16. May, 2016

16. May, 2016

SATURDAY 14-05-16

We both slept really well and woke to some blue sky at last, which was so welcomed as I was beginning the think this was one trip that just wasn't meant to be.

We both showered after which I emptied the waste water to take any pressure off the waste pipe repair, thus far it seems to have worked this time, so fingers crossed.

We went for a nice stroll in to the village, what a lovely pace of life it is here, nobody seems to be in a hurry. We purchased our daily baguette before making our way back, then over to the wine growers co-operative complex. We had intended to buy a reusable container and get it filled with Rosé, on tap. Luckily for us the chap behind the counter spoke English and explained that to buy it in bulk that way, unless we took it home and bottled it the wine would be like vinegar in two or three days. That was that idea out the window then, still we were in there and so bought another five litres of Coat-Door -Own, my word what a lovely drop of stuff it is, and a five litre box of Rosé. It wasn't until we got back that I realised I bought a box of the 'from somewhere in France' Rosé wine rather than the local wine, so maybe I'll just have to pop back over there again before we leave.

The Chef cracked on with some housework leaving me to soak up a bit of sunshine on this lovely warm but rather windy day. I'm currently reading Bill Bryson's latest book 'The Road to Little Dribbling'. I'm not much of a book reader, preferring decent newspapers and magazine articles, but his writing is quite entertaining.

This evenings meal was a concoction involving a jar of Aldi Chilli something-or-other with fresh mince accompanied by boiled rice. We crunched our way through the baguette afterwards washed down with some lovely local Coat-Door-Own.

We were chatting last night about our last trip to Istanbul, and decided that maybe, just maybe we'll go back to Greece. Last time I'd let the greedy tax-avoiding little beggars get to me, but if we return I'd do it the coward's way and drive south through Italy and then catch a ferry across to Greece. If we do it then it will have to be in 2018, next year we have our travel plans, so 2018 would be the earliest we could do it. Sooner rather than later whilst God-willing I still have my faculties.

Tomorrow there appears to be a 13km or 26km walk through the vineyards between two chateau so I think we'll be attempting a bit of that to keep ourselves occupied. It's not often you get the chance to walk so far through vineyards without being shot at, and since this is yet another National Holiday weekend it will make a nice change from a car boot sale and being peed on by Muslim kids.

16. May, 2016

16. May, 2016

16. May, 2016

FRIDAY  13-05-16

We both had a really good night, probably due to the fact that it didn't rain overnight. We had plenty of water onboard and so were able to have a nice hot shower. The BBC weather forecast for this area had been cloudy for yesterday and today followed by a period of improving warm sunny days. We therefore had decided to spend extra time here and arrive at Orange in sunshine.

First it was off for a walk in to the village of Chusclan to buy a baguette. What a nice little village it is, lots of narrow side streets, a bit of a maze really. The boulangerie was the real deal, the shop itself was quite small but the bakery and ovens behind, seen easily through the large opening between the two, was much larger, and the warmth and smell from there was wonderful.

On the way out of the village I spotted a public toilet and decided to check it out, and there it was - a Shanks Squatter. You really do know where you stand with a Shanks.

Our pace on the way back was hastened by the odd spot or two of rain. On our arrival we decided to find the shop within the wine growers complex and buy some red wine. Having found it we entered to find our neighbours from last night supping away and buying a few bottles as presents for folk back home. He seemed to know his stuff and pointed out some decent glug on the shelves. Behind us were locals arriving with plastic containers with a tap in the top. They'd come to have them refilled, though we shall settle for a five litre box of red Coat-Door-Own.

I paused at the entrance to the Aire to take a photograph of our 'wine bar' across the road, causing The Chef to reach the motorhome first, let herself in and promptly set the PIR alarm off. What a noise, and it wouldn't respond to the 'disarm' command, so there I was burying its screeching speaker in to a cushion whilst unscrewing its back and taking out the batteries.

Soon afterwards I took a look at the BBC weather forecast using my mobile phone, and then thought I'd be helpful  and pop up to the English couple and let them know the latest guesstimate. Having knocked on the door it was opened by a complete stranger, a Frenchman, I was quite taken aback, I even had the audacity to lean in to his vehicle to see if he'd opened the door on behalf of his English hosts. But no, the Brits had gone and this elderly couple had taken their pitch. How embarrassing, especially as it was difficult to explain what I'd done. So that was it, we'd had one senior moment each.

My priority then was to attempt to fix the leaking waste pipe. First I had to drain down the waste tank as the backfill of water was putting gravitational pressure on the leak (did that sound impressive or what?). This was done using two Aldi folding silicone buckets which I'd bought for just such a job. Drained down, I then had to unwind all of the old gaffa tape, then wipe it all clean before donning rubber gloves and covering the whole area with the white gunge I'd bought a few days ago. Once smothered the 'wound' was bandaged with more gaffa tape.

We spent the afternoon indoors whilst it busily rained again, trying not to put any waste water down the sinks to give the repair time to set. Only time will tell.

Fortunately the weather cleared about 16:30 and we decided to get out again for some fresh air while the going was good. Having looked at the calendar this afternoon I seem to have marked this weekend with the entry 'French Whit Weekend' - oh dear, looks like it's going to be another busy weekend.

This evenings offering from The Chef was potato and bacon rosti with a salad and the baguette from down the road, though this one was more chewy than crusty, well we can't expect them to be good at wine making AND bread.

This evening we were hoping to be able to play a DVD on the laptop, but no, this Hewlett Packard laptop I upgraded to really is the pits. Give me Sony any day. It doesn't have a fire-wire connection so my video camera can't talk to it, and it is loaded with Windows 8 which I hate. What was wrong with Windows XP? Tonight it seems there is some kind of software issue, another problem for another day.