Thursday

So I have to finish off the work for Job 2 before I can refocus on the regular day job and Matt is also super busy. May have taken a bit longer than planned and with interruptions but always good to make a strong first impression. Report seemed to go down well with Matt 3 though so finally time for a walk around the garden.

First stop was to check the post. Seems I’ve got another care package today from the amazing Peter Ward! I love these, they are so random…

Back wandering round and all was going well, inspecting the trees etc in bloom and about to blossom.

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But, as we headed towards the end Matt 2 rang. It seems that my reminder to prep for our meeting wasn’t in vain. We needed some time to run through the slides for the CEOs board meeting.

As we started a quick debrief I realised Matt (1) was hidden upstairs so took the opportunity to hide in the garden. I rapidly realised however that it was too late to be playing in the veg patch and took my place on the porch to grab the last of the sun.

I was about to be ‘tres cool’ and take a wheel around the border so I could look at the hedges and have a bit of fun. Sadly it was flat so all I could do was take a walk around. I’d be keen to know what that flowering hedge is though? Must remember to pop it on the Gardening in France group, they seem to be savants.

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Since it was too late to also trim the cloud trees I remember that I still hadn’t called EDF. Despite repeatedly asking for the English speaking person, by pressing 1, it kept sending me to the French line. I tried to explain but the poor guy gave up and suggested I should call the international number. When I eventually prepared the answers/queries, about whether it would be possible to switch over to 3 phase / 380V in the future, of course I got through to someone who spoke English. At least the answer was positive. The sun dropping behind the mountains was pretty beautiful though.

Once the sun had dropped it was time to crack on with dinner, pretty fancy tonight – duck in orange and port sauce with Tita’s potato recipe. I have to admit, it was pretty damned good!

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Time to relax. I thought I was over work for the day but then had a 10:30pm work call… I’m happy to work out of hours but it’s been a tough week. Either way, clearly je suis un heros, I even did the follow up emails before writing my blog and going to bed!

[25 February 2021]

Friday

Weekly catch up with the PS followed by a flurry of emails and work. Had to pop down to Luchon in the afternoon as we were expecting them to have their new set of smart home stuff in but they hadn’t updated the range yet. Also couldn’t get what we were looking for in the Bricos either so unfortunately a bit of a waste of time really.

Back to work for a bit before finally getting into the garden and a chance to trim back the cloud tree. Still a lot more to go but pretty pleased with my handiwork for a first attempt. Hopefully you can clearly tell which side of the tree has been done!

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Matt was back trying to fix the waterbutt. Fingers crossed it works.

He then went in to do some work in the kitchen so I took the opportunity to ring mum. I think she was pretty impressed by my tree. Apparently Joelle is unable to help her out with her quiz this evening so I volunteered Matt and I. While we were waiting for the quiz I had a catch up booked with Peter and opportunity to say thank you for my lovely package. Was good to catch up and get a bit of work done on the side. Quiz time! Naturally, we were brilliant. Mum got a few right too. 😉

After the quiz and dinner I had a catch up with Vicky while Matt played Minigolf on the Oculus with the other kids before we swapped over. I was not very good at it and Lee was being very annoying, so all felt pretty realistic. It’s already late though, 36 holes of golf takes time, so off to bed for us. Night all xx

[26 February 2021]