Brian's Blog

We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May you forget the troubles of 2008, ignore the current woes happily highlighted by the press, and enjoy Christmas for what it is, and always was. And may 2009 be your year, especially with the fact you could have your own Alpine Cabin.

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. ~ Charles Dickens

18th December 2008

With the recent news that one of the other win a house competitions has discontinued, we would like to assure all our existing and future entrants that our competition is happily continuing and is all above board.

For a little bit of background information, when we first set up our competition we consulted a very experienced gambling law solicitor in London; unfortunately at huge expense yet we felt it was a necessary expense! At the time he advised us that we must have the facility to take wrong answers as well as correct answers, as if we did not we would fall outside of the law. We diligently followed his advice and modelled our competition on the numerous TV, Radio and Newspaper competitions that run daily in the UK and created what we believe to be the first Win A House Text Competition for Europe.

Later, when we decided to do the ski shows we had to prove ourselves further to the show organisers as they in turn needed to send our documents to the Local Authority Licensing Officers to show that we fell within the boundaries of a competition rather than a lottery and therefore did not need a lottery license for the show. Our documents passed the inspection and we were allowed to attend the show, which was fantastic news for us!

Anyway, that’s the history. Obviously due to the media attention that all this has gathered and the resultant difficulties with Paypal, we’ve lost a lot of time and focus on the competition and ticket sales have suffered as a result, so it is now very apparent that we will not sell the required 90,000 tickets by the planned draw date of the 24th December.

So, our plan is simple. We 100% fully intend this competition to run to the end otherwise it is pointless, and this way everybody wins; someone wins the house of their dreams and we get to build our dog sanctuary. In order to fulfil this dream we have therefore decided to extend the competition closing date to the end of February 2009. We already have a new marketing campaign ready for launch in the New Year, and are currently featured in numerous dog magazines in the UK due to the animal charity side of our competition. It’s an exciting time and we are very grateful to everyone who has supported our campaign. 

You have our commitment - we will not stop until the competition comes to a successful end! Tickets are available now and the competition is running well. So please, have a go, give yourself a chance of winning our stunning chalet, and help us help the stray dogs by allowing us to build our dog shelter.

Many, many thanks to all

5th December 2008

Apologies to all for the delay from the last blog entry, unfortunately its been a bit of a whirlwind time. Firstly we were back in the UK early November exhibiting at the Olympia and NEC ski shows, and then bad news that my father died late November so I have been back in the UK again for the funeral and sorting out things. Due to this, I will write more in a week when I get back on top of things. Your patience is appreciated.

So, for a quick catch up, we had an exciting time at the end of October as we decided to exhibit at the Metro Ski show at Olympia and the Birmingham Ski show 2008 at the NEC so it was all hurried preparations for the show not to mention the legal hoops we had to jump through!  I think most people plan this a year in advance yet we did manage to cram it all into 3 weeks. Picture left of the stand at the show.

Both the shows were fantastic and the people we met gave us a good reception. There was a lot of interest and lots of tickets sold. We met a lot of lovely people at the show, and of course some rather grumpy ones, it’s the diversity of people that makes the UK such an interesting place. Many thanks to all who took the time to visit us and in particular the ones who have the faith to purchase a ticket. 

It was also nice to meet a lot of other stand owners from the business, put faces to emails, and hopefully show that we are serious, it’s not a scam, and we are real people.

Back out in Bulgaria yesterday and rather glad to be home after many days on the M25 & M42……they both reminded me of some of the reasons why we spend as little time in the UK as possible! 

That’s it for today, I'm off to get some shut-eye!

7th October 2008

Lots of entries coming in, and a heartfelt thanks from both Michelle and I to everyone entering. At the end of the day we really want this to go through to the point of drawing the competition. That way everyone wins, the charities get much needed funds, we can buy land and build the shelter, and of course someone wins this dream house.

At the end of the day if it wasn’t for the desire to build the shelter we would be more than happy to stay here, bunker down, and ride out the credit crunch. With the cost of living here so low this wouldn’t be a problem. And if you also take into consideration the stress and strain of building anything in Bulgaria it would be the wisest option. Yet that’s not the case, and we’ve never been known for doing the wisest thing. Our three dogs are now well and truly part of the family, much to the amusement of our neighbours. And every time we find another street dog, which we tend to stop, feed and leave where it is (unless it's injured or too young to fend for itself). The amount of dogs that need help just multiplies. 

Most people refuse to sterilise their dogs, for some because of the expense, yet for most because they don’t see the overpopulation as a problem. Owned dogs are often allowed to roam the streets by day, even the Shepherd turns his sheep dogs loose at night, and the resultant street pups are someone else's problem. There’s nothing more heart wrenching than seeing a mother who has recently had pups, scrabbling about in the snow looking for food. Thankfully, a lot of Brits who holiday in Bansko feed the strays as part of their holiday routine; again much to the amusement of the locals.

The thing about the Bulgarian attitude to dogs and their amusement as to how we treat them, I think it best to explain. There are a few exceptions creeping in at the moment, especially in the capital Sofia, yet generally, Bulgarians see dogs as working animals. Specifically designed for protecting their livestock from predators. Now the predators range from foxes and weasels right up to wolves. Yes, Bulgaria is one of the last places in the EU with big populations of wolves and even bears, although this is diminishing now as the country's expansion gradually eats up the natural habitats.

I have big problems remembering Bulgarian names, so I tend to call people by what they do, or the way they are. Funnily enough this is how most English surnames started so I am not re-writing the book. Needless to say, our neighbours consist of 3 fingered Jack (a joiner who had a fight with a bench saw), Mad Cow Man (his deranged cow chased me down the street during construction), Tom Dickie Harry (This is the shopkeeper and his only English is Tom, Dickie and our direct neighbours (pictured left) are David and Victoria. A pet name I gave them in the beginning and they're such nice people, they are quite happy to answer to David and Victoria.

I’ll expand more on the neighbours later, who, all in all are a lovely bunch, very communist, yet with hearts of gold.

That’s it for today, see you tomorrow.

6th October 2008

Now that the dust has settled on getting this competition off the ground, it's time to start my blog. The main reason for the blog is to show that Michelle and I are real, and tell you a bit about ourselves past and present. I’d also like to share what life is like in Bulgaria, in particular day to day life.

So, quick history first:

Michelle and I both lived in Bristol, working for the same Mobile Telcoms company. We travelled extensively, unfortunately rarely together. I was off selling systems in the Middle East and Africa, whilst she was off training in South America. I think between us we managed to clock up about 68 countries in 4 years. Bad for a relationship but fantastic for air miles!

Anyway. We both packed in our jobs at the same time and decided to emigrate to Bulgaria in 2005. Why Bulgaria ? Low cost of living, stunning unspoilt scenery, no speed cameras, low tax, and a fairly relaxed way of life.

We bought a small piece of land just outside Bansko which is a new ski resort, built the ski chalet which by now you are well aware of, and settled into the "Tom & Barbara" routine.

So why are we selling the house ? Bulgaria has a HUGE stray dog population, this is well noted and documented. They reckon in the capital Sofia alone there are 30,000, and it's only the size of Manchester. There are very few, if any government sponsored dog shelters; there’s no money in the pot. There are a few privately funded charities which struggle as Bulgarians don’t have the same passion for dogs as Brits. A lot of the charities are helped out by expats living in Bulgaria, and long may they continue to do so.

In the last couple of years, with assistance from BSAPP (Bulgarian Society for Animal Protection and Preservation) we have been helping in the South West with the dog problem. We have taken in and rehomed lots of dogs and along the way we have picked up three permanent residents, Harry, Nala and Ziva.

The problem is, that TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) is the only feasible solution for Bulgaria, which is adopted in similar countries. In fact, Bulgaria has changed its laws recently and adopted a no-kill/TNR policy for stray dogs. Yet outside of Sofia where the new laws are not yet properly implemented a lot of dogs just get rounded up and euthanised. 

We are selling the house to set up a dog shelter, and specialise in TNR for the region. We have already bought a UK ambulance to collect the dogs, and the local vet will be helping, yet we need the shelter particularly for the very young and sick. To this we have tried to sell the house by conventional means which hasn’t worked so we have decided to do the competition and make both our dream and a dream for the lucky winner, come true. With the onset of winter (yes we now have snow on the hills) it's another winter for the street dogs.... and more heartache.

So, that’s the history. More to follow.....

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