The house is a mess. The contents of the bedroom are sitting in sorry heaps everywhere you look while bits of wardrobe (it fell apart when we moved it) make fetching anything from the garage a bit of a fight.

If you want to open the freezer it means removing a couple of  doors which are leaning on it; if you need more logs there are other bits of wardrobe stacked in front of them; if you have to get at the bottled water it means climbing through the wardrobe frame (which is pretty unsteady) and if you need to get into the car it's rather a squeeze.

And it's going to be like that for ages. We got up before 7 this morning (Saturday) and moved the beds out ready for Pascal. But he didn't turn up. Rang his house - no reply. Rang his mobile;

"No, I'm coming this afternoon. I told CC I had to work for my boss in the morning."

All CC had understood was the Saturday part. SCREAMMMM!

Today is, thankfully, rather peaceful. It's a jour de ferié (Bank Holiday) so I felt justified in having a grasse matinée and didn't stir till 8.30. The cats are getting used to the hour change and also seem to have got the message that going out into the cold morning air is less appealing than staying in till after I've given them their breakfast, so I didn't have anyone eating my hair or prodding me on the nose to wake me up.

Bear has been virtually immobile because of his backache so I made an appointment with an osteopath in town. I telephoned on Monday to ask if he'd see if he could do anything.

"Can he wait till tomorrow at 18.15?" was the response. Can you imagine getting in that quickly in England?

Unfortunately there were complications. The car has been losing power for some time and Jay and CC needed to visit friends in London this week. We left it at our local garage on Friday but when we went to collect it they said the boss was moving house and so hadn't looked at it.

We made arrangements to take it in on Monday, but, once again, they made excuses - 'the boss has family problems. He won't be able to look at it till next week, sorry.'

So Tuesday, I asked our friends if they knew of a garage that would look at the car immediately and, at least give an opinion as to whether or not it would make the journey.

Michel, (aged 80 and just a week after his cataract operation) came with us to the Peugeot garage which has a 'rapide' department and they sorted it out - it was the 'bobine d'allumage' (coil) - just in time for us to make it to the osteopath appointment by the skin of our teeth.

Dr. J tried a gentle manipulation but said he dare not do any real osteopathy. Instead he prescribed some anti-inflammatory  injections. He assured us that the week's dose would not cause too much havoc with Bear's diabetes and slight renal 'insuffisance' but I know our usual GP would have thrown up her hands in horror. I also know that she wouldn't have done a damn thing for his pain either.

Anyway, after the first jab last night he slept well  (apart from my snoring) and seems a little more comfortable today.

He's fast alseep in his armchair, Whale is dozing in bed and the children are in London so I'm going to ignore the chaos around me and catch up on reading my favourite blogs.