No longer running on adrenaline...

And boy, can I feel it!

I'm determinedly making the most of having nothing to do - which is lucky, as I'm not up for doing much...

I am sleeping, taking some exercise & getting fresh air, but not a lot else.

Oh, and the odd bit of 'scrumping'!

"Leftovers" - the grape harvest this year was pretty good, so there are lots of grapes left on the vines [the vignerons only pick up to their quota, and leave the rest]; after an extra month and a few frosts, these are much sweeter than when they are harvested, but very messy!

I've also eaten quite a lot of sloes [yay, that makes me feel tough: ask anyone who's eaten a sloe if they can eat a couple of dozen and still be smiling!], beech masts, a few apples, damsons and tiny peaches - gifts from neighbours or found in the hedgerows; nice time of year.

I've seen a red squirrel, a praying mantis, unexpectedly driven through Troyes [David's train was held up there, so I went to fetch him: got lost twice and asked for help from non-drunks at midnight; now can't imagine doing that (safely) in English cities from what I read!], ordered some logs to be delivered [for when we (should) get our woodburning stove the week after next], and seen installed the telephone control for our central heating.

Sadly, I'm not feeling terribly communicative at the moment, so I'll wish any readers well until I'm back to my usual self.

(C)locks go back!

We coped perfectly alright with the change in the hour - normally on a Sunday this wouldn't matter, but with David having to catch his train back to London, we did need to be on top of it today.

Everything was going swimmingly, till we came to lock the house up and head for the station...

"Darling, have you got the front door key?"

"No!"

Oops!

Actually, that should probably read:

Aaaarrgghhh!

Ordinarily, not a problem: lose the house keys, one of us would go to B&Q/Homebase, buy some more locks, change the locks, voila!

Once my head had calmed down - I had a spare key in the car, so we could lock the house before leaving it, and luckily, I have three spare locks [with one key that operates them all] in the house - it was OK, but a few heart-stopping moments before logic reignited!

Needless to say, in this part of the world, NOTHING opens on Sunday apart from bakers and restaurants, so no chance of buying new locks.

Lucky I'd only just replaced them then, and kept the old set!

We're hoping that the key was dropped in the bakery, or that someone hands it to Stephanie in the Mairie, but at least I'm sitting here knowing that with different locks on all the doors if someone picked up the key with bad intent, at least they can't get into the house.

Now all I'm trying to do is NOT remember how much I spent on lovely new pick-proof locks with matching padlock and in a colour that matched the door furniture, and admiring my "new" contrasting brass locks & quite frankly weedy-looking padlock [and also trying to forget how much I've just spent on eBay purchasing a complete set of Agatha Christie books; ouch]!

An expensive day - but I've had those before [and no doubt will have them again!], and given just a little time it will not even be a distant memory...

I am very good at forgetting!

Oh, in case you're wondering, we got to the station just as the train was pulling onto the platform; we we're both very glad that it was the near platform (you cross the tracks to get to the other one, so once the train has arrived there is no way to get to the far platform), and that there were no obstacles like turnstiles to get through before David ran onto the train.

And once I'd got home and changed the locks I started to calm down!

First frost

Yesterday was cold enough that I put the heating on again (high of 10ºC and low of 4ºC - just like the last time), and left it on overnight...

Was I glad I did that?

When I looked out at my drooping 'flower meadow' and saw the frost on the grass in the field, it felt like the right call!

At 8.30am the temperature in the sun was 2ºC, but in the shade it had only risen to -1ºC (it had been -2ºC overnight).

Which prompted a lot of rummaging around upstairs looking for hats/scarves/gloves and big thick socks...

Success on the big-thick-socks front, but less so with the rest.

I've found two hats (one was one of my dad's old work hats - designed to keep dust off his head, but not long enough to cover the ears [not his winter work hat] - and a skiing hat whose elastic is too tight!), so I'm OK for now, if not comfortable...

Every time my ears have got totally "frozen", that's when I've gone down with the 'flu (real influenza, not "man-flu") - coincidence? Almost certainly, BUT I don't want to risk it!

Found a couple of mohair scarves (nice, but scratchy!), and a lightweight one (OK, but not big enough), but no gloves or mittens.

Hmmm, go for the "Royal" look - wander round with hands in pockets?

It's a glorious day, so I shall go for a walk looking like a bag lady & keep my hands tucked in the warm!

Ooh, it is nice, being able to type without worrying my fingers will drop off!!

David's on his way!

I'm really looking forward to seeing him again, but why must he send the "English weather" (as it's known here) along ahead of him?!

I might have worked out why my back sometimes goes 'wrong'

Occasionally, I think I might have a 'faulty' chromosome - I wonder whether one of the "legs" is missing from one of my 'exes'...Why else [when I have a shedload of legitimate jobs to do!] would I go and spend a couple of hours digging up the drive?
Mindless physical activity as therapy?


Next I'll be going and hiding in a "cave". [A martian one, naturally!]

Oh, well, at least I don't play golf!!


Sadly, wonky wheel & flat tyre stopped play. [Our sack barrow was another thing the workmen used, broke & didn't replace or say sorry!!]

Having turned the heating on...

...The first thing I had to do yesterday was turn it off again...

NOT complaining: '20°C & balmy' beats '11°C & shivering' any day of the week!

If only I could have lasted; my self-image wouldn't have taken the massive 'ding'; oh, well.

And obviously: '27°C in the shade' trumps all!

Oooh, I'm so happy.

In case you haven't guessed: I'm in a t-shirt, thanking my lucky stars and the weather gods.

David buys me the nicest presents...

A chainsaw...

AND a sawhorse!!

I'm delighted - I spent over an hour sawing up my beautiful [in my eyes, anyway] old floorboards, creating enough firewood for about two evenings, I suspect.

Now I'll be able to do a week's worth in that time!

He is really kind, and I'm so glad he buys the sort of presents I would like to buy for myself (just think: he could be the type of bloke to buy perfume!).

I caved...

Awww! "Hard" image shattered; boo

After a couple of nights when it went down to 4ºC outside (11ºC inside; in the room with the fire) I was contemplating turning on the central heating...

Pros:

• It would be warm! Ordinarily, I wouldn't care, I've got lots of warm-making activities to be getting on with, but I'm feeling a bit below par, and have allowed myself to be persuaded to take another day off;
• I would have to close the doors & windows (so wouldn't be sitting in an increasingly cold draught);
• It wouldn't be cold;
• Did I mention it would be warm?!

Cons:

• I would feel like a wuss for not waiting till the temperature was in single figures!
• I haven't read the instruction manual (despite David chasing Schwartz many, many times after they promised to supply one in English). Which wouldn't matter, except for:
• I haven't a clue what the buttons on the control panel mean!
• I would have to keep the doors & windows closed (so wouldn't be having fresh air circulating to dry the insulation out)

Well, having woken up for the second day feeling quite ropey and not up to doing much (with the exception of going to saw some more fire-wood; I'm going to combat the weakness in my limbs for that worthwhile venture!), I let David talk me into turning the heating on.

His rationale was that I may have picked up a bug (I think it might be a chill from sitting in a cold draught!) - normally I don't get ill just from sitting in a cold house, otherwise I'd have been quite poorly 2 years ago!

But I think I'm still winding down after all our property-related "excitement"...

And if one kind friend is to be believed, these things can take ages to get over: he said his sister took a couple of years to fully recover from her house building experience!

I'm hoping it will wear off faster than that, but am also plotting an afternoon in front of the fire with an Agatha Christie (always solace in times of 'wobbliness')...

Just as soon as I've sawn some more fire-wood!

Ahhh! 15º, no "wind chill" - I'm feeling better already!

Perhaps I'm up to hefting the axe...

Sloe Gin 2

You may have guessed that I overcame my reluctance to go back to the supermarket & buy more gin!

Yup, I felt pretty bad standing there at the checkout with my four litres of gin & 2 kilos of sugar...

[If I knew the French for "after 2 ½ years of being teetotal, yes I celebrated both the ridding of our house from builders, and the sale of our home in Brixton (and had a few glasses in between!), but I'm back on the wagon now. And it's for making liqueurs" - sounds like protesting too much, doesn't it? Better that I just brazen it out...]

If I make up my mind about the damson schnapps (or still contemplating some prunelle eau-de-vie), I'm going to shop in another town!

It was very satisfying to make so many different jars of liqueur-in-waiting, and I now have [what I privately think of as] my "secret gin cupboard".

Oh, that looks so much worse than it sounds!!

[And in my head it does sound pretty bad]

The reason it's secret is that I want the results to be a surprise, and unless anyone reads this & rats on me to David, there's no way he will notice that I'm building up stocks of "goodies"...

Well, if I die, in a couple years time he might wonder what's in that cupboard.

But I reckon it's pretty safe till then!

So why is a teetotaller making litres of flavoured digestifs?

Well, I guess it's a combination of an instinct to put stuff by in times of plenty for when times are hard (country background), liking to make things to please other people (that's surely the reason we cook for friends?), and liking the magic of the process...

The fascination with alchemy is still as strong in the 21st century, otherwise why would people spend so much money on "cures" for everything from weight loss to stopping smoking (to making yourself irresistible to women!)?

And quoting from Fiona Neville's friend Gilbert:

“Remember that the combination of gin, sloes and sugar is always better than the separate ingredients, no matter what you do.”

Oh, and I'd always heard that sloe gin makes a great alternative to cassis in a kir royale!

Sloe Gin...

...Only it isn't!

I was doing fine - just getting over the hectic last six weeks [mum & Dot came to stay at the gîte round the corner for a week, then we hurtled back to England to move house - if you're remotely interested, I shall post about this on my other blog - fitting in a van trip to dump a load of stuff here in the process, not to mention the dozen or so calls to BT ("what, when you asked us a fortnight before you moved, to move your broadband with your phone , you actually wanted to take your broadband with you to your new home? Oh, that will take another five days...". Internet finally connected: "Oh, you wanted to take your 'Broadband Talk' as well?" Guess what, yup, the usual efficiency! And another five days). Did I mention the dentist visit - tooth extraction(s?) to take both halves of my fractured tooth out?]...

So, I went to look for the blackthorn bushes to see if I was in time for sloe gin.

The plants I'd been eyeing up two years ago (when I didn't have time to harvest the magnificent crop), had been hacked back, and all the other ones I found only had a few sloes in the upper branches; too few to be worth taking the step ladder out in the car!

And then I came a different way home & found the perfect bush - covered in the little blue-black beauties, almost all at grabbing height.

So, no problem there then...

Till I started Googling to check the recipe!

Having gone out yesterday to buy a litre of gin & a kilo of sugar, I knew I'd be fine, till I came across at least one different recipe on each site I looked at.

No problem, just pick one, and do it!

But then I got caught up in the comments on whether freezing the sloes was better/necessary on the Cottage Smallholder page...

The short of it was: 'if you make different recipes, you can compare which you like the best' [make notes on the bottle at the time of making], and 'keeping the gin improves the flavour - compare different vintages' [someone was the lucky possessor of a bottle of 30 year old sloe gin].

So, guess what?

Instead of enough berries to fill one bottle, I went out yesterday evening and picked a decent sized bag, and not being sure whether we'd had a frost, cleaned them and froze them. About 4 pounds of them - enough for four bottles...

Still "so far, so good", but the page I'd clicked on the get to the "sloe gin challenge" page had a recipe for wild damson gin...

Having walked past the damson sapling in the hedgerow earlier in the week, and noticing that the damsons I couldn't reach last visit were still there, I was now thinking "hmm, sloes will be ok in the freezer, let's harvest those damsons & make a bottle of damson gin".

The "few" damsons turned into more than two pounds, and thus two jars of damson-gin-in-waiting (thankfully a small bottle of gin was nestling in the cellar in case of "emergencies" - sorry, David!).

So, now I'm off to town to buy more gin (and sugar), and hopefully avoid being branded as one of those alcohol-fuelled Brits who go abroad to make trouble...

Or an alcoholic!

Red hot little yellow plums

Yum!

It's 38°C outside the front door, so my windfall mirabelles are warm...

If you're old enough, you will remember the kind of warm that British Rail [as was] used to achieve with the lettuce on their sandwiches; not quite cooking, but not so far off it...

Well, these little beauties are a bit hotter than that, but for some reason it's much more acceptable to eat hot plums (that have been heated by the sun under the tree from which they've fallen) than nearly-cooked lettuce on a sarnie from a train "refrigerator"!

Did I mention it's a beautiful day where I'm sitting?

Enjoy the summer!

As Promised! Part 3...

As Promised! Part 2...

As Promised! Part 1...

Is it swine 'flu when some swine brings a germ from his office?

I'm not feeling 100%, so I am not doing the delicate thumbnail sized photos that I was planning to do!

I may come back later & edit this post, it depends how much it irritates me knowing I didn't make every effort to make it look OK.

So, just a load of BIG photos:

Of course, it doesn't look like that now.

Will post the "furniture pics" when the furniture is against walls!

Xylophèning

Not even sure if that's a word [well, actually pretty sure it isn't!], but let's pretend it is.

Apart from handling neurotoxins (that's what biocides are), the main downside to my activities seems to be the, ahem, reactivation of some dormant odours...

Someone in the past has had a kitty that sprayed the furniture!

I've met people who can live with that kind of smell (visit their homes and you KNOW), but it drives me potty - first I keep sniffing, in case I can pretend the stink is fictitious, and if I think it's fresh [more than once I've had cats come into the flat & spray - ooh yuck!], I'm there with my biological washing powder (I used to keep a box specially!) , and...

And I've forgotten the other thing to use!

I'm sure the enzymes in the bio washing powder break down something-or-other, and I can't remember why I needed the second (now forgotten) ingredient, so I'm resorting to searching the web for answers (very amusing, but not always helpful!) as I'd only had to clean paintwork before, and don't want to start scrubbing antique furniture.

Also hoping that as the solvent in the Xylophène seems to have "re-awoken" the smell it will go away again and the furniture cleaner that David just bought will deal with any lingering traces...

One time when I almost wish for the good old days before all noxious products became "low odour".

Oh and how I missed the good old-fashioned gloss that smelled and covered so much better when I was painting the flat!

To be fair, I'd probably use leaded paint if I could find it - the doors in the bedroom date back to 1850 (and it seems to be the original paint) - it's taken a year of builders in the house to damage the finish!

OK, OK, health & safety, but that stuff must have been GOOD!

30 in the Shade

It's just gone 7pm, and the temperature in the house has dropped to 28°C [I knew I should never have opened the windows/doors; glad I left all the shutters closed!], but outside it's still 30°C in the shade.

And that's "proper" shade, not like mum does and waits till the sun has moved off the thermometer!

Still, opening up the house brought the humidity down to under 50% (it was 80% in the bedroom when I got up); I will be glad when the hemp-lime insulation has dried out and I can just concentrate on keeping the house cool!

I want to go for a walk, but I don't want to risk overheating - there's still power in the sun, even now.

Hmmm!

Might have dinner then decide...

Wildlife

It's good to be back in the countryside; I know I can see squirrels & foxes in Brixton much more easily than if we lived in the country, but somehow that doesn't equate to the exhilaration of nearly treading on a hare!!

On my walks I have spotted so many hares I've lost count, and plenty of deer and buzzards.

I'm getting pretty blasé [surely that should be "blasée"?!] about the wonderful wildlife I am seeing; I can now even drive past orchids without stopping to take photos.

Unless it's one that is new to me, of course!

But I still got a thrill out of seeing a vixen with her two cubs playing in the verge one evening, and seeing a nearly-mature cub scooting across the road another evening.

Somehow, the sight of truly wild foxes (rather than urban ones) was much more exciting than even the close-ups I get of the fox that visits our garden.

David tells local people that we have seen hares; but it's like telling Londoners that you have seen pigeons - they can't quite see what the fuss is about, and can't imagine never having seen one till you get into your forties.

I've even had the local fauna dropping in on me! One afternoon I heard 'cheeping' sounds coming from the flue in the kitchen, and thought the sound was carrying from the roof or chimney pot; but it was awfully loud. I went upstairs, but it was much quieter there, so assumed that the flue was acting like a "speaking tube", and just hoped that whatever was on the chimney hadn't nested there.

Luckily it was a warm dry day, so I had all the doors and windows open...

Which saved a LOT of bother when a fledgling redstart dropped through the opening! He didn't seem fazed by this at all; I admit to being a bit startled.

A few moments to gather his wits sitting on my furniture, then he hopped to the window sill and before I could grab my camera he was off!

Have had to chase plenty of butterflies out of the house (and one out of the car; that was a bit distracting as I was driving!), but we came too late for the swallows to act as squatters!

[They come in looking for a place to nest; last year I could tell from the way they went quiet that they had flown into the house, & spent many minutes "herding" them out - I love birds, but they keep different hours than I do, and unlike Irish jaunting car horses, I can't put nappies on them!]

I also saw a linnet (a name that had dropped from my memory till I was trying to identify this tiny little bird we'd seen); it reminded me of the ornamental finches that people keep in cages, and obviously it's the same family!

Now I shall be humming My Old Man Said Follow the Van for the rest of the day!!

2 answers for the price of one!

Yes, I can do 140 characters of post! Now, do I want to...?

The hare in question was one of the six I saw last night when I went for my walk.

I like to go for a walk along the farm tracks, go under one bridge, walk along by the side of the motorway, over the next bridge and back home: it's about 1½ to 1¾ hours with plenty of ups & downs and there's a wood one field away from the track by the motorway, so an ideal opportunity to startle deer and hares!

I was strolling along and happened to look down at the verge, and there was a hare crouched down 3' to 4' away from me.

I was mesmerised; he looked as though he was hypnotised, so I risked trying to get my camera out...

Oops!

I can see why "haring" ["hareing" looks better, but apparently is not] is used to describe extreme scarpering!

What am I doing now?

Debating whether to sign up for Twitter…

And thinking about whether to post about my hare

Yes, that is the leporine kind not the hirsute sort!

Still here...

[Now why did I type the word "still" and have to fight a temptation to follow it with "crazy after all these years"? Too much retro listening, courtesy of Amazon and YouTube?]

I'm sitting here in the gloom reading Life on the C Train, the blog of a lady I'll never meet called Clare who writes beautifully, and generally helps me find a lighter way to look at things, and thinking "Hmmmm! Must do something on my blog... "

So here's a start!

Well, no photos yet [they're living in the camera; or are they just shy?] and as the place is a mess again, I might just wait till David comes back and take some more photos when we've moved all our furniture!

Yup! We went out & went a bit potty!

For the price of 2 dressers (i.e. prices that we have seen in England/a more expensive dépôt-vente), we bought:

• 4 dressers
• 2 tables (these were included with 2 of the dressers: a set called a salle à manger, but I suspect David thinks of it as a BOGOF!)
• 13 chairs (as above)
• 1 sideboard
• 2 wardrobes
• 1 bed frame (BOGOF, as before)
• 1 desk
• a trouser/jacket stand (think "Corby", but without the press bit)
• 1 bedside table

And on one of the days we weren't looking for furniture/borrowing a van to bring furniture home/going to Troyes to load furniture into a van so the bloke could deliver it, we went and...

Bought a boulangère stand!

My excuse is that at 20% off, it was worth it to buy it a day earlier - paid for the diesel we used and then some!

So, the long and the short of it is: lots of old furniture [either with woodworm, or that has been standing around for months next to furniture that has woodworm] artfully arranged around the kitchen so that I can get at almost all of it to give it three coats of woodworm treatment...

No photos here then!

Photos...

I said I would post some pictures of the house now the builders have gone...

The problem is I don't want to, until I've got the place a bit [lot!] tidier.

My self-imposed deadline is Thursday evening; I want it to resemble a home by the time David gets back, so I should be able to take some shots on Friday...

The only delay is I'm getting fed up with cleaning things!

Yesterday I had a break to do "manly" things [saw up some timber/move our demolished floor so I can get the car in the barn again], which cheered me up no end; I like work that shows a result.

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

"Felicitations!"

Just had a lovely surprise...

I was checking my emails (have got the computer on the dining table so I can look out of the window whilst "working"), and I saw what looked like M. Lorin going into the churchyard.

It was a white van (and may well have been a C15; who knows [who cares]?), so I kept an eye out to see if it was indeed M. Lorin when he reappeared.

Which it was, so he had an impromptu visit to look around the house.

I had been a bit concerned: it was his house, and we have made some radical changes, but he said it was lovely and congratulated us on the work, our taste and thought/foresight.

I owned up to the news stairs being M. Boyer's idea, and the wall around the back terrace being John's idea.

He said he was happy for us, and he agreed that we'd done what the house needed.

I told him I was so glad to hear that, because it had been his house that we've really knocked about, but he said it's truly our house now; and it feels it.

I'm happy now we've had his blessing.

Hygrometer...

It's fascinating being the proud owner of a hygrometer...

[Although I have to own up to getting my hygrometer confused with my hydrometer; people who know me might leap to conclusions!]

The day I was complaining about the rain (well, not complaining, more commenting on), I'd woken up and the bedroom smelled damp.

OK, slightly damp, and if you sniffed hard, but still more damp than not-damp.

Not being keen on damp, and being the proud owner of a dehumidifier (and a hygrometer), I thought "Aha! Let's see what you can do about this!"

The relative humidity in the bedroom was 94%. The rest of the house was about 68%...

[To put that into context today is less humid-feeling than yesterday and the house is around 50% humidity - comfortable. The cellars were 83/84% yesterday (today 77%), and I was wondering if that was too damp to store my gardening tools...]

I've had the dehumidifier going almost constantly in the bedroom and that brought the level down to 52% (it's now 55% because I switched off the dehumidifier to see what effect opening the window would have instead; it had been too damp for air passing through to dry the room out), so the room is still damper than the rest of the house - it doesn't get air passing through it the same, as the door is near the window.

I've also been noting the humidity when the day feels "dry" to me and when it's been raining...

Conclusion: opening the windows on a dry day seems a lot more effective than a dehumidifier, but if you don't have a dry day a dehumidifier is brilliant!

Oh, and the damp smell in the bedroom passed in less than 24 hours and hasn't come back!

[And when I say damp smell, it's nothing like some of the things I've bought off eBay, so I wasn't too worried; just didn't want it getting any worse.]

Well, I'm fascinated anyway!

It's raining so much...

... that I don't want to go outside...

... that our drive is washing away down the road...

... that even our puddles have puddles!

Wow!

Finally got to take back possession of our house [that reminds me: change locks!] on Friday evening - a lovely feeling that there will be no more workmen for a while!

Not true, of course!

There are a few bit & bobs left to attend to (the HUGE pile of soil in the field, for a start), but nothing to prevent us moving in...

We slept here last night, and are starting to wind down now.

Sadly, David has already left for Paris and onward to London. :-(

And we've had our first visitor!

Alasdhair popped down for lunch (and breakfast as it turned out), and has kindly taken David back with him to Paris (saving David having to leave at 10.30 to catch his train).

Alasdhair really noticed all the changes (he hasn't seen it since we had the loo taken out of the kitchen!), and we'll invite him down again when David's on holiday - should be even nicer then!

Have done more washing up that I normally do in a month, but it's a wonderful thought that we don't have to put everything away again at the end of the summer!

We've got the standard 'English summer' weather (mixed, but predominantly rainy!), but I'm hoping it cheers up soon.

Either way, I'm loving being here.

Will take some photos on a beautiful sunny day & post them then.

Kind regards, and thank you for your interest,

Maria

Nearly finished?

We went to France for another weekend of gardening before a second UK-only Bank Holiday meeting which managed to save another of David's precious holiday days.

Gorgeous weather!

Sunday was 28°C in the shade - perfect for sitting out having breakfast, but I'm pretty tired at the moment [finally finished ALL the work I was doing on the flat in Brixton], and left the lion's share of gardening to David.

That's unusual for me, but I am conforting myself with the hope that the weather men are right (i.e. we get a summer that merits the name!), and the fact that I will soon be staying at the house, and can then get up early and weed before the heat builds...

It was only 38°C in the sun, but it gets so hot that it goes off the top of my thermometer - it only measures up to 53°C!

At our meeting on Monday, we were assured that all work will be finished by noon on Friday, 5th June...

Will believe that when we see it, but the signs are good.

Very little remaining to do in the house: a few clearer labels on the water supply, and some woodwork/plastering that we've said "let's wait till the house has dried out, and do it next year", so nothing to stop me staying there...

...Now the drains are connected!!

Deeply overexcited, and had some ribald responses to my text to friends saying I'd had a pi-pi in the house!

So, I'm tying up loose ends in Brixton & preparing to camp in the grenier...

Yes, I did say "camp in the grenier" as opposed to "set up home"!

We washed something up in our newly-connected kitchen sink, and later noticed a pool of water underneath.

We couldn't see where the leak was, so I got out the mop to clear up the mess and dry the floor - FAT CHANCE!

We don't think there's a leak; when we looked closer the whole floor was covered with drops of condensation.

Where I'd mopped was still no drier after 6 or 7 hours of all the doors and windows being opened.

Which means we've got 100% humidity, as far as we can tell - either way, I don't want our belongings in that damp an atmosphere, nor do I want to sleep in it, so the plan has changed to another summer of camping!

Not a problem; I'm getting pretty good at the "higher end" camping, and intend to set the bed up under the gazebo (bought to keep bird drippings off!), and will put most other things upstairs as well...

Today I'm tied to the flat - waiting for a delivery [SMS may even try to deliver; usually they just put a card through the door without ringing the bell, so keep your fingers crossed for me!]...

David has chosen what sounds to be the most powerful domestic dehumidifier you can get without crossing the threshhold to industrial-strength models!

Part of me thinks we should have done this sooner, but the part that's pee-ed off by how many of our things have ended up tatty or ruined by French workmen knows that I will look after the machine and won't break it through carelessness, so this is the right time.

Enough of our damp!

As well as the sink being fitted, and the drains all connecting up, we now have a gas tank in place [no gas, so can't test it - Schwartz are now under notice that if they don't supply the Qualigaz certificate (and finish all their other outstanding jobs) by noon next Friday, we will be reducing the bill by €100 a day - half of me hopes they work as fast as they've done so far! We won't owe a thing! ;-) ] and the VMC is connected and working (we think).

Another glitch: the well seems to have run dry!

We're hopeful it's just temporary (otherwise it's a lot of money 'down the drain'), and a couple of neighbours have told us that the water table is incredibly low, so again, fingers crossed...

So, obviously, we can't test the pump!

The main job to finish is the terrace - the breeze block wall is up, and the stone wall hiding it is about half done, so the workmen could well be leaving site in just over a week!?

One of M. Luparello's chap is studying at the Institut Universitaire Des Métiers et du Patrimoine - a university course teaching the old building techniques.

I think that's a brilliant idea, and feel lucky to have M. Faisal working at our house & wish him well with his studies and future career.

Sink Saga...

We finally found a couple of freestanding sinks, for a reasonable price, that looked OK in the Ikea catalogue...

[If you don't mind spending thousands of pounds, it's quite easy to find nice sink units, but we want something to last until we can get around to fitting a kitchen, so something that costs more than the whole kitchen will seems a bizarre choice, so "No!" to John Lewis of Hungerford and your ilk.]

We live reasonably close to Ikea in Croydon, so went along to have a look at the sinks "in the flesh", and hopefully buy one to take to France on our last trip.

They had two of the three possibles on display, neither of which we liked: one looked like a catering sink, but felt a bit feeble [industrial looks without industrial build quality; not what we were aiming for!], and the other one didn't have any kind of rim/lip to stop water overflowing [having occasionally managed to soak the floor using sinks with a rim/lip, I wanted that "safety" feature"].

The second sink we just didn't really like either - the cupboard you could add wasn't very aesthetically pleasing, and added to the cost, so that was also a "No".

Before setting off for Wembley or any other store I thought I would check availability, so that if we liked the third (as yet unseen) sink we could buy one there & then.

The website "availability checker" showed quite a few of both the sink and the base in stock.

Being somewhat paranoid (and wanting to avoid a wasted journey), I telephoned the store to check that they were in stock & we could just come and collect a set if we liked the look of the combo...

A very helpful lady said "Yes!" no problem.

What she really meant was: "You will get to the store, decide you like the item, copy down the location, but need to queue up for nearly an hour to speak to the one kitchen assistant working [to find the location for the waste, which wasn't shown]. You will be told by that assistant that the location in the warehouse you have copied down doesn't exist, and that you need to speak to someone down in the warehouse to find the correct location, but yes they are in stock".

She seemed a bit frustrated that this process was something she'd explained frequently, and customers who weren't happy probably had bent her ear on more than one occasion!

Another, though much shorter wait, we learned from the (equally helpful) chap in the warehouse that yes, both items were in stock, but we could only have one of them!

We could collect a sink - if he called through to his colleagues in the outside store, we could pick up the sink in 30-40 minutes...

The base was in an "air location" [a high shelf] that could only be accessed by the forklift driver - a process that they weren't allowed to do whilst there were customers in the store.

Fair enough: health & safety requirements seem sensible, but why not advise customers [who have taken the trouble to find out if they can take an item away before schlepping to North London] that they have to order the base one day for collection the next day?

So, we said "Please will you ask them to get one down for us" and "Where will it be when we come back tomorrow to collect it?"...

The helpful assistant said that the best they could do was ask the forklift driver to leave it near their desk, IF they got it down. [There seemed to be a lot of doubt whether the request would be actioned or ignored.]

[Again, we got the impression the staff suffers at the hands of frustrated customers who can't just buy items, and this wasn't a one-off "glitch"!]

Could we have our name put on it to reserve it?

No.

What's to stop someone else taking it?

Nothing.

Well, we asked for them to get one down...

Next day I spoke again with the helpful lady in Rotherham to see if I could contact the warehouse desk to see if the base was waiting there for us to collect.

I muttered a bit about the air location, and why couldn't they let us know, but it wasn't her fault, so I just asked for the name of the CEO. [No-one in store could tell me the name of the store manager, or the CEO - at that point I thought the problem was inefficiency at Wembley not Ikea's "system".]

The lady told me the name, so I could write to him [turns out he left last September - I Googled the spelling to find that he'd moved on], and said she couldn't contact the warehouse desk, but she or one of her colleagues would call me back, when I explained about the doubt whether the base would have been taken down to floor level.

She did say she could try to organise delivery, but that was going to be over £70, so I thought, "let's have one last go at collecting it first"...

Later that day I received a call from another lady in Rotherham: there were no bases in stock in Wembley, and no plans to get any more.

I didn't know what to say!

[I consulted the online availability checker the next day - which was still showing the same level of stock as when I first looked, so I don't know whether the people in store were misinformed/lying, or whether the lady from customer services at head office was.]

It was all a bit frustrating - not knowing whether they would have a sink anywhere near London, and if so whether I could collect one.

I never think moaning achieves anything, but I still have a moan anyway because it gets it out of my system!

But this time it was productive - I was telling mum about the Ikea "system" [how can anyone run a business that way?], and saying we'd have to keep looking on eBay till I found one we liked & could afford.

She asked what we wanted, and I explained that we just wanted a self-supporting sink - we didn't want to have to buy a base cabinet, a length of worktop, a jigsaw (to cut the hole in the worktop) and take it to France to assemble it all - so that we didn't have to take the washing up to the laundry room, wash it & bring it back.

Bad enough having to wash up!!

I didn't care what it looked like, as long as it wasn't too expensive; we're planning to think about kitchen layout/style when we are in situ and our heads aren't too full of all the other decisions...

And we've coped without a kitchen for four years already, so another year or two (or five!) won't matter!

Mum said "We've got an old sink in the shed; would you like that?"

"YES!!" [Please]

After measuring the sink and the car, it all looked manageable, so we did the belated Christmas present run (swapped gifts that we never exchanged last year), collected the sink and had another of our 36-hour round trips!

Some Vim powder, a bit of elbow grease and it all looked much better!

It's a catering sink (so we've got the industrial look, but this time with the build quality), with a small hand sink to the side.

The basin is far too large (would have been perfect in the laundry!!), but we can upturn one washing up bowl & put another one on top and it will be great!

M. Huguenot from Schwartz didn't seem fazed by it not having a waste so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will be fitted next time we visit...

Having the sink in place also means we can have the mini immersion installed too, so it will be luxury!

[The run from the existing immersion heater meant we were having to run the tap for a minute or so each time we wanted hot water - a complete waste - so we are having a tiny one under the sink]