It was’nt even Friday the 13th but I know one builder in Varna who probably thought it was. As I stood on the office balcony enjoying the sunshine there were a group of builders working on the renovation of a nearby shop and office. They appeared to be struggling with the concept of constructing a gable end that was anything close to a straight line to fit the roof to, and after several attempts using bricks and mortar one of their number jumped in a van and drove off, returning some ten minutes later with some lengths of timber sticking out the back and parked the van close to the building. Several of his colleagues then came down and helped carry the timber through the building to re-appear a few minutes later on the top floor and set the timber down on the floor.
The van driver, who was obviously some sort of foreman then appeared, and proceeded to instruct the others on how he wanted the timbers fixed, one timber was duly fixed to one side of the gable end using what I can only describe as 12 inch nails driven through the timber and bricks, they then filled the gaps with mortar and stood back with great satisfaction to admire their handy-work at finally achieving a result that now resembled a straight line. It was obviously decided that this solution to their in-ability to get a straight line with bricks and mortar was acceptable, so they then lifted the next timber into position on the opposite side of the slope and started to drive nails through this as well, except in their excitement to solve this problem, which by now had occupied most of the morning and with lunchtime quickly approaching, they forgot the bricks they had previously put up had only been in position for a few hours.
The end result as they re-acted with mounting horror was the slow outward collapse of the complete gable end, and gravity being what it is, the bricks and timbers gathering pace in their journey to the ground below. From my position on our balcony I watched as bricks rained down on the van now parked below, and to add insult to injury one of the timbers speared its way straight through the windscreen and was sticking straight up like an accusing finger at the builders now grouped around the non-existent gable end looking down at the resulting carnage, their van now sporting several large dents and a scattering of bricks as well as a large timber embedded in the front screen. I could hear the shouting and moaning from where I was as everybody accused everybody else of being the cause of the collapse and the foreman just sat with his head in his hands. One week later and the van has not moved, there is a large hole where the timber went through and the gable end is still waiting to be built. Oh well that’s Bulgaria!!
