Curry, pointing & early start builders

Barbara had hoped that at least on Monday she'd be able to have a lie in but it wasn't to be. Just before 8:00 we're woken by the sound of next door's front door being knocked down by a couple of men with sledge hammers. Turns out it's our neighbour's builders who have forgotten to bring a key with them & they don't appear that impressed when I turn up with a key just as they brake the door down. The builders are the same company that did a lot of work for G & S and are ran by a Englishman so when it comes time for a tea break & they need water there's no problem understanding them. They'd brought a mini digger with them but no matter how big a hint I dropped they didn't offer to lend it me for a couple of hours. Just imagine what damage, sorry I mean progress, I could make with it.

As promised at just before 7:00 am on Tuesday M. Mazieres, the builder, arrived to start the pointing. It would appear that at last we've found a reliable tradesman. There's no time for a morning brew and it's straight on with the first batch of lime/cement/sand mix. With me labouring and hoisting fresh mix up the scaffold good progress is made and by 12:30 the first section has had the mortar applied and it now has to be left to dry. So off goes the builder for a siesta and says he'll be back at 4:00 to brush off the excess mortar. Watching the builder work it doesn't look that difficult a job so maybe when it comes to the barn we'll invest in some scaffolding and have a go ourselves! By Thursday the upper half of the front of the house is completed and we have time to pop in to the market in VDR. There's a stall that sells every herb & spice you can imagine and as I'm planning on making two traditional English dishes for supper on Saturday night a visit to the stall is essential. We're having Chicken tikka masala and, as there is so much locally grown fresh fruit available at amazingly cheap prices, summer pudding. It's going to be a real treat having a curry as, I think I've said before, Indian takeaways are few and far between in France. In order that we get the right spices I'd gone through the French/English dictionary and made a note of the French names on the shopping list. Despite many of the ingredients having the same names but different spellings the pronunciation is completely different. So much so that in the end the stall holder asks for my list and works through it correcting the French grammar and filling in the gaps.

I mentioned last week that Iggy's dad's son in law was going to come and cut the grass in our field. Turns out that he'd called last week but after doing only half a length of the field had felt there were too many stones and that his equipment would be damaged. Ah well back to plan B and utilising the strimmer that I still had on loan. We're not the only ones who refer to our neighbour, M. Guilbert, as Iggy's dad. When I was talking to the builder he said that he felt 'Iggy's Pop' was struggling with all the English in the hamlet & wished he was young enough to learn some English.

The weather has been really mixed and although we've had yet more rain it's been nothing compared with Sheffield and surrounding areas and at least we've been able to get on with working on the pointing & painting. By Friday the front of the house was finished and it was time to move the scaffold to the gable end and remove the top portion of render & the chimney. Normally I'm OK with heights but when you're climbing up the side of the scaffold with a sledge hammer to knock the chimney down & it begins to sway in the very light wind you hold on very tightly. The view from the top of the scaffold is fantastic but I only have time for a quick look as the top part of the chimney comes down a lot easier than expected & I'm able to get straight on with more hacking out. By the end of Saturday all the render is off and the bottom half of the chimney is consigned to the rubble heap. Now it's time for a well earned curry & rice.

Had time on Sunday for a spin out on the bike & despite doing more physical work than I've ever done it's still a struggle. Didn't do too many miles but found some very pretty hamlets nearby and it made me think I really should make the effort to get out more when time allows. Since the demise of the Merc I've been watching out for a replacement. I called in to the local garage for some petrol for the strimmer and noticed he had an old Mitsubishi 4 wheel drive for sale. It was quite a few years old but, according to the sticker on the window, had a new engine fitted recently. It would make an ideal tow car and would mean that we could get the trailer back on the road. There was no price on the window so I asked the garage owner what he wanted for the car. '4,000 Euros' he replied without even the slightest smile on his face so I took it he was being serious. It's no wonder there are fields of second hand cars all over France. At that sort of price I can't believe they ever sell any. I'll just have to keep on looking in the hope that a bargain will come along soon.