Things continue to be quiet around here, in regards to pretty much everything. There’s been very little change on the work front. I did a couple of day’s work for Alan, our friend with his own business. This was just making some minor changes to the work I did over the summer. Will has also been busy the past few days on a translation job that his brother, Dave found for him. Unfortunately, he’s only getting €100 for €300 worth of work but at this point, we’ll take what we can get. Apart from that, I still have the iPad app potential but very little else. If nothing happens in the next few weeks, then I’ll have to get serious about finding a job in London at the start of the year.
No news on the vandalism at Will’s dad’s shop. The police agree with us about who did it; but they were unable to find any evidence so at this point, we’re not hopeful that the f**ker will be brought to justice. It’s a terrible situation for Andrew since his business was really starting to take off and he was hoping to do this kind of work full time. Now, he’s not sure if he’s going to stay at the same place, or even whether he’ll continue with this kind of work. It’s very frustrating knowing who the perpetrator is, but not being able to do anything about it.
On a happier note, we had a really great evening on Saturday night. The 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Day in the UK, and it’s also known as Bonfire Night. Guy Fawkes was a Catholic and along with a group of conspirators, decided to blow up the Houses of Parliment. They were caught in the act and to commemorate the victory, he is burned in effigy every year on this date. In addition, fireworks displays are held in various places all over the country so the holiday is also called Fireworks Night. Here in the Dordogne, we had our own celebration with Lee and Richard, along with Nat and Jill and their friend, Veronique who was in town for a visit.
I wanted to make a traditional English meal so with help from Jamie O, I made a chicken and mushroom pie, topped with mashed potatoes instead of puff pastry, so closer to a shepherds pie. This was served with orange glazed carrots and peas with mint and endive. For a starter, we served curried butternut squash soup, one of our favourite recipes, made with veg from our garden. For dessert, Jill made parkin, a cake traditionally served on Bonfire Night, made with oats, ginger and treacle. I also introduced everyone to ‘smores, an American treat which consists of roasted marshmellows, served between ginger biscuits and milk chocolate. It’s meant to be served on graham crackers, but they are impossible to find here or in the UK but the biscuits worked fine too. The ladies stayed until midnight or so and had a lovely time by all accounts. The rest of us stayed up until the wee hours, drinking and carousing which is typical for the nights when we’re together.
Sunday was largely a write-off. Lee and Richard left us around 11:30, and then Will and I spent the day on the sofa, watching movies. I requested Amazon vouchers for my birthday, so we recently received a supply of new material including True Grit, How to Train A Dragon and The Hangover. We also got the latest series of Mad Men and Family Guy so we had plenty to keep us busy throughout the day. Will spent all day yesterday translating his document and I spent most of it playing poker.
Tomorrow, we are going to Sharon’s to talk business and then she’s making dinner for us. Thursday, we’re taking Lola to the car place in Perigueux where she’s getting new shock absorbers put in to satisfy the Control Technique. I received the parts I ordered from the States and I’m just hoping they are the correct ones. We have very little planned for the weekend.
The weather has turned colder, with temps in the teens during the day and cooler at night. It’s meant to get back into the high teens over the next few days but all the trees have lost their leaves so it feels wintery. We’ve been having a fire most nights which is enough to keep us warm but it also seems to excite the mites who have taken up residence with us. They like to bite which leaves itchy sores behind that last for days – so we got that going for us, which is nice. We bought some spray that’s meant for fleas but I’m hoping mites don’t like it either so we’ll give that a go when we can open the windows. And that’s what passes for excitement around here. I hope to have better news next time.