Wednesday and I have decided to take the day off.

Ok, I did a few work emails and responded to a few bits and pieces but it was mostly a day off. I was trying to have a good lie in but swore I heard car/van door close. Couldn’t see anything so back to bed. Time to treat myself to a bit of BBC’s excellent lunchtime drama – Doctors! 🙂

Right, I can definitely hear the voices of a man and a woman outside. I peer out the window and there is a car outside so throw on some PJs and go to investigate. Who on earth would turn up without ringing the number on the door or saying they were coming, it’s clearly not a delivery van.

Oh! It’s the old owner and hidden round the side of building is a man in a van. They have come to look at the hornet’s nest.

The usual, somewhat stilted conversation ensues. They notice my pyjamas (I’d have put real clothes on if I’d known); I explain that Matt is away for three weeks to go to the hospital; they are surprised and extremely gracious so offer to have me over for dinner, they also have an Australian friend that they can invite so can help with some of the translation. I take her phone number and they are off again. I’m still no clearer however when the nest is going to be gone but it’s progress.

Back to bed for another episode of Doctors before I get up.

Ok, well as much as I would like to stay in bed all day I turned the heating off ages ago so I’m going to have to get up and do some jobs. First up, measuring the workshop, beams, spaces etc so that we can put some insulation in (as it’s also the kitchen floor).

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My initial list isn’t going to be very helpful to Matt unless I am there to explain what each of the numbers references. So I nip back downstairs to get my pad and drawing pencils – tada!

I offered to do a second drawing showing how many beams there were and sketching the whole room but apparently that was sufficient.

Next up is translating those window measurements into something useful. Front windows first. Looks as though they are the same in the salon and the kitchen. Then the salon and dining room doors, which again seem to be the same.

Need to pop down to the shop to go get some washing powder for a ‘dry’ run of the washing machine – apparently you should run it empty the first time, that or Matt doesn’t trust my plumbing abilities. Lesson 1 – washing powder is expensive in France. This was the cheapest I could get and it was £13!

My plumbing worked perfectly and the washing has been heaped up downstairs ready to be run through tomorrow.

Guess I’ll have a quick go at a few more of those kitchen tiles before the 7:30 cut off. Well those were much more resistant than the previous ones. Got a few more off though which was good so making slow progress.

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Back to the drawings. Neither of the kitchen windows are the same so need to do them separately too. Finally the back windows in the dining room.

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All done and ready for me to use as a prompt for discussion with local glaziers and to hopefully get some quotes.

Time for dinner. Second steak hache, frites, peas and broccoli – as with the UK nothing ever comes as a single person size.

Having scrapped the plans for the Ikea kitchen, we (Matt) then had to redesign it with a French company which did the blue doors that I wanted. Lots of reviewing (again) of the kitchen and discussions of the kickboards – blue or white?!

Anyway, we’re finally happy with it. Seems however that it’s not so simple just to order it. Actually you can’t just order it. Seems that we have to have an appointment with their consultant but, for no apparent reason, there are no (online) appointments until you are able to travel again (15th Dec in France). This pushes back my project plan again by almost another week and apparently half the shown appointments don’t even exist. We don’t even want a consultant to review it, we just want to buy the damned thing! [I was getting pretty pissed off with it all by the end.]

Anyway I am now fed up and it’s time to go to bed.