No, we haven’t decided to give up and return to London.

Unfortunately Matt had a call on Friday to confirm that he had to go back to London for his 12 month Cancer follow up. What with lockdown he will need to self-isolate for 2 weeks before he can have a Covid test and then wait another 3 days for his surgical appointment. There’s little point in me returning with him as there are no visitors allowed at the hospital and we have a shed load of deliveries due [? – the wood will fill the shed – Trust me, I’m funny!]. That means I’m going to be here on my own for the best part of 3 weeks! As a result, after such a busy first week work is likely to reduce significantly and the posts are going to be somewhat lighter on the ground for the next few weeks.

Matt is off doing a few bits and pieces before he goes (no idea what). I started the day with a bit of work and last minute change of plans to convert my video call to a dial in as it coincided with the unexpected trip to Toulouse.

A few emails and other work bits and pieces done. Then it’s time for a trip down to the Intermarche with Matt to get some more gas for the cooker. I’d decided that rather than wait for the current one to run out in the middle of making dinner, or even worse in the middle of making dinner on a Saturday evening after the shops have shut (they don’t open on Sundays) we should get a second. The gas bottles are however kept outside and you have to ask for them at the till and register for the deposit so he wasn’t able to do it alone. Didn’t see the point in getting the smallest one [despite moving to an electric oven when we do the kitchen we have no idea how long it will be before that happens] so plumped for the mid sized one.

Got home and decided that probably best for Matt to attach the new one before he goes, saves me the trouble later.

Seems that the new gas bottle doesn’t require the bashy stick to make it work as it has more pressure in it which is a bonus. Although I did quite enjoy the bashy stick there’s less chance of me breaking something I don’t know how to fix, and when it’s also full of gas it’s probably for the best for me and the house!

Couple more emails and it’s time to head to Toulouse. I was planning to drive so that I had done the drive in daylight with company before I had to do it in the dark on my own but it wasn’t to be. I had my call to do on the way so Matt had to drive.

Just under and hour and a half and we are at the airport. In the 10min drop off which is ticketed so no time to lose (and of course I needed a safety pee ahead of the drive back) making the goodbye rather short.

First drive on my own on the wrong side of the road and was glad I’d got a chance to have a practice on Saturday. Quite busy round Toulouse and while Matt had plugged in the phone for the satnav he’d forgotten to turn on the talky lady so I had to keep looking at the screen to have any idea what lane etc I needed to be in which wasn’t ideal. In general, I have to say that French drivers are pretty good and pretty polite, less so around Toulouse but to be expected in France’s 4th largest city by population. They tend to give you plenty of room and almost never just sit in the outside lane, they know it’s only there for overtaking!

Home safe and sound. Not sure what to do now. Guess I’ll go have a look at that big long log from yesterday. Ok, well that was harder than expected. I’d rather anticipated having about 3 or 4 nice logs for the fire. After about 20 mins I was already tired and only had this:

Thankfully I’d received an email from the wood people to confirm that they would be coming sometime this week – I certainly couldn’t have created enough on my own to keep things going. Must remember to get a load of cash out to pay for it as we don’t have our cheque book yet (Matt left them in London – at least he can get them now he’s headed back).

Looks like it’s just me and the boys hanging out for the next few weeks.

Time for a beer and to draft the first part of the blog before I make a fire and further procrastinate on doing the washing up that Matt kindly left for me.

Rang mum. She was at Joelle’s so got to speak to both of them and Monty. That’s the best part of an hour and so really do now need to get this fire going as the temperature is dropping.

Gone old school. You can keep your fire lighters, I have an old newspaper and I am just mad enough to use it. In fact very successfully…

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I did however fail to clean the door before I lit the paper though so had a little rush to clean it before it got hot. In so doing, I managed to bump the thumb I cut while cutting the pepper to go in last night’s dinner (was going to say sliced for the pun of slicing veg but it sounds a bit dramatic and didn’t want mum to fret – it really is but a minor flesh wound – and not the Monty Python, Black Knight sort either).

Matt has arrived at Paris so sent him the picture too.

Matt: I’ve only been gone about 2 hours and you’re already covered in blood? [FYI it was nearly 4 hours ago I dropped him off]

Me: I cut it yesterday while you were on duty though! You weren’t watching me. Now I’m unattended for the best part of 3 weeks ?

There are obviously many reasons why he’s chosen to be with me, but I do suspect that he wonders what those were sometimes. I have promised mum that I will try to speak to the neighbour that Matt and I met the other day so that if something goes horribly wrong and he hears a lot of screaming that he knows to come and help as I am on my own.

Matt’s arrived in Paris so time for a bit of a chat with him and with Tonia, my most favourite twin!

Put my freshly cut log in the fire so feeling pretty pleased with myself [it has been well seasoned and is very dry, it must have been on the chicken coop for years before I removed it yesterday so well over the 18months required].

I’m pretty sure Tonia and Matt were just as excited as you are now looking at that. Not just warm on the outside but also on the inside! With that in mind it’s time to get the oven on and pop in some cheese.

No reason not to treat yourself when you are on your own. Ok, maybe there is a little too much cheese (for one sitting, there is no such thing as too much cheese afterall).

Time to make things a bit special for my first night alone. I found the table cloth that Muma Camp bought for Christmas last year and made a rather fancy looking spread.

I had a lovely dinner and everything was super.

Ok, ok. Most of you know me, and know it’s never that simple when I’m involved.

After the photo I realised that the cheese was spilling off the edge of the plate so jumped to its rescue. As I did that the wine fell off the table and smashed across the floor. I delicately picked up the big pieces and then got the mop out. Lesson learnt, circular buckets that are rounded at the bottom are rubbish for also having a squeegee thing in the top. They just fall over and spread all their contents back on the floor, 5x to be exact. Finally cleared up and back to dinner. Balls! Now the cheese is cool and claggy. Back to the oven and time to try again.

Not looking quite so fancy this time.

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Enjoying the cheese though and thankfully found some more wine. Dinner finished and I may have eaten more cheese than is necessary. Time for another log on the fire and a bit of first dates – don’t judge me, I’m a (lonely) romantic, if I wasn’t I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have found myself here!

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Some lovely messages from Muma Camp to check in on me while I’m on my own. Dodd was also worried so decided to give me a bell. Matt’s safely arrived back at home in London so that’s me off to bed.