Phew stair cases are exhausting

Today was the day that the judge's expert would come and have a meeting with us, our solicitor, the stair man and his solicitor. We also had dear Anne to do translation as required and make sure we knew exactly what was going on.

I was surprised about how nervous I felt about this. Real pre-exam nerves. Lots of cleaning and tidying. Dog decided she would sit in the car and ignore it all.

Our solicitor had charged nearly 500 euros for this morning's work so she had better be worth it. (Fortunately most was paid for by our insurers so the 150 euros we forked out is the first we have had to pay for 2 years of meetings/experts/judges.)

By 9.30 am everyone but our solicitor had arrived so gave them a cup of coffee while we waited and the judge's expert made polite conversation.

For the first time since the stair case was put in, the stairman put in an appearance, his solicitor's office had obviously sent the junior clerk. The expert was a very professional, large 4WD driving, pale suited man and our solicitor arrived with a huge briefcase (she's tiny) and wearing a very fetching, black lace lined with flesh coloured fabric, number.

All sat round the kitchen table but very formal, announcements listing why we were there by the expert. Our solicitor was asked to speak, then stairman's solicitor. Fairly amicable so far but our solicitor was getting her points across and stairman was already floundering. Then off to view the stairs.

We have had two other experts looking at these. Basically they cost a lot of money and are badly fitted. Experts want to know about whether they fit the 'norms' for making staircases.

We had given up on listing all the tiny mistakes - masses of filler, gouges, not square, cut wrongly, endless things - but the expert seemed to want to know, so off we went with measurements and photos of everything. The other guys had said that the fact that the top step wasn't square was the 'dangerous' thing and maybe that the spindles weren't strong enough. BUT this guy just measured the width, said they should be 80cms and they aren't. Triumphant glance from our solicitor whilst he continued with his measuring.

Our solicitor was brilliant, clear summary of what was going on, absolute disdain of the other girl who could only keep muttering that it was 'artisanal' and therefore you should expect some rough edges. Stair man tried to say that we had agreed plans (there are no plans) that we had been to his factory to see the work (we had been to the factory to chase him up because nothing happened for such a long time) that because I had agreed that the bottom step could protrude a bit I had realised that that was because it was the only way it could fit and I had therefore agreed that it should go across the door!

Eventually everyone had had their say and the expert said that there would now be his report in about a week for all our approval and a final decision (possibly) in another 3 months or so.

'How do you think it went Madame'. 'They are not wide enough, that will be all it takes'.

Rubbish that I KNOW is true

Spinach makes you strong like Popeye
Carrots make you see in the dark
You must not go swimming for at least an hour after a meal
Everyone must get out in the fresh air every day
Riding back to the engine makes you sick
Cats are always she
Dogs are always he
You must NEVER write in a book
If you hold a guinea pig up by its tail its eyes will fall out
If you don't at least acknowledge a magpie you will have bad luck
My mother had eyes in the back of her head..........................

Sweety

We are slowly learning our new addition to the family. What she does naturally, what she will do if asked nicely and what she can't help herself doing. It is very early days but we are all learning.......slowly slowly. And mostly she's brilliant and we are very lucky.

Today we took her in the car to one of the local markets. Busier than usual because it is just before Easter. Impeccable behaviour. She's no problem in the car. She completely ignored other dogs and all the interesting smells of the market and sat patiently while we had a cup of coffee. We decided she must have been a town dog because all this was completely normal to her.

When she goes on a walk with one or both of us she is great. Pays no attention to other dogs/chickens/cats/animals in general. Comes when called and obviously loves it.If on a group walk with other dogs and people, she just has a lovely time and comes back to check and then goes off again.

Sleeps through the night. Doesn't move until we get her up at whatever hour suits us. Eats the cheapest dog food happily.

All good stuff.

On the down side....................

She and the cat are not enjoying a fulfilling relationship :-). They lead separate lives and if Sweety catches sight of the cat she's in full chase mode in the blink of an eye. The cat, not being stupid, keeps well out of the way.

Sweety loves shit. Can smell it miles away and loves to roll in it and eat it. The sloppier cow shit the better.

Chickens are there to be chased and eaten. One down, seven to go. Normally we would just let them fly out of the way but it is the season of chicks and the mothers are more protective and everyone more vulnerable.

Him Outdoors would like a dog that lay in the shade and kept him company outside. Sweety can't do that. Outside is definitely foreign to her and she can't relax, it's a continual patrol for her.

I was reminded today of our children at primary school. I remember discussing with friends that I would rather have children that were well behaved at school and didn't get into trouble there and a pain in the arse at home, than the other way round.

I guess it's the same with dogs.

Stair case

Apparently the insurers are going to pay the 1,000 euros required by the judge to appoint a judicial assessor. They will pay it direct to our solicitor and so it goes on..........................

So that will be three different people that have come to look at the staircase. This one will have the authority to actually decide what should be paid. Apparently.

Don't hold your breath.

Meeting a fellow blogger

I ws just going to write that today I met my first fellow blogger and then realised that that is not strictly true (sorry Jen) and being a pedant I will try again :-)

Today I have had a lovely lunch with a blogger that I follow. Our beautiful house was showing itself off at its best, the weather was kind and we had the best time. It is like meeting a distant cousin. Someone that you know stories about and have a basic relationship with. You don't have to have all the basic 'what do you do, where are you from, how long have you been here' conversations of a first time meeting because over the months of blogging you have covered all that stuff, so you can jump straight in.

We had a lovely time. A real pleasure. Thank you.

New York Metropolitan Opera in HD or "It's OK just not to 'get' things"'

Last night we went to the opera.

I have heard several people saying how wonderful the transmission of live opera from the New York Met is. The system is that in order to bring opera to the masses - or to make more money - various major opera companies are transmitting their performances to cinemas and other venues around the world. You get to see things close up, get good sound production, comfy chairs, reasonable prices for major works, interviews with the stars. Altogether worth a look.

OK so they do this at the cinema in Sarlat - about 40 minutes away - and also in a Chateau even more locally. As we happened to be in the place where you could reserve tickets for the Chateau and that sounded really romantic let's give that a go. Opera/chateau/gardens/beautiful evening...................

And it was a really lovely evening. The chateau has renowned gardens and we arrived in plenty of time to get our tickets and have a walk around the garden which has a cliff top view of two major rivers with the valleys sprinkled with lovely farmhouses.

Now it begins to slip away.

The few people that were wandering around seemed to be dressed for a live performance of opera. Very dressed up, very posh english accents braying across the lawns welcoming each other.

The room where the screen has been set up is a large stone walled room but not completely dark on this beautiful evening. The chairs are standard plastic with added very thin cushions - for a 3 hour performance. The screen is a roll down white one like Dad used to show slides on (bit larger but you get the picture).

The show is a live showing so we are all dutifully in place by 7 pm. And off we go...... And the sound is just slightly out of sync with the pictures - they look as if they are miming. They are also acting for the stage and we are seeing it close up.

The singing of the main male voice was lovely.

The subtitles for a french performance were, of course, in french even though the opera was sung in french. I had read a synopsis of the plot and told Him Outdoors but evenso we were struggling to know what was going on. Now ok maybe that doesn't matter much with opera since the plots are fairly silly anyway but ..............

So here we are sat in a room with no atmosphere, sound/mouths out of sync, no idea what's going on, stagey acting. Get to the end of the aria and everyone in the room claps......

Nope, sorry, just don't get it. But as Billy Connolly says "That's OK".

Dress Patterns

Someone mentioned that they were making a dress from a pattern and put up a 'vintage' Style dress pattern.

That's not vintage. I remember making that!

As a teenager we lived in a village about a 20 minute bus ride outside Cambridge and sometimes my Mum would spend the afternoon in town and I would meet her after school in the local Gordon Thodays. Gordon Thodays was a material and pattern shop that had an area set aside with stools and slopey tables where you could peruse the patterns.

I would have walked along the rightly named Long Road from school to the bus stop carrying a huge bag of books/games kit. Catch the 106 into town and walk into the shop to see Mum already there looking at the patterns. Dump all the stuff under the table and join her to assess the latest 'ensembles'.

We made pretty much all my clothes. She let me cut out my first summer cotton dress when I was about 9. We had to make a blouse at school in the 1 1/2 terms that were given over to dressmaking - way too hard for beginners and the wrong season for any choice of cotton fabric. I'm sure it put off most of the class.

In the material shop we must have already had a plan because we would search each of the huge heavy books. When we had decided we would huddle over the 'notions' required and the widths and lengths of fabric and head off to the material racks. Couldn't wait to get home and get the material laid out on the sitting room floor and painstakingly lay out all the required paper pieces the right way up with the right edges to folds of material. Lots of checking before making the first cut.

I remember I made a dress for my first school disco. A very 60s BIBA number in purple. Only to find when I got to school that someone else had made the same dress in the same fabric but they'd done more of the optional twiddly bits so I felt very inferior. Even thinking 'well I look better in it than her' didn't really help....