Monday 29 March 2010

Reviewing the focus

I was beginning to think that I may have to change the description of this blog as being about life, llamas and cycling to omit the cycling bit since I haven't ridden my bike for ages. We have had so many things to do at the weekends that cycling had become a thing of the past. However, this weekend Ian decided that as he is no longer riding to work everyday he would like to go out for a bike ride. Yipee! This is one advantage of  Ian not working in town as he now has some energy! We decided to go along the Cuckoo trail, a fairly flatish disused railway line that we have ridden before. We did about 20 miles all in all and for the last three I thought my legs had dissolved! It brought home to me that if you want to stay fit once you are past 50 you have to put in the hours. We stopped at Wessons cafe in Horam for tea and a bun. The cafe was quiet except for 10 or so bikers. They were very quiet and polite and I joked with the owner that I didn't expect to find all the varieties of herbal tea in a bikers cafe! Today my rear end is suffering!

I also haven't written much about llamas, since our focus has been so much on making progress on the house and making our way there that the llamas have taken a bit of a back seat. I have written more about the problems with my current animals, especially the aged cat Norma who was approaching deaths door a few weeks ago. However, as Fiona (of Two Shelia's and Dog) predicted she has made a miraculous recovery on her medication and now looks like she might be fit enough to get her rabies jab and chip and maybe last a little longer. What I would disagree with however is that the cost is reasonable at a combined cost of £40 per month ! Must have gone up! The other problem is that now Norma is feeling better she is putting up more of a struggle when I come to give her the tablets! I have a technique that involves me pinning her between my legs and thrwing the pill as far down her throat as I can get it. However, she is quite good at preventing it from going down and discretely spitting it out at the food bowl!

Finally, this blog has really been more about building the house in France than all the other things. With that in mind we are off Wednesday for 10 days. We have a full van and a list of jobs longer that we have time to do. Ian is pleased as I agreed that he could start work on garage. There is some logic there as if the garage is done then we can store things in it while we finish off the floor in the house. He is now exitedly planning the concrete slab. We have also applied to have Internet connected, but this is France and so far we have not heard back so we will still have to resort to the neighbour's Wi Fi connection!

3 comments:

Chairman Bill said...

I would recommend satellite broadband.

Michael House said...

glad Norma is a bit better! I find speed and surprise are of the essence when pills are to be given to cats!

The Spiv said...

I don't know how far south you are in France, but I have a friend with a house just a few miles north of Perigueux who uses Sky. It took a couple of weeks for him to sort it out, but it seems to work fine for him and he has the advantage(?) of British tv to watch too!

Be more dog

I'm always grateful that we have our dogs. We had never been dog owners up until our move but it had been something that we both wanted ...