With the cold weather we have had a pretty quiet time for last few days. The oil-fired central heating is working well (although the level in the tank is falling too rapidly for my pocket’s liking!) but this is an old and rather draughty house. Ah well, on goes the jumper. I have done some insulation between the cellar roof / house floors, but we do need more insulation in the attics. We had a company come out to give us a quote – they pump a type of cotton fibre in to a depth of 200mm. €9,000 ! Even allowing that we can reclaim 40% of that against tax next year, that’s quite a lot. I’m looking at other possibilities, as I really don’t want to use fibreglass. Sheep’s wool would be perfect, but I haven’t found a supplier yet. There are a number of websites with classified ads and chat forums so I have asked if anyone knows of a supplier – so I live in hope.

We hope we have finished the Christmas shopping – just a couple of perishables to get. We had a bit of snow last night, and the road outside our house turned into a bit of an ice rink – a couple of cars were abandoned for the night at the bottom of the hill. This morning the tractors are out clearing the roads, but I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere today.

Took our tetanus jabs out of the fridge last night (before the snow) and nipped up to the doctors with them. A quick jab, and we have to have another one in a month. He also wants us to have blood tests – so we have to the laboratory in Objat and get them done. A bit of paperwork to sort out to get some of the money we have spent reimbursed, and we don’t have our Cartes Vitale (health cards) yet, but we are getting there.

Returning to UK on Tuesday – so hope that all the roads have been cleared here and there before then.

A happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Joyeux Noël et une nouvelle année prospère