Rob and Jan

Well, that’s it, I’m 60! All downhill from now on, mind you some people say I’ve been going downhill for a long, long time… Only 9 years till I reach my favourite number!

Marc arrived on the Sunday before my birthday, he flew to Toulouse and got the train to Tarbes. The train was quite cheap and made it much quicker to pick him up. Getting a connection with the flight times can be a problem, we had to take him to Toulouse for his return flight.
The day after Marc arrived we all went to Hautacam to go on the Luge. This is on a steel rail so relatively safe! Unfortunately when we got there it was closed, it only opens on Wednesdays and weekends outside school holidays. Marc was really annoyed, Jane and Chris were relieved! So, as it was a beautiful warm and sunny day we had a leisurely stroll around the area and a drink at the cafe perched on top of the hill. 

Chris and I went to Bordeaux on the day before my Birthday to pick up Jan’s Dad and her sister, Fiona. On the way back we caught up with Ray and Trish en route with their caravan only a few miles from our house. So it was a mad half hour while we sorted out all the extra visitors!

Jane and Jan had spent a couple of days before my birthday getting a lot of the food prepared, salads etc. Trish and Fiona got roped in to helping as well. Marc, Chris, Jan’s dad and I helped enormously by keeping out of the way! Cheers to the ladies for all their help.

Birthday weather was hot and sunny so we didn’t have to pack 26 people into the house thank goodness. Many thanks to all who came for sparing the time for an old git, I really enjoyed the day and although I had quite a lot to drink (beer only, I can’t mix my drinks very well!) I managed to stay quite sober. I didn’t want to make a complete arse of myself on my Birthday, I’m quite good at doing that during the rest of the year! There were 7 French friends and neighbours who called in at various times during the day and evening, taxing my French language skills to the limit.
Chris was press-ganged into being the barbecue chef for the day, he did a wonderful job, no-one died, or even had to go to hospital, well done!

Please click here to see party pics and others (click on Rob’s 60th Birthday, then on Slideshow, you will need to increase the time for each slide to be able to read the captions (below picture)).

Many friends and relatives clubbed together to get me my (almost) ideal Birthday present, a Canon 450D Digital SLR camera (my ideal present was a week with Cameron Diaz but no-one took this seriously, can’t think why…). Anyway, thank you to all who contributed to the camera, it’s brilliant, I’ve already taken nearly 2000 pictures, mostly rubbish, just getting used to the dozens of options. Also thanks again for the numerous other presents I received, lots of wine, a beret, apron and wine from Lyn and Barry and also an axe from Ray and Trish. Jan was really excited when Ray and Trish said they had bought me a new chopper for my Birthday, but she wasn’t so impressed when I unwrapped it, I’m not sure what she was expecting….

Courgettes, lovely to eat (most people agree), hundreds of recipes, easy to grow, BUT, two plants are enough to feed the village, so WHY did we grow six? Then Marianne asked us if we wanted some courgettes/marrows as they had too many! My reply left her in no doubt as to our thoughts on that idea, part of which was “where the sun doesn’t shine”!
We got our revenge, Jane and Chris had bought Marianne a small present so we put it in a big box with a marrow, talk about ungrateful, all she said was “Bastards, you bastards!”.

Jane and Chris left for England 2 days after my Birthday, they were stopping over in St. Malo that night before catching an early ferry Saturday. Thanks again for all you help and of course the Red Cross parcel with tea bags, baked beans, etc. tea bags, etc . English tea bags are essential for our well being out here, the French ones are really crap (to us anyway!) and quite expensive. Jane managed her whole time with us without a migraine, so it’s either her work that makes her ill or having to be on her own with Chris all the time! She did develop a migraine on the journey back, so was she worrying about going back to work or was it being stuck in the car with Chris…….?

Marc had to return home on the Sunday after my Birthday, so on the Saturday we were determined to go on the luge. It was cool and cloudy when we left home, raining and 4 degrees when we got to Hautacam! Visibilty was down to about 25 metres but Marc and I would not be put off.
At first I thought the run was closed as there were no other idiots around, however a slightly bewildered lady in the office said it was open if we really wanted to go on it. So off we went, it was great fun, went down the run twice, we would have had more but 2 was enough to soak us and freeze our dangly bits. Jan said we sounded like a couple of kids the noise we were making coming down!
We’ll be back when the weather is better as it’s only 3 Euros per ride.  I think the staff at the Luge thought we were mad, they could be right!

Jan’s Dad and Fiona went home on the 21st September, they had a great holiday, or at least they said they did, otherwise they wouldn’t be welcome next time they wanted to come over! Fiona even braved the coolish swimming pool, nowhere near as warm as  September a couple of years ago. They helped out in the garden and other bits and pieces, thanks to them for that, especially dad for weeding the flower bed and Fiona for trimming my hair, at least I can see where I’m going now!
While they were here, Jan’s Dad’s dog Charlie was ill and had lost a lot of weight, on his return he took him to the vet, a scan showed he was riddled with cancer. The kindest thing was to have him put down as there was nothing that could be done.
Also, Amy, our friends Bruce and Polly’s dog had to be put down as she had cancer as well. Not a good time for poor doggies…

We’ve now settled back into ‘normal’ life, gardening has taken a fair amount of time. I was cutting some very long grass at the top of the garden when the blade fell off the mower, the securing bolt had sheared! Perhaps I shouldn’t have attempted grass that long… Anyway, I managed to get a new bolt, which made it a lawn mower again instead of an engine with wheels! Now there’s an idea, an engine with wheels, could call it a car perhaps, I expect some clever sod has already thought of it though, hey ho, no fame and fortune there then.
We tried strimming the long grass with our old electric strimmer but that went tits up so we’re waiting new parts for that. I next thought about using the scythe but couldn’t find the bloody thing. Not to be defeated by a few blades of grass I borrowed Bob’s petrol strimmer, this hadn’t been used for about 7 years so obviously wouldn’t start. I stripped down the carburettor and cleaned all it’s orifices, it now runs fine. So finally I managed to cut the damn grass, quite a struggle, but I was determined not to give up.
I found the scythe a few days later when looking for something else, the way I usually find missing things, the other method is to buy a new one, guaranteed to make the missing item re-appear…

The weather over the last few weeks had generally been excellent, very warm in the day (well, hot by UK standards!) but sometimes quite chilly at night. There have been 3 falls of snow on the mountains already this autumn, the most recent was last week.
Most of the veggies have been and gone, varying degrees of success but still a good crop in general. We’ve still got strawberries ripening, we had strawberries and cream for pud 2 days ago, lovely!

Recently Lascazeres had the most excitement they’ve had in a long time (except behind closed doors maybe). Jan was in the garden when she called me to see what was make a ‘popping’ noise. Turned out it was coming from Bruno’s electricity meter box, then smoke started coming from it as well. Ah, I thought (I can think sometimes), that’s not right! I went to Bruno’s house, Sylvie knew the electric had gone off but didn’t know about the smoke. She said she would call EDF, I suggested it might be an idea to call the fire brigade as well, especially as the smoke was getting thicker.

They arrived in less than 20 minutes, they had to come from Maubourguet, about 8 miles away, so not too bad. When they got here they just stood and looked at the (by now) blazing box. I asked a fireman what was happening, he said they had to wait for EDF to disconnect the electricity supply as the cables were alight. EDF turned up five minutes later, cut the wires at the pole behind our house and the Pompiers put the fire out in about 2 minutes, end of excitement!
EDF came back about an hour later and had Bruno’s electricty all restored within 3 hours of the fire, excellent service. They had to return a few days later to renew the cable under the road as it had also been damaged when the fire spread into the duct.

The duck farm is nearly complete now, not sure if the picture shows a feeder hopper or the Lascazeres Intercontinental Ballistic Missile facility! The picture was taken with a telephoto lens, it’s not really that close to us!

Next project is to construct the chimney for the woodburner, I know, it’s been in place nearly a year and I still haven’t finished it! These things take time and you can’t hurry a true professional, or a lazy git like me. This of course means the weather will change and Lascazeres will have the wettest and windiest winter in 200 years so I won’t be able to take the roof tiles off to get the chimney through, oh well, there’s always next year…….

Best news of all, Jan is going to make a big effort to give up smoking, not only will it be good for her health but we’ll be able to afford little luxury items like food and drink, bonus!

Here’s something to think about, it’s a question my Dad used to ask when I was small, I’ve tried Googling it but there is no definite answer, maybe you’ll know…
If it takes a week to walk a fortnight, how many apples in a barrel of grapes?
I think the answer is Tuesday but I could be wrong.

Interesting view of the house and gardens (courtesy of Marc and some clever software)..

Well that’s all I can think about to write at the moment, actually that’s all I can be bothered to write about at the moment!

Love and kisses to all (the ladies that is, the men can make their own arrangements…)