Refuse me my recycling!?

Some f*cktard has stolen our recycling bins.

Again.

They probably nicked them to go with both of our lovely green rubbish bins which had only recently been purchased by myself and Jordon. A nice matching set of theived waste disposal units. The bins vanished a few weeks ago, and we're now surviving on one metal bin between 2 households and 4 people.

It simply isn't good enough. Quite why the council doesn't provide the Crescent with bins is beyond me, the rate of council tax that we are forced to pay is extortionate enough as it is. But they don't, they won't, so we have to buy our own. Thing is, they risk being stolen because you can't chain/secure them to the railings, or the binmen can't lift them to carry them the 6 foot to the rubbish truck. (Maybe, as and when we do replace them, I should get a really massive leash for each bin? That might solve the problem.) Why steal a rubbish bin? When the overwhelming majority of houses in this area have wheelie bins provided, it just doesn't seem fair somehow that someone felt the need to remove ours.

However, the problem remains that our precious black recyling boxes have gone yet again, which means another lengthy wait while the Council gets round to delivering new ones - and even then, they might not arrive. We were without one for the first 6 months that we lived here. Why not leave the card, paper, glass and metal (no plastic, thank you) out for collection in something other than the purpose-built black box? I hear you ask.

Because the binmen won't collect it if it is in anything other than the prescribed container.

Ok, so I understand not wanting to pick up bulky plastic bags in the fear that there might be something dangerous or sharp lurking to spear fingers and palms, but refusing to empty an almost identical sized, shaped yet different coloured plastic tub filled with our lovingly-cleaned tin cans?

RUBBISH. It's a big pile of utter toss, that's what it is.

It's almost enough to make me want to build a huge pyre outside the house and torch the whole lot.

*Grumble*

I Heart Henry and Badgers

Pouring with rain today and really very cold. Everyone's a bit glum to be honest. The house is made of stone and very hard to keep warm - it's fab in the summer when you want to keep cool but having woken up chilled to the marrow the only time I was warm was when we went to visit Marie Noelle! BRRRRRRRRRRR.

Because it was so cold in the night (didn't sleep well at all due to that and horrid nightmares about moth monsters and such) we are going to try sleeping in Mum's old studio upstairs. We had to mount a massive cleaning operation up there - so many dead flies and mice poos! I did get to try out the Henry Hoover my parents own and he is quite frankly the BEST hoover EVER! He's an industrial cleaner and it was almost fun to do the hoovering! Oh dear :) Must get me one, would be brilliant in the flat in Brighton.

Had a late lunch of soup and cheese sarnies and now we will be moving out stuff around and getting up in the loft to do an inventory of what's up there so we know for next time!

Actually, scrap that, we haven't been up there yet but we did sort out the living area downstairs and the bedroom/studio upstairs. The rain is still spitting and it's still cold, so fingers crossed we don't freeze tonight! I really hope the weather is nicer tomorrow - it's my birthday! We'll be busy doing things in town but will still be lovely if the sun is out!

Been missing Phil a lot today. Had quite a few texts from him (maybe making me miss him more?) but the lack of real contact is horrid really. Will be so lovely to see him again and even better to have him living in Brighton :D

Oh! Meant to say earlier, another one of those butterflies woke up today! So odd! Must've been hibernating. It might be the heater we've got on that';s making them think it is warm enough to wake (is April too early for that?) and they might find the weather horrid, but I suppose it's better than waking up trapped? Although, how the Devil did they get in, in the first place?

When I was sorting out that basket of stuff Dad and I brought down from the loft (found my lovely My Little Pony mug from 1985! WIN!) I managed to disturb a hibernating wasp. I put him outside, but as I was washing my hands later another one must have crawled out of a duster in the basket, and he landed on my wrist! I screamed like a GIRL.

I miss my KITTEHS! And my bed, TV and Brighton in general...

We discovered that the badgers which set up camp under the workshop have been back for more digging and there's now some kind of tunnel 10ft long under the edge of the wall, meaning the foundations are in trouble...not so good. Personally, I think it's pretty awesome that there's BADGERS in the garden...and oh my GODS, Dad has just come into the house carrying something he had found by said badger run - A BABY DEER SKULL!! That is SO COOL and pretty scary too - mental badgers! Mum's going to draw it and I want t6o take it home with me, it's well a bit Goffick ;)

Butterfly Graveyard

So we made it to La Croix Lombree and oh, my Gods it is actually great to be here. We arrived about 9.30am and it's now 2.00pm French time.

Getting into the house wasn't nearly as hard as last time, thanks to Marie Noelle working her magic (in the form of heavy duty farm machinery!) and clearing the driveway and loads of the land a few days before we arrived. The house itself is way cleaner than last time - no real surprise considering it had been 7 months as opposed to 4 years this time! All our hard work last time paid off. We swept, hoovered, turned on the power and water and emptied the car. When Dad and I uncovered the water meter pit we found two amazing lizards sleeping soundly; their colouring was astonishing - bright green, black and yellow, not like normal brown ones we have living in the walls in summer!

But the strangest thing was the gorgeous butterflies who appear to have come inside to hibernate/die. They surround the windows but they look quite peaceful, not like they've been battering against the glass. One looked like he'd just been born, and once he was used to his wings, off he flew out the door.

The weather is still quite strange, overcast but not exactly cold, a few spots of rain and a bit of sun struggling to get out.

Dad and I opened the well up for the first time in years - SO COOL!!! The old wooden bits had fallen apart but the actual well itself was fine. We measured how deep the water was with a length of tree - 10 foot!! Scary. Very "Ring"! Bet there's treasure at the bottom :)

The good news is that I can now send MMS for FREE or so it seems so very happy about that. I spent the afternoon exploring and Dad and myself went up in the loft. Haven't been up there in 4 years, really glad it was all still safe and sound. Found a basket full of bits to unwrap - JOY! :D

Now I am going to help Mum cook tea, pasta and tomato sauce - NOM! They are having Pastrami ham with theirs - Mum keeps offering me non-veggie foods, or, to be more precise saying "Wait, you won't eat that, you don't eat meat". Bless her! I think it is going to take her a while to get used to it!

Rainbow Over the Harbour

An Aside Note To Read First:

In December 1990 my family moved to a lovely converted farmhouse at La Croix Lombrée, just outside an idyllic village called Saulzais-le-Potier in the Cher region of France. We lived there until Summer 1993 when we moved back to the UK for a variety of reasons: predominantly economic due to my parents not being able to legally work there at the time. My brother and I came back fluent French speakers having spent 3 of the best years of our lives in the French countryside.

My parents decided to keep the house over there; over the course of the years we went back for holidays but various calamities made it more and more impossible to go and enjoy it. The worst of these incidents was the series of breakins, despite all the best security we could emply - the worst of these resulted in us having most of our worldly posessions stolen.

In the end, the house remained empty, shut up, boarded closed and nigh-on forgotten. Too little time, too expensive to get there, too many horrible memories. Four years went by. Last September, Mum, Dad and I came back for the first time and started our French adventure all over again. This trip, April 2008, is the second step in that adventure.




Greeting from the Brittany Ferries Mont St Michel Ferry!

On our way over to Saulzais to the old house out there and to see some people/do some work etc. Thought it would be good to actually document some of this for a change, so I bought myself this lovely shiny book and new biro - ooh classy :) When I get home I will type this up onto my blog as I don't use it anywhere near as often as I should and I'd like to get back into the habit really - this is the perfect excuse.

So, so far I've got up early, packed, rushed to the train station. Had to change at Havant but it wasn't too bad a journey. Helped Mum and Dad do various last minute bits, ate sandwich (Mmmmm, picalilly), played with the cats and made flasks of coffee. The we set off for Portsmouth and everything went smoothly at the Port. We boarded on time and found our lovely reclining seats - mine is purple and they have free coffee in this lounge so I am happy! Been reading Hack/Slash that Phil got me for my birthday and it is absolutely ACE. Brilliant characters, art and storylines. Love it! Have to get more, if there is any!

Smooth crossing so far, mostly. Felt a bit icky leaving the Port where oddly it seemed rougher. Was deckside having a ciggy and making a goodbye call to Phil and it was raining - the sun was shining too so was treated to a gorgeous rainbow! It started and ended in the sea. How wonderful.

20:21 English Time.

We are about an hour from France now, I can already see the coast lights twinkling in the distance. It's going to be a long drive down from Caen to Saulzais, and in the dark. Not overly looking forward to it really to be honest. Just hope it is uneventful.

Finished reading Hack/Slash and started on "Birdsong" by Sebastien Faulks. Phil lent it to me and highly recommended it. Dad bought me his "Girl at the Lion D'Or" some years ago and I loved that so I'm looking forward to seeing if it is as good as he says it is.

Dad slept for some of the way over so Mum and I went for a wander. There isn't much on these ferries aside from the usual duty-free shop, not that many people either really. It's a shame, I remember 10 years ago when we were coming over, during this part of the year the ferries would be packed. Now there's so many empty seats. I think it has got a lot to do with the price of plane tickets these days. Ferry tickets aren't cheap either, plus the seats we get in the front lounge are £5 each. Ah well, at least when it is smooth it's quite relaxing and I think it's better for the environment than short-haul flights. And given the amount of stuff we need to take with us, we really couldn't go any other way.

Mum and I both had some yummy quiche in the café on-board; mine was spinach and goats cheese - NOM. Plenty of iron and protein - Mum's fretting a bit about me being veggie now but I tried to put her mind at rest while we ate. We shall see.

The network on my phone appears to be "2748" at the moment. Texts cost me about 50p, mms won't send and the intarwebs doesn't work. Bums. How will I cope without Facebook for a whole 8 days?! The HORROR :)

EXTRA NOTE

The journey took 11 hours.

It NEVER takes that long, 6 hours tops!

I must admit, I did sleep through most of it, thankfully, but it was pretty horrendous. Dad got LOST 3 times, there were traffic diversions, big pushy lorries, wildlife, basically anything that could slow us down, did.

SO not fun.