Busy day ‘at the office’ today so not much going to happen on the house. Pretty happy with the colour of the desk now I can see it in the light.

Big meeting this afternoon so checked the background view on Teams. Not great as the shutter at the back is open. Seems the view from the other side is better so will reorientate it for now, until Matt gets back and fixes the shutter.

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Ok, lesson learnt. The lounge is far too cold to be particularly useful right now (at least without the kerosene heater). I was freezing and trying my best not to let my teeth start chattering. It was so bad I had to cover the camera and quickly grab one of Matt’s coats for warmth but that wasn’t helping the icicles that were once my hands. Another quick call, few emails, etc etc

In the words of Benjamin Franklin “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Well today definitely confirmed that the second of those is true. Matt sent pics of my post from the UK. Just what I wanted, yet more letters from Her Majesty. A reminder to do a self assessment and joy of all joys, a VAT bill. Thankfully I have Matt and Jeff on hand to help as even this far in I have no idea what I am doing. I can’t even contemplate how much more difficult this is going to get when we add paying French taxes to the mix…

Time for a bite to eat and to clean the kitchen in preparation for the fridge delivery (again).

Taking it pretty easy this evening after yesterday’s issues. The number of broken things appears to be increasing the longer I am here. The electric shutter at the far end of the kitchen is currently down and won’t go back up again so it is becoming increasingly dark at that end of the room (since the lights are jammed off now too). I am sure this curve is meant to be going in the opposite direction.

A bit of TV first before I get into more dull admin stuff.

First up, pay the remaining amount to HMRC for the VAT. Next, email the garage to confirm that they will complete the buyers requirements to register the car. Since we we don’t have a French fiscal number we are unable to do this ourselves. [Matt has clearly done a lot of research on this based on the number of docs he sent me about it.]

Matt rang. Apparently I can’t fix the blind as that will need looking at the electrics and I am banned from electrics until he returns. Not much to report as haven’t done a great deal today. Got to go anyway as the French phone is ringing. Yay! It’s the wood man, he’s going to come tomorrow afternoon between 3 and 5. Well that’s my plans sorted for the weekend.

This is is how much we are getting delivered tomorrow (roughly)…

I have been thinking about design for one of the rooms and starting to put together some ideas on Pintrest. It may well be for ‘Tonia’s room’ – Room 6.

Matt is working remotely on the kitchen design and we’ve just had a long zoom call about each element so hopefully be able to share that with you.

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Lee dropped me a few messages to check how I’m doing which was nice.

One of the things that has become clear is the need for a very detailed project plan to start to be put together. Super, I love MS Project – thanks Peter – your ‘future truth’ that ‘Chan knows how to use it’ came true and took over!

Not easy to share the plans (beyond PDF) as Apple doesn’t support MS project in any way but the alternatives are rubbish (and I’ve tested a few). Does put me in full control of the Project Management though which is only right and just. Hyper-reliant on Matt to meet the deadlines though so hopefully this will be the only trip back to London for a while.

Quick bit of planning and Matt’s computer has some charge again so time for another catch up.

The fire is slowly dying so it’s time to start saying goodbye. [Ooh that’s a Frank Sinatra song]. So immediately challenge Matt to refinish the song:

“Oh the fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we’re still goodbying
But as long as you love me so..”

Matt: let her sew, let her sew, let her sew

Sadly as I don’t have a new sewing machine this doesn’t work.

Time for bed. But there are messages from Vicky so better do that first. Importantly:

Vicky: How’s John doing, keeping you company?

Me: He’s asleep now as he only operates when it warms up – which suits.

He’s better than you might think but we are still working on a few boundary issues – on my arm on my jumper is fine, on my skin is not (it’s too tickly).

By my ear is also a definite no, I know you are here John you don’t have to shout about it

Don’t ever forget that both my friends and family have enabled my madness – and I love them for it!!

Forgot to turn on the boiler with all the chat and lack of real progress this evening to so time to light the kerosene heater (just so I don’t freeze to death while the boiler heats up). Going to have to wait a little for this but definitely time to think about sleep!

Night all xx