Monday

While I’m incredibly grateful to have a fantastic family to have spent time with, and the kindness of Peter to put us up during our isolation, we are very excited to finally be going home.

It was a crack of dawn start, well actually well before – super dark out as we were up at 5am! Last bits and pieces packed and we were ready to go. Of course I was fannying about a bit but Matt was on form and mum had even made travel tea, she’s pretty amazing! Eventually we were off to the airport leaving Ham Manor at 5:42 and up at the airport by 6:30. Thank you mummy for driving us up, I was very sad to say goodbye but so pleased to be getting back to the house, Matt’s 100 mile long list of jobs to do and, of course, Meow – who incidentally seems to do constant laps of the house looking for us.

• 

Plenty of paperwork checks at the airport but seems we (Matt) was very well prepared for it all and we quickly got our new slip to say we should be allowed to go, although the chap checking them did seem surprised that we lived in France – no idea why, maybe I didn’t look chic enough?! Into the lounge and had a cheeky fried breakfast while Matt had the huevos eggs, it wasn’t bad but clearly my mothers addiction to super hot food seems to be catching as I did comment that it could have been warmer but it’s better than you’d get at the lounge in Toulouse – when it’s ever open.

• 

Matt and I had been sat together – first time ever without paying for it. They also seemed to be doing a very diligent check off where each person was going to be sat to balance the plane. I was stunned however when they closed they closed the doors and announced that boarding was complete. We counted 14 passengers on the plane (that could take 156) and 2 of those were BA flight crew apparently ‘dead heading’ to do some sort of testing at Toulouse. While the flights were 10x as expensive as the ‘normal’ flight from Stanstead I was happy to pay the extra as the plane was going to actually leave and we didn’t have a lot of other people to worry about. Had a bit of a nap on the flight while watching Paddington on the iPad and before we knew it we were there. Extra security to check all the vaccine and testing paperwork and we were off.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Bag on the carousel when we got through and we were out of there back to the car. A quick stop to grab some milk and essentials to get us through the next two days and we were home.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Meow turned up about an hour later and I think Matt was pleased to see her. She seems to have had a nasty bite from something and not sure whether someone has maybe taken her to a vet and it has been shaved (my suspicion) or if she’s been licking it off (Matt’s answer). Either way she’s very pleased we are back and settled.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I did a great job at House of Games and we also managed to watch Don’t Look Up – it was really interesting. Since it is the first night Meow’s allowed to stay in and slept well at the end of the bed quietly without waking us (Matt) up at 8am. Cheers and night all!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

[27 December 2021]

Tuesday

Been a very quiet day at the house today. I decided to take my time to lay in bed and watch some TV between naps. Matt was hungry so got up and mostly spent his time fuelling the fire and relaxing with the cat. Eventually I got up and still had little energy to do much so more TV and relaxation (with the cat). She’s clearly been missing being a lap cat but has settled back into it very quickly.

• 

• 

Leftovers for lunch for me and pizza for dinner so nothing exciting. The house (well ok, just the kitchen) however has got up to 24 deg and only went down to 18 over night so hopefully we can keep this up and get the kitchen walls to start absorbing the heat. I think we’re only about half way through the wood from last year so should be plenty for the rest of the winter. Clearly it’s also important that the cat selects which food she would like for her dinner..

• 

• 

Blog updates done and it’s time for me to get back off back to bed before work starts again tomorrow. Night all x

[28 December 2021]

Wednesday

I got up early today, well I did if putting the cat out and getting Matt some painkillers before going back to sleep counts, it was about 7am. Unfortunately it then made it hard to get back to sleep so I had to lie in a bit. It’s an important day though as it will have been 48 hours after our flight and we need to get our Antigen/LFT’s so that we can be released into civilised society again.

Thankfully we were on time and everything was looking good, a short wait and we were on our way with a nice piece of paper to verify our negative results. So what did we do with our new found freedom? A quick trip to Emmaus and Lidl – nothing of interest but at least got a few bubbly bottles.

Then on to the Troc. No duck lamps – but then it’s not Matt’s birthday coming up, it’s mine so hey ho. I did however spot a shelf thing with some copper pans at a pretty reasonable €25. It’s almost exactly what we had discussed putting up in our kitchen so we were pretty happy with that. Will still need a little doing up but not random rubbish which was progress.

We were rushing back to get to the post office which should close at 5, it was 4:45 and closed already. We then went down to the new GP surgery, seems that it’s now open but has odd hours too so no joy there. So much for that then. As we say, things are often open every other Tuesday from the last September after the harvest moon unless there is a waxing moon – so basically, nobody has a bloody clue what’s open when.

Back at home and Matt took forever to get the door open. Seems he had no data and we needed it to turn the alarm off – Meow and I were getting pretty impatient. Eventually it worked and we were in. After getting the fire back on we had a bit of a sit down before I decreed that the kitchen needed to be tidied. Matt moved some paperwork but not sure what else although he promises he was helping. We got through it though and looking much better (although the floors still need doing).

Time for dinner, just pasta and sauce but I did cook. He’s still suffering and gets pretty grumpy as soon as the pain killers wear off. He had a video call booked with a doctor who unfortunately rang to cancel as his telephone and internet connection at his offices are down. Maybe tomorrow.

[29 December 2021]

Thursday

The beauty of having a joint bank account now is that you have to do something for each other for the ‘special occasions’. Ok, so my tidying up his workshop may not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things but then neither is popping to the shops. I realise that the equivalent of this probably used to be making time for the other person, but we’ve not been short of that (with the ones we live with at least) over the past couple of years. With such a long list of things to be done around the house I don’t know how Matt is going to choose where to start.

Of course, the first thing he got up to do was to go to the Brico! [I am very supportive of this due to my plans for the day.] However he also arrived back during my first (and only) work call of the day having been to the supermarket to get some lovely pastries and even doughnuts. He also got me a couple of unexpected presents – a charger for my watch [apparently my bit of blue tac could do with an upgrade] and (of course) some more Champagne.

• 

• 

Now my call is done I can ask Matt for everything I want for my birthday: Fancy Lunch out? Nope; Are we going out for a nice dinner? Nope; how about I get something nice from Intermarche and make you a nice dinner? Nope. Can we get started on the DIY now? 🙂 The first thing he did was to attach the hook for the ceiling light – I thought we were having spot lights but I guess he knows what he’s doing?!

After over a month of Matt being sick and us being away all I wanted was to finally start to move the house forward again. So that’s what we [he] did. First job was to fill the large outside cracks in the wall to see if we can reduce the external air flow to the fire. I’m not 100% sure it worked but definitely worth a go.

• 

• 

• 

Next up we were going to start on the kitchen lights, until I threw a spanner in the works by deciding that it needed another coat of varnish. So that’s that job delayed for a number of hours. I also went to clear one of the bags we bought back from the UK, bloody typical…

• 

• 

I therefore went back to work for a bit before deciding to finish cleaning the kitchen floors. The cat was already bored of all this work already.

• 

• 

In order to move him away from my wet floor we were back off upstairs – apparently we need to plan the order of things for the ensuite. It seems that we need to finish the external walls to do the dropped ceiling. We made a plan though and even managed to find the new drill things I got Matt for Christmas. As we then made holes in the wall for the shower and exhaust I basically saved his life – well not really but almost. I think we need to be more clear about where we are going to put holes and where the live wires are in the other side of the wall. Once I realised he might be close I made him stop and cut off the power – seemed sensible – thankfully the hole was a good few inches off but not a risk I was willing to take [I’m rather fond of him by this point].

• 

• 

• 

Holes in it’s a bit late and dark to be doing anymore in Room2 (until we get some lights). So it’s back downstairs. Matt’s not off the hook yet. The board I painted is nearly ready but will dry quicker in the kitchen. While it does he gets a welcome rest. But first we need to plan how it is going to work/look. The conversation rather went like this:

• Matt: So you want it there, but you’re not sure and you want to be able to adjust it.
• Me: Yep
• Matt: So you basically want me to rewire all of the lights
• Me: Yep, sorry

I’m glad I had this discussion today, the one day I can be really annoying and he has to be nice to be nice to me. The board was then dry and time to crack on.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Well that’s enough, Matt is hungry so I need to get some dinner on. [It’s just pasta and sauce again.] After dinner he gets 5 (it turned out to be 10) minutes break, I broke the relaxation by going to get all the wood for the evening – there’s no such thing as a free ride here. I also put up the new lights/decorations for the hallway – it’s not a Christmas tree but it’s festive and I like it, it also means you can actually see the stairs. The down side however is that the cable reaches across the hall and acts as a trip wire for Matt. But it did inspire Matt to restart on the lights. Eventually however we balanced them between us and he worked his magic and they were up.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Not 100% sure about the lights, they definitely need to be higher but we’re done for the evening – definitely time to settle in to drinking more champagne and relaxing, oh and remembering the presents that came from NZ, including my lovely new earrings.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It seems I’m not too good at just sitting back so I’ve spent my time making a calendar for my mum – I’d never realised how long these things took. Obviously it won’t be there for the start of the year, and I am sure she has many with the grandchildren on, but maybe if you have a January birthday you might be regifted it. I’ve also spent far too long talking to you all and need to get to bed.

[30 December 2021]