Sunday 09th August

Just one day until we head off, and it was quite a packed one. When we were all up and ready we headed into Hesin, did a little shopping and then went to the Hesdin Brocant, like a big car boot sale without the car. We headed over to Maggie and Mikes place where they had opened their courtyard and were selling stuff, Marion was there, and Rosie, Jackie and Tony. So we had a good morning of sitting around in the sun chatting, Sandra and Jim turned up for a bit and several others wandered in and out of the scene. We didn't buy anything but ant and Ian had a couple of drinks and at lunch time we all had a something to eat off the barbie.
We headed home about half two, Maggie had given us some curtains for the house which will be better than the ones up at the moment. On the way home i could sense ant was getting tired so i suggested he get a nap in before the evening, ian and i went to sort out the rabbits, then we headed off in search of an open tabac, a bit of a task on a Sunday. When we got back ant started on the packing, and i sorted out the stuff i was going to take, i got everything i needed into a small bag and ant did the same, it makes it easier when we are heading across London on the tube. Fen and Tally got picked up so that was another thing off the list, and then i started on preparations for the Apero, ant washed down the table outside and ian cleared the garden of doggy gifts.
Just as we finished our preparations Janine arrived, with a bag of tomatoes and a courgette. About half an hour later Marte arrived and we had a lovely evening sitting out eating and chatting and making merry, Ian was quite impressed at our ability to speak the lingo and said he really enjoyed sitting there listening to it. The lady's left at about nine and we stayed out until about eleven, it was a lovely clear night, very starry and a very pleasant evening all in all. We headed off to bed at eleven, i decided the dogs could come in with us as we would not be seeing them again for a while and the richardson-rigg family all headed off to snooze town in one big pile.
Ant woke at seven this morning, monday, to find one of the dogs had very kindly had several accidents all over the carpet, so it was a lovely task for me clearing it up, it's a good job i am not hungover, i will need to vax the rooms upstairs when i get back anyway. Unfortunately this means i am up very early, seven o'clock, and have until one twenty this afternoon to wait until we actually set off into the unknown, so a long morning of finding things to keep me occupied. I am not sure if i will be able to keep the blog up while we are away, i am leaving my lap top at home but i will have ants notebook so who knows, so that may be all till we get back.