The Absinthe Fairy: Sunday lunch with friends....

...is great way to spend the day?

There are not that many of us ex-pats here in this forgotten part of France, and whilst loath to develop that enclave personality that can be all too prevelant in ex-pat communities around the globe, we have been very lucky to make some very good friends here. And spending time with them is the highlight of our social scene. A dinner party is our equivalent of a trip to the pub, a takeaway, a trip to the cinema or a coffee and a tour of the shops.

Got home this afternoon to find the cats rampaging around the house and Thea glued to the PS3 totally oblivious. Thankfully she had remembered to throw the odd chunk of wood into the Rayburn so the house was not freezing, which was extra thankfulness because the temperature had plummeted to -7°C by 6pm. We had driven home through sleety rain and green fields, through a blizzard and arrived back to our white snowy blanket sparkling in the sunshine but so very crisp and cold. Every town here seems to have its own micro climate, very diverse.

So this evening started with some tidying up, all the housework left undone through the week, you know the boring stuff like the bathroom and the dusting, while Brendan got to fitting the new car battery; when he came in and announced that the chest freezer in the barn had blown up. Knowing his penchant for exaggeration, I queried the 'blown up' part, and he told me he had just received an electric shock from it and so had tested the outside of it and found 110Volts - it was running live. Not good. I had been in it yesterday searching for dinner inspiration but due to my being a complete klutz I only ever wear rubber soled shoes in the snow and therefore managed to avoid the shock treatment myself.

Back in the UK we bought an upright drawer freezer for £10 from the local press and it has been used on and off as we have needed it for the last 4 years, until last winter when we needed more space for Ernie, and so took in a big old chest freezer and retired the upright. Good old quality goods, this tatty outdated upright, which must be 20 years old got a quick wipe over with a bleachy cloth to sanitise it and off it went again, saving the day and all my cuts of lamb as well as the best part of my veggie crop from this year.

Not that any of this was my plan for the day, but that got hijacked very early on this morning - instead of a bit of genteel Christmas decoration making, followed by some dainty Christmas card sticking and colouring, I have been tackling rugs. Or more accurately trying to clean white wool rugs after kitten rampaging that involved a tipped up lemon tree and the dirt being used as a litter tray, and then the dog bringing in a few chicken poo clinkers stuck to his fur and rubbing them into his bedding.

With thanks to my lovely mum, my early Christmas pressie cheered me up, a lovely new rug in the living room. Cue some rug shuffling. Soiled rug went to the bin as white wool does not come clean after being used for a toilet by naughty kittens, dog bed got bits cut off it ready for washing and patching up with the old living room rug also cut up to make a new draught excluder for the front door.