Bucket Lists and Resolutions

“Will you come out for a cookie?” 

says the LGB and it's not even light outside yet.  It’s time to crawl out from under the duvet.  The Christmas break is over and we have to get into work mode again.  Here we are back on site.  I always worry a little whenever we are away from the sites. There were no nasties awaiting us.  The LGB had even left the keys to the transit van in the door of the van, but nobody took advantage!  Other than that all was well.

New Year's Eve came and went.  I left the LGB and Dad celebrating in the village pub.  They indulged with full gusto, returned to eat a meal and promptly retired to bed.  I spent the evening in the company of Jules Holland and Hootenanny and celebrated the New Year to the sounds of fire-works, Auld Lang Syne and two squiffy men snoring down the corridor.

No, no, no, don’t feel sorry for me, well maybe a little.  Actually, I really didn’t mind.  I am not one for New Year’s celebrations.  They are often a big anticlimax and Jules Holland doesn’t make a grab and smack a sloppy kiss on my mush at the stroke of midnight.  Why do total strangers do that?  Thankfully I usually manage to turn my head quickly enough for them to leave their spittle dripping from my earlobe like a shiny drop earring. Yuk!

Bucket Lists

Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions?  I don’t make any, well none that I say out loud.  I kind of whisper a few to myself. Never give anyone any ammunition to throw back at a later date.  Mine are usually; lose weight, get fit, do the ironing as soon as it comes off the line.  Unsurprisingly I’m still a chubber and still get out of breath as I push the ironing into the cupboard as it strains against the door to escape.

A ‘Bucket List’ seems to be the in thing at the moment.  It’s a wish list of the things you would like to do before you kick the bucket.  For my French friends to ‘kick the bucket’ means to ‘pop your clogs’ or ‘pushing up the daisies’, does that help?  Perhaps not, it means to die.

What would be on your Bucket List?  Mine would read;

Lose weight.

Get fit.

Do the ironing as soon as it comes off the line.

Finish building the house.  (Actually, I’ll put that on the LGB’s Bucket List instead.)     Blimey, I hope he doesn’t kick the bucket before he finishes.  He wouldn’t be so selfish would he?

Sell the house.

Build a house.  (Are you totally barking?)  A much smaller house, much, much smaller, ……… tiny, minuscule in fact.  A bolt hole for when we are not travelling in our camper van.

Buy a camper van.

Make a rag rug.

Learn how to use this laptop and my camera.

This is not a binding contract!  I may do all, some or none of these things.

Ranting in the Mother Tongue 

The main purpose of our trip back to the UK (besides Christmas with the family) was to collect the remainder of the system for the heating system.  An email to Ice Energy before leaving France received a reply that all was well.  A confirmation phone call the day before collection brought the bad news that the equipment wasn’t there.  The LGB was not pleased.  However, he did say it was satisfying to be able to shout at someone in English!  Every cloud has a silver lining!

Our First Visitor

We didn’t get straight back to work as the LGB’s daughter, Lily came to stay.  I think she was suitably impressed with the progress we had made, but not too impressed with having to sleep on the floor in our ‘bedsit’ and even less impressed with the en suite bucket.  Strangely, nobody needed the loo during the night!  Meanwhile the family Lily was holidaying with spent a night in The Lavender House in Montemboeuf, a tasteful and very reasonably priced local Chambre d’Hote.

The second night they spent at my favourite local Chambre d’Hote, the beautiful Chateau du Mesnieux, my dream house. 

       
              

                                 

This bench is for sale.
Circa 1900
300€
Call the Chateau for details

Back to Building Business 

We’ve laid the chestnut flooring in the last bedroom and have put up all the partitions for the bedrooms and bathrooms ready for plaster boarding and first fix electrics.

I forgot to take a photo of the finished floor before covering it!

The camera battery was flat so I have no photos of the partitions :( I will put them on the next blog post (add to bucket list).