Rob and Jan

Finally a long awaited update, although I expect most people have died through boredom waiting for me to get round to this! Anyway, to those who are still out there welcome to this literary mastermess masterpiece.
To start, let me be the last to wish you all a Happy New 2008, may all your dreams come true and fame and fortune bless you all. If you are that lucky, remember the plonker who wrote this and whose dreams have not all come true, especially the one about Cameron Diaz! Hey ho, back to reality….

Our first visit back to the UK for a year has long been and gone, it was a mad rush as usual. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see all the people we wanted to, even after extending our stay by a couple of days. It was good to catch up with family and friends and to have a few (more than a few!) Chinese and Indian take-aways.

We crossed the channel back to the UK with P&O, returning with Sea France. This might seem a strange way to do it but it was cheaper than booking a return trip with either company!
Speedferries would have been much cheaper but our trailer is too long for their ferry. One third of the cost was for the dogs, bloody cheek when they don’t even check them on the way back!

All the road works associated with the Horndean-Cosham bus lane were still pretty much as we remembered them from the year before last, the words ‘piss up’ and ‘brewery’ spring to mind when it comes to seeing how slow the progress has been. Still, I’m sure that once it’s finished the buses will be winging their way along their own lane, loaded down with passengers because the fares are so cheap and the buses so frequent!! They will of course, be accompanied by a herd of pigs flying overhead.

We had to take the dogs to the vet to get their passports and the all clear for them to travel before we left home. On the journey they were no trouble at all, even though they had to stay in the back of the car for 12 hours each way (in France), with only a short loo break now and again.

We stayed the first two nights at Pat and Judith’s place. Pat couldn’t get tickets for the beer festival as he promised so we had to make do with a visit to the pub, no great hardship really!

We then went to Jan’s Dad, he had an angiogram a couple of days before and was feeling very tired. Unfortunately the angiogram showed there was little they can do for his furred up tubes but the doctors have changed his medicine and his breathing is a lot better. As long as he doesn’t overdo things he will be OK (not overdoing things isn’t something he doesn’t find easy though!).

We took our trailer back to England as we had hoped to pick up our new wood burning stove. Unfortunately we couldn’t get it delivered to Matt’s in time for our return journey. Luckily Bruce had a load being delivered to France and he was able to bring it over for us. We still managed to fill the trailer with radiators, tables and god knows what else!
The woodburner now sits proudly on a new hearth in the lounge, unfortunately the chimney is still not constructed so it’s not burnt a log in anger yet.
We bought a paraffin heater to keep us warm while I install the woodburner, it’s all electronic and automatic, just fill it with go juice, press a button and away it goes, magic!

We’ve changed our minds yet again about the heating, the new oil fired boiler is not to be, the last oil we bought just before Christmas had gone up 33% since the summer. We will now have electric radiators in all the rooms, plus we will insulate the outer walls of the bedrooms and dining room to keep the heat in.
We have abandoned the upstairs bathroom for the winter, the downstairs one is much warmer with its insulated walls and ceiling.

We were very busy when we first got back from UK, the garden needed a lot of work (still does!), mostly grass cutting and raking up the 200 million leaves that had fallen while we were away(200 million is of course an exaggeration, it was only 175 million really, I made Jan count them all…..).
Because of the very dry period towards the end of last year the maize harvesting didn’t finish until after Christmas, not enough moisture to make the crop worth cutting, still I’m sure there’s an EU grant to compensate everyone….

Early November is the time the local Madiran vineyards have their ‘Portes Ouvertes’ (open doors). They all provide wine tasting for free, although we buy a glass from them for 2 euros as a momento of the vineyard (it usually has their logo on it). Most also offer a meal, we went to the Domaine Moulie (with Lynn and Barry), the meal was 16 euros, good value. Luckily it was a lovely day as the meal was outside, I only tried a few wines as I was driving and as I’m an inverse wine snob, the cheaper wine tasted much better than most of the expensive stuff!

Al fresco at the Portes Ouvertes

Matt and Debs came over for 5 days in November, their friends Marcus and Natasha and their son Marc tagged along as well. We had a great time, Marc is a lovely lad, lot’s of energy, he saved me exercising the dogs as he would throw the ball for them until his arm ached! He made a good impression when we went out to lunch, he pinched the waitress’s bum! Not bad for a 3 year old, obviously been paying close attention to Marcus!

In early December we went to the Lascazeres hunt meal, where you get to eat all the animals they have murdered in the last few months, great! Actually it was fish and boar, the boar in various guises, quite a strong taste, I enjoyed it but it was too much for Jan. we arrived at about 8.30pm, the first course was served about 2 hours later. We left about 2 am, just after finishing the last course, I think it went on until 5ish, the music had barely started when we left!Marc came over for Christmas, he arrived on the 20th December, complete with flu, he really felt terrible and only decided to come at the last minute. The first few days he was here he was still feeling crap but after Christmas we managed to get some work done towards the woodburner installation.

Two days before Marc went home we went to La Mongie and then on the cable car to the Pic Du Midi (2800 metres). There are several observatories there and spectacular views across the Pyrծեs.
Jan was absolutely dreading the ride in the cable car but in the event quite enjoyed it. The views at the top were worth overcoming her fear of hanging in space a few hundred metres above the ground. I don’t know why she worries about falling, falling is fine, the sudden stop at the end is a bugger though!

Cable Car (yes, really!)

View from Pic Du Midi

And another view

And another view

TV mast, white UFOs courtesy of Marc!

Viewing platform

Old farts and Marc

Since Marc went back we have been sorting out more boxes and crap that we bought over when we moved. Jan has started doing some of her stained glass again, she’s currently making a plaque for the gate with the house number on. I’ve started digging over the veggie patch but as we’ve had quite a lot of rain lately, it’s been an off and on task. Off is my ideal as digging is not my favourite pastime!
I asked our local farmer (in my best French) for some cow manure for the garden, he’s agreed to bring me a load of matured dung in exchange for a bottle of whisky. At least I think that’s the deal, I just hope I’ve not got my mucking words fuddled up and ordered a cow!

We had some really cold weather for a few days around the New Year, freezing fog included. There is more snow in the mountains than there was this time last year. The cold weather was followed by a really mild spell, temperatures on the patio in the sun regularly reached around 27°C, 18°C in the shade. Recently it has been more unsettled with lots of rain, interspersed with lovely sunny days as well of course. There have been some great sunrises recently, just a couple below:-

South

Looking east

For New Year we went to Lynn and Barry’s along with some friends, had a great evening, lots of lovely food and Champagne of course! We had the TV on to see how the French welcome the New Year, looked like a load of old bollocks to us but I’m sure they find it entertaining!

The new house opposite us is progressing well, not as well as the owner (Bruno) expected but then this is France! The main structure came in pre-fabricated sections, it was up to the stage shown below in less than 3 weeks with only 2 or 3 men working on it.

Bruno’s house

My cousin Marianne and her better half, Ian came over last Thursday from their place in Puivert, with doggy Darcy in tow (well, not in tow, that would be cruel, they let him ride in the car), they stayed until Sunday. We had a great time, lots of alcohol consumed of course.
We went to a local wine Domaine to buy the local ‘plonk’, it was ?1.55 per litre and very tasty, to us anyway, of course wine snobs should ignore this, as to them there is no such thing as a good cheap wine!
Ian and Marianne took us out for an excellent meal on Saturday, 4 courses including wine, for 11 euros each, really good value for money.

There’s now a webcam link at the top of the page, it’s only updated occasionally at the moment until I can get it permanently fixed. It is password protected for family and friends, we don’t want everyone to see us in the shower! Come to think of it, no-one wants to see us in the shower so it’s only the garden you’re ever going to see!

Thought for the Blog (my Victor Meldrew moment):-
Ring pull cans, great invention, much better than using can openers, however they do seem to be especially designed to frustrate old people and those with arthritis. Then, when you do get them open, they have the wonderful ability to shower some of the contents all over you, however slowly you pull the lid off. Any tomato based contents seem to be especially formulated to achieve maximum effect, splattering anyone and everything within a metre range!

Well that’s it again for another few months (only joking, there will be another update tomorrow and every day in the future - NOT!) but I will try to get one done by the end of February, just not telling you which year…