The holiday starts here

Left home after lunch and drove to Orleans, both struggled to keep awake on the motorway. Stopped for the night at the Campanile hotel. Started the Captains log.

Monday

Trev and Linda got here despite the ash cloud. Breakfast boiled egg with 1 slice of toast, orange juice. Lunch : bowl of muselli. Dinner: asparagus with roulille, salmon steak with gnocci, cheeses with slice of bread, strawberries and yoghurt. bottle of wine, chocolates, olives and crisps oh dear. Weight 64.5. no walking!

Sunday

Late start then spent the afternoon getting the Grange ready for Trevor and Linda's arrival tomorrow, Volcanic ash cloud permitting. Walked 10k. Had a long chat on the phone with Julie. Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: 2 hardboiled egg curry with rice, yoghurt, 1 square of chocolate. Dinner: bowl of museili, cup of hot chocolate. Weight 64.5 (WTF is going on)

Saturday

Walked 10k. Finished the strimming, brushed loads of catkins from the terrace. Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: muscle curry with rice, yoghurt. Dinner: pitta bread with salad and cheese, yoghurt. 1 square of chocolate. Weight 64 kilos

Friday

Cassagnes-Begonhes market this morning to buy stuff for Steve Shone from the tool van. Bought plants. Everyone there was very old. Walked 10k, weeded all round and planted lettuce, peppers, courgettes, cucumber and cornichons. Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: Muscle and peanut curry with rice, fresh pineapple. Dinner: Pitta bread with salad and cheese, yoghurt. Extra 1 square of chocolate. Weight 64.5 kilos (I blame the pizza)

Thursday

Couple of hours strimming and 10k walk. Tried to learn a bit of Croatian at lunchtime, now there's a language that sounds like no other. Went to La Polenta in the evening. Christine turned up to do some deliveries and brought the boys. Hugo really wants to learn English, Paul had been playing football in a tournament with teams from as far away as Toulouse and Clement Ferrand. Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: Asparagus soup, 2 egg omelette with salad, fresh pineapple. Dinner: smoked salmon pizza, cafe gormand, half pint of lager . Extras 3 olives, 1 Ryvita no butter 1 square of chocolate. Weight 64 kilos

Wednesday

Strimmed for most of the day. Walked 10K. Breakfast: 1 slice toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: goats cheese on toast with salad and asparagus, yoghurt. Dinner: Tsasiki with carrot and pepper sticks, 1 of Roz's scones with butter and strawberry jam. 1 Ryvita with butter, 2 squares of chocolate. Weight 63.5 kilos.

Tuesday

Walked 10k and strimmed today. Bartie had the summer tyres put back on. Visited the doc with Bartie this afternoon. Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: carrot salad, fish and potatoes, half fresh pineapple. Dinner : asparagus soup with Ryvita, yoghurt and strawberries. Snacks square of chocolate, Ryvita hmm that's better. Weight 64 kilos.

Monday

The Shones left today. We took them to the airport and had a very indifferent meal on the way there. Shopped on the way back and took the car in for it's MOT. Bartie was very lucky to have been let off by the police on Saturday night when he was stopped for speeding as the MOT was a day out of date too. Called round to see John and Maureen, he's had the results of his tests and it's good news. We are going to be invited to Andy and Jennys wedding in October. Breakfast: 1 slice of toast and butter, orange juice. Lunch: veg soup, carrot and celariac salad with egg, omelette with potato puree, cheese, chocolate donut. Dinner: fish finger sandwich. hmmmm still not there with the 5 a day. Weight 64 kilos

Sunday

Horrible day. Waited in for viewers again, didn't really expect them so not surprised when they didn't show. Played on my DS most of the day. Steve went up to the Shones for a last push to get the job moving. John turned up and they got the first piece of the plaster board up. I went up to get him and it started to thunder, dashed back down to turn everything off but we'd already had a power cut. It was only a fuse luckily. Thunder rumbled round most of the night. Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: Egg fried rice and tuna, square of chocolate. Dinner: 2 of Rozs scones with butter and strawberry jam, white roll with butter and marmalade. hmmmm nothing like writing this stuff down for realising that I'm not getting my 5 a day. Weight 64 kilos.

Saturday

Waited in all day for viewers again, and once again they didn't appear. Spoke to Thera the agent who says that they said that they wanted to see it again this weekend but that they had said that it would be unlikely to be Friday and would probably be Saturday or even Sunday morning hmmmm. Think that I shall insist that agents bring their clients personally rather than sending them and letting us show them round, don't expect there would be so many "no shows" if they had to waste their time. Bartie spent the morning helping out up in Tayac. Got the big car back from the Shones so that Bartie could go to his rehearsal and I could go to Annie. The performance was brilliant, Piet showed me round backstage, the kids were super and the little girl who was playing Annie had a lovely sweet voice. Horrible drive back in the little car through terrible twisty lanes, I would never have found it without the GPS. Bartie got a speeding ticket on the way back from his rehearsal 2 points and an on the spot fine of 90 euros. Not a good day for him ! Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: egg fried rice and tuna, yoghurt. Dinner pitta bread with salad and tuna. Snacks dried apple and 2 squares of chocolate. Weight 64 kilos.

Friday

Waited in all day yesterday for this second viewing, finally decided enough was enough at 5.45 and went into La Primaube for bread and a few bits for Roz. Shame they didn't come as it was a lovely day. Bartie spent the day up in Tayac and John arrived out of the blue to lend a hand too. They took the trailer to buy the first of what will be many sheets of plasterboard for the Shones house. Breakfast: cereal and milk, orange juice. Lunch Squid stew with rouille and potatoes. Dinner: sweetcorn cob and then it all started to go wrong ! one of Roz's scones and butter, a square of chocolate, a cup a soup, a packet of crisps, a chunk of Roquefort cheese, a yoghurt and stuff I can't remember none of it with any nutritional value at all DOH. weight 63 kilos

Thursday

Election day in England. Went up to the Shone's in the morning to help with insulating their house. There was snow on the cars when we got up to Tayac. A friend of Michel's came to view the house this afternoon, no intention of buying but says he knows people who might be interested. I left Bartie to deal with him and went out in the little car leaving him without a vehicle as the Shones have borrowed the Merc. Gerban rang at lunchtime to say that Tuesday's viewers wanted to have a second look on the next sunny day, whenever that might be. M. Besset has welded the broken boiler so they will have hot water again when Steve hooks it back up. Found out that he was Francette's brother. Took Roz up to the Maire to sort out their tax demand and then we went on to Albi to pick up Lesley's wool.

When I got back the house was empty, John and Maureen had called round and when they left they took Bartie up to Tayac. So I had to go out again to fetch him home.

Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: 4 fish fingers and salad, yoghurt, Dinner sweetcorn cob and 2 boiled eggs. snacks cup of milky coffee with a chocolate almond and 2 dried apricots. Weight 63 kilos !

Wednesday

Weeded the garden after our week away. It's been raining for a couple of days now and after the hot weather before we went away all the weeds have been growing, well, like weeds.

Spent ages sorting out birthday cards for Barties family who all seem to have been born in May, then answered Angie's email in great detail. Bartie says he would have asked just how old her daughter she was and if she really needed her Mummy to sort out the details of her life !

Roz and Steve came round in the evening for showers as their hot water is still not working.

Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: salmon with thai spices and lime, potato and asparagus, yoghurt. Dinner: 2 poached eggs and salad. Weight 64.5 kilos

Back Home

Just back from a week in the UK cooing over baby Ben amongst other things, he really is a cutie. Sarah is managing very well considering that she had a c section, is breast feeding and came out of hospital just two days after the birth. Phil is loving parenthood but must learn to be quicker getting the nappy back on, that baby is a dead eye shot with the pee and the poo lol.

Nice to spend time with Suzie and Keiran, Les and Pete and Trev and Linda.

We've had 4 viewings on the house in the last week. Maureen and John had to handle 2 of them as they weren't arranged until after we'd made our plans to visit the UK. It works everytime, we arrange to go away and suddenly we start hearing from estate agents, how do they know. We had one viewing this morning, don't really know how to call it. It rained/sleeted the whole time, the agent put Tayrac into his GPS and took them to a little village miles away first (DOH) but they were here for an hour and a half and seemed to like it. And they are looking for seclusion !! Not holding my breath though. Roz and Steve Shone were on the same plane as us on Monday morning ( they'd asked us to pick them up at Rodez but they didn't know that we were going to the UK and would be on the same flight), quiet a shock for them when they looked up and saw the two of us grinning madly at them in the departure lounge. They are having a spot of back luck at the moment, when they switched the water on in the house they discovered a leak in the boiler so they have no hot water. This morning they went out getting the things to fix it and their car broke down in La Primaube. I went out and brought them back, we gave them lunch and then organised getting it picked up and brought back. It doesn't look as though they're going to be able to get much done this trip by the time they've got both of these things sorted out which is a shame.

Breakfast: 1 slice of toast with butter, orange juice. Lunch: 4 fish fingers, potato and cabbage, greek yoghurt and lemon curd. Dinner: 2 egg omlette with salad. snack 2 apricots. Weight 65 kilos