It has not been a fun packed week here in the grim north of France. The weather has been cold and miserable, and so have I. Work on on of our little projects to re-roof an old stable, so that we can rent it out next summer to smiling happy holidaymakers, has been going more slowly than ever. And ‘luxury villa open to the stars’ is less convincing during a thunderstorm.

Despite begging and pleading with our team of roofers things are still going very slowly – too wet, too windy, too icy – and if the building isn’t properly covered an waterproof before winter arrives we will have all kinds of problems. Not least of which is a house full of water.

The roofers did deign to turn up one day, more because they had nothing better to do than because they felt a pressing need to complete our roof, and set to with enthusiasm at eight o’clock in the morning. I didn’t like to point out that it was bit early for all that noise, so instead I pulled some clothes on over my pyjamas and went to say good morning. Motivating the troops and all that.

In a sudden flush of enthusiasm I asked if anyone would like something to drink – coffee, tea and so on. After a (very) short pause one of them shouted that he wouldn’t mind a beer. Then the next, and the next, and soon the call went out that they would all, in fact, like to sit on a cold roof in the freezing rain and share a beer. What could I say? I was thinking hot chocolate and croissants. But being the obedient employer that I am I went off to find a case of beers, which I must say they semed to finish in record time.

Unfortunately, drinking three beers each before nine o’clock didn’t seem to help with the work, and well before morning coffee time arrived, one had called something incoherent about the weather to me through the window, and they had all disappeared as suddenly as they had arrived, in a dented old white van.

Mrs Boris tells me they said they were working somewhere else now the sun had come out, but I’m sure she must be wrong. All the same, they haven’t come back yet and the old stable is still, more or less, an old stable.