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11/28/2006

Giving blood

Giving blood is a good social thing to do and as Paulien has something different she thought she should share some , but when she arrived they irritated her by asking if she was English " no I'm Dutch " neglecting to say she had lived in the UK 15 years . "Oh thats OK then as we don't accept blood from Brits who have lived there during the period 1985-95 due to the vache folie" They test it anyway so it shouldn't be a problem just some bureaucrat making up some petty rules.
The showers continue another day on the roof and a bit more plasterboard on the floor I think I will have to redo the downstairs ceiling and the floor upstairs as well as they have had a good soaking but am hopeful of starting on the slates this week if it would stop raining.
Am planning a trip to Dublin as have had an offer of some tickets Ireland/England at Croke Park but can't get Paulien interested so Xav will go in her place should be fun , the nearest flight is from Nantes as a lot of the small airports only operate in the summer season

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11/22/2006

Rain slows work

We have had some heavy rain so have had to put some plastic tarpaulins over the roof of the gite we are working on there was still a few leaks Paulien was looking at the ceiling wondering where to put a saucepan to collect the drips and the next moment the plaster board fell on her she just had a bit of shock. I am in the process of making the dogsit windows which takes about 2 days each so there is 3 to do + a vellux so I don't think I will start slatting till December.
We took on a gardener well just for 2 hours a week to keep things tidy while we are building its amazing how differcult it is to employ people in France for simple jobs ( cleaning houses DIY gardening babysitting ) the government brought out a cheaque service emploie which you get from the bank to pay them and the extras such as tax social contribs pension + 30 other things are automatically deducted from your bank account but as we are a business its a different form and so far have been unable to find anyone capable of filling it in. It helps to explain the high unemployment in France.
I think the entire nation suffers from SAD syndrome as from September to December the post consists of tax demands and each year they seem to make up new ones I suppose thats when the alcohol levels rise.

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11/12/2006

Work in progress

The weather has been fantastic no rain for 10 days so we took the roof of the gite next door to us as the boys were on holiday.It took just over 2 days which surprised me as it was more solid than I thought but its a pleasure to watch an adolescent with a sledge hammer in action trashing a roof well directed aggression.After we had cleared it level the walls were raised 2 blocks one side and 3 the other so with the new roof there will be more headroom plus will fix put in an upstairs toilet. My friend who normally helps with the charpente was busy so Paulien helped it took a day, Saturday I was woken to the sound of drips so had to rush out and cover the roof with a taup and since have covered one side in wood so it fairly weather proof now.
Had seriously bad news last week have been planning for a long time a trip to Nantes next year in September for the RWC but my friend who was organising it rang up to say he couldn't get any tickets so I tried on the french site on the internet and got one ticket . I think there more will be available but will have to pay well above the quoted prices

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