Time for an update from Port 80. It was a very cold and damp week here in Mazeroux, so as Matt hinted, we did indeed have our first fire of the season. In fact, we ended up having one pretty much every evening as well as a few in the day too, much to the delight of the cats. Fortunately, we’re having a small reprieve at the moment. Today it’s due to reach 23 degrees and the sun’s made a welcome return. I’ve even just hanged the laundry up outside – possibly for the last time of 2013. According to the forecast, this is just a brief blip in an otherwise dreary forecast, so we shall do our best to enjoy it while we can.
The big news this week was of course Matt’s birthday, which was on Tuesday. As we planned on celebrating on the night itself, we had a quiet weekend leading up to it, with the only thing of note being that Friday was curry night. For some reason, neither of our mains was quite up to the usual standard – hopefully a one-off – but the bhajis and samosas were, as ever, to die for.
On Tuesday, Matt did a bit of work in the morning while I gave the house a clean and then we set about preparing the evening’s meal. That afternoon, Lucien and Mauricette called by to pass on their birthday wishes and a bottle of wine, which was very sweet. They stayed for a half hour or so then left us to our preparations. We were joined that evening by Nat & Jill, freshly back from a 3-week holiday, and Bryan & Carol. Lee & Richard were both invited too, but the latter is currently working in the UK and the former is stranded in his village with a poorly car. The ladies had a good time away. First they went to Guernsey where Jill’s Dad lives and spent some time with him, and then they went to Cyprus for a couple weeks in the sunshine before returning to the Dordogne via Paris. Their trip seems to have hardened their resolve to sell up and downsize: they’re getting an agent over to value their property and, depending on what he says, may put it on the market. More news on that soon.
Our fellow Milhacois, Bryan and Carol, are also well. It was Carol’s birthday the Friday before, so we called it a joint celebration. As she had attained a significant number, she decided after some soul-searching to give up smoking. That evening with the rest of us puffing away must have been a real challenge but she did admirably. Bryan has had some good news recently. After his last checkup at the doctor, he was told that he has stablised sufficiently to only now need monthly instead of weekly checkups so he was in good spirits about that – although the restricted diet is sadly still in force.
That said, Matt’s now an old hand at putting together menus that suit both his limitations and my fussiness. The meal that night was cured meats for the apéritifs followed by spiced roast chicken with a side of quinoa and roasted butternut squash. For dessert, he made brownies and bought ice cream. Carol also brought a dessert: she made a beautiful chocolate-topped walnut tart that was to die for. Needless to say, at the end of the meal we were all grossly full.
Nat & Jill also had some news to impart concerning the large house for sale at the end of our road. I’m sure we’ve blogged about it before, but to recap briefly: for at least a year now, an English couple has been in the process of buying it. Before even arriving, they managed to cause waves by announcing plans to fence off their entire property, upon which is a footpath into the woods. This path has for decades been treated by locals as a public right of way, even though it technically isn’t. It seems that this is a victory for French bureaucracy because Nat has learned that, after months of red tape and wrangles (as well as a few other complications encountered), they’ve had enough and have pulled out. Lucien and Mauricette dont know this yet, but will be relieved to hear it when we tell them!
We largely escaped hangovers the next day (due in no small part to the sheer quantity of food consumed I suspect) but still took it easy. In fact, there’s really not much else to say about the rest of the week at all, so I’ll skip ahead to the next item of note. Before that though, we are growing a bit concerned about our largest client, Vortex. We’ve submitted 3 invoices that remain unpaid. The first one was for work done in July and was due to be paid beginning of August. They’re normally very prompt so this is out of character and a bit worrying. We have chased them a few times with no luck. Also, as we built their websites, we get copies of all enquiries they get online and one of them is from a very annoyed mechanic who too is very keen to get paid for work he’s done, so it seems it’s not just us. Here’s hoping they sort themselves out soon…
Anyway, back to the narrative. We had a day of activity in Nontron yesterday: Matt had a 10am appointment at the eye doctor and the car was booked in for its MOT at 11. I’m pleased to say that both Matt’s eyes and the car were given a clean bill of health at the end of it. This is a bit spurious in the case of the car as there’s definitely still something wrong with the engine that we need to sort, but technically she is now roadworthy again for 2 years. For Matt, the ophthalmologist was initially concerned that he might have some genetic condition that would result in eventual blindness but after several tests, conclusively ruled this out – welcome news indeed! He was in there for 3.5 hours all told but at the end of it was reassured by her advice, and now has some contact lenses to try out to see if they’re any better than his glasses.
This evening, we have a social event lined up. Francoise and Phillipe are joining us along with our mutual friends Manual and Mathilde from down the road. It’s been our turn to get the latter two over here for some time now so we’re glad it’s finally happening. We’re also glad (as lovely and well-behaved as they are) that they’re leaving their 4 daughters behind, so we only have a total of 6 to cook for and not a mini-army. In other social news, our friend Kevin arrives on Sunday to spend a few days with us, and Mum & Dad have just booked to come out at the end of next month – luckily, right before Matt heads off to the States for Thanksgiving. Right, that’s the roundup from Mazeroux. Until la prochaine fois, au revoir.