She's Abandoned Me! 30 June, 2019
July was special last yea. But this year, not only will Sally be with me for Bastille Day, we'll be joined for that weekend, by Natasha, Tom and Serena (daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter).
I'll be there for a fortnight but lucky Sally has resigned from work last week and would like to spend a chunk of the Summer in France. She finished work on Friday and yesterday, Saturday, I drove her to East Midlands Airport to fly out as the advance party.
It was with some trepidation that she headed off on her first solo visit. Would the flight be delayed? Would it be easy to get a taxi to the train station, would she get there on time? If not, would she miss the last train? Would she be able to turn the water and electric on? Would there be maggots in the fridge as there was for me on one of my solo visits?
If things went horribly wrong, this would almost certainly be her last solo visit. If they went well... who knows, perhaps she'll visit a number of time this year whilst I am tied to my desk and she enjoys the freedom of being semi-retired.
It appears things went swimmingly. The flight was on time, she was one of the first off the plane, the taxi, well, we'll come back to the taxi. She got to the train station OK and found the replacement coach (we knew that certain train times wold be by coach). The coach turned out to be better than a train as the travel times were similar but the coach dropped her a few hundred meters from home - rather than a couple of kilometres walk away at the local train station. And she got the water and electric on, no problem (I knew she would).
And no maggots!
Whilst there were no taxis at the airport rank, I'd provided a number that she called. The lady that answered spoke English and a taxi was dispatched. Whilst waiting Sally was even able to use her (albeit limited) French to help a family explain to another taxi firm that they wanted a taxi, for four people, in one hour's time and wanted to go to the centre of town. Well done Sally!
She apparently further practised her French with her taxi driver, discussing the weather and asking if he lived in the city. Small things but no doubt giving a real sense of achievement.
Arriving in Uzerche, Sally could hear celebrations and music but was too tired to investigate. Perhaps she should have, since they went on until 4am and apparently got louder as the night went on - or at least appeared to. That combined with the a heat in the 40 degrees Celsius (daytime) and trying to sleep in our attic room (told her not to) meant she got little sleep.
I suspect tonight she'll take my advice and try sleeping on one of the, hopefully cooler, lower floors (they all have a bed of some type).
Today she was up early and after visiting the boulangerie and the local super-marche (on her bike) she was hard at work. Sanding mainly, but almost immediately finding the fairly new Black & Decker Mouse fell apart in her hands.
The Mouse is a pretty important tool for us right now, so I've already got a replacement on order, which I'll take pout with me when I go this coming Friday.
I'll be there for a fortnight but lucky Sally has resigned from work last week and would like to spend a chunk of the Summer in France. She finished work on Friday and yesterday, Saturday, I drove her to East Midlands Airport to fly out as the advance party.
It was with some trepidation that she headed off on her first solo visit. Would the flight be delayed? Would it be easy to get a taxi to the train station, would she get there on time? If not, would she miss the last train? Would she be able to turn the water and electric on? Would there be maggots in the fridge as there was for me on one of my solo visits?
If things went horribly wrong, this would almost certainly be her last solo visit. If they went well... who knows, perhaps she'll visit a number of time this year whilst I am tied to my desk and she enjoys the freedom of being semi-retired.
It appears things went swimmingly. The flight was on time, she was one of the first off the plane, the taxi, well, we'll come back to the taxi. She got to the train station OK and found the replacement coach (we knew that certain train times wold be by coach). The coach turned out to be better than a train as the travel times were similar but the coach dropped her a few hundred meters from home - rather than a couple of kilometres walk away at the local train station. And she got the water and electric on, no problem (I knew she would).
And no maggots!
Whilst there were no taxis at the airport rank, I'd provided a number that she called. The lady that answered spoke English and a taxi was dispatched. Whilst waiting Sally was even able to use her (albeit limited) French to help a family explain to another taxi firm that they wanted a taxi, for four people, in one hour's time and wanted to go to the centre of town. Well done Sally!
She apparently further practised her French with her taxi driver, discussing the weather and asking if he lived in the city. Small things but no doubt giving a real sense of achievement.
Arriving in Uzerche, Sally could hear celebrations and music but was too tired to investigate. Perhaps she should have, since they went on until 4am and apparently got louder as the night went on - or at least appeared to. That combined with the a heat in the 40 degrees Celsius (daytime) and trying to sleep in our attic room (told her not to) meant she got little sleep.
I suspect tonight she'll take my advice and try sleeping on one of the, hopefully cooler, lower floors (they all have a bed of some type).
Today she was up early and after visiting the boulangerie and the local super-marche (on her bike) she was hard at work. Sanding mainly, but almost immediately finding the fairly new Black & Decker Mouse fell apart in her hands.
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| Basically, thee white spigot in the centre of the picture should not be visible. |
Talking of next Friday, we have a host of things to take over; not least a shower cabinet and waterproof wall panels and a (literal) stack of underlay for wooden flooring - we're thinking this may be better than the hardboard we have been using on the uneven so far. It was a tight squeeze (especially given the length of some of the shower related items) but, as before, the voluminous Skoda Octavia has not let us down.
Still have a couple of items to squeeze in - but there are some gaps (if you look very closely).
I've packed the car already as I won't get the time on Friday - working the morning and then heading straight off - and I thought I might need sally's help with heavy items such as the shower cabin (I didn't, as it happened). I'll be taking Sally's Mazda MX5 to work during the week and hopefully enjoying the weather with the roof down.
That's it for today other than to say my (UK) neighbours, Tim and Kym have invited me to eat with them tonight - They clearly think I may struggle to look after myself in Sally's absence, and the Mug-Shots noodles I had for lunch probably suggest they are right.
I've packed the car already as I won't get the time on Friday - working the morning and then heading straight off - and I thought I might need sally's help with heavy items such as the shower cabin (I didn't, as it happened). I'll be taking Sally's Mazda MX5 to work during the week and hopefully enjoying the weather with the roof down.
That's it for today other than to say my (UK) neighbours, Tim and Kym have invited me to eat with them tonight - They clearly think I may struggle to look after myself in Sally's absence, and the Mug-Shots noodles I had for lunch probably suggest they are right.
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