I shall explain the dramatic-sounding title shortly, but first I’ll resume the narrative. I’d like to start with a note about the weather which has been amazing this last week. We had a dip in October when we even had a frost and had the fire on in the day, but since then it’s got its act together and then some. It’s been freakishly mild and sunny for November and even though today is grey and misty, it’s still very mild.
OK, what have we been up to? Not much, all told! Matt’s had a few meetings of late in his capacity as VP of Milhac Loisirs, including one this morning that was to plan out the logistics of the Soirée Britannique, our upcoming concert. He’s otherwise still not got much on at the mo workwise but we’ve a meeting tomorrow with a sort of local chamber of commerce so that may give him some leads.
For me work is fairly quiet too: the big site I’m working on is close to being done but as ever, I’m awaiting stuff from the client. In a pleasing development however, I last week received a phone call from a potential client who’d gone quiet. I assumed they’d changed their mind about the whole thing, but I now have the green light to make them a site (once they send me the info, of course). I also had an email from a bête noire client of mine whose site I started around about this time last year – a wedding planner. She’s highly strung, indecisive and fickle, so it’s been a rollercoaster to say the least. As it had been so long since she’d been in touch, I’d mentally written it all off but apparently she’s keen to get it finished at last. So even if nothing else comes in this year I should end up with a good last quarter.
There’s been another pleasing development here too recently. Well, pleasing to some anyway. For several months now, we’ve seen no trace of the evil black cat who’s been regularly beating up our boys and last week round Lucien’s, we learned why. He told us that a very dead black cat was seen recently in the ditch by the side of the main road, so it seems the bugger met with a grisly end. We’d been sure we knew who he belonged to, but apparently we were wrong and it was a stray all along. Our boys are blissfully ignorant of their tormentor’s fate of course, but we’re pleased that the semi-regular trips to the vet he brought about are a thing of the past.
Otherwise it’s been very quiet here. As usual, our main weekend activity was band practise with Musique en Herbe to prepare for our now very imminent gig on the 21st. I’ve mentioned before that it seems like they all take it in turns every week to throw a tantrum. Well this time it was my turn. Friday was a typically chaotic free-for-all of a practise with lots of time wasting and little actual playing. One of the guys who’s playing with us for our gig had already told us that he wouldn’t be able to come on saturday, meaning we’ve only one more saturday left before the gig. Knowing this made me even more impatient than normal with all the bickering and farting around so I had a very miserable rehearsal, as I’m sure did those around me.
On Saturday morning, Matt and I reviewed our 22 song set list and cut out a few numbers that weren’t working so we can focus more on getting better at the ones that do work. The practise that afternoon was better, but being a man down meant we couldn’t do everything. I’m now dreading this gig and wishing it was just Matt me and an mp3 player like last year.
Right, all of this brings me to Sunday, and to this weeks’ blog title. So, if you apply for French citizenship, at some point the local gendarmes will want to meet you and ask you a few questions. I knew this was the case, but I assumed I would be summoned to the nearest station when the time came. Well, this week I learned that in fact, they will just pitch up uninvited one day at your house. I suppose the idea is to catch you unrehearsed, unprepared, and au naturel, as it were. Having chosen a sunday to visit, all I can say is it’s a miracle they didn’t catch us enjoying some homegrown. We’d not long gotten out of bed when all of a sudden a police car pulled in our driveway. We both sprang to our feet, made sure nothing legally dubious was in view and rushed out to the garden to see what they wanted.
Once we learned why they were here, we relaxed a bit and (reluctantly) invited them in. All told, they were both extremely pleasant which was reassuring. I just hope they couldn’t tell how nervous I was! They stayed for coffee and asked both of us some questions about our lives here, how integrated we are, how much french we speak etc. In theory they shouldn’t need to come back but you never know, so it’s a lesson to us to be a little more careful in general about what’s left out in plain view. We both felt a little sick to think that, had they have come by 3 weeks ago, we would have been in mid-harvest with 8 plants of homegrown strewn across the dining table. After our visit, they were going to call in and see the neighbours too, who hopefully will have been complimentary about us, and able to tell a white lie or two if necessary about our smoking habits…
Drama over, we had a relaxing and sunny sunday. It was 23 degrees with clear blue skies all day long. That evening we invited Louis and Pary over for drinks. In the end only Louis was free but we still had a very nice time catching up, made all the more agreeable by a round of margaritas. Ok I think that’s all the news from me. Until next week.