When Luck Runs Out...........

You may remember from my last post, that we had a problem with the electricity, and the fuse box etc ? Well, a couple of days after this, I switched the oven on, and it went 'BANG' - all the house blacked out, all the electricity went off !! Luckily, it is/was a double oven, so although the main oven was no longer working, the smaller one was. So I was still able to cook, although maybe a more limited menu - no large joints etc - but nevertheless, we weren't 'ovenless' totally.

We will never know whether the problems were related, but maybe we had had a power surge, and this had caused the fuses to blow and burn. This in turn, may have led to the limiter, not limiting anymore, and the surge continuing into the appliances. Anyway, whatever the cause, and I am no electrician, we had to cope as best as we could.

The problem was that the housing had been built around the oven, so we needed another of similar size of course. The choice here was very limited, and we even thought that maybe it would be better to change to a gas appliance to avoid the same issue again. This was even more limiting though, as we are not on mains gas, so needed a double oven that would run on LPG (bottled gas). All would have to wait for another trip back to the UK !

To be honest, this was a minor issue compared to the next problem. We were driving to a friends house, when a tractor pulled out of a side track, and hit us head on. In fact, we were pushed back about 15 metres. I tried desperately to reverse quick enough, but was in fact stationary when we were hit. The farmer just didn't look, and didn't even see us, even though I was tooting the horn, until he was nearly in the windscreen !!! Glad it was a Volvo at that point !!

All the farmer kept saying was 'I didn't see you.....I didn't look your way.....I looked left and you were on the right.....' He was an elderly man, and I suppose was as shocked as we were. Luckily a neighbour of his arrived, and helped us all with the necessary forms, but we had to arrange for the car to be uplifted and taken away, as it certainly wasn't drivable.

This was a big problem - not only were we now without a car, but I was booked to work again in the UK. We did have the small van, so weren't completely stuck, but it wasn't as reliable or comfortable. The insurance company were relatively quick in deciding the car was a write-off, but a little slower in agreeing a price, and even slower in paying out. Despite the fact that the car was in such good condition, and had been registered in France, the fact that it was a right hand drive, reduced the price - according to the Insurance company ! I was even cross that it had a full tank of fuel that we lost too !!

A nicer event was that we decided to ask a local farmer - not the same one as crashed into the car - to cut the back field, and bale the straw. It created over 400 bales, which we had to manually stack, and then he brought his trailer to help us move them under shelter. All this was manual work too - loading them onto the trailer, balancing while it moved along, then unloading them and stacking them into the barn ! Luckily, some friends helped, but it was very sweaty, thirsty, draining work - and straw scratches !! We were all left with wheals on our arms and faces - and Marie - Christine fell off the trailer at one point, so must have had other bruises too !!!

As I am now back and forth to the UK on such a regular basis, the time I have in France means that we have to concentrate on various jobs that need two people to complete, and we have to focus our time accordingly. Arthur needs his annual injections, chickens need to go to the abattoir etc. It means that there is little time to relax. There are fun times too - we try to go the the beach when we can, to unwind.

I get regular updates from Craig as to the progress and health of the animals of course - from the size of eggs they are producing to the number of yolks they contain !

My next trip back loomed, and we decided that the easiest way for me to travel would be to fly - so I went from Brest to Southampton, and then by train to my next job. To be honest, the journey wasn't too bad, considering I am used to the convenience of a car, and it is one that I would consider again.