2014 Arrived in France
As usual we was greeted by the sound of the cookoo in the
garden, it’s a wonderful sound and a sense of homecoming.
But first, we left Australia earlier this year, much to the
disgust of the children but we went on a cruise up the Mekong River from
Vietnam to Cambodia, what an experience it was!
The highlights of the holiday for me was the photographic opportunities,
the amazing food and the fact that the tour company we had booked with donates
a great deal of financial support to local villages along the Mekong, enabling
many children to attend schools and supports the manufacturing of local products
in their villages, including silks, mats, fish oil and bricks (!) yes we visited
a local brick works. The work ethic of
these people was evident everywhere we went, due to the fact that our tour
company sponsored so many villages we were privileged to visit the villages and
places where most tourists would not be able to go, even in their own homes.
In Cambodia we visited the temples of Siem Riep including
those that had featured in Temples of Doom and Lara Croft.
End of travel blog, sorry about that.
Now to France, we arrived to great manicured lawns thanks to
Diane and Philippe, we really appreciate the work they put into the garden and
the house while we are in Australia. As
usual we had to deal with the fact that we live in the country and the house is
empty for 6 months, inside the kitchen on the backdoor there was about 100
flies trying to get out (Diane said she had cleaned up about 100 a couple of
days before!), great start, so before we could even put our suitcases down I
was cleaning up the flies, this continued for another couple of weeks, such a
strange phenomenon that no one seems to have an answer for.
Nature continued to invade our peace, or my peace, Terry was
straight out in the garden the day after we arrived setting up explosives for
the moles. So far the count is Terry 2 -
Moles 0 but the war continues.
Terry has also had to repair some fences to prevent the wild
boar and deer returning to the garden, at the moment we have alot of poo on the
roof of the house, at first we thought it was a fox but after local
consultation it might be a pole cat that gets in the roof during the day but
roams at night, so the plan of action is waiting until the pole cat goes out
about 10.30 (when it gets dark, yes, it doesn’t get dark until about 10.15
which is wonderful) back to the plan, Terry will then fill the holes with
chicken wire to prevent it returning to our roof space, this worked when we had
the problem a few years ago, so watch this space.
The other drama is that the UK have moved their satellite so
we can’t get Free to air English television (my biggest drama I must say),
hopefully by tomorrow this will be rectified, we had to order a bigger dish and
various other components from the UK, which as usual was not without its own
drama! Ie the English company sending 19
metres of cable instead of the ordered 25 metres but thanks to a friend and
some wheeling and dealing problem rectified. I hope.
Not sure if I should mention the weather, it has been
terrible, very cold and wet up to the last few days when we have had the
expected sunshine and warmth but checking the forecast we are due to get rain
over the next couple of days!! Last
night we had the strongest wind storm through the garden, even moving the old
oak tree, we are now without telephone and internet, technician has just fixed
the problem, apparently our neighbours tree had damaged the line!
We “popped” back to the UK for five days in amongst all this
for Terry to visit his parents, as his poor Mum has had a short spell in
hospital while we was in Cambodia, but ever resilient she is back in the
dementia home.
We have had opportunities to catch up with our English,
Dutch and French friends which as usual entails lots of eating and
drinking! So an exercise regime must
follow soon. We even had a meet up in
the village hall with our new Marie, (Mayor) very nice man, an ex commissioner
of police, which might be handy, unfortunately he doesnot speak any English
although his beau souer (sister in law) is English so that should be
useful! Wonder what her number is?
Got to go now and pick the cherries off the two trees before
the birds get them, it is always a battle who gets there first but I have been
checking at least twice a day if they are ready and today is the day.
Abientot
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| Pick the Budist Monk! |
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| On Streets of Cambodia |
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| Ancient Angkor - Late 12th to 13th century temple |
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| Problem with the telephone at Capet |
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| The new dish that doesn't know which way to point! |
