{"id":1204,"date":"2011-02-10T21:15:48","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T21:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2011-07-24T15:29:44","modified_gmt":"2011-07-24T14:29:44","slug":"thurs-feb-10th-2011-the-day-of-reckoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/thurs-feb-10th-2011-the-day-of-reckoning\/","title":{"rendered":"Thurs, Feb 10th 2011. The Day of reckoning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I awoke, which is always a good sign.\u00a0 It makes the days so much more predictable.<\/p>\n

Today I sorted out the wheat from the chaff.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never really known what chaff is but I\u2019m willing to guess that it\u2019s the bit of wheat you don\u2019t want.\u00a0\u00a0 So I sorted through everything that hadn\u2019t already been sorted and looked a bit chaffy.\u00a0\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t much left to decide on fortunately, but it was nice to have the time to decide that the metaphorical wheat should be packed in the van, and the metaphorical chaff should be hidden.<\/p>\n

I hid things in the same places that the previous owners had hid things, in the depths of the barn in the darkness that hides the concrete feeding troughs.\u00a0 I found a few things as well while I was hiding things, like a proper coal scuttle of the type my nan used to use.<\/p>\n

At French lunchtime I noticed that I would have a lot of time on my hands.\u00a0 This is unprecedented and shows that I have been paying attention this week because I am ahead of schedule.\u00a0 I had a desire to do the boy scout thing and walk round the campsite as it were.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a perfect time to beat the bounds, walk around the perimeter of my land while the weather was perfect and all the French were busy apertifing or souping or hor derfing or plat du jouring.\u00a0\u00a0 Haha!\u00a0 I had\u00a0 got them at their weakness,\u00a0\u00a0 For me it just a half hour spent ambling round my land without being observed (and thus act weird if I wanted to) but for my neighbours\u00a0 it was stringently lunchtime.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the freedom and the warmth and the light, and probably some intangibles that are too tangible to mention, I wandered round much of the field, which includes my bit although I\u2019ve never been too certain where my bit goes.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s there somewhere and that\u2019s the main thing.\u00a0 I took some pictures.<\/p>\n

I went into town.\u00a0 Went to Louise at the Estate Agent\u2019s and printed off my complaint letter for the council then posted it. Went to the bank to put in 300 euros that I\u2019d taken out when I was cashless.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I seem to have lots of cash in my wallet lately because everyone keeps giving me it.\u00a0 Even after I got home I counted over 700 euros in it.\u00a0 That\u2019s means I\u2019ve been walking around with over 1000 euros in my pocket.\u00a0\u00a0 Even in these non-inflationary times that seems excessive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The house is pretty-much clear now.\u00a0\u00a0 The only things I\u2019ll be leaving forever here are one double-bed with mattress, one single mattress, one calor gas cooker,\u00a0 two chairs, one table, one rug, 4 very large yellow cups, a hand-decorated mirror, two calor gas bottles, a new frying pan, some cake tins, a plant stand, a candle stick,\u00a0 some cuddly toys, and some books.\u00a0\u00a0 And an old rusty van now rebranded as 748 EW 19.\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yes and a couple of barns full of junk \u2013 but that was inherited by me when I took on the ownership of the house, so that is just being passed down the ownership line ad infinitum<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 I guess the most valuable thing I\u2019m leaving is 500 litres of fuel in the oil tank.\u00a0\u00a0 At pump prices that\u2019s about 700 euros worth.\u00a0\u00a0 The thought flittered briefly through me that I should siphon off a few litres \u2013 but that\u2019s taking things a bit far n\u2019est-ce-pas?<\/p>\n

Packing-wise the van is probably three-quarters full.\u00a0 So I decided that the wheelbarrow would be making it through to the next round with me and popped that in the back.\u00a0 I also put in a bit of tree trunk that Ilka & I had found on a canoeing trip on the banks of the Dordogne last year.\u00a0 It has an interesting shape and needs something arty done to it so I\u2019m glad I managed to fit it in.\u00a0\u00a0 After all the effort we\u2019d made paddling down the river with a large bit of tree balancing on our canoe it would have been a tearful moment indeed to have left it behind.<\/p>\n

It was about 3 o\u2019clock and there really wasn\u2019t much left to do.\u00a0\u00a0 I scoured around checking that nothing had been left, and nothing else needed hiding or tidying further.\u00a0\u00a0 In the house I swept and delittered, and even vacuumed the rug and the carpet and the bits in the corners of the rooms that a broom doesn\u2019t reach.<\/p>\n

I took the vacuum cleaner next door to Les Tronches because the girlfriend of their grandson wanted it.\u00a0 I found Madame in the vegetable garden looking a little worn out because she\u2019d been turning the soil, ripping out old leeks, and burning the rubbish.\u00a0\u00a0 Not bad for an eighty year old I suppose.\u00a0 I chatted for a while and then Monsieur Tronche returned from taking the dog for a walk in the car.\u00a0 I chatted for a while and then their daughter-in-law turned up and we chatted some more until it was aperitif time again.<\/p>\n

The day began to run out of my control.\u00a0\u00a0 I was ushered into the kitchen and a very large glass of Pastis was put in front of me.\u00a0 I added some water and drank it with the obligatory mini \u2018Tuc\u2019 biscuits that the French insist on calling cakes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take long for the Pastis to work its magic, and within a few minutes I was talking fluently and passionately about everything.<\/p>\n

Le Professeur<\/em> turned-up on his motor-mower.\u00a0 He was looking for me because he wanted to let me know that he couldn\u2019t get hold of a copy of the book that was a pictorial history of the region.\u00a0 \u00a0He joined us for an aperitif and another large measure was given to me.\u00a0\u00a0 We all chatted convivially and\u00a0 I found out some gossip about some of the other people I\u2019d seen around the neighbourhood but never met.\u00a0\u00a0 The man who walks like Charlie Chaplin and passes the house every night.\u00a0 Why do the dogs always bark at him? Why does he not stop to chat?\u00a0\u00a0 Apparently he\u2019s a bit of a tippler, and he\u2019s prone to sneak into people\u2019s cellars when their out and steal bottles of wine, or drain their casks.\u00a0\u00a0 What a scandal!<\/p>\n

Presently, I found myself drunk.\u00a0 It was now dark outside and Monsieur Tronche junior arrived fresh from the farm.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He was the first one I\u2019d met when I first arrived in the region, and so it seemed apt that he would be the last one to say goodbye.\u00a0\u00a0 I took one small further glass of Pastis to toast him and everyone else in the room.\u00a0 I finished off the Tuc cakes and realised that I really should be getting back home.<\/p>\n

I told them they had been wonderful neighbours and they agreed I had too (probably because I was only here four weeks in a year).\u00a0 I don\u2019t go in for long goodbyes, so I smiled and said something profound which they laughed at.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Time to leave while the going\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

Back at the house I opened a bottle of wine and cooked a lovely pasta dish then sat down to contemplate over everything that had happened that day.\u00a0 As the wine went down I contemplated on other things\u00a0 that had happened here over the last few years.\u00a0\u00a0 As the wine went down further, I had an overwhelming desire to lay on the floor where I found the ceiling spinning quite quickly above me.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I didn\u2019t finish the bottle of wine because I split the last few drops on the rug.\u00a0\u00a0 The only decent rug that was being left for the new owners.\u00a0\u00a0 The red stain formed a perfect question-mark shape, so I didn\u2019t make any effort to clean it.\u00a0\u00a0 At that time of night it looked purposeful.<\/p>\n

The next\u00a0 morning, I got up early, washed-up, packed a few last things, and crept out of the house before daybreak.\u00a0\u00a0 Adieu<\/em> then.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I awoke, which is always a good sign.\u00a0 It makes the days so much more predictable. Today I sorted out the wheat from the chaff.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never really known what chaff is but I\u2019m willing to guess that it\u2019s the bit of wheat you don\u2019t want.\u00a0\u00a0 So I sorted through everything that hadn\u2019t already been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adieu-le-chassaing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1289,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/1289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splunge.co.uk\/richnilk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}