Flashback

The entire renovation of 42rvh just flashed before my eyes once more, and into my joints and bones via a van and 'dechetterie' or waste disposal.

I finally got around to removing all the debris and waste that I had temporarily parked in the empty room on the ground floor - the room whose owner was less than happy when he found it all there - how was I to know?, the place looked long abandoned and uninhabitable.

I shared a van rental with Patrick for the day and we shifted two loads out of the bar in the morning and then two loads out of 42rvh in the afternoon. In the process I relived 18 months of renovation as out came old doors, balustrades, tiling, baths, radiators, plasterboard, plumbing, electrics, wood and walls (in the form of hundreds of bags of debris).

Each load carried took me straight back to the time we removed it from it's original place and how and why it had to go and what is in it's place now.

But I am very very glad that I will never see them again. I must have moved half that rubble three times already and that was definitely the last. When we finally finished at six o'clock I was exhausted. I hadn't felt that tired for a very long time and my bones and muscles are definitely feeling it today.

That finally brings to an end the long running Operation Barney - hurrah, and I did manage to find my missing grout testing board - the one I had used to mix different measures of colour until we got just the right shade. I wasn't going to throw that away

To cap the day off, I had guests for dinner at eight, so two hours to shower, change, get my breath back and get dinner ready and the table set, when actually all I wanted to do was lie down.

I sometimes wonder why we put ourselves through these things - but dinner was a success and the guests are very happy and I feel better now that all the debris has gone from that room, so I guess it was worth all the effort.

Everything I pick up feels very heavy today though

Debris

One set of guests left today and the others, on a five day break, have gone up to 'La Barbacane' restaurant at the Hotel de la Cite for a Michelin dining experience. Last night we all had dinner here at 42rvh - I'm no Michelin chef, but I think it went well - everyone was still sat around the table at 1.00am and no-one realised how late it was, which is probably a good sign that another thrown together group of people were getting along just fine. It was a good evening.

It was gone 2.00am when I managed to get to bed after sorting out half of the kitchen mess and then up again at 7.30am, not just to finish the clearing and sort breakfasts but also because I had to take the car to the garage for it's CAT - two minutes to drive there and ten minutes to walk home, picking up the breakfast viennoiserie on the way - brilliant, I just love how quick it is to get anywhere here and, as a result, how much extra time I have. I was back in plenty of time to get the two breakfast trays ready after finishing off the washing up and tidying of the debris from last night.

The old Audi didn't fare too badly either - it needs a couple of things sorting but they are so minor that I don't have to go and get a re-test, just check the car back into the garage so that they can fix them and then they will notify the authorities that it has been done - an eminently sensible way to go about things. In the meantime, I have the car back on the road.

Debrah also left today and is now back in London and, once again, the place feels strangely empty as it always does just after she has gone. The weekends seem to fly by with very little opportunity for us to spend time together, what with guests and dinners and breakfasts and new design and build projects.

On Sunday we took a drive out to Domaine de Cantalauze, the enormous money pit owned by Niall the eccentric, in order to show Chris what was what and give him an idea of the magnitude of the potential for him and Debrah. As I suspected, the initial thought was that it was too big and couldn't be done but I hope that with a bit of reflection they, especially Chris, will find a way to try and make it work - because it could be a great project for them both.

Meanwhile, Denis' project will be kicking off in earnest this week, with more materials and the start of the major demolition. 'Operation Barney' has already returned to the streets of Carcassonne, with Chris scattering radiators and whatever else around the refuse collection points of town - just when they thought we'd finished, we're back in business!