HERE’S HOPING FOR A HAPPIER NEW YEAR

New Years Eve 2021

First things first – I hope you all had a great Christmas break, regardless of whether you celebrate the religious aspect or not, some kind of respite from the horrors of Covid-19 and the problems caused by Brexit would have come as a welcome relief.  I intended to write before Christmas but circumstances here in the Brookes household prevented that unfortunately – the usual problems of late – building works not going according to plan and more problems with my inner workings – so no change there I’m afraid.

The conservatory is progressing, albeit ever so slowly.  I’ve had a second fuse box installed to provide the power for the underfloor heating, lights and sockets required and ended up in a big debate with the (French) electrician insisting on the floor being laid in a specific way contrary to how me and my (English) builder thought it should be done and all of this complicated by the town halls my earlier (English) builder had made of the floor in the first place!  After some torturous discussion we worked things out and Andy – the new (English) builder and his able assistant (his wife Dawn) – have started laying the concrete.  Due to the size of the floor (almost 41m2) it will have to be done in sections (or bays) using a concrete mixer.  The base is 8m across and 5m deep so the bays will be laid left to right at 1m x 2m x 2m x 2m x 1m, all 5m long.  The first 2m bay went down yesterday afternoon, the next 2 are planned for Wednesday next week and hopefully it will be finished on Friday next week.  Karen and I are now busy looking for tiles but there’s a bit of a difference of opinion about what we ‘want’.  All will be revealed in due course.

At least it’s progressing.

This post will be kept short but hopefully I’ll be able to write in more length mid-January when things here have settled down a bit.  Covid-19 continues to cause problems and the Omicron variant has closed the UK off from France – but fortunately not before Karen’s daughter Leighann had visited with our newest grandchild Marshall.  Karen had returned to London in December 2019 to be with Leighann for the birth so this was their reunion.  For me it was my first sight of the little man other than Facebook Portal calls and he is an absolute delight.  We couldn’t persuade Leighann to stay and were both sad to see them go home.  The weather tried to help us – when we woke up on the Sunday of L’s return we found we were snowed in, as expected, and Serge the local Maire duly turned up with his brother and a friend to dig us out!  Limoges is usually an easy 2 hour drive but it took us 3.5 hours this time.  Karen was a star – driving the Sprinter has never been a problem for her which isn’t surprising really given her background.  How many of you reading this had a Matchbox Lomas Ambulance when you were a kid?  Karen’s Dad, Granddad and Great Grandad were those Lomas’s.  Big vans are in her blood.

We had a quiet Christmas.  We have French friends who own a little restaurant in Evaux-les-Bains and they decided to open as there had been a demand locally, so off we popped.  We flashed our Covid passes, as is necessary in France, sat in a corner, took off our masks to eat and had a splendid afternoon.  I struggle understanding why Tory MP’s (and others) find having proof of vaccination or wearing a mask such a chore – the very same people saying this is an infringement on their civil liberties who will soon be voting through a new Justice and Policing Bill which will see people risking 51 weeks in prison for protesting.  Totalitarian government is sneaking up on all of you in the UK and no one seems to be saying anything!  Johnson and his mob of fascists will soon have you all over a barrel.  Beware!

We are both double-jabbed and boosted so we’re both as safe as possible and being well looked after.  Tonight will be a big night for a lot of you but please take care.  Covid-19 isn’t going away anytime soon, if ever, and the infection figures continue to grow massively.  Never mind that Omicron appears to be less nasty than previous mutations, it still has the potential to flood hospitals and kill people and most of those in ICU’s, potentially on deaths door, are unvaccinated.  Is a good party tonight really worth risking the rest of 2022 for – be that your 2022 or someone’s you came into contact with?

I’ll love you and leave you all now.  Have as good a New Year celebration as possible but stay safe and keep those around you safe.

Cheers.

Jem.