Archive for September, 2009

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Life goes on

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

This place seems very quiet without the horses. We sent Rita home as she looked almost as miserable as me in the following days after Amber was put down. I had known that the end was reasonably near for Amber, on a few occasions we found her on the ground, presumably for a roll or a rest and she had real difficulty getting up. The vet said that in his experience horses over thirty just don’t get up, so he felt that she should be given a chance, and in the last few weeks she looked very happy and was walking with a real spring in her step (even without the anti inflammatories we gave her as and when she would need them).

That day I saw her rolling, and rushed over to check she was ok. She seemed happy enough but just didn’t make a single real attempt to get up. I have always believed that you know when the time is right and I just did. I stayed with her for over two hours, just in case she changed her mind and then called the vet. He put her to sleep with an injection, which was peaceful and not the horror I had expected. The horror was to come.

The vet suggested I call a local farmer who would move her over to the side of the road for collection the following day. Very kindly the farmer came and then Neil covered her over with a tarpaulin. The collectors didn’t come for four days. It was absolutely unbearable, and made what had been a difficult enough situation a complete nightmare. I had to move out in the end, I will spare you the details but suffice to say my horse deserved better than that.

Yesterday was a huge milestone in ‘husband coming round to my point of view’. Part of the dream of renovating this house was Neil, newly qualified in carpentry, making all the doors and windows of this house. Two years on living here permanently, we are now in desperate need of a smaller window to go into the kitchen, so that we can fit in our sink unit and generally get on with the kitchen.

Neil has made two beautiful sets of doors and wanted to make windows to match. Unfortunately winter is coming and seeing as he is now working a large percentage of time, there just isn’t time for him to make them. I am particularly keen to get the windows as that would mean we would be fully double glazed at one end of the house and less draught = more warmth.

Unfortunately here in France, most of the windows you go to look at (unless they are blindingly expensive) have a sort of orangey stained cheap horrible look to them, so although budget is a massive issue for us, I suggested we went for an oak set, mostly because I know that if they look crap Neil will be forever looking at them wishing that he had made some instead.

Neil rang La Peyre (on a special line that you, the customer, are charged for!) to see if the windows were in stock and available - ha ha ha ha ha ha - two years here and we still have optimism - how stupid are we? Then they said you can’t order them over the phone - you need to drive to the store.  So I ordered the windows over the internet which all went swimmingly well (worryingly so in fact), as we just couldn’t face the drive to Limoges and frankly we have better things to do. They are supposed to be in on Saturday, but I don’t believe them (optimism gone again), so we will see.

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Cul de sac

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

I wasn’t going to write the blog this evening as I’ve just realised how repetitious they are (it’s only taken about 2 years to come to that stunning conclusion), but I was just packing away Louis’ bag and found blogging gold there. Amongst other things, including a poem in a scented envelope from his girlfriend, a woollen glove with the fingers cut off and a heap of biscuit crumbs was a page of lines which he has to write as a punition over the weekend and which go as follows - although in French obviously:

‘I am a child and I should respect the teacher as she respects me. I should not be insolent nor be provocative. I should remain in the place of a child and obey.’

et voila……a perfect example of the major cultural difference between the French and the English, in a nutshell.

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Every cloud

Monday, September 28th, 2009

10.08am - I’ve just sat down after a shocking morning. Today my washing machine died.
As something that was a long time expected, given the noises it was making, it wasn’t too much of a surprise but the amount of work involved in finding it out was and I’ve just spent 2 hours cleaning up a kitchen that wouldn’t have been out of place in a ground floor flat on a wet day in Rotherham. Think Calgon advert and treble it - oh and take out the nice repair man who comes to the rescue…. and then add enough dust and inert matter ,misplaced cutlery/pencils/carrot tops/toy cars/rubber gloves etc found under the flooded units for Tracey Emin to knock together a hasty installation on a polder -et voila, welcome to the nightmare.
I thought that the hose was blocked because it wasn’t rinsing, so spent what felt like hours shuffling the washing machine out of the units and many trapped fingers later had taken the back off and found the hose held on with a jubilee clip which was at an angle where only a 1cm screwdriver was small enough to get in there to undo it. Unbelievably I managed to find such an object (courtesy, no doubt, of a Tesco’s luxury christmas cracker) but was considering just what a cynical move it had been by the last person who fixed the machine. I was thinking about that, how easy the job actually was and how repair men mystify things in order to charge a fortune for doing not much when I did finally manage to get the hose off and about 25 litres of unstoppable water spilt all over the floor. Why I’d chosen to do it at the same time as getting breakfast I don’t know but it brought an added element of chaos to the school run.
Anyway to cut an incredibly long and tedious story short I spent ages cleaning out the hose with one of those metal wire things which, again, by some strange quirk of fate we had in the drawer and then reassembled everything only to discover that it wasn’t blocked after all and that the pump has broken. So there it stands in the middle of the kitchen blocking the door into the pan cupboard. Unless I can be bothered to move it it looks like the gnocci for lunch is off. On the plus side the kitchen floor’s clean, for the first time in years, and I’ve actually got round to writing a blog so it’s hasn’t been an entirely negative experience.

18.06pm Since writing that this morning so many more things have gone wrong that it makes the washing machine disaster look like child’s play. On the plus side it’s only an hour until the wine bottle’s opened….

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From Chaos to Serenity………

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Birthdays are very personal things. Some people like to have a fuss made of them, being lavished with expensive gifts, fine wine and being dined in the best restaurants or being whisked off to some exotic location. Some people choose a much lower key affair, spending their day in the normal way, refusing to acknowledge the relentless march of time.

Me………….?

I chose to spend a significant portion of my birthday on the M25.

I say chose, that’s not strictly true. I did choose to set off to our holiday on a Friday and therefore automatically accepted there was a reasonable chance of being stranded there. That reasonable chance was fully realised.

The day began badly. Mel’s college project was due to be handed in on Friday lunchtime and naturally (given that we both have similar workstyles) she was awake late into the night and up at ridiculous o’clock in order to get it finished. She finally completed it at about 11am and by the time she returned, frazzled and stressed it was 1.30pm. This left us just 30 minutes to pack before setting off for our Channel Tunnel crossing at 8pm. Consequently, the detailed list of items that my father in-law Fred had given us was neglected and a car full of vaguely unnecessary items were packed instead.

The roads were remarkably uncongested, creating a false sense of progress. However, our self-congratulatory, virtual high fives were curtailed about twenty miles into our journey around the M25. What at first appeared to be minor road works, then turned into the traffic jam from hell, our holiday joy evaporating with each smog filled minute.

Eventually we arrived at Folkestone at 8.30pm and thankfully were able to make the next crossing and after a 2 hour drive in France, we arrived at our Hotel in Rouen at 1am. We had a brief birthday celebratory drink of crap wine from plastic glasses and then drifted into a coma-like sleep filled with dreams of exhaust fumes and missed deadlines.

We awoke early and were on the road by 9am and had the most pleasurably uneventful journey through France, finally arriving in Chalus at 2pm. I was quaffing cider just 30 minutes later.

The weather was (is) beautiful and my usual stress of arriving to an overgrown jungle was negated by the fact that Roz had very kindly been round with her ride-on mower and cleared it back to something resembling a garden. I was though a little perturbed to find that the Chemin (right of way) down the side of our house has been cleared in our absence. It is, in reality a road to nowhere as it leads to two old houses that were abandoned long ago. Consequently, the path has become overgrown and the farmer allows his cattle to graze across its lower sections. The fact that it has been cleared suggests someone has plans for the land or the houses and a trip to the Mairie tomorrow should reveal all.

Our first night was spent with Pat and Fred, consuming more calories than is good for a man who is supposed to be on a diet and drinking so much cider that the smell of apples permeates from every pore. Neil and Roz (and Tess) came round to watch Strictly Come Dancing (Neil knows far too much about how it all works) eventually retiring to bed about midnight, where I slept like a brick.

Today, Mel’s sister Penny arrives on a flight from Liverpool and we have a belated birthday celebration planned. I am allowed to choose my own menu and have chosen Lasagne and Garlic Bread followed by Almond Tart with home made vanilla ice cream. The meal will be accompanied by several glasses of Cider before I awake tomorrow with an appropriate degree of self-loathing at the weight I have already put on.

We have no real plans for the week ahead other than to catch up with friends, sample fine wines and lovely lunches and start thinking about restarting our renovation project early next year. I also plan to do some fishing. The last few weeks have taken their toll and I really look forward to the prospect of sitting in the shade of some lovely tree, contemplating my navel. That, matched with the prospect of some momentary piscatorial excitement feels like the perfect antidote to my somewhat bedraggled state.

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That’s life.

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

We have endured a few very sad and painful days since Roz last blogged. As “Sunday Alan” mentioned we lost our wonderful horse Amber last Thursday. She has been Roz’s partner in many exhilarating and challenging events over the last 25 years, such as cross country, mounted police branch hunter trials, she even hunted once I think ( after a stuffed fabric rabbit) and together they have covered most of the pubs in Surrey. Amber once bought Roz home slumped across the saddle after one too many scrumpy jacks I believe. ( actually, I have since been advised this happened many more times than once! It was all off road stuff obviously) Suffice to say they were a perfect match for each other and though incredibly sad, Roz can still appreciate how lucky she was to have had such a wonderfully natured horse.

 

As one door closed another four opened as one of our broody hens delivered us four chicks out of seven eggs. Not bad going. Duke, our dashingly attractive cockerel who sports fully feathered fluffy legs is unmistakably responsible for these offspring, as they too have bright yellow trousered legs. The little bundles of yellow that scamper in and out, under, over and around their mum look faintly ridiculous with this early seventies fashion accessory but no doubt they will grow into fine birds and if Duke is anything to go by they should be a good size for the table too. We know our pal “Sunday Mel” is gagging to get out to see them. (Have a safe trip guys and see you at the weekend)

 

Roz has been making chilli and tomato chutney today which has seen us pick the last of the tomatoes ( since been advised that this is nonsense too as there are still tons of toms to pick) but the chillies are still going great guns. Things are winding down a bit on the home produce front but if our plan of poly tunnel erection gets to be any thing other than a plan we could be increasing our growing season vastly next year. I have it planned in to get the digger working on the site at the beginning of October so hopefully we will have it up before the clocks go forward.

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Normal service will be resumed…..

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

No blog this week as nobody else seems to be bothered and I’m in a foul mood after the referee added 6 minutes of inury time onto the Manchester Derby and United won 4-3.  I have nothing else to say on the matter, pathetic. Six minutes…..utterly pathetic.

The only thing I do want to say is our thoughts are with Roz (and Neil) after their horse Amber died aged 35. Having been through the death of our dog George after only two years, we can only imagine how that feels. We’re thinking about you Roz and we’ll see you on Saturday for a drink.

Apart from that, I have nothing to say whatsoever.

Bye.

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Winter is coming

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

This week we had a whole day of chopping up a van full of wood. Someone was clearing out a barn and just wanted to get rid of the stuff, so not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth Neil had picked a load up and then thoughtfully waited until I had returned to France to help unload, chop and stack it. It took hours. Still, it must be good for the health and there is nothing as satisfying as looking at a huge stack of wood knowing that you are prepared for the winter ahead.

 

The broody hen is still sitting on the eggs and according to Neil doesnt seem to have been off them for ages. This morning I tried to get her off so that she could have a poo and something to eat and drink and was rewarded for my kindness with a sharp peck. Ideally hens should leave the eggs for a short period every day but she is having none of it. Last year we had a hen that we left to her own devices, but when she did get off the eggs she was dehydrated and skinny, so I am anxious that does not happen again. After an entire summer without a broody hen, one other has now followed suit, and so if all the eggs hatch we could be looking at increasing our flock by 16 birds. I must be mad.

 

Neil spent most of the weekend out in the barn making a new top for a cabinet for Judith. He was planing, cutting and jointing some wood that came off the van and looked suitable. He is in a rush to do it as, and I quote, “Judith is very excited about getting it done.” Now I know that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but I did have to bite my tongue as I considered the miriad of jobs that I am waiting to be completed, not least a wooden unit that was supposed to be my birthday present not this year, but last year and that I am still waiting for. I was quite excited about that at the time. I am also excited about the prospect of the beautiful butler sink unit that Neil has made that is uncompleted in the barn and could so easily be in the kitchen had this new project not taken its place. Now dont get me wrong, I dont begrudge Judith this bespoke bit of joinery, but it would be nice, just for once, for us to get something done in our house.

 

I spent a productive afternoon today dragging the fruit crusher out of the shed and putting the apple press that I bought on ebay into service. We have quite a few apple and pear trees, all of which are losing their fruit rapidly at the moment.

 About three years ago we took bin fulls of apples to a local fete and the locals pressed them for us on a machine that was built on the back of a lorry and we ended up with 240 litres of juice, which we made into cider/vinegar and drank as plain juice which was wonderful.  We paid them with a few bottles of wine and everyone seemed happy.

We decided this year to make a smaller amount and bought a 6 litre press, this with the crusher that I picked up at a trocadore - absolute bargain and fantastically effective, my cider making gear is complete. The press needs to be screwed down though, as I had a right game with it sliding all over the place whilst I turned the handle, and the juice seemed to spill out everywhere, not just out of the pourer and I must have wasted as much as I bottled. We now have a full bottle in the fridge waiting for breakfast tomorrow. Whilst I think I would be crushing and pressing until gone Christmas to make 240 litres it is a satisfying “small scale” hobby and one small step on our partial self sufficiency path.

ps The sink unit is now proudly sitting in the kitchen and looks fabulous. I really should cut my wonderful husband some slack!!!!

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Get a grippe

Monday, September 14th, 2009

The weather appears to be turning a bit baltic after one of the longest hottest summers in years ….. there’s just no getting round that northerly wind. Historically the first sightings of autumn seem to appear on the 15th September so with the clouds amassing to the north as I type it seems pretty certain that this year will be no exception.
Good then that this weekend was spent in true end of pier style at the Siblu parc on the coast, which, because it was our second stay there this year was half price and meant that we got 3 nights in one of our favourite 70’s inspired static caravans (as I hear they’re now called) with it’s 40m² of living space and 3 bedrooms for 67€. Obviously we didn’t get to stay for the full three nights as the kids had school this morning and we didn’t leave until after school on Friday but even for two nights it’s ridiculously cheap. The kids spent most of their time roller blading around the place, either playing pool or swimming in one, or playing footie in the stadium whilst Matt and I read like freaks, and how perfect a weekend it would have been….had we not had to come back to a home which had obviously been party central for two days previous. The evidence revealed itself slowly over the course of the evening…..swimming pool light left on…..a ripped hamac poolside…..a pair of earrings in the bathroom…Louis’ giant bear wearing a Venetian mask, headphones and boxing gloves on the sofa……a tomato ketchup bottle in the bedroom next door…..
As a consequence Alf’s freedoms have been considerably curtailed – hence I can actually sit down at my own computer and write this. Actually I have to go and read ‘The boy in the dress’ or whatever it’s called to the boys before they go to sleep, so little time for chat. I will just relate two incidents though before I go - both swine flu related.
The first happened on Friday when we were filling up with diesel at Carrefour before going away. Matt pulled up behind someone who was holding the pump wearing a plastic glove which isn’t entirely unknown around these parts. Obviously you know what to expect with the plastic glove brigade and speed isn’t one of them so Matt moved to the next queue ….only to realise that the man in front had one on too…..and the man next to him….. and the one further down. It all went a bit Twilight Zone when we realised that every person at all of the 8 pumps had one on and there wasn’t even a dispenser at the garage, which means that everyone must have brought their own, and that it had less to do with everyone becoming ‘super propre’ all of a sudden and everything to do with anti-contamination measures in a public place.
The second tale relates to a chat Matt had with his doctor the other day when he was asking him how concerned we should all be about the possible epidemic. As someone who has worked in Afghanistan and some of the most deprived parts of Africa he had a more balanced perspective on the seriousness of the illness and was critical of the administration of campaign around it. Apparently every doctor has been issued with a protective mask but in order to get one he has to go all the way into St Yrieix, which is 30mins away, to sign for it….and this is someone who works at best a 14 hours day, every day of the week. They could always train up a spare fonctionaire in distribution skills and send one out with a car and a cardboard box….. but then supposing there was an emergency down at the local government offices and they were a man down?
No…. I haven’t thought this through properly….back to the drawing board….

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Knowledge is power………

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

Mel has gone out today to celebrate a friends birthday in Macclesfield, so I’m home alone and it’s a good job too as I feel like I’m coming down with some kind of sleeping sickness. We played squash earlier today and it was like my new fitness regime had never happened and I plodded around the court like I’d never played any sport of any kind before. I’ve completely lost my appetite and that in itself is a sure fire sign that something is amiss. Having side stepped every nasty cold, virus and flu bug that have been doing the rounds in recent months I guess I’m due something. With just one week, five days, four hours and three minutes until we set off on our drive to France I am keen to avoid any illness but if I’m going to get something then I’d rather get it out of the way.

Maybe I’m not ill at all. Maybe it’s the shock of Manchester City winning their first four premiership games of the season. I’m not used to not having anything to moan about, so maybe this is natures way of correcting the balance. I’m going to watch the highlights of yesterdays game several times over and see if that makes me feel better or worse.

Stress levels are running high in our house. Mel is in the midst of a major college project and I have several work related stresses all running at once, culminating in a big presentation on Thursday. It doesn’t make for a happy house but those things will all be over soon. Therefore, we have not yet had the chance to really look forward to our holiday but it will all start to become more real when we take Mel’s parents to the airport for their flight to Limoges next Sunday.

We leave the following Friday on my birthday and after driving the first leg, we will spend that night in some soulless hotel near Rouen on the way down to the Limousin. I don’t care though; as long as I am quaffing wine with my lovely wife then I’ll be happy as the proverbial sandboy.

My father-in-law Fred has been talking wood-talk with Neil who has very kindly agreed to help source some material for him to build our table with. I did ask Fred some questions about it but he made it clear that it was not something that an office boy like me would understand. My dad does this when we talk about electrical things and I’ve realised that I do it too when I talk about computers. Mel often asks questions about the laptop and I quite enjoy giving her the look I’ve perfected which says “you simply would not understand, you just leave it to me”. Mel does it to me about almost every other subject. Knowledge is power and I need to get some.

We’ve really settled into our new apartment in Cheadle but it still feels very temporary to me but in a good way. It reminds me that we have a bigger plan, that one day we will be visitors to Manchester and indeed the UK and that sits really well with me.

I miss loads of things about France and in particular the Limousin; the food, the wine and cider, the lovely people, our friends, the stunning countryside, the absence of traffic, the carp fishing, the lack of litter, the inconvenient closing hours, amazing nature, the look on French peoples faces when I try my rudimentary French – the list is endless. But the thing I miss the most is our house there, I’m genuinely never happier and never more relaxed than when I am at Gouhaut. It’s only been ten weeks since we were last there but it feels more like a year. This trip cannot come too soon.

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The second (and final) advantage of having a teenager in the house

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

I went into the mairie this afternoon and there is now a sheet of Perspex from ceiling to counter, dividing functionaires from the public. I asked if it was an anti terrorist measure and the two women working there laughed but didn’t answer, which only leads me to believe that it must be some hastily erected anti- swine flu device. As someone English I would obviously be considered one of the prime suspects. I can see that it’s all going to start getting a bit ‘Day of the Triffids’ round here before too long. Anyway that probably isn’t the best introduction to a blog in which I am drawing everyone’s attention to a house for sale and one for rent, both within a short distance of said panic room.
I updated the website yesterday on realising that since building it months ago one of the properties advertised has been sold, another has been taken off the market and the third has had some land added to it……so it’s well worth another look everyone!!!! The house to rent will be available in a couple of weeks and needs to be filled asap…..so, in the words of Delia Smith ‘ let’s be ‘avin’ ya’ – all those people who are desperate to get out of the UK for a few months…..except for ill ones obviously.
The first picture doesn’t seem much for the money I know. I don’t know where the photo went but click on the box anyway and you’ll see a better one.

When you’ve finished looking at that and have phoned or email to rent/buy a house you can take a look at this. The guy who looks like he’s squatting on a ledge is actually on the ground…..which is about as bizarre as the Cola bottle.

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