The saga of the aga

We have just had a ceremonial lighting of a gas ring on our newly installed cooker. It's very exciting!

Actually it's not an Aga - although it has been made by Rangemaster - part of the aga group, and aga did rhyme with saga, so forgive me.

We bought our cooker in 2007 - back when we were living in England, dreaming of our future here in France. It is only now - after much niggling by myself that Neil has finally agreed it should be installed (two years after the warranty ran out).

Arguements For

We haven't had a roast dinner for months
We haven't had cheese on toast for months
I am fed up cooking on a two ring camping gas stove
Wouldn't it be nice to have yorkshire puddings etc etc........
It has just been sat there, in the kitchen, wrapped in plastic looking at me.

Arguements Against

The house isn't finished therefore more dust to be made, and dust = damage.

I decided, after much collusion with my friend Judith that the time was right to unwrap said cooker whilst Neil was away in the UK. Most decisions of mine are made at this time, whilst he is unavailable and unable to talk me out of things. Judith being my mate is always on hand to agree with me and help talk him round when and if necessary.

We believed we had bought a dual fuel model - gas hob, electric oven and I asked the electrician to come over to install the big cable required to power our large ovens before Neil got home. I was at work when the electrian turned up, but when I got home he said "Roz, your electric oven.."
"Yes....." I replied.
"It's gas" said he.
Ahhh. That was not what we thought we had bought. Three years down the line and in the wrong country we are not in a great position to argue the toss on this one. So gas it is. This however should have alerted me that this was not going to go smoothly.

I decided to take the gas line off the cooker that we had been using and disliked - it being gas and capable of burning everything from the bottom within seconds.

Stupidly I hadn't thought to take a spanner ( I don't know how I thought it would be connected) so the next time I went back with a set of spanners. This time the largest spanner wasn't large enough so I then went back for a third time with an adjustable spanner and hurrah - the cable was mine. Unfortunately the cable and the cooker did not appear to be compatible.

That day Neil was due back and luckily was quite relaxed about the cooker being unwrapped. We then spent yesterday trying to source the piece we needed, and double checked with Rangemaster that we could use this set up. We were frowned on greatly for having exported the cooker (I have seen it here but for three times the price)but we were told that with the use of gas ptfe (tape that you wrap around threads)we should be able to make a safe secure connection.

Gas ptfe is just like water ptfe but thicker. We looked it up on ebay UK and could buy three packs for £1.50, but as obviously I was now on a roll and time was of the essence we decided to try to get some locally, and on the third attempt Neil found some in a local store, whilst I waited in the car outside with Tess.

I managed to lipread his words as he walked out of the shop - it went something like "greedy, robbing French ba******!!!!!". In France it is over nine euros for one roll. So that didn't get purchased.

We are going to order some gas ptfe from the UK and in the meantime Neil has made the connection with water ptfe and so far, (touch wood everywhere) it appears to be working.

The other day I had bought a pork joint to roast, but in exasperation Neil put it in the freezer last night. I must go and buy another one!

Yawn!

Another mad busy day - I spent a fair bit of time with the older stallion at work today who is bandaged up after an operation on a tendon sheath in his leg. The bandage was covered in fresh blood and it took me ages to find that the blood had actually come from one of his teeth as he had obviously been ripping at his dressing.

Our third foal arrived a couple of weeks ago and has been given the stable name of Alfie. He is another chestnut and absolutely gorgeous. We are now awaiting the last foal who will hopefully be born in a couple of weeks.

When I got home at lunchtime our electrician had arrived to continue work. It's been really handy having people in working whilst Neil has been away - it has meant that I have had dog sitters in most of the time and Tess appreciates not being on her own.

After that I had to go and get more bags of tile adhesive, which is proving to be nearly as expensive as the tiles. I drove to the local Bricomarche who didn't stock what I wanted so I had no choice but to go to our local builders merchant who seems to delight in ripping off all those of us who can't or don't want to drive into Limoges. I need to source a cheaper supplier before we continue on with the barn.

Then I had to go and feed my friends' stallion and mares and chickens.
My friends have headed down to Spain to try and find the sun - which did make quite a lovely unexpected appearance here today.

After that I had to help another friend move her three young colts from one field to another, which was about a four kilometre walk (she hadn't told me it was mostly uphill) and as she is a very tall dutch person it was quite a route march for me - a tubby short british person.

I finally got home and had to clear up after the electrician, water the veggies and flowers, cook some tea, feed the cats and dog, put the chickens and ducks to bed, have a shower and now I'm just about to go up to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Come home Neil!!

Ok, I want Neil to come home now. I have been really busy with work, the house, the animals, other peoples' animals etc etc etc and running this place (and myself) is no mean feat for a person on their own.

I had a skype conversation with Neil this evening. He is decidedly worse for wear having been at the pub all afternoon and in celebration mode after his team (Chelsea) won some kind of championship or something (I am a very bad wife - I should probably know what they won).

The cats are continually hassling me for food and the eggs are piling up as, although I love having chickens, I don't eat eggs very often!! I have my very own easter egg hunt every day, as they seem to hunt a new exciting place to lay all the time.

A duck went missing again last night and I gave up looking for it. This morning it happily waddled out of the chicken house with all the hens.

I think I need Neil back to restore some order in this place!!

"You took on something when you bought this place..."

Is what Keith said to me as we discussed the work still to be done chez nous. I must admit that at times we have struggled and have been so lucky to have had advice (mostly from Martin) and friends who have been so happy (I hope!) to help. I still believe though that one day we will have a house to be proud of.




Although unfortunately this is not my kitchen (pah!) these are the slate tiles we have chosen for the hall and barn. I chose them because there are colours in them that are echoed by the local stone.
It's a shame we couldn't buy them locally. These were about £18 a square metre, whereas we couldn't find something of anything like the same quality for less than 100 euros a square metre locally. Hopefully by the end of today some of them will be on the floor.

I have finished off a bit more of the wall and as usual couldn't resist sticking a basket with flowers in onto it within seconds of putting the wood treatment brush down - poor Neil despairs of me




Keith has put a render on the wall so that the staircase can be fixed and mounted and he is also going to put some of our floor tiles down so that the bottom flight can go in, so it feels like things are happening here.

Just as well that things are happening inside as outside we have even had a flurry of snow today - snow!! I have had to rush out and cover the pumpkin seedlings with some lemonade bottles to try and protect them a bit. One minute sunshine, the next arctic blasts - what's happening with this weather!!!

Winter appears to come back and it is howling an absolute gale outside. At least that gives me the perfect opportunity to get on with the inside jobs that I keep putting off in a vague attempt to get a tan (no chance of that today or any other day soon by the look of the meteo).

I've finished putting the lime and sand mixture on our little torchis wall. It now needs a good tidy up and the wooden sections finishing off.
It's taken ages because I can't seem to perfect the technique and have ended up just squidging the mixture on with my hands and as a consequence it looks very rough. Authentic Neil says. Rough I say!!



I started on the right hand side so the sections on the left are still drying, hence the patchy dark sections.
Hopefully Keith is coming to render the wall with the arch in it, which no doubt he will make a fantastic job of and make mine look even rougher!! I don't mind though, I'm sure it will look fab once I have hung a few little bits and bobs on it!

Bisous!

I received the following by email from my dear friend Jacqui and thought it would be nice to pass it on to anyone who takes the time and trouble to read the blog. I hope you have a lovely weekend....

En ce jour du 1er mai, nous vous offrons ce petit brin de muguet en espérant qu'il vous porte bonheur.





Bisous