Well, apologies for the long delay in updating this blog but we have only had the telephone line installed at my Brother?s a couple of weeks ago. It was supposed to be 4 weeks ago but France Telecom had problems with the line. Five weeks without the internet, don?t know how I?ve survived (who said ?Anorak?!!).
We have worked very hard to sort out the disaster that was David?s wall, as you can see, the rubbish has been moved away and now the trench has been prepared for the footings.
The dry stone walls in the pictures were built by Jan (and the flowers planted by her) with stones recovered from the remains of the old wall. Not bad for a blind old biddy don?t you think? I?m really proud of what she has achieved, she had no help from me (I wasn?t going to lift heavy stones and risk a bad back!).
Luckily for us, the (English) guy who owns the house opposite said we could put all the recovered soil and stones at the end of his garden. There are several tons in total, hopefully David and Pauline will use a fair amount when they rebuild the wall.
The above pictures shows about half the stones we moved and about a tenth of the soil. They are hoping to get the footings done in early July so next time we visit Normandie it will all be completed (we hope!). Actually, we would have loved to stay and finish the wall but we need to watch some paint dry in our new house!
We had a quick trip back to the UK last weekend, David and Pauline were here in France so they looked after JJ for us. Stayed at Jan?s Dad?s, thanks again Dad for putting up with us, especially Jan! Our friends Pat and Judith took us (and the lovely Gemma), out for an Italian meal in Eastbourne, it was excellent, lots of garlic in the food, keeps the vampires (and Jan) away.
Jan clipped JJ last week, he doesn?t look so much like a poof now, more like an RSPCA advert for neglected dogs! He?s a lot happier though, he gets too hot when his coat is long (no, I don?t get too hot with my hair long and have no intention of getting it cut short!)
We shall be heading off South again tomorrow (Tuesday 6th) to stay at Bruce and Polly?s place (we?re house and dog sitting while they are in England for a couple of weeks). While they are away we get the keys to our house (15th June, whoopeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!) so will probably take their dogs to our place (their house will have to fend for itself). We won?t have any furniture until 1-2 weeks after the 15th, as we have to make arrangements for Matt and Marc to give me a hand to move it all.
We have enjoyed our time here in Normandy, made some new friends and seen more of the French way of life. I find it easier to understand people here than in the Pyrenees but I suppose that?s just different dialects, much the same as England. Working on the wall has kept us occupied and although it has been hard work it?s been good to get a lot fitter in preparation for the work needed on our house and garden when we move in.
Although we can?t wait to get into our own house after 4 months of being homeless we shall miss Normandie and the friends we have made while we have been here (both French and English). Norman and Alice Walker live just down the road in their renovated cottage, they have been here since about 2000 (lovely gite to rent, reasonable rates!) and have helped us out when my French failed me (quite often, but getting better).
I have spent hours today on the phone trying to transfer money from my account to pay for the house, it has to be with the Notaire before the 15th. Abbey are less then useless when you want their help. I had already set up an account with the people who forward the money abroad and had received a letter from Abbey saying in future all I need to do is telephone them with the details and the transaction would take place. WRONG!!! What they didn?t say in the letter is that if it?s a large amount they cannot deal with it over the phone. I tried the helpdesk in India (?helpdesk? is their word, mine?s somewhat different!), then eventually got someone in the UK, they put me in touch with the international people, so to cut a very long story short it is now all going through (I hope!).
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