10th November 2025

Starbucks… another day I’m asking you not to judge me, so on Saturday a lovely friend took me to Poitiers shopping, why have I never been there before I ask myself, it is a beautiful city, full of typical French architecture and little shops with windows full of displays to entice you in… so many streets to wander around and boutiques to mooch in, but one of them in particular was… Starbucks! yes it’s expensive, yes it’s not a local artisan coffee shop, but did we go in? heck yes we did and the icing on the cake or should I say the topping on the coffee, they had the festive drinks in, so I got me a wonderful Oat Toffee Nut Latte, with vegan cream and sprinkles… is it something I would do every week, absolutely not, well not since moving to this wonderful country and having a much more relaxed lifestyle along with giving up my salary that allowed it… but to know that a little piece of something we used to enjoy is still available on our doorstep was a sight to behold, and one that on occasions I will return to with Mark.

Have you ever been caught up in the moment (not that kind of moment) and panic bought? Well we may of done that yesterday in Castorama (other DIY shops are available), well we have a loyalty card in this shop and they were giving us 15% discount on all bathroom fixtures, and as we have stripped out our ensuite, we needed to buy a new one, well to be fair we didn’t really need it so soon, as Mark still has to take the tiles off the wall and build a false wall and floor so to say it was a little premature is a bit of an understatement, we only had until Tuesday to get the discount… so let me just tell you the colours I had the choice of for the sink vanity, and then lets see if you can guess which one I went for… not that I’m predictable in anyway… so, gloss white, Navy blue, light very false looking oak, or black…. Ok so I am that predictable, yes I went for black but to be fair it was the best of a bad bunch, and as we are having a black frame shower it seemed the only option, eek to be honest I was going to buy a second hand buffet and paint it and Mark would of made it fit, but as the sinks we bought, which also were not what I planned, I was going to have two individual sinks and taps, which would of looked nice on top of a buffet, but we then thought we would have one long sink with two taps, well then the lady said the only 100cm sink with two taps she had was one that looked nothing like either of the option I have mentioned and of course I panicked and said oh yes that will be ok we can make it work, to which Mark said we will need a cupboard to go with that as you will not get one the correct dimensions, obviously all my design ideas left my brain and I asked the lady what option they had to go with this sink, and the above colours were the only option she had, so you can see I have now got a lovely new sink and vanity which has blown all my original design ideas out of the window, I am now back on sssshhhhh Pinterest (don’t tell Mark) it’s actually got worse than this as I have just been upstairs to see the progress of the tiles coming off and the plasterboard is now also off as well,  I am now thinking we could close up the current door and make a new opening in the other wall from the bedroom, as I can now see a lovely beam, which was hidden behind the plasterboard… I will not tell Mark yet, I think I might go and make him a chocolate cake and some dumplings to go in the stew for dinner, do you think that will do the trick to butter him up to discuss the new layout option?

I’m off now to do some baking and I will let you know how the conversation works out for me in my next blog.

Go and do something that makes you smile, especially if it also makes someone else smile, that’s a double win x