Alright, it’s been a while. A long while, in fact. So long that I found the time to entirely re-design my portfolio site http://petarneychev.com and give the blog a little polishing (within a day, to be precise). Go check the photos out – there’s some content that I never published until now. I hope you like it. (I do.)

If you’re a regular reader of the blog you’ve also noticed a few changes here and there. Most importantly, the top navigation went all the way down – in the Navigate section which used to be called Links in the past. It didn’t get much use anyhow.

I’ve been working hard on producing new images in the past month-month and a half, and that already on top of the crazy schedule. Thus, the lack of updates. The idea is to start again with somewhat regular reflections, articles, updates. Both about myself and Petra, and about photography. At one point however I even considered discontinuing the blog… I haven’t completely made up my mind about it yet. The blog started as a place for keeping in touch and unloading thoughts. So far it has proved to be of little use as a communication tool (at least not a bi-directional one), and I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep the content coming, so that it will be of interest for those of you who are far away. No matter what happens, this which is currently posted will remain online… for a while… unless I change my mind. If the photography picks up well, I might launch a blog about that and keep this one for random personal updates and sharing family photos. Time will tell.

Not much has changed in our lives – work is work, sleep (at least for me) is hard to find… We’re both busy witch church things every week. I, at least can’t wait till the summer comes so we can take two weeks off. Like, for real.

Hope things are fine with you. As always, we both would appreciate hearing from you.

You’d think I’ll be done with new year resolutions by the beginning of February. Well, I’m not. Next to everything else, I’m also hoping to make this blog more worth your time and efforts to read throughout 2010 and beyond. Looking back at the content ever since 2006 it’s been a little bit of everything – from personal updates to theological essays. Since I started with photography in 2007 that’s been thrown in as well.

Please, use the comments option below and let me know why you stop by to read and what you’d like to see more of in the future. What annoys you and what do you not care at all about from my posts? Anything else you feel like sharing about the blog is also welcome. I’ll be extremely thankful as it will help me go in a direction which will benefit not just me but hopefully also you.

Dear friends,

Sorry for the delayed (by much) update! Our time in Sofia so far has been exciting but also extremely busy. With work, church tasks and the need to sleep there’s very little time left for chatting with you all. I hope that after the holidays, soon after the new year begins things will finally settle and I’ll be able to get back in touch with you on regular basis.

What’s happened so far?

Petra has a full-time substitute job at an Anglo-American school in Sofia. All is in English and she works with children. It’s a blessing for us, and she’s enjoying it a lot.

Still no progress has been reported onthe situation with our apartment. It’s become a frustration as now we need to work hard to pay off the loan for it but are unable to actually use it. We hope and pray that God will resolve this and give us the necessary patience and peace until this happens. Please, do pray for us in this respect. Read more…

Ok, it’s been a long working week since we arrived in Sofia but at least things are starting to look better. Our room isn’t quite as a mess as it was in the past 3-4 days and the most necessary of paperwork is done.

As promised earlier on, here’s the brief story of our trip to Sofia… We left the Netherlands on October 2nd and headed to our friends Ali and Sonja in the Stuttgart area of Germany. We ate lots of big (and quite fat, I must admit) American food (Friday evening), had a good laugh at 10 Drugs You Shouldn’t Use While Driving… took a walk in the area around their home and slept well (!). Saturday was ice cream day – a super treat in itself. All in all – we had a great time in Germany. Thank you Ali and Sonja for having us over! We’re already looking forward to coming ’round again. On Sunday morning we hit the road. Around noon the German traffic police decided we’re an interesting case with out handmade transit license plates, so they pulled us over for the traditional (for me at least) 40min. check. At least this time the car was so packed, they didn’t seem to have any interest in checking our luggage. After that the travel was quite smooth.

Read more…

Looking back at the time we’ve spent in Holland it’s a pity we didn’t get to see Rotterdam in more detail. Oh well, at least we covered the basics. Here’s some shots of Rotterdam at dusk I had a chance to take a couple of days ago. Looking at them, I’m actually thinking I might miss the city (as much as I think it’s rather boring compared to most other places). Perhaps it’s the cleanliness and order that I’ll miss most. On the other hand, I won’t have to worry that all stores will close down at 5:30pm. Ha ha. Well, enjoy the photos as we are starting to pack up for the trip.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention… I’ve planned on turning this trip to Sofia into a photo trip. I’ll try to capture the fun, strange, characteristic or beautiful sights that we’ll encounter on our journey through six countries and well over 2000km. I hope you can become a part of it this way and share in our excitement, that quickly turns into road-trip  boredom, and successfully takes us to previously unknown levels of tiredness. Stay tuned!