I promise I'll never take you for granted again! and food ramblings!

My internet connection, I mean! It's a bit unreliable at the moment, so when I can get it to work, I'm going as fast as I can. I've never been so focused, usually I just surf the web, browsing and looking at jobs to apply for, now I've got it down to a fine art - put the website address in, scan quickly, send the application or click to another page!

A lovely sight I saw today - the baby class at Dear Daughter (10)'s school had been on a trip out to a local farm, and they'd come back with a little present - every child (around 25 or so) had been given a punnet of fresh, new season strawberries! Some of them were eating them like sweets, passing them around the grown ups, they start to appreciate their food young in this country. I'll never forget when I went on a trip out with the maternelle when Dear Son (14) was in that class, and all the kids were given a picnic that included a hard boiled egg. They tucked in with a vengeance, I never saw 3 year old kids enjoy hard boiled eggs like that - without salt! It was a real eye-opener. Another time, Dear Son (15)'s friend, when aged about 4 was tucking into a bucket of whelks somebody had dropped off at his house. He had a pin in one hand and a frown of concentration as he picked the whelks out of their shells, and tucked in!

The closest I've ever come to that was at a recent rugby club bash when the bloke sitting next to me, 80 if a day, kept feeding me shellfish on a pin which tasted exactly like bogies. I tried not to think too much about what I was eating - three chews and a swallow, as my friend Alison says! Plenty of bread to get rid of the bits. I'm still not sure what I was eating - better not to know!

Have you seen Matthieu?

We had a bit of excitement yesterday tea time when two gendarmes (complete with guns) knocked on the door. Dear Daughter (10) - actually nearly 11, answered the door and they showed her a photograph of a boy aged around 14 and asked her if she knew him! You should have seen her little face! She came racing through (I was clearing the backlog of being without my internet connection) to tell me. When I arrived, Dear Son (14) was being questioned, as apparently he knew the little boy from school. It turned out that he lives in a foster home and the two boys were together at the weekend at a funfair in our local village (within a larger group). The boy who was missing, Matthieu, had won a cap gun and taken it to school where it had been confiscated by a teacher. He'd taken umbrage at this and run out of the classroom, jumped the (low) wall and hasn't been seen since. Apparently, he's run away three times this year already. Cry for help? Doesn't seem as if anybody's listening. I feel for his mother (although she's a useless article) as this must be a dreadful time for her. Dear Son (14) seems convinced he'll be back at school this morning. Kids - eh?

Oh, by the way, the technician left his tool bag behind and had to come back for it this morning at 7.30 am. Luckily, I get up early to get the kids off to school. Shows I'm not the only incompetent one out there!

Gotta get on, there are at least six jobs I want to apply for! Oh joy!

What a flippin palaver!

I've been forcibly evicted from blogland because I lost my internet connection almost a week ago following a power cut! Just at the worst possible time, I might add. "That" phone call never arrived (don't care - sniff!) but on top of that, we had a sudden rush of enquiries for the gites. I had to keep traipsing into town to use the computers in the library in Saujon. It costs €15 to join our local library - no wonder it's quiet down there - I expected it to be free - shows how behind the times I must be! Anyway, the technician came this afternoon (a day earlier than he said - good) so I'm busy catching up again - 600 messages in total, all but 37 of them spam! Good job I didn't get offered "the job" - what stress that would have been - it was bad enough, believe me!

One good thing - we were going to reduce the prices of the gites (again) but no need to now, I took 8 weeks bookings in the last two days! Don't understand why, but bring it on!

Here's a picture of the pool, so you know what you're missing!

Waiting for the phone to ring

I had a telephone interview yesterday with a bloke I 'met' on Guru.com. He's in Altrincham of all places, and needs help with customer support - could mean anything! I spoke to him for about 20 minutes or so yesterday, feeling extremely self-conscious and at the end of the conversation, he said he'd like to have a more "formal and structured" telephone interview with me today, in fact, now, in fact he should have rung an hour ago!

Is he stuck somewhere? Has he died? Is his phone on the blink?

Should I wait? How long for?

I've got all three kids plus a friend at home (the usual Wednesday afternoon scenario) and notes everywhere saying SILENCE and all the doors closed and I have to say that they have been extremely quiet this last hour - NOT normal!

I've got to go out to get some shopping as it's a Bank Holiday here tomorrow again - typical! Also, there are some French people due in the gites.

Stress, I wrote the book.

I probably wouldn't want to work for him anyway! His site is at lee hyphen mcintyre dot com, have a look, you'll see what I mean! (Take out the spaces, and put a full stop where the dot is!) I'd hate him to read this one day! I mean, it might all end happily! I could certainly use the money.

Minor Miracles

A minor miracle took place at the Palais de Congres in Royan (click link for piccies) on Saturday, in that 20-odd teenage rugby players (inc Dear Son (15)) set up, served and cleared away a four course meal with rum punch, red and rosé wine and children's/adults menus for 200 people, whilst also entertaining us with sketches, dance routines and a comedy routine. The meal consisted of foie gras, confit de canard with new potatoes and veg, (kids had chicken nuggets) rum baba and fruit salad and cheese. They had a chef to cook it, but they did the rest, including the washing up!

The memory of the champagne fountains with indoor fireworks will stay in Dear Daughter (10)'s mind for a long time to come. The French certainly know how to "let go", no shrinking violets present, no wallflowers! I felt like I'd landed from another planet. Glad I happened to have my earplugs in my bag. The reason for all this is that they were raising money for a trip to England next weekend to play rugby in Gosport. They raised enough for the trip and the evening was a brilliant success. Dear Son (15) was up until 3 am clearing all the tables away. He's well knackered now for his trip away - he'll need early nights for the rest of this week - fat chance!

Peace and quiet? Not!

I kept wondering whether the hunting season had started up again. Every few minutes, I could distinctly hear somebody firing a gun. I didn't find out what was going on until Woody's next walk, when I discovered a bird scaring contraption, set up to make a noise every 10 minutes. The farmer has just planted his sunflowers, and didn't want the birds to get the impression that lunch (and dinner and tea) were on him. I love the sunflowers in July, but it isn't half annoying living with this constant boom, bloody boom! Hurry up and germinate!

Above is a photo of the sunflowers taken last July - I loved this photo so much, I had it on my desktop until last week when I changed it to one of the garden

Stormy weather

We've had a couple of days of really heavy, muggy weather here in SW France, typically followed by the most tremendous thunder storms in the evenings. I always turn the computer off and leave it off during thunderstorms, since it's not unusual to lose the power, and as we all know, computers don't like sudden power cuts.

I turned it on (very) early this morning to get the emails and had the following:

6 pm Does the gite I've been enquiring about (for the past three weeks) have a full sized bath, since my toddler doesn't like showers?

6.25 pm I can't make a decision about the gite until you tell me whether there is a full sized bath (it's on the website).

6.45 pm I'm still waiting for an answer to my earlier emails.

6.55 pm Okay, I'll have it then!

Goes to show, sometimes it's better not to add fuel to the fire of the question and answer routine that I'm constantly indulging in just to rent out the bloody gites!

I bet she changes her mind! By the way, it does have a full sized bath!

Quick, get a photo before it starts raining again!

At least all the rain we've had lately has been good for the garden. I took these piccies yesterday and couldn't wait to get them on here. I was inspired by my friend Lesley's blog, where she puts some beautiful photographs up regularly, much nicer than these. Of course, she is a professional photographer!

Things have been hectic this week. (Last week now). The kids have only been back at school 4 days (Friday was yet another bank holiday) and I'm knackered already!

I went to the doctor's on Tuesday, since I've had a very sore (left) shoulder for weeks now, and it was slowly getting worse. He gave me some anti- inflammatories and pain killers (standard treatment, I guess) and I've been astonished at my capacity for sleep since I started taking these tablets. I can fall asleep anywhere, at any time. A deep, dreaming, healing sleep. Within seconds! I've been struggling to wake up before 10 am (good job it was a bank holiday weekend!) Totally NOT like myself. I suppose it's the tablets I'm taking, but I don't ever want it to stop! Is it possible to get addicted to sleep?

I've got to dash now, I've got my French lesson at half past twelve at Royan, so I've got to have my lunch now, or I don't get fed till 3 pm! Can't last that long.

More later, if I can stay awake!

I almost cried

My "full body massage" was this morning, 10 am at Royan. This was my birthday present from the kids and as a full body massage virgin, I had to search the net to find out what, if anything, you should wear! Apparently, not your best undies or even best clothes, since you will come out of there covered in aromatic oils. I was up early, showered thoroughly, hairwashed and all dressed in my full body massage gear, the sun was shining and all was well with the world, or so I thought. We were due to leave at 9.15 am as the traffic can be heavy this time of the year. Dear Daughter (10) was coming with us to keep her daddy company whilst I was full body massaged. The phone rang at 9.10 am, just before we were going out the door. Basically "Jennyfer" my full body massag-ist was in hospital and wouldn't be able to full body massage me until the 10th May. That's a Sunday! The first available appointment that we could both make was 23rd May. I reluctantly booked it on the calendar. Then, suddenly, my blood started to boil. It was the idea of the three kids clubbing together and paying a total of €70 between them in cash for something that was a planned surprise for a particular date. As a side issue, one of the gold heart earrings they bought me had fallen in bits in my hand when I tried to put it in. Off we went to do battle.

All was well that ended well, though, the shop gave us back the money in cash without any arguments (rare for France) and we changed the earrings for a much nicer (and more expensive) pair and bought a bracelet to match. So, I'm now a happy bunny (again) and the full body massage will have to wait. So there!

At least I've got a head start on tonight's rugby club bash.

Queen for a day!

It's my birthday today! What a splendid day it's been. I had breakfast in bed cooked by the kids, a single fried egg and a lot of marmite on toast with a pint pot of tea and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Next I was whisked off to La Rochelle for lunch here, back to find the cleaner had been in and transformed the house (I made that last bit up, it's a right tip - they might be able to cook breakfast, but tidying the kitchen isn't something they know how to do yet - or ever!) I had a lovely pair of gold earrings and (fanfare) they've booked me in for a full body massage on Saturday morning with "Jennyfer" at a beauty parlour in Royan. DH says that it wasn't that expensive, as the salon makes it's money by selling tickets for the viewing gallery. I trust he's joking. I don't feel 49, but the mirror is telling me I am.

I've had a lovely day, but I'm ready for an early night now with a cup of Horlicks! Sad, isn't it?

Moody Wednesday

Do you ever feel that life is conspiring against you? I slept well and late, which is rare for me, in fact DH was so worried that I might get to like it that he brought me a cup of tea in bed at 9.30 am! I'd actually woken around 6 am after a terrifying nightmare, but must have gone back to sleep. I came down in a wonderful daze, not, for once, worrying about the time (the kids are still off school) and in the most pleasant of pleasant moods. My mum, who is off on her hols (again) tomorrow (she's going to the Isle of Wight) had promised to ring me up to wish me a happy birthday as she'll miss the actual day (tomorrow!) so when the phone rang at around 10 am (around her time) I answered it with a smile in my voice. First mistake! It was the bank, the same one that lost our cheque for £1500 back in January. Believe it or not, they STILL haven't found this cheque and appear to think it's our fault. I'm afraid that she made the cardinal mistake in customer relations of not letting me speak, so I put her first in the fruit bowl, then in the cupboard so that I wouldn't have to suffer the frustration of trying to interrupt her (in a foreign language). After that, the phone rang again, this time, it had to be my mum. No, it was the estate agent that's been trying to sell the gites for the last four years, ringing for a chat. I like Alison very much, but she'll never replace my mum! Oh well, I decided to take the poor long suffering dog for his walk, with Dear Daughter (10) chattering alongside me. I just walked along the road that runs between our house and the gites and I heard the very pleasant sound of children enjoying themselves. No wonder! When I glanced up, one was inside the tree house which was lying on the ground, and the other was gleefully rolling said tree house up and down the field! We watched them for a good while, marvelling at how a 9 year old girl was strong enough to push her 12 year old brother, until finally Dear Daughter (10) lost her temper and coughed loudly. They didn't react at first, but then suddenly realised what the situation was, and pulled the treehouse back up and pretended to be wiping it down. It could make you weep.

It's now 5pm and we're doing a wine tasting in an hour for said holidaymakers. My mum still hasn't rung.

That's life!

If you're wondering why the weather has suddenly changed from being 70 degrees in the shade, blue skies and glorious sunshine to almost constant rain, wind and thunder and even hailstones, it's because the Wilce's have opened their gites up for the "summer" season and we now have holidaymakers rusting in the rain. I guess it's good for the gardens (and ducks)!

Tears before bedtime

Is he dead?


We had DD's best friend, Lucie here yesterday. The two girls were just on their way to the swimming pool (they have to cross the road) when they noticed a black thing lying on the road a little way away. Off they went to investigate, then promptly burst into tears, believing this mangled lump with black fur to be the much beloved six month old kitten, Shadow. The said kitten was nowhere to be found, which added to the certainty, since he doesn't usually stray far from home. Tears, mass hysteria and other emotions were rife. Even DH was upset as he'd got very attached to the little fellow, considering he didn't even want him in the first place!

I wasn't convinced, since the poor cat they'd found, although definitely black, seemed a lot bigger than our Shadow, but Dear Son (15) convinced me that I was just in denial, and according to him, when things die, they swell up enormously because of body gasses and such (I stopped him there).

We went on to have a full Christian burial, even to a point of throwing a handful of soil over him and putting a flea collar in his grave for use in the afterlife (he'd taken it off a couple of days ago).

I still had doubts, but when the kitten still hadn't come in for his tea (unheard of) at 7 pm, I started to grieve myself, and I have to confess that I had a lump in my throat, especially when I thought of the €80 I'd spent on having him castrated and vaccinated in the past few weeks. Poor chap was the baby of the family. Pineau (the old boy) had crossed that road successfully hundreds of times in the past 13 years, likewise Blaze (who I swore was grieving!) and Tiger, they were the ones left behind. Our little family had shrunk.

7.30 pm came and went, and Lucie's mum came to pick her up and of course had to hear the sad news. We even went as far as distracting Raphael, Lucie's 4 year old sister in case she got upset (more mass hysteria!) We'd just got started and were preparing her for the worst, when the little bugger strutted back in, bang on cue!

He was so shocked by the reaction, he turned on his heel and ran off (don't worry, he didn't get knocked over.)

As they say, all's well that ends well - but he'd better not pull that trick again!

A Rare Evening Out

Last Friday, we talked ourselves into a "Social Evening" with the local AFA (Association Franco-Anglais) in Royan. There was a fairly good turnout of 17 in Thoma's Café where they do cheap-ish food. Not very good quality, but fairly cheap. If luke warm paella at €8 or undercooked barbecued ribs €12 is your bag, I recommend it. There was enough material there for several posts but it doesn't warrant that much output. The group almost entirely made up of retired English people in their late 50's to 80's with secondary homes here who had been on a 6 week or so visit to open up their holiday homes for the summer to come. They were all going back to their main homes in England during the past week.

What struck me first about this so-called Social Evening was that everybody was sitting at a long table with their backs towards the wall, already in groups and there was no room for us, so we had to sit at a table with another couple of outcasts, but we'll say no more about that. As usual, nobody looked up or acknowledged us, so we made a point of walking the length of the table and saying hello to everybody individually just to wind them up.

Rumour had it that there was somebody in the main group who lived in our local village, so DH set off to find out more. After he'd left our table, the lady I was sitting next to hissed "Does he realise she's FRENCH?" in a stage whisper using the same tone as if the woman in question had had leprosy. "There's a lot of them around." I replied, which made her blush bright red. I didn't mean to upset her, but I obviously did since she didn't speak to me after that! Instead, she went and found herself another holiday home owner to talk at. Trouble is that once you mention that you have three children in schools here and that you're running a business and that you've been here 13 years, the other person loses interest! Dunno why!

Another thing that struck me was that nearly every woman there had grown out perms and grey roots as they aren't confident enough in their French to visit a coiffeuse here. Sad really.

What was funny was that DH struck up a conversation with "the FRENCH" woman who lived in sheltered housing on the edge of our village. She was about 10 years older than him, but in fair nick with her bottle blonde hair in plaits (I'm not kidding) and resembled Edith Piaf with her overly made up face. He was gone for quite a while but it didn't matter, I nipped off to the loo and left him to it. We decided to leave not long after, so as we were going by the main group, he introduced me to "the FRENCH" woman. She gave me a look that would have killed. I have a fair idea that she assumed that he was on his own and looking for company. Ha! Poor bloke is so naive, he had no idea why she suddenly went all cold on him and said that "Non" monsieur, she wouldn't after all be calling by for a coffee next time she passed!

You have to laugh!

Is there anybody out there?

A couple of Sundays ago, 22 people looked at my blog, including one in Malaysia! Were they all killing time whilst the roast chicken cooked? Who were they? There are only two named followers, did you look at my blog 11 times each B & L? Are you addicted? Fat chance, the way I ramble on! If you are following my blog, click on the follower's widget - it might encourage me to write for a wider audience and certainly encourage me to write more regularly, which might not necessarily be a good thing, come to think of it! You can still remain annonymous. Over to you ....

Happy belated Easter

Hope you didn't eat too many choccy easter eggs. We had a nice, quiet, family time this Easter, barbecuing steak and playing games such as Joker Poker and Rummikub. The weather wasn't brilliant, but we Brits will barbecue anyway! We drew some strange looks from passing cars as the smoke billowed out of the barbecue! It almost rained a couple of times, but speaking as one who has regularly held an umbrella over a barbecue, that wouldn't have bothered me!

I've just read a tutorial on how to link with blogger, so I thought I'd give it a try, but I'm having a job thinking of something to link to! Here is a link to the website of the Charente Maritime for you. If you've got nothing better to do, click here! Let me know if this works by commenting, if you've got even more time on your hands.

The customer is always right - crap!

Can anybody tell me why a person would look on a website where the prices for our gites are clearly shown, book three gites for themselves and two friends, ring up, ask for a reduction, be refused (we have to eat!) and then book the gites anyway, put the owner to the trouble of sending out a letter and three booking forms, not to mention marking the gites as unavailable and turning away bookings for the gites in question, only to then not send the deposit, and not reply to emails.

I'm giving you notice, EMMA BURCH (stupid name!) and "friends" that if you don't either send me money and booking forms or reply to my emails YOUR HOLIDAY IS CANCELLED!

Like she gives a s**t, she's obviously got something else cheaper! I hope she has a crap holiday.

Does anybody have a wax effigy and some pins? I bet she's 35-ish, cocky, smart, new-womani-sh with long blonde triple colour highlighted hair and two kids under 6 who spend more time with the childminder than their mother and their father doesn't know what they have for breakfast. She's probably patting herself on the back right now, feeling like she's taught us a lesson for being 'too expensive' (I know this is not my usual happy go lucky post, but I feel better now!)

Woody's sleepless night

The pretty spring primroses and violets on our daily walk through the woods.


The darling baby lambs in the field across the road from our house.

DD's wobbly tooth. At long last it fell out today, leaving a long thread of gummy skin -eugh! She asked me to put this up here for you all to see. Vain or what?


Now, onto the subject of this post. Ask me why the poor dog is lying knackered at my feet! Is it because of that cursed hour they put on the clock Saturday night? No. It's because of my homemade yoghurt experiment. How? Glad you asked me that, I was going to tell you anyway.

To make the yoghurt, we had to add a pot of fresh yoghurt to fresh milk and put it into the six little glass cups, (provided and complete with lids), then leave them in the machine, which then heated them gently so that the milk fermented and made yoghurt. This process takes 7 hours. We started around 5pm and left the milk/yoghurt mixture gently heating in the kitchen, where we completely forgot about it. What I didn't realise was that when the 7 hours was up, an alarm sounded to warn you to unplug the machine. You don't get an automatic cut-out for €12 it seems. Poor Woody had had to listen to this alarm (like a high pitched whistle) from midnight (we go to bed early on school nights) until I got up at 6 am this morning (which of course felt like 5am)! No wonder he's knackered!

Were we able to enjoy freshly made yoghurt for our breakfast this morning? No! The instructions were obviously in French, and we made a mistake between "dessous" (below) and "dessus (above) 20 degrees (the temperature the mixture had to be before you put it in the machine). Therefore the mixture was too cold, therefore we woke up not only to this peculiar whistling sound like a referee was loose in the kitchen, but to milky yoghurt, or yoghurty milk, depending on your point of view. You have to laugh!

The Flying Dutchman just flew off!

I guess that was only to be expected. Apparently, Barclays won't lend him the money. Any cash buyers out there?

Moving swiftly on, I bought a yoghurt making machine yesterday (€12) so we're waiting for the milk to go sour as we speak so that we can have lovely, yummy, homemade yoghurts for breakfast tomorrow - I'll let you know how I get on. Unexpectedly, there's also a recipe for home made soy sauce in the recipe book they give you - now there's a thought. I never knew soy sauce was fermented soya beans. Pity they don't sell them here.

I'll come back later with my lovely Spring piccies.

Whoops!

I was reading an article on saving money in my Femme Actuel last week (a very popular French magazine that I subscribe to) - www.femmeactuelle.fr- which said, roughly translated, that many people wasted money on cleaning products, when good old Savon de Marseilles - savondemarseille.com - was all they needed. This is a much-vaunted soap which, not surprisingly, is made in Marseilles. I saw two enormous bars for 70 centimes in my local cheap supermarket, Leader Price last week, so I bought it. I'm always looking to economise on my shopping, especially in the current financial climate. I pondered for a couple of days or so on the best way to get this enormous bar of soap into a manageable form for putting in the washing machine, before I hit upon the idea of grating it with the cheese grater, which I did. I was delighted that the clothes came out clean, smelling wonderful and feeling softer than after my normal cheap all-temperature liquid wash. What with one thing and another, I didn't have time to wash the cheese grater, so I shoved it in the dishwasher as it's not used that often anyway, and we have another one. Are you ahead of me yet? Read on ...

Dear Son (15) has his girlfriend here for the weekend and they decided to make a little snack they like which involves cutting a croissant in half (the crumbs, the crumbs!) and loading it with ham and GRATED CHEESE before putting it into a hot oven and letting the cheese melt. Of course, they got the grater out of the dishwasher, without washing it, doubtless thinking that the little flakes of soap still attached to it were bits of cheese - well, you would, wouldn't you? They didn't notice anything unusual about the flavour, but I'm just waiting with bated breath for the result! I daren't tell them, of course! Ha, ha, almost a form of revenge for being a complete stranger in my own house all weekend, since the kids all speak French to each other and I haven't a clue what they're saying. This is not the "King's French" you understand (or at least doesn't resemble anything I've ever been taught) it's all delivered in slang and with a dreadful Charentais accent. I'll find out what they've been talking about from Dear Daughter (10) after the weekend is over.

Must go, I've got some more soap to grate!

The sun is shining, the birds are singing

Trouble is, it's bloody freezing! There's a strong wind blowing straight from Siberia today and there isn't much between us and there, apart from the Alps and they don't exactly help matters!

The cleaner came and cleaned today. I bought her a lovely new bottle of floor cleaner which smelt of lavender. So why has she mopped my beautiful shiny tiled floor with bleach? It stinks here just like a swimming pool. I've opened the windows and sprayed air freshener, but you can't shift it. Oh, hap, hap happy day!

Speaking of swimming pools, I'm off soon to Dear Daughter's swimming class, where I help stop the younger kids and those who have not yet mastered the art of staying afloat from drowning themselves. You can laugh, I've had more than one come up for the third time before now! I'm going to shock everybody by wearing my leopardskin bikini (not real fur, don't worry!) as I can't find my usual mumsy black number from M&S. I'll let you know what happens. This could be a laugh.

Very quiet evening planned here tonight, both DS's are out, one with girlfriend, one with friends at a school disco and then staying the night with a "mate". Dear Daughter can be an only child for a change. Hope it doesn't spoil her too much. She's got herself an MSN address now, so I'll probably not see much of her either. At least I've got the dog for company, and I don't mean DH!

Didn't hear anything back from the viewing on Wednesday - and the house didn't stay tidy for long either. It was back to looking a shambles by Thursday lunchtime. I would have blamed the kids, but they were out with their friends, there being no school as a result of the general strike. It's beginning to look like we're to blame after all.

Tidying like mad fools!

Today, we had a couple to view the new house for a change. We're used to spending hours and hours tidying up and showing people round the gites, but today we had to get stuck in this side of the road. I still haven't caught up since the kids were off school! DH tackled upstairs and I did the downstairs. I filled two bin bags with rubbish and stashed and dashed the rest! I'll never be able to find anything now. A middle-aged couple from the "north of France" arrived with the agent ten minutes late as is the way of French people. They walked round for an hour, inside and out; it couldn't have looked any nicer since the sun was on it and the garden had been tidied up too, but they didn't give anything away. She was deadpan, and he asked sensible questions, like how long does it take to cut the grass and how much is the heating bill per year.

That's that then. We'll probably not hear another word from them, but at least the house looks tidy for now.

Took Woody for his vaccination afterwards. I had a job to get him into the vet's, he remembers! Luckily for me, there was a little girl who looked just like Dear Daughter (10) who came out to see what was going on, and he followed her back in as I couldn't have forced him in there, he's much too big and heavy for me! €43 up your shirt! Why do vets assume that as you're English, you keep on nipping back and forth across the channel with the dog? I mean, why would you want to do that? If we go anywhere abroad, usually Spain, we put him in kennels, which seems much more logical to me. I had to talk him out of the "pet passport" with rabies injection at an extra €16!

Whilst I was there, I made an appointment for next Wednesday to have the youngest kitten, Shadow, castrated. Might make him less inclined to fight with the other three older, wiser and also castrated cats!

That's it for now, I have to go and get Dear Daughter (10) back from her friend Lucie's house, where she slept last night. It's seemed dreadfully quiet without her. The rest of the family are no company whatsoever - all they ever talk about is rugby! Dear Son (15) is here with his girlfriend cooking some pasta in the kitchen (they'd better not mess it up!) (they will!!) They make a lovely couple, but her mum has remarked that they're seeing a bit too much of DS, so we're taking a turn. It occurred to me that they might as well be wed since they see each other every day at school, text each other constantly and whilst they do their homework, they have MSN with webcams so they can look at each other. It wasn't like that in my day when lads ran the risk of my dad answering the phone if they tried to ring me! No mobiles in those days!

Speaking of mobiles, Dear Son (14) replaced his yesterday, it cost €269 out of his savings for his scooter (that's been put off for a while now), but it does clever things like plays games with dice which move when you shake it. You can even make phone calls on it! I'll give it a week before he loses his stylo!

I'm rambling, must get on, and more importantly, let you get on!

Well, you said you missed me!
XXX

It's been a while!

Wow, I'm sat sitting here all alone, Dear Daughter (10) having gone to her friend's house for a sleepover, and DS's both still at school feeling all, well, alone! Things with Dear Son (15) have at last settled down and the "smoking" incident has been downgraded to "minor misdemeanour" rather than full scale addiction. He made tea last night - spaghetti carbonara which went down a treat. It's definitely a keeper. I'm listening to a presentation on the "Dawah Technique" to see if I want to bid to transcribe it. Trouble is, the speaker keeps lapsing into Egyptian! Here is the link, just click on a CD and you'll get an idea of what I mean. There are over 30 hours of audio, don't think I'll bother, I'd hardly be able to get out of bed in the morning if that was all I had to look forward to.

http://www.hoor-al-ayn.com/lectures/muhammad-al-shareef/

Spring has finally and at last arrived, along with Lesley's birthday (Happy Birthday!!! How old would that be then?) Sorry, went off subject then. We have beautiful blue skies, warm sunshine and flowers in bloom, it makes life worth living! Watch somebody spoil it.

Speaking of spoiling things, the bank in France has lost a cheque we paid in back in January! How is this possible? I just had the bloke on the phone saying they can't find it, as if I could come and help him somehow. We're sat sitting here between Barclays bank and the Credit Agricole in Saujon who between them have £1500 of our money and do they apologise? Oh, no, they just bounce cheques and standing orders and then have the cheek to charge us interest on the negative balance. How do I stay so cheerful?

We have yet more people to see the gites - we're still showing people round until things are definitely signed, sealed and delivered. Be funny if they want it! We've also got some French people coming tomorrow to see the big posh house. We put it up for sale last summer in desperation since the gites weren't moving and then promptly forgot about it, the market being so slow. We could end up selling the lot, then where would we go? That'd be an interesting problem to have....

I'll try to get more into a blogging routine and not leave it so long next time.

Proper Poorly

It seems that the first things to go under whenever I'm busy, stressed or poorly are the ironing and this blog. Well, I've been all three and that's my excuse. I tackled the ironing yesterday, and today I'm having a go at the blog. Which I'm sure I've missed more than you have.

I was busy enough whilst the kids were at school, but now they're on half term and I'm even more busy. It seems that Dear Daughter (10) looks to me (or at least my computer) for at least half of her entertainment value. Also, Dear Son (15) has been in deep trouble, having decided that his life was so boring that he needed to escape reality by taking up a habit that involves smoking something that smells like bonfires. We tackled this (or so we thought) last summer, but he went back to it. Why? Why? The evidence was incontrovertible, so he was well and truly grounded and his mobile phone confiscated. This has meant that we have had to put up with a truly grumpy teenager. It felt more like we were being punished than him. We didn't ban his girlfriend (that would have been too much and she seems like she is a good influence), so she stayed here last night. It's surprising how much difference even one more makes to a household. As if that wasn't enough to adjust to, Dear Son (14) had a "hot date" at the cinema in Royan yesterday. I'm losing them one by one!

All this has inevitably taken a toll on my health and well being and I now have my sore chest and cough back again (that always happens when thing start to spiral out of control). It seems to be a weak spot - I blame my mother, who smoked all the time I was growing up! She's no help, having taken herself off to Mississippi on Sunday for two weeks holiday.

That's about all I can update you on for now, I've missed my blog, it's an outlet, so I'll try and come back soon.

The Dutchman is circling ever closer!

What a title for a post! Those few of you that follow my blog may remember that just before Christmas, we had somebody interested in buying the gites. Much negotiation and to-ing and fro-ing later, we have now signed a piece of paper (actually more like 40 pieces of paper) called a "Compromis de Vente" agreeing to sell Chez Belliveau to him and nobody else. He also has agreed in principle to buy the gites, subject to his loan. If he changes his mind, it costs him serious money. This is a peculiarly French idea to save him from being gazumped. Come on, they're not exactly queueing up around the block to buy our gites! Having said that, we have three people lined up to view them in the next week or so. Typical! We'll still show them round, since it is quite possible that the Dutchman won't get his loan, things being what they are at the moment in the world.

Anyway, we are now one step further along in the nerve wracking process of selling the gites. We're not there yet, and we had at least two false starts with the solicitors before we got to this stage, but this now gives him what he needs to see if Barclays will actually lend him the money they promised in principle last December. As we know, a LOT of water has gone under the bridge since then as far as banks are concerned. It's still a long way off sold, but it's another step down the rocky road.

The experience has not been a positive one (for us or him). Let's put it like this, either he's a very clever con man, or he really, really, really wants to buy Chez Belliveau. Let's hope it's the second one for all our sakes.

I'll keep you posted.

Computer Woes!

The bane of my life - but where would we be without it?

In a rather half-hearted attempt to earn some money, I started transcribing audio files via a job agency on the internet. This led to me buying the domain name of ahem, ahem "English Secretary in France" 'cos that's what I am! Don't bother searching for the site, it doesn't exist yet!

Anyway, I spent all this morning downloading various (free - love that word) software for transcribing audio and even video and telephone calls (!) Is nothing sacred? Turned the computer off and on again as instructed - it crashed! I could not believe it. Anyway, after the usual gut wrenching panic, I did luckily manage to get it back, so now I'm backing up like mad! One big problem was emails, but I've now come across Mozbackup, which will back up all your emails for just such an emergency (I use Thunderbird, love it and highly recommend it).

Also, on the advice of a very good friend of mine (you know who you are!) I went out and got an External Hard Disk Drive so everything's on there too now. It's a pity it takes a crash and all the anxiety it causes to make me get organised. I've heard of a company that will automatically back up your computer either daily, weekly or monthly, for a price, I'm off to research it now and I'll let you know how I get on!

EEK!

That got your attention! Dear son (15) has a girlfriend. EEK! This is completely uncharted territory for us. Obviously, she's French and very pretty in a dark haired, brown eyes, perfect skin type of way. (Do you hate her yet?) She weare glasses, which give her a nice "safe" studious look. She's 16 (cradle snatcher) and in his class at school. He stayed the night there last weekend, separate beds I hope, but you can never be sure, so it'll be our turn next (definitely separate beds!) What do you feed teenage French girls? Apparently her mother's a "brilliant cook" - she would be, wouldn't she? She does something exquisite with her tartiflette apparently. Bread and cheese anybody? Or shall we shock her with a red hot beef curry - now you're talking!

The French and Their Dogs

Woody's thinking of ways to get me to take him for a walk!

One of the things I love about my life here is that I am free to take the dog on very early morning walks in the woods. The dawn breaks around 7.24 am here at the moment (ask me how I know that!) As the only English in this "coin" (corner) I'm considered highly eccentric since the French don't bother to walk their dogs, except on hunting days of course, but there's enough material there for a separate post - so that'll have to wait.

I don't pass many houses on my walks, but one that I go by from time to time is fairly typical. There's a tiny house sitting on an enormous plot of land with three massive dogs: a great dane, a rottweiller and an alsatian which never go further than the front garden and the garage where they sleep. These dogs are enraged by our passage and I'm convinced they'll have the fence down one day. I hope they aren't as vicious as they seem; they wag their tales whilst foaming at the mouth and alternately whimper and bark. Part of me (the bit that isn't terrified) feels sorry for them! They aren't alone. Whenever we cut through this little hamlet between the woods and the house, we set up a chain reaction of barking dogs!

Strangely, the nicest people I've met in France were at the dog training class where I took Woody just after we adopted him from the dog rescue home. Follow this link: http://spa.de.saintes.free.fr/

The promised photo, mimosa and OAP's

I just thought I'd share this photo I took in the woods a couple of days ago. It gives me hope that Spring is just around the corner. Having said that, we've woken up to a Winter wonderland this morning, a hard frost came down in the night. Today is the Mimosa Festival on the Ile d'Oléron, just up from La Rochelle, or about an hour north of here. The mimosa is the first to flower in Spring, so they have music and dancing in the streets. Here's a link: http://www.st-trojan-les-bains.fr/

Dear Husband reaches the ripe old age of 65 in May. The DHSS have sent him a pile of forms to fill in so he can claim his old age pension. It took him a whole day to sort it out. They wanted birth certificates for all of us, together with marriage certificates etc. Dear Son (15) enquired as to whether he would be entitled to an increase in his pocket money as a result of this increase in our income. DH remarked that believe it or not, not many pensioners had school aged children, and surely he didn't think that the old age pension was enough to live off! Says it all, really!

Late Mealtimes

Don't know whether it's my Northern roots, but after 14 years of wedded bliss to a Southerner, I still can't get used to eating "supper" at 7 pm (or later). It used to be "teatime" at 5-6 pm followed by supper just before bed. The problem is that around 5 pm I start to get the munchies and if I'm not careful I'll consume my daily calorie allowance (again) in the next hour, BEFORE I get to eat my evening meal. Then of course, when that arrives, I've gone off the idea! You get the picture? The French have a word for this - le creuse (the dip - as in energy, not garlicky!)

Anyway, I've found a little trick that works really well for me - when I get back from the school and bus stop run, around 5 pm, or peak hunger time, I have a small glass of skimmed milk (hot or cold, depending on the weather) and a half a slice of brown bread with marmite. Eat and drink both, then DO NOTHING for 15 minutes (I love that bit - though, in fact, I do read the paper). I even set a timer. In the meantime, my blood sugar levels sort themselves out. No more hunger pangs, irritability (love that word!) and I eat slightly less at mealtimes too. This tip also works well for if you're off out somewhere and don't know when you'll get fed.

The only trouble is that like many things you know to be true, it's difficult to be disciplined enough to do them consistently. Things like early nights, leaving clothes out ready for morning etc, etc. The trick with this is to catch it early enough (ie before I'm attacking the kids' choccie supply!)

Spring has arrived and to prove it I've got a photo of some gorse in flower which I'll post later - always leave them wanting more!

Pancake Day Blues

One thing that catches me out every year whilst we have been living in France is that they celebrate Shrove Tuesday early! According to me, it's the day before Ash Wednesday - it's even marked Mardi Gras on the calendar, but the school canteens have all served pancakes yesterday and the kids are clamouring for more. Here's the recipe I use. It's from my friend Maralyn, hence the name. I'm off to buy some eggs now, since we don't have no chickens - unlike some that read this blog. You know who you are!

Pancakes à la Marilyn

Ingredients:

150 gr flour

50 gr cornflour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons oil

150 ml water

150 ml milk

4 very fresh eggs

4 tablespoons rum (or other flavouring – vanilla essence, etc)

Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and a pinch of salt. Make a hollow in the dry ingredients and add the eggs one by one, mixing well as you go. Add the oil and mix well, follow this with the flavouring. Add the milk and water (mixed together). Let the batter rest for at least an hour at room temperature.

Heat a small amount of butter in a frying pan. Put enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan and allow to cook until the top surface is becoming solid. Flip the pancake over and cook for a few minutes on the other side.

Serve with chopped up banana, chocolate spread, lemon and sugar and anything else that takes your fancy.

Bon Appetit!

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What a week that was!

I'm glad this week is over! I'm glad the month of January is over too, come to that - it's too long, too dark and way too depressing. Roll on Spring! All that nursing of various family members has fair done me in. I'm way behind with absolutely everything - everywhere I look I see something that needs doing. I've come to my blog to escape! At least I've admitted it.

I just got DD (10) back to school on Thursday and the strike happened. The primary school where she goes goes on strike, but her two older brothers were affected. The trouble is, some teachers support it, whilst some work as usual. Said teachers are reluctant to confess in advance whether or not they'll be there, or staying at home in bed (or demonstrating in the streets indeed). In the past, I've sent them to school with varying degrees of success, but this time, we all had a lie in. The excuse was that this time, for the first time ever, the school buses were affected too, so it just seemed too much hassle. They learn very early on about militancy and the power of the unions (syndicats) here. On the day of the last strike, just before Christmas, DS (15) had to climb over the bike sheds to get in for a Maths test (sheer dedication - he gets it from his mother). Half the school were demonstrating outside the gates, but they were given the choice as to whether or not to take the test. If they'd missed the test, it would have shown up on the all important moyen (average marks). What a choice! Could only happen here!

This is France, after all!

I bet you were wondering if we'd been blown away in the storm!

No, nothing quite so exciting. I've been doing my Nurse Nightingale impression, since the whole household has gone down with various versions of the dreaded lurgy. DD was sent home from school with a cough and a temperature. DH has been up all night coughing and with a sore throat, therefore sleeping all day, now the eldest DS is going down fast, but is still at school (for now). It's like living in a TB ward! I'm supposed to be working from home myself, but there's no time for that! Will post again, when all this madness is over.

By the way, apart from a couple of hours without electricity, the storm passed us by this time - the last one - ten years ago - left us without electricity for three weeks!

I could have been rich!

I woke up yesterday morning with a best selling novel in my head. Unfortunately, by the time I'd got the kids to school and done my morning routine, I'd forgotten every last detail! I thought it might pop back into my head again as I was going to sleep last night, but no luck. I can only remember that it was a murder mystery and the detective was called Caroline something Italian. If only I could remember, I could be rich by this time next year!

Stranger in the house

One night last week, we had a visit from a stranger He was a bloke around 60 years old, very scruffy and smelly and just walked into the house, totally confused and incoherent - quite unnerving really. It turned out he was homeless and looking for Emmaüs, the charity who look after homeless people. They're about 5 miles from here. The following morning, I heard on the radio that two homeless people had been found dead in the street from the cold in La Rochelle. Apparently, there's a freephone number that you can ring to get help for these people and they are entitled to a bed for the night and a meal, but many of them refuse to accept help and can't be forced. Makes you grateful (or even slightly ashamed) for your warm, cosy, too big, centrally heated house.

Blogger's been on strike!

I tried to post earlier, but I couldn't get past the log in page.

I heard on the radio that SNCF, (French railway), went on strike overnight on the line from Bordeaux to Paris. Apparently, over a thousand passengers had to either kip on the station, or take a hotel room last night. Some friends of ours went to Disneyland, Paris for the weekend, I bet anything you like they were affected! Poor Katie might not see her friend Lucie today after all!

On top of that, Sarkozy is visiting a primary school in Britanny this afternoon and as a protest against all the reforms he's bringing into the education system, the school is on strike and nobody will be there to meet him. It fair makes you chuckle. You'd think that all the locals would turn up just to get their faces on telly.

That's why when I couldn't get on blogger, thought they must have gone all French on me!

More later, have a nice day!

Come to South West France and FREEZE! It's been minus 7 degrees for nearly a week now and it's not going down too well. I guess we're just not used to it! I thought you might like to see this piccie of the frozen fountain in our fish pond. I think the fish are all in hibernation. They've got more sense than us. We had to buy the plastic heron to frighten the real heron that was after the fish. 37 euros, and it falls over in the slightest breeze. Think they saw us coming! The real heron was fooled for a bit, but now it's so cold, he's taking his chances again and getting ever closer.

Have you ever wished the ground would open up and swallow you? I'm sure you have. I had the most embarrassing incident for a long time on Wednesday lunchtime (and let's face it, I have embarrassing incidents on a daily basis with such things as getting the language all mixed up but I've got used to that). Let me tell you more...

We have had a group of six 20-odd year old girls staying together in a gite. They were on a course were staying originally every Monday night and every Thursday night, with an occasional Wednesday night thrown in for some of them. Got it so far?

Wednesday morning, DH was perturbed (to say the least) that there was a car parked outside the gite. He chuntered to himself constantly about "people taking liberties" and how we were being taken for fools as they clearly expected to stay free of charge, whenever it suited them, and the cost of the heating, not to mention the fact that he wanted to turn the water off to try and avoid burst pipes (I've already mentioned how cold it's gone). I, for my part, was convinced that all they'd done was shared one car, and left one parked outside the gite. Finally, after one too many interruptions, I lost my cool.

"Right", I said, "let's go up there and sort this out!" I marched him up there, gone midday and hammered on every door and window of the gite, yelling at the top of my voice, in French, "is there anybody in there?" . So utterly convinced was I that there was nobody in the gite, that I even kicked the door. Silence. We waited. I then began screeching at DH that he was just causing trouble, and didn't he have anything better to do? when the upstairs bedroom window opened just a crack and this white faced, heavy eyed, beauty of about 23 years old, with just got out of bed hair muttered something to me. I think I frightened her to death!

I was speechless. But only for about half a second. I told her that there was a problem, and could she come down and speak to us. She asked if it was OK for her to get dressed first. You betcha! Five minutes in a gale force wind later, she appeared, terrified, and I left DH to explain the reason for the disturbance, partly because I was frozen through by then, but mainly because of embarrassment and mortification. She went out in her car not long after! DH and I weren't speaking for all of five minutes, and I haven't been able to think about the incident without blushing to the roots of my hair ever since! That'll teach me! Customer relations - pah!

A cross between a dustbin truck idling and a plane taking off

That's DH's latest snore. That's also what got me up before daylight this morning which isn't saying much, since it's always dark at this time of the year. We've just heard that we may get the Digibox on Monday but I won't hold my breath!

We're having some French friends round for a meal tonight; how does this sound? Hot, fresh prawns cooked in cognac with a bit of cream, foie gras on toast and various vol au vents for starters. Main course of pork and apple pie with flaky pastry, cooked by your's truly, together with various vegetables and of course Oxo gravy, cheese course (already done), galette de roi (a sort of cake with almond pastry in the middle, traditional here for the New Year), choccy log left over from Christmas, coffee and cognac, if they have any room.

Gotta go mince the pork, more later, I hope.

Who'd have thought it?

Don't worry, I'll explain these photos at the end!

When the French people who are staying in the gites at the moment contacted me and asked if it was OK to bring a dog, I said yes. I didn't recognise the breed they mentioned, but they're very fond of lapdogs here so I expected them to bring at the biggest a French poodle, or something small and fluffy that you can't tell which end is the front until you spot the ribbon. After all, who'd bring two kids and a Saint Bernard across France in a Renault Clio? I should have realised, because that's exactly what they did! Poor Woody can't believe I could be so disloyal as to invite another dog to stay on "his patch" and one much bigger than him at that!

What puzzles me is how on earth 7 of them and this dog are staying in that three bedroomed house. Good job it's only for a few days. Laugh? I almost split my sides when I saw it.
I shall miss little incidents like this, if ever get a buyer for the gites. That's probably all I'll miss though!

PS: When I downloaded the photos, I discovered that I apparently have a passion for taking photos of cobwebs with frost on, who'd have thunk it? Is this a sign of some deep psychological unbalance?

Chugging tractor

I've been up since 5 am. I've been listening to a chugging tractor on and off, all night (aka DH's latest snore). Trouble is, the new kitten loves my earplugs and has chewed my last pair. The only other ones I've got are too small to be effective, so I must buy more.

I'm not that bothered, I actually quite like being up early and I can catch up on writing my diary, that is if I can remember what's happened since I last wrote it.

Bit of a mix up about tonight (New Year's Eve). Our neighbour, Suzanne, came up here Boxing Day Night a little bit the worse for wear, and invited us to her's tonight for boeuf bourginon. Sounds good, except we haven't been able to contact her since, so we don't know if it's on or not! Typical of her, she wanted to buy the gites three years ago, told us the bank was coming round (they didn't) and that was the last we heard from her for a year! How I love unreliable people. Don't care, I the alternative, ham, egg and chips will go down a treat!

If I don't get back on here again today: HAPPY NEW YEAR, ONE AND ALL!!XXXX

It's foggy, man!

I just thought I'd share the appalling weather we're having here today. This was taken an hour or so ago, that's Christine the cleaner's car in the shot.

The Dutchman has been to see us on his way to spending New Year in Rotterdam. He's put yet another offer forward, which involves him taking over in September, rather than May. It's under discussion at the moment. He obviously realises that with the pound against the euro, he's in a very strong position, and is making the most of it. Do we want to get rid of it that much? Watch this space.

In an unexpected turn of events, DH has managed to get Sky turned back on again. Hope it was worth the trouble it's caused! We may even have managed to trace the Digibox; perhaps everything will turn out for the best after all!

Happy New Year. God bless. Thanks for stopping by.

New template

I thought I'd celebrate my new template (didn't like the old one, too "officey") by sending up another post! What better way?

Unbelievably, we have heard from the pillock we ordered the Digibox from (probably because I sent him an invoice via Paypal). He's given me a tracking number from DHL, so fingers crossed for at last sorting this out. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this situation has almost cost my marriage. Ponder on that a while.

More good news, the Dutchman who's put an offer in for the gites and then gone quiet has phoned and wants to come and see us tomorrow.

As if all that wasn't enough, I took DS's MP4 from Santa back to the shop this afternoon as it was broken. Taking stuff back here in France is not good for the blood pressure. They always give the impression they think you're lying, insist that you show them exactly what is wrong then send it back to the manufacturer so you have to wait "2 weeks" which always becomes 6 and NOBODY telephones you to let you know what's happening, so you have to keep going back to find out. Not today. He went through the first bit (treating me like a liar), then he answered the phone three times, seemed to lose his thread and replaced it with another one without a word. Me and DD legged it before he changed his mind.

I had a new suede jacket for Christmas with a fur collar which makes me feel like a film star. I wore it to do battle with my new red scarf my mum sent me, we're now calling it my lucky coat!

Had to buy DD some new jim jams, all her other ones had holes in very rude places. She's happy as larry now.

Some festive photos

OK. I uploaded this by mistake, I know you've seen it. Blogger won't let me delete it!
One of the many pressies DD received. She put the nappy on.

DH getting into the Christmas spirit.
He came!
These are the pot plants we had from our guests at the Belliveau Boxing Day Bash. I mean, what else do you give somebody when you go to their house?
I spotted this baby sheep in the field opposite the house this morning. Aaahh!

Where have the last five days gone?

Me again! Happy belated Christmas one and all and Lesley!

Worked ALL DAY on Christmas Eve typing a two hour conference for somebody in Texas. I way underestimated how long this was going to take, which I shall never do again, but I got there in the end. Added to that, I've definitely got slower. Old age I'm afraid.

Had a bit of kip, then the kids got up at 6.30 am Christmas Day and all the presents were opened by 6.35 am. They're definitely getting quicker. That was it then, they played on their new Guitar Hero game - I know what you mean about the endless tapping now. We had the usual capon for lunch, but it felt a bit like a Sunday dinner for some reason. Another sign of old age?

Boxing Day it was our turn to play host. We invited all the English people we know (23) to come and have a buffet lunch at our place. The average age was around 70 and they're all feeling the pinch, trying to live on ever reducing pensions. Added to that the weather was absolutely freezing and they all wanted to get off before it got dark, so it was all over by 5pm. I was just taking the dog for a walk when I met Suzanne, the English neighbour on her way over to ours, a little the worse for wear, waving a bottle of Champagne. I walked her back to the house, much to Woody's disgust, as we'd really only just set off! She sat there till 11 pm and we drank her champagne, together with a few more bottles which went down, I have to say, like Mother's milk. DH had to walk her back.

Still no Sky TV, so we've had to watch all the old films on ITV. I quite enjoyed them actually. The Wilce family DVD this year was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which was so loud and irritating and l-o-n-g that we girls couldn't wait for it to finish. The two kids enjoyed it though, DH and Nick!

By Saturday, I was starting to go down with the dreaded lurgy. I've almost got over it but I had to stay indoors and drink a lot of herbal teas and gargle a lot of salted water. I'm really hoping that this is as bad as it gets, as I dread being ill and there seems to be so much sickness about this year.

Today, we're all back to normal, apart from eating leftovers instead of cooked foods. Only the New Year to survive now and that really will be it for this year. Suzanne invited us down to hers for a beef casserole New Years Eve, let's hope she remembered when she sobered up!

I'll post you some piccies later, I really have to take Woody out now before he gases me!

New display unit

I thought you might like to see the new display unit. The crockery on display is very old, DH's dad used to collect them, it's by Mason's. We used to use it every day, and even put it in the dishwasher, so it's obviously very tough - it needs to be. Poor Woody is very confused, as we've had to move his bed to make space. I'm sure he'll get used to it. Otherwise, I've had a very boring day waiting for an American (Texas this time) to send me an audio file to transcribe. It's about to come, so I'm probably working late tonight. The things you have to do. Thanks for visiting.

another French dance

Another thing that strikes me as odd when the French are enjoying themselves is that they wave napkins in the air!

We're off now to buy a newly reduced dresser for the kitchen which we've had our eye on for months. Hope it's still there! More later

Yet more Christmas "do's"

Knackered! All day I've been yawning, bad tempered, and suffering a low grade headache just over my right temple. Having too much of a good time is the reason! These French don't half know how to let their hair down. It's been years since I've seen "Oops upside your head" danced to! The photo's the proof! I know it looks like they've all fallen over, so you'll just have to imagine the ear splitting music. I hope you don't recognise anybody, they might invoke the privacy laws, which are quite strict here!

This was taken at the rugby club Christmas bash on Saturday night. DD had to babysit her two brothers whilst DH and I hit the high life.














Here is a piccie of the place setting, you can't read it very well, but I love the way the French spell Janet - Jeanette, they always give me a couple of extra 'E's' and 'T's' which makes me feel extra important. The rose was a present from the rugby club president - he gave all the ladies one, and the men had a miniature bottle of Pineau. An excellent time was had by all.

Instead of having a nice relaxing day to sober up yesterday (Sunday), we went to our friends Alison and Tony's house for a pre-Christmas nosh up. Somehow, we managed to eat and drink even more than on the Saturday night. Better not to think about what all this is doing to my normally almost teetotal liver.

What a jolly time we're having

Bunged DD in the canteen yesterday whilst we went to do the as yet unstarted Christmas shopping. The shops here are so quiet this time of the year, we had it all finished in an hour, so off we went to get a bit to eat at our local haunt, Le Gare, at Saujon (opposite the station, of all places). What a jolly time we had in there, we met the digger driver who's done a lot of work for us over the years, with his workmates and sat down to a slap up lunch with: quiche for starters, roast veal, chips, butter beans, creme brulée, coffee and three bottles of wine (Beaujolais Nouveau and vin de pays rosé) all for the grand total of .... €8 per head! Makes you remember why you put up with this place!

I was only fit for sleeping on the settee after all that. Luckily I woke up in time to get DD from school.

The kitten has at last discovered the Christmas tree, which is now lying in the hallway in bits (I had to drag it out there, it looked such a sight collapsed in three bits all connected with lights and tinsel and in a heap in the living room). Perhaps we'll buy a 'real' one today - I've always loved a real Christmas tree.

Digibox still not received (I don't think it was ever sent) so we're resigned to crap telly over Christmas. Can't say I've missed it (as long as I can get Corrie I'm fine), but DH loves his sport and films. The sale of the gites is now with the solicitors, so doubt we'll hear anything till the New Year now.

Hassle, endless hassle!

This knock came to the door around 10 pm Sunday night - the French/Swiss who were staying in the gite were locked out - malheureusement they lost the key to the gite, somewhere in La Rochelle. Luckily for them, we had a spare (this is by no means normal, but they didn't seem to appreciate that!) This has only ever happened once before, and that was another French person. I'm going to have to get some of those key rings that weigh a ton, like they do in hotels.

Unbelievably, the Digibox I ordered from Ebay on the 15TH NOVEMBER has still not arrived. I'm being ignored again by "Steve", so I've started something called Litigation which apparently will get me my money back in 20 days if I don't resolve the issue direct. Not likely to have it for Christmas then. The sad thing is that the kids (and DH) started off extremely excited but now have stopped even asking if it's arrived yet. At this rate we'll have to cancel our Sky subscription, which at least will save us £47 a month - perhaps "Steve" has done us a favour!

On top of all that, the Dutch who were interested in buying the gites keep moving the goalposts. At this rate, we'll be paying them! I guess they realise that they're in a strong position. In fact we had a phone call from Ireland yesterday from somebody wanting to rent them off us to see if the "lifestyle suited them". Worst case scenario or what? Anyway, maybe there's still hope for the Dutch, we're off to see the Notaire this afternoon, so more later. We've just heard from the bank that it takes at least three weeks to get the title deeds out of their archives. How can that possibly be? It's only in Paris!

Oh, by the way, the envelopes from Viking (see earlier post) never turned up. Apparently they came from Holland (must be something about the Dutch) and they're waiting for the courriers to report back on where they were delivered. They'll be waiting for their money too, since I've no intention of paying them till I get my envelopes! No more Mr Nice Guy!

Trouble is, time is limited for sorting out all the cock-ups in this GFC (God Forsaken Country).

Busy weekend

Why is it that in the run up to Christmas, we have more social outings than in the other 50-odd weeks all put together? At least it takes your mind off all that constant darkness and cold weather. Today, it's thick freezing fog. Poor Woody will have to wait for his morning walk.

Saturday night, we had cottage pie at the neighbours. Went down deliciously well at a time of the year when you have too much rich food. Sunday night was couscous at the rugby club. They'd just won an important match, so to put it mildly, it was loud! I now desperately need a quiet week to get over that one weekend. I remember the time I used to go to work after three hours sleep and not even feel it. Those days are now a distant memory. I'm old!

I'm H-A-P-P-Y!!!

In spite of the dreadful weather (gale force winds and heavy rain), I'm on a roll! Not only have "the Dutch" accepted our counter-negotiations without a murmur (what's the catch?), but the man I've been doing internet research for in Philadelphia sent me an email saying the work was "fantastic", without even adding a "but...."

There aren't many days like this, so you've got to made the most of them.

How did Santa go last night? I can still hear the screaming of 250 over excited kids ringing in my ears! Also, why did the children's entertainer keep fiddling with his groin? Was he over-excited too, or was it just a demanding itch?

The French/Swiss had a couple of croissants, tea and jam for breakfast (good) and went away happy (in spite of the weather). They're here till Monday and seem very nice - they can stay.

Emotional roller coaster

Unbelieveably, the Dutch people who came to see Chez Belliveau last Saturday (and in fact came back again on Wednesday) have made us an offer. Not a bad offer really, but they want to pay some of the money over three years. All the advice we've had is Non, Non et Non!!! We now have to go back to them and re-negotiate. All this is making my palms sweat. I'm not the negotiating type, I'm afraid! Leave it to DH, best idea. I'll let you know what happens (if anything!)

Other news, DD (10) is having a big night out tonight. It's the Christmas Bash complete with Pere Noel. This will be her last one at this school as she starts secondary school next September. She wad only two and a half years old (I can see her now!) when she started at this school, in the nursery section. Tonight, she's in the shower already and wants her hair plaited then dried, then unplaited so it'll be all wavy. They grow up too fast. She'll be buying her own lippy next (instead of borrowing mine!)

As if to add to the general chaos, there are some French people (in fact from Switzerland - now that's a long drive!) due to arrive in the gites for the weekend, any second now. They're only on bed and breakfast - let's only hope they don't want the English version. I'm fast reaching the end of my coping limit.

I was just reading that the (full) moon is closer to the earth than it's been for 15 years. I must say that it looks absolutely gorgeous. Just lately, we've had clear skies and it's very cold, but looking at that moon almost makes it worthwhile.

A House full of Sickness

I took this photo early this morning as the light was beautiful.

Poor Nick got sent home from school on Monday (his 14th birthday). He hasn't been properly well since we came back from Spain - the latest is a bad headcold, with accompanying cough - honestly, you'd think he smoked 60 a day (let's hope not!). Anyway the poor chap spent the afternoon on the settee and we had to cancel the proposed trip to the bowling at Saintes, followed by a meal out which was a bit of a blow, as I'd banked on not having to cook anything.

Following this, all the rest of the family (except me - for now!) went down like flies with bad colds, sore throats, coughs, headaches. I've been running round like the proverbial dishing out cough medicine, honey, painkillers. Just call me Nurse Nightingale! We ran out of tissues then kitchen roll and then toilet paper (more serious), but had no time to go shopping. Anyway, hopefully, they're all recovering now (at least Nick's back at school) and the tissues have been stocked up for next time. My family don't believe in using the same tissue more than once (oh Mum, that's gross!!) When I were a lass, etc, etc. They don't believe there ever was a time without mobile phones and with only three channels on the telly. Vaseline for chapped lips? Pah! I could go on, but that's for another post entitled the youth of today! Coming soon to a blog near you.

Ghost Tree

I've got one too!

Typical - no posts for ages, then three come at once

Me again. Unbelievably, we had somebody to see the gites yesterday (they've been up for sale for three years, but no takers). They sent an email which I received at 9 am (bit bleary eyed after the night at the Casino) saying they were in the area looking at gite complexes and would like to see ours that very day. I thought it was a practical joke, but no, they turned up, all the way from the Dordogne where they had made a mistake in buying something that was too far off the beaten track, so they'd decided to move nearer to the coast (I could have told them that!) They were Dutch, liked it, but haven't got the money so they're now "finding a solution" - Good luck! We'll probably never hear another word, shame really, I quite liked them.

Hectic weekend

We had our Christmas bash on Friday night! We went to the Casino at Pontaillac for a dinner dance with the English/French Association. This consists of about 37 over 60-year olds and me together with around 5 or 6 French people, who apparently interested in learning English. The phenomena of becoming more and more fluent in each other's languages the more you drink is definitely noticeable!

We went to the roulette tables, DH's passion and converted €150 to €650 so a good time was had by all. Pity about the loud music though!

My DS turns 14 tomorrow, bring on the teenage hormones, I'm well used to them now thanks to DS 15, it's just that I'm nowhere near old enough to have children that age!

Has it really been that long?

I really must be more disciplined about adding to my blog. I often think of things I want to write about, but never seem to get round to it. I really enjoy the blogs I'm following though, so I must try to do better.

Part of the trouble is that I'm now a working girl. I'm doing some market research for an American. It's only very short term and I've almost finished, so I should start to do better from now. It's working well, as he's in Philadelphia, which is six hours behind me so I can get cracking whilst they're still asleep and hit them with emails as soon as they arrive at the office! Makes me feel dead efficient at least. Downside is that they email me at 11pm sometimes. Still, it's nice to be in the human race at last. Just hope I get paid.