WOKEN BY A ROOSTER

The night before we left England in July 2003, or a trip for more renovation work, was the last night of the Proms at Portchester Castle, a great evening with loads of orchestral music and fireworks and thousands of people.  We had a very late night and Andy nearly overslept.  I had to give him a good shake to wake him up, even though the alarm was ringing for ages.

Fairy Godmother had still not contacted us since buying the house, despite many emails and we were very disappointed.  She had promised she would arrange the meeting with the mayor of the village, help us find furniture shops, sort out our health forms and tax forms and various other things.  We had not seen her since our day in the Notaire’s office when we bought the house.  The lady waiting outside for her seemed to worry her a bit and we only ever saw her once again!  I was sure we would manage but we believed we would have had her help.

Fairy Godmother actually arrived very late one night after we had moved in to ask if we would like to buy her old wood-burning stove.  This was the one and only visit since we bought the house.  We said we would like to have the stove but that was the last time we saw her.

We hung a bamboo fly curtain on the front door, (the box it came in was ideal for storing the long French sticks of bread) so we could leave it open to work.  Andy laid out all the wood for repairing the front windows in the front garden and creosoted it all.  A passing driver stopped to speak to us.  He had been fumigating the house across the road ready for the new English owners to move in.  He was English.  He said he knew we were English too, as the French did not often appear to repair and paint their windows.

                We were woken at 2am by the loud crowing of a Rooster.  It would not stop.  It turned out that it was Andy’s Rooster alarm clock radio.  We must have pressed the alarm down by accident whilst we were moving it.  I went to the bathroom and the seat of the toilet banged down when I lifted the lid.  I jumped in surprise and woke a couple of flies which were sleeping there.  I tried to swat them and sent the toilet roll hurtling onto the landing and on down the stairs.  In the dark I mistook the bedroom door and ended up in the wrong room, groping around for my bed.  This is a large house and quite easy to get lost – especially in the dark!

The next day, I painted the skirting boards with a primary coat in the TV room whilst Andy attacked the large front windows.  He let me do the glossing as well – I am a terrible gloss painter.  Luckily the skirting board needed two coats of gloss so Andy did the second coat properly.

A small refrigerator, that we had bought with us to use until we bought a larger one, was not a lot of good but was to be fine for use in the Games Room eventually, to keep beers cool, and the box which held the bamboo fly curtain was perfect for keeping the flies off the long French bread.