Are You Snug As A Bug?

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

So, are you wandering around in your slippers and jim-jams all warm and comfortable with your central heating and cosy log burners?  There’s lovely!  As long as you are snug and comfy, that’s all we were worried about.  B*st*rds!

I am sitting here in my furry jacket with a hot water bottle.  Faux fur darling, faux fur.  No animal was harmed in making me comfortable.  I have already inadvertently eaten meat this week.  When I asked for a vegetarian meal in a restaurant I was offered spaghetti with just tomato sauce.  A little uninspiring but fine never the less.  All they did, however, was sieve out the meat from the bolognaise sauce, well most of it!  When I asked the waitress if there was meat in the sauce she said ‘peut-être’ - perhaps!

The North wind picked up this week and the site is well exposed to it.  We will have to resort to taking an evening dose of Sea Legs to get us through the nights with the caravan swaying and rocking in the wind,  a couple of sleeping tablets to give us a little respite in the wee hours, and a hand-full of Pro-Plus to keep us going during the day.  Shake, rattle and roll!

This will be partitioned to become our bedroom

Come Dancing                               

Apart from being cold, suffering from sleep deprivation and raging backache I've enjoyed this week.  We have been laying the chestnut flooring upstairs.As we were sticking on the final plaster boards Chet Atkins was belting out  'Yakety Axe'  My kind of music.  The LGB calls it ‘thigh slapping, arse kicking’ music.  Despite that he asked if I fancied a dance!  I said we should save it until the floor was laid.  Well, we have now laid three quarters of it, just one bedroom to go, so we did a little formal dance followed by a little jig in celebration.  It’s like a little ballroom up there.

A formal dance.............

followed by a little hoedown

                                         (There's life in the old boy yet!)                   

We have a good little system going.  I lay out the boards, we both fit them and the LGB nails them down.  We have decided to do the bathrooms in wood instead of tiles so we have to order some more chestnut from the supplier.  I am chuffed to bits with how it is looking.  Just need to sand and varnish it.

We had a couple of big, strong men lined up to help us get the plaster boards upstairs but decided to give it a go with just the two of us.  We got another system going and I won’t say it was easy but if we take it steady and haul a few up a day we will manage nicely.

Razzle Dazzle 'Em

During a visit to La Rochefoucauld I stopped at the tourist office to look at the posters in case there was something worth visiting or seeing.  What do you know, there was I looking back at me!  There was a poster advertising an evening’s entertainment with my chorale group and a jazz group.  What was even more astounding was they are charging Joe Public for the honour!  Hahahaha!  Joking aside, it put me in quite a tizz.  Firstly I didn’t know it was on so soon and secondly I promised at the last AGM I would learn the lyrics to the songs this year.  I can’t even remember the chuffing tunes from one week to the next never mind the words.  We have just been given a new song………in Portuguese!  Polyglot I am not!  I’m off to practice.  That’ll upset the wildlife.

Blonde (OK white) hair fourth from the right

                                            

Ladies Day 

I had a day in Angouleme yesterday with Jane.  It was for my birthday, only two months late!  It was delayed because we had been back to England and Jane had fallen from her horse and suffered broken ribs and amnesia.  (Honestly, some people tell the most dreadful porkies when they forget a birthday!)  We had a lovely day and the weather was kind.

Coffee and macaroons at La Biscuiterie Lomede followed by a little retail therapy, a lovely lunch with amazing frites (thank you Jane) and more retail therapy (just in case the first session hadn't worked).  We drove on to a local dépot vente (junk shop) and had a good old spend up there.  I got a number of little gems including a washing machine (machine a laver), plant stand/table, candle holders, picture frames and more.  En route home we managed another shop and lots more knick-knacks.  Together with my belated birthday present – a beanie hat and a lavender filled heart (both made by Jane, you too can buy one from her) I thought Christmas had come early.

My new washing Machine.
What were you expecting a Zanussi front loader?

Time to Say Goodbye

Today we continued to plaster board the ceilings upstairs.  It was cold and I didn’t get warm all day.  Il Divo were on The One Show and sang ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ and it was our time to say goodbye too, we were in bed five minutes later!  We may be cold and stepping out of the shower into a freezing building and running from garage to house to caravan to jumble together a meal but it is nothing compared to the poor folks suffering in the floods.  

As usual I am a little behind but don't want to bore you by making the post too long.