Afternoon all. A slightly late entry this time round, because we have been busy entertaining my parents who came over for a long weekend. We had a lovely time with them as usual, though it seemed to go far too quickly, also as usual. Before I come to their trip, I shall cover the events of the few days since the last post, which won’t take long.
Not much happened in the first half of last week, but some travel plans were made. I am heading back to the UK next month for a few days, mainly (hopefully) to see the David Bowie Is exhibit at the V&A Museum in London. This is the most popular exhibit in the history of the museum, and all advance tickets are totally sold out, annoyingly. There’s a chance of scoring some in person on the day, and an even smaller chance a friend in London could arrange for some free tickets for me too, so I am still somewhat hopeful it will happen. If not, I still get a few days to catch up with friends and family, so it won’t be a waste. Also on the travel front, we have my bestest mucker Anna coming out for a visit at the end of the month. Her family is renting a villa near Carcassonne in May, so Anna’s coming out a bit early to stay with us for a day or two. We’ll then all drive down there and stay a couple days with her family.
Our friend Iain Clarke, one of our more frequent visitors, has also booked to come out for the last May bank holiday, bringing our lovely mutual friend Matt Jones with him. Matt J hasn’t been to Port 80 yet, but did come out to see us when we lived in Badaillac. We’re very much looking forward to seeing everyone for what will be a very packed month.
Ok, on to the rest of the week. Matt had a 3-month checkup with the Pole Emploi (job centre) on Thursday, which was quick and painless. It’s possible they might pay for him to attend a conference on setting up and marketing a business in France which could prove useful. Otherwise, they continue to subsidise us for the timebeing, bless them. We also embarked on a thorough and well overdue spring clean of the house in preparation for our visitors, rewarding ourselves with a takeaway pizza that evening.
On Friday, we met up with out new client, Vortex. We presented them with some stats showing how much better their sites are already doing with Google, and they were suitably impressed and grateful. We also discussed next steps and it’s looking like we’ll both still have a few things to be working on for them, Matt especially, so that’s good news.
On Saturday, Matt and I had a practise session for our potential gig at the equestrian centre, and managed to play ok together. There’s unfortunately not a lot of overlap in our two repertoires, so we’ll both have to learn some new stuff if we are to pull it off. Time will tell… That afternoon, Mum and Dad got in to Limoges from East Midlands toilet (as Dad calls the airport). I collected them and was relieved that they thought the weather was nice – compared to the UK anyway. We took a little walk through the woods and then just chilled at home. For dinner that evening, we’d picked out a veggie pie dish that is topped with thinly sliced potato. It was partly chosen because the parents hadn’t had it before, and partly because it meant that Matt could try out his new toy, a julienne. He’d used it once before and nicked a finger. He was just recounting this story to my folks when he managed to do the same again, only this time it was a fairly sizable piece of thumb that got shaved off. Luckily, we are long on bandages after my recent hand issue, so we had all the kit to get him patched up. This also saw me promoted from sous-chef to head chef, albeit under close supervision. After the meal, we moved on to scrabble, cards, and then bed.
The next day was the one warm and sunny day and we made the most of it by getting outside and working on the garden. Mum and I uprooted a superfluous section of fence in the front garden that had been on our list of things to do for ages. It was extremely hard going as it had gotten anchored in place by tree and bamboo roots but we succeeded in the end. Meanwhile, dad fertilised and rotivated our veggie plot and then planted several very neat and precise rows of onions, garlic and carrots, so we have finally made a start on the 2013 veg plot. I also got a load of seeds of various kinds planted that are now germinating in small pots in the house.
Bryan and Carol joined us for dinner that evening. We collectively (under the main chef’s supervision) produced a meal of garden vegetable enchiladas and yellow rice, followed by chocolate mousse which was very well received. Bryan stuck to his one glass of red while the rest of us were a little less restrained. They ended up staying until around midnight and we all crashed soon after.
Monday was a rainier and more overcast day but that was not a problem as we’d arranged to have lunch out at the Hotel de France, our fave local restaurant. We’ve been trying to take Mum and Dad there since we discovered it, but it has always confounded us with its illogical opening hours. Fortunately, the place managed to live up to the hype when we finally made it. We all had at least 3 courses, all divine, but very rich. At the end of the meal (some 2.5 hours later), we were all grossly full and in a bit of a stupor, so we came home and digested over a few games of cards. Upon our return, we heard the news that the Iron Lady, Maggie Thatcher, had just died. Unsurprisingly, there were no tears shed. I was tempted to open a bottle of champagne to mark the occasion, but we were all far too full of food and wine to do it justice. By 9.30 we realised we still weren’t hungry, but had a little bit of bread and cheese for good measure anyway. After a few games of scrabble, we called it a night and retired to sleep off our swollen bellies. I took Mum n Dad back to Limgoes yesterday morning, and that concluded their working holiday at Port 80 – and also this entry. A la prochaine fois…