Autumn in London - Hi Ho Hi Ho

Yes it's off to work I go!

And this rather scary/scared looking pic heralds the new dawn with a new haircut! I wasn't expecting it to be quite so short but, hey, it'll grow soon enough. What is it about being in the hairdresser's chair that makes one feel so devoid of choice or power? I think another centimetre everywhere will be perfect. That should take 2 weeks the rate my barnet sprouts.

I am gainfully employed for a few months working just 14 hours a week for an organisation called Better Bankside a Business Improvement District in Southwark, Borough Market, Tate Modern, Vinopolis, The Globe theatre. Interesting area. It will be fascinating to be an employee again.

In the meantime not much to report from chateau Newman-Legros. Almost crippled myself removing the contents of the loft down two floors to the ground floor and then putting most of it out for the encombrants last week. Of course there was nothing of any real interest to be found except some more original doors which we may just manage to put into use again somewhere. I also managed to put my foot through a little piece of ceiling. Ho-hum.

We cleared out the dépendance on Saturday and put away the, scarcely-used-this-summer, garden furniture. Now we have plans to turn one end of the space into a garden room by replacing both the existing solid doors and the window with, well, I suppose we would call them French windows but, since whatever we buy will be French most likely I mean glazed double doors. Some clear sheeting on the roof and a bit of tidying and Petit Bob c'est ton oncle!

More from London coming soon. May be in Brighton on Saturday - ma foi it's expensive to go 50 miles if you haven't managed to plan way way in advance. Working on it...

Bisous à tous!

Le Marasme

For no particular reason and not because I was feeling especially lacking in sparkle I found myself looking up the French word for doldrums. Now I am not certain if the term le marasme is used in the same way as its English as it appears to have more of a medicinal connection, but it can be used figuratively to describe, for instance, a sluggish economy.



Anyway enough of that. Summer has gone and autumn is here and, apart from a few degrees difference in temperature and the leaves turning glorious shades of gold and red on our maple tree, it has been a seamless transition. I wonder just how many hours less sunshine we have "enoyed" this year and how much extra rain we have seen fall in 2007.



A combination of disappointment with the weather, approaching retirement (still some way off yet within an understandable period of time rather than being too far off to be worried about )and the need for less stairs and more light at home, have led me to checking out the cost of flats in Mallorca. The good news is that they are affordable - just. We have no plans to up sticks and yet that thought is somehow sustaining.



On another front we have almost definitely decided that I should find temporary employment in London. We need some cash to make things happen in the house or else we will be living with zero progress for another year. I also need some motivation and this may just remind me what it is like to achieve and to be recognised for contributing to a team effort.



So, it may not be plain sailing ahead but there is a way out of the doldrums, une sortie du marasme.



Anchors away!