13.08.08 Le depart

Taxi arrives at 4am. We have shelled out for speedy boarding and 3kg extra baggage between us. Most of my clothing and books etc will have to be left behind for another trip. Taxi driver is very chatty and does my head in. Why would we be interested in his problem that traffic lights in Bristol at night remain active forcing him to take roundabout routes?

At the weigh-in we are probably just a smidge within our 43kg limit for hold baggage.
My hand luggage is held up at the security scan. After some time, a man comes to the desk and I have to open my small suitcase. The problem is that I have two small spanners wrapped in bubble wrap. What are they for? I think that they are to tighten the nuts on my bed. How do you explain that to airport security?
He goes away, confers, then comes back and tells me that if I try to take them onto a plane as hand luggage again, they will probably be taken off me.
“Mummy, what is that man doing out on the wing, trying to dismantle the plane with two very small spanners?” Perhaps I could have sabotaged the refreshment trolley.

Still it could have been worse. My beltless trousers could have fallen down while I was waiting at the desk.

What is Bristol Airport short of? Seats for passengers who are waiting for their flights. Someone has had a brilliant idea. Take away a quarter of the seats and instead, have a Porsche and a Audi Quattro on display and sell raffle tickets to win them at £20 a time.
Plane leaves on time and we land at Toulouse airport 20 minutes early.
Hire car is a 4 door Hyundi i diesel. The gears are really stiff.
Sat nav plugged in and we are off. The motorway traffic is very light and we arrive chez moi without incident.
Dumping off the suitcases, we head off to the supermarkets on the outskirts to buy some food and other essentials.
Of course it is 12.30pm and all but one shop is closed until 2 or 2.30pm.
We do some food shopping and hang around

Back at the ranch, Madame has found some keys. I must have dropped them in the car park when I left last time.
I have new tenants. One speaks French and English as well as whatever his native tongue is. There is another bloke sharing the studio with him. He speaks neither English or French. The notaire who manages the lets, has given him the key to my post box, fortunately he has kept my post. I choose another post box.
Further good news is the the joint between the toilet bowl and the waste pipe leaks everytime you flush. I will need a plumber.
Now to regain contact with the outside world, with the wonderful wireless internet, TV and internet telephone package that I purchased from Orange in June and which would have been activated in mid July.
I try every combination of every phone socket and power socket with the livebox and my computer and my new telephone.
2 hours later I give up and we go to bed.
Thanks to Knittingdales Removals non-participation in my moving experience for another 6 nights, we have purchases 2 thin lounger mattresses to sleep on. There was a glimmer of hope on the possibility of buying an double airbed from Leclerc on one of their flyers in the post box, so we had whizzed out again. Do you have any airbeds for sale Madame? Non.