The outside of the house is finished!!!! Woop Woop we are allowed our chinese buffet on Saturday. I am so excited!!! Finished the painting and stripped the scaffold, wasn't too bad getting it down, easier than I thought it would be, mind you Rob did all the hard bits, all I did was hold things and take things down to ground level. The house looks so much nicer without all that ugly scaffold in front of it and when the sun is shining it looks so bright!!! You can probably see it from outer space haha!!!! [View Full Entry]

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Cannot get on with finishing the last of the masonary on the front of the house due to drizzly rain and mist so have moved inside and started work on the upstairs bathroom. No chinese buffet this week then haha!!!!!! The bathroom ceiling has been redone with new plasterboard by Remmy and Rob and we are now doing all the prep work that is required before we can paint it. Started off my scraping all the plaster off the original beams, due to awkward angles etc there is not really any way Remmy could avoid it when doing the plastering. Its [View Full Entry]

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Alo alo !! Bom dia, boa tarde, boa noite !!! Como estao as coisas por ai ??? Aqui esta tudo otimo apesar do frio que aos poucos vai alcancando a espinha... Beleza... Nesse post vou falar da ultima viagem que fizemos para Paris e Bruges. Depois de 8 meses trabalhando na Inglaterra e curtindo o verao eu e a Rafa finalmente tivemos uma semaninha merecida de ferias(ou pelo menos uma semana em que pudessemos viajar juntos), a primeira de algumas(muitas) que estamos planejando. Engracado que nos nunca tivemos muita vontade de conhecer Paris, mas quando estavamos vendo o que fazer nessa [View Full Entry]

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The day is starting out with a thick fog which is probably made worse by the large lake below where our cabin is located.And there is absolutely no wind to blow the fog away so we will hope that once we get on the road and away from the water the fog may lift. The road away from Larche wanders through a mix of empty farmland and forest for a good distance until we crossed over the top of A20 which runs from Paris to Barcelona. We then went onto the D840 and took a break in Martel,another medieval town with [View Full Entry]

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I ended my day with a visit to the Eiffel Tower...I walked to the 2nd level and took the Elevator to the summit... With my small, dinky camera... [View Full Entry]

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I found Les Invalides very somber...It is very inviting and picturesque from the outside, but from the inside, I had a different impression...It was probably because I entered from the area of the Dome and the tomb of Napoleon that was brought to Paris From the Island of St Helena in 1840...The tomb is designed such that the visitor bows down from the top level and looks up to it from the bottom level...It feels unreachable...The army museum, the museum of Charles De Gaule, and the exhibit of model reliefs of French fort cities and citadels within the compounds of the [View Full Entry]

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Day 47 - 7/11/09 Wednesday this week was my day off and as Vivian (Caroline's helpx) was leaving in two days it was decided that we would both go to Biarritz. After a 6.30 get up and 40minutes at the bus stop we somehow managed to miss the bus (I prefer think that it didn't turn up)...however I'm kind of glad we did! Plan B...road trip! We were kindly granted use of the car for the day and so we set out in search of several places including a fort , a lake and forest in Aignan and a lake in [View Full Entry]

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A really quiet week. I had my first day off school on Tuesday, headache plus I really couldn't be bothered going. So I stayed at home and slept for most the day and in the afternoon I rang Grandad to wish him a happy birthday. Friday I had a really long video call with Mum and I also received a package from home a big winter jacket and Cadbury Chocolate!! :) The weekend pretty much consisted of everybody staying home and doing nothing other than watching movies or sleeping. I made a pavlova for my family and they loved it! [View Full Entry]

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Just back fae a bit of a dander in the area around the house. Went along to see Columbo the Donkey and he was there :) he came right over to say hello and I clambered thru a ditch so I could see him properly and get my hands on him. I think he is awesome. Its drizzling a bit today but that didn't matter, walked down the road past the golf course, Looks like a nice course but you can only see a wee bit from the road, its got a cool pond and also a Chateau on it. Loads [View Full Entry]

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This week was a very demanding week, workwise...I worked a day and a half! We had Armistice Day (Veterans' Day for you Americans) off on Wednesday, but I normally have Wednesdays off, so that was a bit of a letdown. I stayed home Thursday due to a nasty stomach bug that I can only assume came from my students and their grubby little hands. I had previously arranged to have Friday off (I was able to make up the hours a few weeks ago) so that I could catch an early train to Grenoble. Elizabeth, a friend I've known since first [View Full Entry]

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