The title is my clever attempt at saying that Will is no longer an apprentice driver as of Saturday. It has been three years since he passed his test, so he now has full rights and doesn’t have to drive below the speed limit <ahem>. Also, Lola has been behaving a bit better since her oil change, so hopefully she’ll get us to Paris and back.
We may also go to Lyon for two days, but that’s uncertain. Dad is meant to come in a week, but he and Marilyn took a fall last week. She broke her hip and he hit is head. They are both recovering, and he seemed fine when I spoke to him, but it’s not certain that he will still come. Marilyn just sold her house and moved into a new apartment, so she will postpone getting settled in for a while. I hope he is feeling up to the trip, and I will know more when I speak to him.
We still plan to go to Paris on Sunday for two nights. I’m very much looking forward to a week off after the long period of work. The new www.allez-francais.com site went live on Sunday, after a month of work. I now have about five or six little things for various other clients, and I hope to finish them before we go. Will has been busy working on the design for a new client, and it seems to be coming along well.
On Monday, we got our annual delivery of “une brasse” (4 cubic metres) of wood from the local farmer. Like last year, Lucien and his grandson helped us unload and stack the wood. We rearranged the log shed a bit to make room for the new wood, mostly just moving the old stuff outside. It needs to be cut up and used, but that will have to wait until things calm down a bit more. We also need to move in last year’s delivery and order some more from the same guy.
The garden is nearly done for the year, except for the possibility of a few ears of corn, and two giant butternut squash. Of our eleven special plants, eight turned out to be male, which means they’re mostly useless. There are three females that remain, and hopefully, they weren’t already pollinated or they too will not be great. I’m happy to have it done, and think I’m going to halve the size of the plot next year.
I went around to William and Clare’s, the pewter jewellery people, on Wed to do a bit of PC help. They invited us to dinner on Friday night and that was our social event of the week. We were joined by Rowena and Roger, an English couple who look after Boue (meaning “mud”), W&C’s dog. William is a very good cook, and he didn’t disappoint. To start, we had stuffed mushrooms topped with lardons, then chicken and vegetable strips, marinated overnight in creme and spices, followed by a perfect cheesecake for dessert.
The other guests were very entertaining. They have lived here around five years, and speak some French. They moved here from the way north of Scotland where they lived for 13 years, just for fun. He is an engineer and works in factories, and she worked for the council. They are mostly like-minded to us politically, and we had lively conversation/arguments over many bottles of red wine.
I made it to the pool on Saturday, for only the third time during the summer break. Normally, this would be two times per week, but work got in the way this time. It was nearly empty, but I still ran into two people I know. The first was Alessandro and his wife and baby, and we agreed to catch up soon. The second was Sylvie, the slightly mad woman who fell out with us last year. She was actually quite chatty this time, and we had a cordial catch-up before I did my laps.
Lastly, I killed one of Will’s lizards. He has a collection of four, hanging on various beams in the main room. My heels were bothering me, so I decided to sit at the desk and while moving a cushion, I dislodged his favourite one from the wall and it broke. He managed to superglue it together and it looks almost new, although not without a few defects. Time to make dinner now.
Update: I spoke to Dad yesterday. I’m happy to report that Marilyn is out of hospital, and now in rehab. Dad has left rehab and is back at home. He is coming on Tuesday, and the Lyon trip is on.