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Vaccination station (Round 1)

May 28, 2021 by Chantal Chaney

Saturday

Matt has come up with a genius plan, I don’t know how we never came up with it before. The bathroom on the ground floor was previously plumbed up to have a washing machine in it. Dishwashers require exactly the same plumbing, and the dishwasher for our new kitchen is sitting in a box in the dining room. So why have we spent so many weeks washing our dishes and pans in that tiny sink like complete mugs?!

It’s clearly a temporary fix but it is pure genius. Well done Matt!

Next job of the day is get some more work done on the plaster boarding as be good to have it finished before the second plasterer is due on Monday. Resident H&S insisted on the mask for mixing – it basically turns into cement when combined with water which is basically what is in your respiratory system so the dust can’t be good for you, right? Looks like progress to me.

Next job will be to take the radiator off. This is going to require draining the heating system. After about 8 buckets it pretty much stopped so left a bucket on and went to release the radiator valve. Probably comes as little surprise that as it let air into the system there was in fact a hell of a lot more water in the system which was quickly pissing out into the basement. Thankfully we had turned off the radio and I heard a lot of water. Time for bucket relay as we actually emptied the remaining 90%. Somehow I ended up as the waterboy while Matt filled the buckets. Definitely got my steps in, seems there’s a lot of water in our heating system.

I suddenly had a brainwave. Why are we only disconnecting one radiator?! If this is going to all have to be refilled surely we could cap off a load of them. We aren’t going to be using them so what’s the point, we’ll just be filling them to have to re-empty them when we want to decorate the rooms. Saves time effort and money (and the environment). I sent Matt off to go check the sizes of all the radiators in the house while I finished off the water emptying and carrying. Of course despite having been to Luchon yesterday I hadn’t yet had this plan so we’re back off to buy a load more bungs.

Back at the house and we’re set. Bugger me if these wrought iron radiators don’t weigh a ton. We’re going to have to find some ingenious ways of doing this as I can’t lift half the weight even a few centimeters. Matt thankfully is a hell of a lot stronger than I am so we finally manage to pull it off onto some blocks and get it down to the floor.

One down. However, Matt’s checks and asuarance that they were all the same size should have raised warning bells – nothing in this house is ever either consistent, simple or indeed predictable – to think that all the pipes feeding the radiators were the same was pure folly.

Thankfully we did manage to disconnect 5 radiators which was pretty good, they just aren’t really the ones we wanted. Also glad that a large portion of them (including the very largest) are freestanding as there’s no way Matt and I could ever move the larger radiators.

Weather isn’t looking great again so looks as though my gardening plans are on hold. Seems the Hollyhock is now taller than me and the daggerplant (Yucca Gloriosa) is flowering.

Time for dinner, a leftover mash, meat and gravy medley. TV and bed. Tomorrow will be another busy day.

[15 May 2021]

Sunday

Big day today. We are off to contribute to the global vaccination programme in our tiny way as we head off to Tarbes this afternoon for the first of our two Moderna vaccines.

[Warning: the below synopsis is highly flawed, based entirely on personal conjecture and has little to no reflection of any actual scientific, political or economic reasoning.

So a quick briefing for those of you benefitting from some great leadership from the start (aka our Kiwi contingent). France has been very slow on the uptake of vaccines compared to the UK. In the middle there was a big bun fight between the EU and AstraZeneca who were producing the Oxford vaccine following big delays of shipments. Everyone was banded – over 70s and essential workers, over 65s etc etc. The UK has done well using this approach and followed it quite tightly with a massive drop in infection rates very quickly. However, the UK realised that the biggest benefit was to get as many people to have the first dose as quickly as possible (due to the coverage of 60-90% from dose 1) and have delayed the second ‘final’ dose as a result, most people getting it around 12 weeks after the first. France was crap, initially at least. Once vaccines were finally available there was a lot of politics and people weren’t taking them up as quickly as the government would have liked. After a number of months and getting to about the 55 bracket they basically abandoned tiers this week and allowed anyone over 18 to go online and book a vaccine. Matt and I therefore took the opportunity to get one as soon as we could which meant a 1.5hr round trip to Tarbes.]

Of course however, we had a couple of things to do first. Finished measuring and cutting the last bits of plasterboard for the kitchen, before I finally managed to finally wrench Matt out of his work trousers to get them in the washing machine. A quick lunch and then popped into Carrefour to get another trestle table, then up to Montrejeau to get some sun lounger covers and 4 wooden garden chairs. Oops, wrong address. Off to the right one this time. She was very nice and very French – insisted on showing us absolutely everything, talking super quickly and explaining that there was another place just up the road with the same address (we’d worked that one out already) and then very kindly wished us ‘Bon Courage’ for our vaccines.

Finally, car loaded up, and we are on our way. Once we arrived it was, well, very French. Everything checked multiple times, at multiple desks, by multiple people, and (of course) all on paper. The queuing system was odd, but seems we weren’t the only ones to be a little mystified by it. Once the papers had been checked and final questions at the doctor’s station, there was a row of waiting rooms with an array of chairs. No direction which ones to sit on or how the calling through process might work. However, having initially missed the initial check at the doctors station, Matt had clocked it. Put simply, you randomly selected a booth with some available chairs, knew who came in what order and presented yourself as asked. If you didn’t grab a chair directly outside a booth you entered a no-mans land of unrelated chairs at the side, until you realised what was happening and grabbed a closer chair as it opened up.

Musical chairs aside, the process was reasonably quick and efficient. We were logged in within about 10 minutes and (including a 15 min mandatory ‘observation’ period) we were off to the final form-stamping point and out within an hour. The most exciting thing – since they didn’t give out stickers, which I was particularly miffed about – was the reimagined cinema posters with a Covid twist. I would love to have some of these as a fun reminder of a very strange time to move to abroad for the first time.

Back at the house and it seems that work waits for no (wo)man. Plumbing is the order of the afternoon. Looking at that rather large lock of hair he asked me to get from the potting shed I’m starting to suspect that he’s been having a tryst with Rapunzel, but actually it turns out the old-school way of putting hessian fibres in the pipe threads is actually one of the best ways to stop leaks.

With the new cold water pipe run Matt seems pretty happy. Time for him to make dinner while I start to tidy up the temporary kitchen, enjoy the facility of having a dishwasher to put things in out of the way, wash up the few remaining chopping boards etc and making it a bit more acceptable for the next plasterer who we are hoping might come tomorrow.

In other news the cat (we don’t have a cat) seems to have unhealthy obsession with playing with headphones. Not sure this should be encouraged as she loves to grab mine when I am trying to have a call but it was funny.

Had a call with Muma Camp. Seems that the lack of posts recently has been creating great anxiety for our NZ readers. My apologies, they were written but my Editor has been very slow as he’s been busy and I’ve been lagging behind on the photo portion. We managed to get a couple out today though so hopefully you are reassured that we are still well and working very hard.

With most of the posts up to date I need to get the washing finished and by the time I’m done it’s already bed time.

Symptoms update Day 1 – Metallic taste, not overwhelming but definitely there in the background; aching arm at point of injection but no worse than Malaria or other vaccines to go to Nairobi to see Jeff and Vivian. Matt – nothing at all.

[16 May 2021]

Monday

Work. My second project has just started again so going to be another very busy month. Matt popped off to do a quick job installing the new shutter. Unfortunately it wasn’t such a quick job. A bloody big spider fell down on him, though glad it wasn’t me as I’d have fallen off the windowsill.

After a good few goes at getting the casing off from the inside he decided we needed to pull down the big ladder and tackle it from outside. Well I can tell you, that thing was made to last. With my sore arm it was quite the ordeal getting it down and up over the window. Only to find that it was blind riveted on.

Back inside he’s managed to smash one of the window panes trying to get it out and eventually had to resort to taking the angle grinder to the old frame. It seems to have half worked with the new mechanism in place but he’s having difficulty getting the distance timer to work correctly. He’s fed up with what was meant to be a five minute job now so going to give up for the day.

I’ve however consulted my drawings and contacted a couple of Polish glazing companies to see if we can get some quotes to replace the doors and windows that are a bit more palatable than the local version.

[17 May 2021]

Tuesday

Mostly working but had a whip around the garden to admire the lupins which are now starting to flower.

Matt also needed some help to make some holes in the ground floor bathroom for some new water pipes.

After work I took the opportunity to pot up some of the flowers from their tiny modules. That’s the calendula, capucine and zinnas done but plenty more to do. Time to start circulating things from the cold frame to the veranda and upstairs to the cold frame, before they finally get put outside in their final positions.

Matt has also had a quick go at strimming the paths around the veg patch which is handy.

Job done for the day and time to relax.

[18 May 2021]

Wednesday

Yay! Another care package from Pete 🙂 All sorts of sweeties and random things.

Lots of work but the second plasterer also popped over which was a result. He was meant to have come Friday, then Monday, then yesterday so today was his last chance. Thankfully he arrived 10 minutes before my meeting. It was a bit of an odd look as he didn’t measure up a thing but apparently will drop his quote into the postbox tomorrow – France becomes increasingly odd with every day.

Back to work. After work we were going to have a discussion about the quote we received from the mason today but were distracted by a black and white cat. It looks as though Grumps is back, and she is VERY big. Looks as though there are more kittens on the way. The problem with the really long grass is that it is now incredibly difficult to monitor her in any way. Hopefully however it gives a plentiful hunting ground for her. We know that Meow can get 6 mice in about 40 minutes so signs are good.

No sign of her nesting in the previous spot but Matt has raked the grass up into a large heap while I’ve put a sheltered nest in the orchard. Not sure if it’s a good place with only one entrance/exit but gives her an option and hopefully warm enough for them to survive this time. We may however have to seek out a charity that will help to get her spayed, and find a way of catching her but she is very skittish and won’t let you near her.

As I was about to lament the lack of good sunshine for a drink on the porch, Matt suddenly announced that the pubs opened today and that curfew was now 9 not 7. YIPPIE!

So, I’m off upstairs to go get changed. No way I am going to introduce myself at the local without dressing up. Ok, so my dressing up isn’t up to much, but I didn’t want to over do it – I’d have looked a bit silly in the cocktail dress I first picked out, but I did put on some light make up and matched my tops with my mask.

At the pub and it was all a bit exciting. Matt wanted to do a ‘walk by’ but I was committing, now is not a time for nerves! As I conspicuously eyed and translated the Covid directions on the door, the nice old lady asked if I wanted to come in. Hell yes! – I mean ‘ah, oui’ – and in we go, hardly containing my excitement.

We have beer! As I go in for the second glass I chat to the older lady, who it turns out is the mother of the younger lady who served us. I explain that we moved from London and live in village in the old maternity home so she’s going to let her daughter know. Duly the daughter (and landlady) comes over [Natalie maybe?] and we do the introductions, good to start integrating and meet the cornerstone of the community (pretty sure the Maries only comes second – they would in the UK anyway).

Having started the conversations though it seems I am the one that now has to do the beer runs as Matt is concerned that he’s going to have to make small talk. I am sure that this won’t last long though, there’s only so much small talk to be had and he’ll get used to it. Glad we have finally made our debut in the local community though and look forward to many more visits in the near future. Time to get home for dinner though.

As Matt diligently prepares our fine dining (pizza) and with the plants back indoors I set about making my new fishing rod. Matt has dug out some bits and pieces from his electronics box to get a good string and piece of plastic. It’s perfect, and, as I understand it, I have now perfected what the kids refer to as catfishing… I certainly found it hilarious.