by Hazel Onn
Hazel Onn lived in Bulgaria in the late 1980s when her husband Tony was Head of Security at British Embassy Sofia. Hazel kept many good memories of her time in Bulgaria, including of their diplomatic flat on Juliot Currie Str., Kuchia, the dog of their Russian neighbours, how once she was absolutely covered head to toe in greenfly at the Queen’s Birthday Party at the British Residence Sofia, but more than anything how her life in Sofia made her appreciate the life in the UK.
Sofia was our first posting. That was in 1987. I remember how once Tony obtained tickets for a film shown in the Palace of Culture. It was Bob Hoskins in “Mona Lisa” and tickets were very hard to come by and the place was packed. As the lights dimmed all the stairs were suddenly covered by people sitting so the lights went up again and they were turfed out only to reappear. The film was dubbed by a monotonous male Bulgarian who spoke all the parts, male female, young old in the same deadpan voice. When it was finished Bulgarians who spoke English said to me “so that’s what London is really like”…
Living in Sofia certainly made me appreciate living in UK but looking back on it, I often laugh to myself even though I was very homesick and missed my girls terribly.