Pardon

Two flights in less than 24 hours, in and out of time zones, in and out of home, going deaf, dinner with guests, a bit of DIY and leaving Debrah behind in the UK where the suspension broke on the car - it has been a crazy couple of days.

At 9.00pm on Tuesday evening (European time) we were sat in Arlanda airport, Stockholm. At 10.30pm (GMT) we were at Terminal 5, Heathrow. At 10.00am (GMT) I was at Stansted and at 2.00pm (European time) I was about to land at Carcassonne. It's a good job British Summer Time didn't start on the same night or I would have been totally confused - as it is I had to think very carefully about setting my alarm for Wednesday morning.

I spent about 9 hours at home in London which wasn't enough, especially as I was asleep for 7 of them. Sadly, when I came back to France, I left Debrah in London and whilst it was great to be back in our wonderful apartment, opening the shutters to let in the glorious Languedoc light, I very quickly felt a bit lost and lonely without Debrah here too.

It doesn't help that all sound is muffled at the moment. My cold has been hanging on longer than strictly necessary and my sinuses are still a bit blocked. When we flew into London it was very painful and my ears filled up as they often do when you start your descent on a flight - only they haven't corrected themselves yet. My ears feel like they are full of cotton wool. It is very uncomfortable and has the effect of deadening all sound - which is good in some respects (noisy bikes etc) but very disconcerting most of the time.

When I flew to France they were OK when I was up at altitude but filled up again on arrival - bizarre. Hopefully they will sort themselves out soon. It has now gone beyond the mildly amusing stage.

My current clients were on the same flight as me - they have stayed before and are also clients of Lesa and were here to sign the papers on an apartment in town. They insisted on taking me out to dinner last night which was very generous of them - we ate at 'Divine Comedie' - a very reliable and unpretentious brasserie on the edge of the Bastide.

I have two new couples arriving tomorrow for the weekend so decided to give everything a check, having not been here for two weeks. I knew that the wall lights in the apartment had stopped working - I traced the dodgy connection this afternoon while the guests were out signing documents in French that they didn't understand - but also found two light bulbs out and a broken bathroom hook in the mezzanine suite. How did that happen? - they were all OK when I left here two weeks ago - spooky.

Anyway, all fixed now and ready to go.