Good Intentions

8 July 2013
There I was, all keyed up to write a regular blog so I could read it in my old age and relive all the exciting things we do (and in my dreams be a 21st century Samuel Pepys - a female version, of course. Hah, what dreams!!). Then life got in the way so I didn't record any of the important things that have happened recently. Still, never one to be put off, I thought I'd start now. It's helped by the fact that the days are so warm here that it's impossible to work or sit out in the garden from about 12 noon until early evening! At first the afternoons were taken up by watching Wimbledon and the Grand Prix, but now it's only the Tour de France which doesn't need as much concentration - and today it's not even on since it's a rest day. Now there's nothing to stop me, apart from playing computer games, but I'm determined not to let myself get into that rut.

But what?? Here I am just one paragraph in and we're off to Brico Depo to buy the remainder of the things that we need to complete the gite kitchen.

Main house is 2 sections on left,
gite last on right

Isn't it amazing how one develops a 'code' to help identify different things - we do it all the time. In this house we've bought in the Vendee, there are so many rooms it's vital to be identify which one we are talking about . . . so we a have the main house, which has the main bedroom ('our bedroom'),  spare bedroom, studio, kitchen, lounge, salon, pantry, boiler room and wine cave. The attached smaller house (although still 3 bedrooms like the main house, but smaller) we intend to let out as a gite in the summer months, and that has a gite kitchen, gite lounge etc.


27 July
Boy, that trip to Brico Depo was a long one, it took 19 days! So, what has happened to keep me from the blog? Well, playing cards on the computer has taken quite a few hours, or even days! But NOT TODAY!! So, what has happened over the 2.5 weeks? Lots. Used to hear about people who basically had no life once they'd retired - work had been their reason for being. Not for John and me. For the first time in our lives we can make decisions that are totally our own - it sounds awful to say, but with both sets of parents dead, there is nothing holding us back, we are free to do whatever we want. And believe me it is good to be able to have a totally free choice for the first time in your life - it's only taken me 62 years!

Gite kitchen as we originally saw it

Having got all the electrics replaced in the gite, we bought the kitchen units and set ourselves a schedule which would mean we'd have the whole thing finished for when Dave and Emma came round for a barbecue. They are the couple who own the chambres d'hotes we stayed in whilst looking for the house and then during the buying process - so they've lived this expedition with us. They also know exactly what we're going through in the renovations, since their house was a derelict tannery when they bought it.

We hired a van for three days and had a quick visit up to Le Bourg Dun to pick up the washing machine, some more kitchen stuff and our double bed. (A 'quick' visit means mainly spending hours on the motorways. It takes about six hours to drive from here (including stops) on the motorway, and costs about €45 each way. What appears a good thing in France - no road tax - is not quite so good when you do a lot of motorway driving. The downside consequence is that most of the major motorways are toll roads to raise money for maintenance which makes the trips quite expensive for us. Travelling on the ordinary roads, however, would add about another two hours, so difficult when doing just a three day trip.) Hopefully this means we can have a proper kitchen (not just surviving with a microwave and a barbecue) and also have a spare bed for visitors - though having a bathroom in the gite would be another prerequisite!

Well, we didn't make that deadline. Though it didn't matter too much since poor Emma fell down the stairs and broke her wrist and jaw, so they had to cancel anyway. (Actually a good thing since I realised after that we didn't have any decent crockery!). I did say that it would have been easier and definitely less painful just to pretend they had no time if they didn't want to see us!!

1 August
At least the gaps between my comments are getting shorter - pretty soon they may even be daily!

Following the accident, we arranged another date with Dave and Emma to come round for coffee (Emma can't eat anything solid yet) which was Tuesday, and we were using that as a new deadline to get the kitchen done - guess what!

Today had roast chicken for lunch!! At least the bottom units, oven and hob are working now, so hopefully we'll have a fully operational kitchen early next week. Then we'll go back up to Normandy for a few days to get the work progressed there, and bring back the rest of the kitchen 'stuff' to fill all the cupboards here.



August schedule is:

1. Finish the gite kitchen.
2. Get the gite upstairs bathroom finished (new everything, including plumbing) so we can live there in September when the electrics and heating is being done in the main house.
3. Take out all the asbestos cement panels in the main house in readiness for the electricians and plumbers. Luckily the rubbish tip at Fontenay le Comte actually accepts asbestos! That is very rare, and we thought we'd have to leave them stacked up in the back yard. This wouldn't have been as bad as it sounds since they are OK so long as they don't start to break up.
4. Put in a shower room on the ground floor of the gite - not vital since there is a downstairs toilet already, but it would be nice to have all the messy work finished. If not, we'll just have to keep the door shut when Mike and Pat Meara and the Skeltons come for an overnight stay in early September.

Not much really, probably spend most of the time sunbathing in the garden!



Interesting Things No.1

We had torrential rain one evening with rain pouring out of the guttering. Thought we had a problem till we saw the pigeon who has made a nest right next to the downspout. Hope the eggs/youngsters don't get washed away! Not the safest place to nest.

Corflu Part 1

Wednesday, 24 April

Here we are, sitting in a lovely self-catering apartment in the hotel district just outside Charles de Gaulle airport, watching the snooker from Sheffield with German commentary on World Sport. How’s that for a good representation of life in the Europen community. (Marco Fu is leading Matthew Stevens, if you’re interested, but by the time I’ve finished this post the whole world will know if this is in the slightest important.)

Tuesday, 23 April

What an enjoyable evening at Arques la Bataille with the Connect Club. (Connect Club is a group of people who are interested in meeting different nationalities who are living in France. It is the brilliant idea of an Englishwoman who has lived in Normandy for 20+ years, and a lot of the members are British, but there are lots of French who want to meet Brits. Christine arranges lots of activities - meals out, barbecues, trips to various interesting places - of which this was another one.) In fact, what a good day overall. Almost completely packed for the holiday, and just a little housework to do. To be honest, if it hadn’t been for this Connect meeting we might not be so well prepared. You know how it is, work takes as long as the time available.

Wine and cheese tasting, with a lot of education on the wines - who would have believed that a Frenchman would be recommending a white wine for cheese! They are usually so tied to tradition. And to top it all, I liked the white wine that was recommended to accompany the Stilton (another surprise to have a non-French cheese represented, but maybe it was just a nod towards the English President). Unfortunately my notes are back in Le Boug-Dun so you’ll have to wait with baited breath for the details. It was again a very continental night - French & English (of course), but also Dutch and Belgian. Not bad for a group of under 20.

Wednesday again

“I don’t fancy 4 hours in a taxi to get to Charles de Gaulle Airport”, said John. So here we are, staying in OnlySuites ’hotel’ for the night, having got a lift at 9am this morning to Dieppe railway station, a train from there to Rouen, from Rouen to Paris St Lazare, RER to Gare du Nord, and then another to the airport, and finally a courtesy bus to the hotel which arrived just before check-in started at 3pm. 4 hours too long John?

Still it’s all part of the ’experience’ as is sitting here listening to the English of the referee and the German commentary of the snooker match. And tomorrow we’ll start again on our voyage of discovery. In particular we will find out if there is any drawback to BA paying us to fly from Paris to London and on to Seattle. Yes, you read that right. The flight direct from Heathrow to Seattle was MORE expensive than starting off from Paris and changing at Heathrow for the same flight to Seattle!

 

Corflu here we come!

Yet another new life. . .

 

Saturday, 16th March 2013

What a way to start the rest of our lives!  Just in case you can't keep up, this is the 2nd start of the rest of our lives. The first occurred when we moved over to France when we'd sold our house in the UK. The 2nd one has occurred now I'm retired and we've found the house in which we'd like to spend the rest of our lives (until we change our minds, of course!)

Anyway, this time started with getting up at what for us is the crack of dawn (7.30 am) to get the ferry back to France ready to start all the preparations for buying our new house down south next week. 

I even had the great idea that John could stop off at Sainsbury to get some more underwear.  Well you know what it's like, you buy new pants in a batch, which means they all wear out in a batch, which is what had been happening to John on this trip.  So far, so good, but then it all started going wrong. 

Firstly, Sainsbury had no underwear. Oh well, he'll manage, it's not like he hasn't got loads!  Then whilst queuing at the ferry port in Newhaven, we're told that as a result of the high winds the ferry can't actually get into the port.  Hopefully in an hour it should be OK.  And it was. The ferry got in and we were all moved from the warmth and comfort of the cafe out into the car to wait in the main loading area.  Another hour later, it'll be another 2 hours before they think they can attempt to get out of the harbour because the wind is again too fierce ­– but I can stand up in this wind, and I'm a lot smaller than the ferry, even after eating for the 10,000 this holiday!  They let us on board, so at least it's warm, and they’ve even given us a free drink in recompense – a soft one mind you, so generous!

So here we are at 12.15 am, sitting in the bar of a stationary ferry which should have left at 10.00 am, hoping that we'll get back home some time today!  However, the ever-present silver lining is that I have started my diary!!

Sunday, 7^th April

Boy, what a day!  Weather was good again (it’s been cold, but sunny for the last couple of weeks, so can’t really complain).  So got out to do a bit more weeding. None of that digging stuff, far too energetic when you’ve got chemicals that’ll do the job for you.  So finished the weeding that I’d   started yesterday. Still got the whole of the back garden to do, but at least it’s a start.  We’ve been meaning to do so much for so long now, but somehow something always seems to interfere.

First there was John being ill with cold/flu just before Easter, then me following with similar symptoms about a day later. For the first time in almost 40 years of being together, we slept in separate rooms.  Luckily John was feeling better by the time we had the trip down to Vendee for the signing of the final Acte de Vente for the purchase of the house at Nieul sur l’Autise.  That's where we are going to live this 'rest of our lives'. Unfortunately the owner, Olivier Croyeau des Loges, hadn’t finished clearing his stuff – to be honest it looked like he’d cleared virtually nothing. We agreed to give him an additional 2 weeks, and the Notaire had re-written the Acte de Vente, but Olivier started talking about wanting to take all the Porcelain door handles and other crap like that, so the Notaire said no to finishing the deal there and then. He actually went and confirmed with the removers when they could come, and that they would be paid directly from the money we had sent the Notaire.  So we’re due down again in 2 weeks and hopefully it will be 3^rd time lucky!!

Just parking in the garden on Thursday on our return when Tony arrived for Easter – good timing! House was freezing cold having been empty since Sunday but we soon sorted that out!

Weather was too cold to do anything much in the garden over the weekend, even though it was beautifully sunny.  Tony returned on Wednesday, about 2 hrs after Julie arrived!  LD Lines have the most annoying website – you can look up the schedule, which said Julie’s boat would be leaving Newhaven at 10 a.m., but that is only the planned timing. To find the actual time, you have to start to book a crossing, and if we’d have done that we would have known that for some reason Julie’s boat was leaving at 8.30 a.m.!  We only knew when she emailed us to say she was already in, so left the bar immediately and picked her up – unfortunately about 1.5 hrs after she arrived, but luckily it was sunny, so she was happily sitting in the sun listening to her iPhone.

Wednesday we did Rouen, though Julie didn’t get to see Richard the Lionheart’s tomb since they were working on that part of the church. We did get inside Joan of Ark’s church, which is the best. I just love the feeling when you get into it, and the shape of the outside is mind boggling! An upside-down Viking longship.

Thursday we did the funicular railway at Le Treport.

Brilliant!!!

Never been on one before but will sure as hell do it again!  This one’s very short, but it’s mind boggling to be in the tunnels and see all the work that went into it.  In the evening we introduced Julie to meat fondu – such an easy meal to make, but what fun!

Friday went down the bar and joined what looked like an impromptu cake tasting with Daniel, Michel and a couple of other men we know but can’t remember their names. (Must remember down in Nieul to make a quick note every time we meet someone so that we don’t get in the same situation where we know people too well to ask their names!) Then, after an impromptu buffet at home, we took Julie off for the return boat.  By 6 p.m. we were back home and alone!

New Life

Hah, the last post I did was 2nd January saying one of my New Year's resolutions was to be more active with the blog. Well, that one went out of the window didn't it - together with the 'must lose weight', etc etc.  At least over the last couple of months I have an excuse. Why haven't I posted anything recently?  Well, here's the calendar of events over the last few weeks . . .

Early April                       
Received offer on the house and accepted it - now seriously have to start packing up after 23 years of accumulation of 'stuff'
Slightly later in April       
Buyer wants to complete whilst we were away in the US at Corflu, but we still said yes, just have to get everything cleared up before we go - no pressure then
Shortly thereafter             Completion delayed - phew
Thursday, 19th April        Fly to Las Vegas for Corflu and holiday
Wednesday, 25th April     Solicitor phoned at 6 a.m. our time whilst to say likely to be exchanging contracts today for completion Wednesday, 2 May. We get back on 1 May - well, after a holiday we won't be needing much sleep as we pack up the house
Tuesday, 1 May                Return to UK and continue packing whilst no news on completion, so we assume it won't be next week
Friday, 5 May                   Go to Sheffield
Saturday, 6 May               Doug and Julia's wedding in Sheffield - hear that completion will be delayed
Sunday, 7 May                  Return to Tonwell and packing
Tuesday, 9 May                9th anniversary of our purchase of the house in Bourg Dun - pick up van for transporting boxes to France, which was ordered when we thought we were going to complete today. Alison and Bob come over to help load the van
Wednesday, 10 May         Take overnight ferry to Bourg Dun and arrive 4 a.m. Thursday morning
Thursday, 11 May            Sleep, unpack van with Martial's help with the large furniture, go down bar, catch 6 p.m. ferry back to England
Friday, 12 May                 Packing
Saturday, 12 May             John has a rehearsal for the Jubilee gig - I continue packing
Sunday, 13 May                John has a Worldcon committee meeting at Excel centre - I continue packing
Wednesday, 16 May          Got a completion date - next Wednesday! - more packing
Saturday, 19 May             Drive to Sheffield for Novacon committee meeting
Sunday, 20 May                Return early from Sheffield for more packing
Tuesday, 22 May              Pick up van again, Alison, Bob, Andy and Keith help. All neighbours come round pub for a farewell drink, as do our buyers whom we had never actually met before. Good night had by us, and hopefully by all, but we didn't get to bed until after midnight, and there's still you know what to do (packing, if you hadn't guessed)
Wednesday, 23 May          Leave the house after 23 years!  (Late, and leaving a couple of things behind, because we hadn't done enough you know wat!!) Overnight ferry to France arriving 4 a.m.
Thursday, 24 May             Unpack van
Friday, 25 May                 Return to UK and stay in Travelodge near Cambridge - weird not having anywhere to stay!
Saturday, 26 May             Malcolm's 60th birthday party in Cambridge
Sunday, 27th May             Back to France, pick up Yvonne and Ian en route at Dieppe who are staying for a short holiday
Monday, 28 - Thursday 31 May             
                                          Collapse with Yvonne and Ian
Friday, 1 June                   Return to England
Monday, 4 June                 John's gig at the Rifle Volunteer - absolutely fantastic considering the last time they played was my 60th birthday last year.
Tuesday, 5 - Saturday, 9 June  Restful time with Alison & Bob - no packing, just arranging new driver's licence, notarised photocopies of documents, new window panel to take to France, etc, etc, and somewhere we managed to fit in a meal at The Hotel Inspector's restaurant. Now that was great!  Friday we came into town for Julie's farewell lunch, followed by drinks in evening. Now that really is the end of an era - no-one is left from the early days of either CIFT of Incisive e-Learning. Well, I'm still working remotely for them until we get all the courses transferred, so not totally a change of guard, but almost.

Sunday, 10th June              Now really is the beginning of our new life - started with a meal round at Mesnil, of course!

Our new life also started with a cough & sore throat, which first showed itself that Sunday night, and I still have today - 16th July!!  I blame Yvonne - I'm sure she was just too generous and gave me this little leaving present. Mind you, from the sounds of it I've done the same and given it to Alice Lawson.

Anyway, I think I can be forgiven for not having kept up with my New Year's resolution - at least from April, anyway. We'll see how the rest of the year goes.
                                 

A Clean Page

I just LOVE New Year's Day. It is akin to starting that new exercise book back at school- the first page is nice and crisp and clean, just waiting for the neat writing to be added. I've felt like this since I was a kid - even given the fact that I always blotted ink all over the page within the first couple of lines. Somehow I always managed to get ink on the side of my hand, so got a side-palm print over the middle of the page.

So, how long until the inky blobs appear this year? No idea, and to be honest it doesn't matter. So long as each year I try again. After all, this is the beginning of hte rest of my life.

And I do feel excited about it - this year is going to be different from my life over the last couple of years, that's for sure. We've got someone interested in buying the UK house - though they've still got to sell their house, so I'm not holding my breath (blue may be my colour, but not that much). At some stage this year we will have sold it, I am sure, and then we start a whole new life in a new country. Can't get much more exciting than that.

In addition, I still have 3 days a week work, which means we don't have to panic about getting the mortgage paid for a few more months. And to make it even better, I only have to trail into London one day a week - the other two I'm working from home. Now that's bad for the diet (don't get the same amount of exercise) but superb for the mental attitude. I know which one I'd prefer.

The big plan (so far) is that I work until end March. End of April we're off to Las Vegas for Corflu (MUST get the flights booked! That would help). From mid-end May we're planning being over here in France, obviously coming back for the Olympics. Well, we've got tickets for the rowing - no, I didn't know I was interested in rowing, but we applied for all the sports in which we had a chance of a medal, and only got rowing out at Eton College I think, not even the main arenas. Still, when else will we have the chance? We went to see the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, and I wasn't too impressed with the view you get from the athletics. There is just too much going on at the same time, and the stadium is so large it's difficult to see the track on the other side - so I wasn't bothered about anything in the main stadium, even though athletics is my favourite sport. I'd rather see it on TV.

And in 2 weeks time I get my first payment of my pension!  Whoopee!  John and I are planning to go out for a slap up meal to use up that first payment. Not that the pension's very much, but it is better than nothing, and with the personal pensions we both took out, we might just be able to survive (until inflation hits, of course, since the personal pensions are fixed amounts). We'll carry on with the Chambres d'Hotes, but that can be for the holidays/conventions and other luxuries. So it we have a bad year, it won't bite into normal living expenses. Mind you, the best laid plans of mice and men. . . . etc

It'll be interesting to see how much the plans change over the year. The best thing will be that we sell the UK house. As soon as that's done we can start planning the rest of our lives.

Fetes & Friends

Well, once again the best laid plans of men, mice and Eve have gone awry. There I was hoping to be able to do a daily diary, and it’s over a month since my last ‘confession’. Still, such is life. Now we’re back in the UK and I’m being bored at work, so perhaps I’ll be a little more industrious.

I must admit that sometimes I wonder why on earth I’m doing this – other than I was steamrolled into it by Ian Sorensen last year. Then I think about all the experiences we are having with our two-nation lifestyle, and how I don’t want to forget what it feels like to totally change your way of living, so I carry on. Hopefully my musings are also of interest to others, as are the articles each Saturday in the Telegraph (C'est La Folie) which were the original inspiration, but the key audience is me - I want to make sure I document our life and feelings.

Anyway, back to a quick summary of the rest of the summer before I totally forget.

Of family, friends and conges

One thing that is good about having a house abroad is that people tend to come and visit you for more than just an evening. The second good thing is that in showing them the area in which you live, you appreciate again the beauty of the region and the fun of the people.

This year our first visitation was John’s sister Alison, husband Bob and their two friends Pavlenka and Stephen. With two chefs in the house I should have been nervous of offering to cater each night so no-one would have to drink and drive, but luckily after the first bottle of wine I was fine (that’s theirs as well as mine). We did the usual coastal tour - Dieppe (street market), Pourville (Monet painting), Quiberville (fishermen’s stalls), St Aubin (nothing much but it’s the nearest beach), Veules le Roses (guardsmen bears, river, watercress beds etc, etc) and St Valery (port with metal pigeons) – and each time I show someone else these places, I see them again for the first time.

We then had my work colleage, Julie, over for the bank holiday weekend.  At this time the French school kids were due to go back to school, and Dieppe was virtually deserted - even with a funfair on the seafront.  Well, maybe not deserted, methinks I exaggerate a little - but the difference with just the week before was extraordinary.  Somehow Dieppe is even worse than most other seaside resorts for its on-off character - and it's not like I'm not used to the lights being switched off out of season, I was born and bred in Brighton after all.  OK, Brighton is a city now and is buzzing all year round, but back in the 60s it wasn't quite the same. 

She also was given the coastal tour, the local bar (where she made a big hit with Michel of the fishing competition blog post), and the chalk-and-cheese dining experiences of the restaurant at the campsite Mesnil and the Michelin starred restaurant next door to our house (L'Auberge).  And I think went away with a good idea of what life's like for us (though L'Auberge is only once or twice a year at their prices!!).

The one thing we couldn't show either sets of friends was the other staple of summer life in Seine Maritime, and that's the fetes.  Unlike the UK, where villages tend to have just 1 summer fete, the Cauchoise (name for the people from our area of Normandy) will use any excuse to get out the marquee and the barbecue.  I'm sure it's the same in the rest of France, but I can only talk of our area.

It starts on the last weekend of June, with the Méchoui - which is a North African whole lamb barbecue.  We all congregate in the barn of a nearby farm where a 3-course meal with as much wine/cider etc as you want is provided. Last year we won a whole jambon in the raffle (ham leg) which we didn't finish until the beginning of this year.

The following weekend we have the 3-day event of the Festival du Lin et de l'Aiguille.  (France is the world's leading grower of flax, and I think Seine Maritime is one of the most important areas.) which culminates in another barbecue meal but this time under the 'Chapiteau' on the green behind the bar.  This weekend is absolutely amazing - according to Wikepedia Le Bourg Dun has a population of 400+, but over this weekend it must swell by the odd thousand or so!

Just in case you get hungry and/or bored, there is then the
Horse Fair (Fete de Cheval) in Quiberville - no, not on the promenade you idiot, that's the only picture I could find of Quiberville!

I wrote about this in a previous blog, so enough said, except that I've now found another picture.  Apparently the lunch they do is superb as well, but we've never made that one.

Back before everyone had kitchens etc, most villagers used a communal oven for their cooking, whilst it was still warm after the baker had finished in the mornings.  Ours (i.e. Bourg Dun's) has been restored, and in August we have the Fete du Pain where they fire it up again and - yes you guessed it - we all get together for another 3 or 4 course barbecue lunch under the 'chapiteau'.  This year the weather running up to that weekend had been very wet, so parking in the field was 'interesting', especially when the car in front decided to stop just as we'd got into the most muddy of patches at the entrance. John obviously got stuck, and so had to back up to take a run at it a second time.  He wasn't going to get caught again, and almost broke the sound barrier as he accelerated into the field!

We had a great meal here with English and French friends, but had to leave early to dash into Dieppe to meet up with Alison and Bob et al of whom I have spoken earlier.

Unfortunately we missed the last fete in Bourg Dun  as we were away on holiday (yes, I know it all sounds like holiday, but I'm skipping over the 3 days a week I'm tied to the computer, and all the washing, ironing and cleaning that is required for the B&B). This is a 'Foire a tout' i.e. a car boot sale with the usual tat - but it's foreign tat so it's more exotic, combined with, yes you guessed it, another meal 'sous chapiteau' behind the bar.

That's where it ends, though. As we got back from our holiday in the second week of September, you could see the difference.  It had been our wedding anniversary (36 years!) on the return journey from the Gironde estuary, but we decided to celebrate it when we got back to Bourg Dun. We couldn't afford L'Auberge again, and anyway they keep the same menu and we'd been there too recently to go again.  How about Les Galets - that posh restaurant in Veules le Roses we've been meaning to go to for years?  Nope, closed for conges (summer holidays).  Oh, there's the Trou Normand in Pourville - hah, closed for conges and refurbishment.  How about L'Auberge de l'Etang at Mannerville - doesn't say its closed for conges, but there're no lights on.  Then there's the posh restaurant in St Valery - closed for conges....

Luckily we found somewhere and an excellent night was had, but talk about Blackpool on a wet Sunday!!

Police, horses and broken washing lines

Whilst driving down to the main commercial/retail park at Barentin (what great sightseeing trips we do), first of all we were stopped by the police. Not that we were doing anything wrong, it was one of those standard stop every third car type of thing. Usually they don't bother with foreign cars, but either they felt adventurous, or hadn't noticed the foreign plates and were now trying to bluff it out.

Of course, all they wanted to see was John's driving licence, which was the only document he didn't have with him - it was back at Bourg Dun in his English wallet. Luckily I don't think the policeman could face the paperwork, and just told us to get on. At first I thought it was lazy of John to talk to him in English, but then I realised this was most probably adding to his decision that life was too short to bother taking our lack of documentation any further. (Must remember to nag John about this whenever I can!)

About 10 minutes down the road, we were nearing our destination when we saw a sign for Pissy-Poville.  I would love to live there!

That was exciting Friday, Sunday was even better - we had a . . .

Ah, that's the problem with living life, there's no time left for recording how you lived it. The former was written on 5th August, it's now 20th, and I've only a vague idea what witticisms I was going to add except for the hints in the title and the tags I'd added before writing (what a good idea, must do that more often).

Saturday, I remember, we were going to see the Horse Fair in the next village, Quiberville, but it rained all day so we didn't.  Sunday wasn't so bad - damp but not raining hard, so we went to Quiberville. If you know this area, you know Quiberville is a small place but each year they have a massive horse fair.  There are all the usual side stalls selling pictures of horses, horsey paraphenalia etc but also a show-jumping competition for teenagers, and an obstacle course for horses with carts. Finally, we saw a group of men playing hunting horns - quite weird really, especially as the sound is so very directional from the horns that when we were sitting behind them it sounded awful.

.............

It's now 9th September and I'm still desperately trying to finish this entry! The last thing that happened was the rotary washing line bent under a load when the wind was high, so we had to replace it which meant digging out a new hole, trying to find the 'right' sort of cement when you don't know the technical terms in French (for some reason that isn't part of standard evening class vocabulary). Don't know why on earth I thought anyone would be interested in that aspect of our life here in France . . . still, this item's finished now and I can start to fill in the gaps of the 5 weeks since I started it.