Friday, July 31, 2015

Heart ache


Saturday 25 July 2015
Cool and sunny with tiny cloudlets 22 degrees

Awoke at 6 am after battling all night to get comfortable on one very small pillow.  On getting an early cup of tea, find a bike in the middle of the very narrow living room.  The long line of houses are very quiet here in the early morning, in marked contrast to the village where cousin lives, with its wealthy but toiling inhabitants.  The skies are full of chunky white clouds in a gentle blue sky and there are the calls of the gulls and the smell of take out and a brisk breeze.  I finish off my novel and go back to sleep and later find some microwave porridge and honey and have more tea and wash up the dishes mountain.  The family next door are wandering around in their PJ's, the kids parked in front of the telly.  

I am putting out some washing on the line when a girl appears.  She is from Cyprus and studying for a Masters in Business Relations.  She disappears into the shower and is there for 25 minutes.  Thank heavens I had boys.  I would have been ruined.  I am amazed to find she is the same size when she finally emerges.  She asks if I know how to turn on the oven. There is a large manual full of instruction books and clearly labelled House File.  I point it out to her and she said she hadn't had time to look through it (she has been in the house a whole year).  If you have the brains to do a Masters, surely you can read an instruction manual?  Is it me?

Make youngest porridge at 10 am having left him a lie in.  He normally leaves for work at 6.15 in the mornings.  I then pop into town to get some money and he can sort out his laundry and wake up properly.  RBS is the only bank closed all weekend so cant get out English cash with passport - get some off my French bank account and try not to think of exchange rate, which is currently 1:1.42.  Go to Waterstones and look at books and Costa Coffee and have caramel cappuccino and Belgian fudge brownie.  Get back and WF has surfaced and we had back down to Commercial Road and he buys two shirts, three t-shirts, trousers, shorts, bedding and I get some knitted tights for Winter.  We then have a bacon bap and coffee and I get him to put Whats app on his phone and send him a message saying helli because I am not wearing reading glasses.

We then hit Asda to do some food shopping and he is very careful to avoid products showing 'red' for sugar.  Unlike France, all products here have colour coded bars for sugar, fat, salt etc.  He is a frugal shopper and I have to encourage him to get something nice for the week.  We are looking at the cake selection and he spots a cheese cake and says Oh that looks lovely and I bet it would taste good and I haven't had cheese cake in years.  He puts weight on so easily and it is at this point that I get a huge lump in my throat and I am so glad I have tissues in my bag and am wearing sunglasses.  I so wish he was back at home where I could look after him.  I miss him so.  I miss him every day.  

Eldest is still not answering his phone or my FB messages - he knows I am here - does he not want to meet up.  Get back to WF house and OH sends message to get Paracetamol and antihistamines so pop back out on my own to Asda where I can cry in peace on my way to and from the shop.  Asda would only sell my two packets of paracetamol at a time.  Don't know why they have this rule - you can kill yourself with just one packet.

Have lovely supper (with the cheese cake) and watch Love Actually and WF plays games on computer.  Cyprus girl comes back at midnight and I go to bed and take an age to sleep - so much late night traffic, people being dropped off.  Toss and turn and regret not having got some new pillows.

Think about the situation in France - we have a mortgage on the house, the exchange rate is terrible when going back into sterling and the house needs work.  One option would be to let the house out and use the cash from the upcoming rental unit sale and rest of OH's lump sum to buy near Portsmouth.

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