Bastille Day - A Damp Squib, With Bangers 14 July

Bastille Day! Though, as of 18:00, as I type, you’d not know. No bunting, no marching bands. The only clue is some shops being shut and the others closing for the afternoon. The main celebrations (normally highly communal) have been cancelled, but still hoping for some fireworks.

The day started with a bit of a lie-in and a lazy breakfast and then off to Super-U and The Weekend for shopping, in the latter case primarily for white exterior satin so Sally can progress the balcony.

A light lunch and then Sally cracked on with painting the balustrade and the frame for the French doors and finish the day top coating the ceiling in our bedroom.

Me, I did some wood filling on the balustrade’s support (there are some big areas to fill, the base of one pillar needs reconstructing – so the filling will need to be in layers over a few days). I even used some wiring conduit and water pipe as reinforcement and, mainly, to act as packing.


Starting the balustrade repair

The other big job for me was to continue emptying soil from the trough on the garage. I moved around 32 buckets full into the garage and another 16 into the cellar, where I emptied it on to the earth floor. Still more to shift though – but that will have to wait for another day.

Still waiting hopefully for some fireworks, but failing that, we have our own bangers (they have some bloomin' big sausages around here - they were tasty too!)

No fireworks - but at least we have bangers!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Night at the Chateau. 4-5 July

Image
 Up at 05:30 and on the road, as planned, shortly after 06:00. Nice clear run to the Eurotunnel terminal, as a result of which we were offered the 10:20 crossing (we were booked on the 11:50). Great result! Except we then queued and queued as traffic crawled through the customs and security checks. Eventually we found ourselves on the 11:20 crossing - still 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Anecdotally, the return delays are currently even worse. Isn't Brexit bliss 😒. We had booked a night at the Chateau de la Bucherie, just to the west of Paris. And French leg of the journey from the terminal was a s smooth as the journey to the terminal. I can highly recommend the chateau. The price was very reasonable, the room spacious (all be it in the roof with only a moderate sized Velux window).  The staff were delightful and friendly and the grounds (with impressive flora and fauna) were exceptional.  The kitchen garden was well stocked and we weren't surprised to see its produce fe...
Read more

Baking Bread without an Oven & Accosting Strangers - 28 & 29 June.

Image
  On Sunday we tried, unsuccessfully, to find the workshop of the bicycle repairman that had a stall on the market the previous year. He'd told us he was opening a shop but we failed to find it  – perhaps it didn’t survive the pandemic; perhaps we simply were looking in the wrong place. We more groceries (we can only buy a few provisions each visit due to transport being limited to the push bikes) and ordered a full size fridge-freezer. Sally reckoned it was a good price and we’ve been managing with a small fridge for long enough – especially as we’ll be visiting for longer periods now (hopefully). Delivery was only €10 so we arranged for it to be delivered the next day. In the evening we looked for hotels in Paris and, having booked three-nights there, changed our return train ticket; a surprisingly simple process. Up at a more reasonable time (07:45) on Monday – thanks to setting the alarm. We needed to be sure to be up in time for the fridge-freezer delivery (scheduled ...
Read more

French Delivery Schedules, Big Beds and Creamy Cheese - Saturday 2 June, 2018

Image
I hadn’t set the alarm, as I planned to treat myself to a lie-in after the previous days travails. But I was awake at 06:45 (05:45 UK time). First order of the day was a shower, shave and get those teeth cleaned – would there be hot water There was! 20-minutes later I was feeling human again. Plan for the day:          Unpack          Go shopping at the local Intermarche          Make up a couple of extension cables         Vacuum the house top to bottom (literally, the ceiling and walls would get vacuumed to to get rid of cobwebs)          See how I felt (I was going to take it steady after yesterday’s adventures). As I was unpacking, the doorbell went. It was our new queen size bed from Amazon – strange as only yesterday I had had an email notification that it would arrive next Wednesday. Later in the day an RCD device I’d ordered fr...
Read more