now I see it. Yeah. Yep.