Eat, drink and be merry!

I have now just about recovered from our adventures in France. Its funny, only 2 days back and it seems like we’ve never been away. We had a good time at Steve & Sue’s staying at their old mill, eating and drinking and playing with Zebby their lovely dog. Our visit gave Sue & Steve a chance to down their tools and have some time out. I thought me and Phil were pretty hard grafters but these two take the biscuit, they’ve done virtually all the work on the mill and grounds by themselves and I take my hat off to the pair of them. The whole place will be fantastic when it is finished.

Seeing the Tour de France ride past the house was an experience, spoilt only slightly by the rain. This trip has changed my mind about France and I am certain we will explore her some more. Not sure I could live there permanently though as I know I couldn’t resist the cheap wine and the lovely, but rich French cuisine. I’d end up a fat wino for sure! Phil says that I already am - cheeky sod! That said we couldn’t cross the channel with out returning with a Land rover full of booze. The wine rack is full to the gunnels, as are all of the new kitchen units in the newly decorated store room and garage. We simply must get everyone round for a bbq before Phil drinks it all!

Phil was shocked to fine that he had put on 6 pounds will he was away. I don’t know why this came as such a surprise when we did nothing but eat and drink in France. Check out this picture of our last 6 course lunch before getting on the boat; Phil looks like the cat that’s got the cream, bless ‘em.

Even though I was absolutely knackered when we got in bed on Wednesday morning at 3am I just couldn't sleep for more than a couple of hours so I got up and got on with the washing. I had a busy morning shopping for food, cleaning the house and doing the ironing. We were knackered after lunch and settled ourselves on the sofa and watched the Silverstone Grand Prix and caught up with Big Brother. A waste of a day really but it was heaven just slobbing out.

There was no slobbing out yesterday though; Phil was up early and out in the back garden cutting wood for the storage room door as soon as it was light. Whilst we were away William the carpenter had come round to fit the new door so Phil could fit the wood around it. This took him the whole morning. We stopped for lunch and Phil cooked chickens on the spittle on the new gas BBQ and very tasty they were too! Harriet was home as she has the week off work so she had some lunch with us. In the afternoon Phil started tiling the roof on the store room for which he had to actually climb on the roof. I think it was quite hard work judging by the amount of huffing and puffing coming from above. When he finished I gave the outside a coat of wood stain and had just about finished when the heavens opened. We got soaked putting away the tools and clearing up. I wonder if we will get any summer this year, so far it’s been pants?

It’s my birthday today, not just my birthday but also my sisters Julia & Louise. Another year older but it won’t make much difference as I have been telling everyone that I am 43 all year. I don’t really feel any older but the mirror tells altogether another story, guess it’s a good job I’m going blind!


We have a weekend coming up of entertaining as Julia is coming to stay tonight my nephew Jack for a couple of days. On Saturday we have Phil’s mum and dad coming to lunch with their friend Glad and on Sunday we are going to try out the Loch Fyne restaurant in The Hub with Maddy & Steve Pem. I think the diet will have to be ditched for a few days and instead we will have little choice but to eat, drink and be merry (once again). Cheers everyone!