Life and gites getting back to normal
Mrs B has now returned from her Loire Valley exploration and all is returning to normal. Apparently I was supposed to have prepared a slap-up dinner for her return, not hunt in the bottom of the freezer for old fish fingers, but apart from that momentary lapse all is well.
Her most exciting discovery was this carving at Chauvigny - look at the picture again - what does go through people’s minds I wonder? Still perhaps it put the fear of God into people a few centuries ago.
The little chap getting his head bitten off doesn’t seem too bothered though.
Meanwhile back at basecamp…the (only) toilet broke in the little gite yesterday, happily during normal work hours so I could call a plumber out quickly. It did make me wonder what we would do if it happened on a Sunday evening though.
The plumbers first reaction was ‘I’ll come around tomorrow afternoon’, until I explained that it wasn’t very practical for the people in the gite to wait 36 hours before using the toilet…
Luckily it’s quite rare that ‘issues’ arise but we have had a lot of storms this week, and I always get nervous during storms that a roof will blow away. I don’t know why really, since the same roof has been there for at least 150 years without particular incident. I think it’s because I don’t have the stress of a ‘real job’ so I have to track down other things to worry about.
Really the most exciting thing about storms is that the swimming pool alarm keeps going off and driving everybody mad, so I always end up having to brave the lightning bolts to disconnect the battery. (Don’t worry if you are coming here this summer with a small child who likes walking about in terrible storms - I lock the gate behind me!)
The children watch me from the house while I do this, either because they are concerned for my safety, or because they are interested to see what happens if you have your hand in a swimming pool when the water gets hit by lightning, they didn’t say which. Whatever the reason, they always encourage me to take an umbrella and a kite with me.
Something to do with a school science project apparently.
I am in the plumbing and drainage business in England. Would you mind enlightening me as to what was the problem with your toilet and what did it cost for the emerbgency assistance you got?
Not that I can offer a better qoute of coarse, and our responce time may well have been a bit longer than his, I am just curious as to what these things cost in France.
Cheers!
There was something on tonight’s 2000 news (TF1) about people who get struck by lightening. Take care. It leaves its mark!
Kevin, The problem was that the flush - a push button thing - had got stuck down, which made even the top of the toilet impossible to remove, hence the plumber for what should have been a simple job. The plumber had to drill it out and replace the mechanism. The cost I don’t know yet - I just called the plumber that I know is quick and efficient, because he has done work for us before. I’ll post how much it cost when I get the bill!
Jean, I think maybe the storms are behind us for the time being - although I like to be sure before I go cycling very far…
Kevin, just got the bill and it was for 70 euros - 32 euros for the labour (about an hour or so) and the rest for the replacement mechanism.
70 euros is about £55 I guess. Pretty reasonable I think - how much would you have charged?
that is a very good price. difficult to say how much it would cost from us without knowing the parts used. but the labour would be double that, atleast, and the parts a bit cheaper perhaps.
do you think he covers north east england?!?!?!