ETC Gites

Funny sort of a day today (as in not ha ha!). Woke up this morning to glorious sunshine, tad chill but beautiful, fortunately no more snow overnight just absolutely freezing (friends said their thermometer was showing minus 12 at 4pm yesterday afternoon). Came downstairs to have a cuppa and no water! Pipes were frozen (of course), so no water but hey 6 inches of snow everywhere comes in handy.

Had our (snow) tea which was very nice and decided to try and start the car (Citroen) which had been charging overnight. The battery was so dead (and needed replacing) there was no chance. We have another car (Kia) which we haven’t driven (as we haven’t the money to insure it) and decided to charge the battery in that and change it over to the Citroen. Did that but the terminals wouldn’t fit so decided to put it back in the Kia, get the Kia going and drive to Plaisance to buy another battery but then the Kia wouldn’t start (wouldn’t you know).

Fortunately we have some very good friends who live close by and they said they’d come over and drive me to go and get a new battery. Fitted the new one and as the battery had been disconnected the alarm was going off and the lights were flashing and couldn’t suss out how to turn it off and there was nothing in the manual either. So after an hour of messing around I pressed a few buttons (as you do) and hey presto it stopped so that’s good! We just need to sort the Kia out now. Oh and by this time the water was working againg.

Today hasn’t been particularly successful day, Carl was so frustrated with everything but I guess that’s the way things are. He did get two sheets of plasterboard up on the kitchen ceiling and there is only two more to go, and he put French plugs on the kettle and microwave so another job down.

Have decided that as things are tricky with money, we are going to re-do the bathroom and toilet but not replace. The toilet is new so that room just needs painting and a light. The bathroom, I’ll clean and re-grout the tiles, paint the walls and re-mastic around the sink and the bath. We’ll put a new floor in the two and the hallway. The washing machine will go in there aswell (there is space fortunately) and we’ll put a radiator in the bathroom and one in the hallway, all of which we’ve got already. There is piping from the old heating system there so hopefully (very) it should be relatively straight-forward for Carl to do. In that respect its going to save us a lot of time aswell so should be in a position to start advertising very shortly which is good.

Just finished up for the day and going to find something to throw together for tea, might have a quick shower (no heating!) and snuggle down for the night as they say its going to be colder tonight than it has been. That said it was very beautiful tonight when the sun was setting and will attach a picture.

Chin’s are, as ever up and we’ll see what tomorrow brings …

Well here we are four months on from my last / first entry, really must get my arse in gear and try to write regularly (I wonder if that’s ever been written before?). To carry on from my last post we met my parents in Biarritz had the night there went on to St Jean de Luz which was beautiful and came back to Chez ETC on the Monday and had a fantastic week with them here. Really relaxed and chilled; plenty to drink, eat and good company as ever, was hard to see them leave but I think they were relieved to get back to civilization.

So where are we now, well today we’re snowed in under 5 inches of lovely fluffy snow, it started at around 11:00 last night and just went for it, it’s quite lovely actually, the garden which looked dreadful yesterday morning now looks beautiful so it can’t be a bad thing! The roads around us are agricultural (with obviously big ditches either side) so decided on the whole that it would be better to snug down at home and brave it out rather than stashing the car (which incidently we now think needs a new battery as wouldn’t start, ho hum!). We don’t actually need to get anything at the moment (have wine, baccy and food in the freezer, essentials in that order!).

Will go back and write up what we’ve actually been up to in the last four months (or 16 for that matter) but thought it best just to actually write something rather that ignoring it because it’s too difficult.

Carl carried on putting up the ceiling in the kitchen today using the french metallic system which is interesting, good idea in general but a pain in the butt when your trying to avoid heating pipes, electric cables, dogs, cats etc etc. All ready for tomorrow to screw in the the final five or so pieces of plasterboard and that’s another thing off the list. I need to go round tomorrow and sandpaper the joints and then start painting so by tomorrow night my arms and back will be aching.

Things have been a bit tough lately, we’re now in the position that we’re out of money so that’s a bit scary to say the least. I have done all the things I needed to do to sign up for work and when the weather’s better will drive to Eauze (which is about half and hour away) and register with Adecco and Manpower. I have been to the Assedic to get my letter of inscription and then onto the Government run agency ANPE who have referred me back to Plaisance and an agency called Instep so I am waiting patiently (not really) for a phone call to go in and see them to see if they can help me to find a job - what red tape? In the meantime am asking around everyone we know to see if there’s anything I can do so keep you’re fingers crossed.

The house is, at a rough guess, now 95% finished and other than putting in the new bathroom is just fiddly bits and snagging so that’s quite encouraging and also with the weather being so bad, we can’t really go out so means we have heads down which is no bad thing.

T was out over Christmas which was lovely but she didn’t bring enough of her medication so basically ended up with three weeks on the sofa, she won’t make that mistake again. Was a bit difficult speaking to everyone over Christmas (first one away) and got a bit emotional, as per norm, but it was great to be just the three of us for the first time.

Anyhow, was relieved to get T back in one piece without a visit to the local a&e (1 hour away) and that she is now fully on the mend. When she got back she was jobless, which was unfortunate, however within the week she had sorted herself out (atagirl) and is now a trainee hairdresser which I think is fab for her and a great trade (especially for me - quite happy to be a model).

Looking at various things at the moment to earn some money, other than looking for a job, and one thing which seems relatively (I may regret that) straight forward is renting the house out on a long term let basis. To start of with if we get the interest, Carl and I would move into friends up the road and then renovate the barn at the side of the house for us to stay in. Not sure how this will work but is a distinct possibility.

I know this is a bit all over the place at the moment but will get the hang of it eventually and will try to write at least twice a week. Catch up soon xx