Thursday 31 December 2015

The seventh of twelve

On the seventh day of Christmas it was a lazy day to end the year.
I look forward to having a better time in 2016.
THANK YOU to everyone who helped me in 2015...
many gave words of encouragement... it all helped!
Here are six animals who seem to enjoy my visits this last week .. ah .. food they say!






Wednesday 30 December 2015

The sixth of twelve

On the sixth day of Christmas ...

I collected two eggs.
Two cats had a playful fight for supremacy.

Les pompiers arrived.  I was glad to donate in exchange for a calendar. They gave me a receipt.
One had worked 27 years as a voluntary fireman, the other four.
One was an arboriste and the other researched argile for the ceramicists. Fascinating. 
 Two new part time neighbours who'd asked for advice earlier this year were invited for aperos... so I made blinis which were more like Scotch pancakes - delicious kept warm on the woodburner eaten with or without hummous. Vouvray - an early celebration of the change of year for me!

How lovely to receive flowers to add to my poinsettia.
I remember arriving in France 12 years ago and being in shock horror about the price of flowers. These days the supermarkets and florists have cottoned on to present bouquets and even wrapped plants at an affordable price.



Tuesday 29 December 2015

The fifth of twelve

On the fifth day of Christmas
all was as still and quiet as a mouse ... in my house ...
as I listened to the radio.
I told myself that I wasn't being lazy as I spread out on the settee in front of the warm woodburner mid morning.   I WAS being focused. I WAS concentrating,  listening to issues of the 21st century that I know little about.  It was Woman's Hour; subject - transgender issues.
Then ...
in the quiet of the day,
battling with lack of concentration to do much at all
I
cleared garden weed debris to take to the dechetterie
wrote hand written letters to people I like
cleared paper stuff that no one else has generated
brought in logs
ate eggs
visited the cats and chickens - two eggs today.  One cat wasn't there; the other wanted to play.
invited people for aperos when really I want to be the one to be invited. I can be gracious.
celebrated peace and quiet
enjoyed the still small voice of calm.
Hark! what can one hear?
PEACE.

Monday 28 December 2015

The fourth of twelve

On the fourth day of Christmas my own LOVE said to me:

"What are you going to have for breakfast?"
"EGGS!"
"Ah YES! Eggs! those lovely pretty chickens will have some more for me today!
Let's have two boiled eggs for breakfast."
And so I did!
Then:
discipline took me under control! 
SELF-LOVE says I must balance the budget for the year and see what good cheer could be made in 2016. Not a lot! Rather scary!

Later, I collected three eggs from four chickens. Tonight it will be a kind of frittata with rocket, potatoes, smoked salmon and EGGS!! ... if I can scramble it together in the oven part of the micro-combi, having sautéed the rocket and boiled the last of the Charlotte potatoes. It wasn't too bad but 15 minutes was too long - 12 might have been better.  However, all this shows the wonder of having a real oven. Never, ever, be without a REAL OVEN. It's absolutely necessary if one loves food! 
Bon oeuf!




Sunday 27 December 2015

The third of twelve

On the third day of Christmas sunshine came my way.

LOVE smiled in my garden whilst all I could hear
were crows cawing endlessly and an aeroplane in the air.
Chickens in the distance, no sign of human race
here to appreciate this peaceful breathing space.
I stood looking, thinking, breathing, in the morning hour,
'minding my memory that effort needs hard labour,
to plant seeds, nurture them before they come to fruition,
whilst wild plants need controlling for a calming vision.
A Garden to be controlled.
A Garden is a Labour of LOVE.

LATER:
I went to my duties, to be rewarded with six eggs.... oh is it omelette tonight?  BUT, as I returned via 'la Place' I considered to indulge in an entree with 'une verre du vin' at la cafe. It looked busy. I lost my nerve.  As I saw the 'oyster' people packing I regained my nerve.  Six 'moyenne' were opened. Happy was I to walk home with my plate, envisaging a picnic, nay a feast, in the sunshine of a garden. All for 2e50.

OH MY GOSH... I am sometimes a woman who knows how to treat herself kindly. We ate, my cat and I.  Well she didn't much fancy an oyster nor 'les poivrons rouges farcie au thon',  exquixotically incroyable!  Part of a little crottin, (not my cat!!!), goats cheese sadly non cru followed with biscuits, dates et guacamole, a touch of peppery spice! I ate lemon rind knowing it's good for my tummy!  All awash with a Montbazillon 2013, half bottle, bought for last Noel.




In the warm sunshine I read,  slept, weeded.  I took some selfies but I look old!  I wanted to stay outdoors...but needs must bow to 'warmth inside' when the heat of day disappears!!! Thank you for my lovely lazy day!

Saturday 26 December 2015

The first and second of twelve

I am beginning to think I shall end this blog...
but I won't,
until I have completed 'the kitchen' in a way that is fulfilling in my senior days!
I think that by then I will WILL be ready for a new life, and, hopefully, by then, in 2016, I will have developed a better sense of Thoughts, Needs, Hopes, Dreams, Regrets, AND moreover what I DO NEED to achieve before I can't.
This has been the red curtain hanging open upon my stage... it's still open and until the day I cannot BE, it isn't yet the final curtain.
I am trying hard to appreciate the difficulties that other persons experience.... and how it must be that HOPE is so hard to think about.
The glass is half or more full in my life despite whatever black dogs haunt me!
It is true that I've felt tired of blog posting, but not tired of being creative, if I can harness a positive stimulus. However, being human, I am proud that I can confront / express emotion without sweeping debris under the rug or into a box to put upon a shelf.  It is  better out than in.  I write for me and not for an audience! I write so that I can begin to understand LIFE as it is doled out ... or as I take whatever I take!

SO... an idea arose on my walk today: 45 minutes trailing The American Way leading to 'La Tranche Anglaise' with the final ascent then descent back to MY HOME. Oh yay, my home. Am I not fortunate to not yet be homeless!  Let's Step back one day to yesterday...

On the first day of Christmas LOVE brought to me:
  • a cycle ride along a strait then walking long shallow ascents on the return (TOTAL time : an a hour and a half)
  • a reindeer in a tree ( amusing )
  • champagne and oysters...eaten in warm sunshine ... all we needed was the beach!  I provided a delicious Lanson Champagne... I am sold!!!
  • delicious Christmas flavours, Anglais sur l'assiette.. which isn't what mine host envisaged. As I said to her later, we learn from Christmases we experience. Those who served were instructed to get the food portioned onto the plate before it lost heat! ... the plus side were the wines, the humour and that it was achieved in true French fashion ... eating over six hours with pleasant intervals when various people removed themselves from the table to return at the appropriate moment!  
  • the fun and joy of children interacting with adults... 


    How delightful to see a 4 year old eating more than one!!!!
    The beautiful hand made tablecloth from Emmaus for less than ten euros!!!!! 

    At least 20 plates / dishes of different sizes  portraying Hummingbirds ? Colibris from Emmaus for ten euros!
    I do like a boy chicken!
    Whilst a modern pudding much like a steamed sultana pudding with a caramel type sauce was interesting I much prefer a real Christmas pud of home made quality but it has been some years since I have had the desire to make one!
and let us step forward to today:
On the second day of Christmas LOVE brought to me:
  • a glorious warm spring-like day temperature about 15C!!!!!
  • laziness feeling being content...
  • a 45 minute walk to my friends' house to find out my holiday duties ...






Trees lopped or felled to provide logs for the owners of the land and to provide a clear view of the mill house!

Le Tranche Anglais - allez -up!
 Indeed - Allez ... up!!!!!!

Friday 25 December 2015

Christmas 2015: Angles sur L’Anglin
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2015 as I've sent no cards or gifts this year. 
But I DO send a gift of LOVE, CARE, HOPE for better times! 
HOPE that Family and Friends relate kindly!
HOPE that displaced people find safety, warmth, shelter, food, purpose, income and an expression of their own talents, skills and intelligence.
Two Poems: Two birds: Five Photos: Two February months of a French Wintry World

Les Petits Oiseaux: SweetpeainFrance copyright December 2015

I have no photo of a blackbird, no poem of robin.
Yet on my roofs 'des petits oiseaux' stand and sing:
“Bon Noël”- we bring for you “une année heureuse,”
whilst Sweetpea sings Peace for Earth, Sky, Universe
Jewels for a Blackbird, returning summer and spring,
here is my poem to ring ding a ling.
Hope, Health, Happiness – All is Everything.

​Robin February 2015 copyright

Jewels for a Blackbird: SweetpeainFrance  copyright February 2012

Today I was singing and dancing 
as I stepped through the snowy hedged woodland 
where the angled branches of the trees criss-crossed each other 
as the patterns highlighted by white snow
rested on the tops of the lines of the branches. 

I had no camera. 

Today I was singing and dancing 
along the snow-packed lane feeling the joy of living 
to witness such regal majesty
of the wintry phenomena of frozen water 
and the prints imprinted of animals, humans, wheeled vehicles,
skis and toboggans; 
all had been there before me with tracks to places known and unknown. 

Today I was singing and dancing 
to let the bright light into my eyes and heart 
and let it make me tired and content.

Today I was singing and dancing
as blackbird hungrily ate the beautiful red jewelled pendants
hanging in a garden not far from the river.  

Jewels for a blackbird.  Will he sing and dance for me?

​The Chateau Angles sur L'Anglin: February 2015 
The End of the End of Year Message! 

Roof 1 Oiseau 1
Best wishes for 2016 
Roof 2 Oiseau 2


Tuesday 22 December 2015

Visioning the end of another Saga

I am not exactly living in clover but I can see that the glass is half full as well as half empty.

Since May when I'd lost a pair of Bulgari long distance spectacles bought one year ago for £360 ... (how mad was that expense for vanity!!!!!), I later discovered some of the remnants in the mowed grass!!! Then I lost another pair of vintage Gucci gold frames . Then another frame of vintage Gucci gold!  What a spectacle of a year!  Driving at night was dangerous. Long distance driving was dangerous.
In early December, with decisiveness I chose frames that I sort of 99% like, and that were also as near to being 'like for like' under the Vision Express insurance,
Whilst there, I ordered a cheaper pair of spectacles so that I can keep one pair for special moments of 'going out' and one pair for general wear when driving etc.

Today, my new Silhouette spectacles arrived. JOY that the saga has ended. 

The lady at Vision Express who was so extremely patient since May, should proceed to the top of the tree as a star and grow wings as the angel she is!  I have written that to her.

Today, I am mowing the lawn, or should I say clover.  I am NOT wearing any spectacles!!!!!!

I think depression is lifting. It has been with me up and down for most of the year and although I know why it is destructive when it occurs.  Last night I decided to take the tablets so that I don't continue to be Mrs Grumpy or Mrs Weepy!

Monday 21 December 2015

Surfacing from a 14 month Saga....

The meeting of October 28th was awful.  Stress was unbearable. Now emotions were rising out of control as I had not taken anti-anxiety pills for several weeks.  I succumbed to a secret swig of brandy at one point because I couldn't contain my despair, fear, frustration, sense of injustices, annoyance, plus a level of feeling rejected and abandoned by the lawyer, the expert independent assessor but more so by the electrician and the rep from THERMOR.  It appeared to me and others that they had no CARE or APPRECIATION of my difficulties endured in the last year.

The invoice for this 2 hour plus meeting was absorbed by the electrician. I dread to think how much he was charged BUT GOOD... it is my only satisfaction from this SAGA.

The electrician who never deemed it 'entrepeuneurial' to look after his client deigned to come 35 minutes early.  I wonder what he was hiding from!
On the day of the meeting I'd just finished the domestic cleaning for the morning and was about to have a much needed coffee. He'd arrived early.  He insisted the meeting was at ten but I showed him the letter as he waited by the gate. He wanted to come and measure the room. OK.  It wasn't in my interests to be unpleasant! He looked rough and unshaven. His mobile phone screen was smashed.
I let them pass my roadside gate.
From previous other electricians who had been invited to look at the machine I knew that the room was only just at its lower limit and the machine did not have sufficient ventilation.  How odd that this is the first thing the elctrician wished to do as if he knew what the problem was!
The rep started to ask questions whilst he measured in what appeared to be frantic behaviour.   I thought they'd purposefully arrived early to disturb me.  She was aghast when I'd said I'd not had hot water for two months... clearly, she did not know the story! THIS shocked me.  After 6 weeks of waiting since speaking with Protection Juridique insurance for which I'd paid monthly for five years why hadn't the lawyer communicated with the manufacturer?
Then these two asked for the electricity fuse to be switched on.  Immediately the chauffeau thermodynamique blew the general electricity in the whole house.  AT WHICH I asked them to leave to return in 25 minutes at the correct hour because I thought the independent expert should be present. Why should I have to tell the story twice?  YES, he also did not seem to know the story.  Why did it appear that Protection Juridique had not told him. i felt that I was being judged.

My point with P. J. insurance / legal support was that the electrician was neglectful and had not done what he said he would, i.e. return after May with information as to what was wrong.  He had not CARED! I was bringing a case against him for that as well as that for course I needed hot water but now I had lost all confidence with this machine AND the electrician AND Thermor who I had contacted by email and spoken with on the telephone and each time they said I must call in the original installer.  I had tried since October 2014 when the machine made large growling sounds in addition to the hum!

During the meeting the electrician phoned  a frigoriste. I now know that although he installed this water heater he is not a qualified frigoriste!  It took him over an hour to prevent the machine disconnecting electricity in the whole house!

Eventually, desperate to find a solution to end the SAGA and have hot water, I agreed under severe pressure to sign an agreement that I would pay 420 euros for the mains d'oeuvre / replacement of a compressor which was dead (oh if only I were!!!!!!) and the electrician and manufacturer agreed to pay 828 euros for the compressor.  M y rising stress and tearfulness was unhelpful.  It is always uncontrollable.  There was no sympathy for my mental and emotional dis - ease as the independent technician spoke sharply to me and told me to stop crying. Believe me in situations like this the panic and anxiety arises and I revert to being like a child. I hate it!
So I signed. Breaths of relief could be heard from all.
THEN, the independent expert said I had to keep the doors open between the kitchen and the laundry room because the machine needed ventilation. They had not agreed what to do about that!  I was even more upset and exasperated.  They don't have to live with this situation which necessitates hearing the noise of 55 to 58 decibels (we recorded the sound level on an APP on a friend's smartphone)... plus having all hot air in other rooms being sucked into the laundry room to feed the machine!!!!!!!!

THEN they went away.   I was exhausted. 

Once calm and in discussion with others I realise that my anxiety and indecision comes and goes continually because it seems ludicrous to spend 420 euros with other ongoing issues, when for 1000 euros I could employ an different electrician to instal a chauffeau electrique in the same place. That is a normal ballon / tank. People had said to me: "Cut your losses and replace it with NEW."

As I'd had two estimates from two large companies quoting the same I chose one!

I called in an electrician recommended by Parisian locals.  I call him 'The Man from Montmorillon'.   He'd told me that the model is 'un mauvais serie' and he'd seen many of this model dead within a few years of installation - either le compresseur or le cuve is the reason.  This was the prototype model and subsequent models were modified by the manufacturer. The rep never said a word at the meeting (well she wouldn't I suppose!).  Unfortunately I was not aware of this factor until after the meeting on October 28th....
So because of that I cancelled the frigoriste making a second date into the next week in order to 'buy' myself more time to make a conclusion / decision.
Oh,  more troubles!!!!!
The machine cut the electricity in the house again at 8h 20 on November 18th. 
Immediately, I contacted MR COLLET the electrician who gives very poor service. I left a message as I had to goo out and he phoned three hours later. Reluctantly, he said he would be there the next morning at 8h BUT never arrived.
I  have no qualms in mentioning his name in these days of Trip Advisor and other such exposing of malpractice. It had been set to heat water without using the compressor.

Weirdly, on November 18th, the machine connected again and the lights went on but the machine did not heat water as we discovered after 24 hours having used the water for shower and bath that day.  So me and my lady guest had no hot water after that for two weeks, when then I went to UK for two weeks.

So, in a dilemma, I further delayed on the frigoriste replacing the compressor because I was anxious that I had signed an agreement and actually wished to withdraw from that agreement.  Although I'd asked by letter and email and tried by phone to ask about my rights.. always I was told that I must have the compressor replaced!!!!!!!!!
Fear took hold.  
When the lawyer made a three way phone call with him and I on November 23rd,  he accused me of cancelling the frigoriste (TRUE ... when she asked :Is that true?) and he agreed he'd said he would come to my house, then never did (TRUE ... he said when she asked "Is that true?")  Again, under pressure of not knowing if I could withdraw or not  I agreed to do what she insisted thinking that this was a stupid step to take, because of what the man from Montmorillon had said.
 
So... I contacted an AVOCAT whose opinion I felt I could follow. He wanted a copy of the agreement I'd signed. I never received it and at that time neither had the Protection Juridique.  The avocat commented that in his opinion water heaters were not worth repairing and they should be taken out and a new one installed... SO THAT IS WHAT I DID...it was the confidence I needed to make a decision.

How did I manage without hot water for two months then two weeks?  With great difficulty.
Well... it took up to two hours depending on my activity back and forth to the tap, microwave and kettle to boil water and fill two orange BnQ buckets.  Diluting hot with cold, I sat in an empty bath pouring water over me bowl by bowl!   HOWEVER, this was easier than 2012 when I had to do that in the exterior bathroom when outdoors was -26 degrees. The radiator in the outhouse didn't much improve the heat of the room!  Ah ... history and the joys of French housing!!!!!!!!!! One has to laugh at the memory!

The artisans working for the 'Man from Montmorillon'  imstalled the new water heater on December 14th.

BLISS...
a) there is SILENCE IN THE HOUSE... even my English / Italian friend had said the previous machine was a racket. Poor girl she didn't get a shower or a bath either!!!!!!
b) There is NO COLD AIR IN THE HOUSE.
BUT all is not yet hunky dory as there are two small leaks on each of the hot and cold taps on the tank. I need a new disjoncteur and I need the machine connected to heures creuse and heures plein.

Yet yippppeeeee...enter the 21st century in Western Europe! 
How lovely it is:

a) to have a hot bath to keep clean, enable bodily functions, relax and warm muscles and nerves at any time of day.
b) to wash the psyche and produce better morale to appreciate sanity ... a hot fall of shower water cascading onto my head or plunging head and hair under hot water is extremely good to combat dark bouts of depression that seem to beset me. 
c wash pots and pans and do the dishes; it isn't such a chore when before I needed to walk back and forth with a kettle of water whilst not having a kitchen in the kitchen room.
d) hand wash clothes is easier.

ALMOST the END OF THE SAGA... all when there is no kitchen appliance or surface in the kitchen........ Will I ever face the fear of how much it costs when I'd lost contact with the price of things.   

In the interim, the second roof ridge was repaired; they broke a load of tiles from the roof as they clambered to the ridge on roof ladders in two places. At the same time they repaired the second lucarne. The timber was soft and powdery.  So there goes the kitchen funds saved out of pension! 

Ah... did I mention the word BLISS????   Must have been an error!