Today we packed all our gear and left the North of Icleand on a small airplane to go south and spend two nights in Rekjavik. After take off Joan was able to take some pics out of the window of the snow capped mountains we were leaving behind, this was to be our last view of the beautiful North and Steini assured us that next time we came in the summer the snow would not be present.

We arrived in Rekjavik and at our city centre hotel in the early afternoon and after depositing our cases went fo a walk downtown, so to speak. We both very rapidly came to the conclusion that we much prefered the North with it's clear air and outstanding beauty.

There were many brochures available in and around the hotel which indicated that maybe outside of town there were things to see such as The Blue Lagoon and a Geyser area but time was not on our side to do this in just over one day. Maybe next visit.

This evening we discovered an Angus Steakhouse restaurant and these are franchise style operations that we have used in Holland, so seemed a good place to eat maybe. A quick look at the menu showed that Steaks here could cost as much as £70.00 each so we decided to give this a miss.

We walked further down the high street and spotted a super restaurant were we had a prawn starter, two excellent main meals and a bottle of wine, followed by coffee, for not much more than the original offer of a steak. Excellent meal and lovely service.

JULY 2nd.

During this day we spent some more time in and around Rekjavik itself and quickly discovered that we would need to join in one of the out of town tourist visits if we wanted to see more than just shops full of tourist tat. We were lucky that the weather was being kind so we were able to have a leisurely lunch, sitting outside and watching the world go by. In fact we had been so busy for the last two weeks that it was lovely to just relax.

The International airport for Rekjavik is in fact in a town about 1 hour outside called Keflavik. it is in fact on an old American airbase and Steini had organised for us to stay in a small hotel belonging to a friend of them both. We got the local bus to this town were we were collected and shown to a very comfy room in a building which this very shrewd guy had bought when the Americans left, probably for a very good price, and he now offers overnight stays with breakfast for a very reasonible price and a free bus to the terminal only 7 minutes away.

Also on this old base there is another building vacated by the Americans, where another Icelander has set up a family style restaurant within walking distance. A logical place to spend some of our evening and then a reasonably early start because we needed to be at the airport by 0730 a.m.

JULY 3rd.

We arrived at Gatwick just before midday so checked in at the airport hotel and then got the Gatwick Express in to London Victoria. One of the things that we miss about not being in UK is the opportunity to go to one of the London theatres, something we used to do quite often when we lived on the south coast. We had booked in advance to see Thriller, the Michael Jackson show. Not our first choice but we discovered that there are few shows on Sunday evenings. We had time to go in to China Town and get a really good meal, for us a nice choice as we did not get good Chinese food in Cyprus and around the Dordogne there doesn't seem to be many of these style restaurants either.

After dinner we went to The Lyric theatre and in fact enjoyed a really lively show based around Michael Jackson's music. If you like his music then we would seriously reccomend that you go to this one. A very enjoyable day after our holiday.

JULY 4th.

One of the reasons for having a few days in London, was so that Joan could do some shopping in and around Oxford Streeet. She was in fact very kind to our credit card as there was not much she really liked, prompted of course by me reminding her about our weight restrictions.

We both enjoyed a good day out as the sun was kind enough to let us sit outside for a bacon panini and coffee breakfast and for a couple of breaks during the day sitting outside pubs.

Late afternoon we wnet back to our original Italian breakfast restaurant as they had given us special discount coupon, sometimes it pays to be chatty to the waitress, so we managed to get a discount of over £10.00 on our superb evening meal, before getting the express back to the airport again.

JULY 5th.

Our flight out was not until 6 p.m. so we had arranged with our friend Bob, for him to collect us at the hotel and enjoy lunch with us. Nice to see him again and he dropped us off at the terminal later in time for our flight. So we eventually got home here about 11.p.m. local time.

We were both tired after a very busy two weeks but have thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

JULY 10th.

Wow, a busy few days again. Last Wednesday Anne arrived from Cyprus for a few days visit. Joan was very keen to show her where we now lived and something of our lifestyle here.

On the Thursday Joan took Anne to Eymet to get her first view of a typical French market and of course the beauty of a special historic market town. Later in the day we all three went back down to see Barbara. Anne got a chance to see the home they have bought, but Stewart has gone off to UK with Steve and will be driving back in a week or so with a car and trailer full of insulation material for their bungalow.

On Friday we took Anne to Duras and had a viewing of the restored chateau there. This building is originally 12th century with of course add ons over the years. It had in fact fallen into severe decay until taken over by the residents of Duras in 1957 and with considerable effort has been restored to its current condition.

One of the most impressive things about this chateau is the views that can be seen from the tower area.

Before going to Duras we had been to Scheyes a village not far from us and treated Anne to what we like to think is a French lunch. Four courses and all the wine you can drink for only 12,5 euros. Lovely.

Saturday was kind to us weather wise so we were able to go to visit the old town area of Bergerac followed by a visit to our favourite shop here, Grande Frais, so that Anne could buy some of the cheeses she had enjoyed with us.

In the evening we had booked a table for 5 at Famille Moutier were we were joined by Phill and Shelagh our part time neighbours here in Les Goudard. Some may recall that we went to this restaurant with Margaret and Norman. They have a standard menu , which is duck, duck and duck although you can have lamb as a choice for the main course this is all followed by a 15 cheese board and a sweet course which is a real speciality. One of the features of this meal is that with every course there is a different bottle of wine and with the coffee a choice of liquors. Anne says that this was a gastronomic experience that she will remember for many a day and will be telling everybody over the next few weeks.

Sunday was her last day, as she is flying to Southampton at around 6 p.m. this evening, to stay with her son and his family for a few days. The weather looked a little black this morning but we took a chance and visited Isegeac tourist market and got away with it, even to the extent that we were able to sit out on a terrace for coffee. We took the easy way out today and bought a spit roast chicken from the guy on the market and were able to have an afternoon dinner before going to the airport.

It appears that Anne enjoyed her short time with us and promises to come back.

JULY 20th.

If anybody is wondering what happened to this site, then here is the reason why.

On 12th I took Joan into the hospital in Marmande for her knee operation, she had to be there by 10 a.m. having had two showers with a special antiseptic shower gel before we went, this after the same proceedure before going to bed last night. She had to remove all jewellery, cut her nails short and even take out her teeth if it applied. They for sure make sure that ever body turns up well scrubbed, thought for the NHS?

I left her in her private room with a nurse and she eventually was operated on at around 1 o'clock. I came back at 5 o'clock, as that was the orders received, but she was still a bit sleepy as she had had a general anaethestic. We then waited for the surgeon to do his rounds and discovered that what they had done was to put a tiny camera in on one side of her knee and the through a keyhole on the other side remove all the bits and pieces, which turned out to be bits of cartilage which has partially disintegrated in there. Dr Dupart hopes that this wash out will cure the problem, but if not the next stage is a sort of synthetic cartilage by injection, so time will tell.

After we got home we discovered another thing about the French medical system, we have to find and arrange a nurse to come every day and give her an injection against thrombosis, redress the wound, take blood every second day to go to the laboratory for testing and eventually remove the stitches. So a few enquiries got us a nurse and a test of our French to get things arranged. Also the nurse dropped off the blood at the laboratory before 6 p.m. and I had to go in to St Foy the next morning to collect the results before the next visit.

Having got all that in motion we then needed to identify a physio and make appointments starting one week after the op. This is in Duras so now we have to go there every two days over the next 4 weeks. Joan has discovered one good thing about this, we seem to get appointments after lunch so we are able to stop in one of our favourite restaurants on the way to have the "Plat du Jour". Saves the current chief cook and bottle washer some work. All of this is very professional even if the methodology is strange and it is all paid for by the system.

So all in all it has been a busy few days, but we have managed to do one thing, book for a 5 day visit to Liverpool at the end of August.

Liverpool is sort of home country for us both and we left there together in 1976 to go to Holland and have not been back since, except of course when we got married in 1980 in Chorley, Joan's home town. We plan to take a good look at what we believe is a completely redeveloped city and then hire a car for a couple of days so that we can go north to Chorley and then over to the Wirral Peninsula which is where my mother lived and I spent most of my early years.

Ryanair have kindly set up a summer service to Liverpool which we can make use of and it also happens to coincide with our wedding anniversary, another good excuse.

JULY 24th.

Things have settled down a bit now. Joan has her last injection tonight and then the last visit from the nurse tomorrow, when he will remove the stitches from her knee.. After that it is physio every Tuesday and Thursday until August 17th, when she sees the specialist again.

Just wish the weather would settle down, we have had rain, rain and more rain every day this last week. The end result of this of course is that the grass and the weeds are growing again, but ti is too wet to go out and cut it. Why does retirement get so difficult? We had also been out and bought some ground cover plants yesterday to put in alongside the driveway, where we have membrane and bark pieces. Hopefully these will give a splash of colour along there in time. Planting takes place between the rain showers.

Joan and I got a nice lunch invitation from Barbara for today. Stewart is still in UK until Tuesday she believes, ferry booking permitting, so I think she fancied some company too because she will not drive out to us alone, which is a shame. Good to have a bit of a laugh together and to talk about Cyprus again sometimes, apart from that the lunch was also super. I took a bottle of the red from our farmer here so we will see what they think of that in time, we like it and at only 2 euros a bottle to us we like the price also.

JULY 29th

Nothing much to report this week as we have to spend time at the physio and be available for the nurse evry evening, but Joan is progressing well and that is what is really important.

We are still struggling to get the final "Carte Vitale" which we should have for claiming back all medical costs. Anybody coming here will realise that beaurocracy is a major stumbling block. For example, Joan had all the final forms arrive for the creation of her Carte Vitale, but they had spelt her name wrong, so we sent the forms back, with a covering letter and after 6 weeks we got a letter saying sorry but could they have her Birth Certificate. Interesting as these have been sent once, in both languages and stamped by the local Marie's office, but nevertheless we sent them agian on 12th July, but have still heard nothing. It seems that they are overworked, understaffed and incapable of finding the original files with the full details in them. Today I resorted to asking Janette, our language teacher, to put on her other admin hat next week and see if she can get some action. As for my "Carte Vitalle", well that's another story, one of deafening silence from the responsible department for the last three months !!!!!!!!!

Finally the weather seems to be improving a little, with a promise of some sunshine over the next few days, so here's hoping for some summer at last.