ETC Gites

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

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.