We popped round to our great heating engineer at 2pm. That’s the wonderful thing about the French, they take a proper lunch break! Usually 12.30 to 2pm and then work until 6pm.
Deligtful to catch him just finishing lunch. He said he would be at our place in 10 minutes so we high tailed it home. He gave the boiler a very serious talking to! It seems the thermostat got stuck on zero. A bit like the interest rates. Anyway somehow he managed to Free it up, probably by showing it some interest. Bit like the Bank of England today. I do feel happier now I know my saving nature is going to be acknowledged.
I am a saver not a hoarder. While our Heating engineer was waiting to check the radiators were heating up I managed to ask him about moving the bathroom. That’s a potential of two new bathrooms, a refit to the kitchen, a new layout downstairs to incorporate a utility room, and an extra radiator for a potential annex loft conversion. Probably €8,000 worth of work plus materials. He looked happy.
I explained we had to wait until we found out what the Free Movement situation would be, as we would not do this sort of work if we had to get Visas for every visit. We just would not come in winter. This irks me, as when we bought the house we said we would be using it as much as possible. We don’t want a ghost house, we want to spend money here all year round. We may not be here all the time, but we do spend when we are.
Anyway he thinks the system has lost some pressure, so when he comes to do the annual service in June, perhaps we can get that sorted too. I just think the boiler was feeling neglected, and missing some professional TLC! Anyway it was worth the call out to get such good advice and ‘I can put bathrooms on the second floor if you want them’. I am not sure the French like spending such a lot of money on their homes. Not sure they are used to the wife sorting out major construction either!
All in French as well. I even found out the word for the heat resistant rope for log burner doors, it’s tresse, like Hair. That makes sense because it’s plaited. I had to get the ball of string from the kitchen to ask! I don’t care, learning words is fun. We were talking about how to get the doors made for the fireplace.
I was just wiping out the oven after the Pyrolitic clean, so we discussed the oven too. He was admiring how clean it looked. I said we had a rotisserie in it last night. It had a mark on the back I was giving a rub with a damp cloth. I thinks he thought I might have OCD! ‘It cleans itself’ was his remark.
Well it does if you take the shelves out and wash them, put it on a pre soften with water in the bottom to get all the loose grease off... and then bang it on self clean for an hour and a half as a minimum program. Then a little wipe with a dry cloth et voila, just like new! No nasty chemicals, and free heating when your boiler has broken down!
We had a wonderful walk with the dog this afternoon. She has been very poorly dog. She collapsed with her heart problem a few weeks ago, and splatted on the floor legs out in four directions. She pulled all the mus les inside her back legs and could hardly walk. Brave dog. Rymadil for 10 days. Then two nights ago she had another heart attack. She was at deaths door for about four hours. Touch and go. I just held her and murmured to her untill 6am, when she suddenly got her heart rhythm back.
She got up and gave herself a shake, and looked to go out for her business. My Husband took her. She barked her head off at probably a Fox! We kept her quiet yesterday. It was her vet visit to get her passported and wormed. The vet who is lovely with her, suggested we checked her bloods. So she had a little needle for a blood test. Done immediately. We were there an hour while he thoroughly checked her over. The bloods were perfect. Couldn’t be better, so it’s just a dicky heart.
She will die in my arms. I think she knows that. We chat about it. I say stay with us as long as you want to, and life is good. The thing that troubles me is that I can walk into a vet here and get a complete blood test for my dog. A heart check, and she even had a session with the other vet who does animal chiropractic just to check her back legs. She had an X-ray for that. Again no arthritis, just a slightly badly set tail, which is probably why it stiffens up and doesn’t wag so fast.
What about access to medical care for half the humans on this planet? Gaza only got their hospitals open, probably because they got an oil shipment from Egypt. I have access to top notch care for my dog. They haven’t got hospitals in Yemen.
The walk with the dog was amazing this afternoon. She had mad running around moments, had me running to keep her running, she is always on an extending lead. She was off investigating a new field, and fished a plastic bottle out of the lake. It was a wonderful sunset. The making of a wonderful memory. My husband said he wasn’t sure if it was the dog or me that would collapse with the running around! I am not that unfit!
Deligtful to catch him just finishing lunch. He said he would be at our place in 10 minutes so we high tailed it home. He gave the boiler a very serious talking to! It seems the thermostat got stuck on zero. A bit like the interest rates. Anyway somehow he managed to Free it up, probably by showing it some interest. Bit like the Bank of England today. I do feel happier now I know my saving nature is going to be acknowledged.
I am a saver not a hoarder. While our Heating engineer was waiting to check the radiators were heating up I managed to ask him about moving the bathroom. That’s a potential of two new bathrooms, a refit to the kitchen, a new layout downstairs to incorporate a utility room, and an extra radiator for a potential annex loft conversion. Probably €8,000 worth of work plus materials. He looked happy.
I explained we had to wait until we found out what the Free Movement situation would be, as we would not do this sort of work if we had to get Visas for every visit. We just would not come in winter. This irks me, as when we bought the house we said we would be using it as much as possible. We don’t want a ghost house, we want to spend money here all year round. We may not be here all the time, but we do spend when we are.
Anyway he thinks the system has lost some pressure, so when he comes to do the annual service in June, perhaps we can get that sorted too. I just think the boiler was feeling neglected, and missing some professional TLC! Anyway it was worth the call out to get such good advice and ‘I can put bathrooms on the second floor if you want them’. I am not sure the French like spending such a lot of money on their homes. Not sure they are used to the wife sorting out major construction either!
All in French as well. I even found out the word for the heat resistant rope for log burner doors, it’s tresse, like Hair. That makes sense because it’s plaited. I had to get the ball of string from the kitchen to ask! I don’t care, learning words is fun. We were talking about how to get the doors made for the fireplace.
I was just wiping out the oven after the Pyrolitic clean, so we discussed the oven too. He was admiring how clean it looked. I said we had a rotisserie in it last night. It had a mark on the back I was giving a rub with a damp cloth. I thinks he thought I might have OCD! ‘It cleans itself’ was his remark.
Well it does if you take the shelves out and wash them, put it on a pre soften with water in the bottom to get all the loose grease off... and then bang it on self clean for an hour and a half as a minimum program. Then a little wipe with a dry cloth et voila, just like new! No nasty chemicals, and free heating when your boiler has broken down!
We had a wonderful walk with the dog this afternoon. She has been very poorly dog. She collapsed with her heart problem a few weeks ago, and splatted on the floor legs out in four directions. She pulled all the mus les inside her back legs and could hardly walk. Brave dog. Rymadil for 10 days. Then two nights ago she had another heart attack. She was at deaths door for about four hours. Touch and go. I just held her and murmured to her untill 6am, when she suddenly got her heart rhythm back.
She got up and gave herself a shake, and looked to go out for her business. My Husband took her. She barked her head off at probably a Fox! We kept her quiet yesterday. It was her vet visit to get her passported and wormed. The vet who is lovely with her, suggested we checked her bloods. So she had a little needle for a blood test. Done immediately. We were there an hour while he thoroughly checked her over. The bloods were perfect. Couldn’t be better, so it’s just a dicky heart.
She will die in my arms. I think she knows that. We chat about it. I say stay with us as long as you want to, and life is good. The thing that troubles me is that I can walk into a vet here and get a complete blood test for my dog. A heart check, and she even had a session with the other vet who does animal chiropractic just to check her back legs. She had an X-ray for that. Again no arthritis, just a slightly badly set tail, which is probably why it stiffens up and doesn’t wag so fast.
What about access to medical care for half the humans on this planet? Gaza only got their hospitals open, probably because they got an oil shipment from Egypt. I have access to top notch care for my dog. They haven’t got hospitals in Yemen.
The walk with the dog was amazing this afternoon. She had mad running around moments, had me running to keep her running, she is always on an extending lead. She was off investigating a new field, and fished a plastic bottle out of the lake. It was a wonderful sunset. The making of a wonderful memory. My husband said he wasn’t sure if it was the dog or me that would collapse with the running around! I am not that unfit!
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