http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/18/david-bowie-astronomers-give-the-starman-his-own-constellation
and the words of one of his songs leapt into my mind .... Oh you pretty things
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBQ-S6njQQw
Monday 18 January 2016
Oh how he would have marvelled....
Maybe he knew ... that there is a new named constellation in the stars..... so cool an idea ... even if there is a dispute about its apparent location near Mars... or the distance between the stars...
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/18/david-bowie-astronomers-give-the-starman-his-own-constellation
and the words of one of his songs leapt into my mind .... Oh you pretty things
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBQ-S6njQQw
Admirable musical talent and voice... of only he could witness the accolades! I'm waiting for my copy of Blackstar at number one in the British charts today. I have no system to play it! Ironic that it is his first number one after his death.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/18/david-bowie-astronomers-give-the-starman-his-own-constellation
and the words of one of his songs leapt into my mind .... Oh you pretty things
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBQ-S6njQQw
Sunday 17 January 2016
It's all too easy
whilst living alone, at this age, to be like Bowie, apparently obsessed with anxieties and fears of loss, mental health, death etc.... but oh, if only one had his ability to create.
The mind has a terrible habit of wandering and bringing to the fore the most weirdest of thoughts!
I blurb about my own!
I wish I'd been artistically creative.
When two GREAT ARTISTs have died within one week, including the inspirational Alan Rickman, the inevitable demise (a friend bluntly says 'it is natural wastage!') results in the inevitable analyses and re-runs of performances presented now through internet media, by those reporters who are living. Thankfully the radio and internet are enough for me without television. The resultant articles are extremely informative filling the gaps in my knowledge, but also have beckoned me and others to Look Back, be it in Joy or Anger, or any other emotion. It helps a grieving process. It also wakens one up to get a move on whilst life is present!!!!!!
...to get things in order to support my adult children when they will have their hour of need in one hopes some grief of trawling through my personal stuff!!! I must leave it tidy! I must do this and that. But the doing of it is HARD! VERY DIFFICULT!
Getting the kitchen planned has taken so many hours and days. The room stares at me, defies me, says "it should be easy" and yes, it should. I think this, then that but have to return to the first or second idea because of available space etc.
I am aware of the start of the victim mode and want to be rescued! That will not do. I have to find the adult mode and be responsible. I bought the house. I took out the kitchen with the help of another because it was very damaged and unaesthetic ... and NOW ... ho ho ho it costs an arm and leg to instal a complete kitchen ... I still have two arms and legs and so I must afford it, whatever the future scenario! The sooner, the better and then I can be more free.
It is all too easy for any one of us to judge another. All this baggage we claim! It comes around again and again until we have sorted out the emotional pain we have gained in our very lives.
It's our pain and doesn't belong to anyone else.
It comes around again and again as we come into contact with REAL PEOPLE in our lives... not just those who have through celebrity status influenced our ideas on art and music, history, literature, geography, travel, food and other culture, textiles, nature, science technology, politics, economics, psychology, etc at the heart of our belief values and boundaries, but also those whom we have met fletteingly or deeply affecting our innermost core.
Bowie did what he could to transform his oddity and VOILA at the end of his life it was ashes to ashes ... and that is probably all we are. Maybe there will be a spirit or a soul that might squeeze through the gates of heaven but in my case.. .......I'd better start working harder.
Never too late .. is it?
The mind has a terrible habit of wandering and bringing to the fore the most weirdest of thoughts!
I blurb about my own!
I wish I'd been artistically creative.
When two GREAT ARTISTs have died within one week, including the inspirational Alan Rickman, the inevitable demise (a friend bluntly says 'it is natural wastage!') results in the inevitable analyses and re-runs of performances presented now through internet media, by those reporters who are living. Thankfully the radio and internet are enough for me without television. The resultant articles are extremely informative filling the gaps in my knowledge, but also have beckoned me and others to Look Back, be it in Joy or Anger, or any other emotion. It helps a grieving process. It also wakens one up to get a move on whilst life is present!!!!!!
...to get things in order to support my adult children when they will have their hour of need in one hopes some grief of trawling through my personal stuff!!! I must leave it tidy! I must do this and that. But the doing of it is HARD! VERY DIFFICULT!
Getting the kitchen planned has taken so many hours and days. The room stares at me, defies me, says "it should be easy" and yes, it should. I think this, then that but have to return to the first or second idea because of available space etc.
I am aware of the start of the victim mode and want to be rescued! That will not do. I have to find the adult mode and be responsible. I bought the house. I took out the kitchen with the help of another because it was very damaged and unaesthetic ... and NOW ... ho ho ho it costs an arm and leg to instal a complete kitchen ... I still have two arms and legs and so I must afford it, whatever the future scenario! The sooner, the better and then I can be more free.
It is all too easy for any one of us to judge another. All this baggage we claim! It comes around again and again until we have sorted out the emotional pain we have gained in our very lives.
It's our pain and doesn't belong to anyone else.
It comes around again and again as we come into contact with REAL PEOPLE in our lives... not just those who have through celebrity status influenced our ideas on art and music, history, literature, geography, travel, food and other culture, textiles, nature, science technology, politics, economics, psychology, etc at the heart of our belief values and boundaries, but also those whom we have met fletteingly or deeply affecting our innermost core.
Bowie did what he could to transform his oddity and VOILA at the end of his life it was ashes to ashes ... and that is probably all we are. Maybe there will be a spirit or a soul that might squeeze through the gates of heaven but in my case.. .......I'd better start working harder.
Never too late .. is it?
Wednesday 13 January 2016
Thinking outside of the box
RANDOM THOUGHTS THAT POP INTO MY HEAD ... in this case, as I light the woodburner and look at the crisp clear blue sky.
I have thought this, in this link which I include here ... not so much about his music but his eloquent intellectual style:
he was the one who did open the theatrical door onto a world already heading in that direction of openness in the late 70s...
who did make it OK for people to experiment with who they are to find their true person.
This man who has just died seems to have almost a godly persona .. and I believe he really has walked into the gates of heaven! I also believe that his life, now ended, will ricochet causing new positive developments in a modern world which is already changing.
The BBC one can share the link: http://bbc.in/1n7er5h
and if that link does not work:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/d5c291be-258c-4217-922e-38f9d78de878
and so I do agree ....
For some months, I've been trying to fathom out why my daughter is as she is... I have been thinking that her because it is my opinion that she has not been using her creativity, her intelligence, her happiness, her complex talents...one would perhaps think she isn't very intelligent but she has deep, deep knowledge that is blocked for some reason. She finds it difficult to be consistent - don't many of us? That in itself is a consistency in that she is inconsistent!!!!!!
Creativity is important.. people cannot live around the internet...I know this about my own behaviour. Two different peas in a pod!
As a young, naive person with television in the house, which I didn't often like to watch when family did on a boringly basis, I didn't know about the REAL world but I did tap into the aural one. We had loud, non stop rock music in our houses, once I'd left home. I also played classical stuff as a music student, until I managed to find Radio 4 and 'Woman's Hour' in my life. My husband played Indian music. One rental was a student house, the next in the middle of a field attached to a neighbour was a house sit where we were mindful of sound levels. Another was a detached house in the middle of rural England where the nearest neighbour was some distance! Great years for feeling a sense of freedom and an attempt at 'the good life'. They were the times, the early 1970s when even though one was a rebel one still did what establishment said ... for example, following what the BABY BOOKS said about babies... and I very much regret their advice to leave the screaming child who needed a hug to sob itself to sleep!!!!!!!
The internet for me is a wonderful tool for personal self learning and to learn about psychology, but as David Bowie said it comes with a WARNING LABEL: those are not his words. He warns of the creativity of the tool but also of the dangerous aspects which indeed that prophecy is indeed true.
In the last 24 hours I have discovered a very interesting man... also suffering from a common phenomena of anxiety about the world and self.
He thought outside of the box. In my younger years I too was encouraged to think sideways. However, my problem was that I was never proactive!
I have thought this, in this link which I include here ... not so much about his music but his eloquent intellectual style:
he was the one who did open the theatrical door onto a world already heading in that direction of openness in the late 70s...
who did make it OK for people to experiment with who they are to find their true person.
This man who has just died seems to have almost a godly persona .. and I believe he really has walked into the gates of heaven! I also believe that his life, now ended, will ricochet causing new positive developments in a modern world which is already changing.
The BBC one can share the link: http://bbc.in/1n7er5h
and if that link does not work:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/d5c291be-258c-4217-922e-38f9d78de878
and so I do agree ....
For some months, I've been trying to fathom out why my daughter is as she is... I have been thinking that her because it is my opinion that she has not been using her creativity, her intelligence, her happiness, her complex talents...one would perhaps think she isn't very intelligent but she has deep, deep knowledge that is blocked for some reason. She finds it difficult to be consistent - don't many of us? That in itself is a consistency in that she is inconsistent!!!!!!
Creativity is important.. people cannot live around the internet...I know this about my own behaviour. Two different peas in a pod!
As a young, naive person with television in the house, which I didn't often like to watch when family did on a boringly basis, I didn't know about the REAL world but I did tap into the aural one. We had loud, non stop rock music in our houses, once I'd left home. I also played classical stuff as a music student, until I managed to find Radio 4 and 'Woman's Hour' in my life. My husband played Indian music. One rental was a student house, the next in the middle of a field attached to a neighbour was a house sit where we were mindful of sound levels. Another was a detached house in the middle of rural England where the nearest neighbour was some distance! Great years for feeling a sense of freedom and an attempt at 'the good life'. They were the times, the early 1970s when even though one was a rebel one still did what establishment said ... for example, following what the BABY BOOKS said about babies... and I very much regret their advice to leave the screaming child who needed a hug to sob itself to sleep!!!!!!!
The internet for me is a wonderful tool for personal self learning and to learn about psychology, but as David Bowie said it comes with a WARNING LABEL: those are not his words. He warns of the creativity of the tool but also of the dangerous aspects which indeed that prophecy is indeed true.
In the last 24 hours I have discovered a very interesting man... also suffering from a common phenomena of anxiety about the world and self.
He thought outside of the box. In my younger years I too was encouraged to think sideways. However, my problem was that I was never proactive!
Tuesday 12 January 2016
Change is ongoing to the very end when it changes yet again
Lifted from The Guardian:
David Bowie:
It is a kind of comfort to me to realise that even the GREATEST have troubles with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety,
So........ i'st not only me, then ? !!!!!!!!! aaaaaaaarrrgh!
One must remember to focus on the higher points of one's life.
Even a star turns to dust and dances high in the skies.
God bless!
David Bowie:
“My entire career, I’ve only really worked with the same subject matter. The trousers may change, but the actual words and subjects I’ve always chosen to write with are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety, all of the high points of one’s life.”
“I am not a natural performer,” Bowie said in a rare interview in 2002. “I don’t enjoy performing terribly much. Never have. I can do it and, if my mind’s on the situation, do it quite well. But, five or six shows in, I’m dying to get off the road and go back to the studio.”
It is a kind of comfort to me to realise that even the GREATEST have troubles with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety,
So........ i'st not only me, then ? !!!!!!!!! aaaaaaaarrrgh!
One must remember to focus on the higher points of one's life.
Even a star turns to dust and dances high in the skies.
God bless!
Monday 11 January 2016
Changes: Tribute to a Hero
In shock!
Have sobbed, in gutted sadness to hear of the death of David Bowie...
the end of such an era!!!!!!!
A star scattering stardust on us young things.
A performer.
A stage player pushing horizons.
An innovator.
An inventor.
A dreamer.
A reality man.
A genius.
A true true true musician.
A man so loved by many people in the world.
A respected man.
A huge influence on my thoughts of contemporary music in my formative years.. and even now.
An influence for so many musicians around the world.
A sad sad loss to the world .. when we could all be Heroes just for one day!
GOODBYE MAJOR TOM from GROUND CONTROL!
Let me play his music all day.
I am heartbroken.
RESPECT for him and his family.
Have sobbed, in gutted sadness to hear of the death of David Bowie...
the end of such an era!!!!!!!
A star scattering stardust on us young things.
A performer.
A stage player pushing horizons.
An innovator.
An inventor.
A dreamer.
A reality man.
A genius.
A true true true musician.
A man so loved by many people in the world.
A respected man.
A huge influence on my thoughts of contemporary music in my formative years.. and even now.
An influence for so many musicians around the world.
A sad sad loss to the world .. when we could all be Heroes just for one day!
GOODBYE MAJOR TOM from GROUND CONTROL!
Let me play his music all day.
I am heartbroken.
RESPECT for him and his family.
Wednesday 6 January 2016
Change: Stuff of life
Digits: 0 6 0 1 2 0 1 6 sound nice for this date of Epiphany.
I sometimes have a moment of sudden (and great) revelation or realization but never is it sufficiently great to move my life forward. I never seem to have a strong enough personal belief system.
Having got through Christmas and the change of year fairly unharmed from woes and wonders I now look for changes - doesn't everyone? I hope for better experiences. It's all a case of the mind being willing. One needs stimulus, motivation and here in France I sometimes feel 'lost', unfulfilled when there is no one to talk to. I feel I am still searching for something; meaningful people with whom I can relate, getting to grips with who I am! I suppose it is everyone's quest!!!!!
This week I've told two people in my life, two people whom I have loved very much and still do as well as have respect towards, to go and do "Whatever makes them happy". It has been hard to say leave me alone but if I don't feel respected then why should I continue the friendships?
I am wondering if it will be sustained. One has agreed (but we had that before) and one has not even referred to my suggestion. One has to stop telling me 'what I must do and by when" and to stop telling me about my own inadequacies.
It isn't a situation I have ever really found myself in. Usually I am the person to be dumped!!!!!! haha!
OK I am indecisive at times, have difficulty with making choices at times, am inconsistent at times, and contradict myself at times. YUP I am all of that... Also I have been told not to rubbish other people ... Funny that! I think most people are guilty of forming judgements or opinions about others which includes criticisms and compliments. Isn't that how we form an understanding of liking a person or not wishing to be near someone? Understanding others isn't easy and requires enormous bags of patience, tolerance and REAL not surface communication. I've had that with both friends.
I need friends with whom I can have fun, who are there for me when I need them and when I can be there if they need me!
It is true that I haven't always treated others as I would wish to be treated. My mother and father were non existent role models. My mother was an extremely rude woman! My father intelligent but unworldly. Yet mother could be extremely kind and she was the driving force in the family.
Evidently, I irritate and annoy some people! I suppose it depends on the relationship or how others deal with others. Some of my friends listen very patiently and suggest and talk about life's experiences in the wider sense of the word and when that happens it is more supportive and I learn more! To discuss is better than to be TOLD!
Getting things done - boxes to tick:
I told myself that 2014 and 2015 would be opportunities to SORT STUFF and to some extent I have done some but not enough.
I start one task and then stop / deviate as something else demands Attention. Physical health is much better but laziness is current. Maybe it is hibernation. Excuses for procrastination! Procrastination has to be ousted! Inertia borne out of laziness, insufficient stimulus or necessity needs to be banished to take ACTION.
After 36 hours of REST, in darkened room emerging for attempts at daily life, I DO have to prepare today for the visit of a friend who arrives tomorrow. I give up my room as a chambre d'hôte.
Epiphany in the Calendar means the absolute end of those twelve days of 'stuff' when I increasingly refuse to join in, take part, and so my year needs to begin TODAY! Carnaval will soon commence with the Mardi Gras!
I will pick myself up and dust myself down until the day I can't and if people don't like me as I am then YES they can go elsewhere! It's sad but necessary!
I have lists of things to do and I even tried to formulate an ACTION PLAN for everything but that was JUST too OVERWHELMING. I am doing what I can in the Health department and in the other slices of that PIE chart! GOT TO!!!!!!! MOVE or DIE!!!
I sometimes have a moment of sudden (and great) revelation or realization but never is it sufficiently great to move my life forward. I never seem to have a strong enough personal belief system.
Having got through Christmas and the change of year fairly unharmed from woes and wonders I now look for changes - doesn't everyone? I hope for better experiences. It's all a case of the mind being willing. One needs stimulus, motivation and here in France I sometimes feel 'lost', unfulfilled when there is no one to talk to. I feel I am still searching for something; meaningful people with whom I can relate, getting to grips with who I am! I suppose it is everyone's quest!!!!!
This week I've told two people in my life, two people whom I have loved very much and still do as well as have respect towards, to go and do "Whatever makes them happy". It has been hard to say leave me alone but if I don't feel respected then why should I continue the friendships?
I am wondering if it will be sustained. One has agreed (but we had that before) and one has not even referred to my suggestion. One has to stop telling me 'what I must do and by when" and to stop telling me about my own inadequacies.
It isn't a situation I have ever really found myself in. Usually I am the person to be dumped!!!!!! haha!
OK I am indecisive at times, have difficulty with making choices at times, am inconsistent at times, and contradict myself at times. YUP I am all of that... Also I have been told not to rubbish other people ... Funny that! I think most people are guilty of forming judgements or opinions about others which includes criticisms and compliments. Isn't that how we form an understanding of liking a person or not wishing to be near someone? Understanding others isn't easy and requires enormous bags of patience, tolerance and REAL not surface communication. I've had that with both friends.
I need friends with whom I can have fun, who are there for me when I need them and when I can be there if they need me!
It is true that I haven't always treated others as I would wish to be treated. My mother and father were non existent role models. My mother was an extremely rude woman! My father intelligent but unworldly. Yet mother could be extremely kind and she was the driving force in the family.
Evidently, I irritate and annoy some people! I suppose it depends on the relationship or how others deal with others. Some of my friends listen very patiently and suggest and talk about life's experiences in the wider sense of the word and when that happens it is more supportive and I learn more! To discuss is better than to be TOLD!
Getting things done - boxes to tick:
I told myself that 2014 and 2015 would be opportunities to SORT STUFF and to some extent I have done some but not enough.
I start one task and then stop / deviate as something else demands Attention. Physical health is much better but laziness is current. Maybe it is hibernation. Excuses for procrastination! Procrastination has to be ousted! Inertia borne out of laziness, insufficient stimulus or necessity needs to be banished to take ACTION.
After 36 hours of REST, in darkened room emerging for attempts at daily life, I DO have to prepare today for the visit of a friend who arrives tomorrow. I give up my room as a chambre d'hôte.
Epiphany in the Calendar means the absolute end of those twelve days of 'stuff' when I increasingly refuse to join in, take part, and so my year needs to begin TODAY! Carnaval will soon commence with the Mardi Gras!
I will pick myself up and dust myself down until the day I can't and if people don't like me as I am then YES they can go elsewhere! It's sad but necessary!
I have lists of things to do and I even tried to formulate an ACTION PLAN for everything but that was JUST too OVERWHELMING. I am doing what I can in the Health department and in the other slices of that PIE chart! GOT TO!!!!!!! MOVE or DIE!!!
Tuesday 5 January 2016
The twelfth of twelve
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sang to me:
12 drummers drumming,
11 pipers piping,
10 lords-a-leaping,
9 ladies dancing,
8 maids-a-milking,
7 swans-a-swimming,
6 geese-a-laying,
5 golden rings,
4 calling birds,
3 French hens,
2 turtle doves,
and a partridge in a pear tree.
12 drummers drumming,
11 pipers piping,
10 lords-a-leaping,
9 ladies dancing,
8 maids-a-milking,
7 swans-a-swimming,
6 geese-a-laying,
5 golden rings,
4 calling birds,
3 French hens,
2 turtle doves,
and a partridge in a pear tree.
Monday 4 January 2016
The eleventh of twelve
On the eleventh day of Christmas
Love came yesterday
in the form of a cheerful card from my son and his wife.
with two gifts which made me feel humble and tearful, knowing that despite all the difficulties we do love each other. There have been too many years of hurt and pain ... Life isn't easy and the mouth soon opens when it is better to keep quiet! I am hoping we can move to the future!
One gift is a jar of 100 capsules of "green lipped mussels" recommended by my son's wife for arthritis (they knew of my recent temporary lumbar paralysis).
One gift is delicious Chinese teaballs that open into a flower in the teapot ... just as in Wagamama's... mmmmm...
The best gift though was his simple touching sentence about hoping to catch up in 2016.
Ah... yes please.
However, I did phone just before New Years Eve. The post took 12 days to arrive! Still, I would like us all to meet. B has never been to France in 12 years to see where I live. S has been but on each occasion was treated inappropriately and hurt by anger, thoughts of betrayal and my inability to be a go between.
I live in HOPE that we can be Family again!!! That would be the best gift ever!
Love came yesterday
in the form of a cheerful card from my son and his wife.
One gift is a jar of 100 capsules of "green lipped mussels" recommended by my son's wife for arthritis (they knew of my recent temporary lumbar paralysis).
The best gift though was his simple touching sentence about hoping to catch up in 2016.
Ah... yes please.
However, I did phone just before New Years Eve. The post took 12 days to arrive! Still, I would like us all to meet. B has never been to France in 12 years to see where I live. S has been but on each occasion was treated inappropriately and hurt by anger, thoughts of betrayal and my inability to be a go between.
I live in HOPE that we can be Family again!!! That would be the best gift ever!
Sunday 3 January 2016
The tenth of twelve
On the tenth day of Christmas cat and chicken duties ended.
Oh...the liturgical calendar seems to have moved EPIPHANY from 6th to 3rd January...
This explains....
http://stpeterinchains.com/2015/12/epiphany/
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi
explains further...
and with thanks to this link I reproduce a delightful image. I love the colours and composition.
Oh...the liturgical calendar seems to have moved EPIPHANY from 6th to 3rd January...
This explains....
http://stpeterinchains.com/2015/12/epiphany/
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi
explains further...
and with thanks to this link I reproduce a delightful image. I love the colours and composition.
Saturday 2 January 2016
The ninth of twelve
On the ninth day of Christmas..
my inner love says to me
that I love to write, take photos, walk once I've got my coat on and gathered motivation to get out and about, cycle (when weather becomes warm) and when muscles get used to the action.
Yesterday, eventually I became inspired upon a route and headed in that direction. I marvel at the fact that the woodland above L'Anglin has remained as it is for 100 years or more, yet constantly in its state of growth and decay!
Further en route, I discovered a different siting of a Borie, in excellent condition on a small chemin that I had never walked before. I like to find a new route.
See two previous postings for regional cabanes/bories/shepherds' huts : one and two
The view looking out from the borie doorway:
Just around the corner of the lane , inaccessible to any roving wanderer, but more visible in winter, is the largest borie I know of in this region. I suppose I have identified at least 12 in this area.
I had walked much further than intended. I'd been out for almost three
hours. I still couldn't find the chemins marked on the map but have
clearly been eroded by agriculturists and the owners of woodland. On the way home in the dusk with rain falling, the former miller of the watermill offered me a lift into the village. I abandoned my 'dog defense tool', an acquired walking stick as I stepped into his new looking vehicle.
my inner love says to me
that I love to write, take photos, walk once I've got my coat on and gathered motivation to get out and about, cycle (when weather becomes warm) and when muscles get used to the action.
Yesterday, eventually I became inspired upon a route and headed in that direction. I marvel at the fact that the woodland above L'Anglin has remained as it is for 100 years or more, yet constantly in its state of growth and decay!
See two previous postings for regional cabanes/bories/shepherds' huts : one and two
Friday 1 January 2016
The eighth of twelve
On the eighth day of Christmas my true love wishes thee
"a marvellous future year with happiness, wealth and cheer, opportunity and chance to help you sing and dance." TRULY, let it bring good or better health, fortune in not only a monetary sense, happy times with family and friends, opportunities to meet new people, go new places, experience new things, broaden horizons, safety and security.
Happy New Year!
"a marvellous future year with happiness, wealth and cheer, opportunity and chance to help you sing and dance." TRULY, let it bring good or better health, fortune in not only a monetary sense, happy times with family and friends, opportunities to meet new people, go new places, experience new things, broaden horizons, safety and security.
Happy New Year!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
"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."
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!
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.
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:
On the second day of Christmas LOVE brought to me:
Indeed - Allez ... up!!!!!!
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!
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! |
Friday 25 December 2015
Christmas 2015: Angles sur L’Anglin
Les Petits Oiseaux: SweetpeainFrance
copyright December 2015
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
Today I was singing and dancing
to let the bright light into my eyes and heart
and let it make me tired and content.
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
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
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,
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.
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!
Best wishes for 2016
 |
| Roof 1 Oiseau 1 |
 |
| 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!
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!
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!
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