Really??? 12 months??? Where did a year go?

Last year at this time, we were quite literally saving the house of our friend Polly up in Normandy from burning down after an electrical fault in her freezer out in the storeroom set the garage and storeroom ablaze. Mark and I were very happy that we happened to be housesitting for her whilst she was in the UK for Christmas week with her two darling girls.

She mentioned us this week in a post on her own website — “From The Ashes Of Last Christmas — One Year On!”

What Polly didn’t remember was that I always sleep with earplugs, but I had felt uneasy all afternoon and evening. As I was headed off to sleep, and Mark was already soundly asleep beside me, something told me to pull my earplugs out and listen. I did and I heard a “Bang-bang-boom!” sound. Thinking someone was breaking into one of the gites, I awakened Mark — and then Polly has told you the rest of the story including the fact that Mark stumbled into electric fences as he raced next door to the neighbouring farm.

And what was the sound that I heard? It was the racks of chutneys and wine and champagne in Polly’s storeroom exploding!

The firemen — pompiers — arrived quickly and came from several towns all around. They were brilliantly efficient and they stayed until the wee hours of the morning to make certain that every last spark was out.
 

Firemen on the job in France

So here we are, 12 months later, and dreadful insurance ‘surprises’ notwithstanding, Polly’s project is well and truly under way and she’s bound to have a wonderful new garage, storage room, and loft back in working order by this time next year.

Merry Christmas to you and the girls, Polly!

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