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This is my personal site where I note down my thoughts. Enjoy!
Joining the Euro
Bulgaria joined the Euro
On the 1st January 2026, Bulgaria officially joined the Euro. Having been pegged to the Euro, via the Deutschmark, since suffering hyperinflation in the 90s, this made some sort of sense. Support for the Euro was quite weak in the country, but the benefits should be reasonable. Not only for business, but also for the millions of Bulgarians who emigrated to other EU countries or do seasonal work their.
The Lev is still usable until the end of the month, but shops should only give change in Euros. When paying in Levs you get Euros back. This is confusing, especially to the older generations. Bus tickets in Plovdiv change from being 1 Lev to 0.51 Euro. We can't have anything being cheaper of course.
Here's a picture of the national side of six of the Euro coins:
It's the same reverese side as on the current Lev coins, making the confusion complete as it still says ΡΡΠΎΡΠΈΠ½ΠΊΠΈ (stotinki). This means "hundredth" in bulgarian, ie cents, so it makes sense, but they look identical to the Lev coins.
Trying to get a sizable amount of Levs converted to Euros was challenging, despite the promises of the government. Some banks insisted you had to be a client (not true), others that you could only exchange a small amount in one transaction (in fact the limit was around 30,000 Levs). We even tried going to the central bank office in Plovdiv. Apparently this contains the biggest safe in the Balkans. Accordingly, the people queueing there had lorries full of notes and coins. It took two hours per person, so we gave up on that idea. Towards the end of our week there things began to even out and we managed to get the money exchanged in two goes, once even on a Saturday.
Welcoming π§π¬ to the β¬uro.
Record of a spaceborn few
by Becky Chambers
The third novel in the Wayfarers series, set just before the first novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and therefore before the second novel A closed and common oribt.
The novel describes events on the Asteria, one of the homesteader spaceships in the Exodan fleet, which was the last to leave Earth centuries earlier. It follows the lives of several characters living on the Asteria as they decide whether to stay on the Homsteader or emigrate to live "planetside". A fun read with some interesting ideas of what it would mean to live on a fleet of ships built to evacuate the dying Earth and whether to keep doing so once you have encountered other sapient species who provide highly advanced technology making your way of life obsolete.
From 01.01.2026 to 11.01.2026
A closed and common orbit
by Becky Chambers
A follow up novel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet tracking the events in the lives of two characters. Firstly the new version of the Lovelace AI from the Wayfarer, now named Sidra and transfered into a human like body. Secondly, the life of Penny who escaped as a slave on a renegade planet of enhanced humans with the help of an AI named Owl trapped inside an immobilised transfer shuttle that had been scrapped on the same planet.
It depicts the struggle an AI can have in adapting to a new environment and is also a very intersting take on the bonds that could form between humans and AIs. Whilst written in 2016, this is quite topical at the moment given the rise in teenagers turning to chatbots for self help with depression.
I finished the last 250 pages of this book in the 2 days before the new year suffering from a bad virus infection.
From 12.12.2025 to 31.12.2025
