Cars and cuisines

I started the week feeling a little off kilter I have to admit. Despite the hot weather and endless fun in the river, boredom was beginning to creep in. I’m not used to doing nothing. Whilst everyone else was fussing around, moving the contents of L’Horte over to the new house in Rouffiac, I was left to amuse my dogs. Much as I love them, there is only so much time you can waste on the woofers before you start feeling suffocated. I needed to do something to get my future plans back on track before I went stir crazy. Time to tick things off my list.

First things first, I went car shopping with my nephew, Max. Max is a very useful young man when it comes to dealing with the language barrier, in my case I cannot speak car sales in either French or English. I knew what I wanted and had done my research so off we drove to Carcassonne and the Jeep showroom. Actually it was more like a large parking lot next to a very posh Mercedes building but my budget only went so far. An hour or so later, I had reserved a rather swish Jeep Renegade Hybrid to be picked up in a few weeks. Naturally, being an impatient person, I had hoped to motor out of the lot in a brand new 4×4 but I had chosen the newest model which of course they had to order in. One item on my list ticked off though and it felt good to be doing something.

Having done the car buying thing, I then had a meeting with my kitchen/bathroom designer, a plumber and a builder at the Rouffiac house. My younger brother came with me because he knows more than a few things about doing up properties and again, my French vocabulary doesn’t yet extend into builder speak. I am determined to conquer all aspects of the lingo but when it comes to spending money, best to have someone who isn’t going to say the wrong thing. Let’s be frank, he knows a thing or two about how much everything should cost too which is a bonus. Two hours later, I was desperate for a drink and a little disheartened at how long all the work is going to take. Thank Covid for that. Having said that, there is a lot of work I can do myself which will keep me busy until they come to rip everything out.

On the subject of moving forward to the next phase of life, we move out of L’Horte next week so my next blog will be from Rouffiac. I’m not sure how the dogs are going to take to moving yet again but at least there, they will be fenced in which should calm my nerves slightly (no more Bear wanderings). I am a little nervous about what the neighbours will think when 11 dogs suddenly appear but hopefully all will settle quickly and fingers crossed, quietly. Well, I’m not sure Alice can ever be quiet but I’ll cross that bridge once we are in house. At least L’Horte is only a few minutes away so I will still be able to run them on the land and give them a swim. Thankfully the recent rain has cleaned the river up after my brother moved the festering body of a boar further downstream. I can’t think why I ever thought I was bored?…..

“You have to keep busy. After all, no dog’s ever pissed on a moving car” (Tom Waits)