It was another quiet week, with one exception that I shall get to in a moment. I made it to the pool twice, and went to my usual weekly activities. The choir is planning to do an xmas concert in early December. The songs are mainly secular / not-too-religious, and we’re planning to learn two or three new ones for the concert. With only two months to go, that means 8 rehearsals maximum, so I don’t have high hopes for the quality of the event.
Similarly, we had a rehearsal on Wed with our other two bandmates, and that went less well than the previous week. We ended up playing in the small room, so perhaps it was that we could hear each other better. Until now, we’ve run through the entire set each time, but we’ll be concentrating on the songs that need work during the upcoming rehearsals. We went to see Alain of MeH, and he agreed in principle to loan us the equipment. He still needs to find people to work the lights and soundboard, but this isn’t normally a problem.
The week took an interesting turn on Thursday at conversation. At an early board meeting for Milhac Loisirs, we decided to make up a flyer informing people of our weekly activities. Sophie and Jacqui finally had a chance to meet and work out the text. We decided to spend a bit of time at conversation to discuss it, since all five board members would be there. Myriam objected to this, since she and Gilles don’t like it when time is taken away from the activity we’re meant to be doing. Sophie didn’t react well since she had come to conversation mainly to discuss the flyer. She had to leave early, so in the end, we didn’t get to discuss it.
I got a call from Myriam the next morning telling me she no longer wanted to be on the board. She was the treasurer, which is not an easy role to fill. It’s got to be someone with a bookkeeping background, and also someone trustworthy. I had enough difficulty finding someone in the first place, so this was not welcome news. Her reasons were mainly that she didn’t get on with Sophie in that they both have different ways of doing things. For Myriam, things must be just so and she is very rigid. Sophie is the opposite. I asked her if it was because of the spat they’d had the day before, and she said it wasn’t just that. She had been thinking of quitting for some time, even though she’d only been in the role less than a month.
Sophie came by on Sunday afternoon to review the text for the flyer, and we worked out a plan for Milhac Loisir. I’m better suited to be treasurer, and she, president. However, any change to our official roles requires filing more paperwork, which has a knock-on effect to other changes we need to make. She is officially the secretary, and will probably stay that way. I will take over the job of treasurer, although I will keep the title of President. The two other members of the board are Jacqui and Barry, and I’m hoping that they will take on the duties of secretary. We’re meeting on Thursday to discuss all this. All told, it’s probably for the best that Myriam quit. Although she’s very nice, she is much more rigid and inflexible than the rest of us. We weren’t ever great friends, nor will we be in the future.
Aside from the drama, there were a couple other things of note this week. We hosted curry night on Friday and the guests were Manu & Mathilde, plus Sophie and Dom. The two couples know each other, mainly through us, and hadn’t seen one another for awhile. In fact, it was the first time Sophie and Dom were able to spend an evening out in many months. Manu made onion bhajis, which we had with the samosas we’d ordered. Each couple placed their own order, and coincidently, each of the three contained Thai Red Beef Curry (“infused with the red meat of the beef”, to quote Sue). For dessert, I wanted to do something with figs since they are still bountiful, and found a recipe for a tart with lemon marscapone filling, topped with figs. The crust contains cornmeal and rosemary, and Will compared it to a shortbread. It was actually very tasty for a first attempt, and I will make it next time fig season rolls around. The last guests left after one, and Will and I stayed up to watch a film before going to bed around three.
The “Nice Start” portion of the title refers to our current visitor, Mary Carol. She arrived on Saturday afternoon at Limoges and I went to get her. She is spending a week here as a writing retreat, so a working holiday of sorts. Like most other visits this year, the weather turned crap again just before she arrived. We had some rain and mild storms on Friday, and it remained unsettled and cool on Saturday. It has since turned nicer, and was in the low 20’s today. We’ve been eating at home, and figs have featured heavily in the menu. Between the wet, cool weather and the bees/wasps/hornets/butterflies/birds, the figs are nearly gone.
Saturday night was an exception to the fig rule, and we had confit de canard. We had hit on the idea of doing it like Peking Duck, so we got some rice pancakes, and I found an recipe for homemade Hoisin sauce. We prepared the duck as normal, and ate it with the sauce, plus cuke and spring onion, with fried rice on the side. Overall, it was pretty good and I’m sure we’ll give it another go. Sunday was a lazy day and apart from Sophie’s visit and a brief walk, we didn’t do much. Dinner that night was the savoury fig tart that we always make during the season. It came out nicely, and we had it with salad, bread and cheese. Today, Mary Carol and I went to the shop and got groceries, and went on a walk during the afternoon. Dinner was our other annual fig dish of pan-fried pork steaks in a fig, cream and basalmic sauce. This was served with roasted potatoes and salad.
There haven’t been many new developments on the work front, so I’ll leave you here.