Current Affairs

well lots to report today. The kitchen is proceeding apace . much fun and mirth determining which piece is which. We were stumped for ages thinking we had two left hand corner units-then finally realised that if we rotated one of them, then we could obtain the desired right hand corner unit. What a laugh we had when we realised! Also shown is a picture of another friendly neighbourhood Swede rotavating our vegetable patch for us. On Tuesday, M is going to mend a leak on his roof for him in return. Franck was castrated last Thursday. All went well and he is now back to his usual self-just a sturdy plaster on a rather tender area. i hope I'm not going to have to be the one to pull it off.The local Enduro race took place today. There were 270 riders who kept going for around 8 hours. it requires a huge degree of skill and physical fitness. We took our KTM motorbike there in hopes of selling it. It's common here to advertise something for sale by doing a poster with fronds at the bottom which have the phone number on them for easy removal by any interested party. 3 fronds were taken so we have our fingers crossed. Also my strawberry plants have survived the winter. the birds should be happy since they were the main beneficiaries last time.

An Ikea Kitchen

Now that the floor's done-and so beautifully-we can bring in the kitchen and today, we've been unpacking it. it is the FAKTUM kitchen from Ikea. All very exciting. "Did you get that unit with the pixies in it?" I asked M as we checked the boxes. This being the REKTUM unit which contains 8 pixies-4 dressed in red, 4 in green, who will erect your kitchen for you overnight. They come with their own little self-assembly pine bench. Also necessary is the ARSUP module which contains one pixie on his own with a long beard, and dressed in gold. This is necessary because this pixie actually is the boss and tells the other pixies what to do-without this, the REKTUM is actually useless. However, they never mention this to you until you get to the till. The REKTUM is £40 and the ARSUP is a further £8.95. They're pretty canny, these Swedes. Some people think they're only really good for a casserole but this is to underestimate them. Anyway-"No I didn't" says M. "You were already moaning about the cost ". Well-thanks for that-once more, it seems I only have myself to blame for over-economising. He probably wouldn't have been happy with their workmanship anyway being something of a perfectionist when it comes to matters DIY.

Recuperation

After a hard days work full of stress, it's essential to recuperate. It's easy to overlook the stress our pets have in their daily lives. There's the need to sleep, to eat, to exercise, to eat, and maybe sleep again-oh I don't know, because then again more eating might be involved, or more sleep,- the permutations are endless. M and I can become a bit preoccupied with our own concerns and tasks, -and fail to pay heed to the challenges these small creatures face juggling sleep exercise and eating. Let alone the times we SHOUT at them because yet again they have got in the way during the kitchen floor laying exercise. Poor wee things.

I have found out a use for dog poos. Apparently, if you dry them they burn well on the fire. Free fuel! This is something which I have to try and show on the blog. watch this space...

More hard work

Well these hardworking men have been at it again today and the floor tiles are now laid-they just need grouting tomorrow. Both of them are now suffering from a case of "Clergyman's Knee". It's all rather exciting to see things progressing at last instead of seeming to go backwards all the time. I'm sure that Mackerel agrees with me.

The Kitchen Floor

Firstly, I have included a photo of M's thumb-as you can see, unpleasant as this injury was, he has had a good recovery and will now be able to hitch a ride away from here when he's had enough of me without people being afraid he's just committed a terrible murder. Also, our kitchen floor has been started thank goodness. Apparently, the new tile cutting machine is very good. Here, M is not being assisted by Noah (who we could do with sometimes given the amount of rain we can get here) but by our Swedish friend who lives a little way up the road. What a kind man. Then his wife asked us to tea last night. What wonderful people! I don't think we ever turn down an invitation which involves free food. It will be so nice when the kitchen's done and we can reciprocate properly.

The Dog Pound

Well-today has been a bit of a mixed bag. The success story has been completing the dog pound which means Franck the Teckel can no longer follow his nose to the tasty bitch round the corner. Hurrah! Also M and I worked together successfully at this project today which is no small acheivement.

However, we both also had disasters. M hammered his thumb (and insisted on taking this gory photo of it) and I made a Victoria Sponge but forgot to put the baking powder in. Since you can't get self-raising flour here and have to rely on plain flour, I had this resulting Victoria Flatcake. M said it was very yummy and nice and filling. I think he lies. Meantime, Bessie has been working on her figure and is seen here flaunting it in the sunshine. She is well fit. Then following a minor tiff and upset, M responded by driving to the local Mairie's and provisionally booking our wedding for the 8th August. Surely it can't be right that one person alone can book a wedding-even provisionally

Look At This. (The moles are back)

Just look at this. Two days ago, I put my bottle on a stick firmly in the ground just here, because I had noted recent mole activity on this spot. The next morning, this is the sight that greeted me-some conniving mole has dug either side of the eco friendly mole deterrent. This mole has not read the anti-mole books, nor looked at how it should be behaving on-line. This is incredibly disappointing. I'm going to have to think again, and come up with some way of increasing the noise nuisance capacity without incurring further expenditure.