Aspirations

I forgot to mention last time that I was going to France for a month to look for a house, although I did talk about it on Facebook.
Well, I’ve been and I’m back.
The search did not start well.
I’d booked and paid for two weeks in a rural place in the area where I thought I wanted the house to be, on the edge of the Cevennes. This is a beautiful mountainous region, but I soon realised that it was really much too far north.
The place I’d booked turned out to be a lot more rural than I’d bargained for. It was hidden in the middle of a forest, with no service to my phone, and no internet. And to top it all, I arrived at night, in pelting rain, at the beginning of an incredible thunderstorm which immediately knocked out the power and lasted three days.
Virtually immobilised I felt pretty stupid, until I woke up to the fact that there are millions of over-stressed office workers who would like nothing more than to be totally cut off from the world with nothing better to do than eat, drink and sleep.
Well, the clouds lifted, my friends Angel and Teresa arrived to keep me company, we drove all over the place together, and eventually I did find the house I wanted.
It’s in a lovely village called Aspiran, which has a suitably inspiring sound to it. Of course you might be more inclined to go to Aspirin, but I don’t think it’s guaranteed to be a headache-free zone.
Anyway, the house is big enough for all the great plans I have for it, and in the garage there’s a WC in a vertical box that they say also functions as a Tardis for Dr. Who.
Buying the house is not without its problems, but more of that later. For the moment, Ta-Da:

I promised you more inventions, so here’s another one. Office workers, I’m told, should get up and walk around every two hours, so this is a cushion that vibrates every two hours with enough of a kick to thrust them to their feet. I’m expecting a McArthur Genius grant at any moment.

Cheers.