Merry Christmas everyone

With Christmas rapidly looming up on us, we are now approaching the end of our 4th year living in France. We arrived here on 27th December 2007 and have not looked back since.

They say some things never change and, this time last year, Jane was stressing about her job as her temporary contract was due to expire. Well the good news is that as of yesterday, Jane has finally been awarded a permanent contract at the bank, securing both our future in France and my retired lifestyle.

2011 has been a year of highs and lows for us. First for the lows. Tissues at the ready because at the end of January we lost a dear friend and surrogate grandfather to the kids. My mother-in-law Janettes partner, Tom Scrace, passed away unexpectedly. Later in the year, at the end of June, he was to be joined by my Grandfather, Gerry Smallwood. They were two great men who will be sadly missed but I’m confident they will be having a drink together somewhere nice as they look down on our continuing adventures through life.

It’s been Peters year for the hospital trips, one of which resulted in a general anaesthetic and having the end of his finger removed and replaced. Another visit saw them stick the skin back together behind his ear and yet another saw him receive stitches in his lip after an accident with a sword. Not wanting to be left out though, Josh managed to slice his finger open with the brand new leather man that he had asked granddad for, for his birthday. This resulted in 2 stitches in his finger.

Progress on the estate has been slow, but we have managed to get the worst part of the roof replaced. This was around 3,000 slates along with the majority of supporting timberwork and a semi-permeable membrane. It equates to around one fifth of the whole house so, as and when finances allow, we shall do some more.

Last years fantasy of building a pizza oven turned into a reality over the spring and then, at our May party, it was christened when we cooked 50 pizzas in an afternoon. Our friends from the other end of the village were so impressed with the construction that I have since built another oven in their back garden. I’m not sure if there’s a career in it for me but they’ve been a fun couple of projects to work on.

We cleared out the biggest room in the house this year, ground floor on the right as you look at the front, in preparation for a medieval banquet. As with all jobs that we start, one thing led to another and we ended up digging up the floor and replacing all of the drains before the event took place. What followed was a fantastic birthday party for my friend David, myself and his daughter-in-law Rebecca where we knocked out a 12 course meal for 35 people. Some days I impress myself although I can’t take all the praise as Jane, my mum and Grandma Mo were exceptional sous chefs.

Dates for your diary. Just to really confuse people, our annual May party will be in June for 2012. This is because the usual bank holiday weekend has been moved for the Diamond Jubilee. It does however mean we have an extra bank holiday and will be partying from 1st to 6th June. We will be pig roasting and doing the paella on the 2nd, I think, and pizza on the 3rd.

For any softball fans, we’re partying from 3rd to 6th August and also 11th to 14th October. As always the weather will dictate the balance between playing ball and partying.

An additional party for 2012 will be 9th to 12th November when Jane hits one of those memorable figures that women don’t talk about. Not sure what we have planned yet, all I know is that she wants to PARTY.

Less than 2 weeks to go

The countdown to christmas is well and truly under way so, in preparation for 11 guests coming to join us for a few days of festivities, I thought it would be a great time to pull down a couple of walls upstairs and work on turning one bedroom and a dog kennel into 2 bedrooms. Unfortunately the job did not get off to the greatest of starts as the flimsy wood worm infested plank wall that was just nailed down to the floor boards, turned out to be set 6 inches into the ceiling. Now to add to my little mission of a couple of stud walls and a couple of doorways I also have a lave and plaster ceiling to pull down and replace, deep joy.

As Jane wrote the last blog entry, she focused on the important things in life like kids and christmas markets. She completely neglected to mention my experience of cider making local styleee. Under the cover of darkness at a neighbours house, standing adjacent to sacks and sacks of apples, a tractor pulled into the drive towing a medieval piece of equipment. My mission, as the hired muscle, was to sort and load the apples into a hopper which macerated them into a pulp before chucking them out of the bottom of the trailer into a wooden trough. From here they were shovelled on to a Hessian wrapped plank of wood before being wrapped and another sack and plank placed on top. This carried on until the pile of sacks was 3 feet high at which point the whole pile was then moved underneath a 25 tonne hydraulic press. As the pile was compressed the juice started to flow from a small pipe under the trailer and into a cut off barrel containing a little submersible pump. From here it was pumped down an old hose pipe into the wooden cider barrel in the cellar where it will be left to naturally ferment for a few months. All in all an amazing experience which I thoroughly enjoyed being involved in.

We went out yesterday and found this years christmas tree. Although not as big and bushy as our usual trees, we have opted for a tree with roots this year so that we can plant it out in January.

Update!!!

Well, what's new??? I will let the photos tell you!! We had a great evening at the Marche de Noel on Friday night. Kirsty and Peter sung beautifully and Josh was highly relieved as he did not have to!! He sat on my lap for the duration eating the biggest piece of chocolate cake that he could find on the stall. After finishing the singing Kirsty and Lili Rose spent all of their money on buying things that they really needed!!! (Note sarcasm in that last sentence please!!) After collecting seashells from the beach, the beach where Andrew caught a shark, Kirsty and I have been creative. Well, I should really say that Kirsty was creative and I had to glue everything!! A mothers work is never done. The most important mention for this blog should go to Josh. His school report arrived in the post yesterday. At first I had a panic, did they post the reports that were really bad so that the parents did actually receive them. I need not have worried, it is excellent!!! We are really proud of him, again. It is a bit small I am afraid in the picture, but I am sure a magnifying glass will work wonders!! Take care everyone and hope to see you all soon. xxx