Today’s Frog Blog is once again being brought to you from the waiting room of the doctor’s surgery in St Pardoux. I tried to see him last week but all they had was the wednesday afternoon drop-in, which starts at 2. I got there 20 mins early and the room was overflowing with people. An hour and a half later, only three people ahead of me had been seen so I gave up. Today I have an appointment but there are still three ahead of me so it could be some time yet. I’m having a bout of my intermittent tooth/jaw/throat issues. This is the first incident since we changed doctors so I am hopeful the new one will be of more use than his predecessor. We shall soon see…
Not much to report on the wedding front apart from that the save the date message has gone out, as you no doubt already know. In hindsight, April Fool’s day was maybe not the best choice, but everyone seemed to believe us all the same. So far I think we’re at 50 people, including Matt’s parents, siblings, and some close friends who are all coming over from the States. Even more impressively, his friend Paul from Hong Kong (whose wedding we attended in 2011 thanks entirely to his financial largesse) has confirmed. We’re also expecting all my family, cousins and all, and our London crowd. And, of course, my darling best friend, Anna, whose excitement at the news may almost rival Jan’s.
Many of our friends with gites or spare rooms have offered them for the event, so we’re hoping that will deal with a good chunk of people. And for the rest, the current plan is to have the party at our local campsite, Parenthèses Imaginaires. If you’ve visited us, you’ve seen it: it’s the place with all the wooden cabins by a lake that is en route to the baker’s. They have a large reception room and do weddings there so it should work out well. And anyone not housed elsewhere can stay in a cabin.
I am not going to get into one of my political rants, but I do want to note for posterity that on Wednesday last week, my home country officially invoked Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon. The 2-year countdown to exiting the EU has now begun. It’s fair to say it has gotten off to a rocky start. The notification letter contained a thinly-veiled threat to withdraw the UK’s security cooperation with Europe if they don’t get a good trading deal. The EU’s official response to the letter was polite and reasonable, but it made it chillingly clear that it will be them that dictate terms from now on. I suspect that certain government ministers are starting to feel reality sink in at long last.
It was even less helpful that just four days later, a senior MP suggested we could use military force against Spain if they get difficult over control of Gibraltar. Sovereignty of “the Rock” has been a bone of contention between the two countries for centuries. Them both being part of the EU rendered it a non-issue, but now that’s coming to an end, it has reared its ugly head again. The Gibraltarians are in a no-win situation: 99% of them wish to remain under British rule, but 98% of them voted Remain in the EU referendum. This has the potential to cause all sorts of headaches. At present, it’s almost comical to think about the UK declaring war on any EU member state but when (ok, ok, I will be optimistic: not when, if) negotiations turn sour, it may become less of a laughing matter.
Political developments, dire though they may be, are more interesting to comment on than our social life of late. However, now three weeks into non-smokingness, we have finally ventured out of Port 80. On Thursday evening we went out with Jenny and Sam to a bar in Abjat-sur-Bandiat, a pretty town that’s very close to the house my parents are in the process of buying. It’s called the Entente Cordiale and is a pleasant bar, but one of the owners is a Brit and the clientele is over 50% English. They were trialling a curry night that they may make a regular feature, and we certainly hope so as the meal was excellent, and put our regular delivery service to shame.
On Saturday, we had our friends Emmanuel & Olivier over, who gave us a giant bottle of champagne to celebrate our news and my citizenship result. They’re already civil partnered and are talking about marriage too. Amazingly, they’ve been together 30 years! We had a very lovely evening with them, but unwisely ended it on a superfluous shot of Chartreuse that nearly finished Emmanuel off. Luckily, Olivier was driving…
What else? Work is potentially slowing down for me. An existing client of mine is contemplating a re-design, but the big project we’re bidding on, ALS, seems to have gone quiet. We have mixed feelings about it. It would be lots of money, but has the potential to be a giant nightmare. So, if it happens, it happens and if not, no great loss.
The weather’s improved again, so much so that we got our garden furniture out and had our first al-fresco apéritif yesterday. It was cold after half an hour, but a pleasing sign of spring all the same. Our germinating seedlings are currently outside soaking up the sun: we have 9/10 that have taken. And that I think is all the news.