Moving is hard but
......tempered with good wine and cheese, it's completely bearable.
We've been here one week and a day and we are as discombobulated as we ever were, truly. Today, we moved a comfortable sofa into the rental which we hadn't seen since late 2018, pre our Canada move! It is huge and heavy, yet we persevered, an utter faff, but we got it through a window and on to a table, then the floor and no one died! I mean, him and I are a little pile of broken and can no longer lift sadly, it is what it is, I'm so proud of our ingenuity and team work.
We also sped to the wreck yesterday, to meet the new carpenter, grab some bits out of our storage, to make life a little easier until we move here properly. We met the new carpenter and I finally clocked the so called 'refurbished window' the old carpenter did. OMG, it was so much worse than I realised and frankly a 5 year old could have done better. To say it is a 'bodge it and scarper' job is being kind, too kind and I have decided no I longer wish to be kind for the hell of it. He shouldn't have been paid for that ruinous job! He absolutely should be ashamed of his poor workmanship and yet he tried to guilt us, as did his protective community! Disgusting behaviour all round. Had I been there, he wouldn't have gotten off so lightly! I take no prisoners these days.
The new carpenter had the window slightly adapted and able to close within five minutes, but we do now need to strip the window, sand it down, have it filled and then fully repainted. I can't believe the other guy left it unable to shut, thank goodness we have security shutters! It remains to be seen if the paint will come off the bobbly glass at the bottom, but I really hope it does. What has really annoyed me is the amount of what appears to be vile blue acrylic paint slapped on all over the place! Bonkers! Definitely not the 'Atelier' black, grey or even black blue I asked for. Jeez, what a mess! We also have a lot to do in the kitchen as he never returned to finish that either but actually having seen the window, I'm so glad he didn't.
There was a bit more unexpected drama. After we loaned the lorry to a group doing charity runs to Ukraine last year, we were very disappointed to find the lorry hadn't been CT'd lately as promised. We were paying for this service and I'd seen the texts saying it would be done more than once. We collected it anyway, as it's still marginally in date, however the owner of the garage hid from us when we collected and then we discovered why! Our lorry has a bash in the side of the box. I'm seriously cross! It does seem that these folks like us when they want something, but not when we are no longer useful to them. These are the same people that feel I should not out them? My advice to them is to play fair, do the job you are paid for and don't expect handouts! Philip and I are so tired of doing favours and being treated like idiots in that community. No more!
Typical isn't it? We are not surprised but still disappointed. We will be super careful from here on and probably never lend it out again. All the fuss over the charity getting their airtime then making my decals so tiny they were pointless and then standing in front of them on camera so they couldn't be seen anyway. Honestly, you couldn't make it up. What vile behaviour and they really thought we wouldn't notice, of course we did!
This isn't the first time we have ended up worse off after lending our lorry out. I also vividly remember when we arrived at our rental in Aubeterre in May last year, even as we pulled up to move our own stuff in, the new neighbours asked us to move them out! Have lorry, have fake friends I guess? Today, I decided to remove these users from my facebook. I don't see why they should have a front row seat to our lives when they wouldn't spit on us if we were on fire. Be aware the EXPAT massive folks. My dear husband knows I don't give shit anymore and will out these users time and time again. They do not deserve us as friends or clients.
Onwards and upwards.
The Wreck is definitely morphing into a house even though there's a long way to go. Hopefully things will go a little smoother with winter coming up and trades needing work? It will certainly be easier to manage now we are back in France, amen to that! Meanwhile, back at the rental we are settling in and happy to be here. Other than a few days of rain, we've have beautiful weather. He's a little bit frustrated as we desparately need our internet order, but Orange are messing us around a bit. Hopefully, we will be able to at least make a video call sometime next week!
Moving always makes things difficult for a few weeks and then it settles, we settle and life takes on a more normal feel. Things always right themselves eventually.
Tomorrow, we are off galavanting with friends and I have an invite to coffee next week. I've also got some candles to make and so life moves on in the right direction yet again.
Gumption
D x