Last Few Days - Parting Gifts, 11 - 15 Oct.

 

As we had Friday off, it was back to DIY today – the last full ‘free’ day I have as I’ll be working from home tomorrow and we head back to the UK on Friday.

Poor old Sally was back in the ‘future’ bathroom, stripping paper that was very reluctant to be stripped. 

Me? I rubbed down the filling on the study ceiling, washed it and gave it a coat of paint and then gave the kitchen ceiling its second coat. Then a bit of a break before touching up a number of metal details on the window furniture and then a second coat, once dry for the study ceiling.


All in all, a good day’s work.

Monday through Thursday saw Sally has been odd-jobbing/cleaning  and tidying up as we wind down to our departure on Friday morning. 

Nothing of much not to relate – except the kindness of the neighbours. 

First it was Pilli and David; they came around with a bag of foraged apples. I believe they were by way of an ‘apology’ for asking us to move the car on a couple times when they took deliveries and for the noise as they worked (installing a new floor on the 2nd floor I think). Neither had been an issue – though the last move of the car was inconvenient (and I fear I showed it) as I was literally 3 minutes form a video interview with a job candidate.

Then, Bernadette came around with a bag of chestnuts they has foraged and gave it to us as a gift (and there we were with a large bagful already  - the fruits (pardon the pun) or our own foraging). She then came around today with two jars of homemade (from her garden) quince jelly and one of chutney. On this visit I thought she was asking how we liked the chestnuts, I said I loved them. I think she was actually asking if we wanted more, as she was soon back with another bag. I love chestnuts – but even I am going to struggle with the three bagfuls we now have along with some giant ones we bought off the local market before we foraged – plus the walnuts we’ve collected!

The boiler has gone out a couple of times and so we’ll clearly need to arrange for that to be serviced in the Spring. Still awaiting the third electrician’s divi/quote, but I have written 'holding emails' to the other two.

Comments

  1. UM26 February 2021 at 14:32

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Autor4 May 2021 at 15:19

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Receipt of Compromise & Diagnostics Reports (Feb 2018)

I'm still building this blog, setting up the 'Retrospective' pages which describe our activities between first embarking on this adventure  and finally deciding to create this blog. However, I've decided to create the first blog post as we've hit the first major milestone to occur since I started blogging - the receipt of the Compromise and the Diagnostic Reports. The Compromise is the first of two contractual documents and commits both parties to the sale of the property. The other contract is the main contract at the end of the process. Rather than travel to France we had decided to give the notaire (similar to a solicitor but working for the State rather than the two parties) power of attorney  to sign the Compromise on our behalf. This seemed seemed sensible as it involved no additional fees and saved us the journey. We would still have a 10-day cooling off period and, even if we had traveled there, the chances of understanding even a small part of what we w
Read more

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 feature
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 for s
Read more