Lights out

It's been a day of many odd jobs, some of them successful, some of them not.

The outside lights in the courtyard and the archway have both failed at the same time, plunging the whole place into pitch black at night time, the only light being a faint glimmer from the doorbell.

For the last three weeks the lights have been on all day, even though we have had bright sunlight, which made me think that the sensor had failed - now that I have checked the circuit and the fuse and the connections, which all seem fine, a failed sensor seems to be the only logical conclusion. I think we need a new one.

My studio guests also reported that the remote control for the dvd player wasn't working. I changed the batteries to no effect - so we need a new one of those too.

Based on the (dubious) belief that these things come along in threes, I am hoping beyond hope that the third isn't something really expensive!

I did manage to get through half the ironing mountain and my guests have been extremely undemanding and both had relatively late breakfasts, allowing me to catch up on some sleep - another early night tonight I think.

With only 10 days to go before he disappears off to the USA, Chris has finally realised that he needs to finish the work in Denis' apartment - so this evening we dashed up to Tridome for a couple of final bits (cupboard door hinges and varnish for the worktops). We had a bonus with '10% off' vouchers courtesy of an English language newsletter called 'The Eleven' - that being the number of the Aude Department where I live.

I don't know how much money I have spent in Tridome over the last three years but it is well into the thousands - 10% off all that lot would have been very useful indeed - as it is we saved a massive three euros and sixty one centimes - well, every bit helps.

Talking of the French departments, I bet you can't name the ten departments beginning with the letter A that come before this one - one of them is only a one letter change - answers tomorrow or whenever I remember.