You’ll get Matt’s re-telling of his Hong Kong adventure shortly, but while you’re waiting, you can read all about my week alone with the cats. In fact it wasn’t all that lonely at all as I had a number of social invites. This kicked off with dinner round Mum and Dad’s on Wednesday evening. Their cat managed to injure himself over the last weekend and he had to go to the vets. We’re not sure what he did exactly but he’s been in a lot of pain. Luckily, he now seems to be coming good.
The folks are otherwise well and, in Mum’s case, recently-returned from a trip to the UK to see Dave, Amy and the monkey. Their big news is that they’ve found a tenant to rent their place in the UK. The guy’s already moved in, so they’ll soon have a decent, steady income, albeit in sterling. Dad made a delicious asian-style pork stir-fry dish for dinner that evening, with mum’s yoghurt cake for dessert. I didn’t stay too long after the meal as I had to tend to the fire and the cats. The latter have been intolerable this past week and have not permitted me a single lie-in. Hopefully they will calm down a little now Matt’s back.
The following evening I was invited out again – this time to Françoise’s for dinner, along with Paul & Nathalie. It was the first time P&N had been inside the house, so they got the tour and then we had aperos by the fire. Dinner was caramel-themed : pork, pineapple and other veg cooked in a caramel sauce. Crème caramels followed for dessert. Afterwards, we introduced P&N to the game Continental that Françoise has recently taught us. It’s good fun, but quite long and it was after 1am when we left – with me having emerged as the victor.
The cats were inconsolable when I got back so I stoked up the fire and we watched some TV together. This didn’t stop both of them from bothering me throughout the night though.
Friday was a sunny day so in the afternoon I took advantage and mowed the front lawn. I also saw Mum & Dad in the afternoon as they, along with Richard and Bridget, have just started weekly french lessons with Françoise. The lessons are at her place, so they called in to see me beforehand and do some internet chores. I had a simple dinner of beans on toast with chips that evening and vegged out in front of the TV with the cats.
Saturday was another nice day, so I mowed the back lawn too and then spent the rest of the afternoon rehearsing for our forthcoming gig. That evening I was invited to Benoit & Virginie’s for dinner. Both his sisters were there when I arrived but they didn’t stay long. Eva was out too, so it was just the four of us, with Sam too. Sam’s been working really hard and is a bit run-down at the moment. And as for Benoit, he has managed to injure his hand with a sort of hand-held pickaxe type tool and the wound is a bit infected, so it wasn’t the party atmosphere it can sometimes be at their place, but that suited me fine.
Benoit served us white asparagus and mayonnaise to start, followed by sausages and ventrêche (gammon), all hand-prepared by him from a pig he slaughtered. I’m so-so about ventrêche, but the sausages were spectacular. We had a few leisurely drinks but by midnight everyone was fading so I bade my goodbyes and came home for a nightcap and some TV time with the cats.
Sunday a was day of housecleaning interspersed with guitar playing and I had a store-bought pizza for dinner, followed by an early night. And that’s about it from me. Tune in tomorrow for the Hong Kong report.