The great unfinished kitchen saga continues

You may recall that I mentioned sometime back that we ordered a few kitchen units at great expensive from the local DIY shop, and that it has not gone very smoothly. I can't remember exactly what I said so I shall give you the pleasure of a re-cap of events:

End of Feb: Ordered kitchen, one double under sink unit, one 'demi-collonne' (higher than the worktop, but not as high as a larder cupboard, one wine/bottle unit, one worktop, one sink. Was advised three weeks delivery. Naturally, three weeks came and went and we heard nothing. After four weeks, we went into the store to chase it and they had lost the paperwork for the order. Eventually they found it, then they didn't know where the items were. I then had to go 'out the back' to the warehouse bit and point out out items to them. Eventually, five weeks after ordering it all, it was delivered.

The following day we started to put the kitchen together, unfortunately, there was a side panel missing for the demi-collonne which meant that we couldn't put the cupboard together and therefore couldn't put the kitchen together either. Went straight back to the shop who advised us that they would order one urgently and it would be in the following week. Well, every week since then, we have been going into the shop and every week they have told us that it would be in the following week. Nothing that I say or do has any effect. I even told them that we had guests coming to stay in the gite (not true, just trying to help my own cause) and absolutely needed a kitchen right now, all to no avail, all they could manage was the usual gallic shoulder shrug.

However, last week, a mere nine weeks after we placed the order, they called to say it had arrived. Tuesday morning we went and collected it. I took all the paperwork and drawings to the shop to check that it was the right piece (I was convinced that they would send the wrong side panel), but it was fine. Got home and Adrian went off to finally put the cupboard back together. A short while later he is back in the house, steam billowing from his head and a 'get out of my way I'm not a happy man' look on his face. The replacement part had clearly been made 'especially' and was the wrong size - an inch too long. 'Can't you just saw a bit off?' I innocently enquire. Alas no, the holes on the panel were drilled in such a way that it would then not be possible to put the cupboard together. So back to the shop we went. And now there is a whole new cupboard on order (we'll rush it through for you Madame, only a couple of weeks for delivery). Our first guests are due in that gite at the end of May. I'm not entirely confident that we will have a kitchen in by then.

I did try asking for a bit of compensation as well (God knows they weren't offering any). Well, what with the bad service, having to compensate our own (fictional) guests that couldn't stay with us because there was no kitchen (well, I had to go along with the story once I'd started it) I thought they should do something. The words 'blood' and 'stone' come to mind. No they couldn't possibly give us a refund. No they couldn't possibly give me a voucher or credit note to spend in the store at a later date. The best they could offer me is some money off my next purchase in store. 'How much?' I asked. 'Couldn't possibly commit to that, Madame, that would depend what you bought.' 'Well, how about a percentage?' 'No, we'll decide when you purchase the items. And that's the best we can do!'

I think that if we hadn't already decided to return to the uk, this might well have been the final straw anyway.

Easter photos

See, I told you I haven't eaten any chocolate.

Like all rabbits, the Easter Bunny left a message on the lawn.

Happy Easter everybody!

Watched the film '2012' last night. Very good effects, really enjoyed it, but not a very relaxing film to watch, having spent most of the evening on the edge of the sofa. I noticed they had lots of gestures to other films which was nice of the makers.

For instance - The Italian Job - bus/plane hanging over edge of cliff. Waterworld -world under water, looking for promised land. The Day After Tomorrow - flooded world after major disaster. Titanic - all sorts of scenes on the theme of sinking/flodded ships. Deep impact - Tsunamis, people trying in vain to escape to higher ground, only certain folk with ticket to safety. Independence Day (I think) - Aeroplane taking off from runway just as city is destroyed behind it. There were more, but I can't remember them now. I should have written them down at the time. Or maybe I should just get out more. Also, just one tiny little plot flaw, which is actually quite a big one, during the movie, they made several references to the fact that the world had turned on it's axis and the south pole was last seen at Wisconsin. At the end of the movie, when the picture pans out from the world, the earth seems to have flipped it's axis once again as it's spinning in the way that we know it today -ie north pole in the arctic, south pole in the antartic. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, just thought I'd mention it that's all. Actually, just one other thing - why would they be transporting elephants, giraffes and lions and the like onto the arks. If their resources were limited as they said in the movie and they were trying to save mankind, wouldn't it be better to have cows, sheep, chooks, pigs and the like? Maybe they were there, but surely, leave the exotic animals behind. Unless of course they were planning a new diet in the future of elephant burgers. One elephant would probably feed quite a few folk.

Big Announcement

Ah, well here goes - end of 'the dream' and we are selling up. Adrian and I and the girls will move back to the uk and my folks will stay here. Before you all panic and start calling the estate agents to try to get away, fear not - we won't be going back to the west country, can't afford it! Not exactly sure where we'll be yet, although we do have an idea in mind. And anyway, it won't be for a long time, bit of a limited market for our kind of place, we think maybe a couple of years (hopefully not any longer).

Apologies for announcing like this, but there are so many of you to tell (well, a few anyway), it's the easiest way. And besides, I get to find out who's reading the blog or not! I won't go into reasons why here, but if you really want to know the ins and outs, please feel free to pm me and I'll explain.

Small announcement

I know that there are occasions when I might put my hubby down a bit on here, but it's only ever done in jest and let's face it, I'm don't exactly do myself any favours either. However, I would just like to take the opportunity to tell the world that he is in fact a wonderful hubby and I don't know what I'd do without him. And I thank him for all he has done and for all he has to put up with (not me, I'm wonderful, truth be told).

Big announcement to follow in next few days......

This week

Georgia learnt the word 'Why?'

Isabella asked for her ears to be pierced. ('Mummy, I want holes in my ears' 'No' 'All the other kids have them' 'Who?' 'Enkara' 'Anyone else?' 'Margot' 'Anyone else?' 'Um, no' 'Wait 'til you're older' 'Why?' 'Oh my God, not both of you. I'm going to lie down')

I had been wondering when these events would occur, not sure that I deserved for them both to happen at the same time.

Added up our outgoings and projected income. One is higher than the other. It's not the income.

Compared my 'average' weekly shop this week, with that of the same articles (or very similar) available online at Tescos. €20,00 cheaper at Tescos! That's €1040,00 per year!

Adrian and I actually went out for a meal of an evening. I think the last time was on our wedding anniversary, months and months ago. Very nice it was too. Steak and chips, can't go wrong! (Actually mine was bison, Adrian had the cow. Talking of which, they have slightly different chocolate items over here at easter. I saw a chocolate cow in the shop the other day and the thought occured to me, I don't know if I would be too happy to recieve that as a gift. I think it could be misinterpreted).

Saw the first swallows. I saw one, Adrian saw two. Or maybe the same one twice. Anyway, Adrian is sure that this is two weeks earlier than last year (he thinks it was second week of April) and appararently this means we are in for a good summer. Sincerely hope so.

Still no piece for the kitchen cupboard. We go into the shop every week now and every time they say 'next week'.

Failing at frugality

We recently changed our phone and internet package, which provided hours of fun in french and I believe I may have mentioned it in passing already. Anyway, four reasons for changing it: to be able to provide Wi-Fi for our guests (they want it all these days - whatever happened to going on holiday to get away from it all?), to have faster internet access, to have free phone calls abroad and mainly, of course, to save money.

With this new package we are supposedly saving ourselves approx €15,00 per month. However, setting it all up proved not to be straightforward and involved several long phone calls to the helpline, on our mobile, which is pay-as-you-go (as we hardly ever use it, so normally this is cheaper for us, except when making long calls to helplines). The phone calls cost us approx €30,00. It also involved buying a long length of ethernet cable to use purely to set it all up, because it wouldn't set up on Wi-Fi. The cable cost us €15,00. We've also had to buy a range expander in order to boost the signal around the grounds (it seems that Wi-Fi does not like three foot thick stone walls and large trees) at a cost of approx €60,00. It will therefore be 7 months before we actually see any savings on the new package. Nothing like being frugal.