Monday, May 10, 2004
Saint Solange
When Caroline takes the children into school she always looks at the menu and translates it for the children so they know what they are going to be eating for lunch. Today it said 'gésiers' ? Caroline didn't know what the English for 'gésiers' was so she asked the teachers. Apparently there was alot of hand waving, pointing, talk about chickens, but she couldn't work it out. In they end they all marched into the canteen, and pointed at the Gizzards !
This week Caroline and I are re-painting the external windows and doors for two of the gites. The third is occupied. It's my job to sand the old paint off, and Caroline does the painting. She hates sanding. I once complained about her standard of painting, and got told to 'do it yourself'. I did. It was worse :-) So now Caroline does all the painting and I do the preparation. I think I got the best job cos you only prepare once and usually paint at least 2 or 3 coats.
However, before I could start, one of the guests mentioned that their sink was not flowing away very fast. Well a bit of searching and rodding and I found the culprit. I love unblocking drains! The problem was a build upof fat and grease that blocked the pipe. For some reason there was no grease trap, (French plumbing), which meant a slight delay to sanding as I built a grease trap from some bits of piping and an old plastic tub with a tight fitting lid. Works a treat. Covered it over with gravel and a very large slate and you'd never know it was there. In the winter I might go buy a special grease trap and replace it, but at the moment it works fine and the guests water runs away. Often you just have to fix things there and then, you can't ask people to hang-on for a few days while I order a new part or get a man in.
So a lightly interrupted morning, but I still managed to sand down two doors and windows and Caroline got a coat of Bondex on each. They look miles better.
