We didn't have any television until fairly recently, so, when an interesting sports fixture was scheduled, we would hot-foot it down to Le Richelieu in Tulle. It has become an unfortunate tradition that every team we support there loses, and that caused much consternation amongst the staff there when we were supporting France during the Euro 2016 football, so we were hoping that the curse had lifted when we went to watch England v France last week. By half time, we were feeling a bit edgy, so we left to watch the second half at home. England may have us to thank for their victory.
We've never met any other British people on our visits to Le Richelieu, but we're always impressed by the friendliness of the staff and customers, even under the pressure of a British team being the opponents. The locals like to talk to us incessantly in French; actually, more accurately, they like to talk to Kevin, who can't understand a word, so I stand as a poor translator at his side. I can usually only understand half of what they say, so communication is not smooth-going. There was a little old beret-ed man this time whose gruff voice was virtually impossible to decipher and separate into words, French or otherwise. I laughed and nodded in response to his sounds, but I understood barely anything he said. He wouldn't stop talking to Kevin, and eventually he appeared to have set himself up as Kevin's French teacher, asking him to repeat simple phrases such as 'Bon soir'. Our leaving at half time wasn't solely due to the curse.
The renovation continues... There are big jobs to be completed, such as building the interior walls to the bedrooms, and plumbing in the downstairs loo, but we've decided to try and complete the kitchen so that we can feel comfortable and complete in at least one other room besides the bathroom. This involves lots of finicky tasks such as filling, sanding down, tiling, building units and painting. I'll share more photos when it's finished, as there's boredom galore to be had in photos like these two of Kevin using a scrap of copper pipe to make a bench leg support. We have two of these ancient homemade benches that we found tucked under the old kitchen table when we arrived. They were not always to be trusted when sitting, the legs often conspiring to both twerk the same way at once and tip you off. No more!
As an antidote to nail-breaking, skin-tearing, lung-polluting, face-creasing renovating, I've started to attend something quite unexpected! And, oh my goodness, the bliss of The Sewing Club!
The Sewing Club is not called The Sewing Club. I don't know what it's called. It consists of several rather gorgeous, intelligent, funny women, all keen to come together for a chat, a cuppa and, sometimes, a little sewing. This week, our Queen Bee (Em) had organised a 'key skills' workshop, so we all worked through two major tasks together: inserting a zip and applying facing. Such are my sewing skills, that this might as well have been splitting the atom and mastering Danish. But I did it! Badly, of course, but the mission was accomplished, nonetheless. I was in control of a sewing machine! And I liked it.
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| I took along my Allotment Month by Month book in case I had time to check up on February. I didn't. |
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| The slit is made. |
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| When sewing, the iron and ironing board come into play more than you'd expect. (I haven't even found my iron amongst the items in the boxes in the top barn yet. I am not a domestic goddess.) |
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| Em shows the way... |
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| The zip works! |
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| The back of the 'facing'. Yes, that is a pretty fabric to use on the inside of a garment. |
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| Modelling the creation. |
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| Snipping in before over-stitching |
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| My 'display' of my works. Can you see where my over-stitching went a little awry? Sewing machines are not as simple to keep calm as you might think. I had to unpick my first attempt as I forgot to put the 'foot' down and it was an unruly higgled-pig of threads. |
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