JANUARY 2016

Where did 2015 go - it flashed past so quickly and here we are nearly at the end of January already!

New year eve was very quiet for us, thank goodness, but the fun fair didnt pack up and leave until 10th january.  So now we are back to the twice weekly street markets alongside us.

We treated ourselves to an Epiphany cake

 According to tradition these cakes had a bean in them, or in French a 'feve'. Nowadays one has to take more care when eating the cake as these 'feves' are porcelain figures, and can do serious damage to teeth! The person who gets the 'feve' becomes King or Queen for the day, hence the crown topping the cake. Nigel got our 'feve' but luckily his teeth remained in tact.

We again have problems with our heating boiler, and on further investigation nigel found that the PCB had burnt out!

Actually we were rather lucky as this could have caused a serious fire, and as its situated close to our heating fuel, would have caused quite an explosion.  So yet again we await another spare part for the boiler. Let's hope this time the problem is solved as we will have been without central heating and hot water in the taps for over 6 weeks in total since arriving in Narbonne last October.  Thank goodness the sun still shines here, and warms our boat inside every day! Also the electricity from the quayside is not metred so we can run electric fires without worrying too much about the bill at the end of our stay.   It just takes a long time to wash the dishes (and ourselves) from one kettle of hot water at a time. Its just like camping out, but in more comfort!

Friends from Briare drove down to visit for a few days, bringing their Tibetan terrier, Yeti. As he's only a year old and full of energy, Tashi wasnt quite sure what to make of him, as being an 8 year old lady, she found him a bit bouncy.

I still can't get used to the wonderful variety of plants and flowers on display here in January. They  have their seasons all mixed up to an English gardeners mind. I often walk up to the Ecluse Gua by the mill, and into the allotments to see what is growing. Crazily to my mind currently there are strawberries and broad beans in flower.  The peas are well up, cabbages, Brussel sprouts and cauliflowers bursting with growth. There are neat rows of many varities of vegetables, but oddly the only things not under cloches are lettuce. Apparently they have to survive any cold weather unaided! The tenants of these allotments are extremely lucky to have ditches around their plots which divert water from the canal and into specially created tanks by each plot.  So they have every advantage - heat and water. Its a paradise on earth!  Although my French grammar still isnt very good, and none of the gardeners speak English, we manage to 'converse' somehow, and its a peaceful oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Snow on my cyclamen!

Good grief, we didnt expect this. Ni says he wants a refund. We didn't come all the way down to Narbonne to have snow.  But all is not lost because the next day it was bright sunshine with blue skies, and afternoon temperatures up to 15.9C.  So not that bad really.

On 22 January I took pity on our eldest son and fly to Bristol from Toulouse, to help him finish paint work inside his house.  On Sunday 24th we met up at Avebury with younger son, wife and Daughter for the two sons belated Christmas present exchange.  As the grandchildren are growing so fast I couldnt resist taking a photo of them arranging in descending order of height.

Mirror, mirron on the wall, who's the tallest of us all?

After much preparation of the house, masking off, wiping down, sanding, painting etc. the job was done, and so I returned to France.  It wasnt all work though, as I managed to squeeze in an appointment at the local opticians, a family lunch out, shopping spree at Cribbs Causeway and visit to the theatre in Westorn-super-Mare to see a jazz version of  'The Great Gatsby', and another dinner out at the Portishead marina. On my last morning in the Uk I wandered the high street of Portishead and was amazed at the number of charity shops there. I bought second-hand books, tartan scarfs (for a belated Burns night supper in Narbonne) and various pharmaceutical products which were much cheaper than in France.

After a slight disagreement with EasyJet staff I had to sacrifice a coveted pot of Bovril, then subsequently paid to put my case into the hold, (at an additonal cost of £45) where I suspect the Bovril would had been allowed!!!!    Toulouse airport was in a state of chaos with the taxi drivers blockading all forms of transport, thus stopping travel into the town centre, and so the only accommodation available was airport hotels.  I finally got back to Gesina the next afternoon.  Having passed through the low clouds and drizzle of Toulouse, broken clouds of Carcassonne and into glorious blue skies and warm sunshine of Narbonne.   Wonderful sunny Narbonne where it reached temperatures of 17.3C.

I was away for our wedding anniversary but Ni had kept a bottle of bubbly on ice for my return, so all was not lost!

I think Tashi missed me as she went absolutely potty when they met me at the station, much to the amusement of bystanders.

Our social life instantly kicked off again when another ex-pat hosted a drinks gathering at a canal-side bar. It was his (Mike's) 65th birthday and he provided drinks, nibbles and a cake.

Beautiful spread provided by Mike.