Drains drain

Oh .. poor my dear friend has to down tools on kitchen and pick up tools for drains.

The drain man I have to pay did not come yesterday morning. That was the third date agreed!
When I phoned to see where he was, he said he'd pass by at 14h, which he did. This gave us a chance to verify what has to be done by my friend. We have been cautious!

Tuesday should be the day when the road is dug up.. and a rodding point installed into the road. PLUS overkill perhaps there will be two more "regards" on my side of the road. They have cost about £85 without installation costs of cement, pipes etc...

As I write this my friend is lowering the pipe as agreed so that the descent is correct. It hasn't been!

After the work the road should be repaired, then on another day, Hopefully the day after,  the man will return to install the drainage cover.  We will then have to finish cement work,  reset the gate posts and backfill around the pipes with sand .  I have the tricky task of finding about ten paving slabs that match the existing ones as they had broken with the wear and tear of vehicles going over them in the last 6 years!

Blue meanies ... Drains it has to be! ... we don't get an opportunity to see the Tour de France at any of the nearby villages and towns! 

Almost a month since I thought Summer was here

I was duped!
The weather has been wet, grey, humid, miserable with occasional glimpses of the golden orb!
We have also been working at the kitchen.
Me?   I am the client, the support, the skivvy, the observer, the organiser,  the finder of lost tools,  the person to be consulted about "would you like it like this or this?", the second pair of hands, the person who tries to keep up morale when IKEA kitchen problems arise....
He? He has been the one to use intelligence, skills and expertise on how to put it all together.
We are nearly at the end of the process but not without a few dramas and visits back to IKEA... and still another one is necessary because the second tap also drips very slowly, but it drips and I shall return it and go to a different shop to spen a little more money on a quality tap .. maybe Grohe.

In addition, for the last 4 to 6 weeks the courtyard has been dug up because the mains drains needed attention.  We have installed one Clark drain cover for the existing rodding section which we left below pavement slabs, sand and gravel.  There is another one to instal but we are awaiting delivery of a smaller Clark drain cover.

Today the specialist should arrive on the third date given to make a third rodding drain cover on the public road.  In addition the pipes have to be resited a little so that they have the correct direction of descent!!!!!!!!!!
I really do not need a fourth 'dig up' of the waste system to ensure there is no further backup!  There was enough of that at my previous French residence and it's all very well with strong arms but I don't have those nor the inclination to rod the drains!

Almost a month since I posted on my blog, but I have been disinclined.  It takes time to focus, load photos, type text,  and I just have not been focussed on this form of diary!

Perhaps when I have more of my own time again, or before, I will be able to report on my kitchen progress.

Update on the bathroom

 

                 A space becomes a room when the concrete floor is tiled and grouted. 

It even feels like a room as one treads carefully, feeling the splendour of potential, visualising the warmth of water! 

In the far left corner the frame for the toilet water cistern is now screwed firmly to the floor. 

Each step has to be thoroughly thought about... the diagrams for installation have to be studied, yet again, measurements must be made, drilling 6 holes for the long bolt fixation screws through the tiles into the concrete floor must be accurately executed as there is no millimetre allowance for error.  

The waste connection pipe was being a beast to connect and seemed impossible,  but then after both kneeling and manoeuvring it,  trying to understand the conundrum of why there was insufficient space to angle the white tube into the grey waste pipe, whilst listening to some choice words, I just did it!!!!!! Twist it away from the target then another twist and hey voila!  Maybe a plumber I could be!  As he said it takes a woman!  Then it was tea time treats!

First Tuesday Salad Days

Two beautiful songs to celebrate the first Tuesday moving stone, sand, gravel, garden pots then clearing and sweeping the courtyard now that the drainage solutions are complete.  

Another load for the déchetterie.  

Another fine lunch: different salads with fresh smoked mackerel from the fishmonger - a whole fish which I skinned and deboned, flaked with aioli and served on toasted 'sweet chestnut and fig' bread from the local bakery.   

In French markets and supermarkets, cooked "betterave" is often a long variety. I love the way the crunchy, darkened, brown skin can be pulled off.  A favourite salad is to chop beetroots, garlic, leeks, cooking/eating apple, then mix with sultanas or raisins, mayonnaise or aioli, lemon juice/rind and season to taste.

The whistling wind arrived late afternoon and so it was to batten down the hatches,  keep warm by the fireside with less physical activity.

First of all, The Moody Blues and Tuesday Afternoon 1967

followed by 

The Rolling Stones and Ruby Tuesday 1967

 

 

She would never say where she came from

Yesterday don't matter if it's gone

While the sun is bright

Or in the darkest night

No one knows

She comes and goes

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

Who could hang a name on you?

When you change with every new day

Still I'm gonna miss you...

Don't question why she needs to be so free

She'll tell you it's the only way to be

She just can't be chained

To a life where nothing's gained

And nothing's lost

At such a cost

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

Who could hang a name on you?

When you change with every new day

Still I'm gonna miss you...

There's no time to lose, I heard her say

Catch your dreams before they slip away

Dying all the time

Lose your dreams

And you will lose your mind.

Ain't life unkind?

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

Who could hang a name on you?

When you change with every new day

Still I'm gonna miss you...

FRENCH LANGUAGE:

betterave /bɛtʀav/ feminine noun =  beet ~ rouge beetroot

aioli = garlic mayonnaise

ail  pluriel = l'ails or l'aulx /aj/o/ masculine noun = garlic 

poireau, pl ~x /pwaʀo/ masculine noun  = leek

First Monday Wrong Shoes

Fleetwood Mac - Monday Morning 1975

Up relatively bright and early to witness the final skim of floor-levelling compound in the bathroom-to-be, then to help raise flagstones in the drive to reveal the guttering drainage pipes which have to be re-routed.  I keep finding myself saying, "Wrong shoes", as I try to keep outdoor and indoor shoes separate.  I have tiled floors and am constantly sweeping, vacuuming, mopping.  Clean sand, mucky sand, stones and rocks, have been dug out and heaped onto polythene sheets so we can drag and tip back in the dug channels after the new pipe has been laid.  Stone rocks are being carried to the growing rockery at the end of my rear garden and rubbled earth was scattered on the dips in the 'lawn', Broken slabs and rubbish from the ground was collected for the déchetterie. All mains drainage pipes had to be tested with the real thing!  Not nice but it had to be done as the drop, I think is 1mm or 1cm in every 100.  I never remember figures.  My friend is experienced in drainage difficulties! Then we had to lift and carry sand in the wheelbarrow from the rear garden to the front courtyard.  Kept after the beams were blasted, it was bound to be useful.  Back and forth helping the main man.

Meanwhile, I re-organised and cleaned the laundry/larder room.  And why on earth did I choose clinically white floor tiles?  Yes, I can see the dirt! I've now organised 'ballet shoes' by the door so that I don't wear 'wrong shoes' and make footmarks on the floor!  This is where the aerodynamic water boiler is situated and I'm sure one day it will take off! I also carried a lot of logs in..for the two woodburners as well as chopped kindling wood from the waste wood piled in a dry outdoors area.

Lunch was mainly pre-prepared: home made beef and mushroom casserole found in the freezer, which I served with wild rice and savoy type cabbage.  Yesterday the freezer section of the fridge which also acts like a freezer needed to be urgently de-iced... and hey, I have a guest invited for New Years day dinner!  For dessert it was more of the Tesco Christmas pudding that I cooked yesterday. Blackened, dried fruits had 'coagulated' into a rich and creamy consistency.  My daughter gave it to me... and being never too much worried about sell-by and eat-by dates decided to give it a try. It was dated 2007/2008 and was remarkably delicious with cream and brandy butter. By 16h we were wilting. Tea and the shared final slice of a New Year chocolate gooey French cake indicated we'd had it!  Here I am resting and reporting but the next task is to tackle the paperwork.

How unusual is this?
Daffodils in my garden are so small that I have had to carefully place the metal wine rack on the grass to protect them from being trodden on.  They were not dwarfed last year!
Yesterday, the blackbirds sang as if it were Springtime.

FRENCH  LANGUAGE:
déchetterie; noun feminine  = waste recycling site