Our first anniversary

Who'd have thought we'd have lasted a year? It certainly doesn't feel that long at all, but then life does appear to go by more quickly as you get older, doesn't it? I must admit, we were a little apprehensive about moving over here and whilst it hasn't been easy we have enjoyed it immensely.

Achieved this year ...

We read somewhere that it's one thing to holiday somewhere, but quite another to live there, so I think one of the biggest achievements has to have been getting here in the first place. It's really easy to sit and dream about doing something, but quite another to actually get up and do it, especially when it means stepping so far outside of one's comfort zone.

By that, I suppose I mean the language barrier. Apart from Pen practicing French along to Michel Thomas CD's, we didn't have much of the language between us. I was able to ask for things in shops, but my grasp of French did not stretch to understanding the replies I might have got.

Once, I decided to be brave and go and get the bread from the Boulangerie over the road. I practiced like mad in the hundred or so metres between our house and the shop and thought I'd done exceptionally well when I bade the ladies, "Good morning," and requested, "Un pain, s'il vous plait."

Their replies however left me standing there feeling completely lost ... and getting more lost by the second.

Dominique, amid gales of laughter, later described my attempt to Penny with, "... his eyes got bigger and bigger behind his glasses.

Now, I can actually converse to a degree, though not nearly as well as Pen can.

We also managed to get the car through the Controle Technique, registered in France and given its Carte Gris. This was a lot simpler than many on the ex-pat sites led us to believe although there was an element of luck involved, because we got the Certificate of Conformity in English and not French and many have been rejected as a result. Another of those could have cost us a month and another 200€.

Our house has been completely rewired, re-plumbed and we converted one of our bedrooms into two rooms: a bathroom and an office. That was no mean feat I can tell you and took the entire month of September to get through. Still, it's done now, so its one less thing to think about.

The house also benefited from a bit of a makeover with some exterior rendering to repair some holes in the wall. The kitchen and new bathroom got redecorated as did one of the upstairs rooms, the old bathroom - which is now a toilet and washroom - and the downstairs toilet. The hallway got a coat of paint downstairs and the full textured treatment from the first to the top floor, plus, the bathroom floor, first floor hall floor and stairs down to the ground floor have been stripped and waxed. It looks really nice, but now we squeak when we walk up or down them and we can no longer sneak up on the cat when he's somewhere he shouldn't be.

We had hoped to be able to change out some of the windows for double-glazed jobs, but the money wouldn't stretch. Even if we had the money, thanks to a clerical error, we don't have certain very important bits of paperwork to get the planning permission to do it. It's taking an absolute age for them to come back with it, but we're assured it will come. Of course, none of our windows are standard anyway, so apart from about four, each of the other ten windows and the shop door would have to be made to measure and could cost us as much as ten grand in total.

Oh well. Maybe in another lifetime.

We registered ourselves as a BIC Micro-Enterprise, which means we have formed a little company. The red tape is something to behold, but that's the same for everything in France. There's more paperwork than you could shake a forest-full of sticks at, but we now have a petit enterprise and our business, while not great, is growing steadily.

The work we've been getting is very varied. This week we have been feeding some animals at a farm and earlier, we even got to cook for a farmer and his helper. As well as that, we have gardened, mowed and even pressure-washed the outside of a neighbour's house prior to it being repainted. Had we had a ladder, we'd have got that job too, but well ... Okay, me and ladders don't go together very well at all, but I would have made the effort - honest!

In the relatively short time we've been here, we've met more people and had more of a social life than we've had in absolute years. We've been to dinner with our neighbours, voted in the local election for Maire, participated in the Vide Grenier, had some of our neighbours round to dinner, been out and about to various functions and generally had a much better time than we've had in ages.

Whilst what we have achieved may not seem like much, we have to keep reminding ourselves that things don't work the same here as they do in England. The language is different and the way things are done is much, much different too. To begin with, everything seemed so scary and while we're not exactly blase about doing things we haven't done before, we are getting used to it.

I have to admit that Pen does most of that sort of thing, but that's only because she's so much better at this lingo thing than I am. I understand a great deal more than I used to, but conversing is still a bit of a nightmare.

All things considered, it's been the best year of our lives thus far and we're going to do all we can to ensure it continues.

So, here's to the next twelve months ...