…Epictetus
This quote is one of many in a notebook a good friend gave me entitled “I like making lists, and this is where I keep them”. She knows me very well.
This year – 2020 – this quote is poignant and of course extremely relevant to us all. I have decided to document all we have achieved personally during this difficult year, continuing our decision to look for the silver lining every day.
When I say “we” I primarily refer to myself and my husband, but various members of our families also have achievements despite of, or because of, the global events of this year.
Our biggest – and life changing – achievement has been to decide to become French residents without waiting for my ever-elusive retirement date. The decision was easy in the end – we had already bought our dream house in the Dordogne, and with everything up in the air workwise we figured it would be impossible to compare our tax situation with the UK, which was the scarer put on us when we first “moved to France” in 2016.
Since then we fudged the issue while renting in the Gard and travelling all over Europe for business. This year modus operandi was just not possible, so it was time to commit – or not.
The sting in this tale (!) is that, even knowing already that French administration is not easy to negotiate, we are still finding the paperwork exercise, well, exercising…. I have had a couple of meltdowns about it, and I suspect there may be one or two more on the horizon, but then B reminds me to walk away from it all and look at our view, and remind myself why.
I succeeded – the paperwork is not yet over but we are French residents as of early July 2020 and can prove it!
Today – the last day of 2020 – we took a tour around our house, and a virtual tour around the garden/land as it was raining constantly (but sun yesterday, and due back tomorrow, so hey). The aim was to write down everything we have done to improve our already dream home. Most of this was done in 2020 (and by B!) as for the first 6 months of ownership in 2019 we spent much of the time in Dorset selling the Old Forge, moving stuff into storage, and later buying our Dorchester town centre flat, and moving all the stuff again!
We arrived back in the Dordogne on 8th January and luckily fitted in a couple of ski trips before the virus emerged. We have not left France since early March when the first lockdown was imposed.
I will not list everything we wrote down today – its our personal achievement to celebrate this evening and somewhat boring to anyone who has not seen Petite Tour. But the biggies are:
Enclosing a third of our lower terrace to make a studio / office space for me
Enclosing a quarter of our basement to make a man cave / games room for B
Having a hardstanding built for Horatio
Installing a jacuzzi in the middle section of the lower terrace
Adding a shower enclosure to the main bathroom
Adding a loo to the basement
Installing a remote controlled motor for our garage door
Re-tiling the entire upper terrace ourselves after the tiler turned out to be useless
Starting the construction of a front porch (stalled waiting for door and window)
Selling the Saab for parts and buying a Fiat 500C (Hugo) – the perfect runabout
Most of the rest are smaller refinements like installing flyscreens, decorating various rooms, moving electrics around – stuff like that.
In our family there have been different achievements:
My brother sold his house in London by remote control while living in our flat, and latterly exchanged contracts on a house in Devon which includes income from an office below, and a studio/gallery room where he plans to start a new business.
Number One son bought a chiller van and started delivering his line-caught bass direct to private customers when the bottom fell out of wholesaling.
Number Two son got his work contract confirmed following his probationary period.
Number Three son graduated from his media based degree in South Carolina, returned to Dorset and was taken on by Dorchester Football club as a Wing Back and to manage the under-23 squad. Soon after that he got an internship at the same place where his brother works and is now gainfully employed.
Brilliant! Well done all of you 🙂
Of course, we have also been lucky enough to get away in Horatio for a couple of short trips too this year, which we realise has not been an option for most people. The motorhome allowed us to stay distanced and in our own personal bubble. It was great to get a change of scenery and break from my work and the never-ending list of jobs!
And there have been moments with our neighbours – the Corbishley family have been our “bubble” allowing us some moments away from Petite Tour with someone else to talk to! We have shopped for each other, and our next door neighbours the Lemarchands, given each other cakes and produce, chatted in the road to Sophie & Jenny and Jean-Pierre & Yvonne, and realised we are lucky we are to have such lovely people in our little community of Pech Pinet.
And finally, there are the little things, mostly nature notes, which bring smiles to our faces every day – squirrel highway, new and old visitors to the bird table and flower beds, the changing of the seasons as reflected in the trees, bushes and flowers around us, the way our view changes throughout the day, our stunning pine trees waving in the breeze, Nemo the garden cat and all his antics (well not all, some are annoying, but that’s cats for you!), the buzzards, bats and owls, a hug, liking a new recipe I tried to make a change, …. I could go on (and on) but you get the picture.
So, as we await the start of 2021, with more jobs added to our list (!) most of all we hope that our family and friends continue to stay healthy and happy until we can all be together again……