Time to go already

All to soon our three weeks are coming to an end and we are, as usual, rushing around trying to finish off things before we return home. The weather has continued to be hot, which has been a problem for working. Yesterday the temperature reached 39 degrees again but this was accompanied by a strong wind that was so warm it took my breath away as soon as I stepped into it. Last night the temperature didn't drop below 29 degrees in the room and neither of us slept that well. However, today the cloud came in, the wind increased again, the temperature dropped slowly and by afternoon we watched as brief but heavy rain storm raced across the land towards the house. When it hit us it blew down the ladder that Ian had used to get onto the roof! Just as well I was there and not too p*ssed off with him as I was able to put it back and enable him to get down. He has been trying to finish the soffits. This was a job we started last year but could not finish as we couldn't access one side of the house and ran out time with the tower. The disadvantage of not having soffits is that Renata redstart and her family now think that the roof is the perfect place to raise a family and have moved in; covering everything with bird sh*t. We are on course to finish all but the front of the tower, for which we need to build some scaffolding to reach. Hence I fear we will not deter Renata this time round.

We spent a day in Bordeaux this week and I have provisionally agreed some dates with the school to do some teaching. It is not brilliantly paid but is a start and will certainly help me to settle into my new life.

The local Mayor (think Vicar of Dibley) owns a airstrip that he uses for microlights. They had an open afternoon and we dropped in briefly to see what was going on at the same time as group of monks from Plum Village, mindfully watching the scene! The whole thing was quite bizarre!

We asked the Mayor if the Russians were landing on his airstrip. He didn't laugh at all but said that the Gendarme had asked him the same question a few weeks ago!

We had a full moon at the beginning of the week. When the moon is full you don't need any lights to see outside.

A second French wedding

When we arrived the temperature was comfortable, reaching 22-25 degrees during the day and 12-13 at night. This was just right for working in. However, for the last few days the temperature has crept up into the mid 30s, reaching 39 degrees yesterday afternoon and not going down much below 26 at night. This has been pretty uncomfortable and made us reassess the need for some portable air conditioning for the bedroom!

Yesterday we went to the wedding of the farmer's son. Ian visits the farmer (M Mulatier) often and talks about tractors and machines. His son has two children and he and his partner were not married so I guess eventually the presuure to conform got to them, or it felt like now or never in terms of timing! In fact, it was a double ceremony with their wedding and the baptism of their second child. I hope it was a buy one, get one free deal!

This was the second French wedding that I have been two. As France is a secular state everyone must marry first at the Marie. So, following the trail of hedge clippings laid that morning (a tradition) we headed up to the Marie in Thenac in our Tranist van, with the air conditioning on full blast. In due course, the procession of cars arrived, with lights flashing and horns blaring. Following up behind was this tractor, decked in flowers and various banners!

The banner reads " convoy of happy angels".

Nothing was quiet about the arrival; there was lots of shouting and cheering and the wedding was conducted by the local Mayor. The bride and groom say "oui" and then the Mayor reads out a long list of relevant French legislation and law, things are signed and everyone leaves, heading for the proper ceremony in the church.

The church in Puyguihelm is spectacular in that it is perched right on top of the hill, with the doors opening onto the most wonderful panorama over the vineyards of the Duras region.

The searing heat make it look more washed out than it actually is.

Fortunately the ceremony was not a full Mass. As in the UK no one but the priest knew the words or the tune of the hymn but at least he had a wonderful voice! Being a dual event the service was still quite long and by the time it finished I was soaked in perspiration and longing for a cool drink.

As the couple left the church for the obligatory photos their friends had a special guard of honour with hard hats for her (she is the manager of a building site) and toy tractors for him. This was accompanied by heart shaped confetti (with no one complaining about who was going to sweep it up, the priest just being relieved that he had managed to save two more souls!).

The day finished with a 'Vin d'honor' in our village hall where I thought I was drinking grapefruit juice but alas it was a local cocktail containing something very alcoholic! I was served in a refridgerated fountain which meant that we all drank more than we should. However, I noted again the phenomenon that alcohol improves my French!

The Russians are coming

Our three weeks seems to be racing by and already I can tell that we will not get all the things done that we had on the list, but that is what usually happens. We are aiming to finish off some more wiring and to plasterboard the rest of the ceiling in the kitchen. Ian intersperses this less interesting activity with sojourns on the digger! I can hear it whirring in the background!

On Saturday evening we went to the soiree jambon braise in the village. The committee de fetes in the various communes usually organise an event each year to  raise money for local projects ets. I suppose it is a bit like the English village fair. Tickets are 18 euros and you turn up with your own place setting (knife, fork, plate, bowl etc). There were about 100 people there; a mixture of locals, French, English and tourists. The food consisted of an apperative, tomato soup with tapioca, barbecued pork with pepper sauce, braised haricot beans with garlic and pig skin, cheese, cider and dessert of cherries soaked in alcohol and ice cream. This was all accompanied by wine, music, etc. and I must say was enjoyable enough to justify the hangover the following day.

On Monday night we went to our neighbours to finally eat the leg of venison that as been in their freezer since February and was given to us by le Chasse as it was shot on the land. I must confess it was very tasty and I only had a slight pang of guilt when I thought about the four lovely deer that have been running across the field all week.

We caught up on some local news. Now France has become too expensive for most English people the Russians are arriving. In the nearby village of Thenac the Chateau has been bought and beautifully restored by a mate of Abramovich and the rumour is  Abramovich himself has bought the neighbouring hilltop! The reaction of the locals has been mixed but I am not going tho say anything bad at all!!

Visitors

We have had  a few visitors chez-nous over the last few days. On Thursday Julie from my French class came for lunch. We sat in the sun on the terrace and looked out into the field while her partner and Ian discussed the problems of building in France and the UK. It was very pleasant. Just as they were leaving Ian's friend from the north of France arrived. He is staying with us for a few days to help Ian and also for a change of scene for him. He arrived complete with his pop-up caravan. This was a bargain Ebay purchase as it cost him all of £200 and as it folds into a trailer, means he does not have to pay the higher tolls on  the motorways. It comes with all its original fittings and is now parked under the trees.

Yesterday morning we were looking out of the window just as a hot air ballon glided into view. At first we thought it was going to put down in the field, but it managed to stay aloft for another kilometre or so and we saw it ditch in a nearby farm.

The final group of visitors have been of the wild variety. We have seen several deer and hare but the most frequent visitors have been the praying manitis (is the plural mantii or mantises?). There are lots in the field..so many that I abandoned my strimming so that I didn't kill any more. One in particular has taken a likeing to the house, despite all our attempts to rehome her in the field, she keeps coming back!

Connected to the rest of the world

I haven't minded the fact that we have had to get all the hot water from the shower , or that I have been cooking on a camping stove, or that the toilet has until recently flushed directly into the field, or that we have no TV.. However, I have missed the Internet. When we were here last we signed up to a new WiMax service. "It will be installed within two months" said the girl, from the comfort of her Parisien office. Two months came and went and still no sign. Ian called once, and then again and then eventually, 4 weeks ago, got through to the installer who came out with the age old excuse ,'sorry, my van broke down'. He agreed to put us in his diary for first thing Monday. By 10.00 o'clock on Monday, when there was so sign, Ian called him. "Sorry, I forgot. I've just got back from holiday". (In France the customer is always wrong!) We agreed to reschedule until today. At 9.30 there was no sign and a call confirmed that the installer was lost! Eventually, however, at 11.00, he found us and started his work installing an arial pointing at the only transmitter that was not obscured by a hill. As you can see we now have Internet access. It is a little slow for uploading things and at times has been a bit hesitant, but at least we can now stay in touch with our virtual lives and virtual friends!

The dumper truck made it down in once piece without any more problems. However, getting it off the trailer and into the field was another matter as it starts with a starting handle. Two grown men could not get it to fire so ended up bump starting it down the field. In the end there was a puff of white smoke and it coughed into life and trundled around the field with Ian cheerfully in command!

Fly free water butt! Fly free!

Tonight we are staying in the Premiere Classe hotel in Rouen, which is neither premiere or classy but does have free Internet. The dumper is still attached to the trailer although the water butt that Ian fixed on to it with straps managed to disconnect itself and fly free somewhere south of Calais. The first we knew of it was when we were stopped by a 'securitie civile' man who told us he had been driving behind us as it launched itself into the air! We said sorry, decided the water butt was not worth rescuing, and continued on our journey. Later on we heard a traffic announcement saying that there was an object on the road south  of Calais and to take care. We suspected the water butt!

We ate in the only restaurant in the area, the Campanille. Campanille and Premiere Classe are operated by the same group. The meal was expensive and just ahout edible but being English we didn't complain!

All aboard

We are off to France tomorrow for three weeks and I am feeling a bit stressed as I still haven't finished the packing! I am quite good at last minute packing, but I need to be totally focused and alone. This time I had Ian looking over my shoulder so I am convinced that I have forgotten something very important. Ian arrived mid-day with a dumper truck on his trailer. When I got home at 3.00 it was covered in small boys, staring at various mechanical bits!
We now start the slow and tedious journey to the Dordogne; never going above 90 km an hour! We should arrive some time on Sunday, stopping overnight in Rouen tomorrow. The good news is we should be getting our WiMax on Monday so I may manage blogging on the go!

Happy Birthday

Despite her protests to the contrary I think my mother quite enjoyed her 80th birthday party. We had tea, wine, sandwiches and cake in the company of the other residents. We didn't stay late and we cleared up afterwards and my mother even managed a smile for the camera! This is all of us! (Photo by Ian).

Some you win and some you loose

I have been trying to buy an ice cream maker for ages. I started by scouring eBay, but missed out on a few bargains. I bought a Magimix one from John Lewis but decided that it was rubbish (and it didn't work properly) so I sent it back and today I saw quite a nice one on eBay that was local, so would save me the £8.00 postage normally quoted. Ian  suggested I bid with 20 seconds to go with the maximum price I was prepared to pay. With 6 seconds to go I was the highest bidder, but in the end I lost out!  Never mind! I'll get the ice cream machine one day!

In the meantime Ian bid on a second hand dumper truck somewhere up near Birmingham and he won it, so is driving up on Tuesday with the trailer and then we are taking it down to France on Friday. That marks the start of our three week trip. I no longer call it a holiday since we spend most of the time working. The good news is that we should be getting our WiMax connected on the 9th August so no more walking up to the neighbours' garden to use their wireless network!

My Brompton

I have been trying to rid myself of some of my bicycles before I go to France. The Brompton, my folding bike that I have had since 1997, was on the list to sell. However, it has been saved by the possibility of the part time job in Bordeaux. The school is 6 km from the railway station, and as the train looks like it will be the best option for travelling, the Brompton will come in handy. Now we come to problem two. I rode Brommie for 5 years and did not one single bit of maintenance on it apart from mending punctures! Ian was horrified at my neglect and decided that we needed to do some work on it. I also needed some new handlebars after falling off and damaging the originals in the first three weeks of owning it. So.. we replaced the chain, cogs and jockey wheels, put a new front brake, cables and saddle; and I bought some folding pedals. We then decided to try a bit of customisation for the bars and brake levers and 'stole' some riser bars and mountain bike levers off of one of Ian's bikes. This is a bit radical as anything like that can affect how if folds. However we experimented, it worked and now I have the first ever' pimp  my ride' Brommie!

Brommie with riser bars

Ready to ride

And it still folds

Logo launch

So here it is.. the logo..

As explained in an earlier post, this was done by my neighbour Dave. This is a scanned picture of the original pen and ink drawing that we have. I may at some point experiment with a bit of colour but at the moment we have the black and white version for letters, cards etc.

Trendsetters!

We edge slowly towards France. Thinking about everything that needs to be done in a short space of time fills me with panic but each day more jobs get done. Ian arrived at the weekend with 30 packing crates and insisted that I start packing so that he has somewhere to put some of his things when his flat is rented. I went a good way to filling them up with my books, photos, and contents of some cupboards but Ian is most concerned that I start on my wardrobe! That is a job for later!

Today I took Mandelson the cat to get his pet passport. He was micro chipped, given two rabies jabs, and had a blood test (that can only be done at a government approved, i.e. expensive, laboratory) and today I had to go to pick up all the documents. Total cost was approximately £200  which makes it more than double the cost of my passport! There is a space on the document where I can put his photo but as I can never get him stay still long enough to take a photo of anything other than  his a*se I don't think I will bother!

My mother told me that she is waiting until her 80th birthday (in two weeks time) before renewing her passport, as then she won't have to pay.

Talking of Mandelson (this time Peter), I saw an interview with him the other week about his memoirs where he confessed that he wants to be a farmer. This is a quote from an interview with him from the spectator:

If you ask me where in 15 or 20 years' time I'd like to be, it will be probably on a farm somewhere close to the land, getting up early in the morning ... I want to be near land. I want to be able to grow my own food. Look after my own farm animals, worry about the weather and get the timing of my harvest right.

Where we go Peter Mandelson follows!

Black Nana

When I was younger and my grandmother was still alive she showed us this old family photo on a tin plate image. The baby was my grandfather, Thomas Welch, with his mother, Mary  Miriam Price and his father,  Thomas Welch who was a postman. The older man in the hat is my grandfather's mother's father, Luke Price, who was a lamplighter from Merthyr Tydfil and the old lady in bonnet was my grandfather's mother's mother,  Mary Du Prez. When I first saw this photo I said to my grandmother:

"who is the black woman in the photo?"

"Black woman!? She wasn't black, she just worked with coal and it tinted her skin"

No amount of explanation would ever make her see this any differently! After my grandmother died we had some contacts with the other side of the family who knew more about her and had a big picture of her on their wall. She was known to them as "Black Nana"

My Grandmother

I mentioned my grandmother in the previous post. One of the things that I did this weekend was to scan all my mother's old family pictures and I plan to post a few from time to time in case anyone out there is interested!

My grandmother was born in Camden Town, London. I can't remember the exact date but she was christened Dorothy Turner. There are quite a lot of old family photos and although they were not a rich family I would guess that they were probably what we would call upper working class at the time. This was her, I assume around 5 years old, in a wonderful posed picture! She was quite a character. She was quite short (not much more that 5 foot tall) and I remember her as being rather round in her younger days. However, whereas nowadays people may think of diets and toned bodies she thought of herself as a 'mere slip of a thing' and quite voluptuous! Here is a great picture of her in her bathing costume! She described the young Dorothy as being very popular with the boys! (Although in those days this had the much more innocent meaning of 'flirty'.)

She met and married Thomas Welch when she was about 19. He was a childhood friend and they had know each other pretty much all their lives.  He played the piano and piano accordion and she sang soprano. They loved music and seem to remember them saying that for a while they performed together in music hall. One of her regrets in life was that she was never able to train as a singer as her mother wouldn't let her. She was devoted to Tom, as she called him, for the following 60 years, although she also deeply resented the role that had been placed on her as a woman of her day. I think she was actually rather envious of her grandchildren for the opportunities that we had and in another life she would have loved to have been an independent woman.  

Thomas and Dorothy Welch on their wedding day (They got married on Boxing day, a common day to get married on as people would not need to take time off of work.

Weekly update: on destiny

Time for my weekly post. I seemed to have settled into a once weekly post at the moment. I would like to do more but will have to be content with this. There are no shortage of things to write about and I often compose blog posts in my head whilst on the way to some place, or when on the train, or when sitting at my desk trying to work! However I never seem to get time to write them all down.

I had plenty of time to think on Friday as most of it was spent sitting in the car park that is the M25 (composing blog entries in my head). I went  to Windsor to take my mum to a hospital appointment that lasted all of 20 minutes. What was nice was that we then had plenty of time to talk and have lunch together; a rare occurrence in these days. She will be 80 in a couple of weeks so we talked about that and also about my planned move to France. To her, this must seem like the end of the earth, but then she thought that when I moved from London to Eastbourne! Anyway, I think she is coming around to the idea. We looked through her old photograph album together and that prompted her to talk about my grandmother (her mother)

"She always wanted to run a bed and breakfast..she rather liked cooking and always thought it would be a lovely thing to do..it was one of the things that she regretted not doing.. ." (She had many regrets about her life)
Funny, I never knew that about her. I also never knew that my grandfather  learnt to speak French quite well at the age of 50. My mother couldn't remember why he suddenly took it up other than to say that he was rather good at spoken French (not something I have inherited!).

So, perhaps, somehow, without realising it, I am attempting to live out some of the unfulfilled dreams of my Grandparents by going to France, to breed llamas and run a small B&B. Mind you, unfulfilled dreams are always full of excitement, fun, positive thoughts, hopes and wishes, whereas the reality may be less dreamlike!

A good book

One of the problems with spending my days reading student work, documents, academic papers etc. is that by the time my head hits the pillow I am too tired and brain dead to do anything other than listen to the radio as I drift off to sleep or at best, do an easy Sudoku puzzle (on my tiredest of days I can't even do the simple ones). I used to like reading, but these activities are not condusive to sitting down with a good book. This is something I hope to rectify when I start my new life away from full time academic life. Occasionally however I find a book that breaks through my tiredness and inertia and I read it to the end. The other week I picked up an old copy of Tom Simpson's 'Touching the Void' from a shelf at work. Tom and his climbing partner were caught out in an accident whilst climbing in South America and, in what is now a well known incident, Tom's partner eventually had to cut the rope that was holding Tom precariously above a crevasse and leave him to what he was certain was his death. Tom survived and the book is really an incredibly powerful account of his survival. I'm not to into the climbing details but the book got my attention and I can recommend it. (Don't bother with the film, it doesn't come close to the actual words.)

The joys of summer

Summer is here in full swing. We have had about three weeks of warm, dry weather give or take a few showers. Summer is a little late. This time last year I was already picking the last of the blackcurrants but this year they are only just ripe enough and I am still picking the last of the strawberries! Nature in early summer is almost terrifying with the speed with which it takes over. I like it but it so quickly gets out of control. I can remember coming back to Eastbourne from Brighton after spending two weeks in hospital and rather than feeling pleased to see all the lush greenness of the Downs I found it rather overwhelming and that is how Ian and I felt looking at my garden this weekend! The weeds were waist high, the plants over grown, the hedges encroaching on the flower beds. We worked hard and filled three wheelie bins (mine and two belonging to the neighbours) and still only managed to do half!

Moving on

Ian is now back from France and taking stock before he finally finishes off his flat and rents it out. Of course he spent Thursday and Friday of last week looking at more pictures of heavy machinery. This time it was a dumper truck which he assures me he will need and an old ride on lawn mower (although we have no lawn yet!) Fortunately he missed out on the bidding which was a relief as I am not sure what we would have done with them between now and our next trip.

I got some ideas for out logo last week from my graphic artist neighbour, so we played around with them a bit and made a decision. All will be revealed when we have the final drawing! We are edging forwards slowly! Tomorrow I have my last French class.

C'est l'heure de dire adieu

Last week I was thinking about all the nice things about my job that I will miss. I have not had to wait long for a few things to happen to p*ss me off and make me long for the French fields!

A new government tends to galvanise  inactive civil servants into a spurt of action (in fear of their jobs and pensions no doubt!) I remember it when New Labour came into to power and it is no different with the ConDems. A young girl came from the Department of Health to tell us about how things will change. (I know I am too old when I refer to them all as 'young'). Apparently we are going to see fewer acute hospital beds (no change there, every government has tried to do this but no one has worked out yet that the only people misfortunate enough to stay in hospital are those who can't be anywhere else as they are too ill). We are also going to see more services provided closer to home. (Been tried before and in principal everyone agrees with this except services closer to home are more expensive than centralised services). Students are to be told (by whom? the government? ) that they must challenge practises they see that they think are wrong. "Well look what happened to me when I did that" piped up one student. Of course they should challenge but my experience of that is that it makes them unpopular and then they fail their placements. OK they should do it tactfully but they are STUDENTS and, as the word implies, they are still learning. The final one is this new thing that they are going to focus on called re-enablement; except that it is not new but another word for rehabilitation, which we have been doing since the end of the first world war!

You can't tax some perks

I was most disappointed to discover that one of the blogs I read regularly has been mothballed. The Jobbing Doctor wrote about life as a General Practitioner, with its ups and downs, frustrations and bonuses. I enjoyed his musings but know that for many Bloggers who write about work related matters,  no matter how hard you try to keep your identity a secret you are eventually 'outed'. It is usually not a problem if you don't have too many readers but as the Jobbing Doctor's posts got more and more widely read I would guess it got more and more difficult for him to stay unknown. Or..maybe he just got fed up with it and needed a rest. Either way I will miss his thoughts.

The lack of JD prompted me to search the blog sphere for other interesting blogs to read and one of them that I found was "Hold my hand": a social worker's blog by Doris Plaster. Her post about a dying resident in a nursing home was really very moving (The Language of Love) and caused me to reflect on my post yesterday, where I was bemoaning the lack of perks in the public sector. It made me realise that my professional life has been full of all sorts of wonderful bonuses.  I often tell students, when they are struggling to come to terms with the difficulty of the cases that they have to deal with, that as therapists we often get to work with people at the lowest point of their lives. We see people do amazing things, fight against all the odds, we see the best of people, the worst of people and in some cases we can make a very small difference to their situation. That is truly a privilege and, if you like, a perk. And the best thing about it is that David Cameron and readers of the Daily Mail can't do anything about it! So thank you Doris for helping me see my work in perspective! I am very pleased to be leaving this bit of it now but it is nice to be able to go thinking of the good things about it!