Much colder this morning.
Bit of a barny with Christophe about the electricity and water quote. Very frustrating not being able to explain or understand what we want and what he's concerned about - I think mainly temperatures of 40 below, which can happen here, apparently. Checked the water and it's still running at the Edspace. Christophe a bit cross I think. That we're sidelining or undermining him.
D & A took Bertie the cat to the vet yesterday. He has an abscess in his foot, and is on antibiotics and much better now. Climbed out of the window and ran off this morning.
Worked all morning on my shopping list for the afternoon expedition with John Manson to BricoDepot. He's coming at 3. Feeling very woozy, after waking up at 5, and only 5 hours sleep. Got the list / diagrams done, sort of. Very tricky as the plumbing uses 3 sizes of connector and I don't know what sort of water heater we're going to end up with.
BricoDepot is on the north side of Poitiers, in Disnay, so we got on the A10 peage for a ks to go round the town and then off and through Clan-Jaunay at the Futuroscope exit. Big jam getting on to the A10, John says the farmers are blocking roads for some reason. The police and farmers are in the same union apparently, so they co-operate. V French. Spent 3 hours in BricoDepot. John very helpful, pointing out French regulations for wiring especially (no ring main allowed, max number of sockets per fuse on the disjoncteur, getting the cheapest of everything, and a 50 litre bog standard water heater that will fit under the worktop). Spent 695 euros on Andrew's card - my biggest shop ever, I think. Nails in bags, loose, by the pound. Loads of pipes and connectors.
We stopped buying eventually because I was getting confused about what we had and hadn't already got. I'll put it all together loosely tomorrow, and John has kindly offered to go to BricoD again and get whatever I'm missing. I don't think we've bought anything stupid or unnecessary but we signed up for their Carte Magasin which means they have a list of everything we've bought and we can swap anything anytime in the next 3 months. Feeling very nervous about the whole thing - seems like a hell of a lot to get done before Tuesday.
Missed out turning on the way back and ended up on the peage miles south of Lusignan and didn't get back to Bonnevaux until 7.30. John went straight home and I had a late supper with Delyth and Andrew on Brigitte's tomates farcies which she dropped round last night. Early to bed, knackered. 3 Super-U NA beers. Definitely wishing they were real ones.
Day 35 Friday 9.ii.2018
Woke at 6 and went down for a cup of tea and a glass of pink grapefruit juice. Lit the kitchen fires, fed the cats, turned on the heaters and lights in the Salle a Manger and back up to my bed to listen to the muskrats splashing in the river and the TGV thundering past on its way to Bordeaux at 7. There are very rare large white crayfish in the river apparently. I wonder if they're nice to eat. Yesterday the Great White Egret visited us and stood by the lake. Jean Christophe says he eats the carp. He chased him away with his tractor. I wonder if he (the egret) has a plan, or is just hoping another one'll turn up and they can have babies. Or perhaps he'll try flying back to Egypt in the autumn. Can't believe he likes 40 below. On the other hand, there are the carp. He's had a go at the muskrats, but they're too quick for him. Later this morning I saw him take off and fly in a slow circle above the lake and then away to the north - he does look very impressive, and strange. Maybe he's just an albino heron.
It's 7.20. I'm going to meditate in bed.
Having a fag and finishing my tea, I can hear a deer or a sanglier trotting through the frozen leaves in the trees on the slope on the other side of the river. Too dark to see anything, and very cold. Ducks squawking on the lake. And for the first time the roar of traffic on the N10 which is a couple of ks east of here. Wind must have changed.
7.33. It's just starting to get light.
The irritabilityometer - tired, not enough alone / down time, anxiety, too much to do, not enough (i.e. infinite) time to do it all, fear of cocking it up. Excessive strangeness (stops being exciting, starts getting to be a strain). Need a decent hot bath, and more bed time.
On judging myself, judging others, being judged (by their standards, not mine, just as I judge them by my standards, which they don't even know or care about) - how it's so silly and pointless, and meaningless. As Jesus said, don't judge and you won't be judged (by yourself, if no one else).
Things I love about Bonnevaux:
my bed
my room
the ancient loo
the wallpapers
the parquet floors
the panelling and carved chimney breasts
the kitchen
the blazing fires and stoves
Delyth and her cooking and her music
Andrew and his chaotic ways, his kindness and gentleness
Jean Christophe and his incomprehensible French and his love for this place
The trees, the birds, the lake, the egret, the mythical sangliers and deer
The spiral staircase and the cloister, the bell
The stables, the magnificient arch, the beautiful pavée cobbles
The Edspace and its gravel path
The barns and attics and stables
The enormous planes and cedars around the house
The complete absence of pylons, telegraph poles, anything apart from the electrical cable strung between the abbaye and the ecuries
Things I don't like:
The lukewarm shower.
I don't like the caves under the East Wing, or the attics in the big house, full of mouldering rubbish, seem sort of sad, not even interesting rubbish. The abandoned boilers, heaters, the weird shower thing that J-C loves but looks like something out of a dalek's knicker draw.
I can't think of anything else I don't like.
Very odd - had four craps yesterday, not diarrohea. Must be the vegetables. Or all the coffee.
Delyth is now a Master of the cuisinière - Don't leave the door open! Don't assume because you've just filled it with wood it doesn't now need more! Don't turn up the draft and then forget about it! Get an oven thermometer! Stop trying to cook things in it as if it was a microwave!
Too much water in the porridge - 1 and a half cups to half a cup of oats. Oats can only absorb so much water.
Feel much happier - Andrew and I talked about John maybe finishing things off in the Edspace after I leave (working around Rebecca). Andrew and Delyth won't move in until they get back from 'Blighty' in March. Rebecca can test it out and find out how an Edspace works before she moves in to her own in Frome.
Worked out what we are missing and sent the shopping list to John - he's going to BricoDepot tomorrow morning to get the last few bits. I'm going to try and rig up a light and see if my neon uplighting idea works.
I've joined all the bits up (waste and hot and cold water) and feel much more confident. Jean Christophe doesn't have much confidence I'll get it finished before I leave, according to Andrew, which sort of gives me an added incentive.
Nice email from Pol with a poem. She doesn't need me to house sit beyond Sunday so I'll have a whole extra week to sort out caravan and stuff.
Bit of a barny with Christophe about the electricity and water quote. Very frustrating not being able to explain or understand what we want and what he's concerned about - I think mainly temperatures of 40 below, which can happen here, apparently. Checked the water and it's still running at the Edspace. Christophe a bit cross I think. That we're sidelining or undermining him.
D & A took Bertie the cat to the vet yesterday. He has an abscess in his foot, and is on antibiotics and much better now. Climbed out of the window and ran off this morning.
Worked all morning on my shopping list for the afternoon expedition with John Manson to BricoDepot. He's coming at 3. Feeling very woozy, after waking up at 5, and only 5 hours sleep. Got the list / diagrams done, sort of. Very tricky as the plumbing uses 3 sizes of connector and I don't know what sort of water heater we're going to end up with.
BricoDepot is on the north side of Poitiers, in Disnay, so we got on the A10 peage for a ks to go round the town and then off and through Clan-Jaunay at the Futuroscope exit. Big jam getting on to the A10, John says the farmers are blocking roads for some reason. The police and farmers are in the same union apparently, so they co-operate. V French. Spent 3 hours in BricoDepot. John very helpful, pointing out French regulations for wiring especially (no ring main allowed, max number of sockets per fuse on the disjoncteur, getting the cheapest of everything, and a 50 litre bog standard water heater that will fit under the worktop). Spent 695 euros on Andrew's card - my biggest shop ever, I think. Nails in bags, loose, by the pound. Loads of pipes and connectors.
We stopped buying eventually because I was getting confused about what we had and hadn't already got. I'll put it all together loosely tomorrow, and John has kindly offered to go to BricoD again and get whatever I'm missing. I don't think we've bought anything stupid or unnecessary but we signed up for their Carte Magasin which means they have a list of everything we've bought and we can swap anything anytime in the next 3 months. Feeling very nervous about the whole thing - seems like a hell of a lot to get done before Tuesday.
Missed out turning on the way back and ended up on the peage miles south of Lusignan and didn't get back to Bonnevaux until 7.30. John went straight home and I had a late supper with Delyth and Andrew on Brigitte's tomates farcies which she dropped round last night. Early to bed, knackered. 3 Super-U NA beers. Definitely wishing they were real ones.
Day 35 Friday 9.ii.2018
Woke at 6 and went down for a cup of tea and a glass of pink grapefruit juice. Lit the kitchen fires, fed the cats, turned on the heaters and lights in the Salle a Manger and back up to my bed to listen to the muskrats splashing in the river and the TGV thundering past on its way to Bordeaux at 7. There are very rare large white crayfish in the river apparently. I wonder if they're nice to eat. Yesterday the Great White Egret visited us and stood by the lake. Jean Christophe says he eats the carp. He chased him away with his tractor. I wonder if he (the egret) has a plan, or is just hoping another one'll turn up and they can have babies. Or perhaps he'll try flying back to Egypt in the autumn. Can't believe he likes 40 below. On the other hand, there are the carp. He's had a go at the muskrats, but they're too quick for him. Later this morning I saw him take off and fly in a slow circle above the lake and then away to the north - he does look very impressive, and strange. Maybe he's just an albino heron.
It's 7.20. I'm going to meditate in bed.
Having a fag and finishing my tea, I can hear a deer or a sanglier trotting through the frozen leaves in the trees on the slope on the other side of the river. Too dark to see anything, and very cold. Ducks squawking on the lake. And for the first time the roar of traffic on the N10 which is a couple of ks east of here. Wind must have changed.
7.33. It's just starting to get light.
The irritabilityometer - tired, not enough alone / down time, anxiety, too much to do, not enough (i.e. infinite) time to do it all, fear of cocking it up. Excessive strangeness (stops being exciting, starts getting to be a strain). Need a decent hot bath, and more bed time.
On judging myself, judging others, being judged (by their standards, not mine, just as I judge them by my standards, which they don't even know or care about) - how it's so silly and pointless, and meaningless. As Jesus said, don't judge and you won't be judged (by yourself, if no one else).
Things I love about Bonnevaux:
my bed
my room
the ancient loo
the wallpapers
the parquet floors
the panelling and carved chimney breasts
the kitchen
the blazing fires and stoves
Delyth and her cooking and her music
Andrew and his chaotic ways, his kindness and gentleness
Jean Christophe and his incomprehensible French and his love for this place
The trees, the birds, the lake, the egret, the mythical sangliers and deer
The spiral staircase and the cloister, the bell
The stables, the magnificient arch, the beautiful pavée cobbles
The Edspace and its gravel path
The barns and attics and stables
The enormous planes and cedars around the house
The complete absence of pylons, telegraph poles, anything apart from the electrical cable strung between the abbaye and the ecuries
Things I don't like:
The lukewarm shower.
I don't like the caves under the East Wing, or the attics in the big house, full of mouldering rubbish, seem sort of sad, not even interesting rubbish. The abandoned boilers, heaters, the weird shower thing that J-C loves but looks like something out of a dalek's knicker draw.
I can't think of anything else I don't like.
Very odd - had four craps yesterday, not diarrohea. Must be the vegetables. Or all the coffee.
Delyth is now a Master of the cuisinière - Don't leave the door open! Don't assume because you've just filled it with wood it doesn't now need more! Don't turn up the draft and then forget about it! Get an oven thermometer! Stop trying to cook things in it as if it was a microwave!
Too much water in the porridge - 1 and a half cups to half a cup of oats. Oats can only absorb so much water.
Feel much happier - Andrew and I talked about John maybe finishing things off in the Edspace after I leave (working around Rebecca). Andrew and Delyth won't move in until they get back from 'Blighty' in March. Rebecca can test it out and find out how an Edspace works before she moves in to her own in Frome.
Worked out what we are missing and sent the shopping list to John - he's going to BricoDepot tomorrow morning to get the last few bits. I'm going to try and rig up a light and see if my neon uplighting idea works.
I've joined all the bits up (waste and hot and cold water) and feel much more confident. Jean Christophe doesn't have much confidence I'll get it finished before I leave, according to Andrew, which sort of gives me an added incentive.
Nice email from Pol with a poem. She doesn't need me to house sit beyond Sunday so I'll have a whole extra week to sort out caravan and stuff.
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