Painting G&G's house

Granny & Grandad's house needed painting so we all turned up to give them a hand, so that they could get it done in a day. We were really lucky as the day we picked (12 September) ended up being the sunniest in a few weeks.

Michael & Richard took up the task of climbing onto the conservatory to paint the back of the house.

Meanwhile at the front of the house all the ladies had their marigolds at the ready as we were told the house couldn't be painted until it had had a thorough clean first. Dad had other ideas, and decided to keep out the way and make a start at the painting on top of the scaffolding.

We soon discovered that painting a house on such a sunny day was hard work, so Granny & Mum got to work preparing lunch. We all enjoyed our well earned break, devouring all the yummy bacon butties and home-made bread sandwiches to keep us going for the rest of the day!

In the afternoon it was all hands on deck to finish the side of the house. Not quite sure that Uncle Jeff understood that we had the entire house to paint in just one day..

And here is the final result. A sparkling shiny white house!

Ooops, looks like we may have saved a little bit for you to finish off!

Bristol Balloon Festival August

On Saturday 8th August we decided to go to the Bristol Balloon Festival. We arrived just after midday and managed to park quite easily, a 15 minute walk took us to the arena. There had been a mass launch at 6am but that was a bit too early for us, so we planned to see the evening launch, which was scheduled for 6.30pm with various arena events until then.

It was a hot day and gradually the park filled up, we visited the trade stalls but there weren't that many (a lot of military displays) and by 3pm we had seen most of them. With over 3 hrs to go we decided to walk out of the park to the Clifton Suspension bridge which was a mile or so away. As we returned at 5pm the Red Arrows roared overhead with their usual impressive display. By now there were 10s of thousands of people arriving so we made our way back down the slope towards the arena to watch the balloons set up.

After a comfort stop (100 people and about a 30 minute wait for the toilets!) we found a small space to sit, and from about 7pm the balloons were launched, in all about 100. Our view of the initial launch was partially obscured by 'Churchill the Insurance dog' but soon we could see the balloons rising above the arena, a fabulous sight.


A night burn was planned at 9.30 pm so we had to kill time until then, queues were now long for everything (later it was reported some 150,000 people were there) 18 balloons returned for the night glow, and were tethered in the arena and their burners were lit in time to music. This lasted for about 40 mins and was equally impressive.


The finale was a firework display which we decided to miss so as to try and get ahead of the crowds. If you have ever wondered what happens to the fireworks after they explode we can now tell you as we were in the fall out zone and ash was falling on us as we walked out.

Despite our quick exit it still took 45 minutes to clear the area and we finally got home around 1.30 exhausted but after a very enjoyable day. The plan to visit the chilli festival on Sunday put off to another year as we were both far to tired.

July in Luchapt

We drove to Luchapt via Portsmouth and la Havre on the 11 July, taking the overnight ferry. We slept in a strange sleeper arrangement, it was like a large dormitory with large adjacent reclining chairs. We didn't get the best nights sleep but sufficient so as I could drive the 5 hours to Phil & Angela's house.

They have done a lot of work since we were last there, having extend the house into the barn to make a guest room with en suite and kitchen, although we didn't have to cook for ourselves! The house had also been reroofed and they had started extending further into the barn. (You can see part of their 'back garden' in the picture!)

Fortunately Bastille day was celebrated this week, so although we were not in France at the weekend there was still quite a lot to do. We started on Monday with helping the local village prepare the food for their meal on the night before Bastille day.Very little English was spoken so we mucked in as best we could with another half dozen Brits, I like to think my garlic pressing and cutting impressed

The meal was held for a 100+ inside a hall adjacent to the playing fields, which was just as well as the rain which had been threatening arrived that evening and we got rather damp watching the firework display.


The following day Tuesday 14 July was Bastille day and Phil and Angela drove us to the races at Le Dorat. The track was a bit basic although there was a small grandstand and plenty of opportunities to lose some money at the bookies.


We managed to miss all the winners until the 5th race when we struck lucky and managed to recoup a small amount of our losses. We decided this was a good time to quit and moved onto Confolen, a small picturesque town which was holding a highly recommended firework display that evening.

Here we enjoyed a meal and a few glasses of wine at a restaurant overlooking the river, followed by a few more glasses with friends of Phil & Angela outside a local bar.The fireworks started at 11pm from barges moored in the river with accompanying music and were certainly impressive.

Phil and Angela seem to have integrated well into the expat community, as we subsequently played boules on Wednesday evening, and had a meal in a local bar/restaurant with more of their friends for Friday lunch. The meal should have followed canoeing down the river, but much to mine (and Mums) disappointment this was cancelled because of a violent thunderstorm.

The weather was mixed during our stay but always warm and as previously we found Luchapt very quiet (apart from the church bells at 7 in the morning!) so well rested we returned home Saturday morning.