Thank god today is almost over, having spent two hours this afternoon at the bank talking with the bank manager and the rest of the day doing the tva (vat) for August and finding the huge list of missing links in last year’s books for the accountant. Days don’t get much worse than this and to make matters worse guests arrived today, Matt’s cousin Jane and boyfriend Bill - who might think that we’re vaguely up for a night on the razz. They are being very good and sitting in the other house at the moment reading and drinking coffee …. but could pounce at any moment. What’s especially sad is that they are both in their 60’s and had had only three hours sleep before travelling off to the airport this morning and they still have more energy than we do.

Alfie went off to his new lycee on Wednesday to do a year’s sculpting course. He left his packing until about 9pm on Tuesday evening, despite being told all day not to leave it to the last minute. …apparently when you’re as organised as he is it doesn’t take long. That afternoon I found his forgotten quilt still on the bed. Then his dust mask. Then his coat…. On Thursday we got a call asking if we could put some money into his bank account as he only had 12€ in there and needed to find somewhere to stay at the weekend as the lycee is shut until Sunday evening. Friday night was apparently spent in the woods – which seems to be an emerging theme amongst those who mess with stones. God knows what they get up to in there but last time they did it in April he came back with 4 bent forks and a branch of whittled wood which went by the name of ‘art’ and a pair of melted shoes.

Matt took his car through a car wash a few weeks ago and the ariel snapped off – meaning that NOVA, the only decent radio station in these parts, is now out of range and we are condemned to the likes of Bleu Limousin or Bleu Perigord, which we were listening to yesterday. One of my favourite bits of the latter is the ‘annonces’ where people phone in with things to sell. Being French they never commit to an actual price and ‘un petit prix’ is about all you’ll get from someone if asked what they expect to be offered. This means that the potential buyer has to come up with an estimate which will probably be rejected out of hand and cause irreparable offence.

The first person was selling a kitchen worth of electrical goods …washing machine, drier, fridge etc. Not one pertinent detail was alluded to, despite the presenter desperately trying to force some information out relating to the age of the appliances, brand etc, so that by the end of it all we knew was that someone wanted to sell 4 unbranded and non descript kitchen appliances of indeterminate age, for an un named price. God only knows who, if anyone, bothers to phone up but they would have been only slightly more crazed than the person calling to put an offer in the following announcement when someone phoned in offering three pictures. No other details whatsoever – although again only after much interrogation by the presenter we did learn that flowers were involved. It’s anti-consumerism gone mad…

Lovely weather today by the way