New babies

Borzou, Akhtar & Dorsa 
Ivan, Annette & Skylette 
I celebrate the arrival of new babies for my friends. The top picture is of Borzou, Akhtar and Dorsa, and the other of Ivan, Annette and Skylette. Both girls were born in the last few months.

Garden Benches

Today I unpacked two knock-down garden benches I bought at B&Q. The first was put together without a hitch, but the second was trouble from the start. There were 6 slats of the same length, instead of 5 plus one of a shorter length. I sawed one of them down, but was then faced with drilling holes in the ends to accommodate the dowels and special fixings provided. It was not a job I relished, as precision was required. I had to use some angle plates instead, securing them with my own screws. What a palaver! I had a similar problem with a Futon bought from Ikea, where one of the special fixings was broken. We called Ikea in the UK, and they sent a replacement in the mail fairly promptly.

A new Cooker

How exciting can life get? Today we had a new electric cooker delivered and installed. Amazingly, the delivery driver was English, so communications were trouble free. He gave us a complete talk-through of all the operations, and even took away the old one that had lost the functionality of its thermostat.

Registering the MG TF

MG TF
We went to the insurance company Groupama to get a quote for the MG. As the MG was already insured through them in England I thought the rates might be cheaper. There I was paying £302 per annum, with a 65% no claims discount. First of all we were told that the car had to be registered with French plates, and that the no claims discount would carry on increasing up to 13 years' worth of accident free motoring. We scurried into Poitiers, and managed to register the car in an hour and a half - it cost 238 Euros. I am now the proud owner of French plates! I had already taken the precaution of getting in England the Certicate of Conformity from MG Rover, that cost £120. This provides evidence throughout the EU that the car meets European standards. We went back to Groupama with the registration certificate, and as I could only show a period of 6 years' of unblemished driving, I was quoted 838 Euros. If I can get proof of another 7 years I can get it reduced to 512 Euros. I can't remember the last time I made a claim, so I am hopeful that tracking back through the various insurance companies I was covered by will dig up the evidence I need. At the same time I got House and Contents insurance with the same company for 278 Euros. Now that is a bargain compared with England.

Muskrat

Muskrat
Today we had a visitor in our wine cellar. We have a manhole there that covers a drainage chamber, containing an electric pump that is activated in the event of flooding. We found this muskrat in the chamber, having entered via one of the drainage pipes leading there. It seemed very sleepy, and moving slowly. We thought it might have been in the throws of hibernation.
It was creating a lot of smell (musk?) and there were droppings everywhere. So, we encouraged it to leave the cellar, in the nicest possible way. It disappeared off into the night.

Unpacking everything

Still we are surrounded by mountains of boxes. The problem is that the cupboards, wardrobes, kitchen units and wall units all need to be erected first. They take ages to put together, and meanwhile we can't open the boxes to store the contents.
We had our TV connected to SKY today, so we are wired into the UK media via TV and the Times newspaper via the internet.

Finally the Removal Men arrive

At 9.30am today the vehicle finally arrived with all our goods. The 3 men worked non-stop until 5.00pm. The only breakages were the glass dining table (half inch thick smoked glass, 6 feet long) and scratches on our piano lid. Hopefully the insurance should cover that.

At 7.30am we were surprised by a loud scraping noise outside. Apparently a car had skidded on the icy road, and scraped along our wall. The driver duly stopped and gave all her insurance details. An hour later she came back again with the claim form from her insurance company, and completed it in our presence, with diagrams, and gave us a copy. How differently the French deal with these things, compared with the Brits.

A view from the kitchen

A view from our kitchen window 
This was taken at 6.00pm, from our kitchen window in France. Such an improvement on the snowy banks seen when we left our UK house.

The removal saga continues

I had a call from the lorry driver to say that the recovery vehicle had to back a mile down a country road to reach him. The lorry is now back on all its wheels, but the side is bashed in. With our goods inside it does not bode well for a safe delivery. He now expects to arrive at our house at 8.00am on Thursday. He is doing a deal with another driver who is delivering to Civray. They will each help one another out with the offloading at each destination. So, now he expects there to be three of them unloading at our house. What will tomorrow bring!

The move to France takes place

The removal process can be an arduous experience. First of all the removal company turned up on Saturday, 26th February, in a hired vehicle that was half the size it was supposed to be. Their proper removal vehicle was stuck in Italy because of the weather. However, the three men got stuck into their job, spending Saturday packing and bubble wrapping all our fragile items, and boxing as much as possible. They slept the night in our house on a blow up mattress, and a sofa bed - I hadn't realised that was part of the game plan, but they are a pleasant lot.
On Sunday they filled up their vehicle completely, and it was driven back to their warehouse in Berkshire - from Kent! Meanwhile the remaining two chaps carried on packing the possessions. Within two hours the driver returned in a similar vehicle, having left the first one in Berkshire fully loaded. They then filled up the second vehicle with the rest of the items, and left us at 9.00pm. Their plan was to fill their proper removal lorry with all the items, and leave in time on Sunday to deliver to us in France by Tuesday at 11.00am. Needless to say, they only finished loading at 2.00am on Tuesday, and set off for the Channel in the morning.
I rang the boss of the removal company on his mobile on the Tuesday morning to find out where they were, to be told that he was friving the vehicle on his own, as the person who was supposed to accompany him had quit on the Monday. He was going to hire labour in Poitiers to assist the unloading! When I rang he was coming into Calais on the ferry, having had to wait in the harbour for 6 hours. He expected to reach us on the Wednesday at 7.00am.
At 11.00am on Wednesday I rang the driver to find out why he was late. He told me he was in Northern France, and had slid off the road into a ditch. He was awaiting a recovery vehicle. He said the lorry was 20 degrees off the vertical. Naturally, I expect many fragile items to be broken. Thank goodness I insured the load on a "New for Old" basis.
And the saga continues!