Our gorgeous girls!

Here are some pics of the girls in the car that my dad made completely from scratch for them:

Ok before I write anything I apologise in advance for the bad words that I will be using, in fact, if you don't like bad words, just skip this piece. You have been warned....

Had a bit of a 'Notting Hill' moment yesterday - remember the film in Hugh Grant's flat and Spike is going to see a girl and trying on inappropriate t-shirts, until he has a reasonable one that says something like 'you're nice' on the front and then he turns to leave and on the back it says 'fancy a fuck?'.

Well anyway, the death metal band are here and they're really nice guys. Very friendly and polite, always shake hands when they see me, ask how I am, rang twice on the evening they were due to ask if they could arrive a bit later than scheduled and very apologetic about it (which is more than some of our english speaking guests can manage - last year we had a family who eventually called us at 10.30pm on the day of arrival to inform us that they were at a local restaurant, just waiting to be seated and would be over when they'd had their meal. It was only 5 mins away and no, one of them couldn't possibly come over and pick up the key and be shown where their gite was so that we could get to bed, us having been on the go since first thing that morning and going to be doing the same thing the next day. Perks of the job...).

Anyway, back to the tale of the nice guys in the death metal band. Yesterday I was having a lovely chat with one of them, again with the hand shake, how are you, etc etc, couldn't have been nicer, very polite and what have you. Then he turned to leave and the back of his t-shirt read 'Your mother sucks cocks in hell'.

I saw him again later on and said 'nice t-shirt', 'thanks' he said, he thought I was refering to the gory image on the front, 'no, I mean on the back' - 'ah, um oh yeah', slightly shifty looking, I think he had forgotten what it said momentarily. He speaks good english too, according to Adrian, so it's not as if he doesn't understand it, fortunately, we haven't got any other guests in at the mo!

An update on our guests arriving this week-end - I will not name names (yet). I knew that they are 'musicians' and the original enquiry was through a third party. The form was completed by the people who are coming to stay and I've spoken to one of them on the phone and he sounded very nice and friendly enough. However, now that I am feeling better, I thought I'd check them out in the internet, just out of interest, as their e-mail address appeared to include the name of the band. Sure enough, I think I've found them - they are a 'death metal' group who describe their 'lyrical themes' as 'Horror movies, gore, slaughter and death'.

I know I mustn't be prejudiced or anything, and as I said, I spoke to one of them and he sounded ok, but I'm kind of having a few concerns now, there is after all a certain image that is conjured up when you think of a death metal band... And what if they bring their groupies back and do a Keith Moon and drive their car into the pool and all that? (I write this with apologies to all the nice people who are or who were in death metal groups.)

I think I might be ill again. Talking of which, Georgia still ill, so I took her to the docs today, she has an ear infection, so naturally I arrived home (via of the chemist) with a large bag of medecines to administer (five boxes of four different drugs).

This is me. This is my life.

Why do I feel weird today
My fingers numb, don't know why
Its like I'm feeling everything through a rubber glove
When I bend my head down I get the feeling of hot water down my legs
Thats a bit strange
Dont like this much
I feel tired must rest now

Now my back and chest are numb
Same with my arm
See the doc tomorrow
Dont like this much
I feel tired must rest now

Perhaps a trapped nerve she says
X-ray says no!
Why are my feet and legs not doing what they should
I try to walk my feet slap the ground like flippers
Dont like this much
I feel tired must rest now

Whats wrong with me, Can't walk properly
Can't think properly, Why can't I finish that sentence
Have to lie down in a huge great magnet
So they can see me inside out
Now my eye's gone blurry, They put electrodes on them
Have to look at pictures, Not allowed to blink
Water pours from my eyes
Dont like this much
I feel tired now must rest

All I can do is wait
Have to see the Neuro now
I have an idea whats coming I looked it up
You have MS she says, Oh
Don't like that much
Didn't think I would
I feel tired now must rest

Can't do what I did before, Get so weak
Feel so tired, People probably think I'm just lazy
I'm really not, Just can't do what others do anymore
I don't need wheels yet, Could be worse
This is Me
This is my life
This is my MS
I feel tired now must rest....

Written by Adrian Bryant

Thanks to Kevin for giving me the push

In the Garden 3

Been getting very excited lately, the mangetout is coming up well, the first carrots I sowed have come up, the onions and garlic are doing well too and the seedlings in the propagators in the house have been coming along too. Unfortunately, since I have been ill over the weekend, some of my carrots seem to have disappeared. Some have gone completely and some look like they've been cut off at ground level. Naturally, I am blaming the cat.

Also had a bit of a disaster with the seedlings. They were doing well in the house, so I transfered them to the little plastic greenhousey type things we have outside. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the lids off the propagators, nor was I up and about to open up the fronts of the greenhousey things during the day whilst I was ill, so all the salads have withered and died and the melons are looking like they're on their last legs, so will have to start again. Never mind, it's just a few seeds, and you live and learn and all that.

Have started to fill tubs with soil for the potatoes and hopefully, in the next couple of days I'll feel up to planting some of them. And re-doing all the seedlings. And planting more carrots. And so on with all the other jobs, it's never ending this gardening lark.

Just getting myself back together after having been laid up in bed for the better part of two days. Had the most horrendous flu-type symptoms which started in the night before Easter day, in agony all over, I am not exagerating, did not know what to do with myself, on top of which I got a migraine. Managed to drag myself out of bed to see the girls open their chocs and witnessed their egg hunt from my bed, which was done around the house instead of in the garden. This meant that we did not have the planned easter lunch with my folks, so the Lamb and the pudding went into the freezer and Adrian had a large portion of prawn cocktail to himself last night. I think we'll be having it all at the weekend instead, which will be interesting - the girls have never had lamb, Adrian's not had it since he moved in with me and I can't remember the last time I had it - probably about 20 years ago and I seem to remember not liking it much, but I thought I'd give it another go.

Georgia has also been ill - she had a fever at the end of last week for a couple of days, but that went, although she still wasn't 100%, then today she's gone quite bad again, even had an afternoon nap which is unheard of. I was told the other day that measles is currently doing the rounds so I keep checking behind her ears and inside her mouth for spots, which annoys her somewhat, but paranoid mother and all that.... She had her jabs, incase you're thinking I didn't do that, but I had the jabs too and I still got measles and whooping cough, so I know they're not 100% effective.

Having a bit of a do with the washing machine that I ordered back in early Feb that had a 30 working day delivery on it, well 45 working days later and it's still not here. After numerous unpleasant phone calls and broken promises on the company's part, I have today cancelled the order, only to be told that the refund will take, guess what? - 30 working days.... Then I found a french consumer site on the net and basically loads of other people have had the same problem in non-delivery of goods, then they've cancelled and then they've had problems with refunds not being paid, so it doesn't look like it's over yet. So somehow we have to find some money and go and get a machine in a local shop, which are expensive but with hindsight what we should have done in the first place.

We've had our first guests in of the year and the next lot are due on Saturday. Spent hours spring cleaning the cottage, they get so mucky over winter and all the local wildlife population seem to think they have squatters rights (well, this is France so they do actually - long story, won't go into that here).