As another week draws to a close, I realise that we have
been here just on a complete year and am amazed at how much has happened during
that time. I am sure that there have been numerous events that I haven’t
mentioned, but for the most part, I have tried to keep you up to date with all that
has been going on in our lives. This week, for example, has been quite eventful.
On Monday, the whole house was up early to see Courtney off
to school on the school bus, which leaves from just across the road at 6.45 am.
As most of you know, this sort of time doesn’t normally feature in our lives
but this was a special occasion. Courtney was little apprehensive, having not caught
the bus from here before but we managed to persuade he that she would easily
recognise the bus as, at that hour of the morning, it was unlikely for any
other bus to come along. In the event, when Leigh walked across with her to
make sure the bus stopped for her, they found a number of cars lined up also
waiting for the bus so there was no problem about it stopping. There is
apparently a dedicated bus for this route and the same driver always drives it
which is a comforting fact as the children then get to know the driver and he
gets to know the children and where they all live. When she returned in the
same way on Friday evening, she was amazed to see just how caring the driver is.
One girl who was dropped off alone, was taken right to her front gate and the
driver gave a couple of toots of his hooter and waited to see her into the
house before driving on. It is good to know.
Also on Monday, and a big event in the week was our court
appearance in Rodez to make application for parental authority for Courtney.
Because she is still a minor, the school would not accept her until someone had
taken responsibility for her, and naturally, it had to be us. It was quite a
big deal – we had to get a court interpreter in case a detail fine detail was missed – and the
case was heard by a real judge. I had been quite looking forward to seeing a
real court from the inside, but when ‘Ferreira’ was called, only Leigh and
Neels were allowed in with the interpreter. Phooey! All of ten minutes late
they emerged again with big smiles and the deed was done. It wasn’t long before
we received a WhatsApp message from Pieter
to ask if it was true that he now had a new sister, to which Andre
replied, ‘Yes. And my daughter is now my sister too!’ Not actually true of
course. We haven’t adopted her, only taken responsibility for her, but it is
quite a big thing as you will agree.
Midway through the week Leigh’s sister, or half sister to be
more correct, arrived from the UK to spend a couple of days with us. The
weather was not terribly fair to her as she is well used to grey days and she
was expecting to be able to enjoy something different here but the weatherman
decided otherwise. However, they seemed to enjoy the time spent together and
all too soon it was time for Leigh to take her down to Villefranche to catch
the train to Toulouse and then fly home again. As Courtney came home from
school again on Friday as well, it was
quite a busy time. And then on Saturday it was time for Leigh to leave
as well, and yet another trip to Toulouse Airport. By now the car can almost drive
itself there.
We have had rather a lot of rain over the past few days and
fields around here are flooded in places. The weather forecast had warned of
heavy rain and possible flooding and they were quite correct. We also had
strong winds again and were hoping that the repairs to the satellite dish would
hold. They did, but it was worrying to
be able to hear the bracket swaying around on its stays.. they had also
warned of light snow which didn’t happen, but on the way to Toulouse to drop
Leigh off, we ran through a kind of sleet storm with sploshy drops and minute
particles of hail. It really is time for the cold weather to stop!!
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