What day is it? I have lost track. People told me this would happen once I retired (ahem!). Seriously, I very often don't know unless I switch my laptop on and look in the bottom right hand corner. This is what it says, so I shall take it as truth that it is indeed Saturday 16th March 2013. How did that happen? And don't ask me why I am looking at a website entitled 'Roger's headlights'. It really isn't as rude as it sounds, or is that just me?
Anyway, it would appear I have been absent for a while. Since last Wednesday in fact, so here is a quick run down on what we have been up to.
Thursday we had a lovely day out to the Dordogne where we visited an English couple called Alex & Clare, who moved to France some 5 years ago and set up a yurt campsite. I think I did mention it in a previous post, but just incase here is their website (Ecovallée). It's all up and running if anyone fancies a summer holiday with a difference this year. Anyway, it was a lovely day - interesting, exciting, scary, humbling, inspiring - all in one. They have done some great things, against all the odds (mainly french bureacracy), and with two children in tow as well. They live in two adjoined yurts all year round, together with four cats and two dogs. It is a very homely place indeed, and the whole 'less is more' thing really comes alive here - and makes you realise what is really important in life. And also makes me think to this lovely saying I found on the internet the other day.
Anyway, the few hours we were there were spent chatting about their experiences and looking at how they do things (particularly things such as dealing with grey water, heating showers, toileting - yes, we looked at poo!). Came away with a lot to think about and lots of research to do. Things are really going to have to start moving pretty soon if we want to be up and running next year, that's for sure.
Friday - work continued on the super duper chicken house and I spent the afternoon trying to level a bit of ground for it to go on, as it is going to have to be moved into place pretty soon, not least because we won't be able to carry it. Anyway, you'd think it would be easy levelling a bit of ground, but when your name is Alison Wedley, it isn't that straightforward (lol - get it??). Anyway, it is done - the spirit level said 'yes', and the ground is now ready. :o)
I have also been trying to sort out car insurance, which isn't turning out to be that easy. In fact it is a bloody pain in the arse. I accept that things are different here, but if I had gone for the first quote given to me (which incidentally I waited three weeks for!) I would have been paying nearly £600 a year.....in England I was paying slightly less than £300 I think). I therefore decided to ask the lovely lady at the bank for a quote - I have been waiting for nearly 2 weeks now (and for the past 4 evenings she has sent me an email promising it 'tomorrow'.) So I ended up on an ex-pat website and was given details of a company in Brittany, which are affiliated to AXA, yet are English-speaking. I really didn't want to go down the English-speaking route, as I was quite happy to throw myself in at the deep end and immerse myself in the French way of doing things, even if it meant making an idiot of myself. I so didn't want to become one of those 'ex-pats' that only spoke to English people, or English-speaking people, and only bought products from English-speaking companies. But I guess where money is concerned, you just have to go for the best deal......especially when it is going to save you nearly £300. Sigh......well you can't say I didn't at least try.
Today we went to Brive to do some food shopping - and after a recommendation from the lovely Maria, we discovered Grand Frais supermarket. *bigcheesygrin* Wow! What can I say, I never thought I could get excited over a supermarket, but I can, and I did! The place was full of fruit and veg from around the world, stuff which I never thought I would be able to find again, well at least not on a regular basis. I love cooking dishes from all around the world, but the French aren't quite so big on it like the British are. Finding ingredients to cook a nice authentic curry isn't always possible - there will nearly always be a couple of ingredients you just can't find for the life of you. But here they had more or less everything you could ever want - huge bunches of fresh herbs, big bunches of fresh lemongrass, proper ginger (not the dry wrinkly stuff you get in supermarkets), fresh tamarind, sugar canes, kumquats. Wow, I could have spent all day in there. And it was very reasonably priced - have just been looking at my receipt and a bunch of 10 lemongrass sticks cost me €0.97, a bag of around 10 scotch bonnet chillies €1.25, fresh tamarind €0.22. Pretty good compared to the prices in England. And the chillies and lemongrass I plan to freeze so I will have them at hand for the next couple of months. To celebrate we had thai curry for tea. *evenbiggercheesygrin*
This afternoon I decided to make individual lemon meringue pies, and now the second part of the blog post title will start to make sense. All was going swimmingly until it came to making the meringues. Could I get to stiff peak stage??? Could I f**k! The electric hand whisk came out, and, I am not joking, I was whisking for 25 minutes - with a toilet break, a tea break, and a lie down on top of that. All I got was a slippery, gooey and soggy mess - it was very glossy, but that was the only plus side. Needless to say, I gave up after those 25 minutes, and just slopped it on top of the tarts. What came out the oven resembled iced jam tarts - I guess my future is not in baking after all so Lorraine Pascale is safe (well in the baking world maybe, but not in the modelling world yet, obviously).
Anyway, may your dreams be full of stiff peaks.
Alison
xx
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