Post covid

 I’m pretty well back to whatever usually counts as ‘normal’. I have a sticky cough but I no longer absolutely need to nap during the day, I have resumed my forced marches to local supermarkets and I think I’ll try running next week, though early in the morning to avoid the sun.

Pat is also fully recovered and no longer needs to nap. At least not every day.

The city is now in summertime. This means fewer trams with more people in them. Since covid is once more on the rise we wear masks in the trams and try to avoid the busiest ones… Except we have no idea when the busiest times are! 

Summertime means parks, and the Jardins de l’Ars are resplendent with their trees and shrubs, picnic tables, sun-loungers and little platforms for performance poets. The trees are not yet tall enough to provide much shade, so the picnic tables are not as busy as they will be, but it’s great to wander through the paths and that’s where I will run next week, if I can rouse my inner pig-dog.

The summer also means travel. In August we are due to visit the UK, but to help at a conference, so there won’t be a road-trip or even a rail-trip. Meanwhile we have considered making a swift visit to Italy or to Spain, but we’re already awaiting two refunds from cancelled flights, and at present it seems unwise to make unnecessary journeys. We could get to Spain by train and we may well do this once we find a free slot of time.

We are aching to see our families and so we plan to make some visits in the autumn, perhaps separately to reduce costs. We’ll see. We’ve become like old-fashioned missionaries who saw their families only once every five years!

Meanwhile work on our retirement flat continues. We’ve paid half the cost now. We’re on the verge of taking out a small bank loan which will allow us to fit the kitchen nicely rather than with IKEA Kallax shelves, and also to put in an air-conditioning unit in the main room. We are assured by a friend who specialised in this that if we put in a unit in the living room it will keep the whole apartment cool in summer and also help with heating in winter if necessary. He would have put the unit in for us, but he’s retired some years ago. He might be able to direct us to someone reliable.

The builder has got to our (second) floor and is on the verge of starting the floor above. We can see where our bedrooms will look out and where our balcony will be. It all looks quite satisfactory. We’ll lose our view of hills and trees but gain in practicality.  After the third floor there’s ‘just’ the roof garden to complete, so it seems quite reasonable to believe that we’ll be moving around Easter.

Bordeaux Church goes quiet in the summer with so many of our folk away, but the project of a café / church centre continues and is almost at the point where we can open.

We have a bench, ten chairs and a big corner sofa. We have a square table OK for four people (we need another) and a larger extending table. We have an assortment of wine crates which will form shelving units, a counter, a coffee table, etc. We will soon have a wonderful coffee machine, paid for by a UK charity who contacted us at just the right time. 

Meanwhile one of the brethren is a handyman and he reckons he could put in a toilet for us. This would be WONDERFUL. We’ll do a low key opening perhaps on Friday of next week, or perhaps the week after, and get ready for the grand inauguration in September.