bonjour ...

I'm not quite ready to start the tales of Africa ... so I am here to tell you about my first few days back and how productive I've been.

In fact, the 2nd room in my house is complete. well 95% so. It is hereby dubbed "ma belle salle à vivre" ... and I love it.

Thursday (first day back I remind you) I painted all of the floor moldings, applied 2 coats of wax to the floor, vacuumed my upstairs, mopped the stairwell and landing, washed a load of clothes and began sorting paperwork for taxation.

When I got home, it was to a leak in my basement. not just a leak, more like a steady spray. JY was going to come and have a look but the battery was dead in his car (I actually think the jet lag was the reason)... so he told me to get "l'epanne" (spel?) and try. See, my dogsitter had discovered the leak and had got a friend to come and try to turn off the water but couldn't. When I got home, I didn't have anymore luck with the water main.

But I took l'epanne and headed into the basement and fiddled with the pipe where it was leaking and lo and behold I got it down to a trickle instead of a stream.

That aside, this meant I had no water pressure. So no shower after a fucking ALL DAY JOURNEY home. oh, sorry. so anyway, instead I did all of the above and concurrently waited for the tub to fill. After a couple of hours, there was enough for a birdbath, which I took. And then (yay Riana for inspiration), I mopped my floors and stairs with the water. Cos I'm cool and green like that.





Also on Thursday, JY arrived to me making coffee on the campstove (when I left all appliances were disconnected and moved for the floors to dry). So we moved the stove into the kitchen and he connected it. and then fixed the leak in the basement. And called the fioul (that's fuel for you non-Frenchies) man for me because not only did I have water problems, I had fuel problems because somebody (!) turned on the heat while I was gone because she was worried about the dogs and thusly all of my fuel was gone and I had no HEAT! After that, he was too exhausted and jet-lagged to continue so he left and I turned into Mighty Mouse and did all that stuff I told you.

Friday JY arrived to me attempting to move furniture into my new room. So he helped me do that and then spent the day working on his truck that we sold due to my ad on Le Bon Coin (so far it seems akin to ebay, but I have to explore further).

I arranged stuff in the new salle and went to the Friday market and then we cooked lunch together (chicken parma cutlets and penne with fresh tomato sauce and macaroons for dessert).

This week-end I further feathered the new nest and washed more clothes and had coffee with a friend. And I relocated the 2 wood piles to new homes and went to Fiddler's Rest for dinner.

This week we commence work on the restaurant.

As far as Africa. It is out there percolating. I have procrastinated blogging because I am still sorting out the experience and my feelings and blah blah blah. So I was at the point of not blogging because I didn't know what to say or if I wanted to say it. But it will come. I'm not sure if it will be one big story or episodes. but in time. in the meantime, I posted a bunch of pictures on flickr.com.

and it feels just lovely to be home.