Well, that was unexpected. We went to bed last night feeling cautiously optimistic, based on the final polls, and the betting markets, which both gave Remain a slight edge. We awoke early, thanks to Louis, to find our worst fears had been realised, and Brexit is a reality.
This is bad from a macro perspective, for all the reasons Will mentioned in his previous post. It’s also terrible for us on a personal level. Our right to live here permanently is now in question. Will is still waiting to hear about his application for naturalisation, and I fear the vote could impact their decision. Already having dual-nationality, I am not eligible to apply. I have spent the last hour researching permanent residency in France, and in theory, I meet all the requirements. So that is now high up on my list of things to do. In addition, the majority of our retirement funds are in UK, and with the pound taking a nose dive, they are now worth even less than before.
Furthermore, this does not bode well for the US Presidential election in November. Although Clinton currently has a strong lead in the polls, a lot could change between now and then. Months ago, it seemed that the Leave camp didn’t stand a chance, but fear and isolationism prevailed in the end. There is nothing to say the same couldn’t happen in the States, and we’ll soon have a President Trump. And on that cheery note, I’ll now fill you in on what we’ve been up to recently.
Last Friday, we had our penultimate rehearsal at MeH. We had a concert the following day, so spent the time going over the songs from the set list. We left for St Pardoux the next day in the afternoon, to set up the equipment and do a sound check. The concert was for the Fete de la Musique, which takes place every year on the 21st of June, although in our case, it was the Saturday before. There are concerts held all over the country, in cities of all sizes, and small events like ours. The idea is to give amateurs a chance to perform in public, so the first part of our concert was songs by the kids who take lessons at MeH. There was a group of six-year-olds, who were very cute. Also, a woman in her 80’s who recently started playing the violin, who played a duet with Alain, and later, with a group of kids.
We’d spent a few hours in the afternoon doing the sound check, and finally getting a levels right. Sound and equipment problems are often the biggest problem at MeH concerts, so it was a relief to have everything in order before we played. We then took a break for dinner (pizza from L’Italien, courtesy of Alain), and the kids started playing around 8:30. There were around 50 people in attendance when we started, despite the weather. Although it only rained a wee bit earlier in the day, it was a cool, breezy night, so not great for standing around outdoors. When it was our turn to play, we discovered that our work that afternoon was for naught. Mainly, there were problems with the mics feeding back, creating an awful racket on stage. Despite this, we played fairly well, so there was a least one bright spot.
Not much happened on Sun or Mon, apart from some gardening and lawn mowing. Lucien gave us some wooden stakes, and I used them to prop up the fence around the veggie plot. We planted six tomato plants and some butternut squash a few weeks ago, and all but one of the tomato plants are on death’s door. We may try to find some replacements, although it’s a bit late in the season. There are cherries on both trees, but they are small and not very sweet. We finally have some raspberries appearing in the front garden, and there are tasty as ever. The bamboo is loving the wet weather, and we do battle with it daily to prevent stalks coming up.
The weather continued improving on Tuesday, and we temps around 25 with lots of sun. This was the day of our next concert, which was the official Fete de la Musique day, at Chez Gis. This is our friend, Gislaine’s restaurant, a road-side cafe on the route nationale near La Coquille, about 20 min from us. This was a much smaller affair in terms of the number of performers, eight adults in total. We arrived in the afternoon and quickly got everything set up. Our “stage” was a section of parking lot in front of the restaurants, with lorries rolling by. The sound check went well, and the sound was very good throughout the evening. We also played very well, and made very few mistakes. There were 30ish people in attendance, and they seemed to appreciate us.
On Wed, we got a call from Sophie inviting us to dinner that night. The occasion was for us to see Philippe, one of their foster children. I met him over four years ago at a training course when we were both unemployed. It was through him that we met Sophie and Dom, and he takes pleasure in reminding us all of that fact. He lives in Chambéry, in the Savoie, where S & D used to live. He is visiting for a week, helping them around the house. We arrived around six, and lounged around on the patio in the 32 degree heat. We were invited to use the jacuzzi, but the idea of sitting in even hotter water on an already hot day didn’t appeal. Sophie made pizzas from scratch, with a huge variety of toppings including mushrooms that Dom had picked that morning. We brought along a batch of margaritas, and they went down a treat. We left when the sun started setting, around 10:30.
It was 32 again yesterday, and got to enjoy it since work is quiet for both of us. Philippe stopped over for an hour, and we had lunch outside. We did a bit of practice for our gig tomorrow, and not much else. Bud’s site is now finished, and that leaves me with little else going on. Will has been working with his nightmare client, and things seem to be moving along there. I have one small project for Abby to finish up, and nothing else scheduled after that. So the plan is take the summer off, and hope that I can line up something for the autumn.
We’re actually going to have a holiday this year. Our neighbours Nadine and Jean Claude recently moved to the Gard, north of Nimes on the south coast. They’ve asked us to come and house sit for a week at the end of July. It’s an area we’ve never been to, and they have a pool, so we’re very much looking forward to it. I also booked a hotel for Tours for when Dad comes to visit in September. We’ve got a few visitors scheduled too, including Anne and Andrew who arrive next week for a few days. Cyril and his family are spending a few nights with us in August on their way to a place they’ve rented for a week. Also, Mary Carol will join us for a week in October, where she will take advantage of the peace and quiet to get some writing done.
This weekend marks our departure from Musique en Herbe, and we told Alain as much on Tuesday. We’re off to Nontron this afternoon to set up for tomorrow night’s performance. This is the one with the dance school, and it’s paid event with up to 200 people in attendance. We’re doing about 15 songs in total, and half of them will be the music for the dancers. As such, it’s important that we play correctly, and at a tempo they expect. We made recordings of these songs back in April, and they’ve been practising to that, which is fine as long as we play them the same way. We have a rehearsal with them tonight at 8:30, and another one tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully, that will be enough. I haven’t been nervous for any of our previous concert this year, but being a paid event for a large audience definitely changes that.