I'm On The Road Again.....

Just a very short post here today, our last - for the foreseeable future, et any rate  - in France.  We will leave for Spain tomorrow morning fairly early. J is on her way from Kent, via the Chunnel, with a decent sized van which will be loaded before the sun gets too hot in the morning.

 After a few weeks of somewhat iffy weather, summer has returned with a vengeance here in Poiteu Charentes. Since I returned from England a few days ago we've had wall-to-wall sunshine, blue skies and ever higher temps:  today it must be about 35 plus degrees.

Sadly, the Gazebo thinggy is dismantled ready to roll, so not comfortable to sit out in the fiercely broiling sun.  When I got back from England I found it in this rather undignified position:

Neighbour, Frank, told me there had been some surprising gusts of wind and, although we had fortunately removed the sidescreens etc., it had blown across the garden where it buckled in on itself, legs akimbo like a drunken Duchess.  The damage is not too bad and another Brit who lives nearby, Brian, came over yesterday and put most of it right. There are a few minor spots where the stitching on the cover has come adrift but I don't think they'll be too much trouble to repair. Hopefully. Cos we will be in need of the damn thing in Spain, that's for sure!

Things are mostly packed, with a few odds and sods still to be stuffed into bags or boxes. But overall I think it is done, with the packing  of the van tomorrow to finish the job. It's about 1300Kms to the house in the village of Mecina Bombaron in the Alpujarra, a long drive. And no doubt a long, dry and hot one, to boot. Jack & Charlie will travel with me in the car. Charlie will hate every minute of it, and I am anxious about him, but I'll keep an eye of the little booger and make sure hes drinking etc., talk to him all the way down etc. They'll both need lots of water and for Jack, at least, doggy rest breaks, too. As indeed will both J and I.  I'm amazed at the number of tracks there are around called:

Still, tomorrow is another day. Maybe this will be/is more apposite in the circumstances:

Oddly enough, this last one/thing always makes me think of the Spitting Image 'Chicken Song', a masterpiece of drunken ne'er do well brilliance. One of the performers/puppeteers was an old friend  of ours at university back in the mid 1970s. 'Tis satisfying to know he made good use of that Philosophy degree.......: