A bedroom at last

Another week of fitting plasterboards, plastering & at long last painting. There's still the second bedroom en-suite & small bedroom to finish boarding but with visitors expected on Sunday it was out with the tin of varnish & tubs of paint. While P & I continued boarding Barbara had worked extremely hard to meet the self imposed completion deadline of 28th & had she worked until midnight on Wednesday we'd have made the deadline. As it was we were only a day late (wish the roofer had been the same) & the first lick of paint was applied on Wednesday and early Thursday it was on with the second and the first of 2 coats of varnish to the bedroom floor. Barbara was up early on Friday morning brush in hand applying the second coat to the floor & then standing guard outside the bedroom door to make sure we didn't stray on to the wet floor. There are still one or two finishing touches required, the main one being an electricity supply, but after spending Saturday afternoon moving beds & furniture about we were at long last able to spend our first night in our very own bedroom. Whoopee! Having lived in one room for the last six months it seemed strange climbing the stairs to go to bed & having a living area without a double bed in the middle of it.

After a week of hard labour it was time for a rare treat & on Saturday night we booked a table with P & C at the local tearooms that do themed dining evenings once a month. Those of you who have read the blog since the beginning will remember we'd attended a Burns night when we first arrived here. This time it was an Italian themed meal with fruits de mer (not very Italian I thought) lasagne & tiramisu. I did ask for a bottle of Chianti but as is normal there was a wide range of wines available, as long as it was French!

Sunday morning we managed a bit of lie in. We'd only just got up when a car pulled in and 2 pompiers (firemen) got out. 'Quick turn the fire down' Barbara said 'it must be causing too much smoke and they think it's on fire'. She shouldn't have worried because they were selling a calendar & after a donation for the local fire & ambulance station. It was a great mountain biking morning, not too cold, a little damp & lots of mud about & I managed to do a few kilometres. I'd not been out long when I came round a bend & was met by a man out walking his dog & two goats. The goats & man were quite friendly but the dog would have got a lovely kick had the owner not managed to catch it & put it on a lead. Back at the house it was a quick tidy up as we were expecting visitors from the UK. Peter, an ex colleague & skiing buddy, and his wife Angie were on their way to Spain and were staying with us over night. We had been a little concerned that they'd find our 'facilities' a little basic but as it turned out we needn't have worried as they'd spent Saturday night sleeping in their van in a French motorway services! It hadn't been one of Peter's better ideas and one I think he will be reminded of on numerous occasions in the future. After a quick tour of Najac we called into to see P & C and finished off a relaxing day with a lovely meal cooked by yours truly.