8.12.2008 Monday – is washing day

A very foggy start to the day then suddenly blue sky and sunshine so washing machine boy swung into action again.
A trip into town followed to buy staples (for my stapler) and to stroll around in the sunshine.
I bought an olive loaf from my favourite bakers but it was an overcooked one and quite hard.
While in the book / stationery shop, I tried to find an A4 pad of paper which was either blank, or had lines on the pages. It seems a simple ask but it proved to be impossible. They are obsessed with calligraphy over here, and yet when you see the spidery handwriting that it produces you have to wonder why. Thus you can buy paper which is completely covered in small squares, or paper which is filled with slightly larger squares inside which there are about 5 horizontal lines. The latter must be for calligraphic reasons I suspect.
So I will need to use printing paper and punch holes in the side if I want to make usefully readable notes.
The French lady who works in the office of the previous owner of the house is investigating the electricity situation and will get back to me, but by the end of the day, I have had no further information.
On my way back from the town, the painter who is supposed to be providing a second quote for the house, and who is still painting the bungalow opposite, waved me over and introduced me to the paint consultant / supplier who says that the front of my house will need plastic paint as well as the side otherwise the cracks will open up again. There would be a guarantee of 10 years on the work.
God knows how much his quote is going to be. Perhaps they will offer to give me a huge reduction if I display advertising for their workmanship, on my boundary wall.
Reading wise, I finished listening to Sepulchre by Kate Moss some days ago. It was very tough going and rather dull for the first hour and a half, but I persevered and it was worth staying with it until the end. From the Amazon reviews I suspect that many of the people did not actually read all of the book, as their summaries are factually inaccurate. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse was partially set in my town and locations round about. It also featured Carcassonne and Montsegur.
Sepulchre was set more in Paris, Carcassonne and Rennes les Bains.
Kate’s next book is due out in 2010.
I have also just completed listening to “50 success Classics – Winning wisdom for work and life from 50 landmark books” by Tom Butler-Bowden.
I think repeated listenings will be required for this one.