I am afraid you’ve got me again this week, as Matt is still in the States. In fact, he’s going to stay till the end of the month so he can spend some good quality time with Chuck, and also help his siblings clear out his apartment. The news is that Chuck’s been moved to Shalom, the hospice, and has his own room with phone and internet, so he’s quite comfortable, but very frail.
As for me, I have been invited all over the place so have barely had to cook a thing for myself. It’s nice being sociable but the cats are both utterly disgusted with me. On Monday I had to courier a parcel over to Matt in Scotland, containing his US passport and a few other essentials. Impressively, there’s a 24 hour service that got it from Saint Pardoux to Edinburgh, though it did cost 50€. After that, I came home, worked for a bit then had a dinner of leftovers and an early night.
On Tuesday, the engineers were due at Mum & Dad’s to finally connect their phone line. They were due between 10-12, so at a little before 10, I set off. Well, I tried to, but the car wouldn’t start – flat battery. Normally, Lucien is on hand for such emergencies but he was out, so Dad had to come and get me. In the end it was all in vain in any case as the engineers didn’t show, much to my lack of surprise. Back home, I rang them and they promised to come back before the end of the week. Lucien came by in the afternoon and jumped the car and it has been perfect ever since, so it’s a bit mysterious. I’m sure I did something stupid, but I’ve no idea what. I had a salad for dinner that evening and then settled down in front of the TV with my laptop and ended up working till about midnight, finally making good progress on the design for the truffle shop website we’re making.
The next morning the engineers rang to say they were in the area, so I returned to Mum & Dad’s and this time, the guy actually deigned to show up. The work was done quite quickly and they gave us a temporary phone number that I was able to use to order a router. After a bit of work in the afternoon, I met up with Lewi and Pary for fish ‘n chips at Saint Front. Unsurprisingly for the month of July, the place was heaving, nearly all of them Brits. Along with L&P was a friend of theirs called Jean-Marc who has lived most of his life in the States, and was the chap who introduced Lew to Pary. I left on the early side, bringing with me a hunk of fish I couldn’t finish as an apology to the cats for my absence. This backfired as neither of them liked it at all, so they went out in a huff.
On Thursday I worked a bit, then gave the bathroom a clean as it was getting vile. I then had a physio session in the afternoon. That evening, Françoise and I were invited to Mum & Dad’s for a meal and she kindly offered to drive. We started with aperos outside and then moved inside for a delicious meal of pear with a mustard mayonnaise sauce and toasted almonds to start. The main consisted of tortilla wraps with cucumber and red onion, and chicken skewers with a satay sauce. After the cheese course, we had a vanilla flan served with apple slices. I got home around midnight and stayed up to watch some TV with the cats for a bit before bed.
On Friday, after a chilled morning I made a dash to Saint Pardoux for a ready meal or two. The folks dropped in before their french lesson to give me an extra slice of the dessert from the night before, and then Rigdet stopped by after the lesson to also drop me off a portion of cake he’d made – so I am well-stocked for dessert, if nothing else! I did a few gardening chores that evening once it cooled down a bit, including straining and bottling the 2nd batch of home-made fertiliser I started a few weeks back. I used more leaves and less liquid this time, making for a more concentrated, and somehow even smellier batch. I had a pizza for dinner that evening, which I spent in with the cats.
Perhaps as a reward for staying in, both cats let me sleep in the following morning and it was gone 10 before I finally got up. I decided to do some weeding before it got too hot, and discovered in doing so that I am about to be inundated with courgette. We’ve only one plant but there are four on the go, the first of which is probably ripe already. Courgette recipes gratefully received… Afterwards, I mowed the back lawn for good measure. That evening, I got a last-minute but not completely unexpected call from Benoit & Virginie, inviting me over for a meal. Also in attendance was Benoit’s sister Isabelle, and Fred and Marie. We had a few drinks on their terrace followed by a tomato salad, grilled courgettes (both du jardin), dried meats, cheese and then dessert courtesy of Fred. Suddenly it was midnight so I made my goodbyes and returned to an empty house.
Sunday, Bastille day, found me somewhat jaded from the night before. It took me a few hours to rally but by lunch time I was functioning sufficiently to give Nan a call and to do a little housework. That evening Paul, Nathalie and I were invited to dinner at Françoise’s place. She made a delicious meal of various stuffed veg – mushrooms, aubergines, courgettes, and tomatoes. Afterwards, the cards came out and for once, both P&N were up for a few games. We started with Continentale, a long but fun game, and then finished with once called Barbu, which was a new one for me. Françoise won both games, something that only tends to happen when Matt isn’t around.
And that’s all the news.