Sunday

It’s taken me a while to write this one as it was a really hard day.

With all we have been doing we’ve been really preoccupied but today I just felt rather desolate and empty. Without seeing friends or family for so long I was suddenly feeling very homesick (at least we had Tonia at Christmas). Nothing that usually works gave me any joy.

While the world feels as though it is opening up to many, I felt more alone than ever. As our friends and family are at the pub, going to work, and life is starting again, we have become outsiders. While it’s usually a short 1:30hr flight we have no visits home or to us due to the travel restrictions. We aren’t seeing a sudden return to normal or sense of belonging, we’re here, doing this without speaking the language and it is quite isolating.

I’m not ready to give up this new French life, but I am tired and I feel over it today. I want to see my friends and family, go to the pub and have a cuddle. Eventually got hold of Vicky for a quick game of golf, of course the headset ran out, but we had a call. Just really hit home how hard this whole pandemic has been for many and how fortunate we have been – didn’t make it any easier though and still trying to put that feeling behind me. Once it starts it’s hard to shake off but I’m looking forward to working tomorrow and my meetings to make me feel more at home and valued.

But that’s enough of that, what did we get up to today? Well, we put up a bit more of the plasterboard in the kitchen.

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Matt remowed the paths.

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While I checked if I measured up to the challenge… Just about, for now at least.

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We remeasured the resized pool idea and where the pergola will go for the bbq area and played with the cat. It also started to rain despite it being sunny – this place has some weird ass weather.

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[9 May 2021]

Monday – Wednesday

Basically we worked, but it was good and felt much better about being so far from home. Nothing much of interest apart from the hugely variable weather and a selection of Irises for you to look at.

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[10-12 May 2021]

Thursday

Huzzah – French bank holiday today – apparently it’s ascension day today. As a result I have decided to mostly take the day off work (since I am officially under a French contract). Time to crack on with a bit more work in the kitchen as the second plasterer is due to come round to quote on Monday and hopefully we can finally get the work done.

Few boards up and got the rest cut to go around the windows so feeling as though we are very close now. Matt’s still got a few more work things to do so that final push is going to have to wait as they need to be attached with some adhesive mortar.

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Meow took me for a walk around the garden to see what was happening. The lupins are starting to come out, oxeye daisies growing even larger and we found some wild strawberries, hopefully they will ripen for Matt before the birds get at them…

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Matt has done some research, with the help of the Gardening in France group, and found that the problem with the two trees by the front of the house appears to be Peach Leaf Curl and they all need to be trimmed back to remove the leaves hosting the fungus.

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Mostly done but the rain is about to set in so head inside. Managed to get my half hour call done in just over 10 minutes, pure efficiency on my part of course. Now that the clouds are clearing it’s probably best to make the most of it and have a glass of wine on the porch and call mum.

Time to settle in for the evening with some steak frites and a very happy looking kitty.

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[13 May 2021]

Friday

Ding dong, today marks six months since we left the UK and arrived here in France. That makes six straight months without seeing my friends and family. I can’t wait for them to come and visit!

Started the day with the weekly update call followed by a call with my other work. It seems that we managed to scrape through the Oxford tender and have been shortlisted to the next stage. If stage 1 was anything to go by this is going to be a lot of work and not sure how I am going to balance both jobs. Definitely going to have to really push the resourcing needs with the partners to ensure that I have more support than last time.

Bit of a walk around the garden briefly while waiting for Matt’s calls to finish and seems that the back ‘peach’ also has some peach leaf curl so that needs to be seen-to. Doesn’t look like the ladybirds minded though.

With Matt off the phone we need to nip down to Luchon to go get some stoppers so we can take the radiator off the wall in the kitchen. While we were there we popped into Lidl, and came out another €145 lighter. We do however now have a couple of sun loungers so pretty sure that mum will be pleased with those.

Finished off the pruning of the peach tree while Matt made a start on dinner. We’d finally got some lamb the other day and he’s been itching to make minted lamb in the pressure cooker. Yummy! After dinner I went to try to find the lid to one of the plastic containers and got distracted in the cupboard. Every time I moved something out the way it made no sense. So instead of packing the leftovers away I rearranged all the cupboards, followed by a quick briefing with Matt to tell him where everything is (and should go back to). Matt put the food away.

Time for a movie and bed. Night all x

[14 May 2021]