Sarah's newsletter

Newsletter from Plaigne, December 2005
Yes, time has flown round to that time again! This year, I’m writing this one with my new portable Dell (acted upon the advice of my ‘little’ brother, Simon when I bought Dell-boy). Dell-boy is a very useful friend, for taking to lessons etc. or even when Pritchard folk are queuing up to use the computer downstairs. I’ve set up an office area in our bedroom, where I can work in peace and quiet. If you take a look around on my blog (www.bartonangel.blogspot.com), you will see that I’ve been doing some proofreading and translation work as well as the private English tuition and I’m still at La Loupiote. David has been working with Martin, a friend of ours and doing all sorts of things, including house removals. He is advancing with the petit chateau; the roof and top floor are done and he is working downwards.
As some of you know, it has partly been an annus horribilis. My lovely Daddy passed on in July, after much suffering. David & I had been to England with the girls, to see him and a week after we left, Daddy passed on. The last thing that each of us said to the other, whilst cuddling, was « I love you ». He is comfortable now and no longer suffering, and is one of our guardian angels. According to a poem someone sent me, when our father died, our sun shifted forever and we now walk in his light. My feeling is that it is a warm, golden light.
The year started off with me having a car accident early one cold, frosty morning on the way to GC’s driving lesson. GC had no damage; my knee was damaged, black, blue, green and purple; the Twingo had a bad headache! The man who had pulled out of a side road in front of me, was extremely horrible at the scene of the crime, whoops, accident (to put it nicely) and lied to the insurance people. Apparently, he was driving along the straight road and I just drove into him. Never mind, he’ll get his come-uppance one day and if one of my guardian angels had not whispered in my ear that it is better to get somewhere a bit late rather than not get there at all, (thus making me slow down) the accident could have been much worse. I was very nervous of driving afterwards and am still ‘jittery’ when I seen a car going towards a junction up ahead of me.
R had to have an operation on both of her ears, in May. I will not go into details, but it is an experience that I will not forget. She is terrified of hospitals and doctors and there were some real dramas!
Apart from that we have had a good year and we enjoyed having our guests in the gites this year, regulars and new and hope to have as nice a group of gentle folk this coming year. We enjoyed having our animal guests in the field too. Polly, the pony and Loupio, the donkey were real stars. We also had some other big and beautiful horses and another horse that was taken from the field, but that is a long drama to tell on another occasion. I also have a fluffy cat tail to tell, sorry, tale! Fluffy is a little, tabby kitten who looks very much like a ball of fluff. He was abandoned and took refuge in our garage. We fed him in the garden when he followed B home from the garage. The next day the ball of fluff was in the kitchen, sitting on the shoes and looking at me so sweetly that I made a deal with him that he could stay until I found him a good home. I have. We are going to Liz & Martin’s for dinner on Saturday and Fluffy is coming too. The kids will miss him, but I’ve agreed to take in Jo & Trev’s cats when they move back to England. There is a limit to what one can do for these beautiful little beasts.
Activities: Jn and B still do tennis. They’ve both done well this year and B has become a tennis trainer, for which he took a course and he now works on Wednesdays at the Belpech club. They do tournaments along with David, the vintage player. All the boys worked hard on an organic farm when they were not at school. Jn started at the lycée in Pamiers and has had to be a little less lazy! B is doing the scientific course which involves a lot of hard work. GC did not get the results that he wanted to go to uni, so he is working for a year and going to retake. As he was thinking of taking a year out anyway, he was not too worried about this. He passed his driving test and we hardly ever see the Twingo now, but there are now three taxi drivers in the house, instead of two, which makes a big difference! D & V still do piano and sometimes come singing and ‘drama-ing’ with me. We did the usual end of year dinner and entertainment session, in April which was it’s usual success. We get invited to entertain for different associations and retirement homes etc and even get paid sometimes (the group, that is). I am slowly continuing with the genealogy course, when I can fit it in (usually late at night). I still do Reiki and would like to go on to level two, but have yet to find a nearby Reiki master to attune me. D & V have given up tennis; it’s not their thing! R goes to school all day, doing the journey by bus morning and evening. Apparently, she now talks in class, after spending a whole year without saying anything! At home, her brothers and sisters are always telling her to be quiet, often in no uncertain terms! Isabelle is now walking which is really funny and cute to see as she is still tiny.
Holidaywise, GC did his own thing and went to an apartment and camping on the Med coast with friends. We went to England with the girls and stayed with David’s parents, for which, many thanks. We took the girls camping with the caravan at Argelèse. It was D’s first camping caravanning experience. I had coded all the frame poles to the awning but it still took us a while of head scratching before it was up, but nerves did not get too frayed and once up, we thoroughly enjoyed the holiday and had glorious weather the whole time. Wonderful and so relaxing. The day trip to Barcelona cannot be described as relaxing but it is a beautiful city and is a must for anyone travelling to that area. Everyone came to Bourg St Maurice, in the Alps except GC who was working. It was lovely to see Derek, June, Deb, Nigel and baby Zoe. Thanks to them all for their hospitality.
There were village activities throughout the year, including a trip to the bison farm and the auberge meal there was delicious. Am busy preparing for the Xmas evening here and so must sign off. I have two messages on my portable phone from Daddy which I’ll pass on: Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to you all. XXX