To anyone reading this for the first time, this is going to
be the most boring chapter ever written, so I’m sorry but it has been one of
those weeks. I have been in a total tizz ever since I woke up on Monday and
realised that it was ‘THIS WEEK’! Something we have been looking forward to
less than a visit to the dentist but just as inevitable. For most of you who
entertain on a regular basis and think nothing of it, it would be a doddle but we don’t, and having people
we hardly know, for lunch has put me in a complete spin. I have already warned
them that we don’t do the French thing of having a main meal in the middle of
the day and they should expect a soup and cheese type of meal, but even that is
hard for me. I am not a confident cook and even making soup proved to be a
challenge. It took me ages of preparation of the vegetables and hours of
cooking, continually adding this or that and then adding something else to
counteract what I had added before and then adding more liquid when it boiled
down too low. Then of course, all the seasoning was wrong and I had to start
adding this and that again. Perhaps I should have just bought a couple of the
boxes of lovely ready to eat soup from the supermarket!
Having finally settled on the soup and managed to get the
flavour right, we then decided that if the food was going to be unspectacular,
the table at least, would be worth looking at. So out came the special crockery
that we haven’t used since they came out of the packing cases when we got here.
It all had to be washed and polished well, as did the glasses we intend to use.
There is strange phenomenon in this household, and that is, that every time we
acquire a set of six matching glasses, one mysteriously gets broken leaving us
with numerous sets of five, none of which match anything else. We hope no-one
notices.
One more positive event during the week was a bit of
‘up-cycling’ that went on in the workshop. One of the items that came with us
from South Africa was a very old tin trunk that came loaded with workshop
tools. The tools have now all found new homes in the workshop shelves and racks
but the trunk kept getting underfoot. If you know anything about us you will
know that we seldom throw anything away, especially something as possibly
useful as a ratty old trunk. After some months of being moved back and forth
across the workshop floor it has at last found a purpose. Attached to the wall
with very strong bolts, it has been turned into a cupboard with a wooden shelf
(also upcycled from an old bookcase), dividing it into an upper and lower
section. Perfect for the many cans of paint which were starting to accumulate
on the windowsill.
The very cold weather that we have been experiencing has
brought home to us just how inefficient the insulation is between the ‘cave’
and the first floor – which is where we do most of our living. We called in at
the local building suppliers earlier in the week for some advice and have
decided to install sheets of polystyrene to the ceiling of the ‘cave’. It is
not expensive, easy to handle and install and, according to the supplier,
efficient which what we mainly want. It would have been nice to have been able
to get started on it this weekend, as it has to be delivered only on certain
days, but hey ho! we have a lunch party to organise! Next week perhaps.
Hopefully. It gets cold in the living room. Next week Andre and family will be here and he has already
agreed to help with the installation. Isn’t it wonderful to have sons who are
handy around the house?!
The day of the luncheon finally arrived and my stomach was
full of butterflies, but all for nothing. The two couples who came were simply
charming. One couple we had met before, but the others were total strangers.
What lovely people though. They are all ex-British and it was interesting to
hear their varied comments on Britain and Brexit when the conversation came
round to politics, as it always seems to. In general though, there was plenty
of chat about a number of things and I just love it when the conversation
rambles on through a dozen different topics. All in all it was great success
and I will not get in a panic again……………until next time!
No pictures this week. I am sorry but perhaps next week,
with the installation of the underfloor insulation there may well be a few ‘Kodak
moments’.
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