It’s been a very busy week in terms of work. We both have a number of projects on the go, with more to come. I’ve done four or five proposals for new sites too. Not all of them will materialise, but one or two would be nice. A couple are for fairly large sites, so I quoted on the high side to try to scare them off. I’m about to put a site live, and then I’ll be finishing up my big site for Abby. We were both in fairly foul humour last week as the afterglow from the wedding finally faded. It helped that the weather was lovely, sunny and in the mid-20’s many days. We didn’t get much chance to enjoy it, but it was nice anyway.
The main event of the week was my birthday celebration, which spanned three days. It wasn’t intentional, but just worked out that way. We started on Friday night with an apero-dinatoire at Manu and Mathilde’s. The other guests were Philippe and a childhood friend of his, Patrice who lives in the Lot. He is an interesting guy, and has travelled extensively including the States. He worked on cruise ships in the kitchen for a number of years. He also plays guitar and sings, so we chatted about that. He tells a lot of “dad jokes”, which are hard to understand in a different language. Although my French has come a long way, I don’t follow the entire conversations on these types of night, when people are using a lot of slang and speaking quickly.
Manu and I shared the cooking. Mathilde requested my chicken tortilla wraps that we served at the wedding. I offered to do bbq meatballs too, and did chicken legs for Will so he’d have something to eat. Manu made sushi (rolls) and Mathilde made dessert, an apple compote with a crunchy topping. We got Manu a bottle of sake and some Japanese nibbles, and they got me a sushi making kit. We started with white wine, then moved on to champagne, then sake, then red wine, each one served with a different dish. We left around 3, and finally went to bed a bit before 4.
We were a bit sluggish on Saturday, but still managed to prepare for dinner that night. The guests were Benoit and Viriginie, Guillaume, Babeth and Jules, Jenny, her beau, Julien and Lee, who was on his own. I decided to make chili since it’s good for feeding a crowd. I made carrot cake before lunch, and cornbread afterwards. In the afternoon, I found time to mow the front lawn. Will helped chop all the meat and veg for the chili, which we made in the early evening. We got everything done just before the first guests arrived around 7:45.
The evening went very smoothly, and I’m largely pleased with how the food turned out. The chili wasn’t spicy enough, but we fixed that by passing the bottle of Sriracha around. The carrot cake came out very well, including the cream cheese frosting, which wasn’t runny like usual. I followed a recipe from Carols and it definitely helped. They came around on Wed night for a drink on her birthday and also on Saturday, to drop off food from their fridge / freezer.
We also drank a fair bit on Saturday night, starting again with champagne, then moving on to vodka and red wine. Benoit isn’t a big dessert fan, so we served cheese and salad before moving on to the cake. He really doesn’t like cinnamon or cloves, and despite the cake having both, he ate his entire slice, much to our surprise. Jenny and Julian left around midnight, followed by Guillaume, Babeth and Jules, who had fallen asleep on the sofa. That left us with Lee, B & V and we did our usual drinking and listening to music until 4:30 or 5. I crashed before Will and Lee, but apparently not long before.
Sunday started off slowly at 11. I opened my presents from Will, which were a new hooded jumper, a nice bottle of vodka, and an ice bucked. B & V got me cocktail glasses, so I sense a theme. We didn’t do much until 4pm when Christian came over with his guitar and equipment. He is Will’s guitar teacher and we’ve decided to play together. We ended up trying out 7 or 8 songs, and found the right key for me to sing them in. This lasted a couple of hours, and then we packed up and followed him to their place. Marie made a specialty of hers, which was layers of rabbit, garlic / herbs, and bacon, slow cooked for a few hours. It was tender and delicious and served with potatoes. We also had cheese and then chocolate cake, decorated with sprinkles and a candle.
Like the other nights, we started with champagne, then moved onto red with the meal, and whiskey / eau de vie afterwards. We hung out listening to music and drinking until midnight. Our hosts would have been happy for us to stay, but we were wiped out and thinking of work the next day, so we called it a night. All in all, it was a lovely birthday weekend.