Re-reading the blog I wrote 2 weeks ago, I could almost copy and paste the first 5 paragraphs to summarise the last couple of weeks and explain why, despite my assertion in the final paragraph, I didn’t write a blog last Sunday.
Our progress on a number of things however, has been hampered to some degree by the minor irritation of things breaking down, falling apart or generally not working properly so we have had to divert attention to fix things!
One of those things was an item we bought a few years ago to make our lives a bit easier – a roller iron. As we generate a significant amount of laundry and David irons all the bed linen, because it took such a loooooong time with a regular hand iron, we invested in a semi-professional roller iron.
This stopped getting hot about 6 weeks ago (typically, right at the start of the busiest holiday period) but, thankfully, as we have lots of domestic electrical items in the gîtes and our own home, we have a sort of insurance policy with a major French electrical retailer (their equivalent of Currys Electrical) which covers repairs.
We took it to the shop and, partly also because it was the start of holiday season, I cynically said we wouldn’t see it again for at least 3 months! However, 2 weeks ago we received a message that it was ready to be collected. We did, and when we turned it on for the first time at home while it got hot, it wouldn’t produce any steam so was better but not really fixed.
We have taken it back and will see how long that now takes to repair again.
Another item that chose to break was a lawnmower. Grass grows quickly here year round, and I actually enjoy the routine, and monotony, of cutting it. We are fortunate to have a couple of mowers, one we adopted from the previous owners so is at least 10 years old. As it’s the oldest I have been using it for the back lawn, which has been damaged with the pool build, and the Granary lawn, which has been damaged by an army of moles.
Up to this point this mower has proven reliable and robust, but last week the driving wheel chose to fall off so I have had to take it to our motorculture shop to be repaired. Hopefully I can collect early next week.
They say things come in 3s and the third happened last Tuesday when we found Dave’s car had a slow-ish puncture in its right rear tyre. Dave’s car is only a couple of years old and is fitted with sound suppressing tyres. What it isn’t fitted with is either a jack, a spare wheel or even repair foam as, apparently the accepted way to deal with a puncture nowadays is to use roadside assistance!
Thankfully, the leak was slow enough to allow us to drive around to try and find a garage who could repair it. Our local Sizun garage is closed for holidays; the mechanic at a nearby independent garage hadn’t done his training for EVs so ‘wasn’t allowed to take the wheel off’ (how an EV wheel differs from any other is a mystery – we just don’t think he could be bothered); a major tyre-repair chain took the tyre off but then said it was a type that couldn’t be repaired; and finally we went to the main dealer who happily repaired it within 30 minutes and didn’t charge.
Despite all of these issues, I actually have managed to start the major project I said I wanted to, which is clearing out the central garage space. This is something that we have wanted to do for a while, almost since we’d finished building the garage. The problem is, the space is quite large and covered so is the ideal place to store things.
However, when it is cleared we will also be able to clear the whole back drive, have a covered outdoor games area and have a proper area to store garden furniture over the winter – which is one of the many reasons we build the garage in the first place. Oh, and maybe park a car inside!
Some of the items we have been storing are things that are themselves broken and I had put to one side waiting for the time I have to repair. Two of those things are the illuminated reindeer we bought a couple of years ago for Christmas decorations.
Sadly, last year, only the second year we used them, half of the lights stopped working. Rather than throw them away I thought I could cut off the old, defective, lights, and string a new set around the frame.
The removal proved harder than I’d anticipated! Rather than a single length of cable being wound around the frame, several wires were intertwined with the framework with a cable tie adjacent to every lamp. Eventually I have managed to remove it all so I will be able to replace them in time for this Christmas.
Pleasingly, we received our first reservation for New Year 24 / 25 last week so the deer will be appreciated. David has been updating our Christmas pages on the website so as summer passes and thoughts turn to the Christmas holidays remember Kergudon is a magical place to spend them as a family – and Priory has a 4½ metre Christmas tree.
For the rest, I am trying to be ruthless in deciding what to keep and what to throw away and this is much clearer than the garage has been for a while …
One local activity we visited was the annual Brasparts Plage event. For the last 4 years, on the Assumption bank holiday, the town of Brasparts (about 15 mins from us) has 75 tonnes of sand delivered to their village hall to create a beach for people to enjoy.
Unfortunately, this year the bank holiday weather was decidedly Breton which meant the beach was effectively at high tide for the 2 days and when we were there not many were braving the drizzle to relax on the sand. The kids found the foam popular though even though it more resembled Brasparts Piste than Plage!
Hopefully better progress next week with fewer snurgles but we have had some very good friends arrive with us today for a 2-week holiday – so there may be other distractions!
Salut.