First of all, apologies for the weekend outage. Our hosting company moved the site from one server to another and in the process, caused the blog to fail. Despite claiming to provide 24/7 support, they didn’t get around to fixing it until today. Normal service has now been resumed so thanks for standing by.
Now, regarding the title of this post, I’m aware that the subjects are wholly unrelated but there’s not a lot to happening these days. On the first topic, I am pleased to report that our initial encounter with the French health care system was even better than we were expecting. I have had a small cyst on the back of my neck for well over a year. I saw the doctor in the UK when I first noticed it and she said it wasn’t at all harmful and to just leave it. Sometime last week, it turned red and swelled up and looked like it was getting ready to explode. So after a day or so, I decided to visit the local doctor.
I got his name from Sharon and looked him up on line. He takes appointments in the morning but the afternoon is for walk-ins. I dragged Will along with me, figuring he might not speak English and I would struggle to explain my predicament in French. We showed up on the dot of 4pm when the session began and there were already three people waiting. So it was 90 minutes before we saw the doctor but it may just have been bad luck on that day. Anyway, it turns out he speaks decent English so I explained the situation and he agreed it should come out right away. As in right there in his surgery, not at a hospital in 3-4 months.
So he does his stuff, I have a small hole in the back of the neck as well as a bandage over it and all for €50. I also have a repeat prescription I had been getting filled in England so I asked if he’d write it for me and he was happy to. Then he said the bandage needed to be changed every day for the next week and that a nurse would visit. At this point, he only knows my name but we’d mentioned we lived in Badaillac and apparently, that’s enough to find us because sure enough, the next day at midday a nurse drives up to the house asking for me.
She has come everyday including at the weekend and I don’t think I even need to pay her! Also, the doctor prescribed all the bandaging apparatus and that plus my prescription cost €35. I recently discovered that the UK will actually pay for you to be a part of the French system for 2.5 years after your last job, which means the end of next year in my case. So I may even get some of this reimbursed but even if I don’t, I consider it a bargain for such exceptional service.
Now, on to the cats. They are growing by leaps and bounds, also good words to describe their behaviour when awake. They sleep for most of the day and thankfully, most of the night as well. They wake up when it gets light but will now stay in bed until we get up around 8:30 (well, Will gets up then anyway). They like the climbing tree but not exclusively by any means. Any high surface works including tables, countertops, radiators, shelves and our shoulders/heads. Leon, the mischievous one, has taken to scaling us by running at us, throwing himself at our legs and then clawing his way up to the head. He also likes to do this with the long curtains in the barn room. I am sorely tempted to change his name to Smeagol since he is very crafty and always plotting his next move.
Louis is generally better behaved but loves to use Will’s Marshall amp as a scratching post, even though it sits only a few feet away from the cat tree. He is the bigger of the two and is getting bigger by the day. We’ve only had them for a week and change and he’s noticeably heavier. They are incredibly quick, especially when chasing the feather wand and their favourite toys at the moment include wine corks, wadded up balls of paper and walnuts. They are also very playful, mostly with each other and go on the attack at times, like in the video from the last post where they play “King of the Chair”. We hope to have more video footage soon.
Lastly, we’ve been doing some gardening. Our spinach crop is prolific and the three of us have been enjoying it on a regular basis for the past month or so. We recently planted onions, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and a bunch of herbs and peppers but I’m afraid the weather isn’t being very cooperative. June has been a washout so far with cloud and rain and just patches of sun, which is very hot when it decides to show. I’m just hoping it does so a bit more often so Will doesn’t feel too cheated by missing yet another summer. The gardening itself is still enjoyable and it’s really nice to eat something so fresh and tasty that you’ve grown yourself, especially considering the price of produce here.
Apart from that, we’ve been doing our usual things. I’m working on my programming project and Will has been learning some new things on the guitar and working out. I’ve had to skip swimming because of my neck but did manage to go twice last week. We went out on Saturday night to Richard and Bridget’s to see their new place and watch the England vs US match of the World Cup. We both drank enough to have mild hangovers the next day but nothing serious. A bientot.