By Madame Escargot 
Arrived back at base camp on Wednesday. It was fearfully hot, so entering the Shack to find that our Aircon unit had been fitted was an utter delight. We wasted no time at all in testing that it works, which it does, and I am so very thankful for that.
Any hopes of being able to scribe “it has been all go” went out of the window. The van has still not been fully emptied and the beautifully clean and tidy Shack that we had come back to is now a complete shambles.
One of our challenges has been that, by the time that the day has sufficiently cooled to allow work to happen, the light is gone. The lighting that we inherited in The Shack is abysmally poor, and makes it difficult to see to do work.
That’s my excuses for the mess and I am sticking to them!
Mr Snail ordered a Ninja Creami as soon as we arrived back. It arrived today. The first batch is currently freezing.
Batch 1 follows the basic “Easy No-cook Ice Cream” recipe. It seemed like the best place to start.
Substitutions have been made. Firstly, we are unable to buy Double Cream, or any form of pure, fresh cream. I used some Crème Epaissé from Elle & Vire – although it uses Lactic Ferments, it doesn’t have thickeners or stabilisers. It is mildly tart, not as much so as Crème Fraîche, but is only 30% Fat content. Secondly, because we are trying to low-carb, I swapped the sugar out and used Erythritol in its place. Erythritol offers a 1:1 replacement, keeping both bulk and sweetness. It’s only mildly bitter, if at all. I don’t detect it myself.
I used Raspberry Essence in this first batch. Failed to buy fresh raspberries for an add-in.
We are doing Date Night tomorrow, hopefully on the Terrasse, if the temperature drops a little. There are steaks. If the Ice Cream works out, there will also be Dessert. A lovely, cooling dessert. Argh. Why did I not buy the Raspberries? The heat just totally fried my brain today.
Today we ventured out to Aizenay, with the intention of buying the steaks, ice cream ingredients, a dozen lightbulbs, decking stain, and swimming trunks.
We picked up our swimming pool access bands this morning and checked the regs vis a vis Men’s swimming attire. S had left his trunks in the hotel in Portugal. Happily, the management here tolerates swimming shorts. We looked for trunks today but couldn’t find any that we liked, but S now has swimming shorts that can be reserved for pool use only. We can swim!
Lightbulb shopping wasn’t wholly successful. We do now have 6 spotlights fitted with new LED bulbs, and the living room/kitchen area is now much better lit. We couldn’t get bulbs for the bathroom and bedroom fitting, so came home with new light fittings instead. Yet to be fitted. The young man in Weldom was very helpful and friendly.
When we arrived home the temperature in The Shack was 39°C. The A/C went straight on, but it was close on 7pm before we felt able to eat. It’s Weighing-in Day tomorrow and I am expecting to have lost a bit due to this week of salads and lost appetites. I probably lost a few pounds in sweat alone! 😀
First lot of laundry done. Several more to go.
I still need to report back on our final few days of travel. I will. I will get there. Just let me cool down first.