It was another busy week socially speaking. On Sunday, we went to Villebois for the Fete de St Augustin, their annual end-of-the-summer festival. Lee and Richard organised a dinner for around 25 friends and neighbours. They asked people to pitch in, so I made my tomato pesto tortellini salad. They also had two types of chili, lots of quiches and tarts, and salads plus many desserts. We arrived around 6 and others started arriving an hour later. Will and I knew nearly everyone there since many had been there the year before. We chatted a bit with their former French teacher, and English lady called Corrina. We also spent a lot of time with Sarah and Robert. She did most of the talking, and is quite entertaining. He is a bit strange, to put it mildly.
There were fireworks around 11 and we had a great view of them from the house. Will and I stuck to the vodka all night, except for a round of beer from the buvette. We wandered out with Lee around 1am but most things were closing down. We considered a go on the dodge-em’s (bumper cars) but remembering injuries from previous years, decided against it. Richard and Glenda went to bed around 3, but we stayed up with Lee till 5 or so. We didn’t feel too bad the next day, and the full English breakfast helped. We got home around 1 and chilled out until the evening. Unwisely, we’d invited some people over for apero’s that night. It was Eva and Luca, the daughter of Benoit and Virginie. The latter couple were meant to come, but had to work late so didn’t. Eva was here to give us some gardening tips for our plants, since she is an expert grower. She suggested some fertiliser which we’ve already purchased and tried.
Phillipe stopped by around 8:30, wanting to come in for a vodka. It was his last night of freedom before the start of the school year, and he was already well on his way. We later learned he went to Gael’s where he stayed until 2 consuming untold amounts of booze. We saw him the next night instead. Gael and Corrine invited us to fish and chips in St Front, where we had been a few weeks before. Their daughter Laetifa was here visiting, and she joined us along with Manu & Mathilde and their kids, plus Sabine and Alain. Both he and Phillipe were very subdued, having work the next day. It was another nice night and we had a few beers with our meal while sitting outside. Lewis and his guests were also there, so we chatted with him briefly, mainly to set up a time to discuss a bit of work.
He came over on Friday am and we’re finally going to get their web site and up running. They were going to offer language courses on line, but have since taken jobs teaching English in Paris. They are going back tomorrow, so wanted to get things sorted before then. We’re also going to move an existing site to our hosting. Not much else happened in terms of work last week. It’s super quiet for me, although there may be another project for Abby in the works. Will continues to wait on people to come back to him.
We had a couple other events on Friday. The first was the AGM for Milhac Loisirs and I am now the President. The other board members are Myriam (treasurer), Sophie (secretary), Jackie (vice secretary) and Barry who decided to be on the board after all. We laid out our plans for the next year, which mainly means dropping a few of the less successful events. We had drinks afterwards and I got back home around 8, just in time to go back out.
With our Fridays free again, we took advantage and had a curry night at Manu and Mathilde’s. They also invited Sylvie and Olivier, the couple from Marseilles and their kids. It was a pleasant evening, and we ate outside. Manu made his own onion bhajis, using chick pea flour. He also sauteed prawns in garlic and parsley with chili powder. The wine flowed freely throughout the evening, and we had some interesting discussions. This was the first time I understood nearly everything that was said, and didn’t have to concentrate as much to do so. We’re coming up on seven years here, so I guess it’s about time. We foolishly had a cleanser when we got back and watched Young Frankenstein, starring Gene Wilder who just died.
We were both a bit delicate yesterday, but decided to invite Bryan over for an apero. We lent him some tv shows on a hard drive, and he’d been unable to watch them on any device. Carol is back in the UK, so he’s on his own. He came by with their laptop and we finally got it to play the shows. We had an apero outside before heading to our next event. Earlier that afternoon, we’d received a dinner invitation from Benoit and being gluttons, accepted it.
In addition to Benoit, Virginie, Eva and Lucas were Jackie, Jenny and Olivier who are back together plus Mathias. They brought along Sam who’s now working for Jenny. His parents are English but they moved here when he was 7 so is bilingual. In fact, his French accent is perfect but his English one sounds ever so slightly off. We sat outside and started with margaritas made with blue curacao, then vodka tonics before moving onto rose, then red wine. Dinner was turkey fajitas, served with corn, beans, tomatoes, creme fraiche and different hot sauces. We had cheese and then an apple and blackberry crumble for dessert, which was served with champagne. It was another nice night, both in terms of weather and company. We were both tired when we got home and crashed out in front of the telly before retiring shortly thereafter. I’m pleased to say we have nothing planned for the coming week.