Contradiction

Maybe I should have taken the comments about the ghosts a bit more seriously.

Yesterday, completely out of the blue, the false front on the dishwasher fell off - which makes loading and unloading the thing a lot more difficult.

Today, the sun finally emerged (weakly it must be said) and Debrah and I ventured out in the car only for the rear supporting bracket on the exhaust to break just a few miles down the road - thus curtailing our little adventure.

Maybe the spirits were unimpressed by my nonchalance regarding their existence. Or maybe the kitchen was fitted by a couple of dimwits a few years ago and I've been having to correct their ineptitude ever since and maybe the exhaust bracket has been waiting to fall off for the two years that the exhaust has been held on by electrical wire. I know which I believe.

So two more repair jobs to sort on top of the usual round of daily and weekly chores that keep this place ticking over.

All the guests left today (just before the sun came out) and both suites have been cleared and prepped ahead of our return to London tomorrow. The jigsaw isn't even close to being finished so it will just have to wait.

The weekend wasn't completely without it's high points though. We had a fabulous lunch with Denis yesterday at Domaine Gayda - started at 1.30 and finished at 5.00 - that's a proper lunch. Denis was as charming and lovely company as he always is and the restaurant was full of people enjoying an Easter Sunday, including one party of about 30 locals that spanned at least four generations.

This evening over dinner we enjoyed the bonus of being able to watch the TV in the empty haunted suite (that's a contradiction isn't it - it can't be empty if it's haunted). Anyway, we watched a movie called 'The Science of Sleep' which was a bit weird and French (which isn't a contradiction) - enjoyable but mad.

Speak up

This world of muffled sound and cotton wool filled ears is really beginning to piss me off now. I know I have probably got some sort of ear infection and I should go and see a doctor - but I am obviously trying to avoid the cost and hoping that it will sort itself out sometime soon.

Past experience tells me that an ear infection is terribly painful, but I don't have any pain at all, just an uncomfortable feeling in my head.

The uncomfortable feeling seems to switch from one ear to the other. Several times over the last couple of days I have thought I detected a change. thought that my ears had cleared, only for it to continue as before.

It's a very odd sensation to have all normal sound subdued but to have a slight constant ringing noise in your head. Strangely, when I speak it feels to me as if I am shouting - the sound is very loud inside - but apparently I am actually talking very softly. If anyone else says 'pardon' to me and then laughs at their own hilarious joke I shall probably punch them.

Which is one of the reasons why I am sat at home on my own on this Friday evening - when you can't converse normally with other people it all becomes a bit too much like hard work and besides, a quiet (stop laughing) night in is probably better for me right now.

It was actually a lovely day today. The cool wind of the last couple of days had disappeared and the morning cloud was burned away by the midday sun, which all worked out perfectly for me to spend a pleasant couple of hours in the square this afternoon.

My departing guests checked out at midday and both sets of new guests had been settled into their suites by 1.45pm, after one very rapid room changeover, which left me free to just catch the last bavette frites at Felix and enjoy some sunshine and my book.

The new leaves are just beginning to unfurl on the plane trees and as I looked up through the new bright green shoots to the azure blue sky, an airliner left it's white jet stream in a perfect arc across the centre of my line of vision.

I was lost in my own world at that moment - partly because I can't really hear the real world - well, I can hear it but it feels like it's over there and not here if you know what I mean.

It feels a bit like a dream, which is OK - if it turns into a nightmare I won't be happy at all.