les Davey de France

 With our old flat when you announce that you're leaving they arrange a "visite conseil" to tell you what you have to do to get your deposit back. (yeah, right) The lady came this morning and was disarmingly reasonable. She said, "You can tell that you've looked after the flat" and pointed out a couple of areas where we'd need to paint the wall - in the bathroom where some of the paint came off, and by the door where the orange engineer drilled holes before fixing the alarm with adhesive strips instead. She asked why we were moving and I said that we wanted somewhere where the place was better looked after and more secure. She was surprised that we had been burgled. I also explained that with various issues we'd had we'd ended up being bounced from one company to another. We have three buttons for entering the building. One has never worked, despite our attempts to get it sorted out. "Again, we've paid for 5 years for a parking space to

 Yesterday we almost certainly hit 40°C in Bordeaux. Deep-cleaning the old flat was limited. Unpacking in the new flat was light duties only. Despite this we are starting to arrive at something livable. The kitchen still needs attention. Basically we await the delivery of a drawer front today, followed by the visit of the kitchen fitter (to be scheduled), followed by placing the fridge and the cooker in their permanent homes. (The cooker is low, so will sit on a plinth. The fridge is displaced but functioning fine. A new hose will enable the dishwasher to be connected. The hose should arrive tomorrow.) Tomorrow we expect rain and temperatures in the low 20s. This will accompany the "visite conseil" of the letting agency, to specify the hoops through which we must jump in order to be refunded our deposit. We will have two weeks to achieve this feat. Or not. Last time we moved I expected our deposit to be refunded, and it wasn't. This time my expectations are lower. Meanwhi

 A canicule is declared when the night-time temperature stays above 20°C for three successive nights. At present the day-time temperature in Bordeaux is not that high - 31°C as I type - but when you don't cool off at night it can be miserable. People are advised to make sure they eat enough, to drink water throughout the day and to limit physical activity. One day we'd like to put an air-conditioner in the flat, but in the meantime we have fans. Lots of fans.

The removal men came at 8:30 on Friday morning. We used a local removers who employ young guys who need to get back into work ( reinsertion ). So it was that about 10 men were involved in shifting our stuff. Now we have a small mountain range of boxes to open and find a home for everything thereon, the kitchen to lightly sort out and the old place to get spick and span ready to hand the keys back. The kitchen? Well despite measuring several times and asking several other people to measure, too, our fridge does not fit into the space allowed for it. Thankfully this will be easily rectified once the kitchen fitters come back to sort out two other minor problems. Also our cooker is incredibly short, so we'll need to pop it onto a pedestal. The dishwasher needs a different hose to be able to connect to the provided water outlet. All minor but unforeseen complications. But my computer is up and running and we could get the printer working, too, so we're functional. Kind of.

So this house move has brought and is bringing many changes.  Firstly it has enabled me to get rid of my long-hated pink tilt and swivel "Lazyboy" armchair. Made in America. Brought from thence by a dear old friend in Chester and given to us with two humungous sofas which accompanied it faithfully over the years. The sofas were eventually donated to a students' furnishing charity. The armchair has gone to family. It was loved by all as profoundly as I hated it. The problem was that whenever I sat in it it tilted and swivelled. It felt that this was its duty. But I wanted a solid, stable armchair in which to read, listen to music, have my being. Anyway, the last laugh's on me. At present I am sitting in a green plastic garden chair. Still, at least it doesn't swivel. And I have the hope set before me of soon acquiring a good, old-fashioned armchair, such as my soul loveth. The chair was given to us, as I said, by a dear old friend who lived in a barn conversion jus

and come he did, punctual and keen, a young chap who used to live in the area.  He's doing a fine job and we're looking forward to moving in! 

A very pleasant young man, he arrived when Pat was here but I wasn't, told her that he had found no evidence of cockroaches anywhere in our building, but sprayed his poison in their usual access routes anyway. I met him in the entrance where he checked that he had visited our flat and confirmed that there was no sign of any cockroaches in our building. "Good", I said. I have since heard that he is visiting the neighbouring, infested block in the near future.

We are frustration just now.  Well, not NOW.  We were, but now many things are resolved. 1. We needed some bubble wrap to pack up our precious crockery. Since time was as short as patience, before boarding the plane back to France I ordered some from Amazon. "It'll be delivered on the 2nd August!", they said. We normally have things delivered to a point relais - sometimes the Post Office at Terres Neuves, sometimes the Carrefour at Tauzia, sometimes the Amazon locker at the railway station. Occasionally objects are too bulky to be left somewhere like that so you have to have them delivered to your home. Like bubble wrap. I tracked our package. It was out for delivery. That was good, as we were waiting in. Then - oops - it won't be delivered today after all, but some time between the 2nd and the 7th August. We were dismayed. We couldn't guarantee that someone would be in all that time. Thankfully the bubble-wrap came today, in a cardboard box. 2. Moving our interne

We returned to Bordeaux on 31 July.  The kitchen was due to be fitted on 2 and 3 August. The removal men were coming on 7 August. Note the tenses. The kitchen fitters postponed to 3 and 4 August. Then to 8 and 9 August. Now the removal men are scheduled for 18 August. It'll be fine......

We spent the last two weeks in the UK, first at the first week of the Keswick Convention, then at our mission's own conference, the UFM Summer Conference. We flew on the Friday to Manchester and stayed overnight at a friend's house before travelling to Keswick by train and then by bus. The train was on time, comfortable and our reserved seats were vacant and we had a pleasant journey chatting with fellow-travellers who lived near Rawtenstall.  From Penrith to Keswick you travel for £2 on a double-decker bus (un bus impérial) through the winding lanes overhung with solid tree branches. It was pretty wonderful. The Keswick Convention gives a grant to encourage and enable overseas mission workers to come, and we had found a room in the town not much over our budget. The room had a toaster, kettle and microwave oven, and we were alarmed at the price of the cafés and restaurants in the town. Is a jacket potato really £7 everywhere? Cheese at extra charge? Anyway, salvation was found