Wednesday

Just working

[16 February 2022]

Thursday

Busy morning with an early 8:30 start. A few back to back meetings but calls done at 12. Time to crack on and make the most of the day. There’s been some snow recently so we did the only responsible thing, headed up the mountain between meetings to get a few runs in.

It was a bit slushy in places but not bad at all and really enjoyed it. What was not to enjoy? The weather was glorious and although much busier than we’ve been used to (it is French school holidays) but nothing like the crazy busy of the Alps and we were back on the gondola just in time for Matt’s afternoon call. This is what you call working French style..

Back at the house for his more formal meeting – seems the first part was online pictionary, FYI I excel at this and helped Matt to victory – it then got more serious so I went back to my work too.

Was a great day and good to feel we can be flexible around when we work, even if that does mean working late to have a bit of fun. Of course we couldn’t work too late as we had an invite to the Huxtables for dinner and needed to grab some showers first. Dinner was glorious. The most beautiful lamb and a good catch up on the week. Time for home before we (I’m) not invited back again.

[17 February 2022]

Friday

A pretty exciting day today. It’s our first day of providing doggy daycare. First things first of course as it’s the weekly check in with the Prof. I’m not convinced his driving long distances in a large storm is a good idea but I hope he stays safe. Eventually the Huxtables arrive and despite a barking start it was pretty painless. Basil whined when they left so we took them for a walk around the perimeter of the garden on their leads to get them (and us) comfortable in the space. Basil had immediately forgotten that he’d been left and had hundreds of new smells to take in while Woody scent marked anything he could get his leg over.

We were soon back round to garden table which is our office for the day and the boys settled well. Matt decided that not having a ball and treats wasn’t good enough, plus we needed something for lunch so he popped down to the shops. The dogs followed him all the way down the perimeter (him on the outside, them on the insdie) but didn’t panic when they couldn’t follow past the end of the property so just came back and relaxed in the sun. I think the cat may have put her head through the fence while he was out as Basil took off – he’s got some serious speed on him. Thankfully the fence was there and the cat (or maybe just a rustling blackbird) had left quickly. A bit of barking when Matt came back in the gate but all pretty relaxed.

Lunch time and surprisingly the dogs were very calm and Woody wasn’t up at the table looking for food while we ate – not like any labrador I’ve ever known. Woody got a little grumpy before home-time but I think he was just over tired. One second he’d be out like a light then the next up and grumbling a little till you threw a stick (he had destroyed the ball by this point), before he realised he needed a lie down; he’s like a toddler.

It had been a beautiful day, 23 deg apparently, but started to cloud over just as the Huxtables returned to collect the boys. Matt’s conference calls had certainly been livened up by the dogs who were clearly the stars of the show, and I got some work done but definitely very distracting to be throwing a stick or ball every few minutes.

Dinner tonight is chilli. I haven’t made one of these for ages. I love making chilli but I can’t stop tinkering – when the kitchen was separate Matt couldn’t see it, now he tells me to leave it alone for a while and stop adding more spices. It tasted pretty good though.

Time to relax, draft letters to the water board about our duplicate invoices, and get the blog updated. But as always it is getting late and I need to get to bed. Night all x

[18 February 2022]

Saturday

Work continues again on the ensuite. This seems to be a very little by little process, I thought this would have been finished ages ago but doesn’t look as though the end is going to be anytime soon; not least because the plumber won’t be back till the end of the month. A bit more plastering done, lots of fancy new electrics (maybe not by your standards but having a simple temporary lightbulb and switch are pretty fancy in my book), also a bit more work on the outside done.

With that job done Matt wants us back outside again to try to measure exactly where the new pool is going to be, as we are now only a few weeks away from installation.

I feel as though there must be a way to reduce the number of times we discuss the same things, but many of these are big, long term decisions so better to concede and do it again. There’s been a lot of discussion but it’s important to me that the straight lines are aligned to the house – we can change a lot of things, borders, driveways etc, but the location of the house (and the pool) won’t move. [Just to be clear I’m not looking for it to be in line with the house but that ‘aligned’ is based on a straight line drawn from the exterior walls.] Meow was also keen to help, she wasn’t overly helpful but she had a lot of fun chasing the end of the tape measure around the garden.

Next thing on my list was getting a few of the chilli/pepper seeds in. They’re just from some supermarket-bought peppers we bought recently but hopefully might offer something. We were so late to start them last year that nothing fruited before the weather turned. The problem however is that they really need to be at a minimum of about 15deg to germinate properly and we can’t offer that consistently even inside the house, so maybe no benefit but worth a go. I’ll plant more once the weather warms up.

We then had to go to pick some more plasterboard up as we’ve not got quite enough to finish the jobs at hand. Looking pretty overcast down near Luchon but it looks like snow so I guess we will have to work twice as hard today.

All collected and we then have to navigate it round the house. 2.5mx1.2m is definitely the max we can practically get up our stairs, even with the number of times we have done this is not easy. I’m not looking forward to doing the 2nd floor bathrooms and lugging it all the way up there.

I know the dining room and bedrooms aren’t ideal storage locations but the idea of putting in the garage only to then have to move it into the house (and not being able to do that when it rains) seems like a lot of wasted effort.

Eight sheets boards of plaster was enough and I’m done. Time for a rest and to prepare for what Matt is promising will be an early start tomorrow. I’ve managed to negotiate him down from leaving here at 8:30 to 9:00, but that is still pretty early for me on a Sunday and working mostly on UK time.

[19 February 2022]