The weather in the Dordogne came good just in time to welcome in the spring, and has been really rather lovely, with highs in the low 20s and cloudless skies. It’s gone a bit cooler this week, but we’re due another good run before we get into the Dordogne’s formidable April showers season.
Work continues to be steady but not overly busy. I have two projects in the dreaded “waiting on client” phase, but I hope they’ll start moving soon. On Tuesday, Matt went to Périgueux to see an optician who’s recently set up shop here. Upshot is Matt’s prescription hasn’t’ changed, and he’s now considering investing in some progressive contact lenses. Oh, and he also got his blood test results back last week too, and all is fine.
We got our weekly socialising off to an early start with an invite to eat at Mum & Dad’s on Tuesday. We left early and went via Nontron as we had a small list of things we needed. This included collecting our new router we’d ordered off our ISP. The old one was fine but was getting old, so we thought we’d upgrade – and it’s actually improved our line speed a bit, so that’s a bonus.
The rest of the Nontron experience was less successful. Typically, the Brico store either didn’t have what we were looking for, or did but it was either expensive, or of naff quality (or both). Disgusted but unsurprised, we abandoned the plan and headed on to La Chapelle Verlaine empty-handed.
It had only been a few days since I’d last seen Mum & Dad’s place, so I was impressed at how much progress they’ve both made in that time. The biggest transformation is their master bedroom, which they’ve now moved in to, and on which they’ve done a truly amazing job.
We had a couple rounds of aperitifs then moved on to the meal, which was leek & potato soup to start, followed by a very tasty Jamie Oliver chicken dish. Dessert was Matt’s leftover chocolate cake, plus a Super U apricot tart. While we were there, we tried get their TV to pick up the terrestrial UK channels they want, but we failed. We now know why and will sort it next time we’re over.
We saw the folks again on Thursday evening when they came to Milhac for the conversation group. They arrived to find that apart from Françoise, no-one else had showed, so they opted to call in and see us and we had it here over aperitifs. We spent an hour or so alternating between chatting in English and French and then they all headed home.
One of the things we’d wanted from the Brico store was some paint. Since Lucien cut down our hedge for us, there’d been an ugly discoloured patch on the exterior wall. On our first trip to Nontron, they had some that would have been ideal, but it was extremely expensive. In fact, it was due to go on sale for 10 days – but only from the following morning. And there was of course no question of selling it to us at the sale price before then.
So, Matt made another run later in the week, and on Saturday, I took advantage of the sunshine to get stuck in. As well as the side wall, I had exactly enough paint to do the front too, so it’s all clean and uniform. It ended up taking most of the day but I just had time for a shower before our guests showed up for dinner. This was a repeat of Thursday’s guest list and we served up a raclette. Françoise is great to have around with Mum & Dad, being bilingual. The conversation flowed in both languages throughout the evening, and I think the folks followed well.
We just about had room for Françoise’s crumble and then the folks left for the evening. She stayed on for a few rounds of cards, but we didn’t want a late one so were in bed by one ish. This was because I had an appointment with an osteopath at 9 the following morning. Sunday is an odd (and less than ideal) time for an appointment, but he works one weekend out of every two and he’s only at St Pardoux so getting there on time isn’t a problem. I told him about my hip pain issues and he then cracked my bones in various places and did his best to unknot some very tensed up muscles. It’s hard to say yet if it really helped as all my muscles hurt from painting the other day, but I think the hip feels looser.
And that’s about all the news from me. I was going to launch into a mini-diatribe on Brexit and the abject state of play, but honestly I can’t face it. It’s like a slow-motion car crash. That we still don’t know – even by now – what the UK wants or how it thinks it can get there, is a damning indictment of its politicians. However, there have been a few rays of light in the darkness, including a petition to revoke brexit gaining over 5,5m signatures in mere days, and the 1,5m people who marched in the anti-Brexit march in London on Saturday.
And lastly, it pleases me greatly to officially record on this blog that come 30 March 2019, the UK will still be a member of the EU. Celebrate the little victories and all that…