I declare the patio to be clean.....

Speaking as the duly elected Chair of the AGON (Association of the Gnomes of Nantilly), I declare that the patio is now gleamingly clean and wish to offer a vote of thanks to Monsieur Karcher for the splendid effort. On behalf of my fellow association members I'd also like to thank Ms A Moore for so ably directing M. Karcher and keeping him supplied with the necessary resources to accomplish the task.

 AGON has complained for years about the overall standard of maintenance of our official residence and meeting place but is has taken the advent of M. Kracher and Ms Moore for anything to be done. Long may they stay.
You will notice that in the photograph below I look a little careworn, this, in part, is due to the brilliance of the patio on which I am standing - and partly further evidence of the neglect of the landlords of the association's residence and residents.

Dare we hope for more?
Kindest regards

Well we are back in residence with the log fire burning and electric radiators on all over the place. It is not so cold at the moment, which is just as well as we have failed to get the oil-fired heater in the kitchen working. We will give it another go in the morning when we can have the windows open for a through draft and to carry any smoke and fumes out. Perhaps the oil is all gone?

It was back in August when we were last here and I must say that Michael and Anne Marie have done another great job in looking after the house these last four months and in getting it ready for our arrival. The dehumidifier really seems to have kept the place free of damp and condensation.

The Ryanair flight from Stansted was on time in leaving and early to arrive. Stansted was reasonably busy but since so many of the airlines have reduced winter schedules it was coping very effectively. The rental car from Avis seems to be brand new and we managed to figure out how to make it go at least as far as Rue de Nantilly. Marsilly was reassuringly quite.


Let's see what tomorrow brings....

Another go at the golf

It is not the only thing we do you understand; we've taken to cycling around the place as well. Also on another front during this trip we have painted the kitchen walls and the landing and this brings us closer to finishing all the tasks we set for ourselves when we took possession of the house last December.

Anyway back to the golf; a 9.50 tee time seemed more conducive to my play although Anika did not likeher score for the round. For me, at least, I finished every hole and althogh I lost five balls I was pleased with a good number of my strokes, I achieved a par on hole 11. Thus far I have only managed to par three of the holes as opposed to making it to double figures on six of them. Another plus for the round was that none of my scores exceded previous worse scores on any hole!

Now is the morning of our dehumidifier

I will tell this tale at length quite soon but for now it's sufficient to say we have one.
The saga began during the last visit when we decided that installing a dehumidifier in the house would be a great benefit over the winter months. Local research suggested we would have a better range to chose from in England and so it turned out to be.

Extensive researh identified that most dehumidifiers operate very badly at low temperatures but one variety is effective down to about 5c. We selelcted our model and suppplier and began the process of ordering one - for delivery to France. Our sellected supplier assured us of delivery in three days from dispatch and we agreed that they could and would dispatch on Tuesday 19th August, delivered on the Friday. Anika came over to be here. The supplier confirmed dispatch in an email but nothing turned up. The sort version is that we eventually took delivery on Thursday 29th August almost a week later than promised. We are taking this up with the supplier and depending on their response I might tell more.....