Where did that week go? (and a rant)

I suddenly realised yesterday evening that it is a week since Kippa and Ben departed. This came as a bit of a shock, because it feels like we haven't done much since. We have just had one of those weeks; Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed first use of our fireplace and cleaned the house from the mason's activity, on Monday the masons returned to finish the outside of the chimney, on Tuesday and Wednesday we did more cleaning (stone dust is incredibly fine and will take weeks to get rid of) and reorganised the furniture in the front room (which involved moving bookcases a couple of times), and on Thursday we took Célestine for a little drive.

An interesting array of chimneys in la Guerche

On Friday we did nothing except stay in the warm all day - it rained (or looked like raining) continually and Susan has lost her voice, so we thought it sensible to keep warm and recover our strength. We will soon be starting on levelling the back garden and putting in terraces, which will require brainwork and energy. We have just about made all the decisions that need making about what will be going where - except for one thing:

The Clothesline.

I want a good, solid, retractable clothesline, but they appear to be an Australian thing. I had a retractable clothesline in Australia that lasted 10 years, but for some reason the French (AND the English, before the visiting Anglos get too smug) all use incredibly flimsy, minute, cheap and nasty looking things. I want this. You will notice that it is made in Australia. It is available in the UK, but it costs a lot of money (for our installation it is just on £200 delivered to the UK). If I want it delivered to Europe by the UK company I have to order in Euros - and they add over 100€ to the cost.

I will let that sink in...

100Euros - for doing a currency transaction!! That is almost as much as the clothesline originally costs in Australia, so I will be emailing the manufacturer and asking if they can send me one directly from the factory.

A photo to help me calm down:
the river Cher at Chenonceaux

All that to get some clothes dry!

Simon