My Life in DIY Stores

I spent four hours at Brico Depot on Monday. Kevin had a very long list of titchy tiny plumbing items to purchase, along with their serial numbers. I endured. 

But... 

We had to go back today for about two hours. To get more bits. And now I'm finding it harder to endure.



Sensing my murderous despair, Kevin sent me to look for a hose/tap attachment. The rebel within persuaded me to buy a heavy duty rake instead. I love it! It had managed to take skin off my knuckles even before it was mine! It's going to be useful on my rock mission.

Brico Depot do not sell ballast in bags; you have to make your own. They are thoughtful enough to give you a recipe to follow, but we didn't have the staying power. DIY store junkies that we are, we went to Leroy Merlin instead.

 SMELLS

 I've started to wear perfume, even to the DIY stores, and out in the rock field. Beautiful odours are important in France. There is a great divide here: heavenly scented versus BO. And don't go thinking that it's the labourers who are rocking the BOho. No, some of them smell divine! There doesn't seem to be a clear pattern. It's hard to predict... usually. French women will notice a perfume and look and smile. I'd been amassing a veritable perfume cache over the last few years, so I'm experimenting. Today, for the benefit of Brico Depot's clientele, I wore a recreational cocktail of See by Chloe, Diamonds by Armani and Naughty Alice by Vivienne Westwood. I thus granted myself a deliciously scented aura throughout the day, and it made me feel better. And French. On the good side of the great divide.

 SOUNDS

 Marina Kaye's 'Homeless' is played almost incessantly throughout the day, on nearly every French radio station that we come across. It's the song that I couldn't identify last summer, but I knew that it went, 'dun, din, dun, di, ee, ah'. For me, it's the first song of our adventure, but I think the overriding song of our time here will be Coldplay's 'Adventure of a Lifetime'. Kevin and my on-site dancing is often gorilla-like! And joyful.

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