Busy busy

My apologies to those who asked for photos of the Christmas lights. I failed! I have to wait until dark to take photos but as it gets dark I have the chickens, ducks and geese to get to bed, dinner to start and the dogs to walk. Once back from our walk dinner is ready. Once dinner is eaten and cleared I have no enthusiasm for turning out. I usually settle down with some crochet or knitting for a couple of hours before going to bed! Sorry! The village is now back to normal!
This last week I have successfully opened a French bank account! This involved me taking my passport and €20 to a designated tabac ( a newsagent with coffee shop). I had to ask the owner for a compte nickel....he took my money then took a pack from the shelf. There was a computer with scanner in the shop for opening this account. It was all done in French and I had to text a code then input the code that was sent back. My passport was scanned in and after filling in more details
I was given a printout. I had to take this and my card to a cash dispenser, text another code then put that into the cash dispenser and voila my account was sorted. The next day I received a letter with a code to set up online banking. It needed another text and code and I now have un compte Francais! I now have to set up transferring my pension into euros and putting it into my account. All is in place to go tomorrow!
My second success was coping with a telephone call. Hubby is buying a car and had emailed a French man. He called to arrange when we would go to see it! I dealt with it, confirmed next Sunday and asked him to email hubby with the details. All sorted!
It makes such a difference to living here when you can manage the language. I am far from fluent but can now understand and make myself understood. It has only taken six years!
The rain has been relentless! I need to put guttering on Cluckingham palace as the water runs off the roof and creates a mud bath outside the door. So today I have dug out the mud and made a pathway of broken clay tiles. It will eventually sink down but I can top it up as needed. It meant I could bring the feed sacks down on the trolley and get them into the barn where it is stored. The guttering will have to wait as there is so much else to do.
Tomorrow we go to see our notaire to sort out the Capitol gains tax we have to pay on our house we sold in England. Not happy about this but has to be done!