Christmas Time

IT ARRIVED !! Our furniture, that is...... HOORAY !! The drivers (as have other visitors too) rang us from the commune town/village, and I drove to them to guide them in. Bearing in mind, it was December, we were relatively lucky that it stayed dry for the time it took to unload our possessions - just about two hours - and that we only discovered a couple of damaged goods at that point. The drivers stayed for lunch, and then headed back to the ferry, and it was left to us to renew our acquaintance with our worldly goods. The thought that sprung to mind though, was that we had managed for over 7 months without these things, so.....did we really need them ! If I was brave enough, I suppose this was the ideal time to de-clutter...but I'm not ! It did (and does) mean though, that there are several items that we have doubled up on, as we had in effect, two houses for several years.

A huge bonus of having our furniture arrive was that I now had a washing machine, although the regular trips to the launderette would be missed. I spoke to many people, helped numerous people use the machines and understand the instructions, and also had time to shop, walk the dog and read ! It took Craig two days to drill a hole through the wall into the Utility room - the wall proved to be nearly a metre thick - to take the electric cables, and also for the waste pipes and water inlet...but it was so worth it...and like a right pair of idiots, we stood and watched the machine as it started its first cycle !

A factor here, as we are so isolated and the area is sparsely populated, is that a lot of the electricity cables are over ground, so a mixture of high winds and heavy rain is often accompanied by a power cut. Trees fall down, hit cables etc etc. We suffered our first cut about now, and rediscovered the quiet and darkness that we had slowly forgotten about - no phone, no computer, no lights...We had candles and torches - which we always make sure are available now - and tried to make the most of an unfunny time. I think this first one lasted about 18 or 19 hours, which does seem to be about average for us.

It was my first birthday here too - not my 1st birthday of course, but my **nd one !! That was a hard time - away from family, and thoughts running through my head, about why we were here when we'd had a warm comfortable home before. It was lovely though to speak to the children, and grandchildren, and have messages and E Mails galore. We went for a nice meal as a treat too in the local town.

The next milestone in our new life was to be Christmas. Our first Christmas here 2011, away from family, and not in an ideal situation regarding creature comforts at this time either - a gas hob, a grilling machine, and a microwave, our sole cooking means. Luckily, some friends took pity on us, and invited us to their house for Christmas Day. It was really nice of them as this time of the year is for family, and we didn't want to intrude, but nevertheless very welcome. We offered to provide and prepare the vegetables, as they were providing the home produced turkey, and also took lots of little treats to be shared. We had a lovely day, and came home very full, and very tired.

We took Arthur the dog to the beach the next day to blow some of the cobwebs away, and walk off the over eating. Boxing Day isn't celebrated here, so shops were open, and everyone was back at work. Arthur loved it. It was the first time we had taken him - there are many beaches here running for miles, but not all accept dogs, so we have to pick and choose. Many are closed to dogs in the Summer months, and some just between certain times. They are often deserted though, and Arthur was exhausted - he chased the birds, who seemed to leave it until the last minute to fly away, which he found very frustrating, and ran towards the water, but wasn't quite brave enough to go in !


We can now look forward to another new year, 2012, and look back to our progress over the last one. What a change from our old life eh ?