17 Aug 2015
by Carole Gardiner
in Uncategorized
Tags: guest house, holiday, La Bourge, limoges, tea shop, Time for Tea, travel, Workaway
I procrastinated so much about whether to do the Workaway holiday. As with many new experiences I didn’t know what to expect and even right up to when I boarded the plane I wondered if I was doing the right thing. But as soon as I landed in Limoges I knew I made the right decision and couldn’t wait to start my adventure.
I had the most amazing host in Susie, she is funny, witty and very kind. She had many funny stories to tell about her adventures in Morocco and in France and kept us laughing well into the night.
I met lots of new friends including my fellow Workawayers Karet and Karla, a lovely family from Australia and a couple who ran a cattery in the middle of nowhere. Also met lots of lovely customers in the tea shop and guest house.
Compared with my usual nursing career the work can hardly be described as taxing, there was plenty of opportunity to sit and relax in the sun and explore the local area.
I will definitely do it again, it’s a fantastic way to meet new people, have a cheap holiday and experience something new.
17 Aug 2015
by Carole Gardiner
in Uncategorized
Tags: France, Gueret, La Souterraine, lake swimming, travel, Workaway
Or……. to swim or not to swim for the non French speakers.
While I was on my Workaway adventure the weather was glorious and very very hot, which was lovely but I was at least 2 hours from the coast. My only option for cooling off was lake swimming.
I’ve always been nervous about swimming in lakes since I watched a programme as a child when someone got caught up in a load of reeds and drowned. Also nasties such as eels and leeches lurk in lakes ready to feast on unsuspecting bathers.
So I wasn’t that enthusiastic when Susie, my host, suggested a dip in a lake in La Souterraine, the next nearest town, but I was so hot and bothered I was prepared to be brave and give it a go.
I needn’t have worried, the lake at La Plage Suisse was man-made with sand on the bottom and not a bit of vegetation or creepy swimming things. The experience was so enjoyable that we went back quite a few times and even branched out further afield.
In nearby Gueret there is another artificial lake called Courtille Lake, which is considerably bigger than the lake at La Souterraine. There was a lot more going on such as sailing, giant water floats, canoeing and other water based fun! The grounds around the lake are perfect for walking, cycling and running. This, however, was much more than I was prepared to do in the sweltering heat and I spent the afternoon dozing under a tree!
14 Aug 2015
by Carole Gardiner
in Uncategorized
Tags: bed and breakfast, France, La Bourge, Le Grand Bourg, travel
Susie decided to turn the main house into a bed and breakfast after she bought the smaller property next to the tea shop. She named the house La Bourge which in French means a lady who has to dress with everything matching; shoes, hat, bag and hat!
It’s a beautiful, traditional french house with 3 very tastefully decorated guest rooms and an attic converted into a studio that sleeps 4 people. While I was there only the guest rooms were being used and we had a steady stream of guests. They were mainly French couples and families travelling from the north to the south for their holidays and breaking their journeys in the village. Although we did have a lovely couple from South Africa who were touring Europe.
The main job in the guest house was serving breakfast and then cleaning, changing the beds and getting ready for the next visitors. At one point I considered changing my name to Widow Twanky as I washed and dried so much bedding!
Anyone visiting La Bourge is guaranteed a very warm welcome and great hospitality in a gorgeous house by a fabulous host.
Have a look at the website: http://www.chezlabourge.com, and if you are lucky enough to stay there check out the beautiful tiling on the ground floors.
14 Aug 2015
by Carole Gardiner
in Uncategorized
Tags: 1950's, cake, Le Grand Bourg, Paul Hollywood, Salon de the, tea, Time for Tea, travel, vintage
The little tea shop in Le Grand Bourg I worked in is called Time for Tea, it is sandwiched between the guest house and Susie’s house. It is decked out in 1950’s vintage splendor from the cabinets to the Formica tables.
It’s open from Wednesday to Sunday between the hours of 12 and 5. The delicious lunches on offer are soup with homemade bread followed by the tart of the day with 2 salads. The tarts come in many variations such as Spanish tortilla, vegetable terrine and spicy pizza, I made quite a nice spinach tortilla which seemed to go well. My savoury muffins, however, weren’t such a great success and could have been used as a weapon when they went extremely hard after a couple of days! But I redeemed myself a few days later with a tomato and mozzarella bread straight out of the pages of Paul Hollywood’s baking bible.
For afternoon tea the customers can choose from the good old fruit scone and a variety of yummy cakes. I’m not really much of a baker but I did manage to knock up a decent coffee and walnut cake. Of course all these goodies are washed down with copious amounts of tea.
Most of the customers in the tea shop are British people who have houses in the area, although we did have a few French customers on my first weekend as there was an open garden event going on. I think only the Brits truly appreciate a lovely cuppa in the sweltering heat, although I did manage to convert my fellow Workawayer, Karet from Estonia, to my way of thinking that it’s never too hot to drink tea!
23 Jul 2015
by Carole Gardiner
in Uncategorized
Tags: France, Le Grand Bourg, travel, workaway holiday
After a very early start and a ride to the airport with a very nosy taxi driver, I was soon jetting off to Limoges. An hour and half flight time later I landed in one of the smallest airports I’ve ever been to. Another taxi ride, this time with a very quiet driver took me to Limoges train station to continue my journey to La Souterraine. My internet search told me there might be a bus from the station that would take me to Le Grand Bourg, but as it only ran four times a week it would have been too optimistic to hope that Friday would be my lucky bus day. My host, Susie, very kindly picked me up.
Susie is a Brit and she owns the Tea shop, the bed and breakfast and the house next door. The other members of the family are; Pongo the dog she adopted while living in Morocco, Tripod the three legged cat, while she was a kitten a dog, (not Pongo), mistook her for a toy and bit off her leg, then there’s Colin the tabby cat with an identity disorder, he and Pongo think they are Yorkshire Terriers as they only eat dry food made especially for that breed.
There was another Workawayer here, Karet a French language student from Estonia. She had already been working for two weeks and had another two weeks to go.
My room was small and perfectly formed and I knew instantly I would be happy.
20 Jul 2015
by Carole Gardiner
in Uncategorized
Tags: France, holiday, Le Grand Bourg, travel, Workaway
When a person finds themselves single again there is always the dilemma of what to do for a summer holiday. A lot of my friends are married with younger children or in relationships. My sons are adults now and certainly do not want to spend a couple of weeks in a foreign land with their old mum. I’m not really a lying in the sun kind of person and definitely wouldn’t want to do that on my own.
So having scoured the internet for ideas for holidays for billy no mates I found a site called Workaway. In return for 5 hours of work a day, 5 days a week, (on average), a host will provide accommodation and food. There are hosts in a variety of settings offering all kinds of work worldwide. As this was my first adventure I decided to stay close-ish to home and look for a placement in France.
Imagine my delight as I found a vintage tea shop in the Limousin region in a small town called Le Grand Bourg. My joy continued when I discovered that I could fly directly there from Bristol.
According to the site, the work included baking cakes and bread, serving customers and helping out in the bed and breakfast attached to the tea shop. As none of this sounded too taxing I booked myself in.
The next few posts will tell the story of my grand adventure en Francais.
01 Mar 2015
by Carole Gardiner
in Uncategorized
Tags: back to netball, challenges, chronic fatigue syndrome, fitness, netball, planking, walking, zumba
The planking challenge for February didn’t go according to plan, I only managed 2 attempts of planking for 20 seconds and that was a limb shaking effort!
But on a positive note, the reason why I’ve neglected the planking challenge is that I’ve been busy being active in other ways. For sometime now I have been walking part of the way home everyday, which is approximately a 25 minute walk and a couple of times over the last few weeks I have extended the walk, so very soon I should be walking all the way home. I have downloaded a pedometer on my phone and aim to do 10000 steps a day.
In addition to the walking and my weekly zumba class I have joined my local Back to Netball group. This is a nationwide initiative to get women back into playing netball in a friendly and pressure free environment. I played in the netball team in primary school, secondary school and college and absolutely loved it, but as that was at least 32 years ago so as you can imagine I don’t feel anywhere near good enough to play in a team. Just the very mention of the words “try out” fills me with dread. I’ve only been to 3 netball sessions so far but I’m really enjoying it, although I’m very out of practice and really need to work on my defending skills. Maybe before the season starts again I’ll be up to joining a team, but for the moment I’m happy just getting back into the swing of it.
I feel so blessed to be able to build up my fitness after suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, while I was ill I never thought I would have the opportunity or indeed the strength ever again to live a fulfilling life. I hope by sharing my experiences I can bring hope to sufferers of this debilitating illness and belief that there is light at the end of the tunnel, even if it seems a very long one.
09 Feb 2015
by Carole Gardiner
in Uncategorized
Tags: Axbridge, cinema, Mamma Mia, planking, The Roxy
My start to the 28 day plank challenge didn’t go as planned.
My best friend and partner in crime Jane had a very special birthday the weekend the challenge started.
We had the most wonderful time in the smallest theatre in England, The Roxy in Axbridge, Somerset. Set in a Georgian coaching inn in the High street this community cinema seats just 36 people.
So a group of slightly wild women all congregated to watch the sing a long version of Mamma Mia and drink copious amounts of prosecco. We sang and danced all evening, terrorising our butlers in the buff (who kept their pants on!).
We had also hired the connecting house, so 11 of us donned our our onsies and danced and partied some more.
Needless to say the next day I was slightly worse for wear! I couldn’t get out of bed because I felt so sick, so planking was the last thing on my mind.
28 Jan 2015
by Carole Gardiner
in Uncategorized
Tags: 28 day plank challenge, challenges, fitness, planking, resolutions
Every year I make New Year resolutions and mostly I don’t succeed in keeping any of them. They always seem to be along the same themes… get fitter, learn another language, write my novel.
Last year there was a slight improvement , I did start Italian lessons but I chose one to one lessons and found them very intense and was ever so slightly scared of my tutor! So that one went down the pan.
The ideas and words for my novel are still in my head and haven’t made it anywhere near all the notebooks that I have stacked up collecting dust.
Getting fitter has been more successful, I’m slimmer than I’ve been for a long time, I am walking more and have even started running again.
I do need to work on my core strength so to this end I am going to attempt to do the 28 day plank challenge during the month of February. Then at least I can tick off a resolution as achieved.
I’m going to write regular posts on my progress throughout the month, but don’t just read about it, have a go! below are the details from the plank challenge Facebook page.
The 28 Days Plank Challenge
The task: “Planks”
How it works?
The elbows are directly under your shoulders.
The legs stretched like pushups.
Tense your buttocks at (M. gluteus maximus).
Stay in this position. Do not forget to breathe.
sounds simple, but it´s really tricky 😉
We start on February 1 to February 28 !!!
novice:
Day 1 – 20 seconds
Day 2 – 20 seconds
Day 3 – 30 seconds
Day 4 – 30 seconds
Day 5 – 40 seconds
Day 6 – rest
Day 7 – 45 seconds
Day 8 – 45 seconds
Day 9 – 60 seconds
Day 10 – 60 seconds
Day 11 – 60 seconds
Day 12 – 90 seconds
Day 13 – rest
Day 14 – 90 seconds
Day 15 – 90 seconds
Day 16 – 120 seconds
Day 17 – 120 seconds
Day 18 – 150 seconds
Day 19 – rest
Day 20 – 150 seconds
Day 21 – 150 seconds
Day 22 – 180 seconds
Day 23 – 180 seconds
Day 24 – 210 seconds
Day 25 – rest
Day 26 – 210 seconds
Day 27 – 240 seconds
Day 28 – PLANK for as long as possible
Planks is great !!!!
It strengthens the lower back, abdominal muscles and hips, buttocks as well
GO FOR IT !!!!
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Carole Gardiner
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