Seven years..

Congrats to Nic and Jen.. it brings up lots of stuff, it means that it's nearly seven years since I moved here and therefore seven years since I gave up smoking, ( passing on that last carton of Marlborough lights, that I had smuggled into Singapore ILLEGALLY, to Auntie Tina, before I boarded the Eurostar for a new life as a red wine drinking layabout... hurrah best to concentrate on what your good at!).

Steve, your holidays (working holidays!) are guaranteed now you can plaster, tho' you will have to let go of straight lines and smooth surfaces! We also offer very inexpensive residential 'How to plaster/ render with lime putty' courses affiliated with the 'Musee des Ochres' in Rousillon. Here, of course, you actually pick the (red) sand up from the end of the track past the house where the supply is almost endless; it's that that gives our house it's colour, a couple of bags of Chaux (hydrated lime I think Pete!) and a hand full of stones and you could build your own house with planning permission.

Cathy just to say that all of us, I think, that have used computers have had that first time where something we have been 'crafting' for 3-4 hours is suddenly lost into the trash bin of the great computer in the sky, and we all think never again, but of course it happens again - but the first time is the worst. The only advice I think is to write it on something else, another program, before cutting and pasting it on to the Blogger window (if it comes up..doh!) then your words are still there if it all goes arse up. Safe havens are MS Word or indeed write it as an email first. Not neccessary of course for the usual terse replies I give like this, ( I am starting to panic). of course you guys would be welcome anytime although we have a couple and their 10 year old here at Easter, so room is limited. After that it is all free - perhaps early summer, that would be fab!

Anyone wanting a warm winter holiday is advised to contact Pete, they all arrived here for New Year in t-shirts, to nearly sub-zero temperatures, having driven 8 hours from balmy Valence where it had been 22 degrees, course you can't sledge in that kind of weather!