Using The Neighbours Ride-on Mower  -  April 2009

After returning to England for a couple of weeks, we were back on the plot, only to find the plot was overgrown again, well what else did we expect, I scratched my head and then just resigned myself to getting the strimmer out again, so off we went again......
After an hour or two a chap appeared at the fence with a beer, now at this point we hadn't actually seen him, we thought that she was a single mother next door, it turned out he worked shifts at the local paper mill, so I guess he was either at work or in bed when we were at the plot. Anyway he appeared at the fence and offered me a beer, it was impossible to actually have a chat, because I didn't speak any French and he didn't speak any English, so that was interesting, but we got through it somehow, he then very kindly offered to lend me his ride-on mower, which initially I declined, as I don't really like borrowing other peoples tools etc, however he completely ignored me and brought it round to the plot anyway, he showed me how to make it go, how to make it stop, and how to adjust the cutting height.

He watched as I set off (probably just to make sure I was doing it probably), then he disappeared and left me to it. It may have been an old mower, but it certainly done the job, 2 hours later I was done, I returned the mower to next door and thanked him as best I could, then returned to the plot and said to Jill "We've gotta get one of these", so the very next day we went to Bricomarche in Confolens to see what they had, There was a nice shiny black Ride-on that had been reduced from €1200 to €999, it was a no brainer, we found a shop assistant and asked if they could deliver to our plot, which they could, so we purchased it.
The very next day it was delivered to the plot, and I would never have to struggle to cut the grass again....  :-) 

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Job No 5 Done.