Well, the quietness continues. The good thing is that I make a lunch special and it lasts several days - but I have to be on my toes for The Bankers - our bankers as it happens. They come for lunch about twice a week, so I have to be ready with an alternative if they come on a day where they've already had the days dish.

Tonight was a bit of a downer, we had an elderly couple who are English and who have lived in Vernet for 18 years. They have been several times with friends and with family. Tonight they thought they'd try the pierrade, but it was evident they didn't enjoy it. The Lady didn't eat anything, it seemed. I know that everything was as it should be, they just should have let me do the cooking. Dave did all the right stuff - asked them what was wrong, offered something else etc, so in the end we didn't charge it. They have booked for Xmas lunch so I hope that they are reassured then. Both Dave and I are a bit depressed that they weren't taken with the meal, but I guess we can be confident that we did all we could to put it right. I shall 'surprise and delight' them at Xmas.

The man from the repair shop phoned today about the plaque induction. He wanted to know who had fitted it....! He said that the modifications that had been done didn't conform to the standards, and that we shouldn't let the same people fit it again. He will repair it under guarantee this time, but will not if it is tampered with again. Fair enough! However, he didn't confirm that the 'Hullogans' had caused the problem - just were responsible for another one. So he is rewiring it for single phase again and we shall just wire it into one phase. We can do that now that we know that there is capacity on each phase.

 The tables.......! Unbelievable. We dismantled the borrowed ones, piled them into the car, took them back, picked up our new ones, started putting them up.......different table top! It is true that we may not have noticed had we not already got the 4 seater ones, but they are different in colour, finish and thickness. So in just about every way, really. They are cheap and nasty and don't even match the legs - which are the proper legs. Here are the pics that we sent to the shop:

To cut a long story short - I am FUMING - we are not the only ones to have noticed the problem, so we took them all back again today and collected the borrowed ones again, and are waiting for news. Honestly, it is such a waste of our time, petrol etc. Grrrrr. As you can see, when we pushed two tables together - to make a table of 6 for example - the two tables were different heights as the tops are cheap nasty thin ones.

So not a lot of good news this week, but we are warm in the face of a extreme chilliness outside, and our elec bill was two thirds what I thought it would be! Crank up the heating!