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While the cat's away

My return home has not been an auspicious one.  While I was away a wall had fallen down due to buckets of rain.  The insurance wouldn't pay because it fell down due to rain not wind.  Apparently they would pay if I contacted the French meteorological office and get proof that the wind was blowing at more than 100km an hour at the moment the wall fell down.  Really? Life is too  short and why do I pay insurance for anything when they never pay out.  So I asked my neighbour if he could organise a mason for me.  The wall was rebuilt and I signed away my savings to pay for it.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the back door was the smell and what looked like blood running across the kitchen floor.  As there was not sign of a body and being a reasonably calm person, I looked for another explanation.  Some idiot had unplugged both freezers and the fridge!  Grabbing a garbage bag I emptied the freezers of all its contents, even throwing out sauces, butter and margarine from the fridge.  I doubled bagged it and took it out to the garbage bin.  It is hot and Tuesday and Thursday are bank holidays so it could be another five or six days before the garbage is collected.  I called my neighbour and explained the situation. 

As I opened the front door to let him in I noticed that ants had invaded and had actually constructed an ant hill.  'Tu as une probleme avec les fourmis Suzanne' as he stepped over the hill,  presumably containing a million baby ants.  State the obvious why don't you.  I showed him the blood soaked floor and asked calmly why someone would unplug freezers.  'The mason plugged his equipment in', he said.  'C'est dommage.'  Yes it is a pity, a very costly one.  Why didn't the idiot put the plugs back in?

I unloaded the car, scrubbed the floor, vacuumed the ants and checked my phone.  It was midnight and there was a text from Caroline saying she had booked the tennis court for 10.00am.


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