May 2006

Tenerife

We had a very relaxing holiday at the beginning of May (it seems like an age ago now) in Tenerife with Brian and Margaret. It started off the opposite of relaxing! Sharon, as is her wont, checks the AngloInfo web site each day for news, gossip and pets for sale. There was an article that said that the staff on the Fastcat from Cherbourg (run by Brittany Ferries) were on strike. As we were travelling that day we phoned them but they could not say if the boat would be sailing as the strike vote was to take place late in the evening. We switched from the Fastcat to the slow ferry from Caen. Lucky we did as the Fastcat did not run and had we not known we would not have been in England to catch the flight to Tenerife. Perhaps P&O are not all bad, at least they would have contacted us and not left it for passengers to find out when it was too late to make other arrangements.

Anyway, the ferry was on time and we had a nice meal in the posh restaurant. We arrived at Brian & Margs just after midnight. Shower and bed ready for the trip in the morning to Bishops Stortford where Mike (another cousin) would be taking us to the airport. Morning comes, car is packed up with suitcases and golf clubs. On the news it says that the M11 is closed due to a lorry overturning. Traffic is being rerouted and all the rat runs are chockablock with cars. No time to get to Mikes so we phoned only to find out that he had gone to work! We eventually left the car in the long stay car park at Stansted. Phew.

The holiday was good fun, we played golf a couple of times, ate too much, drank too much and spent a lot of time recovering by laying in the sun by the swimming pool. We saw Neil Diamond and Elvis Presley (twice) but that is another story.

Sharons birthday

Back from Tenerife just in time for the Cup Final. West Ham v Liverpool. May 13th was Cup Final day and also Sharon’s 50th birthday. My lot were all down in Cardiff for the football so they missed a superb birthday dinner in the Sheen Mill complete with piano player et al. I will not speak of the travesty of the cup final result or mention about Brian’s grandchildren turning up during the match to provide alternate viewing pleasure.

Jazz in Coutances

In the five years we have had the house in France we have never been there for the Jazz festival in Coutances. This year we went three times! Twice was with Yves and Véronique the other was a drunken affair with Martin, Helen, David and Sandra. We went to dinner early that night and arranged a taxi for 23:30. It was a really good night out so we decide to stay out late and eventually got the taxi at 2am. I took two days to recover from the excess of alcohol but Martin went out for a boozy lunch the next day! Must be the Navy training.

Turk

We have a horse. Well nearly. A local farmer has need of a field to graze his horse and he knocked on the door one night to ask if he could borrow ours! After ten minutes of broken French he realized our lack of linguistic skills and switched to perfect English. Saves me cutting the grass and Sharon gets a pet horse without the responsibility. Works for me!


Building work

Officially start June 5th but John the electrician and Napoleon the plumber have laid their pipes and cables ready for the concrete pour. Yipee.


Golf practice

I love watching the Golf channel on TV and am a sucker for the adverts for gismos that will improve my game out of all proportion so that I can beat Mike Laws off scratch. Well, I have bought a David Leadbetter “swing setter” and a Jack Nicholas “inside approach” golf aids.

I need a proper golf mat to use the inside approach but after practicing with the swing setter I ventured out onto the golf course (Centre Manche) and started to spray the balls everywhere. I have decide to go back to my old swing and use the swing setter just as a practice aid. Played the links course at Agon-Coutainville using this method and hit a couple of mammoth drives. At least I am not losing any balls now!


Garden shed

Regular readers will be sad to know that the shed still has not turned up. The base is ready and waiting but Leroy Merlin are tardy. Expected delivery is June 7th. Oh, the latest ruse is that the delivery company are worried that their transporter will get stuck on the country roads. I will let you know if they do (ha ha) in the next thrilling installment of the Blom diaries…..


XXX.

Wednesday 17th May 2006

Normally, dear reader, you would have to wait until the end of the month for the next installment of the Blom diaries, but this has been a special day and deserves a web log just for itself. Don’t fret, there will be another one later with tales of our holiday in Tenerife et al.

Anyway, let me tell you about today because it has been a very BAD DAY.

People who know me know that, in general, I am a lucky person. I have good friends, life long friends, I am healthy, I am proud of my children and my grandchildren are a constant joy. I have a beautiful and loving wife and long ago realized that I have a guardian angel looking out for me. Not today. Let me tell you about my day………

1. The bath leaks. Not here, but back at the Hop Poles, our house back in England. Cousin Mike went to have a look and said that the bath has a hairline crack and needs replacing. Only trouble with that is the airing cupboard was built around the bath and would need to be dismantled. Luckily (sic) we have 24x7 plumbing insurance so I sent them round to see what was what. The plumber (another Terry) said that the bath was OK and that one of the two leaks was from the taps. He could not get to the underside of the taps due to the bath being part of the airing cupboard. There was another small puddle, but no reason could be seen for it. He said that it was a duff installation (or words to that effect and it would not be covered by insurance – oh joy. Arranged with Tessa for her daughter to take a bath tonight (with the bath panel off) to make certain that the bath leaks or not. If it leaks we will get a new one fitted (can you imagine the logistical nightmare of finding a plumber and getting a new bath fitted from over here in France!). If the bath is not cracked then I need a plumber brave enough to find the underside of the taps!

2. The lawn mower won’t fire. It works on full choke but not otherwise. I took it to bits, cleaned the carburetor, blew back the petrol feed (this made me feel sick) – still won’t work. Blocked jet perhaps? Who knows. I feel like taking it to the tip and buying a new one. Perhaps tomorrow I will fell better.

3. The shed delivery has been postponed. We have to have the new garden shed delivered and erected so that I can empty the barn ready for the builder to start on June 5th. Delay is not an option! Try telling that to the French. Have they never seen Apollo 13! Oh joy.

4. Strimmer. I lent my garden strimmer to a neighbour, John who runs the local kennels. He returned it today (along with my laser level and wheelbarrow). Unfortunately, the automatic string loading mechanism failed long ago and you need to intervene to change the string. Not possible any more as it has fused solid. We tried to get the thing apart using a vice and plumbing levers, but to no avail. Awaiting inspiration or I will have to take drastic action of the impact variety.

5. Spent an arm and a leg on special damp proofing paint for the shed base ( I forgot to put any water proof in the concrete mix). Spent this afternoon putting the said damp proof paint on the base (weather forecast said it would be a fine evening) .Five litres was just the right amount – maybe the bad day has ended. Just then I saw a thunder storm to the south (it was sunny where we were, more proof that the bad day had ended? Then the wind changed and the storm turned towards us. Hailstones the size of golf balls rained down on my newly painted shed base.

The gods are really picking on me today. I can’t even have a good drink and go to bed early as I have to speak to Mike and Tessa this evening about the leaky bath…Sorry to go on about it but !!!!!!!…..I will let you know what happened in the next thrilling installment of the Blom diaries……xxx

April 2006

Garden

The garden is looking, even if I say so myself, very nice indeed. The combination of sun and rain is making the grass grow at a rate of knots and it needs mowing more than once a week. However, as I am boss here, it only gets mowed on Fridays.


Shed base

Major building work of the month was completing the base for the new abris de jardin (garden shed to those non French speakers out there). Sharon and I worked very hard and it looks great. Need something to seal the concrete before the shed arrives. Any advice in this regard would be greatly appreciated. It looks likely that we will use bitumen.



Renovation of The Barn

Went to see a conservatory built by Andrew the conservatory man. Just the job – exactly what we were looking for. We had to ask for a revised devis (estimate) as the architect plans are ambiguous (regular readers will not be surprised by this) and after careful measuring, it needs to be 5.5 metres long not 6.3 metres.

Agreed a start date with the builder – June 5th. Lets hope the Bank stumps up the money in time.

Proof, if proof were needed, That VaF is back to being a building site.

New friends / Golf partners

We have recently made some new friends here in France. They are Martin & Helen from Montpinchon and David & Sandra from St Denis le Vetu. Nice people and they play golf! We have had two round so far, one at Brehal and on at Periers. Played crap at first but my swing is slowly coming back to normal. There are not many practice facilities here so I have ordered a “David Letterman Swing Setter” from Ebay. The swing setter is a type of club with balls spaced out on the shaft. If you swing correctly the balls click together, good swing-click click, bad swing - no click. I will let you know how I get on.


Top field / horse

Unlikely as it seems I have just had a bit of good luck. I have started cutting the top field with the ultimate aim of having it as part of the garden. Martin (mentioned previously) kindly lent me his bush-cutter as my strimmer is a bit under powered for the job and would have taken me a month of Fridays to finish the job. If you thought that the simile should be ‘month of Sunday’s you would be correct, only there is an unwritten law here that you don’t use noisy machinery on a Sunday, so I mow on Fridays.
Anyway, Sunday afternoon we had a visit from a local farmer who asked if he could graze his horse on the field. What a turn up. I don’t have to cut the grass as the horse will eat it all and Sharon gets a new pet to play with.

Holiday / cup final / Sharon’s birthday/ Mick Laws

Off to Tenerife with Marg & Brian on Thursday. Looking forward to relaxing for a week in the sun. After the holiday we will be staying a couple of days in England to see the family (not). West Ham are in the cup final in Cardiff – guess where all my lot are? Yep, Cardiff. I will especially miss seeing young Jake. We will also miss his 2nd birthday party (bouncy castle) as we will be in Tenerife. Oh well.
Mike Laws even phoned from Australia to see if I had any tickets – he was quite prepared to fly over for the cup final. Tickets are scarce, but more importantly, it’s Sharon’s 50th birthday on May 13th (cup final day) . She doesn’t want a party of fuss made so we are going for a meal in a restaurant just outside Cambridge with Marg & Brian, Pete & Sue Bradley (now home from Florida) and Mick & Carol. Looking forward to it.


xxx

March 2006

I don’t know, when I first started writing these web logs it was every day, now it’s once per month! This is what happens when the sun comes out and you don’t spend much time on the computer.

What a month! Full of incident. The last thing I left you with was that we were to go fishing with Yves and Veronique. This was not fishing in the rod and reel sense, it was fishing for shell fish at low tide. The spring tide was huge this year so when it went out it revealed places that would normally still be under water. Anyway, off we went to Annoville with our buckets and special tools to dig up the clams. The day was bitterly cold and windy. We only found a few dozen shell fish between us (plus a zillion mussels). Veronique cooked them for supper.

Next day I was stricken with tummy ache. This lasted until I bought some Imodium plus at the airport on our way to Florida. Yes, Florida to stay with our friends Pete & Sue Bradley. Yipee.

Florida! What a journey. As we paid for the flight with Airmiles we had to fly out of Heathrow, so we packed off the dogs to John the kennel man and took the ferry to England. We had pre-booked a hotel in Heathrow so that we could leave the car there. When we arrived the man on the desk said that another Terry Blom had booked in earlier. Hmmm, identity theft come to mind. Anyway, we booked out at 6am the next morning and the man on the desk said that we had just missed the other Terry Blom (apparently a pilot for a Swedish airline). The flight to Miami was no problem other than it was very cold in London and very hot in Miami, so we had to dress accordingly. Also, as we were staying in England for a few days after the holiday we needed even more warm clothes. The car was packed with all sorts of different suitcases for different weathers.

Arrived in Miami, picked up the hire car and drove across Alligator Alley to Fort Myers. We had a fantastic holiday – thank you Pete & Sue.

Back in London ten days later we stayed with Sean & Nicole at their house in Braughing. Family meal at the local Indian restaurant (very good it was too). Surprise – Paul and Katie turned up as surprise guests. Next day we went to The Hop Poles to speak with the tenant about a new rental contract. He would like another six months and then a monthly contract after that. No problem. Guess we will be in France for a bit longer then. He also wanted some extra cupboard space so we cleared out the bedroom cupboard and filled the Merc estate up to the brim. Off we went to Matt & Abby’s to see our grandson Jake. Paul and Katie turned up there as well. It was good to spend some time with the family just chilling out. Sunday afternoon back to France on the noisiest ferry I have ever been on (full of school kids).

Back I France the weather was still cold, although we were told that it had been really cold while we were away (ho ho). Major happenings since – arranged a bank loan for the gite, met a man to build the conservatory (it will be the dining room for the gite), Sharon went on a days cooking course. Speaking of Sharon, I bought her a laptop as an early 50th birthday present She will not be 50 until May 13th but is happy as a sand boy playing with her new toy.

Spring is approaching, time to get the garden in order, complete the concrete base for the new garden shed and clear the top field. I will let you know how we got on in the next thrilling installment of the Blom diaries.

Week 20th – 26th February

Snow!

Well later on in the week that is. On Monday we finally got around to installing the loft ladders. The real problem with the ladders I was using before was that they were too big and clumsy and as they lived in the barn it was a pain to bring them into the house without knocking into things. Hooray, no more (I hope). Terence Senior and his wife Karen came around on Monday afternoon with the estimate for renovating the barn. Looks ok, next stop ---the bank.

Tuesday morning the wardrobe arrived. I have to say that the delivery company was first class and the wardrobe was packed extremely well. I would even recommend them. They dropped the wardrobe off on their way to Pisa in Italy. Shame they have to come back with the shelves and door keys! When we put the wardrobe together we found that one set of doors was locked and there were no keys. I had to take the back off the wardrobe to release the locks and that’s when we found that the shelves were missing. They will be back from Italy next Tuesday. We spent Tuesday afternoon with Daniel the plumber going to two plumbers merchants to get estimates for the pipes and radiators. The second one we went to was in St Lo and you drove into the warehouse through huge automatic double doors. I could not get the automatic doors to open, much to Sharon’s amusement.

The weather closed in for the rest of the week and it was cold with lots of snow. Stayed at home in front of the log fire.

On Sunday we went with Peter Gibson to the carnival at Granville. It was freezing cold but the French really turned out in large numbers for a, what I have to admit, was the kind of street party that you would never find in England, a real mardi-gras atmosphere.. There were lots of carnival floats – even one of Charles and Camilla. The carnival lasts for four days and ends next Tuesday when they bring out Madame Guillotine to execute the “king of the carnival” – nice touch. We will not be there as we are going fishing. Yep, fishing. Tell you all about it in the next thrilling installment of the Blom diaries…….

xxx

Week 13th – 19th February

A quiet week; mostly spent creating our new garden pond (bassin de jardin).

Collected the loft ladders from Norman & Leslie on Monday. Valentines Day on Tuesday – not celebrated as much over here so I had to make my own card up – I put it in an envelope and put it in the post box for Sharon to find. She thought I had not bothered so when she got the card she cried….ahhh. Wednesday we found and bought a set of car ramps via the internet (I can now drive the tractor up the ramps to get at the blades). On Thursday I took in the new letter box as it leaks in the rain and the post was getting wet. I need a cunning plan to seal it though. Peter came to dinner on Saturday (Jan is still in the USA).




As I said, a quiet week in France.

xxx

Week Monday 6th - 13th February 2006

Looking back it was a quiet week, but was it really?

Matt, Abby and Jake went home on Monday. We drove them to the airport at Dinard. They flew home and caught a plane the next morning to go to Rome! The morning before they left we visited a couple of Depot Ventes as they were looking for a Louis XV chair. Didn't find a chair but we found an old glass cheese cover and another deception glass for our collection.

Tuesday, if you remember, we had an appointment with Marie-Paul in the Mayors office to sort out our planning "difficulties". Marie-Paul was not there as she had to go to Paris to see her father-in-law who had been taken ill. Never mind, the Mayor's office is run by a nice lady named Annie and she helped us fill out a form to ask for a change to the permis. As the letter will be going from the mayors office to the DDE I am hopeful that all will be ok.

On Wednesday we visited a couple that we met at french classes, Norman and Leslie. They had some restoration work done by a local builder and we went to see the quality of the work. We went to the builders offices and booked an appointment - for March 27th! The same evening we had already booked an appointment with a local English builder - Terry Senior. He came to the house with his wife and checked out the plans. He lookes the best of the bunch so far - should have his devis (estimate) in about a week.

Quiet day on Thursday, spray painted our new cast iron letter box. French classes were cancelled so we stayed in with a bottle of wine instead.

Friday we had Daniel (Marie-Paul's husband) call around to give an estimate of how much the plumbing work will be for the gite. He doesn't speak much English so he brought his daughter-in-law and her husband with him to translate. The current thinking is to have Terry Senior as the building manager, Daniel to do the plumbing, John Crane for the electrics and me as labourer.

Saturday I phoned Morley Green (remember him?) to inquire when the wardrobe will be delivered. He said that the delivery was scheduled for Monday week. Hmmm. Went over to Peters house to rewire a dimmer switch that had stopped working. Payment was a dozen oysters which Sharon and I ate for lunch in the February sunshine. After lunch we decided that it was dry enough to give the new mower a run out. Catastrophe! As soon as I engaged the cutting blades I was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. The blades had seized up completely. WD40 came to the rescue but it was a real pain getting to the blades. Must look out for a set of car ramps so I can drive the mower up on them for maintenance. Peter came over for dinner (Jan is still in England). Beef and ale casserole - good olde English food. After Peter had left and we were putting the dogs to bed Sharon noticed a strange sight in the night sky. The full moon was circled by what appeared to be a ring of clouds. Chris Henegham says that the phenomenon is called a "penumbra" but I am not so sure. Fantastic sight though - the photo does not really do it justice.

Sunday morning was spend digging up the stump of the laurel tree. Exhausted, I spent the rest of the day in front of the telly. Cote de beuf for dinner - yum.

That's all for this week.

Week 30th January - 5th February 2006

Monday: Sharon was looking out of the kitchen window at a red squirrel and decided that the laurel bush had grown too big and was restricting her view of the garden. You know what I am going to say next...yes.. the bush has to go. Out comes the chain saw and pick axe and two hours later it is as you can see in the photo. Don't know whether to dig up the stump or add a bird bath and feeder. Guess I will do nothing until inspiration kicks in.
Went to Pete and Jan's for dinner tonight, chinese food. Yum. It's one of the very few things I miss about England, my local Chinese take away.

Tuesday: Things on the planning front are looking up. Dear old Marie-Paul has put the fix in with the Mayor. We have a meeting next Tuesday in the Mayor's office and with a bit of luck I can submit a request to change the permis. Excellent.
Drove up to Cherbourg to pick up our new letter box. It's cast iron and a bit rusty but will look a treat once painted. Photo next week.
Finally booked the flights to Florida! Pete & Sue Bradley have invited us over for a holiday. Booked the fly-drive to Miami with Airmiles. Amazing what 8000 airmiles can buy.

Wednesday: Lazy day, cold, phoned Alexander the builder. It's about time I got off my backside and actually got phase two of this building project off the ground. So, going to tender. The "Enterprise Alexander" is a building firm in St Denis Le Gast. They did some restoration work on Peter Gibson's neighbours house and come highly recommended. Booked a rendevous for Thursday at 11am.

Thursday: Shock horror. A Frenchman has actually turned up on time for an appointment. I am talking about Mr Alexander. However, to let the French side down the oil delivery turned up at the same time - the oil was supposed to be delivered on Monday. I can't tell you how nice it is to have a full talk of oil. I was running very low and had to turn the boiler off for an hour to let the new oil "settle in".
Went shopping for birthday presents in the afternoon. It's Matt's birthday on Sunday and I bought him a boat, hohoho.
French class in the evening. Most important thing of the night was that one of the other English couples live in Marigny and recommended their builder! We will go round to their house next Wednesday to have a look at the work.

Friday: Picked up Matt, Abby and Jake from the airport. News from home is that Paul has gone on a motivational course at the Excel centre this weekend (instead of helping Katie move in to her new flat). At 10pm this evening he is scheduled for fire-walking!

Saturday: Nice brisk winters day so we went for a promenade along the promenade at Agon-Coutainville seafront. After lunch we visited Chris and Janey so that Jake could see the chickens (these are the funniest chickens in the world - they are white and have pompoms instead of combs) and ride the horse. Jake loved that. Cooked steaks on the open fire for dinner. They turned out to be tough as old boots (tasted nice though).

Sunday: Matt's birthday. For their present we took them out for a slap up lunch. I like the restaurant very much and it was packed out. Very elegant, more like Paris that Normandy.
The kids have to go home tomorrow. For Abby's birthday Matt is taking her to Rome on Tuesday. They just about get home in time to leave again. Jet setters.

Week 23rd - 29th January 2006

Happiness is a full oil tank. Unfortunately this photo was taken in November...it's now nearly empty. Oh well.

Monday: Was the day that the wardrobe was to arrive from England. We got a phone call from Morley Green over the weekend to say that the other part of his load destined for France had not turned up and he did not want to bring over the wardrobe on its own. Should be delivered in about 10 days...Watch this space.

Tuesday: Worked on the ceiling in the morning and went shopping in Coutances in the afternoon. Bought a great toy for Jake to play with when he arrives next weekend.

Wednesday: Ceiling finished, hooray! John Clarke (the kennel man up the road) has a puncture and asked for help as he did not have a wheel spanner. The one from the Mercedes is too small so we borrowed one from Yves (must remember to get it back). Received a visit from a building inspector to check up why we had not completed our building work; you normally get 2 years to complete but as we have completed half of the job everything is OK (see Friday for scary letter!). Went to Gonzague's at 5pm for our organic vegetables. Gonzague's farm is in Roncey, he sells his veg from the Farm on Wednesday evenings and then in the market on Thursday. It's good quality et moins cher.

Thursday: Sharon has finished spray painting the day bed so we brought it in from the barn. It just fits under the stairs, looks good. Went to French classes in the evening but as we had seafood pasta for diner (v. heavy on the garlic) we spent the evening trying not to breathe on anyone!

Friday: A letter from planning people turned up. Very official looking and scary references to fines for non compliance. Waiting for Yves to get home from work so that he can translate. Peter phoned and invited us to dinner on Monday, Jan is cooking a chinese meal; as she learned to cook chinese food in Beijing it should be good.

Saturday: Snow! The weather forecast said bright and sunny, the weather god decided differently. Best make sure I do not run out of oil so I have ordered 1000 litres of heating oil. The grandmother of the man who delivers the oil used to live in this house. I showed the scary letter to Yves - it is horrible. I have used the wrong type and colour tiles on the roof. Looking at the plans I can see where the mistake was made. It says "to match existing". We used the existing tiles as a base and added a few of a similar type to make up the difference. What was actually required was to match the tiles on the main roof. See before and after photos. The planning people were also under the impression that all work was finished rather than just the first phase. I will see the Marie on Tuesday (closed Monday) and Yves will arrange a meeting with the planners in Coutances to see what my options are. Peter suggested I just paint the roof grey.

Sunday: A sunny day. Took the dogs for a long walk through the countryside. Forecast for the next few days is cold and sunny. Hope the weather stay's ok for Matt, Abby and Jake's visit next weekend. For their birthday treat (their birthday's are the 5th and 8th of Feb) we have booked next weeks Sunday lunch at a posh restaurant. It's called the "Auberge de L'Abbaye de Hambye". Can't see Matt eating the snails though.... Jake might. Looking forward to it.

That's all for this week folks!

Weeekend of 21/22 January 2006.

Saturday

What's the worst job in the world? will tell you....it's sanding down taped plasterboard joints in the ceiling. What a pain in the neck. I am writing this while waiting for Sharon to vacate the bathroom so that I can soak in the bath. Mind you, Sharon has also been busy today painting the day bed we bought in the Depot Vente in Coutances. A Depot Vente is a warehouse type place where the French take their old furniture to sell. The price falls the longer it remains unsold, so you can often pick up a bargain, mostly though it is old junk.

Sunday

Finished the sanding down and put up the first coat of paint on the ceiling. Me with the roller, Sharon cutting in. Finished mid afternoon, bright sunny day so we took the dogs for a walk. Long bath, glass of scotch, feeling lazy. No tv as the satellite is unplugged. Roast turkey for dinner. Roaring log fire, finished reading The Adventures of Hucklebery Finn. Not a bad life.

Friday January 20th 2006

Last nights french class was better than expected. It is run as an association "La Diligence" and it is for French people to learn English as well as English people to lean French. It was two hours long with 30 minutes conversing in English, 30 minutes French.

This morning we went to Gavray. There we bought 80 metres of quadrant to edge the plasterboard on the ceiling in the salon. There is an English shop in Gavray so we treated ourselves to some baked beans, typhoo tea, wine gums etc.. We also wet into the newsagent and photo copied the building plans as we are just about to go to tender for the barn conversion.

I spent this afternoon filling the ceiling joints and Sharon was in the barn painting the quadrant (easier that way).

Yves came home from work and told us that the restaurant that we were going to Saturday night was closed. Shame I was looking forward to that. We were going with Yves, Veronique , Peter & Jan Gibson. Peter & Jan live in St Denis La Gast and have a large guest house and cooking school called La Conterie. I did their web site (there is a link on the right hand side of this page).

Curry for dinner. Just put a bottle of Guwurztraminer in the fridge. This is a perfumed wine from Alsace which goes very well with spicy food.

That's about all for today....no wait, good news from England. We have bought a wardrobe (yes another one) and are having it shipped from Bath to France. The story goes that we saw the wardrobe on ebay before Christmas but we were outbid. It's a large Ducal wardrobe that is the same style as our other bedroom furniture. We looked at French armoirs but this looked a good bet. Well, the wardrobe was relisted but we did not bid as the transport company we arranged to use last time had gone awol and we could not contact them. Anyway to cut a long story short, the wardrobe did not meet it's reserve price. We contacted the seller and agreed a price so long as we could get transport. Eventually everything was arranged and I have just got confirmation that the transport company (Morley Green) has picked the thing up ok. Delivery on Monday morning.

Today's photo is of the two dogs chilling out.

The French home of Terry & Sharon Blom

and their two dogs; Teddy and Freddie.

Hi there, this is the online diary for our extended holiday in sunny France.

The house is shown here just before Christmas while Marg, Brian and Kath were staying.

Our latest visit to the house started in early November. The house in England is rented out for six months so we are here for a while!

Visitors since then have been Mike and Carol Higgins, Marg and Brian Holson, Auntie Kath, Paul Barnett, Sophie and Ben. Matt, Abby and Jake Blom are due to arrive on February 3rd. It's Matt's bithday on Feb 5th and Abby's on the 8th.

It has been a non-stop, hectic time as we have a never ending list of jobs to do. I am even multi-tasking! One of the main jobs was to lay foundations for a large shed to house a sit-on tractor mower. We needed the mower so that we could dispense with the services of Andrews Paysage, nice man that Andrew is, he was becoming very expensive. We have started on the foundations but stopped because of the weather. Just at that time Sharon spotted an advert for a mower, which we bought (photo to follow) it even has headlights! Because the shed for the mower is not built we had to clear out the barn - many, many trips to the dechetterie later, the barn is spick and span and is now home to the mower.

Today ( Jan 19th) we have been working on the ceiling in the salon. Late last summer, Justin plasterboarded the ceiling. It now needs the joints taping, filling and painting. I have just finished the taping and first coat of the enduit filler.

Tonight we are going to our first French classes in a town called Quibou (pronounced Kiboo), about 5k from here. We met the teacher (Sally) on Tuesday night in the Salle de Fêtes in Notre Dame de Cenilly where there was the first meeting for the summer pagent - "Le soir où les loups brûlèrent le diable" which will be a masive four day event showing the history of Normandy. Sally is an English lady, been in France for 13 years and works at the same school as Yves and Véronique (our neighbours) teaching English.

I will let you know how we got on in the next episode.