Friday

It’s New Years Eve, we had a bit of a lie in. A late night chat to Lee and Vicky had kept me up rather later than planned (again). We are however due to go and meet Jonny and Cressida later on so time to do a few bits and pieces around the house before we go. Matt however was up a little earlier than me and made some treats, he’d eaten the cheese roll things but at least we had something to take over.

Once we’ve had time to shower and make ourselves pretty it’s time to go. We were only planning to spend an hour or so there and leave them in peace, however we’re not that polite it seems (and hopefully didn’t outstay our welcome). Firstly, there was the new dog, Woody, to meet. I was immediately in love – a Lab x Pointer – he’s absolutely darling [and like a giant Lab, I kept reassuring Matt that our puppy won’t get That big.]

We were meant to go home shortly afterwards to have mum’s pie for dinner, but Cress made a mistake she’ll never make again, she mentioned that they had roast lamb to a Kiwi – there was no way you stop him, or rather make him leave. So they very kindly shared their dinner with us – it was delicious!!

Since it was my birthday yesterday Cress had also not just made one cake but two, I’d also – very subtly of course – hinted that lemon drizzle is my favourite, and what do you know!

Next up it was time for games. Finally, a couple that can help me convince Matt to play a ‘board’ game with. It was rather topical though and I wish I’d known of this before Christmas.

Eventually we did leave. Not without taking a couple of gifts with us though, well technically I think that the bacon was a gift but I wasn’t laving without that amazing lemon cake – sorry! So back at home we settled in for some local fireworks, some port, and obviously some more cake to celebrate. Happy New Year all – and especially to the cook – Thank you Cressida and good night!

[31 December 2021]

Saturday

Like any normal couple we spent most of the lazing about and doing very little. Meow still seems to be licking at her wound so not sure if we are going to have to take her to the vet.

[1 January 2022]

Sunday

After doing very little yesterday we figured that we should get out and about. Of course being Sunday nothing is open but we can take a walk. It seems as though they have made a lot of progress on clearing the tracks since we were last here so we decided to follow them. We walked all the way along up to Chaum and then back along the road and through the woods, just about managing to get home before dark.

[2 January 2022]

Monday

Got the cars cleaned today, not bad considering that it’s the first wash the old grey one has had since we got it. Don’t they look sparkly!

Later on I also managed to find some metal polish so after washing the ‘new’ pans I cleaned part of one to see if it was better or not. Sadly however the result was inconclusive as I couldn’t decided whether the patina was an attractive ageing or they were just dirty. Best to leave it for now and have a look in the daylight. I think they’ll look lovely up on the wall though whichever we go with so time to relax and mentally prepare for work to resume.

[3 January 2022]

Tuesday

First days back at work after the break. Matt tried to distract the cat with a Carambar but I’m not sure she was convinced, particularly as he wouldn’t unwrap it for her and they aren’t good for cats anyway.

With everyone slowly coming back to the office it was pretty quiet so we managed to make some time to get a bit more work done on the Room 2 ensuite. Holes were made for the shower taps and channels to run the pipes as well as the hole for the exhaust.

With those finally done we could now do the first bit of the plasterboard for that wall. It may not look like a lot but I can assure you that it took much longer than I’d expected.

Dinner time and we’re using the lovely bacon from Cressida to have breakfast for dinner – a full on fry up, love it.

[4 January 2022]

Wednesday

Weather has perked up but it’s very cold.

I’ve been busy working today but Matt found some time to sneak off and put in the plate for the shower taps as well as starting to plaster in the new pipes. We also managed to get the second piece of plasterboard up which wasn’t without it’s own difficulties, first it was 1cm too wide then when we trimmed off the cm it was 1cm short. Bloody renovations, nothing is ever simple.

Dinner time and realised that Meow looks very much like the cat on the packet.

[5 January 2022]

Thursday

More work and seems that meow is trying to help..

Managed to find some time to also make some progress on the ensuite. The board behind the toilet is now in and the outside behind the radiator finished off ready to plaster before Mr Nogues comes back.

Tonight we have roast chicken for dinner and it seems that a certain someone could smell it and was keen to reserve her seat at the table, unfortunately for her that was my seat and cats eat after people so she was pushed off.

[6 January 2022]

Friday

Matt has been doing some early Matt stuff while I was on my weekly call. [I have no idea what this is but it means something to him,]

Weather has been pretty poor most of the week but since it seems that things are due to pick up we’re off down to Luchon to get our ski equipment serviced. Matt already had his own board but I only had my boots as usually hired skis. When we bought the house however there were two sets of skis left in the basement. One of those was a set of Salomon CrossMax. Funnily enough these were exactly the skis that I wanted for racing back when I was at Uni but couldn’t justify buying them, yes that was a long time ago now so they are quite old, this pair are also maybe slightly too long for me but not by a lot and they’ll certainly do for a season.

As you’d expect, there are tons of ski shops but it seems our friend Sebastien’s cousin owns a ski rental and repair shop which is handy. We dropped them in for a wax and edge and they’ll be ready at 6pm. On the way home we dropped by Intermache as we’d got a coupon back in November that seemed to say that we’d won a €75 gift card, on close inspection it looks as though we have till the 9th to claim it. They seemed quite surprised and excited to see it so I guess there weren’t a lot of them and it was still valid so that was a result – Intermarche just paid for our ski and board service for starters (the equivalent of anyway).

More work back at home and then time to head back to Luchon. We still didn’t have any ski poles and Matt was very insistent that I needed some. It suddenly clocked that he has a vested interest in this so that I can help pull him up when he’s tired and drag him along the flat bits – skiers can be very useful to boarders at times. We checked a couple of shops but a lot of them just do rental so we decided to pop into Billy’s and see Lozza and Sebastien. They were in good spirits and suggested a couple of places to look for poles. Eventually we found a pair of Rossignols in bright pink for under €30 (so almost paid for by Intermarche too). They’re nothing special but they will do the job and any present is exciting. We’re now ready to finally go skiing (snowboarding).

Had a quick chat with Lee and Vicky before bed, which was helpful as I needed a bit of reminding of how on earth one actually skis. Vicky kindly repeated all the things that I regularly shouted to her every time we went – this repertoire mostly consists of push your bum out and keep your knees together. Having moved here for the snow and skiing we’ve been rather cheated by Covid closing all the ski resorts in France last year and no travel due to Covid in 2020, our last trip was Laax, Switzerland, with Lee and Vicky back in March 2019. It’s going to be another early morning tomorrow so off to bed, fingers crossed the weather will be good to us.

[7 January 2022]