This is memento of one of our last days at the Strossmeyer apartment. Judging by the walls and the general misery of the place we were about to leave in early January, I ought to have been glamorously happy but, there you are, I look extraordinary sad and depressed.

January 15 was great Geo Milev’s birthday (1895-1925) and on that occasion Ivan Granitski, a social figure and publisher (on the left), made a presentation of the 1st volume of Geo Milev’s 6-volume collection that the Publishing House Zaharii Stoyanov then launched.

Except my mother, Ivan Granitsli and I, there are some teachers and students from the German Language High School in the photograph. Lots of writers, publishers, artists, college and school faculty and students attended this significant event.

The hat our friend Randall was photographed with has a somewhat interesting history. As I had forgotten to take either a hat or an umbrella from home, I had to buy this monstrous Red-Army hat from the antique market around the Alexander Nevski Cathedral on a rainy Wednesday. Of course, I bought it just for an emergency, unexpected heavy rain, and I did not plan to wear it in normal circumstances, but Randall liked it very much and even went out with it right away.

At a restaurant close to Randall’s new HQ. I suppose the mug he was holding was for Vio’s enormous mug collection. Meanwhile I am boasting, no doubt about it, on the non-alcoholic beverage I was forced (as a chauffeur) to have.

We are sitting on the patio of an amazingly good restaurant with the funny name Mozza. It was on Chataldga St, close to ISUL. Randall had just arrived and we took him there for lunch on May 5. It was very good (lamb and beer and salad), though a bit steep (70 leva for the three of us WITHOUT the drinks).

Vio, DJ and I at the said Romance Restaurant in Simeonovo on May 11, 2007.

This is the extraordinary dessert, palachinka (a pancake) with wild berries, we (Vio, DJ and yours truly) had at the Romance Restaurant in Simeonovo, a suburb of Sofia.