Happy Birthday Matt! Thanks for the birthday card(s) Jeff and Vivian; not just the one that arrived in France after Matt left but also one in London – boy you guys are good and put the rest of us to shame!

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Probably not the best birthday for Matt ever, being stuck in quarantine and over 1,000km from me. We will celebrate properly once he is back. For now I have made him breakfast in bed. I sent him the picture but looks like I’m going to have to have it since he’s not here.

Monday so long day of work for me. Had a great meeting about a Medi-Cultural festival on the history of healthcare and medicine next year so pretty excited about putting something together for that.

4pm so probably about time I took a few minutes for lunch.

Back to work. Nearly 7 already, so if I’m going to get any work done upstairs I have to do it now. Yay, demolition – apparently demolishing currently counts the same as making someone a present. Only half an hour as had to stop at 7:30 [stupid French neighbour rules] but made some good progress.

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Quick go at cleaning the door of the fireplace so that is ready to go later on. Next up, time to unwrap and plumb in the washing machine.

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For a 5 minute job that took over an hour! French instruction manual wasn’t massively clear. Getting it off the polystyrene was a hell of a job in itself.

I have never got so angry with one piece of plastic in my life and now my hand hurts. That took forever but I finally have all 4 blasted travel plugs out. Thank heavens for that!

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Quite a bit of water sprayed out the inlet as it wasn’t tight enough first time, then a small amount at the entry to the machine but a quick tighten and it looks ok. Tape the discharge hose in and looks as though it’s done. Will have to keep an eye on it tomorrow when I do a test run but glad that’s done, despite having smacked my toes into the gap in the floor more than once – Matt is going to have to sort that when he gets home. Few check ins with Matt and he seems happy with it. Basic plumbing level 1 unlocked.

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Finally going to spend some time in the kitchen so can get the fire lit and start things warming up a bit. Clearly the kitchen wood stack is doing its job as seems to be lighting much better so must be drying out more. Matt’s random food generator suggested that I go with galette so that’s good enough for me, and only 11pm.

Dinner done and a quick chat with Tonia, who is doing a sterling job on the Christmas presents, and then to Matt to sing happy birthday before the day is out. A bit more job planning, a few more things added to the list, and it is time for bed.