Organising the 'puters

St Guillaume

I spent the morning 'playing' with the computers. Ever since I mended the big computer by reloading XP I've been meaning to get round to setting up a home network. I've got a bit of a cold so it was a good excuse to sit in the study with the heater on and sort the things out today.

The Gates bit was easy but my ISP isn't the most user friendly and doesn't know the meaning of the word 'simple' - maybe it's just anti-Gates, so many people are, but eventually I have managed to get it all up and running, the two 'puters are now talking to each other and I can spend many hours sorting out all the thousands of duplicated photographs we have stored on them. I'm sure they will both run much quicker when I get the photos organised and onto a couple of CDs freeing up hard drive space.

I don't know how long this is likely to take because I did try to start and every time I think about it, I think of another way of organising and filing them all. Should I do it by date? Maybe by location would make more sense? When I've finally got these all done, there are all the old photos that I want to scan in and store too. I don't think I can make my cold last long enough to do it all so it will probably take me many months.

I know there are lots of software options out there to help me organise all this media and I love MediaMonkey which has helped me sort out all the music we've got stored, I think Picasa will be the best option for photos - but of course I still need to decide exactly in what order to file all this stuff! More particularly how to file it so that we can both find what we are looking for next time we want it. It's lovely browsing through the photos though and especially to see what we have been upto in the last 11 months.

Sales and trollies

Ste Alix

Misty likes to get as close as she can to me when I'm writing the blog!!! If she was any closer she would be sitting on the keyboard.

I am always saying how things are much slower over here. We used to get so irritated standing in the check out queue at Sainsbury's near Guildford but now we just accept that on certain days and at certain times queues are inevitable.

The sales started in France today. The timing of sales in France is set by the government (bless them). There are only two sales periods in France, one in winter and one in summer, each lasting about 4 - 5 weeks. So there is none of the discounting all year round to compete with your neighbour's shop that happens in the UK where someone always seems to have a sale. We popped into our local furniture and electrical store to buy a new printer/scanner. There was nothing wrong with our printer but we did need a scanner and picked up a bargain in the sales. The queue was long at the checkout and it was interesting to browse what everyone else is buying. The young couple in front of us had picked up some bright pink voile curtains and something I couldn't quite make out, also in shocking pink - it looked like a very long fringe!

That was nothing though compared to the trollies in the hypermarket.

The sales had started in there too and bedding and towels were going down a storm. We had only popped in for some bread, milk and potatoes which gave us much more time to browse other people's trollies while we were in the slowest queue (why do we always manage to pick that one?).

The couple who had bought the shocking pink items in the previous shop were there buying disposable nappies and bathtowels. The elderly lady behind them had her obligatory brown barrel of the cheapest wine, a dozen bottles of water and a bag of leeks while the lady directly behind us had her week's shopping, the trolley piled high with vegetables, dairy goods, tinned goods and meat.

It was the couple in front of us who really intrigued us. He was about our age and she was very much younger, from their conversation (yes I'm a dreadful eavesdropper as well as a trolley peeper) they were not a 'couple' but worked together.

Onto the conveyor belt they piled box after box of long-life, ready prepared convenience meals, all ready for the microwave. Boeuf bourgignon, gratin dauphinoise, chicken in pesto sauce, the boxes piled higher and higher. They must have completely emptied the shelves. Following these were syrups of every colour - the French have syrups instead of our orange or lemon squash, there were bright red ones, bright green ones and a blue one (?). Tins of sardines followed on behind, three bottles of sunflower oil, several tins of pâté, a dozen packets of butter and, finally, 48 toilet rolls of the cheap and ghastly pink type so loved by the French.

I've never seen a trolley like it. The French are very proud of their cooking skills and, although convenience foods are widely available, I have never seen people buy more than the odd one or two, obviously preferring to use fresh ingredients on a daily basis. We ourselves are very proud of the fact that we haven't had a 'ready meal' since we left the UK.

Who, we wondered, were going to be the unfortunate recipients of these epicurean (?) delights? Hopefully not a school. Staff in a works canteen would surely refuse point blank to eat them.

Sadly we were never to find out but we were amazed when the gentleman handed a card to the checkout lady, she typed in some numbers and they both walked out without handing over a penny.

That's the sort of shopping I would like to do - but for my own choice of consumables, thank you.

Big space appeared

St Lucien

Jon had a really good clearing session yesterday and got to the end of what is affectionately known as 'the lower path'.

This is an area which has been overgrown since we first saw this property almost 10 years ago now. It is usually covered in brambles and nettles:

but now it's much clearer

All that remains is to have one huge bonfire - we did consider shredding the debris but, frankly, it is just way too much.

We had to get the area cleared so that the digger can drive along there when work begins on the swimming pool in March, I just hope that in the meantime we don't have an early spring and the whole lot grow back again! The eventual plan is to plant fruit trees along this area but it will need a year to rest after I poison the nettles - not something I particularly wanted to do to the land but unfortunately all those years of neglect (and I hate to think how many before we bought the house) have just let the nettle roots take a firm hold and chemicals are the only way to remove them (unless you know differently).

Poor Jon is suffering today with what I can only assume is tennis elbow so he is taking regular elbow rubbings of ibuprofen gel and will have to use the other arm to lift his glass of wine tonight.

Planning the trip

St Raymond

We've had a little rain over the last couple of days. If we hadn't looked out of the window we would know anyway since the cave is once again directing a trickle of rainwater down through the back wall.

Feeling a little under the weather, box of tissues by my side, I have been looking for travel information on tinternet and seriously considering a little side trip during our planned holiday in Hong Kong next month. We are undecided between Beijing and Ho Chi Minh City, both of which have their selling points.

There is some romanticism about standing on the Great Wall of China, easily reached from Beijing, and likewise we would love to visit Vietnam which has long held a fascination for us. Hong Kong is a sort of comfort zone for us. We have visited several times before and after the territory was handed back to the Chinese in 1997, first staying with friends in a quiet residential area on Hong Kong Island, then a hotel in a busy area and the last few visits we have discovered a quiet, if slightly faded, hotel on Lantau Island. From there we can sit and watch the small boats fishing in the bay, the comings and goings of the fast ferry to Hong Kong Central and other islands. We take long walks on the country parks and along the beach and can hop on the ferry whenever we need a blast of city life.

The joy of such a holiday from our little corner of France is that it is all totally different from here. When we lived in the UK we could take a 30 minute rail journey (leaves and snow on the line permitted) to Waterloo Station and get a little fix of city life whenever we wanted. We were just 40 minutes from the English south coast. Here we are 5 hours from Paris, 2 from Toulouse and 4 from the sea, so Hong Kong is the perfect holiday for us.

Getting information and booking a trip isn't proving as easy as I thought it might. I'm waiting for a response from a travel agency in Hong Kong at the moment. Booking through Expedia and other on-line agencies is expensive, so we want to book direct with a Hong Kong agency who will also help us to obtain the necessary visas, which we can't do before we travel as time will be too short. So I sit and wait, which we both find very frustrating.

If there happen to be any Hong Kong travel agents out there reading this today, do drop us a mail and let us know if you can help!!!

Catching up

St Edouard

The nice thing about Christmas and the New Year has been hearing from so many people. Notes in Christmas cards, e-mails and telephone calls all make us feel a little closer to home than we sometimes feel.

On the other hand, it is sad that we seem to have lost contact with some people and, despite our contacting them, have heard little or nothing from them. There comes a time when you just have to step back and accept that maybe you were not as important to them as you thought you were.

We have just had a lovely visit from our oldest friends (in time not personal ages!). Some so many years ago that we don't like to keep count we all met up individually and ended up as couples. This coming year will see both our 34th wedding anniversaries. We've lived near each other and far away (sometimes on the other side of the world), seen other friends marriages fall by the wayside but we're all still here and had a lovely few days catching up on family news, comparing notes on granchildren and pets, sharing jokes and memories, or just sitting in a companionable silence browsing books and newspapers. A very enjoyable few days were had by all.

While they were here we went for a drive and stopped to take a photograph of our house from 'the other side' of the hill, in fact, just up the hill from Mr and Mrs Veranda's house. You can just make out our little house nestling gently in the hillside.

The slow train to Paris (updated 2pm)

St Basile

We've had a little cleaning frenzy this morning. Taken down half the Christmas decorations and are transferring the study back into a spare bedroom for a few days.

Friends are travelling down from London, due to arrive this evening by train. Unfortunately they called a while ago to say that their Eurotunnel train is stuck outside Folkestone due to some illegal immigrants on the line in the tunnel.

I suppose it makes a change from leaves on the line or the wrong sort of snow.

They are going to be hard pushed to make their connection in Paris and arrive at a reasonable hour, otherwise I will have to make the two hour round trip to the station later this evening which in turn puts dinner out of sync and will make for a very, very late night. That, in it's own turn, means we will be up late tomorrow morning, breakfast late, lunch late and so on until the early train they need to take on Saturday morning (necessitating the round trip drive to the station again) will be a real struggle!

We are really looking forward to their visit though and no doubt a couple of bottles will be opened (sparkling.... water of course) and a year of catching up will be done over the next couple of days and evenings.

Only spoiled because a few ill-informed people from Eastern Europe or Africa or wherever think that life will be better for them living in England. Poor fools.

PS Good news. They made it in time - thank heavens for Parisien taxi drivers!

Happy New Year

Le Jour de l'An

Not a saint's day today, just the day of the year.

Happy New Year to all our readers. May 2008 bring you all happiness, health and all you desire (unless you are just being greedy in which case, tough!).

2007 was a big one for us. Giving up work and moving to France isn't something to be taken lightly and we had planned it for many years.

What were the highlights?

• Lots of parties in January last year to say our 'adieus' - not 'goodbyes'. We remember every one of them with fondness and appreciation at having such wonderful friends and family back there in Blair/Brown land.
• Arriving here in the house we had owned for so long but never lived in. There was snow on the ground and it was incredibly cold but we warmed it up as best we could, opened a bottle of champagne and just got on with things.
• Having my Mum to help us settle in for the first week, having her back again in April with my aunt to cat sit, and again in November. Thank you, Mum.
• A few days in Munich with my ex-colleagues, it was a wonderful time.
• All the visitors who came to see us this last (edited for the benefit of our most pedantic reader) year - every one was a pleasure and we hope you will return soon. We had such fun and laughs with many of you, and caught up after too many years with some.
• Waking up each morning in this beautiful place and not having to go to work!
• Watching the cats settle in and explore the outside world for the first time (they had been indoor cats in the UK).

Things to look forward to for the coming year:

• A holiday in Hong Kong. We are very excited!
• Converting the attic, extending the sitting room and getting a log burner for next winter.
• The installation of the swimming pool - surely next summer can't be as bad as the last?
• Lots more visitors, some already booked in and some more who have promised to come during 2008.
• Waking up each morning in this beautiful place and not having to go to work (still).

And New Year's Resolutions?

I resolve not to make any resolutions that I will, no doubt, break.