Nous sommes arrivés (2)…

… at last. My timetable is much reduced; I only work on Monday (all day), and just the mornings on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but it has been a long half term. Eight weeks. The students are tired and I am exhausted, although this is probably caused by a function of age and a desire to be elsewhere!

I’m fortunate to teach some absolutely lovely kids. I enjoy interaction with them and their parents and don’t find working stressful in the usual sense. I just find it exhausting. An early bird I try to be at school for as close to 7 as I can manage. The trade off is that I now leave as close to 12.30 as I can manage. However I can’t seem to summon up the energy to do all those things I’d planned to do in the afternoon.

Before you feel too sorry for me I am managing to walk, and to meet and enjoy the company of good friends for lunch on a regular basis. Tim is usually getting his lunch time sandwiches made for him and I’ve watched a few more episodes of Jonny and Jasmine looking for a ‘place in the sun’. But where is the redecoration of the front and back porches I’d planned to do? Why aren’t the wardrobes sorted and cleared? Why doesn’t my garden look ready for winter? Why hasn’t Percy (Tom’s car which is laid up for the duration) been cleaned and covered to protect it from some of the ravages of time? I could go on…

Even thinking about these things makes me tired! The journey out to France, once looked forward to with anticipation, even when we were driving to the Alps, has now become a grind. This time, taking the advice of various friends, we left home at 3am to avoid the traffic jams. We avoided the traffic jams, but encountered closures and diversions. The M6 was closed at J13-12 and then at J6-7, the M25 clockwise had a section closed and then to cap it all the M20 was closed at J1-3. Luckily for us we travelled around the M25 anti-clockwise and this meant we avoided the M20 closure. For once there was only a short delay on the shuttle.

We were towing a trailer so our speed was reduced and our fuel economy almost halved. To cap it all our telepeage transponder stopped working!

No photographs of the journey but by the time we’d unloaded, topped up our energy levels with some tea and cake we were ready to walk the range and enjoy a glorious sunset. With the sunshine on the clouds you could almost think they were mountains in the Alps or the Dolomites. Don’t tell Tim I said this but the photographs fail to do the actual sky justice. It does, however, make one marvel at the workings of the human eye!

Home to hot soup and a quiet evening in front of the box, watching Strictly and X-Factor. Sunday lunch with friends at La Renaissance in St Hippolyte, with our first visit to the Lansyer Museum in Loches – more about this tomorrow.

Home from home and my cup runneth over…