NICE DAY TO TAKE THE SCOOTER OUT

Thought i would give the scooter it's first proper run out today.

Now fully insured and roadworthy.

First stop Quatre Vaux Beach

Pen Guen Golf Course

The road to Port St Jean

St Jean

TOP CHEF

As usual courgettes are coming in thick and fast, so today Al made some piccalilli, something we do every year.

This batch seems particularly good.

Note the two fresh beetroot in the foreground.

It's red hot today so it's going to be a BBQ in the garden with some fresh home grown salad.

SAD DAY

Sadly we are attending a funeral in the village this afternoon.

Ange who was in his early 70's passed away on Wednesday, and the funeral is at 3 this afternoon.

He always came and spoke to us in the bar, and loved our two dogs, which he often joked he would like to take them hunting.

RIP Ange.

ST GERMAIN EQUESTRIAN SHOW

All the hard work of the last few weeks came to fruition last weekend with the St Germain de la Mer Equestrian Show being held at the stables where we work.

About 80 horses and riders turned up for the 2 day event with the sole purpose of destroying our obstacles as quickly as possible.

The above fence was made and painted in just 2 days and was sponsored by us.

Plenty of compliments that the course looked good, so we are justifiably proud.

OOur sponsored fence remained pretty much intact.

The stained natural wood ones were completed a couple of weeks ago.

Yawn! Another horse!

Ben's first real attempt at French resulted in chocolate cake and chips.

The painting team with terrifying buxom bar wench!

All in all a very long and good day out!

THE HARLEY DAVIDSON ARRIVES.

Well, not quite a Harley, but this zips around the country lanes at 50km/h and is very comfortable to ride in this part of France.

APPRENTICE WORKING HARD

A big first week for Ben. We had to get numerous jumps ready for a show in St germain this weekend, and after 3 long days, the 4 of us, with Olivier and Andy, cracked it late Friday afternoon.

Ben has been doing sanding down, painting, and a bit of woodwork designing a fence sponsored by ourselves.

The early morning start at the swimming pool is still happening.

Nothing like putting on a rubber glove at 8am and fishing dead mice out of the filters.

It's not all hard work tho'. We do give him 10 minutes a week off to play with the dogs!

THE APPRENTICE

Not the Alan Sugar version, but our own version.

Ben Lancaster is staying for 3 weeks to help with the painting at the equestrian centre.

Ben is the son of two ex shipmates, Richard "Burt" Lancaster and Jane Shearer who I both served with on HMS Invincible.

Burt came out for a couple of days before heading back, and we now have Ben on slaves wages, climbing up chimneys, and generally learning the trade of a London street kid in the 1840's!