Thursday

A long day of interviews today for the new Deputy Head of Comms for KHP. Some good candidates and possibly a couple that could be invited to interview for the temp work for me. 6 interviews though is pretty testing and I was desperate to get up and have a walk about.

I found Matt out in the garden. Seems that he’s cleared the area ready for us to put the waterbutt back in place before we move into the spring, obviously took both of us to move it but he’d done the hard work.

Matt then headed off to the orchard to have another go at the brambles which have rather taken over in there while I took to doing a bit of topiary.

That looks a bit tidier. Probably best get back to work.

Nighttime and I introduced Matt to Blockbusters followed by a competition between 1989 New Zealand Krypton Factor and 1989 UK Krypton Factor. In my opinion, the UK had clearly refined the format and was superior.

[10 February 2022]

Friday

It was meant to be an easy day. Usual start catching up with the great and the good but then slacking off for the afternoon to get housework/gardening done. No such luck. Misjudged my meetings so Matt had to go up to Estancarbon alone while I focused on having yet more meetings and trying to find some interim communications support. I thought I’d get all the interview prep done in a couple of hours and crack on. Turns out these things take longer than planned so didn’t finish till quite late and never got round to doing item 2 on the list.. I’m glad we don’t have physical ‘to do’ lists anymore as we’d spend all our time moving things around rather than doing anything.

Unfortunately by the time I was able to raise my nose from the computer Matt was telling me to move the laptop as dinner was nearly ready. Oops.. I had planned to do more and be more helpful. In fact he’s had a first ever go at making fried chilli beef – one of my absolute favourites and that we have not yet seen in France. There were a few ingredients substituted and while not a bad effort it’s going to need some refining. Also, he’s the chef but I’m the taster, and usually help to refine before it hits the plate, I should make more time for him. 100% appreciation.

[11 February 2022]

Saturday

You cannot be serious! It’s Saturday why am I being woken up before 10am??

He’s returned with tea, this can only mean that he’s serious about getting me out of bed – and it’s in a travel mug! Ah, yes, I’d promised we’d go tile shopping and the place closes at 12. Thank heavens we’re only going to Estancarbon rather than 3 hours into Spain.

Popped into the permanent Vide Grenier while we were there and picked up a few bits. New steelcapped shoes for me at only €12 – bargain and probably quite useful round here.

Then onto tile shopping. I had an idea of what we would choose, soft grey highlighted by some of the old pink/grey from the ‘pink bathroom’, but Matt couldn’t picture it and thought it was probably really boring. I’ll admit it was plain(ish) but it’s a small space. Of course, what followed was me quite possibly finding the most expensive tile they had and setting my heart on it. Whether you like it or not, I do. When I found the chap he tutted and said immediately that it wouldn’t be available for a minimum of 6 weeks, if at all. With a little push and explaining we only need a small amount, he took my details and will call on Monday to see if we can get it. Including the size of the tiles and cost. We do have a fall back position however that I think I could be happy with. You may not be able to tell from the photos but it has a gold glint to it that is particularly appealing. At the end of the day it’s not my bathroom and I’ll rarely see it, but it still has to feel on point.

And external tiles for the pool terrace to be considered too.

I did also spend some time last night looking at tiles online and when searching for a nice tile I’d liked before stumbled across the below. It’s rather spendy and comes in both grey/silver and blue/gold. We will have this Italian beauty in our house. I just don’t think I can get Matt to agree to stretch to having both, however that blue will look great in the room 1 ensuite.

Back to home and we could see the postie just about to arrive as we were nearing our house, she pulled in directly after us so Matt collected the package while I faffed about. That’s one more piece toward our new hob.

Now time to have a quick bite to eat while we wait on the window guy. He was messaging last night, I described the house and location and dropped a pin of our location so no way he can get lost. Of course, he does. He’s outside no.5, just not on our road, so not much help, he’ll be here in a few minutes – at least he’s in the village. I’d taken the opportunity to start clearing the potting table, Matt has been complaining that it’s full of crap and was actually the table for the veranda and not in fact a potting table at all… It was a bit of a mess…

Eventually two chaps arrive. They were impressed we (Matt) had the plans of the house already printed for them and that I’d done some measurements (and drawings) of the windows. Thankfully however they were very conscientious, some of the kitchen measurements had changed – due to us having added the insulation – and they double/triple checked every measurement of every window and door. One of the guys had studied English at school so was able to explain bits and pieces – to be honest I felt that his English was as good as my French, although he was naturally very complimentary, the other could speak maybe 5 languages, but not English. After 2 hours, a few cigarette breaks, and me explaining 100 times that I wanted clear windows (not tinted or mirrored, no matter what colour the tint could be – I like to see the inside of the house from the outside, not my face) I think we got there. Just 23 ‘windows’ and the front and back door it can’t be too expensive right… 😛

As we chatted outside he also noted that we might be thinking about redoing the Crepis – the external finish on the house. In fact we very much are. There are a few rather noticeable cracks and I’d love to have it refinished before the wedding. I’m actually less concerned about the interior as most of it won’t be seen, but the exterior of the house is the backdrop for the whole thing. He took a few pictures of each facade and called his friend so seems they should hopefully be coming next weekend to provide a quote – Toulouse companies are much closer to what we have at home and while I would love to provide local jobs they just don’t come or don’t care or it’s too much for them. I’m pretty certain that with everything else going on and all the other costs we won’t be able to afford to re-render the outside of the house any time soon but it will be good to have a contact and a quote so we can set our expectations and budget accordingly.

The guys were hilarious, constantly arguing between themselves and then drawing me in to settle the dispute of what would be best and what we wanted, but it was almost time for the second (Rugby – 6 Nations) game of the day. Seems that JC&O needed company and support as they had some beer that was going begging. Who am I to refuse a friend in need?! Well done France, good game well played.

Time to head home for dinner but was lovely to meet Oscar and spend time with the Huxtables. Tonight we have special fried rice with chicken etc.

[12 February 2022]

Sunday

Morning and Matt was working on trying to get the VPN sorted, it’s been out for at least a week so we’ve been watching a lot more French TV. Not much I can do to help so went to have a look around the veg patch. It certainly needs a bit of attention. I didn’t get a lot done but some big stones were pulled out, some ground turned and some more nutrition added.

Back inside and seems I timed it well to help Matt fix the final issue to get ITV to work ahead of the game. Next job was to have a bit of a tidy up, wash the floor upstairs and the staircase and then clean the bathroom. Matt’s been setting up the projector in the living room. Good thing too as I’d not cancelled the invite to the Huxtables and they were just leaving, so that was lucky. Not the best game but we came out on top.

Time for dinner and have another go at making chilli beef. It was pretty good actually, a little on the sweet side but definitely getting much closer to the ‘original’. Meow continues to be a bit odd.

A bit of relaxation, a nice shower and it’s time for bed and to get the blog updated.

[13 February 2022]

Monday

Work. Since it turns out that it is Valentines day I thought I would bake Matt a cake. Ok, it’s my favourite cake, but banoffee pie sucks and I don’t eat it so he’d have to eat the whole thing alone, plus I don’t have a fraction of the things to make it. So, I made lemon drizzle cake. My first attempt but it was light and airy and very lemony but also sweet enough. I think it was a success.

[14 February 2022]

Tuesday

Working. We debated a trip up to Superbagneres as clearly had fresh snow, but Matt has commitments this afternoon and I have a frustrating contractor not delivering. So we just worked. I did receive the quote for the nice tiles, but at 1.2×2.7m tiles they aren’t going to work, also best part of €900 for 8m2, so I don’t think this is going to fly.

Dinner was cheese, bread and wine followed by some more of the lovely cake I made yesterday. [The kitten was also feeling quite cuddly.]

After dinner I got on to looking at bathrooms and Matt tried to map the other tiles we saw the other day onto the plans so he understood what was in my head. It didn’t work very well but I think he’s on board and the decision is made. Tomorrow I need to get the quote for the tiles!

[15 February 2022]