Sunday April 22. Today was a beautiful sunny spring day in Sofia. It was about midday and my wife and I were ready to go for a walk and just enjoy the sun. This beautiful placid dream was shattered when the crazy neighbour upstairs and her brother decided to weld shut our "attic door" so we could not get in. In five minutes, our peaceful day was chaos - calls to SOT, calls to our lawyers and calls to the police. In between calls I had threats made to me by a policeman (the brother of the neighbour) who promised to "kick my ass all the way back to my parents' country", but not put in this nice manner - just add a few "&!#%$%^" in front of my name and you get the picture. I was very scared by the off-duty policeman's threats so I called the British embassy just in case something happened to me. In the end, my wife and I ended up with a warning from the police to stay away from our property and at the same time with a huge headache.
Finally, at about 5pm, we managed to go out and finish with our traumatic and not-peaceful afternoon. It was still peaceful and beautiful. Many people were walking the Sofia streets and slowly the layers of clothes started to be shed.
Monday April 23. The weekend finished so quickly and for a small second I was hoping that what happened the previous day was only a nightmare. Unfortunately not. Today I had to deal with the repercussions. The repercussions always involve lots of phone calls and writing many papers, signing documents and, in this case, going to the local police station to make a declaration of the events that took place the previous day. I have become very familiar with this tiny, yellow-stained "office". I often thought that not even in a movie could they recreate such a place - everything is a mismatched, everything seems extremely old and, as far as I can see, there is not one piece of technology except the telephone. I feel sorry for the policemen who work in this place. Often during my many complaints to the police about the illegal hostel, the crazy late-night parties, my attic door getting welded shut, I think that I should offer to paint their office. Maybe I will do this one day; after all, even the police should have a nice working environment.
The inline skating competition in Croatia comes to my thoughts. Everything is a mess. We lost our transport and now I decide to go into mild panic. How will I send my guys to compete?
Tuesday April 24. Arrive home early from work. Go upstairs to have a quick look at the attic; maybe by magic the welded door now is non-welded. Nope, it's still welded, neighbours have removed all the SOT stickers. I wonder what the logic of this is.
Damn. Almost forgot my guys going to Croatia for the comp. Oh goodness, we got no transport, not enough money and no time. The guys must be in Zagreb on Friday. Can I trust seven of the best inline skaters of Bulgaria to travel alone?
Wednesday April 25. Amazing! We had three full days of blissful peace. I am sure something is about to happen. I don't fear the policeman so much anymore, I have spoken to friends who have spoken to friends who will try to do something for me to get me out of this psycho-drama. Maybe Sofia has the largest concentration of crazy people per square area, maybe soon I will begin to talk to myself and join their ranks. I can hear myself saying "attic attic, welding, walls". I can see the day I get invited to parties and my opening sentence will be "Nice to meet you, do you have an attic?"
Finally a quick plan for the Zagreb competition has come through. I will sponsor two guys to travel by train tonight. The other five will travel by car. Ok, that is resolved. I make phone calls all over the country to make sure the inline skaters from Stara Zagora and Varna can make it to Sofia.
Thursday April 26. Attic issue is in the background. I have not heard from police, lawyers or any officials. I like it this way.
The two guys that left by train to Zagreb have made it. I was worried, as they are 17 and 18 years old and anything could happen to them. I wish I was there with them. I could not convince them not to go. They are there and safe. Ok, so they have run out of cash but this is a minor problem that I can resolve.
The second group of riders leaves Sofia by car to meet up with Serbian riders in Belgrade. There they will all drive together and meet with our Croatian friends. How is it possible that the Balkan inline community is all united in such good friendship? The Serbian guys come here, Croatian riders go to Serbia, we travel to Macedonia and we all treat each other with respect and friendshipÂ… and yet the world continues to fight.
Friday April 27. All the guys are finally together in Zagreb. Everything is fine. They are now practicing for the comp on Saturday. It will be a nice comp; riders from Austria, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Croatia and now, for the first time, Bulgaria will be there. Slowly we begin to represent Bulgaria. It's always about money, well, the lack of money, but slowly we receive support.
Oh no! I almost forgot. Tomorrow we must organise a demonstration at NDK for a sponsor! Start making quick phone calls to make sure everyone is ready.
Saturday April 28. Another sunny Sofia day. The guys doing the demo for the sponsor meet up at NDK, we set up the rail to do some tricks. The sunny day becomes overcast, it starts to rain. The gods do like to joke, is all I can say. One hour before the event starts the skies once more are clear, the sun is out and everything goes according to plan.
Meanwhile, back in Zagreb the competition is taking place. Our Bulgarian riders are doing well. Three of them make it to the finals. I hear my youngest rider makes an impression on the crowd. Unfortunately, one of our riders has broken a finger and has to go to hospital, but he is well. We do not win or get into the top three places, but we do well and for our first time competing there we have done more than what I believed was possible.
The attic remains welded shut and no sign from our neighbour yet. Who know what she will do tomorrow but right now, I don't care, I am happy.