I shall start with some upsetting news, concerning Matt’s Dad, Chuck. Lately he has been losing a lot of weight and he has no energy. Last Monday he was taken to hospital as he was having trouble breathing. They found he isn’t getting sufficient oxygen and nor is he able to expel enough carbon dioxide. A neurologist examined him and diagnosed ALS, or motor neurone disease.
The prognosis isn’t great unfortunately. There’s a machine they want to get him to use to help him breathe, but he is having a really hard time with it. It both inhales and exhales for you and must feel incredibly unnatural and unpleasant. He is still in hospital now but apart from make him comfortable, there’s not much can be done. So anyway, please think good thoughts for him and the family.
On to the round-up, we were both understandably frazzled after our 3-day bender of a weekend, but despite that, both did some work. In the afternoon, I had a physio session in their pool, which didn’t seem to do much, but it was only the first one. I have some exercises to do at home too that do feel like they’re targeting the right spots.
Not much to report otherwise for the early part of the week, so on to Thursday, when Matt left for Edinburgh to go and celebrate Gerald’s fifty(first) birthday. We needed to be out of the door by 6:30 but lucky for us, Louis was on the case with some early morning mouse. I took Matt to Thiviers for the first leg of his long journey to Scotland via Périgueux, Bordeaux and Amsterdam. I came home via the bakery and promptly downed a cup of coffee to get me through the day, which was yet another hot one. I made myself a pasta dish for dinner and was early to bed.
The next day was due to be hotter still and as I was up early (again, thanks Lou), I got out and planted our remaining plants in the plot and then mowed the lawn before it got too hot. That evening, the parents invited Ridget and me over for dinner. As it is en route, Ridget came and collected me to save me driving. We started with aperitifs out in their garden – a first for me – and then came inside to eat a yummy meal of goats cheese with a fruity chutney to start, then lentil burgers with side of quinoa for the main. There were both cherry and chocolate tarts for dessert, the former made using cherries from our garden. We stayed and chatted for a while after, eventually leaving a bit before midnight.
A storm was due overnight, but in the end it missed us and Saturday turned out to be another hot one. I made a quick supermarket run before lunch, stupidly at the same time as a hundred dopey tourists, but found everything I needed and fled as soon as I could.
I then had the honour of attending the 2nd emergency general meeting for our anti-windfarm group in as many weeks. Lucien kindly took me again, and we came armed with proxy votes for Matt, Jan and Mauricette. I can’t be bothered to explain the silly politics that plague this group so short version : we feared a coup might take place and that it could turn ugly. In the end, it all went fine, new blood has been recruited to the Board, and the group will continue. I came home to two very clingy cats, leftovers for dinner and then bed.
On Sunday I spoke to Matt for an update about Chuck and that’s when I learned that the news really wasn’t great. Matt has now made plans to fly straight on from where he is to Minneapolis, rather than come home first as it makes more sense logistically. So I shall be manning Port 80 on my own for a bit longer and poor Matt has an awful lot of travelling ahead.
After the call, I set about preparing food to take to a picnic at the lake at Saint Saud, organised by Milhac Loisirs. I chose two recipes I’d not made before on the basis that they sounded easy. One was courgette fritters and the other, broccoli and potato croquettes rolled in sesame seeds. They were ok but quite bland.
I got to the lake at 6:30 where Mum & Dad, Ridget, Françoise, and a few others had already been in the water a few times. Also in attendance were Nat & Jill, whom we’ve not spoken to in years. We were polite but mostly gave one another space. I left bit before nine and dealt with a mountain of washing up, watering the veggie plot, and two depressed cats. And that’s all the news I have.