Having enjoyed getting out on the bike over the last few weeks I thought I'd perhaps watch for a second hand bike (hopefully Barbara won't read this) and I can't believe my luck. A couple of weeks ago we went with P & C to the annual Tractormania event in nearby Caussade. Not normally something I have a great interest in but it was a glorious day and I'll do anything to avoid gardening. Among the hundreds of ancient tractors & other rusting agricultural machinery I spotted this bargain. The owner said he'd not been out on it for a while and it had done no more than a few kilometres in the last 50 years. Think it'll be a while before it's ready for the Tour de France.
It's been a busy couple of weeks work wise as we continue to renovate a small house in a nearby hamlet ready for conversion in to a gite. I'm now an expert at mixing concrete and can offer an excellent service at competitive rates. Whilst I've been beavering away Barbara has not been idle. She's worked hard getting the garden ready for spreading grass seed (yes we know it's not the best time of year to plant) and, having picked up what we thought was a bargain in Aldi, was looking forward to getting the seed sowed. It was only when she opened the boxes of 'grass seed' that she thought she better check the English/French dictionary. Turns out our bargain engrais is in fact grass fertiliser. So if you know of anyone who's looking for 10 boxes of high quality fertiliser email me now and I'll arrange prompt delivery!
It's also been a frustrating week in the car department. The Land Rover has been in the local garage for over a month now waiting for them to prepare it for it's CT, the French MOT. Fortunately this runs for two years so we should get more than a couple of months use out of it. To be without one car is irritating but manageable but to be without both is bl***y frustrating. Last week the Focus broke down and spent 4 days in the garage waiting for parts, all €1,960.00 of them. Fortunately the fault was under warranty an Henry forked out for them. Which is just as well. Barbara was heading back to the UK on Sunday night from Toulouse and you can no doubt guess what happened. We'd travelled about 50 kms when the engine died and the car came to a stop on the hard shoulder of the A20 motorway. Oh dear!!!!! I won't bore you with the details but after making a phone call to Ford assistance and being told we'd need to get off the motorway to receive free recovery I had another go at starting the car and it worked, well at least long enough to drop Barbara off in time for her flight. On the journey back home, avoiding motorways, it cut out four times. Needless to say it's booked to go back in the garage.
Next week I'm off on a business trip, something I didn't think I'd be doing again, to Normandy. We're working on T's wife's house in Le Havre & I'll give you a full update on the next blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment