Hello all. I am writing this to give me something to do. Due to the truly abysmal weather we have at the moment, we are pretty much housebound and at a loose end. Since Matt’s last entry, the weather has deteriorated still further: we are lucky if we get anywhere near 20 degrees and all day, every day, we are beneath a thick blanket of grey cloud. The rain is more or less constant too; it just oscillates between irritating fine mist and full-on showers. Ok, so the garden needed it, and the well was running very low – but ça suffit maintenant! I really don’t cope well with this kind of weather in late July: I crave the summertime and find it overwhelmingly depressing to be cheated of it like this. Especially seeing as this is more or less a repeat of what happened last year. Here’s praying for a decent summer in 2012…
In other news… precious little has happened, basically! Matt managed to meet his project deadline and last week, submitted his work to the client for testing, so is now waiting for the feedback. There will probably be a few changes to be made, but hopefully it is more or less there now. In between times, he is scouring the internet and also approaching old contacts in London to see what other work is out there.
For my part, I recently had a new website request to occupy myself. A guy in Minneapolis that Jan knows recently set up his own company, offering commercial voice-over services. He needed a website, so Jan gave him my details. It is the second bit of business Jan has put my way – I may have to employer her as Wee Sweetie Site’s Head of US Business Development! Not that I can afford to pay her of course… Anyway, the site’s more or less done now, so like Matt, I am casting around for something to do.
Despite the dire weather, we have still managed to be fairly social lately. Little happened last week until Friday, when we were invited over to our friend Barry’s place in Villebois Lavalette for dinner. As our lovely new friends Lee and Richard live just down the road, we set off early and called in on them to see their house for the first time and to enjoy an aperatif. It is a lovely, old, sprawling place they have found, and despite the fact that it is just a few minutes from the centre of the town, it is on a very quiet road so the location is excellent. They have done very well! We also got to meet their super cute new kitten, Charlie, who is only about 6 weeks old, I think and fits in one hand – although apparently is more than a handful at times!
Afterwards, it was on to Barry’s for an extremely French dinner. The guests were: Jo, a fellow Villeboisien – originally from the UK but has lived out here for about 20 years, Maria, another English long-term Villeboisien, Valerie, also a long-term ex-pat (and quite entertainingly bonkers to boot), a French lady called Sophie and her wise-cracking husband, Denis – an undertaker, and Lolo Vassas, another French lady who lives in the area. Despite stopping over at Lee & Richard’s first, we were among the first to arrive, so sat and enjoyed aperatif #2 while we waited for the rest to show up. In the end, we were all there except for Denis, who was running late, and Valerie, who ultimately had to be called up. She is described by her friends as their “fairy” and is a little bit….er, unfocused is perhaps the word. She likes a smoke and grows her own – and it shows, let’s put it that way. Barry called her up to see where she was and she said “but your dinner is Friday evening”. Barry pointed out that it was in fact Friday already, which apparently took her by surprise. Impressively, 20 minutes later, she was sat at the table and we started to eat.
The ex-pat ladies all speak French very well, so it was a totally francophone evening, which was good. Barry served a typically divine meal – split-pea purée soup with salmon and prawn to start, followed by a superb roast chicken served with gnocci provençale. There was then the obligatory cheese course, followed by a sort of trifle for dessert: marscapone and creme fraiche on top, with a booze-soaked biscuitty base. And all this washed down with some superb red wine too. We eventually left at around 12:30 and came home to 2 very clingy cats, who spent the night on the bed, not letting us out of their sight.
It turned out to be a very French weekend in fact, as the following night, we had Morgan & Maude over to ours for dinner. Morgan, if you remember, works at the Dechetterie in Mareuil and is a very good-looking chap – and Maude, his lady friend, is really funny and great company, so it was great to see them again. They are soon off to San Francisco for a 2-week holiday, the lucky things. They were also joined by a mutual friend of theirs’ who lives in Bordeaux and was up visiting them for the weekend. He is called Cedric, works in IT security and was also a really nice guy, so despite the grim weather, we had ourselves a good fun evening. We served up a Caprese salad to start (tomatoes and basil from our garden) and then our famous lamb/chicken kebabs as the main, with a side of cherry toms and courgettes (also from the garden). For dessert was Matt’s latest triumph: pecan squares – a recipe we first tried when Jan was here in May. They, like the rest of the meal, were a hit. Our guests left us at around midnight and we were soon off to bed after that.
Sunday actually saw the weather improve a little, in that it didn’t rain for most of the day. Matt took the opportunity to mow the lawn, whereas I skulked inside, achieving precious little. The brief respite from the rain is well and truly over now though: it has not stopped all day. Wet cats aplenty at Port 80! The only other bit of news is to report an imminent visit from my school-friend Ben, his wife Camila, and their boy, Wifred. They are making their way to Spain for a wedding, so are stopping over at ours for the night tomorrow before continuing down to Spain. They will then spend a few more days with us the following week on their way back home. Here’s hoping the weather picks up for them!
Ok, that is all from me. I managed to kill a couple hours doing this… now what….?