It has been a week dominated by only one thing – the pool. Finally, after God knows how many months of headaches and delays, the weather report said all systems go. Roy and the Nicks (the tech team) arrived ready to lay the felt and put the liner in, not an easy task when you consider the size of the bloody thing and how many wrinkles had to be smoothed out as the hose trickled its bounty onto the pool floor. It’s at this point that I ought to mention how bad I am at Maths (scraped a CSE for those who remember such basic exams) so I hadn’t quite realised just how long it would take to get the water up to the first marker (so the boys can come and tweak everything before it’s filled right up). Two days to get to 60 centimetres in fact and I don’t even want to think about the water bill. All we have to do now is get the decking and fencing in, render the pool house and landscape the surroundings ready for next summer. I’m hoping the winter cover will keep the worst of the chill out or else we will wearing wetsuits in August.
With the arrival of October, thoughts turn to what to do as the temperatures begin to drop and the nights get darker. Well, I start my French classes on Tuesday and I’m feeling a little nervous to be honest. Apart from my unbelievably bad sense of direction even when following a SatNav and I have to hit the centre of Carcassonne in the peak rush hour, the main reason I decided to do the group thing was to get a bit more social life so one wants to make a good impression.
I had an idea a few months ago about extending my little abode into the space above. Said space is the same size as the apartment but currently only accessible via a loft ladder and to say it needs a lot of work is putting it mildly. The ceiling is barely there, there’s a huge concrete beam running along the floor and brick columns which look like someone wanted to play Jenga but it has potential. Lots of it. Of course, like everything else at chez nous, it’s going to need a very patient building team and a flexible budget so definitely a project for next year. I can’t help but feel excited about it though even if our current builder thought I was nuts. Now I just have to get a couple of properties in the portfolio to pay someone equally bonkers to take it on. Watch this space as they say.
I took the opportunity to take a load of dog stuff to one of the local charities a few days ago, how I managed to accumulate so much, I’ll never know. The car was crammed with fleeces, beds, blankets, bowls, coats, collars and the odd harness or two and after a quick drive into Carcassonne, gratefully received by Ingrid and her rescue. Mumo asked me later if I perhaps thought of volunteering, absolutely not I replied. Getting involved with anything dog-related is the last thing I want, I have quite enough of it with my own brood here. As much as I love them, I need to get away from them occasionally just to relax and talk about something other than the latest canine conundrum.
Arry just asked me when the pool would be open, Sherman fancies a dip…
“Either you stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean (Christopher Reeve)
Widow plus woofs 