Not going to plan

It's always the same. Debrah arrives here in France and I get a bit distracted, inevitably and understandably, from the daily process of writing my blog. Somehow, I just don't seem to find the time. Those last hours before bed, that I fill with my thoughts when I am on my own, disappear entirely. I'm very glad they do because something would be amiss with my relationship if they didn't.

But four days without posting a blog is quite long enough, so it's time to catch up with the events of the last few days.

Sore throat turned to snot and turned into the dryest most painful cough which turned into, well, just phlegm that seems to go on forever. All of which couldn't be more annoying when you are just trying to get on with stuff, but get on with stuff we did - Chris got on with the tiling in the studio and I got on with undercoating the new bathroom and the utility room now that the plastering and sanding has been done. I had quite forgotten how big the rooms and walls are in this place - one whole day and ten litres of undercoat later and I had just done the two rooms. Need to buy more undercoat I think.

Debrah arrived on Friday and in the back of my head was a niggling feeling that the faithful Audi might have been left just a day too long without use in the, now, cooler weather of November. So it proved - early on Friday morning I tried to venture out to Tridome only to find a flat battery - then having whipped the battery out and brought it inside, the fuse blew on the battery charger because I hadn't noticed the setting was on 24v not 12v - ahhh. I hot footed it to Monoprix for a new fuse and ended up buying a whole spare light kit for the Audi, which in France, you are supposed to carry by law - so now I was legal and I had a fuse for the charger and just enough time to get the battery charged before heading off to the airport to collect Debrah.

I was so excited about Debrah arriving - because I hadn't seen her for two weeks and because we had achieved so much on the renovation - and I just knew she would be as excited as me. I hadn't factored in the dust situation though and the sight of our beautiful apartment not just under dust covers but literally under dust was a bit too much to take - I guess I had got used to it and despite trying to prepare Debrah for the worst, it was still too much to take for her.

The never-ending mess just happened to coincide with the latest funding crisis in London and so there was also much agonising over money, and as I haven't been paid for the work that I have done in October, general depression set in all round for a good twenty four hours. I always try to be positive about everything but I have to say that even I feel very depressed about our finances, and the amount of time we spend apart from each other and what may happen in the future and, although it should be obvious how to resolve those issues, it somehow sems very complicated and difficult.

Today, we managed to forget some of those cares for a while. It didn't look all that promising as we set off for a drive - the forecast said sun but the reality was definitely cloud. Even so, the Autumn colours were spectacular and Debrah shouted "Hello ponies" on several occasions to a variety of horses we encountered along the way and we put the roof down and put our coats on as the sun came out and the wind howled as we drove through the unbelievable Gorge of Galamus and then we found a little village happening in Caudiés de Fenouillédes where we stopped and ate oysters and moulles and frites and tried and bought some local wine and stroked the noses of ponies and donkeys and sheeps and a very bad tempered looking goat before wending our way back home feeling very excited and thrilled and refreshed.

I then proceeded to ruin the entire evening by drinking too much red wine. So I am writing this blog and Debrah has gone to bed and that makes me more unhappy than anything I can imagine.