The dusk arrives around 7.15pm at the moment. I know that because it was the last thing I saw before showering and crawling into a lovely warm comfortable bed. Twelve hours sleep certainly improved my mood and Chris was not much later than me to bed.
Chris went to meet the man from the water board and I decided that cowardice was the order of the day and got dressed in bed to lessen the shock of such a cold morning. When Chris returned it was with the news that we now have a meter but that was the end of things as far as the water board were concerned, we had to find a plumber to run the water from the new meter into the house [and thereafter into the caravan]. This seems more and more like Africa but without the sunshine!
The plumber can't come until 6.30, naturally, because he is already working somewhere else so we decided that, following yesterday's success in getting a landline installed, we would go to Bergerac and get the internet set up. Minor hitch when we got there because they've moved the shop and there was no indication as to where the new one was, but we found it and got everything arranged. Yes, we will have unlimited internet in less than 15 days. Well, hopefully. Yep, 15 days to flip a switch.
By now, our mood was as low as the temperature so we went to a garage to look at a car that Chris had seen on the internet and thought might be suitable for us. It seemed fine and a reasonable price. I took it for a test drive and everything seemed OK. We thought we'd better have a look at some others though and drove around to find that most garages were shut [of course, it was lunchtime by then] and some were just frankly way out of our price range.
We stopped for lunch at a Relais Routiers [a sort of transport cafe]. There were lots of lorries and trucks parked outside, always a good sign. The conversation among the 23 men in there quietened as I entered and it never really recovered. [Yes, I did count them]. The food, as one would expect was a world away from a transport cafe in England. Entertainment was provided for me by watching the clientele taking turns to go outside for a cigarette in between courses. I provided entertainment for them by just being there.
Well, after more fruitless trips to garages, we returned to the original car and bought it there and then. My first car since my beloved Toyota Corolla in Malawi [and almost as knackered!!]. A Citroen Berlingo with a sun roof. Just waiting for some sun now.
We went to the house for a while. It's sad there at the moment because our lovely old neighbour who was 90 has just died and his wife is very sick. We got this news from our other neighbour who came to deliver a pressure cooker I had ordered from England. Tonight lamb stew and some local red wine and then hopefully another long sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment