A water weekend of the right kind..

Monday morning, well Monday lunch time to be accurate, and I am back at La Rochelle Airport after a relaxing weekend. I was supposed to be putting down the floor between the two new bathrooms we are creating at the moment, but due to the quirkiness of the French holiday system, all the shops in the local area had run out of waterproof chipboard, and since all the factories close until September it will be a couple of weeks before the stores are re-stocked, so there was nothing I could do except enjoy the weather.

We had a water day on Saturday, firstly going off to explore a man made lake just out side Angoulême, which had been recommended to us as an alternative to going to the beach, especially if you were not going to make a day of it. It turned out to be a really good place for small children, not only was there a small beach by the lake, the lake itself had a nice shallow area of water segregated by lane makers depending on how deep it was, so it was nice and safe for the little ones. Being a park with a large lake you got the advantages of the beach, along with the advantages of a park just behind the beach, so there were playgrounds, mini golf, and quite a few other things such as Karting, a restaurant, merry go rounds and plenty of other things to do, so the kids will not get bored very quickly.

We spent Saturday morning in the park, and it was not in the least bit crowded despite it being probably the best August day we have had weatherwise. On Saturday afternoon we had been invited to spend the afternoon with some people who had a swimming pool, which Fleur thought was wonderful, especially when she discovered all the play things in the pool as well. Cathy and Terry and Becky had only just moved into their house, but one of the advantages of having the swimming already there is you can enjoy it from day one. Terry poor chap was slaving away in the UK, so we only met Cathy and Becky (2,5) both of whom were lovely. We also met Steph and Finn, who was just about 2,5 if remember rightly, but not Finn’s dad, Charlie, they too had only just moved to the area, and Steph’s other half was busy doing what I should have been doing, working on the house. No doubt we will meet the other halves at some point before then end of the year, unless it is my turn to be slaving away somewhere.

Sunday was designated a working day, but it was a bit difficult to know what to do to help the project along without materials. In the end I did one of the jobs I was saving for a rainy day, which was to switch the garage around because everything was on the wrong side having put up the floor joists for the storage area above the garage. I had to switch them around because we will need some head height to get onto the mezzanine when I eventually get around to putting up some semi permanent stairs, or maybe we will just use ladders, not sure at the moment. I had my work bench where the stairs/ ladders should go hence the big switch around.

The good news is that just like Friday the Easyjet plane is nice and early, so hopefully we will be away on time, and I will be in the office in time for my first meeting.. no rest for the wicked as they say….