Thursday

Mostly worked. I did give Biomedica a quick call today though. Seems they don’t do vaccinations but we can drop in anytime to get our blood tests done. Hopefully then they will also tell us where/how to get our tetanus boosters. Was then just very busy with work.

In being so busy however I’d missed a rather massive piece of news: *Russia invades Ukraine* What madness is this? It’s terrifying to think about what the repercussions might be and how the governments will respond. Whatever happens next things are going to get rough. Rather puts the civil liberties of mask/no mask; vaccine/not into perspective.

Poutine for dinner randomly and finishing off some more work. Later had a quick chat with Tonia then time to get to bed.

[24 February 2022]

Friday

Wow, what a long week and so much work. I’ve been working late and generally exhausted. I can only assume I slept terribly as I was so tired when I got up, even more so than I usually am for a 9am. Between calls I had to take a couple of naps. I only officially work 4 days and Matt had calls all afternoon so I was off the hook.

Matt finished early which was a bit of a shame as I’d arranged a call with Peter at the end of the day, seems I wasn’t the only one that had a tough week. So Matt went off to get the stuff to do the ‘tanking’ of the shower while Peter and I caught up. Matt did come back with presents (new jasmine plants!) though so I was very happy.

As Peter signed off he did say that he was having pizza which had got me thinking. Thankfully Matt arrived to tell me that he’d seen the pizza van at the pharmacy and suggested we should have some for dinner – Perfect! This is now the closest we ever get to takeout.

It took a few gos. We went down and ordered then were ‘told’ it would be 25 mins (20:05). Apparently however I can’t read and she wanted us to come back at 20:45 – not sure how I could have got that wrong. Anyway, back finally for our pizza and they didn’t have the €7 change so we got €3 off, as ‘we’re not French’ – I’m not really sure of the difference here as Matt was waving his card behind me as apparently they are the only place in France that doesn’t really do cash and prefers cards, but they seemed to just assume we didn’t speak any French. It did then make a little more sense of why she said almost nothing to me, very unusual. Anyway, I’ll take a win however small and despite her husband’s confusion (the name on the collection was Chantal).

Time for some relaxation and Matt appears to have downloaded a myriad of movies. Ok, so more like a combination of 30 zombie or shark movies. Not being able to decide we settled on ‘Sky Sharks’ – if this isn’t immediately your thing really don’t look it up or ask.

Night all, x

[25 February 2022]

Saturday

The big white block looms over us. Work is ever ongoing with the ensuite but definitely inching closer. A bit more plaster work from Matt while spend my time tidying up after him. All needs doing though.

Rather than just watch Matt, I decided it was time to plant some of the chilli seeds. Of course I was quickly distracted and ended up working on preparing the vegetable patch instead. There’s plenty to be done to get it ready for planting up. One down, 4 to go. Not really though as I also need to rotovate, add mulch and leafmould, and then get it well tilled. But it was a start, and every step forward helps.

Time for lunch. Next stop is a return trip to the carrelage (tile) shop. The key issue is that the standard tiles I liked are either 60×60 or 30×60, however the spaces are 140×250 and 80×250. This is going to leave 3 runs of small tiles which won’t look right. We could step the tiles but I’m not convinced. What we really need is a good 20cm wide answer that we can use as an accent, although seems that not lot comes in a 20cm. Eventually I found two answers. Before we even got the prices I knew how this was going to go, and I wasn’t wrong, one was significantly more expensive. Unfortunately it is going to be 4-6 weeks before we can get them delivered but at least the decision is made and the order placed. That’s the first of 6 bathrooms.

Next stop is Action to see if they have some more of the pots I bought last year. They did and so I bought a few, in fact I may have got a bit more gardening stuff than planned – it’s just that time of year when everything looks so exciting and there’s an abundance of seeds etc to replace the seeds the mice got into last year.

Last stop before home is the permanent Vide Grenier, just in case there is anything good. And there was! New coats all round and a ski locker for the basement. We’ve been planning on getting a few of these for a while and they don’t come up as often as you think, or are quite expensive if new. This one is in very good condition and it seems the vendor has a couple more too so will have a look at those too once they can drop them off.

Quick nip into Super-U to see if they have any of the cheap logs, sadly not, but did get some more potting soil which was a result if you ask me. And we’re back just in time for the England vs Wales match. First half was rather lack lustre but the second half was worth the wait. I also managed to get the kitchen back into order, it looked like a bomb site.

Time for dinner, ribs and chips. Not the most healthy option but it was very tasty. Matt also had some coleslaw, which apparently counts as at least one vegetable.

[26 February 2022]

Sunday

Not sure how but I managed to get a lie-in. The master of the house however was up and thankfully had been engaged in one of the jobs I’d wanted him to do. He’s done a fantastic job of making a start of the tops of the hedges. Unfortunately we don’t have the before picture but it’s looking fantastic and he’s made a wonderfully nearly-straight line. The nesting period is from 15 March when it’s basically illegal to cut your hedges in France so it has to be done by then or be the pariahs of the gardening community. The front hedge is 140 metres long though so it’s quite a lot of effort and doesn’t all get done in one day, but at least the bulk of it is now acceptably trimmed.

Next up was more work on the never-ending bathroom and ensuite battle. The plumber is finally due to come tomorrow so the motivation is there. Following Matt’s discovery that despite having spent a lot of extra money on green board you still need to ‘tank’ the shower that’s on my list for the day. Alongside more undercoats, overcoats and a final coat on the wall where the radiator is going to go back there’s a lot of painting type work for me.

Meanwhile Matt is on plumbing and electrics to get the power run across to the pink bathroom light switch, mirror and underfloor heating. As well as cutting the board to go behind the sink unit.

We got the new sink unit upstairs and then also opened up the new sink. Terribly however it seems that it’s completely broken, I spotted a massive crack straight the way through it. There were no signs of any damage to the box and it’s been treated with care the whole time but unsure what the shop will say – it was from a pretty expensive shop with good reputation though so keep your fingers crossed for us.

More negotiation on the location and height of the sink unit in the ensuite. It feels high to me but since it is suspended we can’t just drop it 5cm as it has to hang off the stud in the wall. The ‘modern’ standard is much higher than it used to be so I wonder if we’re just used to having one very low, but it’s at the top of the limit. The sink in the ‘pink’ bathroom will have to be lower as it is for a family room so needs kids to be able to use it but not so much of an issue in here – although old ladies do tend to shrink.. 😉

Second coat of tanking before I can let Matt finish off on the sink hangers as it is getting dark and cold.

Then time for me to put on a quick dinner while he cleans the paint trays. Savoyard tart was pretty good, a quick break and then giving Matt a haircut before we have some lovely hot showers.

Finally time to update the blog. Obviously Matt advised me not to stay up too later but 1.5 hrs later I need to now heed his advice and get to bed if the plumber is going to be here at 7am. Night all.

[27 February 2022]

Monday

The plumber was meant to arrive at 8am this morning to finally connect up all the wastes for the bathroom, unfortunately however it seems he’s sick so he’s not coming.

Lots of work then up to Montrejeau for a meeting with the pool contractors. Sounds as though everything is going to plan for them to start work at the end of March. We hadn’t however ordered a pool cover, border stones or got a quote for having the terrace put in so that’s going to be another hefty bill to come.

Popped into the pharmacy on the way home to pick up our tetanus shots, which are now in our fridge. All we have to do now is work out who we have to call to come round to stick them in us.

France is weird sometimes.

Matt saw a new bird on the feeder today, I think I have identified it as a.. ok, I’ve forgotten since this happened so will open it up to you, what is it again? Daffodils are also coming out now too.

I also finally got out the arch as I am keen to grow the jasmine up it, I’m also contemplating the many places I think we need jasmine, which is basically everywhere – I love the smell of jasmine.

[28 February 2022]