I’ve tried writing a Debbie about seven times between now and when I got home on Sunday. I haven’t managed it.

Mostly because I haven’t felt very well. While I was away I had a bit of a relapse. My teeth and nose started hurting again and I have been very tired. I tried to soldier through, I only went to the doctor’s on Thursday. She prescribed more antibiotics, this makes seven courses this year. I have more codeine since nothing else seems to touch my teeth. I’ve got to get a dentist appointment just in case it is something to do with my teeth. I also got a referral to an ENT on the NHS since it’s getting to the point that I cannot afford to keep paying privately.

The referral should list several area hospitals and their waiting times so I expect to pick and see someone hopefully within six months, meanwhile I’ll keep seeing the private one. All of this started December 20th, 2006 so those of you keeping track, it’s been nearly eight months.

France was okay, overall I’ve rated it 7/10.

The Drive
Horatio and his Dad arrived at 11 and I got home from the hair dressers at 10 past. We loaded my bike, I kissed my wife and off we went. The bike rack was grumpy and kept jumping off so we had to stop twice to fit it. When we got to Dover there was confusion over the number of roundabouts and which one we were to take a right at, so we got stuck in some minor traffic and got there 25 minutes before departure [they recommend 30 minutes - we have been refused entry for being one minute late before]. Thankfully there were about six other cars in the queue with us. We got through, but put on stand by. Those of you who fly know this term, you’re not guaranteed a place, but if there is one you’ll get it. So we queued up and they loaded all the other cars. We were sixth in the standby queue of ten. They radioed over that there was room for six, we were hopeful. They let the first five go through. Then they radioed some more and decided the bikes on the back of our car meant we wouldn’t fit. So they let the car behind us go.

We drove over to the Channel Tunnel and went to France on the train. Driving onto the train then riding with a sense of moving in a not moving car was a very neat experience. Unfortunately, the Channel Tunnel comes out in France much further to the east that the ferry port. So we ended up having a very very long drive. We didn’t get to the hotel until 1:30am. We were all shattered. The next day we went to the château and I had to avoid cars for a day or two after that.

Kittens
The first morning at the château after breakfast Horatio and I went for a walk. It is a very rural part of France so getting to the next house along took us 10 minutes at a leisurely pace. When we rounded the corner there was a kitten under a tree, we went to say hello. During our approach another one showed up, then another, then another, and another until there were eight. We played for a little while then continued with our walk. They decided to follow us down the middle of the road. A car came along so we moved to the side of the road, the kittens didn’t. I stopped the driver and tried to get the kittens to move and they wouldn’t, so he crept forward and thankfully they moved and none of them got hurt. We decided that we couldn’t keep going with all these kittens so we headed back thinking they’d stop at their farm. They didn’t. The followed us back to the château. Their Mama even joined us, so we had nine cats following. We tried running the last little bit and hiding in our house, but it didn’t work. They went into one of the other houses and we had to lure them out with milk. We had three other people helping by this point. Once we got them all in the same place, we put them in a large basket. They kept jumping out, so we put a grill on top. Once they were in the basket, we put them in a car and drove them back to the farm. We didn’t walk that way after that so we didn’t see them again.

The Baby
Horatio’s step-brother and his fiancée have a two-year-old little girl. She’s unbearably cute and so sweet. We went out to dinner one night and we’re all talking and I guess she was feeling ignored or something because she randomly leant forward putting a hand on her lower back and said ‘oh me back’ in her Northern England accent. It was so funny I cannot even relate. So after that every time Horatio and I saw her we’d get her to say it. Hilarious. We tried to get her to say ‘long cat is long’ but it was harder, so she just said long cat and repeated long over and over again. She was an excellent source of entertainment.

The Bike Rides
The first one we went on was excellent, I was still in pretty good health and it was just me and Horatio so we made good time and explored all sorts of place. We took what turned out to be a monstrous hill into Brix. Overall, we went up 300 meters worth of hills. It was a lot of fun and if memory serves we went about 20 miles in two hours.

The Cakes
There were 30-40 people staying in the three buildings that make up the château. One of the boys, Chris hung out with Horatio and I sometimes*. We spent one memorable afternoon making delicious sponge cakes. I’ll post pictures later, but I made a chocolate one and he made a lovely strawberry and cream one. They turned out perfectly and everyone really liked them.

* Notably when we watched Die Hard I, II & III and Rush Hour I & II. I enjoyed all of them, I’m please to finally know what all the fuss about Die Hard was. I expect I’ll need to see 4.0 some time and Rush Hour III now that it is out.

I got a new cycle computer, water bottle holder and water bottle. I have a lovely Sigg water bottle that can hold a litre, I take it to the gym and everywhere with me. The problem is that it doesn’t fit in my little bag, so if I just want my wallet and keys to go into town I would have trouble fitting my big bottle, the little 600ml fits perfectly.

We ate a lot of cheese and bread, I’m all cheese and breaded out. Same with salad. In France, being vegetarian means that you only eat salad. Finding non-salad vegetarian food is a challenge.

It was wonderful being with Horatio for so many days. Would have preferred more alone time though. I’ll have more stories I’m sure and I’ll also post photos, but it’ll all have to wait for another day.

I’m sorry that this is so disjointed, I’m really very tired, any time I stay still for long enough I fall asleep. Plus I sort of overdid it yesterday [Simpsons Movie, long walk to pharmacy and to get paving stones] and today [setting up garden umbrella now that we have paving stones to hold it down, two loads of laundry and not eating properly because food doesn't sound good].