Please excuse the long delay between posts. I was meant to do one the day before my trip, but ran out of time. It’s also my birthday, which would normally be a non-work day, but this is the only item on the to do list, so I’ll make an exception.
The weekend before I left, we had a very social weekend. It started on Thursday night with dinner at Hannah and Louis’, along with Alessandro, Emma and their neighbour Clare. Emma is Alessandro’s former partner, and they have a little girl, Camille, who was there too. We’d met Clare once before and enjoyed her company. She is English, and works here as a translator, and although she has excellent vocab/grammar, her accent is fairly atrocious. Our hosts made some dips to start, then soup, followed by a beef stew with mashed potatoes. We forgot to remind them that Will doesn’t eat beef, but he did a decent job on the meal anyway. In addition, Hannah is following a strict diet, and Emma doesn’t eat gluten or dairy, so they had enough limitations to deal with already. They live about 40 minutes away and it was a school night, so we didn’t stay late.
On Friday, we went to Perigueux in the morning to collect Dolores (the Auris), our new car. We first had to stop by the prefecture to get a certificate of ownership, but that was mostly painless. That afternoon, we visited the insurance people, and signed everything to get the payment for Lola. In the end, we netted €2600 (after the deductible), which was more than expected. They also waived all costs associated with the towing, so we’re very pleased with the service we’ve received from them. I was invited to dinner that evening, by Peter, my real estate agent client. They were having an annual get together at a chateau near Brantome, and invited Will and I to dinner and to stay the night. Will declined the offer since he doesn’t really work with any of them, but I accepted the dinner invite. The food was decent, but not exceptional so we won’t be going there, but it was good to meet the team and spend some time with my best client.
Will went to rehearsal that evening, and I joined them after dinner, arriving around 10:45. Josiane and Gilles decided to attend to get an idea of what we were playing and to discuss arrangements for the Soiree Britannique. Josiane confirmed to Alain (the head of MeH) that she only wanted a few of them to play at the soiree, and not the kids. After they left, Alain and Gislaine, who will be singing with us, continued to argue about the evening, and the evening ended with him storming out in a rage.
On Saturday, we were invited to Olivier and Emmanuel’s place, new friends who live in the Charente. We met them at Alessandro’s a few weeks before, and they invited us, plus Alessandro, Emma and his/their kids for dinner. They live in a hamlet near Montbron, in a house that they’ve done a lot of work to over the years. It’s completely finished now, except for the swimming pool they’re putting in, but has been a work in progress for many years. It’s a converted barn, now with four bedrooms and two living rooms including a large lofted one upstairs. It’s all beautifully done, including hand-carved cupboards, and wooden staircase. They met in Paris when they were 19, and have been together for 18 years, most of them spent here. Olivier works for the securitie sociale in Angouleme, and until recently, Emmanuel was the director general for the Chamber of Commerce in Pau, about 4 hours away. He’s currently in a dispute with his boss, and will likely return to work once it’s resolved.
We had a lovely meal, starting with fresh prawns, sauteed in garlic and whiskey (Will had cold cuts) served with champagne. After Alessandro and crew arrived (late, comme toujours) we sat down to a meal of squash soup, followed by roast pork and veg, which was all excellent. Emmanuel is the chef, and he also made some bread, including a loaf of challah (Jewish bread). He has friends in Israel, so the two of them have been a number of times. They will be accompanying Alessandro and his teenage daughter to Italy next week, and invited us to go along. We were tempted, but being that I’m just back from holiday, and we’re not sure we could handle that long with Alessandro, we declined.
I had my first board meeting for Milhac Loisir on Monday, at Josiane’s. We just reviewed the minutes of the AGM, and talked a bit about the musique for the Soiree Britannique. On Tuesday am, Will had an appointment with a jaw specialist at the big hospital in Limoges. We found it ok, but parking was a nightmare. We eventually found a place, then had to register, but the specialist saw Will right after, so we weren’t there for long. Typically for Will, the specialist wasn’t very helpful, but he prescribed some medication and physiotherapy, so we’ll have to see if that helps. We returned home for lunch, then Will took me to Angouleme in the afternoon for my train, which was on time for once. I had a disappointing meal in the hotel restaurant, but apart from that, I had great travel karma.
My outbound plane journey passed quickly since I had a seat-buddy that I chatted with for most of the flight. Mom got me a seat in premium economy for my birthday, so I got to use the express check-in and security lines, which is a great help at CDG. Mike picked me up from the airport, and I spent a few hours with him before stopping by to see my dad. He had been in hospital the day before for dizziness, but he was fine by the time I saw him. Afterwards, I had dinner with Grammy at Doolittles, where I polished off a whole rack of ribs. That night, Mike and I visited our friend Ron who lives near my mom’s.
Thursday started with an appointment at the eye doctor where I got a new prescription. Unsurprisingly, it’s much stronger than the one I got here. I had the idea to reuse my current frames, but in the end, it worked out cheaper to get new frames too. I got exact replacements of my current glasses, one just for distance, and one with progressive lenses that react to light. I’m wearing them now, and they are ten times better than my old pair, both in terms of the prescription, and the quality of the lenses, so I’m very happy. I didn’t buy much else except a few things from Target.
Dad wasn’t driving because of his dizzy spell, so I volunteered to chauffeur him. We had lunch and ran some errands in the early afternoon. That evening we had birthday dinner for Maddie and me with the whole family. This included my cousin Addison who plays in a band, so we had a long catch up about music. Dinner was at a place called Crave that serves sushi amongst other things, so a bunch of us ordered quite a bit of that which was very enjoyable. I also had a couple of margaritas, plus some lovely desserts including cheese cake. Afterwards, Mike and I payed another visit to Ron for another catch-up with him.
On Friday, I picked up Dad and took him to play bridge, then did a bit of shopping before meeting Mom for lunch. We went to the Lowry Grill where I had a lovely burger. Afterwards, I searched in vain for a present for Maddie. I was looking for Wii games, but had to try five stores in different parts of town before finding the right ones. Dinner that night was at Mom’s with Grammy, Mimi, Ben, Ione and the boys. She made brisket and carrot ring, two of my favourites plus banana cake for dessert. We all went to synagogue that evening for part one of the Bat Mitzvah. Maddie didn’t have much to do that night, and there was a quick dessert afterwards, mostly with things Mom made. She and I left to collect cousin Mary Lou at the airport before she dropped me at Mike’s.
The Bat Mitzvah itself was Saturday morning. Maddie did a number of different parts, and did a great job on all of it. I did a small part like I did at Miles’, and was slightly more confident this time around. Lunch was served after the service, and I spent most of it with Car and Steve and their kids, plus Bonnie. Suzy and Steve made a slideshow of Maddie pictures that included some cute video footage too. Afterwards, I took Dad home, then spent a few hours at Mike’s before heading downtown with Mom for the night’s festivities. This was a dance party that included dinner and an open bar, which I took great advantage of. I spent more time with Car and Steve, but also got a chance to catch up with Steve’s sisters, Pam and Beth who came from Chicago. Steve’s twin nephews and their mom were also there, and I hadn’t seen them since they were 5 years old. I didn’t do a lot of dancing, but the kids really enjoyed themselves.
Sunday morning was quiet until Mom and I went to lunch with Mimi, Mary Lou, Steve and Kathy, at the Good Day Cafe. The latter two are my uncle and aunt who live in Fargo and I had a nice chat with them. Afterwards, Mike picked me up and we hung out at his place. A couple of friends stopped by including Aaron and his wife, Sam. I met Aaron many years ago when he came out to SF with Mike and they stayed at my place. I hadn’t seen him since then, and it was good to get reacquainted. Mom picked me up and we drove out to Steve and Suzy’s place where we had dinner with them, plus Steve’s sisters and their partners. It was a lovely day, around 27C, so everyone took advantage by having a bbq. There were six kids in all, and they played together nicely and didn’t require much supervision. We played a game called Cards Against Humanity, which contains adult language and situations, so we had to stop playing every time a kid came into the room. We left after dinner, and Mom dropped me at Mike’s for a few hours before he took me home.
Mom and I spent the day together on Monday, my last full day. The weather had turned a lot cooler, and it was overcast with some showers, but that didn’t stop us from having a day out. We first visited Grammy, then tried to find me some work shoes before heading south-east to a town called Red Wing, on the MN WI border. We had lunch at a cute tea room/cafe in the old pottery factory, then took a drive up the WI side of the river to view the spectacular fall foliage. It was just peaking that weekend and the colours were as good as I remember. We stopped at a fish monger in St Paul before heading home for our meal of seared tuna with Asian greens. In between, we ran out to get her a new computer. I got it mostly set up that evening before heading to Mike’s for a few hours.
Tuesday morning I did a bit more tinkering on Mom’s new computer. She wanted to get Office, so bought it and tried to install it. One might think that installing Microsoft software on a brand new computer with a Microsoft operating system would be easy, but twas not the case. She eventually succeeded with the help of their “support”, but it boggles the mind that they can’t make two of their main products to work together. After not installing Office, she dropped me off at Mike’s place. We had lunch at a pub nearby, although for various reasons, I didn’t have much to eat. It was 2-for-1 Bloody Marys, so all was not lost. Later he took me to the airport, where I breezed through check-in / security for my flight. I had a row of three seats to myself, so slept for a few hours. My return train was on time, and Will got me at Angouleme for a shorter-than-average ride home.
While I was away, Will had to sort out more issues with the music for the Soiree Britannique. The details are too dull to go into, but in the end, it turned out more or less how we wanted. Alain from MeH had threatened not to play piano with us, but he relented in the end. The only person not at all happy is Gilles. We had suggested he play with Barry and the Carols, but that didn’t work, which leaves him on his own. Apart from dealing with the drama, Will went to rehearsals on Friday, and had lunch at Josiane and Cammie’s on Sunday. This was followed by cocktails at Carol and Bryan’s in honour of her birthday, so he did manage to leave the house a couple of times. There is probably more to say but by now, I’m sure we’re all bored with this blog post, so I’ll take leave of you to wring out the last drops of my birthday.