Welcome back to Mazeroux, where it’s a clear and sunny day, but rather more crisp than it was a week ago. It was in the mid-20s at the start of Mary Carol’s visit, but we had our fire of the season on the day she left. While it’s still fine in the sun, there’s now a bitter wind out there. I suppose it’s official: winter is coming.
I wanted to avoid commenting on the state of things in Britain, but the insane march towards Brexit has picked up pace recently and the situation grows very worrying. It’s now looking like Brexit will involve a total severing of ties and all that goes with it – a “hard Brexit”.
This means no more single market access, no more EU court of Human rights, the loss of all our rights as EU citizens… and at the end of it, no more allies in our own continent.
A quasi-religious zeal seems to have engulfed the Tory party, which has lurched so far to the right that even members of UKIP are saying they’ve gone too far. Recent policies put forward beggar belief: banning any non-British academic from contributing to Brexit think tanks, naming and shaming firms who employ non-British workers, phasing out non-British doctors… It’s hardly a surprise that having a government that is racist in all but name has led to a sustained rise in hate crimes. But not just against foreigners. It seems we’re regressing on many fronts: there’s also been a 150% increase in homophobic hate crimes since Brexit. Perhaps most chilling of all is that despite all this, the Tories currently enjoy a massive 17 point lead in the polls. I’ve lost my home country. Whatever that thing is over the Channel, it’s not the place we left in 2009.
Ok, enough dwelling on the apocalyptic state of things and back to the story. There’s not too much to report of Mary-Carol’s visit, simply because we didn’t actually see all that much of her. She wanted to make the most out of the time, so apart from the odd break, she was holed up in her room most of the day writing. It sounds like it was all worthwhile too as she was able to get loads done. We look forward to seeing Port 80 listed in the acknowledgments section of her novel when it hits the stands!
Otherwise, we had a standard week – choir and conversation group for Matt, and band practise for us both on the Wednesday. This was a really good session, I’m relieved to say. Rather than a full run-through, we opted to work on the songs that need it most. It was clear that both Harry and Céline had been practising at home because we even rattled off these iffy songs with little problem.
On Thursday, Matt went a little bit earlier to his conversation group to have a board meeting. This was to get approval for the solution to the mess Myriam made when she stepped down as treasurer. This all went fine, so Matt is El Presidente in title only and will act as treasurer from now on.
Work’s still frustratingly quiet for me at the moment, despite having two clients repeatedly promising me that the info I need will be sent imminently. Between them they owe me over two grand, and have done for quite some time so this grows tedious. In the interim, I had a scrap or two but not enough. Meanwhile, Milhac Loisirs asked me to create them a flyer advertising their weekly activities, so I turned my attention to that instead.
Somewhat more promisingly, we had a skype call on wednesday morning with a professor from the Human Centred Design Institute, a division of Brunel university, London. An old colleague of Matt’s gave them our info as they have an existing website that needs a freshen up. The call seemed to go well, so we’re cautiously optimistic that the project will get the go-ahead. Although I have to say it does seem odd to be pitching a design to a team of academics who study design. Clearly whatever Human Centred Design is, it does not encompass websites: their current one is pretty awful.
For Matt, the old adage “it never rains but it pours” just about sums it up: Abby has come back with yet another project for him, in addition to his large main one. This new one actually sounds like it might be more my sort of thing though, which would be convenient for us both.
On Friday, Mary Carol wanted to take us out for a meal to thank us for her stay and we were only too happy to let her. Eating out on a Friday night is far more problematic out here than it should be, especially in low season. In the end, we picked out a new place that we’d heard lots of good things about but never tried. It’s called La Maison d’Elles and is about 10 minutes away. In addition to being a hotel/restaurant, it’s also a wee farm so all of the produce was home grown or made, including some rather special goats cheese. And figs, which appropriately enough, featured quite prominently in the meal. The only downside was that we were literally the only customers, so it was a bit of an odd atmosphere. Still, this did not detract from the food which was all exquisite.
We had a quiet weekend after Mary Carol left us. We took our final wood delivery of the season on Saturday morning and spent Sunday afternoon stacking it all. Otherwise we just took it easy, but to make up for it, we’re off out tonight instead. Our friends Ridgit are back in town for a couple weeks and have invited us to dinner. And then on Thursday, Mum and Dad get here for another working holiday at Port 80! This time they are tasked with lowering our stove so that it sits on the floor instead of on a shelf a foot above it. This is to make it more efficient, and also to ensure that the mantle never catches fire again. Always a good thing.
Right, that’s nearly it from me. I shall end on a tale that explains why Gilles and Myriam really are off our Christmas card list this year. But first, a little context. Since they bought the big house on the end of our road, G&M have spent about 18 months having some fairly major work done to it. This was unavoidably disruptive for all of us their neighbours, but being reasonable people, none of us minded. Similarly, none of us complain whenever Gilles decides to play his keyboard – something which he insists on doing for hours on end, at maximum volume and, so it seems, with all his windows open. We can hear it from ours, so I can only imagine how annoying it must be for the two closest houses.
It’s the hypocrisy more than anything that makes my blood boil. Apparently, G&M have been repeatedly having a go at their closest neighbours, Daniel and Odille for – get this – making too much noise. By this they mean occasionally mowing the lawn, or cutting logs. The last encounter left Odille in floods of tears, so nasty to her was Myriam. They pointed out that all their “noise-making” comprises essential activities, unlike Gilles’ music. Gilles retort was fantastic: “music is a pleasant and soothing sound that everyone likes, so it’s not the same thing”. Music can indeed be pleasant and soothing. Gilles’ endless jazz piano solos, however, are not I can assure you.
It’s just daft. If there one thing we have in glorious abundance here in Mazeroux, it is peace and quiet. But apparently, it’s not enough for these two weirdos who cannot cope with a couple hours of chainsaw noise per week. I can only imagine where they’d need to live for it to be quiet enough. And wherever it is, I hope they move there!