This and that

Añadido: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]All right, guys. Uh, someone commented that the um the stat sticks had a video. I had a quick look. I don't think the the guy there, Chris, his heart's in it anymore. Bulgaria.

[00:00:21]I think he's got designs on like going elsewhere.

[00:00:28]Well, I think the lady that Mrs. Elaine, she's doing her best. She She I think she quite likes it, but like I don't think I don't think the setup is is good for the kids where they are in Bulgaria.

[00:00:53]better than being in London, but it's not it's not good for them because they need to be learning the language.

[00:01:03]And if you look at the other the other um channel I uh well I was asked to come into Hannah in Wales and Eric Head Nyx I think it's Nyx she she was on the latest um short if you have shorts she's doing shorts And she's, as I as I suggested, she would be completely fluent in Bulgarian.

[00:01:43]Absolutely completely fluent. I think she's only been in school. Well, I think they only moved here permanently in 24. So that's two years fluent.

[00:01:58]And that's what how the the the sticks should be well way on now, but they're not and they won't be.

[00:02:07]They'll be misfits cuz they'll be young people.

[00:02:14]It's all right like being a hermit like me. And uh but I I can get by. I could get through any day here.

[00:02:24]And um plus I can speak Spanish as well. A lot of Bulgarians speak Spanish as well.

[00:02:31]So um gets confusing sometimes especially when you go into offices cuz I take when I go to offices I take my ex landlady. She doesn't speak any English.

[00:02:47]Not not a word. Not one word.

[00:02:52]my uh ex land lady and uh she's she's my main uh um kind kind of help here cuz I helped her for years and years years decades and she appreciates it and anyway um so when we go to offices and places she translates to me in Spanish, but they know I'm English.

[00:03:27]Like, and some of them are saying, "What what language you you speaking to him? That's not English."

[00:03:39]And she says, "No, it's Spanish." He said, "You speaking Spanish? He's English." Anyway, but it's just amusing that sometimes you Yeah. So, so she this kid, um, Anna's kid, Nick, she's 100% Bulgarian, fluent.

[00:04:03]And actually, my daughter was the same kind of story. We went to Gibralta when she was one, one years old, and by the time she was four, she was fluent in Spanish. like they speak Spanish.

[00:04:22]My message was the Jibraltarian and they speak Spanish dayto day. They have this thing that they're British, but they're not really they're only British in the in like passport and the nationality.

[00:04:39]Uh but actually the schools are in English.

[00:04:46]They they actually do O levels and A levels or whatever it is now GCSEs and that's the system there.

[00:04:55]So they're actually end up 100% some of them are more struggle with English. some some kids and people they just don't bother and uh and um some some of them very very few prefer English very few. Um but like day to day they would speak Spanish. It was all in my house. All Spanish except when they were talking to me if they ever did.

[00:05:46]And they used to call me the English fella, the English broker when they were talking about me in Spanish. And he didn't think I was understood, but it did.

[00:06:00]And it she used to my daughter English broke.

[00:06:07]It wasn't like my dad or anything like that. Said the English Elling that's what he used to call me in the house.

[00:06:19]I could have got him done for racism in in me own house.

[00:06:27]Not like, "Oh, that broke like my father who's sending me to private school." No, no. It's like Ellen Gllay, the English bloke over there.

[00:06:45]But I didn't I didn't I found it quite amusing actually and I was I was quite happy with it being called Elling Lake. Imagine that early.

[00:07:06]But she was fluent.

[00:07:08]Four years old Spanish fluent. I mean anyway, but that was the best thing we ever did as well. get her out of the UK because she she would have been um speaking Liverpoolian instead of Spanish and English and uh you know it was good for kids right and around that area good to bring up kids it's paradise safe.

[00:07:50]Go to the beach all summer every day. That was the thing in in Jibralta. Everyone to the beach in the old days. I don't know whether you do it now, but that was that was the thing.

[00:08:07]Um anyway, so so it looks like Star is on it on its last uh last legs, but I can't say it, it won't make any difference.

[00:08:24]And someone's commented on my uh channel who well, we've got to vote for someone better reform or restored.

[00:08:34]Well, cuz I suggested that like reform are not going to solve anything, but people think they are. So, he said, well, we've got it's the we're voting for the least worst.

[00:08:50]And I would say don't vote at all. We haven't had a government here and it hasn't affected well, it's actually probably affected Bulgaria positively.

[00:09:04]because these these have a lot of power uh in in the um councils cuz they have a mayor and we we don't really have well they do have mayors in the UK but they don't have a lot of power except for the mayor of London like um you you would never know in any other towns who who the mayor is like it was just an honor you know, figurehead kind of thing.

[00:09:37]The most corrupt um person around kind of thing. Uh but here the mayors have kind of taken the slack and they have a they have a lot of say and a lot of power and and if you get a good one, they can they can transform the town.

[00:10:00]And that's what's happened to our town here. Got a good mar.

[00:10:07]And we've got a good one in the village as well. They look like sisters. I don't think they are related.

[00:10:14]They might be. They might be. I don't think so.

[00:10:19]And they they do they they like you know promote all the festives festivals uh beautify the place and keep everything all the bins emptied clockwork. Uh well we've had new bins we've had new street lighting.

[00:10:44]uh to maintain the roads religiously, you know, and that's all you can expect from your council and plus improve the town at the same time.

[00:11:00]And now they're promoting a lot of sports for the kids.

[00:11:05]You know, you really can see a difference. And on industry, you know, they're always like cuz you can see what they're doing. They have on Facebook.

[00:11:19]They post it all the time, don't they?

[00:11:22]About what we're doing and what they're doing and what the policies are and what they've what they're actually on with and that's all you need people to administer stuff and put aside if you can put aside like corruption and all that because they're all corrupt.

[00:11:43]They want a slice of the pie for the positions and the pe type of people get into politics even local politics they're they're a type of person.

[00:11:59]So they enjoy or they expect to have the um um the benefits that come with power.

[00:12:10]Even though it's just, you know, even though it's just local power in there, there are benefits that come with it. Influence, you know, and favors owed, favors given. It's all part of it.

[00:12:29]So, you're never going to get rid of that.

[00:12:32]Never.

[00:12:34]But if they do a good job apart from that, then fair enough. If someone's got to do it, these things don't get done themselves.

[00:12:44]You could have a wheelie bin outside and no one's running the bins.

[00:12:50]Who's going to empty them? So you need you do need um management on on on a town level or upst like the region just the satellite of the town. We're in the satellite village here of the main town. We come under the town anyway, but we're not in town and we have a separate mayor. So, we've got we've got two people.

[00:13:31]And if you get two good people working in your favor, you end up with like our street, which is great. Like, but they don't interfere with you.

[00:13:45]Absolutely not.

[00:13:47]And um so they can improve things but like the likes of Star what you I would expect from a prime minister is other things. They're not going to get your bins emptied or anything like that.

[00:14:08]You know that that's come that's down the bottom rung. Uh um but like what you'd expect from the prime minister is is is the on a nation level and at the moment no prime minister in the UK represents the nation the indigenous what you would call the indigenous nation far from it and you'd expect expect them to be statesmen like and he's like he's like a techno robot. He's not a statesman, you know, the great statesman.

[00:14:52]Uh like like the likes of um who isn't a prime minister like Lavrov, he's a great statesman and there's not that many around but like even even Dwan people like that they're presidents like Paul And even our prime minister now, he was the ex-president. He's only just become he's only just resigned as president a few months ago.

[00:15:27]So he's in he's in good communication with the president who was his vice president.

[00:15:35]And they're all here.

[00:15:39]You can say what you want about them, but they're all Bulgaria first.

[00:15:44]All of them in in one level or another. Some of them are like pro EU, but they're still Bulgaria first. You know, you know, a lot of people say the corruption and all this for the guy called Boyo Boris, but he got a lot of money for for Bulgaria.

[00:16:08]And he did a lot of energy deals as well when he would years ago and people don't don't remember that they just remember his corruption and you know which comes which comes with any any like I said any any politician the higher up you get the more corruption you you're going to expect. You know, you look at the Trumps now and he's got his sons like his sons are running the crypto now. He's they're all like Eric and they're they're all big crypto men and we've got the Clarity Act this week which could get passed on Thursday. I think I think it's Thursday the 14th whatever that is.

[00:17:03]It's the 12th now and he reckon it's going through the clarity act. Buckle up if you haven't got any Bitcoin.

[00:17:18]Um anyway, and what it basically does this this is the basics the main point of the Clarity Act, but people are missing other other bits as well. But the main point talking point of the clarity act is stable coins which are coins that are um valued in national currencies not just a dollar and it can be euros it can but the main ones the big stuff is dollar denominated right which means it takes the all the power away from the banks cuz the stable coins or the it's like a pro dollar in effect. It's like a you know new a new type of dollar but it's not controlled by the banks or the Federal Reserve.

[00:18:20]They're not issued by the Fed.

[00:18:23]They're issued by Tether and people like that. And it's all comes down when Bitcoin's the main kid.

[00:18:34]Although Bitcoin's not they're not stable coins, but it's all like built on on on the crypto world.

[00:18:44]And the stable coins, the main talking point is is whether they're you can get interest on them by just holding them.

[00:18:55]And that's the big sticking point.

[00:18:59]So what they've compromised on now is well you can get interest on them if if they're being uh performing um if they're performing a a task or you know a um you you can actually without going into detail you can borrow against them. So they're the collateral. So they're doing a job.

[00:19:31]And if they're doing a job, they they can get yield.

[00:19:39]And that replaces the whole uh DeFi the DeFi system that exists now with the banks, the debt system, decentralized finance. That's DeFi anyway.

[00:19:59]So, it could go through and it's a good compromise because you can easily put your stable coins to work and in the bill which isn't talked about a lot in this bill.

[00:20:16]This is called the Clarity Act. Stable coins become a form of payment.

[00:20:23]You start paying your bills with it.

[00:20:29]That's massive. But again, they're not even talking about that. But they become a unit of, you know, everyday currency as far as I can understand anyway. But it's massive.

[00:20:44]This is massive on the USA leaving the world behind again.

[00:20:51]again like the UK is like you know very very anti- crypto although they're one of the biggest holders if you really look into it they're one of the biggest holders Bitcoin the British government on the quiet kept that quiet they they'll tell you oh no you don't want Bitcoin well it's only for criminals Don't go near that stuff. Rap poison yet. They're one of the biggest holders.

[00:21:31]Look into it.

[00:21:33]Don't take my word for it.

[00:21:36]So anyway, on another subject, Bulgaria has established itself, I'm reading this now, as one of the strongest performers in Southeast Europe in the terms of in the terms of operational battery storage. This is the key.

[00:21:59]This is the game changer. Battery storage capacity.

[00:22:05]the key right so you think about this right the country currently as in B installed battery storage capacity and it's increasing every day every day this is big in Bulgaria actually and a lot of it's private anyway good way to you know and you can print and you can do the stable coins as or or Bitcoin. That's the good thing where you're mining Bitcoin and then you convert them into stable coins which is becomes dollars. Anyway, storage capacity of 0.56 0.56 gaw right positioning it above Romania which stands at 0.49. So you got 0.56 Bulgaria 0.49 gigawatts. This is gigawatt.

[00:23:13]Turkey follows with 0.21, less than half of Bulgaria.

[00:23:23]Now look at the look at the um per capita.

[00:23:30]But that's look at the populations.

[00:23:34]Turkeyy's almost 90 million. It's 80 something million.

[00:23:40]Romania is 19 million. So that's three times Bulgaria on a bit. Yeah, it's it's about three times exactly. It's 18 something million Romania. Yeah, Bulgaria has got like more battery storage, double what Turkeyy's got for like that's like a tenth. How many 10 more for about a 12th or a 14th of How many sixes goes into 85?

[00:24:22]That's how 83 million I think or more.

[00:24:28]Anyway, so when you look at it per capita, I mean I mean Bulgaria is in a good position and apparently a couple of years ago one beautiful sunny day um solar actually met the the the the whole electric grid demand for like an hour or so in Bulgaria for an hour or so.

[00:25:06]You know, that'd be like off the most off peak time of of the sunny day.

[00:25:13]I don't know when that would be, but now the big they're going big on this this and it was well talked about last year actually um about storage. And you think about it, if you've got huge capacity for battery store, you can triple your production, if you can get all that solar straight into battery storage as well as feeding the grid at the same time.

[00:25:47]And maybe you don't use all the battery storage that night if you get it if you get enough.

[00:25:54]So you're only topping it up.

[00:25:59]You you wouldn't empty it out overnight, say. So the next day you're topping it up. And the more you've got, you could end up with with like mega mega mega stored energy.

[00:26:17]And that's the key. And the I think a lot of this has been developed in China.

[00:26:23]the um the the different batteries.

[00:26:28]These are super super efficient and long longer lasting. I don't think the lithium ion it's new technology, but I'm not too sure without going into the details, but that's a game changer.

[00:26:46]And if you look at the figures, I mean, Bulgar is ahead of Turkey got 90 million people. There's only 6.3 million here.

[00:26:59]And again, another uh what's her name?

[00:27:06]Uh example of an advantage of having a small population.

[00:27:16]I mean, if they carry on like that, they've just opened the farm now in Celestra, which is up by the Danube, um towards it's in between Ruse and the coast along the Danube, Silistra, and they've just opened an a solar farm there, right with 400,000 solar panels and all this storage. And they've opened like a um a college there or or a center training center, whatever you want to call it, to train up maintenance and in installation engineers, solar engineers, whether it be maintenance or installation or whatever. development storage engineers. That's what they have now. And they're training all these people up there. So big, it's big, big news.

[00:28:29]And Bulgaria, plenty of sunshine, plenty of room, plenty of space for the solar farms. And if you go along the road from Sophia to Bear Gas, the old road, not the highway, not the uh magistrate, the old road that goes along the foot of the mountains on the other side of the mountains here. We're on this side over the top and there's the road.

[00:29:01]When you go over our pass here, you hit that road and if you go down that road, you go through Califford that one Kazanlac I think it's a human or slim slven as I always get mixed up with them and then you end up in Burgass. If you go down that road, all you see all the way is solar farm, vineyards, new vineyards, solar farm, new vineyards, roses, you name it, all the way down. Ammunition, it's like the eighth wonder. You go through a place called Sopot now, it's like buses and buses of workers being bust in to the ammunition places and that's where they I think they still make them Kashnikov as well and all these ammo factories and I think that's where uh Ryan Metal are now investing big time joint with the Bulgaria And and the towns there, they used to be dead. I remember in the old days they were like really downtrodden like Sopot and the Calif and what's the other one now but bouncing people everywhere and all the shops and all like luxury shops and then you've got um what's his name Pavl Ba high-end high-end um uh spa town. The hotels are like they're all topnotch, you know, high-end and it's all Bulgarians, they all Bulgarians.

[00:31:14]uh Pavl Ba and then Kazanlac that's the Valley of the Roses number one a producer of rose oil which they've just done a load of contracts with Japan Japan it's like a the eighth wonder of the world Bulgaria vineyards galore Oh, you come you come to a place there. It's called the T tag and um that's a big area.

[00:31:54]Minkov the Minkov brothers a vineyard. It's like iconic all the way down until you get to the sea.

[00:32:08]300 kilometers of all these gold mines.

[00:32:12]We've got gold mines place called There's a wagon. I'm going to go up the valley in a minute and see all the developments out of um Clesora that means gorge there's a place there gold mines.

[00:32:30]A lot of that's foreign investment and people don't like it. Canadian gold mines, tin mines, all sorts of they're extracting all sorts. I'm expecting them to come out here in the garden any second through the mountains.

[00:32:52]Anyway, they've always been on about making a tunnel here, and it might it might happen. All he all have to say to them miners is keep going.

[00:33:03]There's more gold in towards here on there. When you're finished, we'll use the tunnel, but uh could happen. But but like if you look at all these things and and like I like the scale of the things here cuz it's just not like a whole like national monocrop. It's all different things as you go along that road. Uh the old burgass road.

[00:33:39]It's uh it's like a miracle. What they call here Chudo.

[00:33:47]That's mira that means miracle. Chudo.

[00:33:50]And that's what it's like compared with the old days.

[00:33:58]It's all happening. It's all happening in bulk area.