Loire Atlantique – home sweet home

Whenever I fly back to the UK and then return to Rennes airport, I have this overwhelming urge to kiss the tarmac. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the land of my birth but hate what it’s become. I stay with a dear friend in Bognor Regis twice a year and also visit my mother who is now living in a home just outside Chichester. It never ceases to amaze me how long it takes to actually get to Chi on the A259 which no longer seems to have a rush hour, only continuous traffic jams. How that road and its users will cope with the avalanche of new houses being built on the outskirts of Bognor, God only knows. It will be grim and no-one apart from the builders and future occupants is looking forward to their completion.

On a personal note, I had a pretty grim time of it as well as I had a trapped nerve on my left side which got progressively worse until I was forced to go to a osteopathy clinic in Oving, not the easiest place to get to without a car – in fact impossible. Luckily Some very good friends gave me a lift initially and after a couple of sessions I could say I was almost pain free. Unfortunately luck was not on my side as on my return by bus from visiting my mother, the car in front of us swerved into the ditch forcing the bus driver to make an emergency stop. It was a very controlled stop and no one on the bus was injured or even shaken (or so I thought at the time). However, the next morning I tried to get up and suffered dreadful pain shooting down the outside of my left leg which was also very weak. Back to the clinic and surprise, surprise – the jolt the bus had given me had been enough to cause the muscles higher up my spine to spasm and trap another nerve. Oh joy! So instead of being 100% by now, I’m almost back where I started, the only positive thing being that it would have been so much worse had all this happened in spring when the garden is so demanding. At least I can take things easy now and hope my back won’t take long to heal. After all, I’ve only got to plant my broad beans, garlic, daff & tulip bulbs, turn the compost heap and cover it, bring the outdoor furniture under cover, prune the soft fruit bushes, etc etc…..

Anyway, I am very happy to be back and still have to pinch myself occasionally in case living my dream is nothing else but just that – a dream. It’s not all a bed of roses and reality does impose itself on me – apart from my back, my car has given up the ghost (only 5 years after paying 400€ for it), the dryer also needs to be replaced and I want to replace a washing machine and fridge, ho hum shame it wasn’t me picking up that Euro millions cheque for 45,000,000€ this week. But I can still dream …..