We had a wonderful time in Germany, celebrating Christmas with Roger's parents and sister Helga. The girls received mountains of presents. The parents must have been naughty throughout 2006, because we didn't get near as many presents as they did. ;-)
Just after the celebrations were over, Roger took our car back to Leeds. We have to sell the thing since it has the steering wheel on the wrong side and no insurance cover for France anymore. Roger drove, together with Friedhelm, an old friend, on the 27th and came back the next day via Manchester airport. We're thankful, that we've got the vehicle safely back on the island were it will soon be sold.
In the meantime we purchased another one in Germany (with the steering wheel on the correct side). This one is a VW Passat. Its two years older than our old van, much smaller but with better gas milage. It was very encouraging the way we got it. It cost 400 Euros more than we had budgeted. However, we went ahead and agreed to purchase it, trusting that the money would be there by the time we had to pay. The night before the purchase we had received 300 Euros when our girls offered their Christmas money to make up for the rest. Overwhelmed by their generosity, we accepted their offer. Since the children gave so much toward the purchase they got to choose the name for the wheels. We're now driving "Madame Blueberry".
Now we're back in France (we arrived on Friday the 5th of January). School starts again tomorrow. We'll let you know how we're getting on, thinking in French again.
