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! 

Ongoing not hot water issues

It will be more than two months since no hot water from the boiler!
This morning an Independent Technician will arrive to give an unbiased diagnosis of the criteria affecting why I have no hot water and why the French ARTISAN installer (he will receive request to attend by 'lettre recommandée... signature required)  has not been responsible for:
1. not coming to look at it in October 2014
2. not doing what he said he would do, i.e. contact manufacturer to see how to repair it and report back to me... ( maybe he did do the first part???)
3. not doing as he was asked to do by Protection Juridique earlier this month
4. apparently installing in a room too small in terms of cubic space
5. apparently installing in a room without sufficient ventilation in and out

And so... what will this morning bring???  
Let us HOPE!!!

Les Grues Cendriers

The cranes flew overhead in several batches crying to announce that winter is not far away.

It had been a really warm, sunny day yesterday.  The day began in winter clothing but by coffee time we were wearing tee shirts or thinner jumpers.  My returning friend had arrived one week earlier than expected. We did 6 hours hard labour each plus with another chap for three hours.  First of all the huge ivy ball hanging onto the neighbour's plum tree, sprawling further across the chicken coop roof where now I store certain cuts of wood for the woodburner was attacked and a huge bonfire pile created.   Meanwhile another of the wretched nuisance acacia trees which had been sawed at head height a few weeks ago and is growing through the metal fence had holes drilled around the base. It was treated with trunk-killer and allowed to continue to be a fence support. My friend decided to treat in the same manner the other acacia trunks which had been cut to grass level last year.  They were still sending up young shoots.

With two hours before lunch they agreed to repair the broken wood supports holding up the corrugated roofing sheets that look like or are asbestos!  These were covered with about six sheets of corrugated metal, more fibreglass/plastic corrugated sheets, wire netting, a flat sheet of metal, halved breezeblocks, rabbit hutch concrete feeding troughs PLUS old rotten wood supports strategically laid by the previous owner of this property. What a mess!  It took much more work and effort than anticipated!  One task leads to another. I am glad it is done and the space in the sky is more favourable.  The plum tree can breathe and probably the ivy will grow again but we tried to cut it back at root level as much as possible.

After clearing up tools, cable. clothing and useful wood as well as the neighbour's wild patch,  I mowed the lawn! Grateful for aperos we sat in the garden at dusk as it is an hour earlier.  Then we enjoyed pre slow cooked beef in beer, carrots, spinach and jacket potatoes.

I attempted to keep the gravel below free of metal and dirt by covering with blue baches. This is an ideal place to sit in the shade and shelter.  All was finished this showery rainy morning.  Now there is a mountain of wood to chop for kindling etc from the lilac, from the garden, and from this shed roof.

The garden is feeling under control and after tomorrow we can start in earnest planning the kitchen.
There will be two weeks to crack the conundrum plus do other jobs before my friend goes south in France and after that maybe to Asia to warmer climes again. 

Diary entry

I'm not working hard enough. I am not getting up early enough.  Despite the alarm at 7h 30 I wake up up about nine!!

Sunday: I rested a lot as my wrist is painful.  Made myself do a half hour walk and a 1 1/2 hour walk.
In the evening I sat in the courtyard until about 8pm with a gin and tonic trying to THINK and PLAN.  Time is slipping by. Fortunately, I am a bit less worried about family.   It seems to have immobilised me but I am starting to take the "dynamisme" supplements again!

Monday: I managed to do domestic cleaning! Vaccing. Wet wiping floors, skirting boards, furniture, vowing to vac the ceilings another day. As I toiled I moved furniture around and bits and bobs, returning things to their homes!  That took me five hours with a coffee and lunch break, after which my friend and her three children aged almost 6 and 41/2 made small heads with clay.  She was inspired by the 'heads in the wall' and 'little people' from the walk at which I performed.  I really ought to return to pottery sessions.  So relaxing and therapeutic.  There is more clay left and so in two weeks time we'll have another session with the little ones. My friend and I like doing art with the kiddies.  There was quite a bit to clear up... very chocolatey clay! The children had excellent concentration skills and were good to keep to the washing facilities I engineered with buckets of water graded so as to keep the dirtiest dirty and the cleanest for the final wash!
It has been cold in the mornings and warmer in the afternoon.. so woodburner on to combat the chill!

Tuesday, an even later start because I while away time on the computer. This is a very bad habit when I know I should go for a walk.
Quel horreur I discovered the freezer wasn't ON... It must have flipped connection when I pushed it back towards the wall in the living room.
So I was forced to chop a lot of onions and garlic, put the 1.650kg of beef mixed with red beans into the slow cooker and the 1kg of shoulder of mutton sliced with the bones through it into a pan slow cooking on the camping gas hob.   No apricots or prunes in the cupboard to make a tagine!!!   I hope the fish, the chicken liver pate and not much else will be OK, as I am re freezing it!
After clearing the cooking mess, I decided that I must weed the gravelled area in the back garden. then I tackled the pruning of the 'angel's trumpets and cleared the huge dead branches from the lilac bush. I am trying to clear the dead wood and cut the vast wands to lower so that new shoots will push through. Might not get any lilac flowers next year.   I like CONTROL in the garden. So much vegetation now needs to be taken to the dechetterie. The trailer is full. I think the rest could make a bonfire!

 Wednesday.... I ran out of steam to write further....

Oh dear!

It was very annoying to be unable to uncork an extremely dry cork from the last of the 2009 Chateau Tour Bigorre Bordeaux red, bought at Auchan at the start of September.  An excellent wine winning a 2010 silver medal and at around 3 e per bottle was delicious and a quality wine in my opinion. Most of the twelve bottles were distributed as gifts in UK on my travels. Most were opened and the corks were not dry.  However, this one was so crumbly that it had to be pushed in.  As I did so, I was blinded!  Cursing the situation, I felt my way to the bathroom to douche / douse my eyes in clean, cold water. (No hot water in the taps!)  THEN, I was annoyed to see wine on the floor.  I was wearing a black outdoor fleece jacket to keep warm in my house and that, smelling of wine, would have to be cleaned.  Another horror in daylight was to see red stains on the living room wall. The piano and freezer cleaned ok as they are shiny!  How could so little make such a mess?  ggggrrrrbigorrreeeeee

Street Gallery

of the Guided Visit at the Folies Bastringues Festival...

The artists - Dominque, Celine and Corinne were very imaginative and creative.

Resting after Entertaining

The photos were taken with my camera by an unknown person but I forgot to show her how to use  zoom.  Digital cropping reveals a flavour of the Vagabond.  It was dusk on a clear night. The first stop after the Chevalier where there was no music was at Le Lecteur.  A prostrate figurine reading a book. I must try to read like that again!  Thomas with his Stroh-violin.

 ...here they come towards me...

...where I play "Coeur Vagabond" to the Green Man.  In France called le Bon Homme...this one with his head in the clouds or wind...

The group moved to the wall of faces.. look closely for, I think, 127 in total.

At 'le facteur', a wire bicycle is mounted on a circular roofed postbox. Thomas read and posted a postcard.

 He played again at 'L'Abri' -

I'd moved on to 'Les Arches' to play "Gypsy Mood" - a concerto type piece with slow, fast, majestic and light sections.

Being in the back street with little light, surrounded by dark stones of the church wall, opposite the Tree with White Leaves Reflected in a Mirror (my title),  I wasn't happy with my rendition of "Autumn Leaves".  I was  cold and tired. Thomas was supportive, encouraging with his accompaniment, or maybe I was accompanying him.  It was strange to play with the Bass Stroh.  He is an excellent professional musician and theatrical artiste.  I am hoping he will give me another opportunity to play but in warmer conditions where I can sit down!  Earlier, I had chosen to stand where I could have sat down...I had not realised how arduous it is doing street theatre!

 Moving on... 'A la Derive'... being adrift...the scarf was nice but a nuisance!

At the last artistic creation, returning to the place where we'd started, we did an unscheduled replaying of  'La Derive'.
Normally, I do not like to publish photos of me but at the age of 66,  recognising that I have played the accordion on and off since I was aged 7, I realise that this accordion has been 56 years in my ownership and is definitely a few years older than that!
I am publishing because this is the second time this year I have been invited to perform in public. The accordion is heavy. It takes a toll on my back and since the bicycle accident and biceps tendonitis my wrists. These wrists were beginning to give out last night but I managed to pull the beast of bellows in and out, pushing buttons, fingering keys.
I am publishing because I am celebrating my talent which has given immense enjoyment to me and to others.  Poor things who do not like to hear it, including the cat who needs to escape the room!
I am grateful to my mother for sacrificing her time and earnings to give me lessons with the renowned accordionist Martin Lukins in the late 1950s / early 1960s.... that was before I stopped to learn the piano with Mary Ash, my school music teacher.
Last night, someone asked if I had french 'prix' for my playing.  No, I have no qualifications!

WITH THANKS TO THOMAS and the Folies Bastringue Festival....Many people work hard to bring artistic experiences to the villages of France.  It has been a pleasure for me!

This is one of the places...

...within Coussay les Bois on Saturday 17 October between 19h and 20h where I shall be playing my piano accordion as a Vagabond with Thomàs and his Stroh instruments.

 

On Saturday music will draw people along the route... 

pointers for people to observe 'les petit choses ephémèrales' as dusk moves to darkness.

I shall be assisting a guided tour - a Promenade to view sculptural forms created by three artists and inspired by peoples and their surroundings, history and geography, language and poetry, music and art.
On Wednesday evening I went as a guest to the first of the eight guided walks.  It helped to know the route!  Afterwards there was mulled wine and an opportunity to purchase the CATALOGUE  for 5 euros which shows wonderful photos, poems and explanations of the sculptures. Also acquire a free programme for the events in the village between 9 and 14 November 2015.
I'll show my photos of the works after I have played on Saturday but the Catalogue is excellent. WELL... here are three tasters.  One piece I shall play is called 'Gypsy Mood' and another 'Coeur Vagabond'.  With Thomas we shall play 'Autumn Leaves' and 'À La Dérive'. I hope for DRY weather and not too cold on the keys for my little fingers...but my accordion prefers warm and sunny weather! And so do I!   It will be different to NOT play Musette style music but to perform a more dramatic, theatrical style... I hope!!!!

A beautiful rose

window at Le Petit Pressigny:

Art at the heart of rural France

Le Petit Pressigny held their wonderful art event this year.  Last year, either it rained or it was cancelled!  This year artists and their works were more interesting and attainable to understand and to purchase than in 2013!  Usually, I try to see everything but this year I was more relaxed. I couldn't find any apples or walnut oil on sale.  I intended to return to buy a butternut squash or pumpkin for 2 euros but forgot as I was keen to move on and see my friend if she was at home. However, walnut bread was found, but I declined to buy apples baked in pastry. They were something we used to make in my domestic science lessons at school.  Naughty but nice, I purchased several slices of English cakes as my oven is caput and I don't wish to make cakes in a mirco-combi oven.
I wrote a postscript here.
Shortly after my arrival, unbeknown to me, I'd dropped my camera after sitting with friends.  It was at least an hour or more later when I wished to take a photo ( I am careful to not be too intrusive to the creativity of the artist  even though cameras are clicking often)  that I discovered it was not in my bag!!!!!!        "eeeekkkk" ... said "The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark" by Jill Tomlinson.
Two artists said I had not left it on their stall, so I went to the ACCEUIL to ask 'si un photo-appareil est avec les objets trouvés'  et VOILA!!!  I expressed great gratitude to the person who found it and the madame said she would pass that on!
The table for 'les aperos' after the speeches was one of the prettiest I have seen since living in France.

Empty glasses...those little home made sponge fingers -Savoiardi or Boudoir Ladyfingers -were melt-in-the-mouth.

The Autumn flower and fruit decorations were art in themselves.

This man made a captivating speech about his? study of the survival of rural villages in France.

Recycled Glass Bottles. Everyone now seems to be making flowers like my pottery teacher used to do.

I just love the colours of Cosmos.

There were amazing models... this one of the threshing machine process

Balmoral Gingerbread at the English Tea Marquee as I had had no lunch!

The sculptures were many. I hope the artists made sales! This last one, metal and glass, would be ideal in my garden. I did not look at the price tag!