And ’tis also Jan’s birthday today so happy birthday to her, and happy Hanukah to all the family celebrating it over in the US. Typically for this time of year, things have been very quiet this week, so I think this is going to be a short one from me this time.
We leave for the UK tomorrow morning, where we’ll be spending most of the time in Olney town with the family, before heading to London on the 27th for a day and a night, and then home on the 29th. Just in time for a wild NYE, rural France style of course. This morning we awoke to only our 2nd frost of the season, having been mostly spoilt by mild (if grey) days of late. As this is the first year we’re leaving the cats without central heat, we are today conducting an experiment: we’re foregoing the stove and seeing how well our electric rad can heat the lounge/mezzanine if left on all day. “Very well” is the answer we’re hoping for, because it’s not as if we (or the cats more to the point) have a lot of alternatives. A few more frosts are likely here while we’re away, but it should be sunny and 10 degrees in the day to make up for it.
So, a quick recap of the week, and quick it will indeed be. As part of getting our new toy set up, Matt wanted to get a newer model of our livebox (wifi router) from our ISP. They’d only do this if we upped our tariff, but as the new one includes free calls to mobiles, it’s worth it anyway. I had to go and collect the box from Nontron earlier in the week and since then Matt has been configuring, fiddling, copying etc. The NAS now holds all our DVDs, and all of our music. We can access it using our laptops, tablet and mobile phones, all of which are now like remote controls for the music. I haven’t begun to get my head around it all properly yet but in summary, everything seems to be working as it should.
Aside from that and from Matt’s last conversation class of 2014, there’s little to report. After weeks of silence, the equestrian association I’m doing a site for finally green-lit everything budget-wise so as soon as they send the content, I can start on that one – and not before time too, given it has a 31 Jan deadline. I’ve also made a start on a new design for one of the projects we inherited from Colleen, the French Wedding Company. I really like what I’ve put together, now I just need to hope the owner does too. This site too has a 31 Jan deadline, and I have my french language exam to take mid-Jan, so I’m already dreading the start of 2015.
We had no plans over the weekend, until last night when we called in to see Bryan and Carol who are not long back from an early Christmas in the UK. They’re both good, except they’ve come home with an English cold apiece, and Bryan in particular sounded pretty bad. We avoided the traditional two-kisses / handshake greeting so are hoping we managed to avoid getting infected. In our final bit of socialising before we head off tomorrow, Josiane & Cammi’s daughter Laetita is here for the festive season and we’re going over for coffee this afternoon. Also, a very overdue houseclean is on the cards today as the place is a tip.
Finally, and sorry to leave on a low note, but we’re currently keeping our fingers crossed for some positive news from Lee of Lee and Richard. His aunt had been unwell for a while, and died last week. Meanwhile, his mother caught some sort of mystery virus when over in the UK and since then has deteriorated rapidly. Yesterday, the hospital put her into a coma to help try and fight the infection, so it’s escalated very quickly and drastically. We really hope she makes a swift recovery.