What a terrible, tragic and upsetting thing to have to write a blog entry about. Our year-long holiday is… over! Noooooooooo! As soon as we made the decision to stay in France permanently, we decided to allow ourselves the summer to continue to enjoy ourselves, but said that September would be “back to reality” month. This means really concentrating on ways to bring the money in, and searching for a place to buy.
If you haven’t seen the film Groundhog day, then you really should – it is one of the finest and funniest films ever. The basic plot is that a selfish, egotistical protagonist gets punished for the way he treats those around him. The punishment takes the form of being trapped in the same day, over and over again. Nothing he says or does has any meaning, as every time, he wakes up the next day and none of it happened, no-one but him remembers any of it, and he has to do it all over again. Bill Murray at his finest.
Well, we have been living our own version of Groundhog day, which I am calling Groundhog Sunday (because 2010 has, for us, just been one long relaxed Sunday). We get up at roughly the same time every day (cats permitting), we have our cup of tea, surf online for a while, then breakfast (the same breakfast). Lunch is eaten at the same time every day, and is – exactly – the same meal every time. Come 7.30, it is cocktail hour – a vodka tonic for Matt and a screwdriver for me. It seems strange we have filled nearly a year following this pattern, but it has just flown by in a blur.
Now, though, it is all coming crashing down around us! We have begun the house-hunting. Nothing exciting to report so far, except that the more people we talk to about it, the more it sounds like a buyer’s dream- places go on the market for years out here and the buyer therefore holds all the cards. Especially the buyer who pays cash. One lovely man we met told us the story of how he bought his – beautiful – house: it had just been sold, the buyer paying by cheque, but he went to view it anyway and totally fell in love with the place. For the hell of it, he put in an offer anyway, in cash – and for less than the cheque buyer had offered. Because it was cash, the seller accepted immediately. Encouraging stuff…
On the work front, Matt’s never-ending Sunday really ended some time back, what with putting in several months’ work on the eLeaf protoype, and now also with another project for a friend of ours back in the UK. For me, the interminable Cole & Co web project continues to crawl slowly and erratically along, but I have started to promote Wee Sweetie Sites now. I have placed a poster in the local bar/tabac in Monsec, and have placed an advert online on Anglo Info (a site for all the thousands of ex-pat Brits infesting the Dordogne). Fingers crossed for some bites…
The weather must be sensing the end of our holiday. It is still warm out (25 degrees) but it has gone cloudy and unsettled. Looks like it will be like this for a few days now, which is a shame as it coincides with our next party of visitors, who get here this evening – Gerald & boyfriend, also called Gerald but goes by Preston, and Albert and boyfriend, Mark. We are really looking forward to seeing them, not just because it provides us with a valid excuse to continue to escape reality and delay the inevitable for just that little bit longer. I am sure Matt will update you on their visit in a few days.