I was just sorting out the details for a new house we have on the market and was as per usual, there was one room with wallpaper that made me go

So I thought I'd start sharing some of these crimes against decorating with you!  Can you imagine trying to have a nice relaxing bath at the end of the day while having to look at this wallpaper??

Gad!  It's November already!!!  Especially surprising as the weather is still ridiculously warm.  Days are still around 20 degrees which just isn't right for this time of the year but, and I'm not sure if this is good or bad, they are supposed to get colder this week.  Kind of good that we'll get back to seasonal norms but not good that it's going to get cold!!

Anyways, not really much to report from around here as life seems to be a fairly hum-drum routine of work and household stuff!  However, good news is that I've (finally!!) sold my little house in Magnac Laval  so I'll be able to cut my ties there and move on.  Sadly, I didn't get a huge fortune for it  but it does mean I'll have a lump sum to pay off a couple of loans and will also have money to start the bigger jobs on this place   Round 1 of renovations will include closing up the myriad of doorways that never get used, re-wiring, fixing the guttering, new double-glazed windows on the back of the house, some new plumbing and a new bathroom.  Phew!!!  Round 2 will include a new kitchen and if there is enough money left, maybe a new boiler to replace the dinosaur that rumbles away in the cellar and new windows on the front of the house.  Hopefully the builder is coming around to quote on Round 1 this week which will at least give me some idea of what I can afford to do!

On the strength of selling the little house, and also because I haven't had a holiday so far this year, I'm off to Italy for a last minute long weekend in mid November   Suzanne was planning a break and invited me to come along so I thought "why not?".  We're flying to Naples but not staying there as it doesn't have a great reputation  so we're jumping in a rental car and driving around the bay to stay in Sorrento, which is apparently much prettier.  Plans are to poke around Pompeii and Herculaneum, explore the Amalfi coast and maybe, depending on November sea conditions, take a trip out to Capri which is just off the coast from Sorrento.  Fingers crossed that the weather is OK for at least some of the time!!

Then, about a week after I get back from that trip, I'm off for Aunty Kate's Christmas Sleigh Ride over to New Zealand to catch up with the family   It's been almost two years since I've made the trip so it's definitely time to make that lovely 27 hour plane ride.  Sadly, Air NZ wanted waaaaaaaaaaay too much money  to change my booking to stop off in Rarotonga on the way (although now I've sold the little house I could maybe have afforded it....) so it's straight through on the flight but it does mean I get to spend more time with the family which has to be a good thing.  However, next time I think I'll be properly organised and add the stop-over when I book as Rarotonga's sandy beaches did look MIGHTY inviting.

As I've been rather slack in writing this, I've missed a rather important birthday.  So, belated birthday wishes to nephew Matthew who turned 5 on October 14 and started school!

Well, September arrived last week and in the blink of an eye, the weather changed from roasting hot and dry to cool and rainy.  A nice change to have some rain as it hadn't really rained for six weeks and my garden and lawn were looking decidedly crispy!  According to meteo.fr, August was the third hottest one since they kept proper records about 60 years ago and it certainly felt like it  Many days it was over 35 degrees in the shade and one afternoon, when I put my thermometer in the sun, it whizzed all the way up to as far as it could measure at 50 degrees  and it may have been hotter but that was as high as it could measure

Mum and Russ arrived at their house about three weeks ago and I haven't seen a lot of them  apart from one lunch in Montmorillon and one time that they came to my house for lunch last weekend.  I assume they've been hard at work sorting out their house as paint and varnish, and trips to DIY stores have been mentioned in conversations   Although, to be honest, it's probably actually been too hot to get a lot done, especially in the garden.

Work's been busy over the summer although it's noticable how many more "tourists" you get over the summer who really aren't in a position to buy  (they have houses to put on the market/sell in the UK, etc.) and expect you to take time out of your day nonetheless to take them to visit houses anyway   We're hoping that September and October will bering more serious buyers  and help us continue with what's been a much better year business-wise than last year. 

However, I'm not sure that I can see myself doing this job forever so I've enrolled in a "distance learning" Interior Design Course to add another string to my bow.  I did a fair bit of research as to what courses were available from the UK via the internet and courses ranged from 3 months to 18-24 months and in the end, after much reflection, I chose a longer course.  Some of the shorter courses looked more like they were for people who were looking to do this as a hobby  so I wasn't sure how much use they'd be if we do decide to sell the business in the next year or so and I'm looking for something different to do next.  I enrolled last week and have received the initial information via post and e-mail and I must say... it's all a little terrifying!!!  The main course notes are still in transit but the 58 page  document outlining the projects you have to submit is more than a little daunting; the final project involves designing a residential house and then all the interior public spaces (lobby, bar, cafe, restaurant) for a hotel  although the online timetable said I won't be doing this for around 18 months.  Plenty of time to be putting in the background learning then!!  Plus, the list of art supplies I need to buy was something I hadn't counted on  but it looks like a really thorough course and I'm sure that once I can get sorted out with materials and get my head around where to start, I should be fine   Next challenge will be finding 15 hours a week to devote to this and keeping motivated.

One good thing about it though is that it's pushed me to investigate the Mediatheque (updated version of a Biliotheque!) here in Poitiers.  This is the public library and a rather boring building  that I walk by almost every time I walk into town.  I actually went in today for the first time  and had a jolly good rummage around.  Their book selection isn't fantastic  but their DVD and CD selection looks decent, and you can even borrow two pieces of "contemporary art" for two months... cool!!!  Plus, I discovered they have a section with English and American novels (no idea why they feel need to separate them out into two sections ) in English... who knew????  Again, not huge sections but there's plenty for me to happily plough through!

With autumn on the way, I've realised that my trip back to NZ is only around three months away  and I need to start booking trains to/from London to grab the cheap fares before they all sell out.  I'm also in two minds as to whether a quick stop-over in LA on the way over is possible financially.... but then I suppose that's what credit cards are for  and it would be nice to break up the flight for once and have a poke around LA.  Watch this space!!

Finally, I realise that I haven't been on here much recently  but that may be because I'm using Facebook and, dare I say it  more recently Twitter (registered as KateDuffell) as it's much faster to update people quickly on there than type all this out!!  It never ceases to amaze me how many complete strangers think I might want them as a friend on Facebook  or following me on Twitter  but if any of you want to get in touch via these sites (if you aren't already!) then I'll happily add you!!  Instead of telling you to bugger off like I do with all the clowns  I don't know...

Summer has arrived and the weather is lovely!  Well, thankfully, the weather is actually cooler than it was last week as 35 degrees  really is too hot to be running around sight-seeing with two kids in tow.  But more about that later

June started off with a trip back to the UK.  A couple of days in London catching up with friends  was followed by leaping into a rental car and zooming down to Cornwall.  I stayed on the south coast in the very picturesque fishing village of Mevagissey although the weather was utterly horrid when I arrived (driving rain and wind ) and I did regret not packing the fleece that I'd joked to a friend about packing for a trip to the UK in June.  I spent a couple of days looking around touristy places like the Lost Gardens of Heligan and Lanhydrock House before Andy and Liz's wedding on Thursday which was the reason for my trip.  The wedding ceremony was in the garden at Liz's parents house (with photos taken later on the coast!) and was a really nice ceremony  

Although it tipped it down during the rehearsal the day before, the sun shone and a fantastic time was had by all.  The reception was at a hotel on the north coast of Cornwall with a view over the sea and the coast here is all sandy beaches and surfing rather than the fishing villages on the south coast.  I headed back to London on Friday and braved Friday afternoon traffic on the M25 (talk about gridlock!) to have a couple of days with friends again before heading home.

Then, a couple of weeks ago sister Sarah and her partner Luke and kids Cam and Zoe arrived in sunny France.  In fact, they arrived right in the middle of a heat-wave and with temperatures around 35 degrees during the day  and only dropping to around 25 degrees at night , we had a fairly uncomfortable first few days sight-seeing   However, we did manage to cram in a visit to Monkey Valley, the chateau at Villandry, trips to pretty local villages like Saint Savin, Angles sur l'Anglin and Chauvigny, a morning at a Vide Grenier (like a car-boot sale), exploring the old part of Poitiers, and several stops at swimming lakes around and about. 

Cam on the bridge at Angles sur l'Anglin:

They also headed off for an overnight stay to La Rochelle for a poke around town and a stop at the beach!  Phew....   And now they've headed off to a gite near Paris and I think they have a visit to Disneyland planned before leaping on the plane back to NZ.

Progress around the house has been kind of slow recently due to trips away and visitors but I did manage to re-decorate my bedroom a few weeks ago and it looks soooooooooo much better than it did  There are still finishing off bits to do like putting up the lights and painting the skirting but with the paint and the wallpapering done, feels like I'm almost there!

Before:

After:

OK... so it's a looooooooooovely day and I probably should be out and about rather than inside writing this but frankly, I caught the sun a little yesterday and if I don't do this now... well, who knows when it will get done??  

So, the weather here has jumped into gorgeous sunny summer weather and the feeling of relaxation has certainly been helped by the fact that four of the last five weekends have been long weekends here.  Yippee!!!  We kicked off the first weekend of May with May Day on the first Friday, followed by VE Day on the following Friday.  The next week, hardship of hardships, was a full five day week, but the week after, Ascension fell on the Thursday so most people here (including us!) decided to "faire le pont" (make the bridge) between the Thursday and the weekend.  We were all proper slackers and took the Friday off too   Then, today is Pentecost, so, despite being a supposedly secular country, we have the day off again! 

After today though, we have a full SIX weeks to our next holiday on July 14th (Bastille Day) which falls on a Tuesday.  Shall we "faire le pont" for that one too????  But before then, I have a week off in the UK next week for Andy's wedding in Cornwall, and then a week or so off at the beginning of July when Sarah, Luke, Cam and Zoe arrive for the French leg of the European Tour.  Phew.....

One thing we'll (hopefully!) be doing with Cam and Zoe will be heading off to "La Vallee des Singes" (Monkey Valley), which I visited at the beginning of May with Andy, Becka, and three year old Ella.  I've been meaning to go here for a while and we finally gotten around to it.  And it really is a MOST excellent place!!  All the advertising says "350 monkeys in total freedom" and I was like "yeah, right" but it turns out that apart from the larger monkeys like Gorillas and Chimps that could pull your arms off  and so they live on Monkey Islands, many of the smaller little monkeys really are just running around in the park.  They're obviously kind of in enclosures but they are swinging through the trees, running along the paths, and generally leaping around you as you walk along.  You have a "briefing" at the entrance telling you that you are essentially in their "territory" so the monkeys are in charge here   If they come down and steal things out of your bags or run off with your sunglasses or hat, there's really not a lot park staff can do to get them back.  They give you seal-able bags and strongly advise you against taking precious "nou-nous" (cuddly toys) in to visit the monkeys!

The "Man in Charge".... the silver-back Gorilla who clearly ruled the roost.  And was SERIOUSLY big and powerful looking!  I mean... look at those muscly arms!!

I suppose even Mr Silverback started as a winky wee gorilla like these ones though... Tooooooo cute!!

They're just like furry people really!!

These Macaque monkeys were all over the place!  Not only were they in their enclosure, but they were in the trees of the enclosures on either side, on the fencing, on the paths, etc.  They were indeed "cheeky monkeys"....

I've always thought Baboons were some of the less attractive monkeys in the world.  And I'm sticking to that viewpoint:

Squirrel Monkeys however, are extremely cute!  Especially when it's been a bit rainy and they're trying out a partially spiky-haired look.... 

Nice to know even Tamarins have bad hair (or should that be "mad hair"?) days some days.....

Equally as cute as the monkeys, although sadly I didn't get photos of them (partly because I was trying to defend my clothes and belongings!), were the baby goats in the petting zoo.  There were about 10 wee goats who were all complete nutters and total munch-a-holics!  Already!!  Thankfully they didn't have teeth but the moment you squatted down to stroke one of them, another three would boing over to see you and start nibbling on your trousers, fingers, bag, shoelaces, jumper, etc.  In the meantime, at least one of them would also be practicing "springy goat jumps" to see if it could leap onto your lap (or your back!)  Gotta love properly crazy animals!!!

slack, slack, slack!!

Hmmmmm, distinct lack of blogging lately..... which is very slack of me I know!!

Especially since the weather is nice and I've been doing fun stuff like going to the swimming lake in the glorious spring/summer sunshine and fab trips to "Monkey Valley".  All of which I should be telling you all about....    but life just seems to be too short to get everything done

However, I WILL try and make the effort over the next few days and fill you in because I'm off to the UK next weekend for baby brother Andy's wedding (erk!!) and if I don't tell you before I go then it will all just get lost in the shuffle!!

Soooooooooooooooooooo.... Do you like-y the new colour scheme????  I figured that after a couple of years the apricot/orange was getting a little tired and that blogitty-blog needed some new clothes

Speaking of clothes, I had an "interesting" incident with a vendor a couple of weeks ago.  I stopped off at their house on my way into work to drop off the mandate for them to sign.  Monsieur was in the garden and I was just going to fling it at him and leave but he said to come in and they'd sign it.  He tried the front door but it was locked so he rang the doorbell and called out "C'est moi cherie" (it's me honey!).  I did think for a moment that he probably should say I was there too....  And sure enough, he certainly should have because his wife came to the door, opened it and she was.... completely naked!!!!         She leapt behind the door pretty quickly and I didn't really see anything; just kind of her side and her ar*e but it was embarrassing enough for both me and her     Needless to say... her husband thought it was HILARIOUS!!!   Boys will be boys....  Even when they're 70!!  Personally, I'm not sure why she didn't have a stitch on  (she said she was "just having a wash") when answering the door at 9:30am as he could have just as easily been standing there with the postman or something.  I mean... wouldn't you put a robe on or something???  Still, it made me chuckle aaaaaaaaall the way into work!  

Before I sign off... Get Well Soon wishes  need to be sent to Dad who had a pacemaker fitted last week.  His heart rate has doubled as a result  (but frankly any increase on a pitiful 30 beats a minute would be an improvement!!) and he's feeling decidedly more feisty than he has for a while.  Still not quite ready to leap buildings in a single bound but he may be building up to that one walk to the bus-stop at a time!!!

Well, summer must be on the way when you're thinking about lighting your wee barbecue to cook your sausages for dinner!

The weather's been lovely today  which, while it's been great, it is a little frustrating that it wasn't like this last weekend  Last weekend, Suzanne was over from London and we had outside things to do like walking and sight-seeing but the weather was pretty grey and/or rainy all weekend   This weekend, when I was planning to get on with painting, it's been gloriously sunny.  However, the weather forecast for tomorrow is a bit wet and wild which is just fine by me as I can get the painting of the entrance hall finished!

So, Suzanne arrived last Friday and we spent the weekend shopping and sight-seeing.  On Sunday, the weather was better than the showers of Saturday so we headed off for a walk in the countryside outside Poitiers.  While it wasn't hot and sunny, we didn't need our umbrellas at all and had a calming walk in the deserted countryside.  Once again, Suzanne was a little disappointed  that we didn't come across any interesting wildlife i.e. deer or wild boar, which was a little surprising considering the amount of time we spent on quiet tracks and woodland.  We did, however, come across a funky little stone bridge across a stream and Suzanne obligingly posed for piccy!

On Monday, we headed down to the celebrations of the Ostensions in Le Dorat.  This is a religious festival which is only held every seven years where they take "relics" of St Israel and St Theodore out of safe-keeping, parade them around town, and then put them on display for six weeks.  I thought it would be interesting to see what it was about.  Turns out I was slightly mistaken... I'm sure it's a highlight of your social calendar if you live in the area but to be honest, I thought it was all a little dull.  We waited outside the church for the religious ceremony to end and the parade to begin; which turned out to be a bit of a long wait!  As with most things here, they were running a little late and the parade was a bit of an anti-climax.  All they did was come out of the church with banners, statues of the Saints and the boxes of "relics", and the congregation in small groups.  I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting but it was something a little more interesting than the locals trooping along in their raincoats behind tacky plaster Saint statues.  Le Dorat did look pretty cool though as just about every house and building has green and red flags on it and there were some costumed escorts on horses that looked like they'd made a bit of an effort!

OK... best get off and light the barbecue before I lose impetus...

As some of you noticed earlier this week, this blog went for a bit of a walkabout and fell off the edge of the information super-highway  

However, as you can see, it seems to have found it's way home after a drunken couple of days out on the tiles and after waking up in the gutter wearing a chicken suit  and with one eyebrow shaved off  it seems to have re-appeared safe and sound on all our doorsteps!  Yippee!!!

Best I go off and see if I have anything interesting to come back and tell you.... Don't be holding your breath now....

I'm not sure if there are many things in life that make your heart sink  like the fact that you thought your house might just have burnt to a cinder....  

I arrived home on Friday night to discover my road blocked off on the corner near my house and a fire engine right behind the barricade.  I quickly flung my car into the nearby car-park, convincing myself that it was probably just a car accident that was blocking the road.  However, getting out of my car, I was met by the unmistakable smell of barbecued house     Convinced that my house with its dodgy wiring was in fact that source of this smell, I braced myself for disaster as I rounded the corner

The street was blocked off with four fire engines and full of firemen and police and I was extreeeeeeeeeeeeeemely relieved  to see that the firemen were heaving charred remains out of a house just around the corner, with my house four houses further along   My friendly wee munchkin of a neighbour (the one that looks after my veggie plot!  ) suddenly appeared to reassure me that it wasn't my house (or his!) that had gone up in flames and they let me through the barricades to get home.

Sadly, my celebrations at being able to flop on my sofa in my fully intact house was somewhat tempered by the sad fact that my neighbours four doors down have lost pretty much everything they own  and their 11 year old is in a serious condition in hospital after having been "revived" by the firemen   Word is that it was a chimney fire and I'm just hoping that it didn't happen because it wasn't swept in the autumn.  Apparently, insurance companies don't always pay out on claims resulting from chimney fires if you haven't swept the chimney  and I'm thinking that if your house looks like this

and you don't have insurance.... Well, I'm just not quite sure what you'd do to rebuild it......

Greetings all....

And HAPPY (belated!) BIRTHDAY to ME!!!!

Many thanks to all of you that sent birthday wishes, either by e-mail, Facebook or via snail mail    Special mention must go to the fab-tastic card/booklet of photos that I got from the Auckland branch of the Duffell family tree   I particularly liked the photos of Amy as a bridesmaid, Matthew in the sparkly wig and lip-gloss (!), and "Captain Underpants" aka Conor, had me giggling away for ages!!

As for Facebook, I've had a pretty much in-active account there for a year or so but have kind of worked out what it's all about over the past month or so.  It's gotten me back in contact with a few people that I'd lost touch with but I'm not totally sure that I see the point of it all   But, if any of you reading this aren't my "friend" on there and want to get in touch, then please feel free!!

We celebrated my birthday on Sunday with a lunch at a groovy restaurant in Poitiers.  Getting people together for a celebration on a Monday night felt like too much hard work so we had a lovely relaxed lunch.  Laura was supposed to come to my place first at about 11am but turned up a little early, not in their zippy wee VW, but in the van.  I was trying to imagine why she'd driven all the way from her place (over an hour's drive) in the van when she hauled me outside to see my "Birthday Surprise" that was in the back. 

Ta Da!

       I was gobsmacked!!!  A whole piano just for me!!! I'd been thinking about getting one about a year ago and had missed out a couple of times from rescuing them from sold houses (other people had always gotten in first!) and there weren't any on eBay that were close enough to buy.  Then later in the year, buying groceries and paying the mortgage became more important than buying pianos and the plan got kind of shelved.  Until now!!  Hurraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!    Laura managed to rescue this one from people that were going back to the UK and although it is a little out of tune from being moved around, all the keys work and after I've let it settle into my house for a couple of months, I'll tune it up and it'll be good as new!!

I keep meaning to post this...

In response to me pondering about why my neighbour constantly had washing on their line when it was freeeeeeeeezing cold, Suzanne did offer this answer which has saved me from thinking they're lunatics!

"Laundry does sort of dry outside in the cold because the air is often quite dry in cold weather (at least in some places Canada, maybe not in London). The laundry gets a bit hard but it soon thaws out and dries completely indoors in a short time and can smell quite fresh."

Maybe I should try it next winter and see if it works???

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!  Why are people such FOOLS????? 

We were supposed to have a signing for a house this afternoon and went to do the pre-property check with the buyer.  I open the door and the first thing I notice is this large pile of rubbish right in the middle of the living room floor      

I panicked at first, thinking the house had been ransacked  but on closer inspection, it was a pile of old electric cabling and housing and old radiators.  The current owner, it seems, has been re-doing the electrics in the house while the sale has been going through and the work still isn't finished.  OK, it's taken us a relatively quick (for France anyway ) two months to get the sale through and he clearly had already agreed (and probably paid for) this work before he sold the house but WHY did he not mention this to us at ANY point over the last two months?????  Now, not only do we have the problem of a large pile of rubbish in a house that was due to be signed over just hour after our visit and a property that has work half-finished on it, but re-doing the electrics completely negates the electricity conformity test which has to be done as part of the sale.  And so chances of us signing and getting our commission cheque this afternoon rapidly disappeared into the ether!!  

But onto less irritating things.... Mum arrived safely last Thursday although she did arrive smack in the middle of last week's "Grève Génèrale" or General Strike   This meant that trains weren't running direct from CDG Airport to Poitiers and she had to catch a bus into Paris and then the train from Paris Montparnasse station down to Poitiers.  Instead of getting here at 11:15am and having all day to pootle down to her wee house, she arrived just before 5pm and rather than have and exhausted traveller driving a car she wasn't familiar with  on the opposite side  of roads she's doesn't really know , she spent the night in Poitiers and headed off behind me on my way to work on Friday morning in her little peanut of a rental car!  

Despite the record dumpings of snow that the UK has been having this week, and although the north of France did get a bit snowy a few days ago, for once, the rubbish weather seems to have skidded by to the north of us and we've had nice sunny days most of the week   It's set to get colder this weekend and there are "a few flurries of snow" forecast for tomorrow though which could mean anything.  When they forecast that a month ago we had four inches of snow  and when they forecast it again a couple of weeks ago we had nothing.  France did get hit by a big storm down near Bordeaux a couple of weeks ago with record-breaking wind gusts  and we had a HUGE downpour of rain which brought all the rivers up.  Sadly, the river at the bottom of my garden only came up about 50cm so it didn't make it anywhere near my basement. which is a bit of a shame as I'd quite like a new boiler and it would be great if I could get an insurance claim to pay for it if I was flooded   I did take a few piccies of the river though as it was still pretty high.  This is the path in between our gardens.  There's normally a wee wooden plaform at the end of the path which sits about 30 cm above the river.... But it's all under water....

And this is the riverside path a couple of blocks down from my house.  Or more precisely, this is where the riverside path would normally be.  Note the half submerged handrail down by the bushes!!

Brrrrrr... It's been chilly here the last week.  In fact, I think last Wednesday or Thursday, it was actually colder here than it was in Greenland!!

Yesterday was pretty much the first time in about a week that the thermometer made it above freezing during the day and even then, it was only to about 2 or 3 degrees   And at night, it's been dropping down to between -5 and -10 degrees

So, last Monday, it snowed for the first time this winter!  In fact, for the first time properly in a couple of years.    Here's what my garden looked like in the morning:

Notice the neighbour has a sheet on the line that they thought might get dry during a snowstorm....

Although it's very pretty, the snow arrived RIGHT on rush hour and meant my 30-35 minute drive home took around 2 hours   Most of that was being stuck for over an hour  in traffic crawling through Poitiers which is a bit of my journey that normally takes around five minutes.   Most of the snow is still lying around but this week the temperatures should stay above zero (even at night!) so I'm sure it'll all be gone in a couple of days!

You know... there are often things in life that make me go "Hmmmmmmmmmmm".... and this has certainly got to be one of them

I've just looked out my living room window.  It's 3pm on January 2nd so as you can imagine, it's not exactly tropical outside.  In fact, it's kind of freeeeeeeezing cold.  And so, I look out and this is my neighbour's garden:

I mean.... in what UNIVERSE would you think that your washing was actually going to get dry in this weather???     

Especially seeing I've just retrieved the thermometer that I put outside the kitchen window to see how cold it really is and it tells me that it's just 2 degrees

I might add you quite often see washing out here in winter and it' always makes me go "Hmmmmmmmmmm".  And I wonder why my neighbour (and anyone for that matter!) would think that washing would dry when it's just a touch above freezing??????

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

It's only 7pm on New Year's Eve but that certainly sounds like it's high time to crack the champers open and start celebrating   Nothing that thrilling planned for me tonight and thank goodness because it's bloody freezing outside (like around 1 degree!) so I'm glad I don't have anything that I have to be standing around for.  I'm equally glad I wasn't planning on standing around outside in London where it's forecast to be -1 degree  at midnight or in New York where it's forecast to be -4 degrees .... or -14   when you factor in the wind chill!   Brrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

And while it's 7pm here, it means it's 7am in New Zealand  so it's already 2009 there and I would imagine Cathedral Cove is looking like this around about now as the new year dawns!

Yep, it's that time of the year when the fat man in the red suit breaks all aeronautical records riding in an open-topped craft powered only by several furry, antlered beasts  

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....

No sign of snow here in London by the way.... One of these days I'll get a White Christmas....

Oh.... and big HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes to niece Zoë who turned 3 yesterday!!

Gotta love this!!

Well, the Weather Gods obviously took note of the fact that the clocks went back at the weekend and after a lovely, balmy weekend  they've shoved some Artic air our way   So, with our weather whipping down from the North Pole instead of from the other side of the Atlantic, it's a tad chilly here.  They're forcasting snow for some parts of the country tomorrow  (and I understand the UK has had more than a few flurries!) but thankfully, it's supposed to be warmer by the weekend.

Otherwise, things are much the same and fairly uninteresting.  Work is still on a financial knife edge  and personally, things aren't great   Especially not helped when I get confronted by the question of when does "to pay this bill by monthly installments, go to this website and sign up for direct debits" NOT mean "to pay this bill by monthly installments, go to this website and sign up for direct debits"   Why in France of course!!  And it turns out this is the case on both my income tax and house tax bills.  Which were both due six weeks ago and which are a significant sum.  When you go online to sign up for direct debits, in fact what they're asking you to sign up for, is to spread out the payment of the same bills that you would receive at this time NEXT year... and NOT the bills you have in your sweaty palms   So, here was I thinking that I could pay these horrid bills off slowly and steadily from January but it turns out that I am liable for aaaaaaaaaaall this money.... right NOW     All I can say is "Goodbye savings...."   I suppose that's why there are credit cards in the world though!

Which brings me to contemplating that it might just be worth investing in one of these:

That's right... it's a Nicolas Sarkozy Voodoo Doll  Not only would this help me vent my frustrations at the Man in Charge  but they may soon become collectors items   Naturally, M. Sarkozy has launched legal proceedings against the manufacturer to get these wee dollies withdrawn from sale   He lost the initial case today but plans to appeal the decision and I'm sure he'll win in the end.  Because he always does   It's worth noting at this point that there is also a Segolene Royal doll as well (she was his rival in the Presidential campaign last year for those of you who can't remember) but she's stated publicly that as the world economy is heading down the plughole, she feels that there are "more important things to be worrying about than a doll"

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering what happened to Sooty, Sweep and Soo, my furry friends that were living in the garden, sadly I had to call the SPA (the French version of the RSPCA) to come and collect them at the beginning of the month    They'd developed the necessary jumping skills to get themselves out of the garden but as I was feeding them, they were quite happy to just stay   As I didn't want them to have to spend winter outside, and as I couldn't afford to adopt all three of them and have the vets bills to get them vaccinated, chipped and speyed/neutered, I decided that the responsible thing to do was to send them off somewhere where they stood a chance of being adopted properly and given a decent home.  I mean, what happens if I decide to pack up and head back to London to get a "proper job" next year??  I felt horribly guilty and sad when they came to take them away  but hopefully, they had no trouble finding loving families while they were a cute kittenish size!

Belated Happy Birthday wishes go to:

Nephew Matthew - who turned 4 on October 16   I hope Thomas's two "Express Coaches" arrived safely Matthew!!

Hmmmm.... the world is spiralling even faster towards financial meltdown than when I last wrote  But ironically, we're in a slightly better position work-wise.  Go figure!

I headed off to London in mid-September for a bit of a break so of course, in my absence, Laura was run off her feet (it had been quite quiet up until then....) and sold two houses.  I'm thinking that I need to go to London more often if we can get this to happen every time I go away!!!

Nelson surveys London from his perch on Trafalgar Square

So, I had five days in London, catching up with friends (including a VERY pregnant Lizzy! ) and flat-sitting for Suzanne while she went off for a week in Venice.  Although the weather has apparently been pretty rubbish all summer, it was lovely for pretty much the whole time I was there so we could enjoy drinks and lunch in the sunshine

I had to use the Eurostar just a week after the Tunnel fire and while it was fine going over, coming back my Eurostar was late and I arrived at Lille two minutes after my connection to Poitiers left   I thought there was another train 1/2 an hour later but this train apparently no longer exists  and the train I missed was the last train "home" that night   The only choice I had was to re-book my ticket as far as Paris, book a hotel for the night, and then catch a train back to Poitiers first thing the next morning.  As you can imagine, trying to book a hotel in Paris at 6:30pm doesn't leave you much choice  so I ended up in a "business suite" kind of place right up in the north of Paris.  While the hotel itself was really nice (mmmmmm , comfy beds!! ) the neighbourhood left a little to be desired!  This was the view from my room on the 10th floor

Although... if you look in the left hand corner of that photo and zoom a little (or maybe a lot....) on your camera, this is what you can see..... It's Sacre Coeur!!

Sentiment of the Week

Just before I sign off, I thought I'd share this with you as it touched my heart  

I received a letter from my (great) Uncle Harry and (great) Aunty Helen in the US today.  In it were a couple of photos, including this one:

Even though I know full well who the lovely lady in the photo is, on the back, written by Harry, was this short message

"Helen is still a good looking lady"  

After more than 60 years together, I love that he still feels this way and is happy to express it!!  

Happy September to you all!

Well, things here are really just average  But I guess that's as much as can be expected with huge merchant banks going bust  governments bailing out other financial institutions, and British banks buying out each other  It's easy to see that the world economy is in fact going to hell in a handcart which could be why the real estate market in France isn't exactly booming and work is pretty slow..... LOL!!!  Although, ironically, despite all the turmoil on the economic front this week, we've had more promising clients in the last few days than we've had for WEEKS.  OK, none of them have actually signed on the dotted line at the time I'm writing this but we are hoping that at least one of them actually puts their money where their mouth is and saves our backsides!

However, I'm feeling burnt out  and after the generous offer from Suzanne to flat-sit for a few days (i.e. FREE accommodation in London ) while she's away, I'm off to London tomorrow for five days.  Getting there on Eurostar will be an adventure after last week's tunnel fire and the subsequent revised timetable and use of only one of the two tunnels.  My train from Lille to London leaves half an hour earlier than originally scheduled yet arrives half an hour later... go figure!  Sounds like a long boring trip if you ask me!!! And coming back, instead of having an hour and a quarter to connect at Lille for my train to Poitiers, I have just 3 minutes!!!

Speaking of generous offers, a huge thank you to the unsolicited offers from friends and family (you know who you are!) who have offered to help out financially if I need it.  From offering to help out with train or plane fares, or just offering a bit of extra wonga, it's all greatly appreciated  So far, I've not needed to call on any of you but it is re-assuring to know that if things did turn horribly to custard, I have people that could help keep the wolf (otherwise know as the French government and their insatiable desire to steal my money in the form of various taxes and charges! )  from the door!

But onto smiley happy things.... so I'll share some piccies from my visit to the Chateau de Villandry which I went and explored last weekend.  When Suzanne was over in May, I discovered that I was only just over an hour from many of the Loire Chateaux.  I never realised this before... I thought they were about 3 hours away.  So, I needed to blow the cobwebs off myself on Sunday and headed off to explore the gardens at this Chateau.  Which as you can see, really are quite magnificent   And yes, if you're wondering...  they do apparently trim those hedges with scissors and not hedgetrimmers.  Can ya tell???  

Maybe that's where all my taxes go.... into buying endless pairs of scissors for the Chateau de Villandry to trim its hedges   Although, to be honest I'd probably rather that's where my money went than off to buy some tank or rocket launcher!   Are you listening Mr. Sarkozy???

Speaking of gardening, as summer draws to a close and it's time to harvest all those crops, I've decided to share with you my marvellous grape crop from the vine I planted in a pot on the balcony.   Ta da!!!!!   One whole grape!!   Too funny.....

Hey there everyone!

Well, summer has certainly cooled down so after a hot and dry July, August has been much cooler and wetter.  In fact, it's been pretty showery over the last week so I really must get my backside into gear and get off and get a "recuperateur d'eau" to catch all the rain water and store it up for when it's not so damp.

This weekend's been a nice long weekend with Friday as a public holiday  (it was Assumption or something like that....) so I went off to the horse-racing at Le Dorat with Becka, Andy and Ella.  We managed to resist the temptation to "have a flutter" which is just as well seeing every horse that I would have picked came near the back of the bunch

Last weekend I felt like a day out so it was off to La Rochelle for the day   The weather turned grotty on the way so any thoughts of lying on the beach went out the window and it was off to the Aquarium instead.  It was pretty packed but kind of cool... and I learned that fish are NOT the easiest things to photograph.... the little buggers just don't stay still!!!  All my photos of the shark tank were horribly blurry  But here's a few for you to enjoy:

Check out the mouth on the big blue fish!!  The fish was about four feet long so hardly surprising it had a bit of a mouth on it!!

I kind of like this one.....

The "prehistoric fish" tank.  How cool is that Nautilis and the freaky upside-down Horseshoe Crab???

It's a Nemo-fish!!!

I'm sure, like all of you, I've been watching some of the Olympics.  While the location isn't exactly the best for political correctness (small girl singers who were deemed "not pretty enough" for the rest of the world to see...  need I say more???  ) some of the sporting acheivements are quite amazing.  And I SO love the French commentators.  Their level of excitement knows no bounds when French athletes are doing well (which has been somewhat rare this time around!) and their use of the phrase "Ooooh la la" to describe what happening is nothing short of fantastic.  This can either mean "Oh my God that's amazing!"  when said in excited tones or "Oh sh*t, what happened there!"  when said in disappointed tones.  And can be made more excited/disappointed when it becomes "Oooooh la la la la la la....."

Sooty, Sweep and Soo are still living happily in the garden  and seeing I've moved their "feeding spot" from the grotty shed at the bottom of the garden to just outside the cellar door, Sooty seems to have decided that he/she would quite like to explore INSIDE the house please  and tries to run in the door whenever I open it!  Sweep and Soo (my little ginger friends!) still spit at me whenever I'm around  but Sooty is much more interested and will actually let me touch her/him   I'm debating whether to adopt them properly but am not sure if going from zero cats to three  is really a wise move!!!  My worst fears of turning into one of those mad old cat ladies may be about to be realised!!  We shall see.....  I can't see them taking off anytime soon seeing they're still too little to get up and away but thankfully, they seem to have settled down from their mad phase they had a week or so of getting stuck places  (the shed roof, the next door neighbour's garden, etc.).

Well, it's been lovely and sunny for over a month now  and I'm beginning to long for a good, wet rainy day.  And so is my garden!!!  They keep promising storms or decent rain but it all just seems to skim by my house and leave the occasional brief shower but nothing else.  Fingers crossed tomorrows predicted rubbish weather does turn out to be good and wet  so I can stop having to water my lawn and garden.

So, the sunflowers are out in full force and it's lovely to drive by fields and fields of them on the journey to and from work.  Where I used to live was much more cattle and sheep farming and the odd field of wheat but over here, it's warm enough for sunflowers and although they're only going to last a couple of weeks,  they're lovely to enjoy right now   I stopped to enjoy them earlier today and took some photos!

And while I'm catching up, I'll show you the furry friends that have taken up residence in the shed at the bottom of my garden  

Sooty, Sweep and Soo were abandoned by their semi-wild mother about three weeks ago  (long story... but my neighbours kind of feed her) so I had to take over rearing them if I didn't want them mewling away for days as they faded into nothing-ness.  So, although they're pretty much wild (they hiss at me and run away if I try to touch them ) they seem to be grateful for the food I put down for them   The plan is to feed them until they're big enough to jump; at the moment they're too little and lacking in jumping skills to get out of the garden!  Then, they can go off and be proper wild cats somewhere!!

Before I head off, there are a few birthdays to catch up with....

Niece Amy turned 8 on July 25

Nephew Cameron turns 5 on August 2 and is off to school on August 4... Good luck Cam!

Sister Sarah has one of those birthdays with a "0" on the end of it on August 10

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, it's taken me a little longer than planned  but I've finally found the time to catch up with this!

So, in the middle of May, I headed back to London for the weekend for a catch up with friends   Despite the fact that the weather had apparently been pretty rubbish up until then, it was hot and sunny from when I arrived on Saturday until when I headed off on Tuesday.  So, we were able to enjoy a lovely picnic on Hampstead Heath , drinks in the sushine  and although this wasn't exactly a sunny summer activity, Liz and I headed off to see a concert of the musical Chess at the Albert Hall on Monday night!

Since then, it's kind of been just getting back to the grindstone but I did take last week off for a week's holiday.  Liz and Stuart were on holiday in the south of France for a couple of weeks and had invited me to stay for a couple of days with them near Beziers   As it was aroung 600km away, I decided to split the drive and take a couple of days getting down there and a couple of days getting back.

The chosen route (avoiding the boring and expensive Autoroutes where possible!) was via Rodez, which, while pretty, isn't desperately interesting.  After a quick overnight stop, it was time to hit the road again to get down to Beziers, which involved driving over the funky new viaduct at Millau

Driving over the Viaduct!

We spent that afternoon checking out seaside villages like Sete, and although the weather wasn't brilliant, we wandered up the hill to take in the view and then had dinner in town.

There was a vague plan to go canoeing the next day but as it had absolutely POURED overnight  and we weren't exactly keen to head off onto a possibly swollen river, we went to Montpellier (about 30 minutes away!) instead.  The weather cleared up and it turned into a lovely sunny day and Montpellier is a very pretty old town.

Liz and Stuart waved me off the next morning towards home the next day, first stopping off at a very pretty town called Pezenas.  

Some of the funky old doorways in Pezenas

The reverse of the route down meant a stop off in the Lot (2/3 of the way home) and for an overnight stay.  It's a really, really pretty part of France  with lots of touristy things to do and see.  Before heading off the next morning, it was time to check out the nearby Gouffre de Padirac.  You go down this big hole in the ground :

You can either take the stairs or the lift but quite why you'd take the stairs is beyond me. 

Once you get to the bottom you walk through a series of caves, then take a short boat ride before you get a guided tour of the caverns, back onto the boats and out again.  The caverns are AMAZING!  They're about 90 metres from floor to ceiling  with around 9 metres of earth on top of this. 

There are waterfalls and water dripping from the ceiling and it's not exactly tropical down there so it was just as well I packed my jacket for the trip

Back out into the sunshine, it was off back up to near Limoges and staying with Becka and Ella for the night before heading home!

A few birthdays to catch up with seeing I've been so lax:

May 22nd - Brother-dude Chris turned ..... um.... two years older than me!

June 12th - Nephew Conor turned 6

June 25th - Dad turned 78

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!!

Yes, that's me.... I've been incredibly lax the last few weeks in keeping this up to date   Not that anything earth-shattering has been happening but I did take a trip back to London for a weekend in May  and have just been for a wee jaunt down to Southern France and back last week so I should fill you in on that.

However, today is another brilliantly sunny day (yesterday was a SCORCHER! ) and seeing summer has fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally arrived, I'm off to eat my breakfast in the sunshine in the garden.  It's supposed to be stormy this afternoon though so if I don't have the computer switched off for fear of being zapped, I will MAKE myself get this up to date

And although I may have been slack in keeping this up to date, it would appear the spammers have been having a field day in my absence     I've just deleted over 300 trackbacks to nasty sites, most of which were on just one article I posted.  Do these sad and tragic people really think that any of you fine people are interested in their rubbish????

Last weekend the sun came out properly and luckily it was the weekend that Suzanne came over from London to check out Poitiers and my new house

We shopped and wandered on Saturday and then on Sunday we headed to the countryside for a walk using my new "Walks in and around Poitiers" book.  We only had to drive around 10 minutes and we were out of the city and into the wilds of France again.  Despite getting off to a false start and walking completely the wrong direction  past a very pretty mill, we were soon back on track and walked for about 1/2 an hour before finding the Roman Aqueduct

Amazing that this is probably at least 2,000 years old  and it's still completely intact!

I should mention at this point that while trying to take pictures, Suzanne asked me why I was stamping my feet as I walked in the long grass.  "To scare off any snakes" I said half-jokingly.  No sooner had I said this but there was a rustling in the grass near my foot  and an animal shot off through the grass and down the hill    I caught a glimpse of it and I can tell you now.... it was NOT a mouse.... Mice do NOT have scales!!

We had a lovely picnic in a field and walked about 13km in the brilliant sunshine   Suzanne was rather disappointed to not come across any wildlife (i.e. deer or wild boar) in the wooded bits of our walk, and this is about as much animal life as we saw.

On Monday, we headed up to the Loire Valley which I was surprised to discover is only about an hour from my house....  I thought it was further away!  We visited the charming Chateau at Azay le Rideau with its moat and towers. 

Although inside, it wasn't as impressive as I expected  as several of the rooms were quite empty.  Most of these big Chateaux were either completely pillaged during the Revolution  or previous owners have sold off every stick of furniture as they got further and further into debt  and in the end, they ended up selling the actual building (now completely empty!!) to the State.  Still, the French Government do rummage around in the "Mobilier National" which is a seemingly never-ending stock of old and priceless furniture, paintings, tapestries and carpets (apparently they have 6,000 of just these two items!), etc. to make sure some of the rooms still look pretty!  A bit like this really.....

This weekend, I'm having a lovely looooooooooooooong weekend.  Along with the rest of France of course.  As today (Thursday) and Monday are both public holidays, almost everyone here is taking Friday off too and making a nice relaxing five day weekend of it!

Jiminy Cricket!  Is it already two weeks since my last post!!

After numerous requests  (and because I fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally got the wallpapering done at the weekend) I'll show you some before and after pictures of my house.  Now it wasn't exactly my fault that it took so long to get this room finished.  I blame France... for selling pre-pasted wallpaper and no water baths to wet it in   Cue much trudging around of DIY stores and finally using a large plastic storage bin instead!!  But I digress....

So, here's the room that somebody in a past life added onto the back of the living/dining room.  These are the before photos, in all its orange glory :

And this is after, in tasteful beige and blue with a "feature wall" of wallpaper:

Before you ask, "yes Sarah, that IS the sofa bed you stole out of a skip  and we re-covered"  and for any of you that come to stay soon (Suzanne, that means YOU!).... that WILL be your bed for your stay!!   Please also note the disappearance of the tasteful "poo brown" living room wall from the first before picture.... now all I need to do is strip the living room doors, paint the shelves and the skirting and you might get piccies of that room too.  But don't hold your breath!!!  I think the toilet room might get done first....  

In addition to decorating inside, I also managed another trip to the dechetterie with more wood from the infamous junky garden shed!  Two dump trips down... about 22 to go before the shed is empty!!

And lastly, but by no means leastly, Mum and Russ arrived safe and sound last Thursday for a 10 weeks at their little house near Le Dorat   Russell has already put the crowbar that he tucked in his luggage (!) to good use and has taken down the false ceiling in their back room and exposed the lovely (if somewhat cobwebby) beams underneath.  He is now working on exposing the stone-work on one of the walls... fingers crossed he's using something smaller than the crowbar for that or there may not be much house left before too long!  

Well, we didn't get any snow last weekend  but the weather's still a bit rubbish!  Still, after a VERY dry winter, I suppose a wet spring is a good thing after all!

And last night, the clocks "sprung forward" which means it's almost 7pm and not showing any sign of getting dark.  Summer is on the way!

It's been a weekend of mixed fortunes.  I planned on FINALLY doing my "feature wall" of wallpaper in the living room extension   The wallpaper I bought was pre-pasted and it wasn't until I came to put it up last weekend I discovered that I no longer had the long, thin tub to soak wallpaper in   I definitely used to have one of these but it's clearly been left behind in one of my moves   Bugger!  So, I went back to where I bought the wallpaper from (a very large DIY store) to get one, only to be told they didn't have any    I'm not entirely sure why they'd stock pre-pasted wallpaper and not one of the critical tools you need to hang it.... and I told them this before stomping off to another store   Now, THEY don't stock them because they don't sell pre-pasted wallpaper.... but suggested I buy a plastic window box to do the job.  So I zipped over to their garden department to grab one.... but they don't have any in yet!!!  Too early in the season.....grrrrr!!!  I came home in disgust and the wallpapering will have to wait another week!

Today was much more productive though as I found out where the nearest dechetterie (the dump!) is   Call me strange, but I find it very satisfying to fill the car up with useless rubbish I don't want, fling it out at the dechetterie, and then drive home without it   Today's trip was mostly garden rubbish as I have an entire messy lean-to at the bottom of the garden that's full of rubbish-y wood the previous owner (and in fact from the looks of it, the previous owner before him!) left behind.  Add to that several large leylandii that are out of control, dying trees that need to be chopped down, and I can imagine that I will be at the dechetterie every weekend for about the next five years!

Ah yes, it's time to wish you all a

Sadly, Good Friday isn't a public holiday here  so while most of you were laying around like flat-fish, I was hard at work.  Which was just as well actually as we sold a couple of houses yesterday which kind of stopped us from having a panic attack    Naturally, with all the uncertainty about the economic future around the globe  and the plummeting euro/sterling exchange rate  things have been a bit (worryingly!) quiet recently.  But we're hoping that as we head toward summer, business may pick up.

And speaking of summer, Thursday was officially the first day of spring.... So naturally, the weather's been absolutely rubbish since then!!  Well, more like just incredibly changeable - brilliantly sunny for half an hour, then tipping it down  They've even forecast snow for the weekend  and it WAS trying to hail when I was out earlier.  I wouldn't mind a bit of snow though (as long as I'm tucked up here at home!) as this is the first winter I've been here that it hasn't snowed at all!

Plus, I've got more than enough little projects around the house to be getting on with this weekend that I'm OK if the weather's a bit rubbish   It'll mean that I have no excuse NOT to get the bathroom floor varnished and finish decorating the living room extension.  If you're very lucky, I may even get around to posting some "before" and "after" photos sometime soon!

Ah yes, nothing makes your birthday more than a hearty and completely un-selfconscious performance of "Happy Birthday" down the 'phone from your 3 1/2 year old nephew  Matthew, which was the encore to the enthusiastic rendition given by his brother and sister (yay Amy and Conor! ) just a couple of minutes earlier!!  

Special mention must go to equally cute, yet more subdued "Happy Birthday" wishes whispered down the 'phone (sweeeet!!) from Cameron and Zoe  (nephew and niece) , another song along the phone lines from Mum and Russ , and the in-person performance (complete with cake ) from Laura, Paul, Becka and Andy  .  And to Dad, whose present arrived perfectly on time

THANKS EVERYONE!! 

I've had a lovely day, and Becka, Andy and Ella have now made the trek over to look over the house!  Maybe next time they'll come and have a sleep over!!