Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Susie’s stepdaughter Tiffany and her partner Amir. Although it was only for three days, we managed to wine and dine them at three of our favourite haunts and showed them Lassay Les Chateaux and Vitre.

They flew back to London City from Rennes. It seemed they’d no sooner got here than they left. But we enjoyed seeing them and for me, meeting them for the first time, which felt a little like meeting the in-laws.

So for the rest of the week I got on with painting and completing the lounge ceiling, while Susie poured through websites choosing the WC, bidet and washbasin for the downstairs bathroom. I needn’t really add that they are not ‘bog standard’…which is a terrible pun but regular readers should be used to that.

Susie had ordered two sample pots of emulsion to test on the lounge walls. After checking that ‘Slipper Satin’ and ‘Stoney Ground’ met her approval, I used the two 100ml pots to paint two coats on the internal hall door. I’m noted for my parsimony with paint..

We are currently hosting a couple of Polish helpxers, Jaroslaw and Iwona who arrived yesterday. They’ve already made friends with the dogs and cats and this morning worked hard on clearing out half of the room designated for the downstairs bathroom. At this rate there’ll be nothing for them to do next week…