Beware Of The Dreaded . . .

We were doing ever so well after the bride left us to fend for ourselves and returned to the UK to do some work. We did the shopping, cleaned the house, did the clothes washing, built things, yet for all this goodness, still managed to both get the lurgi. Now as all you blokes know, we chaps suffer much more than the ladies in the flu department, hence the sometimes grossly misunderstood and simply devastating ‘man flu’, but a case of the lurgy, well it’s pretty serious stuff is that! Beast and I performed a feat of synchronised rushing to the only toilet in the house all night long and we never once clashed on the stairs, or had to queue (perish the thought) for this only room. We reckon we could represent the UK in the 2012 Olympics if only this sport of champions could be recognised in time!

Monday was therefore an unscheduled rest day as we both fell into recovery and sleep mode and by tea time, after risking some agreeable beans on toast, had an early night, thankful for being cured.

We must have been spotted the next morning driving through he village in Paul’s white van, as Monsieur la Garage patron put his head round the gates as soon as we were back to give us the news that the engine was now an ex-engine, dead, deceased, defunct and no amount of nailing it back on it’s perch would ever make it talk to us again. He was impressed with my new stainless steel exhaust system though and was most emphatic that the truck was not in his way taking up too much space in his workshop and I set off in pursuit of a replacement motor, having politely declined his offer of a 2.0 litre flat 4 Subaru engine he had, which would fit in ‘no problem’. I found a replacement engine inside 5 minutes of looking on the web and spoke to Stuart in Winchester, just 7 miles from our UK base and a deal was struck and a ferry booked to collect the new unit next week. 

I’m trying to be completely optimistic with this, hoping that the new motor is okay and grateful that Paul has a van big enough to get the job done. It will be good to see the bride and the two pussy cats and we can have a little splurge at Screwfix and Waitrose and bring a few more home comforts back to the Loire.

Progress this week might have been slow to start, but we finished on a high and now have a kitchen / diner seemingly twice its previous useful size and two huge bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms upstairs. I’ve moved my bed downstairs into the salon to make room for the work and we will soon, new drainage connection permitting, have three bedrooms and bathrooms available. Just as well too, as my sister and bro’ in law are coming with the bride for Easter, so we’ll have a wonderfully full, happy and noisy household of five for some festive holiday fun ;~)

All the best and TTFN

LC

A very  rare image captured for ever, Mr Beast actually reading the instructions! Whatever next?

The dwarf wall was as high as the fridge and went past the fireplace

No more dust!

Room for singin' and dancin' too ;~)