I’ve got a lot to report, so I will try my best to be brief. I needn’t have worried about my expired passport, although it did cause a bit of delay at the Paris airport. Foreign visitors to the US need to get pre-approval before they can fly to the States. After a bit of confusion, a nice man explained how to do so on-line, which I did with my iPhone and then paid $14 for the pleasure. After 15 minutes or so, the approval came up on the agent’s computer and off I went. I had a lovely flight, with three seats to myself so slept a few hours. When I arrived, the queue for US citizens snaked all the way out the door and down the corridor while there were only 10 people in front of me in the visitors queue. The immigration officer was a bit confused, but after realising I was a citizen, breezed me through.
Mom made a welcome home dinner that night of brisket served with wild rice and salad, followed by lemon poppyseed cake, all at my request. We were joined by Grammy, Mimi, Dad plus Suzy and the girls. I went over to visit Mike and Keli that evening before turning in around 11. As usual, I was up around 6am due to jet lag and managed to stay in bed until 7 when it started getting light. I wanted to get as much shopping done that day as possible, in order to avoid the post-Thanksgiving sales. I went to Target and got nearly everything I was looking for and I got my photo taken for a new US passport. I had lunch with Mom, Grammy and Mimi at the Crossroads deli where I had corned beef hash, one of my favourites. That evening, Mike was on his own so he and I went to the Market BBQ for ribs. Being the night before a huge meal, the place was almost deserted.
Thursday was Thanksgiving Day. We resurrected a tradition of having bagels and cream cheese for brunch with our former neighbours, the Roitenbergs. This was Bonnie, Carolyn and Steve and their two kids, James and Sophie, who are both much bigger than I remember. We were joined by Ben, Ione and the boys and all had a nice time getting caught up. Mom and I headed over to Suzy and Steve’s in the afternoon, along with the six pies she’d made the previous night (4 pumpkin and 2 apple). There were a total of 24 people at the meal, mostly my family, but also, six of their neighbours: a couple with their two kids, plus their parents. They have recently moved to the area and were going to be on their own, so Suzy invited them along.
The meal was typical, in a very good way. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, wild rice, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans plus sweet potatoes made by one of the neighbours in a southern style (i.e. lots of brown sugar and cream). Due to the jetlag, I wasn’t that hungry so only managed one heaping plateful. Most of the guests left on the early side. I stayed at Suzy and Steve’s the night and the next, giving me a chance to spend some time with them and the girls. We played a few games that evening, giving me a sense of how much the girls have grown up. They all got along well, and we all laughed a lot.
On Friday, we had a lazy morning, had leftovers for lunch and then went bowling in the afternoon. We stopped at a shop so that I could buy myself a Kindle Fire (Amazon’s version of the iPad). My old iPad was on it’s way out and Target were giving store credit for turning them in, so I got €50 for mine. The bowling was fun, but I did poorly, only breaking 100 on my second game. The girls got to have McDonalds for dinner and then we left Maddie in charge and the adults went out for dinner. I had requested sushi as a birthday present, so we went to a place called Masu, where we had an excellent meal and cocktails. After dinner, we grabbed a few drinks at a dive bar over the road, then headed home for a nightcap. I went to bed at 1:30, my latest night of the entire trip.
I awoke around 7 the next morning, despite the late night and was very tired all of Saturday. That morning was the annual Hannukah party at Mom’s. It was my entire family, including Chuck and Marilyn, Uncle Dan and Grammy. The meal was cheesy scrambled eggs, lox, cream cheese and bagels, fruit plus potato latkes (pancakes), traditional on Hannukah. First the kids opened their gifts, then the adults did the traditional $10 gift exchange, where everyone takes turns opening a mystery present, or taking one already opened. The prize gift was dog-bottom refrigerator magnets and I ended up with a $10 bill, a refund in effect. That afternoon, Mom and I visited Suzi Hagen, a mutual friend and then went over to Ben and Ione’s to spend a bit of time with them. Miles received a cribbage board as a gift, and I taught them how to play. Much like the girls, the boys are growing quickly and are surprisingly mature.
Mom and I had Thai food that evening at a nearby restaurant. Afterwards, I went to the synagogue where there was a party for Mike’s nephew’s Bar Mitzvah, giving me a chance to get caught up with his family including his parents and sisters. We went back to Mike’s afterwards, but made it an early night since I was still very tired from the previous night’s drinking and lack of sleep. On Sunday, I had lunch with Dad and Marilyn at Doolittles, and had a Cobb Salad since I was feeling a bit overloaded on meat and missing vegetables. We had a nice visit, and I encouraged them both to come visit next year.
I had dinner that evening with Mom and Grammy at the Good Day Cafe where I had an excellent Reuben sandwich. It was nice to spend a little extra time with Grammy, as always. Afterwards, Mike came to collect me and I spent the night at their place. The next day, Mike, Keli and I met their friend Sam at El Loro, a Mexican restaurant with great food and margaritas. I had a number of them before they took me to the airport. There was a last minute change of aircraft, so instead of a seat on the end of a row of four, I had one on a row of three. Despite this, I still managed to sleep an hour or two. Before boarding, I had a few drinks at the airport where they have a groovy new system for ordering. In front of every seat in the boarding area is an iPad with a credit card swipe. You order your food and drink, pay by card and in a moment, they bring your order right to you.
I arrived in Paris in time to get the earlier train, which was on time for once. There was a problem along the way, delaying us by an hour, which is typical for all of my train journeys in France. Will met me in Angouleme with a Port 80 sandwich that I ate on the way home. I managed to stay awake until around 10 that evening before passing out in front of the telly. Wednesday was a quiet day at home and then not much happened the next few days, except rehearsal. We borrowed some equipment from Guillaume, Jenni’s ex who is in a band, and he dropped it off on Thursday morning. We set it up in the function room where we would play that day and Friday as well.
Friday night was curry night, and we were invited to Nat and Jill’s. We hadn’t seen them in many weeks so had a nice visit. We mentioned our gig which they wanted to see so we secured them an invite the next day. We showed up in the afternoon, set up the equipment and had a run through in front of Barry’s sister and her husband. With a few hours in between, we came home where Will nervously paced around the house. We set off just before 5, but not before downing a shot of vodka for “Dutch courage”.
The evening itself was a “Soirée Britannique”, or English Evening, hosted by Barry and Carol, our bandmates. They arranged and paid for the entire event, as a way to say thank-you to the locals for making them feel welcome here in Milhac. The event was held in the smaller function room in the village, and the decorations included Le Tricolore and Union Jack (French and UK flags). They served a selection of English delicacies, including pork pies, Cornish pasties, scones with clotted cream and jam, and Christmas cake. Most of the food was sourced locally from English restaurants and caterers. To drink, there was Guinness, bitter and cider.
The invitees included everyone from our conversation club, plus various locals from the village including the bakery lady, the lady from the corner shop and the maire. There were about 40 people in all, 2/3 French and the rest English. In addition to Nat and Jill, we invited Jenny and her new man, Franck. The event started at 5 and we started playing around 6. We made a handful of mistakes throughout, but nothing too drastic and received quite a few compliments after the show.
Françoise and Philippe were in attendance too, and we invited them back to our place for drinks afterwards. Jenni was doing a run on Sunday morning, so she and Frank declined. We played cards and had some drinks and pizza, and they left us around 1. Last night, we saw Nat and Jill for the third night in a row. We went to see Gravity in 3D at the theatre in Thiviers, a first for Will and I. We all enjoyed it, especially the 3D and beautiful shots of the Earth from space. They invited us over to dinner afterwards, roast chicken, with chips and gravy. We had an earlyish night and were home by 11.
Since I returned, the weather has been good for this time of year with temps during the day around 12C, and just around 0 or below at night. Because of this, the lawn continues to grow and I finally broke down and cut the front on Wed and the back on Sunday. It took a long time because the grass was long and wet, but it’s done now, hopefully until the Spring. Normally, it is a couple of degrees colder up here than in Milhac, but as we drove home last night, the temp was -3 in Milhac and +1 chez nous! I lucked out on the weather in Mpls, where the lowest temp was -9C on my first night, and temps around 3C during the day. It snowed the afternoon I left and then turned very cold, dipping down to -25C at night.
There is very little to report on the work front. I’ve started a small project for Abby, my friend in the States. Will has a site to build for a local client, but must wait for her to put together the text and photos, so is still at a loose end. Ok, this has dragged on far too long, so I will leave you here and go for a swim, my first in over a month.