Dreaming on a cold, wet night!

As I sit here there is a gale blowing outside and the the rain is lashing at the windows. The little weather icon on the side of the page does not do it justice I'm afraid as despite the heating it feels cold. On these type of evenings there is nothing nicer than sitting on the sofa with Norma and Mandi.

Meantime our discussions on what to buy to take to France are becoming a little surreal. We need a staircase to go up to the office in the tower and quotes from France have been around 6000 Euros (which seems to be the starting place for most things in France). Someone is selling a second hand complete oak staircase that was removed from a house after a month of use for £800. Ian is convinced it will fit and apart from the considerable saving it is a little better from an environmental point of view. However, the problem is that the staircase is complete and in a yard in Essex, we don't have a trailer or anywhere to store it and as yet are not sure how we could get it down to the Dordogne. Still, where there is a will there is a way so if you see a blue ford transit towing a staircase on your travels you will know it is us!