Weekend newsletter #107
Bonjour from Brittany where it’s finally sunny!
There’s a lot happening here in the summer months and in between chores I’ve been taking myself off in my car and experiencing the best of a French summer. ‘Betty’ (the name I christened my Mini Cooper with a couple of years ago) has been steadfast and reliable getting me where I want to go and returning me safely home.
Keeping a car internationally that you don’t drive all the time can be risky with spasmodic services and maintenance. I say a silent thank you prayer when Betty starts up on the first drive each visit. She gets me to destinations 100kms away, and then returns me home, often very late at night. I also have the most precious friends who help me with the paperwork and essential registration checks in my absence.
My lower staircase is finally painted. Yay! Woohoo! Not without some idiotic antics of mine though! Wanting to still access the bathrooms and bedrooms while waiting for the thick parquet et escalier peinture (parquetry and staircase paint) to dry, I decided to paint the every-other step and landing so I could still go up and down. That works well, but you have to keep remembering from one coat to the next which alternate steps you can walk on.
After days and many coats of paint, I was going well, until the other night. Getting a last coat onto a couple of random steps around 9.30pm, I stood on a step to reach a higher one. After a bit I went to move up and my feet where stuck. I had socks on and the socks were stuck. I’d stepped onto a semi-dry step that looked finished and had not felt the damp paint due to my socks. So after separating the socks from the paint, accidentally stepping onto another step transferring more feet marks onto yet another step, taking the socks off and repainting all the steps I ruined, I eventually went to bed shaking my head at my own stupidity!
Anyway, its sunny, I’m in France and overall enjoying my DIY projects. I hope you’re having fun wherever you are and that these posts bring a smile to your face.
Bisous, Annette
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