Start the 4th Week of Home Improvements

May 2010 Filling all the dinks in the walls takes time and patience yet it must be quite boring. It is definitely neck breaking to sand and fill the between the beams but oh what a beautiful result is being produced. Both men look like flour babies!

Wall paper stripping continues....the scaffolding is mine tomorrow to reach the top of the extremely high walls!

Our reward for today ... chicken legs pan fried, then roasted in the oval braising dish with orange juice, spiced cherries, onions and the last of the coriander leaves, served with carrots and onions in a honey sauce, accompanied by a Captain Sensible 'gratin dauphinoise' styled potatoes.

A Neighbourly Note

Rushed off our feet with the excitement and new physical exercise of home renovations, I failed to take a photo of the wheelbarrow full of Monalisa potatoes that appeared on our verandah about three weeks ago, from a very dear and kindly voisin, Monsieur Roland and his lovely wife Bernadette. We are still eating potatoes even though we have given some away. They are large, perfect for wedge potatoes, jacket potatoes, chippies, mashed and every cooking style imaginable. He offered us a second wheelbarrow full. Normally we would have said 'Yes please' but working flat out there is no time to see friends. In the shops are the new Ile de Ré and Ile de Noirmoutier new potatoes but we won't need them. Our crop of early and main crop potatoes seem healthy and soon we will be eating them straight from the garden!

Energising, Renovating, Reflecting, Meditating

July 2010  Although I was energised by the owning of a property, evidently demonstrating vim, vigour and enthusiasm for wallpaper stripping, sanding down woodwork, clearing out junk, digging and filling trenches, rubbing down large beams, baking bread on a building site, helping to organise what might have been the start of a Midsummer ritual in my garden, after 7 weeks of what could be perceived as almost a kind of trauma about what I had done in buying my house, I decided to have a break and Do Something Different. So at the end of June and the beginning of July I decided to visit family and friends instead of or in addition to the months of March and November.

What wonderful weather is in England ... sunny days with privet blossom, scabious flowers and poppies by the wayside, cereals growing golden in their English gated fields surrounded by English oak trees and hedgerows. Yet though the beauty in the East Anglian fields is very marvellous I miss the French stone walls and lanes.

Reportage of the development of my new house has come to a standstill at the moment as I take stock of my life and review the goal which is to get the ground floor of the house ship-shape with running water, a bathroom, a better kitchen and all rooms painted and decorated and NORMAL. How on earth did I think it would happen in just a few weeks? "Ever the optimist" someone once said of me in my career when things were going awry and I had made some naïve comment akin to 'it will be alright on the night'.

So ... it will take a little longer than I thought and the plan on how to do it may change but that's OK ... and if I have to struggle a little more in life then "c'est la vie". It's my life and I'll have to do it my way even if I create a muddle as I go. I'll get there wherever that may be. I won't be beaten. That's another lesson that I learnt recently. Pick myself up... get on with it ... keep moving ... keep doing things ... don't brood ... think happy thoughts ... put the music on and dance, dance, dance to the Rolling Stones or reflect quietly with Chopin or Bach.

I am still energised and when I get back to 'work' I will enjoy it because life must be about working. I don't have time to be lazy anymore! I don't have time to waste! I don't have time to spend on negative energies. I want to be positive and happy. I don't want to experience any more horrid moments. I have things to improve and things to sort and dispose of or keep. I have places to go and things to do and people to meet as once my dearest friend once said.

There are some photos but it all takes time to collate and computerise and I want to write and I want to explain with photos but I'll have to get up earlier and be organised. Mrs Muddle has been too disorganised and she needs to get into ACTION and prioritise her goals.

Window measurements in France

October 2010  We bought a window for the laundry room. It was 45cm by 45cm and is an opening and closing window to seal the gaping window hole which was more like a gap that archers would have fired through only wider, into what is called The Atelier.  Captain Sensible did whatever was necessary to make it fit the hole which is wider internally than externally, and above it leave a gap for the ventilation grid, as in this room there is a central heating boiler!  It looks really nice painted Lead White.  We were pleased.
Then we move to the second window which already has brique verre on the outside wall. We removed the nasty yucky badly fitted gungy secondary glass on the inside.  Captain S managed to improve this rather badly installed window attending to it from the exterior as well as interior.   The required window had to be ordered because the dearly beloved Brico shop was out of stock. We waited because we are in France!  We didn't want to travel there and back for almost 2 hours just for a window.  In order "to get on" the window area including the beautifully place wooden sill was finished off.
Later, holding the window to the hole, we couldn't understand why it was too big!   
The reason???  It is advertised as a window 75cm high and 60cm wide so we assumed that is the size of the hole.   Mais NON!!! This is France.... please read the small print at the bottom of the window chart.... each window is actually 3 cm wider and 5 cm higher or vice versa, than the actual measurements advertised in large print at the top of the chart!!!
Our research tells us that this is the norm in Bricodepot and in Le Roy Merlin.
Does this happen in England?Therefore our hole is too small.  Captain S is going to have to undo the neat work. We will have to return to the shop and purchase another window because we returned the one we had bought.


The moral of the tale is to scan and read everything not just what one wants to read!  

Just a taste of things to do

Just for starters to let anyone who is interested, know sort of in brief, what I am up against! 
NEW WEBSITE and BLOG was created and prepared but has been on hold as I don't have time or energy to create.

Manual expertise has been on hand converting the rough and horrid to smooth and more beautiful.  I help manually. I can use powered sanding machines and elbow grease!

Electrician promises to come in October to make electricity safe and install the water heater.
Menuisier for double-glazing of the many windows and doors in the house gave us a different kind of shock in his estimate!  Others have also arrived to give estimates and we get different messages each time. Research on getting them made in UK and delivered to France continues.
Research continues into which woodburner to order and its installation.  Again different messages come thick and fast. It is not as simple as it sounds!

Despite being worn out and cold weather approaching, we get up and do ... and at weekends collapse into a practically non-functioning unit! 
Laundry room....damp walls have been dry-lined, the floor has been tanked up, cleaned, levelled and floor tiles laid and grouted with plinths. ceiling made good, windows made good, new space for plumbing and electricity created.
Next jobs: walls and ceiling to paint /  two exterior walls to chip off the render, rebuild where we know there is just plasterboard covered with cement render, make pierre vue, all of which affects replacement guttering / build worktop with sink, taps and waste outlet, connect to water in and out / build cupboard shelves / install water heater, correct faulty electrics, purchase and plumb in washing machine.
Small room to be an office....  electricity to correct and improve plugs and switches / grind off paper and glue from cement floor ( done that ) / make walls flat / remove tongue and groove boarding around windows and doors and make good / level the floor where necessary, lay parquet floor and seal, add skirting boards / fill other woodwork /  repaint all surfaces /  make replacement doors for those missing on corner armoire /  build cupboards to conceal electrics and water stopcocks / double glaze window and door (there are 4 units and to replace is more complicated than this note reveals), draughtproof door and windows /  sand and repaint shutters / choose and install wall lights / install telephone point / replace radiator / find curtaining...
Oval room ....replace insulation boards on walls, remake chimney, purchase and install woodburner to replace what was there and instal with all that that implies for the chimney!  make walls flat, repaint ceiling where necessary, make safe electricity and add plugs and switches, grind off paper and glue from cement floor, level the floor where necessary, lay oak flooring and seal, add skirting boards, fill woodwork or remove all tongue and groove boarding, repaint all surfaces,  double glaze door , draughtproof door, create a wider and higher internal doorway and buy new door,  choose and install lighting, replace radiator, find curtaining...
Kitchen ... to plan the change! It is being considered! Beams, ceiling between, walls and floor to be improved before kitchen units and equipment can be installed. Currently the fridge is a freezer and sited next to the oven which I try not to use. The hob is 'basic'ally good now I have discovered how to turn the gas down for a simmer! Before that I did not dare leave the hob for fear of burning the veg!

Bathroom ...it's a shell... so to buy and install everything --- flooring, ceiling, wall covering and window, bath /shower, toilet, sink, towel rail / sand and paint door / extraction unit / replace radiator.
Bedroom...  lay oak flooring and add skirting board, add lighting and extra plugs, double glaze  and draughtproof French doors, repair door furniture, hang chandelier, replace radiator, consider how to heat this room if there is no woodburner next door and no oil fuelled central heating! Furnish and add curtains.
Living room.. Finish sanding and repair of doors, paint, double glaze and draughtproof. There are 4 French doors plus 2 French doors to the bedroom and 3 other doors.  Its a large room!  Sand and finish oak staircase. Pipes to paint or conceal, Skirting board to replace,  Insert and chimney to be replaced with woodburner.... (this will affect chimney flue going through attic and up to the roof).
Gardens to weed and mow here and there... TICK   to order plants and plant! (Previous owner took alll except lots of sorrel, one white peony, two surviving roses (not yet bushes),  Orange "Angel's trumpets" and another plant I know not the name of!

Tomatoes  to conserve  TICK they've been eaten so it's just the green ones to deal with!

Bonfires to light  TICK

Waste wood to saw into usable lengths  

Guttering external problems to solve
Roof  to consider how much to re-roof and do what is necessary! New ideas abound.
STOP!! STOP!!   GO!! GO!!
What about the terraced courtyard, the atelier / verandah,  the chicken shed and yard, the municipal toilet-block, and the rest?    Oh what fun has just begun!
Habitability is the required keyword!

A week of Orange history

On Monday the telephone system was not working.
On Tuesday I received a letter to say they want my LIVEBOX returned. 
On Wednesday the technician arrives bright and early 8h30... BUT I had previously cancelled him and have no wish to pay 99 euros for his intervention. However,  he wanted to know the story..telephoned his seniors, explained briefly that it is complicated but that the LIVEBOX works and recommends I keep the LIVEBOX and ignore the request.
On Thursday I continued to have internet facilities.
On Friday there is no internet facility, orange light flashing!!
Maybe it is an interim period before France Telecom connects a fixed line and I can use the two phones at appropriate times?
BUT IN ACTUAL FACT I think they have disconnected me from Orange Net Plus. 
I am on the verge of arriving at the shop with a picnic and flask of tea and insisting that I stay until they have sorted it to my satisfaction!
However on Monday first thing, I will telephone the distress number ... or is it the de-stress number or just 10 13 (think it in French please and not in English!!!!) as well as the telephone number of Orange assistance and try again.
The new conundrum for 'the dix-treize number' is that one must phone from the domicile (home telephone (hellooooo?  I am not connnected!!!) ... or from one's mobile telephone ... ( I resist to have a French one as I have a UK one) .   Donc, I will try from the telephone cabin as it won't accept the numero domicile for AsA from VdV.   AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

The best solution would be to cancel everything and start again and of course WAIT and buy a French mobile PAYE.... or maybe to go to another company! 

Oh I am a jaded LIME!

iphoto

More importantly than companies named after fruits, I think I have lost all my previous photos of grandchild and house renovation stored on iphoto.......unless they are still there in a different place and inaccessible, until I gain further knowledge to retrieve them.  It is my own fault for not backing up.

We downloaded and opened Picasa and for some miraculous reason that made iphoto work when I tried to download more recent photos from the camera. However, I thought I had instructed Picasa to collect the iphoto photos before trying the camera download ...but alas No!

If anyone knows how I can retrieve them, then please let me know.
I have looked at so many forums and tried what they said. That is why I reluctantly reloaded the iphoto software and now wish I hadn't.
I feel inclined to return to hard copies and photo albums or at least put everything onto CDs.  It will be safer!   For some reason the back up machine I have has been rejected by applemac! 

It is all so depressing and my energy levels have reached a low again!
More aaarghs in life!

Anyone for Marmalade

Techno facilities appear to be stable apart from cutting off my telephone call....BUT I DO have to return to the Fort Knox Orange shop as they are billing me for something I had said I did not want and are invoicing me from the date of ordering the service and not the date of the LIVEBOX being activated.   I must also cancel the technician...   See... I can do it and did it. I cracked the Orange and Livebox and   Apple codes.   Sweet success but I never liked  Orange...s  that much!    Oh let's make marmalade!

Success, I think, at last

Last night I discovered that instructions from even that nice man at Apple were not clear. When I entered the port code (I think it is called that ..with numbers and fullstops)  it opens with the word 'admin' (no guillemots) and I thought THAT was the password I was required to enter.   Silly me!  ...what was NOT clear is that you have to enter the same word as the first password ... so there are two "admin' on screen and THEN one can proceed to configure the LIVEBOX.  Having passed the first hurdle every thing I did suggested that the LIVEBOX was synchronised but not connected correctly and yet I had further confusion because another message said it was connected but the server could not be found. Further exploration discovered other pages I could not access before and it seems I have solved the problem of accessing internet and telephone accessibility by prompting the DynDNS.  I don't know what it is but I am able to connect and create this post! Dindins or not I'll be able to have some lunch!

Oh is the future bright and the future ORANGE?
I will not think so when the facture/bill is asked for!

Interestingly, I discovered also that the dear ORANGE company have been leaving me telephone messages to ask me to confirm that I require the technician to arrive on 10 September 2010 at 10h.

Silly them!   How can I access the telephone messages or the voicemail by email (that's a new service I did not know we could have!)  if the 'NETPLUS' is not connected and THAT WAS the reason for needing the technician.   Hello......  is anyone there??????

Does the right hand of ORANGE know what the left hand is doing?  Does one part of this organisation know what is happening in a different department?   Evidently this expression / proverb about keeping matters separate from other matters is  Biblical. Matthew 6:3 

"... when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth."

Don't give "oneself credit for providing charity to others - just give and forget about it."

 I suppose each person / department has given separate information but there is not any "joined-up thinking", workplace jargon for where the viewpoints/information of each department of the organisation have arrived at an agreement or compromise.

I will see what happens on another day when I have changed houses, internet services and returned to the house of renovation. 

Then I must try to solve how to access my photos and download new ones.

Meanwhile I am off to hoover, that is to say, to vaccuum clean the building dust.

Fruit Salad and Ice cream

I received from the Orange shop on 28th August a document that clearly states in black printed ink that a technician would arrive on 10th September at 10am if not previously cancelled. That was today! At 14h30 I take myself to the callbox where I can dial the free number to find out what has happened to the technician. He did not arrive. The lines are busy and a human being asks me to call back in 30 minutes. This time I am passed from a gentleman to a woman whose French if she had spoken it would surely have been easier to understand than her English! Evidntly, the technician came on the 7th at 10am; he evidently telephoned me and could not get a reply! I explained, when she did not want me to explain anything, let alone speak, that the reason they could not contact me was because the telephone is not connected to the Internet, and that I cannot access emails from that line, hence the reason for the technician's appointment, as well as the fact that my internet facilities have been made to go "up the creek" (I did not use that expression) because of Apple or Orange or both!

Ironically on the 7th we were at Village de Vaux waiting, waiting, waiting for the nice Apple man at Orange to telephone. He was Italian and as mentioned before showed me how to ditch Safari. The call cost me 29 euros and taught me that it is better not to bang one's head on the wall but to look sideways at the problem. Of course, easier said than done, and once one has a little knowledge one can take the first step on the road of being an expert!

I was also waiting for the Orange man in Greece to telephone but he never did.

No, I have not been smiling today. I have been speaking patiently but firmly, even having to interrupt and speak French as well as English and even laugh out loud at one point, because to laugh is better than to scream) explaining that it is ridiculous for me to have one date and for them to have another and that this scenario is like a farce and as if one were in a theatrical comedy! She was not amused! I am not amused.
I have to wait until 22nd September at 8h30 and pay 99 euros.
Will I get connected to France Telecom? Will I get connected to Orange Internet?
Will they let me give them my money?

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream, rah rah rah!

With a 99 if you please.

Anyone for Fruit Salad?

I am not a big fan of raw apples unless they are a particular variety or texture BUT I do like cooked apples especially with chocolate and pancakes.
Oranges ... hhhmmm ..... I am always suspicious of what they are going to taste like and have not yet worked out which season or variety is the best as usually they are too bitter and sour for me .... and yet I am the Marmalade Queen!
Have you ever eaten oranges fresh from the trees in the Alicante region of Spain? .... they are to die for and I can easily eat a kilo in one go!
Bananas have to be slightly green and never baked or put into warm, yellow custard aka school custard! or even baked with blue cheese! I cannot stand raw bananas if they even go slightly ripe, yellow and certainly not brown or black! However, to do the fruit justice I do love a banana sandwich or fresh sesamine baguette with banana sandwiched in-between!

I have been going bananas over the last few days!

Telephone and Internet facilities have been down .... unavailable ...
I have managed to get a new internet system fixed at my new house and tried to avoid signing up for France Telecom .. but ... silly me... if there is a problem with the Orange 'net plus' I can't dial out as there is no landline and I have no mobile except one routed via UK! It is fixed that I am in a conundrum!

So after days of trying to make the LIVEBOX at AsA work, I think it is still unsuccessful plus the days of not being able to access our internet system at Village de Vaux, including of course the hours that I have spent at both houses/homes trying to access the world wide web!...., 'les plaisirs' were not here or there ... in fact, blue berries could be added to the fruit salad!

This evening the nice man at Orange has made my nice Apple mac pro educate me in circumnavigating the nasty Safari which decided not to work. Thank goodness that some months ago I downloaded Firefox and today as an extra precaution I have downloaded Google Chrome which is thankfully available to certain Mac models.

Therefore APPLE has been able to access the lovely ORANGE and my BANANAS have not gone quite so bendy and so brown!

It has been False Economy because in order to save I have incurred the loss of time and humour... as well as pennies from the purse (the VERY nice man from Orange who knew all about my Apple was not a gift). One cannot beat the telephone system (Misters Bell and Edison would turn in their grave!) so I have changed the contract and changed to a France Telecom line with an Orange internet line at extra expense per month but with the added security that if one system fails (as I continually do!) one can hopefully use the second option! PS. It will take up to 3 weeks. But the horrible Orange lady who out the phone down on me without answering my questions would not tell me this and would not tell me that, so I have been told by a different Orange customer services agent that I may continue to use my current system (hohoho if I can get it to operate tomorrow/demain!).

I regarded (looked at) the LIVEBOX to see if it was alive today! From red blinking 2nd light of three days and apart from one day then the 7 days before that! it has all by itself turned to orange blinking light..... but it should be a fixed green light and not clignotant!

I have had 3 visits to the ORANGE shop and subsequently learned how to negotiate with the managerial person who stands centrally to allow or disallow persons to enter or not the hallowed Fort of Modern Telecommunication! (N.B. not jut F.T. but F.M.T.)
I am not allowed to change my package, my contract, my livebox, my annuaire details or my line parametres! However, when I asked most politely for a chair, given my age, she did get me one! There are few chairs for those who wait!
I, of course, WAIT, for I live in France, and in France one waits patiently and in order to progress more quickly one must improve one's command of French and try to sooth with soft, negotiable, smilingly, encouraging, complimentary words those with whom one wishes to succeed more quickly!
I would rather have a fruit salad ... but shall we add some other fruits?