We started our “come back” tour with Musique en Herbe last Saturday. The rehearsal went about as well as expected, which is to say, not very well. To be fair, we ran through a number of songs that we’ve done recently, and they weren’t too bad. As usual, the sound was crap, and the other guitarist insisted on playing over Will’s solos. So it was pretty much as if we’d never left. We’re preparing for a concert in Nontron on 6 Aug, and there are meant to be hundreds of people attending. When Alain told us about it, he said he wanted to do a really professional show, like we did for the dance school. But we’ve learned that the set consists of 30+ songs with everyone participating, so he actually meant it’s going to be like every other MeH show, i.e. a giant mess.
It was really hot earlier in the week, reaching a high of 37C on Tuesday, so Alain invited everyone back to their house for a swim and bbq after the rehearsal. There were around 20 people, including most of the people from the group. We hung out in the late afternoon and swam before the meal. It was mojitos and nibbles to start, followed by bbq sausages served with rice salad and crisps, then cheese and tiramisu for dessert. We had an enjoyable time, and it was nice to spend time with many of the group members outside of rehearsal.
We hosted a bbq on Sunday. The guests were Benoit, Viriginie, their daughter Eva and her beau Lucas, plus our friend Morgan. I spent the entire morning preparing food, and finished just before people arrived around 12:30. It was already very hot then, and we set up the table and chairs in the shady corner of the garden, under the bamboo. We had salsa and chips to start, followed by our largely standard bbq menu. I did pork steaks marinated in a honey mustard sauce along with chicken thighs. I was worried there wouldn’t be enough food (channelling my mother), so Benoit brought along some steaks which were lovely. The sides were potato salad and my new(ish) tomato, cuke, pineapple asian-style salad. We even managed a cheese course before dessert of brownies, ice cream and pineapple.
It was a very lazy and casual meal, lasting until 4:30. The guests brought us a bottle of Zubrovka, so we had that on ice as a digestive. Morgan was in good form, although he doesn’t have much to say. We get on very well with Benoit and Virginie, but equally well with the younger generation since Eva and Lucas are also keen growers. Eva came back and had a look at our crop, and gave us some idea of the male/female ratio. Although it’s too early to tell, it looks like roughly half and half, which would be great. We spent the rest of Sunday recovering, and I think we each drank 3 litres of water over the course of the evening.
We had a delivery of British foods during the week. Bryan and Carol were placing an order because their grandsons are coming to stay for a month. One of them doesn’t eat meat, so they wanted to order some veggie burgers/sausages, which are difficult to find here. Although we didn’t really need much of anything, we took advantage by stocking up on tea, mayo, and relish, plus some English sausages and bacon. The dry goods arrive first, with the chilled stuff arriving the following week. Although they refer to it as chilled, it really wasn’t by the time it arrived. It was all expensive and things we can really do without, so I don’t think we’ll be doing that again. Speaking of deliveries, we also had one of a different variety. We’re still going through last year’s crop, but will run out before the next crop is ready. So I ordered some from my friend in the UK, and that arrived safely on Thursday.
There is very little to report on the work front, so I won’t bother. I swam on Wed in a nearly empty pool, and mowed the lawn yesterday. In doing so, I wrenched my lower back, and it is very sore today. This has happened before when mowing the day after swimming, so I must be careful about that in the future. We have rehearsal this evening and tomorrow afternoon. There is an all-group dinner tonight before the rehearsal, and I’m hoping there will be enough booze there to make the subsequent rehearsal bearable. You can tell I’m really looking forward to it.