The trouble with keeping a diary is that often you're so busy living life, there's no time left for writing about it. Or else, it appears so boring when you put the words on the paper - what did I do yesterday? I did housework, gardening, worked on the computer, had apero in the garden, ate, watched tv. Still, for posterity, and for that novel I may one day write (well if Jordan - sorry, Katie Price - can do it, I'm sure I can).
So, Monday we had John and Mary round for a meal - they don't like eating late so were due round about 5 p.m., which foreshortened all the cleaning we had to do. It's great having one of those large farm kitchen/diners, but the problem is they have to be clean and tidy for entertaining. That's especially hard for us since the kitchen table is also the office (remember, I'm still putting in 21hrs a week on the computer) and repository for all the paperwork we must sort out 'real soon now', and the bag of John's cables etc which are of vital importance, and the empty wine bottles and cardboard boxes that we will recycle 'real soon now'.
Anyway, a good time was had by all - aperos in the garden since the weather was good(ish), followed by too much food and too much wine. That's what I call life - which is why I'm so overweight, but hey, someone's got to make everyone else on a diet feel good about themselves.
Going back one day, on Sunday there was a fishing competition at the local lake - not that much more than a pond really in a local farm - and in the bar on Saturday night Michel had said we must come. Sunday morning it absolutely chucked it down, so we thought we'd give it a miss, but by lunchtime it had cleared, so we had a small 'constitutional' walk round to see if anyone had turned up. You can tell we're not fishermen - of course they had turned up! Somehow, quite by coincidence, we managed to make it in time for lunch.
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| L'Etang |
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| Not much fishing going on! |
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| Michel - typical Frenchman with his 'Ricard' belly |
We love to go to these types of occasion and see the French at their ease. I suppose English fishing clubs would have similar days, but you never make the effort when it's at home. But back to L'Etang du Peche. It's quite embarrassing at these sorts of occasions because we meet people we've seen in the bar perhaps once or twice, but have no idea what their names are. They all know us, because we're 'Les Anglais' with the house next to the traffic lights - or possibly, Les Anglais with the wife who speaks French. Either way, we stick out in a crowd, whereas your normal French person doesn't!
Just for completeness, and for our memories in several years when we look back on these blog entries to see what life was like, what more have we done?
Tuesday was the end of my holiday so I was back 'in the office' all day. At lunchtime we had to dash round and get the two bedrooms ready for our guests, and John had to finish off the bathroom where he has replaced all the fittings. Our guests (two adults (Chinese) & two children from Kingston-on-Thames) arrived about 8.30 p.m. so it was down with the volume on the tv and tiptoeing around from then on so we didn't disturb them. When we buy our next house we are DEFINITELY going to make sure guest accommodation is not over/under our living accommodation. Anyway, they seem really nice and don't want breakfast until 8 a.m. which is good - I hate early mornings.
Wednesday was another day in the office for me after sorting out the Chiangs' breakfast, and a stroll along the beach at St Aubin sur Mer (about 4-5 km from the house) before dinner, tv and bed. What an exciting life we lead!
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| Eve in the French office |
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| Don't know how much work John is doing, given the computer program he's running. |
It's now Thursday and the Chiang's have just left for the day, so we have 1 hr of peace and quiet before I start work - can't wait until someone buys our UK house and I can retire!
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