Got loads of work to get on with in the gites, so decided to brave the low temps (minus 3 outside, wind chill not accounted for) and go down with Adrian this morning (to the gites). My job of the morning - painting the new skirting and door frames he has put up (A big improvement on the previous owners bodge job of strips of tongue and grove held in place with large screws). There's no heating in the gites and in my left hand I was holding the small (yet very expensive) metal tin of paint. It was so cold, the paint was like syrup (although not as tasty) and not easy to paint with. After one and a half hours I had severe trouble removing my hand from the tin. Then Adrian noticed that there was ice on the inside of the double glazed windows. I was going to complain to the management about sub-standard working conditions, but then I realised that I am the management and I ended up get a good telling off from myself to stop bloody moaning and get on with it, some people don't even have a job don't you know?

Decided to go back to the house for a hot drink to warm up, but was unable to use my hands for 20mins as they had died and gone to a better place. When they decided to come back, they made sure they let me know they were here by inflicting severe pain in the fingers. Needless to say, we did not go back down the gite to do any more work today. This afternoon we had a bit of light hail which then turned to rain, which hasn't since stopped. How it is raining I have no idea, at 3pm we had icicles forming on everything from garden furniture to plants and the roads were getting icy. Then the school called as they were asking all parents to go and fetch their children early as the staff were getting worried about getting home this evening. After being made to sign a form which actually stated that I was requesting special permission to remove my child from school, I went to Isabella's class to pick her up. The remaining children were all seated quietly and behaving very well, but their teacher was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, one of the kids pointed her out, she was in her store cupboard texting her husband!

And in our kitchen, where the fire has been burning for the better part of the day, I went to the cupboard this evening only to find that what was left of my chocolate bar had melted.