Seeing the light of day

St Saturnin

Ooops



Don't worry, it's not serious.

On Thursday our builder friend arrived to start work on the Velux windows. We knew that it would be one day's work per window. He was still with us at 6.45pm on Thursday evening.

This was the state of play on Friday morning.


Luckily he had a better day and had completed window number two by 4pm.


Over lunch on Thursday we reminded him that we would be going away for a few days next week, but not to worry, we could leave him a key.

Oh no. He wanted to finish it all before the rain comes on Monday.

I was amazed actually at his faith in Mr Meteo's predictions. As you all know we have very little faith in his accuracy and have virutally given up even looking more than a few hours ahead these days. Our friend, however had seen that rain was forecast for Monday and that was that.

He returned this morning at what seemed like first light (we are not early risers these days and as it was the third day on the trot we were feeling a little jaded). He has been working away all day and finished in the middle of the afternoon.

It was just as well because as he finished his cuppa and slipped our rather large cheque into his back pocket this happened.........



I don't think he had seen THAT coming on Mr Meteo!!!

One door closes ...

Ste Flora

... and another shuts in your face, as my mother (who will probably deny it) used to say.

This isn't about us. We're doing OK, but our local English bookshop is closing its doors at the end of this year. It's sad to see any business close but it does seem to be a sign of the times as there are 'liquidation totale' signs up in many windows in our local towns. Luckily the reading groups attached to the bookshop have elected to continue, so we will still be getting our reading matter.

Just around the corner from the bookshop, another shop, three times the size, has just opened. This shop is selling English (should really be British) produce, they are taking orders for Christmas turkeys and gammons, they have a supply of clotted cream, Marmite, curry sauces and Walkers crips.

Most of these things are available here if you hunt for them and are prepared to pay the inflated price. We have made do without most of them or found alternatives, but I confess I have ordered myself a Christmas gammon. I asked for the smallest they could supply as it is VERY expensive! As for Marmite, we brought 3 huge jars over a year ago and still have plenty to last us a while. Curry sauces - we make 'em ourselves. Walker's crisps? Far too salty. Clotted cream? I can't remember the last time I had some of that. I'm sure I can live without it though.

A touch of glass

St Tanguy

Did you see what I did there?

Our Velux windows were due for collection today. Being organised (Who said 'that makes a change?' I'll get you later), I decided to call the store yesterday to be sure that they would be there this morning.

Automated machine tells me to make my selection. That was easy 'Press one to verify the status of your order'.

Thank you. 'Please hold and you will be transferred to the relevant department'.

Goodie.

'Please enter the 10 digit order number'.

OK. Done that.

'Your order number is 1234567890. Press 1 for correct, press 2 to re-enter'

Pressed 1.

'Your order is not available. Good bye'

What? 'Hold on, I want to talk to someone'

Disconnected.

Tried again. Exactly the same thing, no option to talk to a human being.

So I thought I'd look at the website and see if that was any more helpful. Oh yes it was. I entered the the number of the first order. 'Your order is not yet available'. Tried the other order 'Your order is not yet available'. The website told me that the order was expected to be available today but I believe nothing.

You can therefore imagine my surprise when I went through the whole rigmarole again today only to learn that my order IS available. Lovely. My chauffeur collected me, drove me to the store, we collected the windows and brought them home.

As I felt we were on a winning roll, I suggested that this afternoon we try for the fifth time (no exaggeration) to purchase two pieces of glass, one for a small window in the loft and the other to replace the glass in our 'bullseye' window through which gales howl even on a still day.

My chauffeur from this morning had suggested a little shop which we had never been to before. It is slightly out of town and seemed to be a wallpaper and ceramic tile shop. However we thought it worth a try.

A very nice young man asked if he could help us as soon as we entered the shop. Did he cut glass for windows? Certainly he did. We gave him the measurements and were told to go shopping for an hour.

An hour later we returned, were given to pieces of, not unsubstantial, glass and charged the princely sum of 5 Euros and 5 centimes. Wow! The same glass in the UK would have cost me at least 20 quid!

Now we have to wait for our builder friend to come and fit the Velux, hopefully next week, and meanwhile Jon will be learning how to make window frames for the two 'awkward' windows.

Silent Saturday

St Albert

CHEERS!!!



The Peak, Hong Kong, February 2008

Copyright Sue Smith 2008

It's curtain time

St Sidoine


As Jon is progressing in the loft, I decided that I must put in some effort into preparing the soon-to-be-extended sitting room.

I've been looking for some curtains but not been very successful until I asked the question on a local website of where I could go looking for reasonably-priced fabrics.

A few suggestions were forthcoming but sadly one of them, which we went in search of last week, seemed to have disappeared. This was the day we also intended to buy our Velux windows.

We thought we were doing the right thing by checking the supplier's website first . Yes, the did them in the style we wanted and yes, they had three in stock. When we arrived in the showroom we were told that, in fact, they only had one in stock but could order the other two for two weeks time.

Fine. We would take the three fittings though.

Nope. We stood in line for the collection point only to be told that the one window claimed to be in stock wasn't, and of the three fittings, they only had one in stock.

Next week a friend is taking us to Brive in their estate car to collect the three windows and the remaining fittings. Meanwhile we are hoping and praying that the following two weeks remain dry so that our builder can come and fit them.

So, the trip north was unsuccessful on all accounts.

Yesterday I met a friend in town and we 'did' lunch. She then directed me to a little treasure trove of a shop just out of town.

This, fairly small, shop was laden with fabrics of every shade, weight and composition. Wow. My eyes lit up. We edged our way between bales and rolls of furnishing fabrics. Madame asked if she could help.

'What I'm really looking for, Madame' said I, 'Is inspiration'.

What exactly is Madame looking for? Curtains? For the dining room or bedroom. No, the salon. Ah, and does Madame want something bright, dark, lightweight?

Madame said she was looking for something fairly plain but with a certain 'je ne sais quoi'.

'I'll know it as soon as I see it' I said, helpfully.

Madame directed my friend and I to a pile of creams, beiges and whites, where we spotted a few 'possibles'. Suddenly I saw a flash of aubergine colour at the bottom of the pile. My alcoves are painted aubergine. This was hopeful.

My friend insisted we took the roll of fabric to the door to look at it in daylight. Good idea, I hadn't thought of that.

Yes, even better, the colour is just exactly what I wanted (even if I didn't know it when I walked into the shop). Cream with a splash of aubergine.

I'm looking forward to getting out my super sewing machine, bought two years ago and very low mileage, to get going on making the curtains this weekend.

Window shopping

St Christian

Every Tuesday or Wednesday piles of leaflets pour into our letter box. All the local supermarkets, and there are many, want draw our attention to this week's special offers. One may have pork on special offer, another will have special deals on duck. We used to spend time looking through them just to see what possible bargain we might find this week, but nowadays we give them a more cursory glance and consign them to the recycling bin.

The only leaflets we give more time to these days are the DIY store leaflets. A new DIY store recently opened and it seems to have spurred its only real rival into action. However, the rival has two branches, one in each direction, both a half-day trip, of course, and these two branches never have the same things in stock. If we see something in one and don't have room for it but happen to be passing the other a few days later, it won't have it in stock, or it will be a completely different price. It's most frustrating.

This week we had a treat, three, yes three, leaflets from the wonderful stores Gifi and Foire Fouille. Now these are veritable treasure troves of shops. Readers may recall that Gifi is where we did our 'Christmas' shopping the other week. This time they have their Christmas decoration stock it. Ooh, I can't decide, shall I decorate my house in gold this year, or red and white? What about Venetian style? The options, it appears, are endless. I could even go for a black and white theme.

But then what about all those Christmas decorations we've collected over the years? The things that we had when the children were tiny and the baubles we bought in New York? No, I think we'll just get the baubles and tinsel and all those memories out again the same as every year.

Get those leaflets into the recycle bin quickly!

Oh, and.......

Have you seen this? It's brilliant, but I can't help thinking that some people have way too much time on their hands.....!!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4.

Some pictures

Ste Carine

The loft floor is almost finished.

The electrics are in, the windows are on order, the man to fit the windows is on order.

Just the insulation and walls to do then. Just!

We were going to create two rooms but 'he who shall be obeyed' has expressed his preference for one big open space. For now at least. One end for bed and dressing ....


and the other for relaxation, office and my craft table (I just slipped that in, in case Jon is reading and didn't know!).



While he's been doing that, I have been cooking, cleaning and working. I managed to pick up some transcription work this week. It's not ideal, I would much rather have a large project to work on but at least it is varied.

I've also been planting some bulbs, in between showers as we have finally had some welcome rain, and I've been trying to find some fabric to make curtains for the soon-to-be enlarged lounge and kitchen. I've been given some tips on where to shop for fabric but the shops recommended are all at least one hours' drive from here - and every one in a different direction. So I will be taking my time touring the countryside in search of just the right fabric. A good excuse for the odd day out, methinks!

And here is what we woke to one day last week.


Pretty eh? Luckily it was only there for an hour or so.

We are the champions (well, this month at any rate)

St Hubert

We gathered together a little team of six for this month's pub quiz. We quite look forward to these little gatherings and it's good exercise for the little grey cells.

This month's categories included Music, Literature, Rivers, Spelling and Nature. We usually learn something new. For example do you know that bees have five eyes? That's nice, they can obviously see all around them. But hang on. We have looked it up now here. That's all very well but where exactly are these eyes? We found a dead bee in the cellar yesterday and took a look at it, but I couldn't see five eyes. They must be well hidden. And do you know how many whiskers a cat has? 12, 18 or 24. I insisted it was 24 (although I suspect the Little Bar Steward and Misty Moo have even more than that), but the other two ladies on the team insisted that it couldn't possibly be that many. Herrrumph!

Well, despite that, we won. Only by 2 points, but hey ho, who cares. We are delighted to be the proud owners (for a month) of a very tasteful champions cup, and were even more delighted to be presented with this month's first prize, a jar of honey, three bottles of wine, a cigarette lighter each and a pair of pale green knickers.

No, I have no idea.

The wine has been donated towards our friend's 'bit of a do' for Christmas, the honey came home with us and the knickers are, I believe, tucked away in a drawer somewhere south of here.

So unpredictable

St Toussaint

A week ago we were basking in glorious sunshine, t-shirts and shorts, lunch in the garden, all the windows open.

Now it's cosy by the log fire, dodging showers and even (we just couldn't believe it) SNOW this week. Luckily the snow only lasted for as long as it took for the air to warm up a little.

Fortunately, the day before the white stuff came down, I had wrapped up the delicate plants in their winter coats. Two days later (yesterday) the temperature was back up to the 'teens' and feeling very mild indeed. It's just very unpredictable.

We're quite glad that we're having some rain really. It's been a long time since we had any decent amount and the ground will need it over winter and so will the reservoirs.

Today is All Saint's Day. It's the day for putting huge pots of chrysanthemums on the graves of the departed. Shops have been full of them all week but we didn't like to buy them for the garden. Well not yet. Apparently next week they will all be half price - a bit like red roses in England the day after Valentine's Day! Then I will go in search of some to brighten up the patio until the bulbs start coming through.

Today is also a public holiday in France. The first of two in November - Armistice day being the second. I'm sure there are many who are extremely disappointed that this one falls on a Saturday this year as it doesn't give them an extra day off work. It hasn't stopped people from travelling away from home for the weekend though, and the roads have been quite busy. I expect they are all travelling back to their birth villages so that they can place the aforementioned pot plants on the correct graves.