Yep, the big news from this week is the definitive arrival of Mum & Dad, late on Wednesday evening. Their journey was long, with a few sat-nav disagreements but otherwise uneventful. Since their arrival they’ve been working away painting the walls and getting settled. This also involves helping their cat acclimatise to his new home. For now he’s mainly sleeping, but I’m sure he’ll rally just as soon as their furniture arrives. The folks will no doubt be relieved too, for that matter.
They really could not have ordered a better welcome: we’ve never known a February like it. And I apologise profusely to anyone reading this in the US (especially Minnesota). I don’t mean to rub it in, but it really is remarkable. And oh so welcome.
Workwise we both put in some time on tidying up an estate agent’s site, and the finished product is about ready to go. It’s otherwise steady but not too busy. We’re both about to get stuck into the project that came our via from Australia via Buenos Aires (see previous post below) which should go ok as the client seems quite chilled.
On Wednesday I went over to Mum & Dad’s place, via Nontron for some basic supplies, and gave their kitchen a clean. After the chimney had been swept, everything was covered in a layer of film so I attacked that, and then lit their freshly-installed woodburner to leave the place heated ready for their arrival. They got in around 9pm, knackered, and were not long to bed.
After working in the morning, we called over to see them the following afternoon. They’ve only got a futon on the ground for a bed and minimal kitchen supplies, so its a bit basic at the moment, but its only temporary. They’d got their TV set up to watch DVDs and had already started putting up the odd bits of decoration here and there, instantly making it feel homelier.
We left after an hour or so and made plans to see them for dinner on saturday. And as there’s really not too much else to add in the interim, I’ll jump on to on Saturday. We saw Mathilde and her eldest, Rachel in the afternoon. The latter is nearing the end of her uni course and needs to decide what path to take, so wanted to ask us about web design. So we went over what we do and how we find it. I don’t know if we have fanned or quelled her interest but I hope she found it useful.
On to dinner that evening. As well as Mum & Dad, we invited Françoise who always appreciates an opportunity to speak English. She’s well but still has her ex in her house, and there’s still no progress on her house sale. Matt made a wholly veggie meal that began with butternut squash soup followed by a dish of lentils, broccoli, brussel sprouts and other veg. After a cheese course, we moved on to Françoise’s apple, banana and chocolate crumble, this time with added walnuts. The folks didn’t stay late as as they wanted to get back to the cat, but Françoise stayed on for a few games of cards. We watched a film after she left and then turned in too.
We had a lazy sunday morning and then our first band practise in a month in the afternoon. To our mutual surprise it went very smoothly, so we must be making some progress. And that’s about all the news from here.