Just me and the dog!

It's just me and Crusoe for four days, MG has gone off to Belle Mères, in Provence, to help her negotiate her house sale. I dropped him off yesterday at Toulouse train station, Crusoe was in the back and as we drove away he looked forlornly out of the window, thank God for the Tom Tom, without it, I would have never found my way out of Toulouse city centre, I even managed to go wrong twice with the aid of the Tom Tom, it's crazy the Tom Tom says turn left, I think, that's not right, so I ignore it, only to get lost, fortunately the Tom Tom re-routes me, I must learn to trust it.

After negotiating my way out of the centre, I decided to stop off at Ikea, to buy some fairy lights for the Christmas tree, as is the way of Ikea I didn't buy the fairy lights and instead bought a new rug/throw for Crusoe, as his sheepskin rug, (see picture) is now totally disgusting and being sheepskin is unwashable, the rug/throw is so nice I have decided to keep it for ourselves, Crusoe is not happy about this, as I have already shown it to him, in a it's yours kind of a way. I also bought a light thingy, official Ikea name, Stranne, I have friends who already own this and have coveted it for a long time and now I own one, it's totally useless, but looks pretty and I can hang baubles off it for that Christmas look.

I have four days on my own, and I am supposed to be cleaning and tidying the house ready for
the Christmas onslaught. I have Belle Mère, Belle soeur and Beau frère staying chez nous for the festive season and friends joining us for Christmas day lunch, I thought I was super organised as I have bought all the presents and have also got some boxes of cards delivered from M & S waiting to be written and sent, now I need to sort the house out, not just normal cleaning but the polishing floors and cleaning windows type of cleaning, eek.

I started off well, when I got back yesterday I took all the rubbish and bottles to the recycling bins at the bottom of the road, emptied the hoover and cleaned it's filter, which is a mean feet for me as I am as allergic to dust as it is possible to be, (does that make sense?).

This morning I woke up with good intentions, to start on the serious stuff, but after jumping out of bed and having about three or four leisurely cups of tea in front of the computer, nothing has been achieved, except ordering a huge amount of books from Amazon. I blame India Knight, as I read her Christmas book guide and now have ordered practically all of her recommendations. Belle Mere and Belle Sœur are big readers, so I had the idea of putting lovely stacks of new books on their bedside tables to go with the flowers, but I think I will end up keeping them all myself!

I cannot maintain housework avoidance for much longer, MG will go mad if nothing has been achieved by Monday night, so I will now have to galvanise myself, or I could just make another cuppa.

Just rambling really

Today has been a good day, the sun has just set and the mountains are clearly outlined against the darkening sky. I woke up this morning feeling content and happy which is unusual especially as yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening with good friends eating and drinking copious amounts of wine, I should by rights have a stonking hangover but maybe the fact that we got home before 10pm and the soluble paracetamol washed down with litres of water helped.

The reason for this happy state of affairs is the weather, it is glorious to wake up and look at the view from bed when the sun is shining and the snow capped mountains are so crisp that you feel you can touch them. The temperature has been in the low twenties all day which is pretty good for mid November.

Of course nothing much happened today, which is where my discontent lies, NOTHING ever bloody happens here life just seems to slip by, I know I am being a bit whiny and should go out and make things happen etc. But honestly there is nothing to do after all daily chores are taken care of except walking, cycling and outdoor pursuits, it is very hilly, and we are talking steep!
(actually this is lie, there is always plenty to do in the house and garden but I am very lazy and always put off what I can do today, tomorrow)

The nearest town is a ten minute drive, it is not particularly pretty although they do their best in the summer with beautiful floral displays, in fact the town actually looks like it was bombed in the second world war, and then rebuilt with extremely ugly 50s 60s architecture but this is not the case. The town has not got one decent restaurant, cafe or bar (A handful of poor ones) it has got a few decent shops and lots of opticians (not with a practicing optician, you have to go to a big town for that, just frames and lenses) and for some inexplicable reason 25 hairdressing salons, do hairdressers get some kind of tax break in France?

Anyway you get the picture, please excuse my ramblings, but I am a maiden blogger, I will improve. Think I will go and pour Monsieur Grognon and myself a large glass of Vin rouge, look in the fridge for something to rustle up for dinner and settle down in front of the box for the evening.