Well, we survived yesterday’s storm; in fact we came through unscathed and this morning dawned bright and sunny with hardly a breath of wind. It’s been a busy day, though, by our current standards anyway.

It started off normally enough; I had an English lesson to prepare for this afternoon, which was mostly done when the architect arrived at 10.30 with the preliminary drawings for our building project. He said he’d be here about an hour, so I thought I could finish planning my lesson then. But he was nowhere near finished when Kieran, Julie and Adrian arrived, starving hungry, at 12.30, so they drank tea while Daniel concluded what he needed to do. We hastily warmed some soup and ate while Julie explained that she and Kieran had had to abandon the new car yesterday evening as it took so long to get through to the rescue people that the credit on her phone ran out just as she was about to tell them where the car was! When she and Kieran got back to Julie’s it was to hear that the fridge had died as a result of numerous power cuts during the day. The three of them went to take the car to a garage this morning, which closed just as they arrived, so the car won’t be looked at till Monday now. I think Ade and Julie must have been very bad in a previous life!

I ate my lunch as fast as I could and took my half-done lesson with me, leaving the rest of them to their pudding. I managed to stretch what I’d prepared to last an hour and a half, but felt very guilty for not having done a better job when, at the end of class, one of the students brought out a “galette des rois”, the traditional cake served on January 6th to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, and a bottle of cider. The galette contains a figurine and the person who finds it is crowned king for the day. My students were interested to hear of my blog and wanted the address, so…. pour tous mes etudiants, bonjour! Il vous faut traduire cette page vous-memes; pas par fonctionne d’ordinateur!

At some point in all this, Nick and Kieran found the time to insulate and plasterboard the outer wall of the yellow bedroom; just needs the wall and ceiling plastering now and I can start decorating. It feels like progress!

The architect had had to make several changes to his plans for the house, so he returned shortly after I got home; this time just for half an hour, or so he said. An hour and a half later, I had to go for aperitifs at the Clan (where I teach), leaving Nick to sort the planning stuff with Daniel. I was the only English person there this evening, so no chance to take the easy option where language was concerned; I think this must be the first day since we’ve been here that I’ve spoken far more French than English, including some pretty technical stuff. I’m exhausted and heading for bed.

Goodnight et bonne nuit!