Happy birthday

After all the partying last month I had thought that we'd have time for a little R & R in September. What I hadn't taken into account was that Barbara had a very special birthday on the 21^st. It had been a real struggle to keep our plans a secret from the birthday girl and apart from telling her we were booked on a flight from Rodez on Friday 18^th (it wasn't hard to guess we were off to London as that's the only flight from Rodez) everything else was a big surprise. I'd booked into the Travelodge in Covent Garden (no expense spared) and had arranged to meet Rebecca and Matthew at one of the hundreds of pizza restaurants in the West End. Fortunately R & M had chosen well and the birthday weekend got off to a great start especially as it was two pizzas for a tenner. Saturday morning and it was time to hit Regent Street which, despite there being a 'credit crunch', was heaving with people, most of them with bags full of purchases. I took the opportunity to don my anorak and headed for the Apple store and watched a very interesting presentation on Snow Leopard!! After a very nice lunch at Princi it was time to reveal the first major surprise of the weekend, tickets for Les Misérables. I didn't think it was going to be my sort of musical, not that it mattered as it was Barbara's birthday treat, but I thoroughly enjoyed despite Susan Boyle and found “I Dreamed A Dream” amazing live. After a quick dash back to the hotel for a wash and brush up we headed for the Oxo tower and cocktails and a

fantastic view of London. Sunday and it was off to Greenwich and the final surprise of the weekend, a visit to the planetarium at the National Maritime Museum, a great finish to a very busy weekend. There was one thing that was missing from what other was otherwise was a fantastic weekend, a pint of good old English bitter. There was certainly no sign of a pint of Boddies at the Oxo Tower, no surprise there, but at one of the pubs we visited they only had Belgian beers on offer! With over 30 brews to choose from you'd have thought they could have at least managed a pint of London Pride.

Back at Lagarrigue it was time to get the work clothes back on (not a suit and tie) and earn a few Euros. I'd been asked to help renovate a couple of barns with a friend and it looks like it'll keep us out of mischief until at least the end of the year which will do nothing for my waistline. The barns belong to Jo who, some of you may remember from previous posts, is very hospitable and insists on an aperitif before lunch and another one before we clock off for the day. Ah well taping away on a laptop creating Powerpoint presentations seems a long long time ago.

We're now the proud owners of a fully completed balcony. The carpenter arrived with the banister last week and after a couple of coats of varnish it was time to enjoy a gin and tonic in the last few days of summer sun. Makes all that crawling about in years of merde de vache worth it.

All fêted out

A month since the last blog, bet you can't believe it! The sun continued to shine throughout August and as I write this it's still beaming down which is just as well as we now have Barbara's mum and aunt staying with us. It looks like they'll be the last in a long list of visitors we've had this year and hopefully they'll enjoy a spell of hot & sunny weather.

Traditionally August is the peak month for fêtes and parties and this year was certainly no exception. As I mentioned in the last posting we had a 'little' get together and that was followed by a birthday party on the Thursday where the meal was sun dried salted cod with sea snails and langoustine, not the ideal menu for Barbara and her seafood allergy. Rebecca arrived in Rodez on Saturday afternoon and had to quickly get her party dress on as we off to a party at P & P's, our next door neighbours. I offered to drive as Barbara always ends up behind the wheel at these events and I thought if I made the offer I'd done my bit for another 12 months! We had a great time and with several guests, including Matthew, deciding that with the temperature still in the upper 20's at midnight it would be a great time for a dip, the night went swimmingly! The night markets in Najac continued with one of them culminating in an evening of Irish music and dancing in one of the local bars. We also attended the fête in Les Mazières, another late night of eating, drinking, music and dancing all for €15.00. As I mentioned Rebecca had flown out to join her brother, there's no show without punch, and they certainly had a good week and amidst all the partying she did manage to get a bit of a sun tan.

The partying continued when we headed back to the UK for the wedding of P & C's daughter in Newcastle. The day went without a hitch (apart from the obvious one) and it was great to see the wet and windy north east again. The reception was held at the Baltic and with amazing views down the Tyne it's difficult to think of a better venue. Never being ones to miss an opportunity we also gave the house we'd bought in Blackpool a first coat of paint, organised some wall tiles and I had a haircut. Not that there's anything wrong with French barbers, it's just that they are so expensive and always want to give you a rouge tint!

It's not been all partying, although it feels like it, we have had a couple of trials and tribulations at the barn. Despite not having seen any major rainfall for nearly two months and with all the local streams having dried up we were concerned to see we were still getting water in the corner of the cave and had also noticed damp patches in the earth at the side of the barn. Upon removing the manhole cover from the water main stopcock we noticed a lot of water and decided it was time to contact the local water company. Their local surveyor was here within a couple of hours and after a very quick look he decided that the water main was leaking and he'd have to get a team out to repair it. At 9:00 the day after two vans arrive with a

mini

digger in tow and the within an hour there's a great big hole in the parking area full of water (sorry no pictures as we didn't want to give the impression we were recording their work!). It turns out that when they connected our new supply the joint wasn't sealed as well as it should have been and 22,000 litres of water had been escaping, not sure whether this was in total or per day, week or hour! Anyway after wading through a metre of mud and water the leak was plugged and the cave is now as dry as bone.

Not many new pictures this blog but will try harder for the next one.