On the day of the arrival of our fist guests in 2008 the continuing saga of our unreliable central heating boiler took a turn for the worse. After the second plumber had given up on fixing it (without giving us a bill) he recommended we call the depenage, or emergency callout service, which we did, and after finally getting hold of them after the usual 3 or 4 tries talking to an answer phone, we got an appointment with the engineer for the morning of the same day the guests were arriving, so it was fingers crossed. It started well enough as finally someone who appeared to know what he was doing got stuck into our boiler and after 3 hours work concluded that the boiler was ok but the electronics controlling it had a life of its own (as we have already discovered), so he needed parts, nearly 300€ worth of parts. The problem is if you want anything doing in France between Christmas and Epiphany you are likely to encounter the reply, but everyone is on holiday, or sorry all the offices are closed for the winter holidays, and so as I write we are still waiting for our parts a week after the return to work, because the other thing about the French way of doing things is that nothing is ever in stock. One good thing to come out the engineers visit was that our hot water system which also had a life of its own now appears to be 100% reliable, which means our guests could shower without us having to sit next to the hot water cylinder the whole time. I dashed off to the DIY shop to buy a couple of electric radiators just to make sure we had enough warmth for the guest rooms.
Our guests, who turned out to be 2 sets of very nice parents, finally arrived at 10:00pm after a long journey driving a large van from Kent. They were bringing furniture for the newest residents of Sigogne, members of their respective families. So after giving them a glass of wine to wind down a bit after the journey they went off to bed exhausted. They then spent most of the rest of the weekend unpacking cleaning and tiding for thier children.
Unlike the last time we had guests everything went as smoothly as could be, and it finally gave us the feeling that all the work had been worth it, and we even had time to enjoy the experience ourselves. It was a small glimpse of our future lives but one that, at least for the moment means that the light we can see at the end of the tunnel does not look like an on coming train……
Other good news is that we have our first firm summer booking for 2008 which is three rooms for a week, as well as promises of guests coming in February and May, so things are certainly making us feel much happier as we enter 2008. We have of course just about run out of money again but the good news is that room 3 has come in just about on time and in budget, and we now need to start saving for the next big job, which will probably start in April, to complete the roof re furbishment and get rooms 4 & 5 ready for guests. Room 3 now has a name, because of its southern views and having the sun for most of the day it is going to be called Tournesol, sunflower, or literally turning with the sun, as sunflowers do, so the accent colour will probably be..... you guessed it yellow.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Gosh and that was Christmas
I am back at Bordeaux airport for the first time since the Christmas and New Year break, I always drive down when I am staying a bit longer than a week, because the car is full of all those things that are cheaper in the UK such as paint and glass, and the odd Christmas present.
Christmas seemed to flash by, as does time in general, but it was a good if busy break. The weather is very wintery now so the first thing we bought when I got down to Sigogne was a wood burning stove to go initially in the ‘Bistro’ or dinning room. Once I had installed it I had to start chopping wood for the fire, luckily we have a ready supply of raw material at the moment, our old roof which is piled behind the house so we are working our way through the rather large pile, though not everything is suitable for the wood burner, the unsiutable stuff will be used to power bonfires to burn the garden waste built up over the summer before the fire ban comes in in March. Bonfires are not allowed between April and October, in case they spark forest fires...
Christmas itself was a quiet affair, if Christmas with an excited 5 year old can be described as quiet. We did not do the full French Christmas which would have entailed eating Christmas dinner after midnight mass, it was easier to do it on Christmas day itself ala UK tradition. We ate venison in place of turkey and very nice it was too, Fleur had lots of presents to open, in fact a few too many if the truth be told, but she enjoyed herself, though wether all the presents get played with I am not too sure, she has her favourites, Bingo, Kerplunk and all the drawing things she received, we will see what happens with the rest.
New Year was celebrated French style with and 8 course meal which we ate with our French friends Fabiola and Patrick with their son and Patrick's mother, as well as Franca’s mother. There are no fireworks to mark the passing into a new year, and no big count downs on the TV so it was left to ourselves to count in the new year give or take 5 minutes. Franca’s mum had brought sparklers from Holland, where the spend six million Euros on fireworks for new year, and so we went into the garden and let the children play with them, but otherwise it was very quiet outside. Despite loads of prep time, infact too much, we managed to mess up the main course by cooking the roast pork much too soon so by the time it reached the table it was over cooked, something to remember for next time. The problem was the meal was so relaxed it took much longer to get through each course than I though so I started cooking the pork much too early.
Over the festivities we had in the back of our minds that we had guests arriving on the 4th of January for the weekend, so we had a lot of work to do to finally get the rooms ready for them. Even Port Bonheur, the first room we finished needed a lot of cleaning & tidying because that has been our bedroom for three months, and the second room Nature had to be finished off. So we created a snagging list and off we went to work and apart from a few false starts getting hold of a door for Nature everything was ready by 2:00pm on the day of the guests arrival.
Whilst preparation work for the guests was going on we were also progressing with room 3 and because the 26th of December is a normal working day in France I had to paint the bathroom ceiling on Christmas day so that the plumber could install the shower on the 26th, but such is life in France, Christmas and even New Year are not as important as Bastille Day or the local Fete, which takes a bit of getting used to, but is a refreshing change.
We should be on the final week of room 3, though I suspect it may slip into next week before the builder is finished. We spent this weekend getting the new wooden floor unpacking it and stacking it in the room to acclimatise, and doing my least favourite job, cleaning the stone wall with bleach and a washing up brush. The finished result is great as the stones get their rich natural colour back which really gives the room an atmosphere, but I end up smelling of bleach for 3 days and very sore hands. The builder now has the job of tidying and pointing the wall, as well as laying the new floor and finishing off a few bits of plastering, before handing over to us for the final finishing touches, such as painting and dressing the room.
Christmas seemed to flash by, as does time in general, but it was a good if busy break. The weather is very wintery now so the first thing we bought when I got down to Sigogne was a wood burning stove to go initially in the ‘Bistro’ or dinning room. Once I had installed it I had to start chopping wood for the fire, luckily we have a ready supply of raw material at the moment, our old roof which is piled behind the house so we are working our way through the rather large pile, though not everything is suitable for the wood burner, the unsiutable stuff will be used to power bonfires to burn the garden waste built up over the summer before the fire ban comes in in March. Bonfires are not allowed between April and October, in case they spark forest fires...
Christmas itself was a quiet affair, if Christmas with an excited 5 year old can be described as quiet. We did not do the full French Christmas which would have entailed eating Christmas dinner after midnight mass, it was easier to do it on Christmas day itself ala UK tradition. We ate venison in place of turkey and very nice it was too, Fleur had lots of presents to open, in fact a few too many if the truth be told, but she enjoyed herself, though wether all the presents get played with I am not too sure, she has her favourites, Bingo, Kerplunk and all the drawing things she received, we will see what happens with the rest.
New Year was celebrated French style with and 8 course meal which we ate with our French friends Fabiola and Patrick with their son and Patrick's mother, as well as Franca’s mother. There are no fireworks to mark the passing into a new year, and no big count downs on the TV so it was left to ourselves to count in the new year give or take 5 minutes. Franca’s mum had brought sparklers from Holland, where the spend six million Euros on fireworks for new year, and so we went into the garden and let the children play with them, but otherwise it was very quiet outside. Despite loads of prep time, infact too much, we managed to mess up the main course by cooking the roast pork much too soon so by the time it reached the table it was over cooked, something to remember for next time. The problem was the meal was so relaxed it took much longer to get through each course than I though so I started cooking the pork much too early.
Over the festivities we had in the back of our minds that we had guests arriving on the 4th of January for the weekend, so we had a lot of work to do to finally get the rooms ready for them. Even Port Bonheur, the first room we finished needed a lot of cleaning & tidying because that has been our bedroom for three months, and the second room Nature had to be finished off. So we created a snagging list and off we went to work and apart from a few false starts getting hold of a door for Nature everything was ready by 2:00pm on the day of the guests arrival.
Whilst preparation work for the guests was going on we were also progressing with room 3 and because the 26th of December is a normal working day in France I had to paint the bathroom ceiling on Christmas day so that the plumber could install the shower on the 26th, but such is life in France, Christmas and even New Year are not as important as Bastille Day or the local Fete, which takes a bit of getting used to, but is a refreshing change.
We should be on the final week of room 3, though I suspect it may slip into next week before the builder is finished. We spent this weekend getting the new wooden floor unpacking it and stacking it in the room to acclimatise, and doing my least favourite job, cleaning the stone wall with bleach and a washing up brush. The finished result is great as the stones get their rich natural colour back which really gives the room an atmosphere, but I end up smelling of bleach for 3 days and very sore hands. The builder now has the job of tidying and pointing the wall, as well as laying the new floor and finishing off a few bits of plastering, before handing over to us for the final finishing touches, such as painting and dressing the room.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Its nearly Christmas.....
Last weekend I completed a round trip using Easyjet from Luton airport, and whilst I still do not like the airport (and said so in a customer survey) the experience was better this time as the flight used one of the gates in the main, small, terminal building as opposed to the Easyjet shed. So it was better but still not up to the same standard as Stansted. So enough griping about airports, after all it is my choice to fly every weekend.
Its nearly Christmas so that means Christmas shopping, and preparing the car for the trip down to Sigogne from London. I went to Hamleys to do the stocking shopping for Fleur and although it was heaving with people there no queues at the tills which was very surprising, and meant I got everything I wanted and was out in less than half an hour.
I just have to go to the DIY shop for paint for room 3 which should be in a position to have some paint thrown at it over the Christmas period, and a visit to the supermarket for a top up of popadums for Fleur, nan bread, and a few Christmas things such as crackers and a Crimbo pudding…
Despite telling our web designer we cannot pay her until the end of January and then her telling us she cannot start designing the site until February (so in the end everything works out just fine), she has already started working on logos and giving us ideas for the site. Along with our speedy builders things seem to be moving forward a bit quicker than we expected on all fronts at the moment. The building work is still on target for a mid January finish, so things are looking very positive as 2007 comes to a close…
As of Friday (21st) it will be good bye London Bridge for 2 weeks and bonjour Sigogne, wonderful.. the only down side is that both Franca and I have picked up heavy colds, but hopefully after a coulple of days we will be right as rain.
So a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers, and maybe we will see you at Au Bellefleur in 2008…..
Its nearly Christmas so that means Christmas shopping, and preparing the car for the trip down to Sigogne from London. I went to Hamleys to do the stocking shopping for Fleur and although it was heaving with people there no queues at the tills which was very surprising, and meant I got everything I wanted and was out in less than half an hour.
I just have to go to the DIY shop for paint for room 3 which should be in a position to have some paint thrown at it over the Christmas period, and a visit to the supermarket for a top up of popadums for Fleur, nan bread, and a few Christmas things such as crackers and a Crimbo pudding…
Despite telling our web designer we cannot pay her until the end of January and then her telling us she cannot start designing the site until February (so in the end everything works out just fine), she has already started working on logos and giving us ideas for the site. Along with our speedy builders things seem to be moving forward a bit quicker than we expected on all fronts at the moment. The building work is still on target for a mid January finish, so things are looking very positive as 2007 comes to a close…
As of Friday (21st) it will be good bye London Bridge for 2 weeks and bonjour Sigogne, wonderful.. the only down side is that both Franca and I have picked up heavy colds, but hopefully after a coulple of days we will be right as rain.
So a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers, and maybe we will see you at Au Bellefleur in 2008…..
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Speedy Builders
The building work on the third room is progressing well, walls for the bathroom are up, the first fix of plumbing is also in, and this week we will get the second fix, once the builder has got tiles in place behind the shower unit. Floor tiles and wall tiles were bought at the weekend, and we are starting to get a bit more savy about buying materials, so the all the main components of room 3 have been purchased at sale prices, so we are doing our best to keep control of the costs on this room, the only thing we have paid full price for so far is the water heater.
The main challenge we are facing in this phase is the eternal cash flow problem, because these guys are moving relatively quickly we need more money at the front end of the project than I expected however that will be solved this week and room 3 will be able to be finished on time, but it is certainly touch & go, who says we would not have made good TV, the only thing we do not do is shout at each other.
I will have to make sure we have the money in place for the next phase as this is the big one, as they say, so we may have a couple of months of inactivity at least from the builders point of view, whilst we build up enough money to pay for the next part of the project. Stay tuned folks it is going to get very interesting over the first half of 2008.
Luton airport is not for me
I’m back into the routine for a couple of weeks, so having fought my way through the morning rush hour traffic on the Bordeaux peripherique I am now sitting in the departure lounge of Bordeaux airport waiting for the 10:15 flight back to Gatwick, and the good news is the plane is already here to take us back to the UK, so we should be on time.
We have just had a very wet weekend in Sigogne, so a perfect time for putting up Christmas decorations and pottering around the house. Having said that, we spent Saturday morning playing catch up, because we left it too late to start, around the DIY stores of Cognac & Jarnac, hunting for tiles for the bathroom in room 3. We bought all the tiles for 300€, less the decorative frieze which will cost 200€ and is on a week’s delivery, but all in all the bargain hunting went well. Then it was off to Jarnac to buy a Christmas tree, the one we wanted, a Norwegian Pine was 60€ which was a bit expensive but it was 6ft (2m) tall, so we settled for an ordinary tree at 22€ but still 6ft tall and we will do some extra sweeping over the festive period if we forget to water it. Fleur then spent the afternoon decorating the tree, Fleur style.
I had planned for us to go out to eat at Hotel Karina on Saturday evening, but we went to franca’s friend Fabiola for dinner on Friday night and we did not get home until midnight, so I figured out that Fleur will not be such good company eating out again on Saturday night, so even though Franca did not appreciate it, we ate at home, but we will go there this coming Saturday. Dinner at Fabiola’s was very nice, they have 2 houses and I think 3 barns on their land, they have almost finished the smallest house which is where they are living whilst they work on the other buildings, and the reason for the dinner was to show us their new 90% complete kitchen which looked very nice, and was custom built by Patrick, Fabiola’s better half. Fabiola is not a typical French name, and that is because she is from
I am having to travel to Bordeaux from Luton for a couple of weeks in December as BA do not appear to be laying on an afternoon flight from Gatwick to Bordeaux, or its completely sold out which is unusual, there is always space in club class at a price.
Well time to get on the plane…
Monday, December 03, 2007
What else is November famous for
It was fleur's birthday, sadly as it fell on a Wednesday I could not be there for the actual day but we had a small party on the Sunday before and Franca's mum came down as well so Fleur did not miss me completely. She was spoilt with lots of great presents, how many children of 5 have a real telescope (no I did not buy it), trouble is the weather has been aweful since so we have not been able to use it yet. If you look on Franca's blog she has posted lots of photos of the parties, she had three, and by special request I had to bring the cakes from the UK, which made for some amusing comments as I went through security at Gatwick airport, but all three arrived unscathed in France.
November also sees the start of the BBC's Children in Need, well, to be more precise Strictly Come Dancing, which apart from Ceebies is Fleur's favourite program. She insists on getting dressed up as soon as the program comes on, she has two special princess dresses which look like ball gowns, and she dances along with who ever she can get to dance with her, oh well girls will be girls.
November also sees the start of the BBC's Children in Need, well, to be more precise Strictly Come Dancing, which apart from Ceebies is Fleur's favourite program. She insists on getting dressed up as soon as the program comes on, she has two special princess dresses which look like ball gowns, and she dances along with who ever she can get to dance with her, oh well girls will be girls.
What happened to November
Well November sort of passed me by in a flash, I’m not sure where it went but appears to be December already. As you will have seen room 2 (Nature) is finished and this week our new builder begins work on room 3. Franca though a change of builder was in order after the debacle of the last room, so hopefully room 3 will get finished by the middle to end of January, and since we have purchased a few of the big items already we will be able to keep the cost of this room below 10,000€. We have also had a slight re-design of our planned layout which has resulted in Fleur loosing her room for the time being, not that she used it very much, so to have such valuable real estate sitting around doing nothing did not really make much sense. So Fleur’s room and the adjoining room are going to be knocked into one to create a large double room with an en-suite shower room. We decided that our previous plan would result in two quite small (and therefore not so saleable) double rooms, whereas this layout should give us a flexible enough space that it can be a double room, twin room or even a small triple, lets see what the finished item looks like in January.
So what have I been up to in November, well the project I am employed to work on in London is reaching a very busy stage, so I have been over to Ireland to checkout how the developers have been getting on with building the new system that I am supposed to implement. I have now switched to using Bordeaux airport for the winter period so I am getting used to fighting my way through the Bordeaux morning rush hour to catch my flight. It is still worth doing as I gets me to the office 2 hours earlier than using any other airport. The recent train strike in France just goes to show the grass is not always greener on the other side, as I lost a Sunday driving to Paris Charles de Gaulle to get a flight to Ireland, then the following Friday I had to take the Eurostar back to France to collect my car from Paris and then drive back down to Sigogne. It cost me a fortune which I am trying to get back via insurance, wish me luck!
So in summary I have been earning corn during November, and since we had basically run out of money that was not bad thing. We now have enough cash to pay for room 3, then we will have to save up for the next huge step, which will include completing the roof refurbishment started last year and replacing floor joists over three rooms including the kitchen. We really need to get this completed by around May 2008 if we are to get much of the 2008 summer trade, it is going to begin early in 2008 as Easter is so early. We will also have to take a bit of a flyer as they say, in starting to put out advertising for 2008, otherwise we will definitely miss the boat. This will include getting our new website off the ground in January, so it is going to be another cash intensive start to the new year. That means of course that I will continue to work in London to earn the cash to pay for all of this, and the reality is dawning on me that I will be working right through 2008 to pay for the rest of the building work, and maybe into 2009 to be able to pay for the swimming pool complex which is right on the back burner at the moment.
Well enough waffling from me for the moment, hopefully I will be back with another instalment before the end of the year, time to jump on the plane….
So what have I been up to in November, well the project I am employed to work on in London is reaching a very busy stage, so I have been over to Ireland to checkout how the developers have been getting on with building the new system that I am supposed to implement. I have now switched to using Bordeaux airport for the winter period so I am getting used to fighting my way through the Bordeaux morning rush hour to catch my flight. It is still worth doing as I gets me to the office 2 hours earlier than using any other airport. The recent train strike in France just goes to show the grass is not always greener on the other side, as I lost a Sunday driving to Paris Charles de Gaulle to get a flight to Ireland, then the following Friday I had to take the Eurostar back to France to collect my car from Paris and then drive back down to Sigogne. It cost me a fortune which I am trying to get back via insurance, wish me luck!
So in summary I have been earning corn during November, and since we had basically run out of money that was not bad thing. We now have enough cash to pay for room 3, then we will have to save up for the next huge step, which will include completing the roof refurbishment started last year and replacing floor joists over three rooms including the kitchen. We really need to get this completed by around May 2008 if we are to get much of the 2008 summer trade, it is going to begin early in 2008 as Easter is so early. We will also have to take a bit of a flyer as they say, in starting to put out advertising for 2008, otherwise we will definitely miss the boat. This will include getting our new website off the ground in January, so it is going to be another cash intensive start to the new year. That means of course that I will continue to work in London to earn the cash to pay for all of this, and the reality is dawning on me that I will be working right through 2008 to pay for the rest of the building work, and maybe into 2009 to be able to pay for the swimming pool complex which is right on the back burner at the moment.
Well enough waffling from me for the moment, hopefully I will be back with another instalment before the end of the year, time to jump on the plane….
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Bedroom 2
In the end it cost an arm and a leg and a lot of frustration for Franca, as she tried to get the room completed. We paid what we thought was a lot of money to get the job finished in around 3 weeks, to get our building plan back on schedule, but in the end it took 7 seven rather frustrating weeks of chasing the builders to get it finished. But finally, we have another bedroom finished. It's called 'Nature' and here we have a picture of the new bedroom with its en-suite bathroom. Its called nature as we have left all the wood used to create the room untreated in any way (except the bed which came lacquered as we have had it for sometime). So we are going to continue with colours from nature as far as we can when decorating the room.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
All hail to our Renault Scenic
Well a quiet weekend here in Sigogne, if you exclude England being beaten in the rugby final, Lewis Hamilton loosing the F1 title by a point and Fleur getting sick and stopping me watching the rugby final. What is more important nursing your daughter or watching TV, no competition, the family is the most important thing in the world, which is why I try my dammedest (is that real word or not) to get home every weekend, and why in November I will have to do a couple of silly trips as I cope with doing some work in Limerick in Ireland, and doing battle with the winter flight timetables between London and South West France.
All this and we have to keep a close eye on the cash flow as well as we appear to be on the wrong end of tax bills from both the Dutch and English authorities at the moment. These tax bills could have a serious effect on our ability to be ready for the start of the 2008 holiday season, however we will soldier on. No one said it was going to be easy but some things come out of the blue in an attempt to knock you off course, and this double whammy tax bill is one of those things, but we will remain strong and come through it.
The good news is that by Monday Fleur was better and actually asked to go to school when we were prepared to keep her at home.
On a totally different subject I must pay a little tribute to our humble Renault Megane Scenic, which we bought primarily for my wife when we first arrived in France, it was in fact, our first major purchase. Franca chose it because it gave her a very good seating position i.e. you sit higher than in a normal saloon car which made watching the road that much easier. However it has turned out to be a pretty good purchase, we are using every facet of its MPV features. It is a great family car with a very responsive diesel engine (1.9 DCI), one of the fastest and most responsive 1.9 diesels I’ve ever driven (I keep getting told off for driving too fast). Its load carrying capacity is fantastic for a medium sized car, having almost the capacity of a Ford Escort van when you remove the rear seats. On Monday I went to the local DIY store and bought a complete shower unit and two toilets, which all went in with loads of room to spare for the odd kitchen sink or two. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone that is thinking of Buying an MPV, the only change I would make… the next one will be a Grand Scenic.
A bit of a disjointed up date from a chilly South West France this week, but that probably sums up our situation/mood just at the moment... c'est la vie
All this and we have to keep a close eye on the cash flow as well as we appear to be on the wrong end of tax bills from both the Dutch and English authorities at the moment. These tax bills could have a serious effect on our ability to be ready for the start of the 2008 holiday season, however we will soldier on. No one said it was going to be easy but some things come out of the blue in an attempt to knock you off course, and this double whammy tax bill is one of those things, but we will remain strong and come through it.
The good news is that by Monday Fleur was better and actually asked to go to school when we were prepared to keep her at home.
On a totally different subject I must pay a little tribute to our humble Renault Megane Scenic, which we bought primarily for my wife when we first arrived in France, it was in fact, our first major purchase. Franca chose it because it gave her a very good seating position i.e. you sit higher than in a normal saloon car which made watching the road that much easier. However it has turned out to be a pretty good purchase, we are using every facet of its MPV features. It is a great family car with a very responsive diesel engine (1.9 DCI), one of the fastest and most responsive 1.9 diesels I’ve ever driven (I keep getting told off for driving too fast). Its load carrying capacity is fantastic for a medium sized car, having almost the capacity of a Ford Escort van when you remove the rear seats. On Monday I went to the local DIY store and bought a complete shower unit and two toilets, which all went in with loads of room to spare for the odd kitchen sink or two. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone that is thinking of Buying an MPV, the only change I would make… the next one will be a Grand Scenic.
A bit of a disjointed up date from a chilly South West France this week, but that probably sums up our situation/mood just at the moment... c'est la vie
Sunday, October 14, 2007
One's flabber has been ghasted England in the final again!
Well I thought I had to add my comments to the rugby world's collective flabber being well and truly ghasted, how on earth are England in the Rugby World Cup final? I should have been on the 66/1 odds being offered at the beginning of the tournament instead of the 7/1 being offered before the semi against France. What a game, but am I alone in thinking that the victory was almost gifted to England by Bernard Laporte's substitutions, or was it just that after the French epic performance against NZ they only had 60 minutes left in tank to beat England. Either way it was England's fitness and willingness to put their collective bodies on the line that in the end drove us through as the French weakened, only slightly. It was not pretty, but then when England try to play pretty they get beaten, although I think the pre sub'd French team out rucked and mauled us in the first half and we did very well to hang in there with some great last man tackling.
I was handicapped in the second half as my daughter fell asleep on my lap preventing me from shouting any encouragement towards the TV, so when Jonny's drop kick went over after some typically perfect setup play from England, I could only give it the Jasper Carrot yup (as in the football supporter in the wrong part of the ground when the away team score sketch), when everything inside of me was going crazy with this uncontrollable desire to run around the room shouting and screaming.
I feel very sorry for the French who obviously gave everything, to get to the final and in many ways deserved to be there, but hey I am English and, despite living in France, I'm proud of it, at least most of the time.
Now I have to get back to the building work, we have a French farmhouse that still needs a lot of work.
I was handicapped in the second half as my daughter fell asleep on my lap preventing me from shouting any encouragement towards the TV, so when Jonny's drop kick went over after some typically perfect setup play from England, I could only give it the Jasper Carrot yup (as in the football supporter in the wrong part of the ground when the away team score sketch), when everything inside of me was going crazy with this uncontrollable desire to run around the room shouting and screaming.
I feel very sorry for the French who obviously gave everything, to get to the final and in many ways deserved to be there, but hey I am English and, despite living in France, I'm proud of it, at least most of the time.
Now I have to get back to the building work, we have a French farmhouse that still needs a lot of work.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
French rugby clears restaurant
Not too much to report on the building front this week, the builders appeared to have a taking it easy week so there was not too much progress on room 2, though we, Franca and I, have put the first two coats of paint on the walls and ceiling of room 2. Allegedly the builders would like everything finished by Friday this week, well so would we, Franca is not that optimistic though, can’t think why…
We found a really nice restaurant in Rouillac on Saturday evening, it was a bar restaurant and the people that run it were really friendly, the food was great value for money the only problem was it was full of English people, it could have been a case of bad timing because France were playing New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup at the time we arrived. Strangely the restaurant emptied when France began their come back, and when we went to pay the bill we discovered everyone glued to the portable TV in the corner of the bar. I wonder what is going to happen now that England have to play France in the semi finals, will the entente cordial survive the experience?
The most important event of the weekend was Sunday lunch, where Janet and Martyn who rented us a gite whilst we were property hunting a couple of years ago near Saintes, came to see what we had finally bought after 2 years of searching. We were also able to test our cooking skills again and I am pleased to report that everything went according to plan this time, we served what we planned to serve with no major disasters, everyone liked the food, and it was a nice relaxing afternoon, the sun even came out so we could eat outside, great food, great wine and great company, who could ask for more.
Our big fridge tried to influence proceedings by deciding to break down again, I’m sure it knows when someone is coming to lunch or dinner, and just shuts down, but its had its chips now as a replacement has been delivered. Franca ordered it on Saturday and it arrived on Monday, amazing speed for a French business.
I managed to get a Working At Home day from my Boss for Monday of this week as Ryanair were not running their Monday morning flight, so I had to take the evening flight instead. I gave a lift to one of my fellow commuters to La Rochelle airport as she was going to the UK for 3 weeks and that is more than 100 Euros in parking charges, you can buy an aweful lot of wine for that sort of money, and it was nice to have some company in the car for a change, instead of Mike Oldfield, I really must remember to change the CD.
Our commuting club, the 10 or twelve of us who do the trip regularly from London to La Rochelle are in a bit of a quandary at the moment because the summer timetables are coming to an end, this means less flights to our area as the low cost airlines switch destinations for the winter to provide cheap flights to the snow. Poitiers flights are summer only and they have finished now, La Rochelle will be closing on Mondays from the end of October and all the flight times appear to be changing. The folks that fly Friday and go back on Sunday evening are fine for the moment, but those of us that fly back on Mondays are having to seek alternatives. Some are going to Nantes, which is a two and a half hour drive for me, so I am going to try British Airways from Bordeaux again, prices should be back down at a reasonable level from the end of October. October seems to be the month of rumours around La Rochelle airport, so far I have heard that in 2 years time La Rochelle airport may close because they can’t expand it, and the Angouleme rumour has surfaced again, with talk of both BA and Ryanair flying there from the spring, wonderful if it is true, I'm not going to get too exited, I’ll believe it when I see it.
We found a really nice restaurant in Rouillac on Saturday evening, it was a bar restaurant and the people that run it were really friendly, the food was great value for money the only problem was it was full of English people, it could have been a case of bad timing because France were playing New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup at the time we arrived. Strangely the restaurant emptied when France began their come back, and when we went to pay the bill we discovered everyone glued to the portable TV in the corner of the bar. I wonder what is going to happen now that England have to play France in the semi finals, will the entente cordial survive the experience?
The most important event of the weekend was Sunday lunch, where Janet and Martyn who rented us a gite whilst we were property hunting a couple of years ago near Saintes, came to see what we had finally bought after 2 years of searching. We were also able to test our cooking skills again and I am pleased to report that everything went according to plan this time, we served what we planned to serve with no major disasters, everyone liked the food, and it was a nice relaxing afternoon, the sun even came out so we could eat outside, great food, great wine and great company, who could ask for more.
Our big fridge tried to influence proceedings by deciding to break down again, I’m sure it knows when someone is coming to lunch or dinner, and just shuts down, but its had its chips now as a replacement has been delivered. Franca ordered it on Saturday and it arrived on Monday, amazing speed for a French business.
I managed to get a Working At Home day from my Boss for Monday of this week as Ryanair were not running their Monday morning flight, so I had to take the evening flight instead. I gave a lift to one of my fellow commuters to La Rochelle airport as she was going to the UK for 3 weeks and that is more than 100 Euros in parking charges, you can buy an aweful lot of wine for that sort of money, and it was nice to have some company in the car for a change, instead of Mike Oldfield, I really must remember to change the CD.
Our commuting club, the 10 or twelve of us who do the trip regularly from London to La Rochelle are in a bit of a quandary at the moment because the summer timetables are coming to an end, this means less flights to our area as the low cost airlines switch destinations for the winter to provide cheap flights to the snow. Poitiers flights are summer only and they have finished now, La Rochelle will be closing on Mondays from the end of October and all the flight times appear to be changing. The folks that fly Friday and go back on Sunday evening are fine for the moment, but those of us that fly back on Mondays are having to seek alternatives. Some are going to Nantes, which is a two and a half hour drive for me, so I am going to try British Airways from Bordeaux again, prices should be back down at a reasonable level from the end of October. October seems to be the month of rumours around La Rochelle airport, so far I have heard that in 2 years time La Rochelle airport may close because they can’t expand it, and the Angouleme rumour has surfaced again, with talk of both BA and Ryanair flying there from the spring, wonderful if it is true, I'm not going to get too exited, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Sweeties
In hotel Karina after a nice meal, playing with Lilly or Molly. We never know who is who. Picture is taken in July 2007.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
A heavy right winger...
So I am back at La Rochelle airport, I’m doing the round trip with Flybe from Southampton, which means flying out on Saturday Morning, returning Monday afternoon. I flew out on Saturday because there were no flights available on Friday afternoon or evening something to do with a little rugby tournament going on. We were in illustrious company on the flight out, with world record breaking yachts woman Ellen MacArthur (check her out at www.ellenmacarthur.com , I had to as I really did not know that much about what she has been up to since her round the world trip) .
We flew out on a little Embraer jet instead of the turbo prop we had last week which means the journey was about 20 minutes shorter than last week. I had pre-booked my seat on the Flybe web site but when I got to the gate I was collared by the ground staff to have my seat changed ‘for the trim of the aircraft’, am I really that heavy. When I got on board I discovered the real reason, I was booked in seat 7D however there were only three seats across in this plane, so you could say it was for the trim of the aircraft, I don’t think they wanted passengers sitting on the wing!
I made it back to Sigogne in record time, there is a lot less traffic on the road now that the main tourist season is over so it only took me an hour and ten minutes to drive from La Rochelle. Franca and Fleur waited for me before they went off to a birthday party for one of the children at Fleur’s school. Whilst they went partying I was laying more bricks. Three hours on Saturday afternoon and three hours on Sunday morning and I finally finished my little bit of wall. It had taken me 12 hours to cut and lay 26 load bearing breeze blocks to hold up a wall which I did not think was particularly safe without the extra support. I don’t think I would do very well on a building site being paid by piece work. That was about the extent of the work for this weekend, having lost most of Saturday to travel and Sunday afternoon to networking at a brocante at a local chateau. The brocante was nothing to write home and we left after only about 45 minutes, I never used to visit car boot sales in the UK and now I know why, although in this brave green world we now live in the more that gets re-used the better.
Building work is progressing well on room 2 and it should be more or less finished on time, apart from some debate over sourcing the bi-fold door for the bathroom, which is apparently not really known in France, except on wardrobes. If the building work is complete, then next weekend will be taken up with painting room two.
The plane has just arrived, and it looks like we have got one of Flybe’s new Large Embraer jets, so we will be back in Southampton quite quickly, that’s three different flights and three different types of aircraft, let hope there is a seat 7D on this flight because my seat has not been changed this time.
We flew out on a little Embraer jet instead of the turbo prop we had last week which means the journey was about 20 minutes shorter than last week. I had pre-booked my seat on the Flybe web site but when I got to the gate I was collared by the ground staff to have my seat changed ‘for the trim of the aircraft’, am I really that heavy. When I got on board I discovered the real reason, I was booked in seat 7D however there were only three seats across in this plane, so you could say it was for the trim of the aircraft, I don’t think they wanted passengers sitting on the wing!
I made it back to Sigogne in record time, there is a lot less traffic on the road now that the main tourist season is over so it only took me an hour and ten minutes to drive from La Rochelle. Franca and Fleur waited for me before they went off to a birthday party for one of the children at Fleur’s school. Whilst they went partying I was laying more bricks. Three hours on Saturday afternoon and three hours on Sunday morning and I finally finished my little bit of wall. It had taken me 12 hours to cut and lay 26 load bearing breeze blocks to hold up a wall which I did not think was particularly safe without the extra support. I don’t think I would do very well on a building site being paid by piece work. That was about the extent of the work for this weekend, having lost most of Saturday to travel and Sunday afternoon to networking at a brocante at a local chateau. The brocante was nothing to write home and we left after only about 45 minutes, I never used to visit car boot sales in the UK and now I know why, although in this brave green world we now live in the more that gets re-used the better.
Building work is progressing well on room 2 and it should be more or less finished on time, apart from some debate over sourcing the bi-fold door for the bathroom, which is apparently not really known in France, except on wardrobes. If the building work is complete, then next weekend will be taken up with painting room two.
The plane has just arrived, and it looks like we have got one of Flybe’s new Large Embraer jets, so we will be back in Southampton quite quickly, that’s three different flights and three different types of aircraft, let hope there is a seat 7D on this flight because my seat has not been changed this time.
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