Never mind the blocks

Saturday was another busy day. During the week I had taken delivery of concrete blocks, timber, cement etc ready for the building of my replacement garden shed.
I waited all day for hyperactive man to come and demolish the old wooden shed. I had been invited to the official opening of the Town’s camera club exhibition at 5.30pmm so I was getting ready to go out when I heard the thump, thump, thump of someone hitting something very hard, with something very heavy. It was hyperactive man and his sledge hammer. I helped him for a bit and then had to leave him to it, with the shed proving reluctant to fall, even with most of its support gone.

The photo exhibition was very interesting, with guest photos from someone who had taken black and white photos of farm life and the heavily lined faces of the people who had worked the land.
The club members’ photos were all well printed and framed uniformly. This is what you can do in a French Association, as the Marie gives them money every year towards costs.
In Glasgow we used to print our own photos and mount them on card using 3M glue spray. The quality and size of the resultant photos was variable.
I discovered that the club had submitted prints to the World Championships and had come 3rd in the 2008 competition. I may become a member when it starts up again after the summer break. I will see.
Speeches over, the alcohol and nibbles were consumed. It was time to rush back for my local area association’s communal meal.
It was not as well attended as the rally earlier in the year, but there were still 40 to 50 people sitting at trestle tables eating and drinking and talking French.
I was sitting next to my friend Rene who is now 87, so we chatted in a mixture of French, English and Spanish. (Not that I can speak Spanish).
By the time we had had coffee and cleared everything away, it was nearly 11.30pm.
I got up early as usual as I was going to the Abbey to listen to a free concert. Both the big and the little organ were to be played.
When I arrived at the abbey, the pavement was thronged with people. Many were wearing white. I was a bit late for the start of the concert. The entrance was completely blocked. I eventually got inside and was able to see that there were still people inside.
Coming out with his eldest daughter was, of course, hyperactive man. It was his daughter’s communion day.
The congregation were in no hurry to leave and finally the priest had to make an announcement asking them to go outside so that the organ concert could start.
The concert was okay, and for the first time, the church did not require the heating to be on.I headed home to literally recharge my batteries, ready for the music festival in the evening.

The hills and the doorway

A dull (weather-wise) Sunday, until mid afternoon when I heard footsteps clumping up the stairs. I was thinking, who wants to complain about what? As the knock on the door sounded. I opened the door and it was hyperactive man and one of his daughters. He asked if it was possible to get a cup of coffee, so I set about making him a cup and getting a blackcurrant juice for his
daughter. The daughter (probably about 12 years old) is learning French, but as usual it was almost impossible to get an English word out of a young lady who is timide. Hyperman went on to tell me about a heating system that I could install for the whole house to heat all the flats. It would only cost me 7 thousand euros and I would be able to put up the rents, as they would no longer be paying separate heating bills. I would even get money back from the government or doing it…. As I am only looking for 2 radiators for my flat and for the unoccupied little studio on the ground floor, one and perhaps a heated towel rail or wall mounted wall heater for its shower / toilet room, this is rather ambitious…. And costly.
Coffee drunk, we went down to the little studio and he poked about a bit and measured the window with a view for a double glazed unit to replace the existing one.
Then it was down the garden path to the small outbuilding with imminent tumbledown status.

This would take him 2 or three days to complete, once the existing one is dismantled. He described the shape of the building. I reminded him that I wanted a window as well… and a door. “A door?” he said, shocked. Yes, I said I would need to get into it. “But a door will be expensive, he said…
So it is still a mystery how he thought I would get my lawnmower in and out for example with no door. Perhaps he thinks I just want an opening, with no security for the contents.
Hyperactive man is returning with costings etc and perhaps a ventilation expert sometime this weekend.
Monday and it was time to take S back to the airport for her flight home. For the first time I got there and back without going off piste accidentally. The view of the snow-capped Midi Pyrenees as I drove back home, was pretty spectacular. For once the mountain chain was not capped in mist, so it was interesting to see where the peaks ended and the sky began, for the first time.
It was time to keep busy, so when I reached home I gave the grass its first cut, and swept and washed the main stairs of the house. I now have to get used to living on my own again for a while.