Today it is a very welcome 24 degrees and (currently at least) we have clear blue skies. I’d like to be able to report that this presages the start of better weather here in the Dordogne, but storms are due to knock us down to just 16 degrees over the weekend and the long-term isn’t looking great. It’s been a really odd few months with weeks of grey punctuated by the odd single day of glorious sun. Last weekend was an extreme example of this. It shot up to 28 degrees on Saturday and remained beautiful and sunny until late afternoon when a storm broke. The next day it was a mere 14 degrees and drizzly – a full 14 degree swing in 24 hours. I really hope we actually get a summer this year, but so far it’s not looking too likely.
Anyway, on with the news. It was a double rehearsal weekend last week. The Friday session was par for the course but the session the following afternoon, in preparation for our gig at our friend’s restaurant, was a lot more pleasing. The only niggle for me is that I am currently minus a crucial guitar pedal. It’s one I ordered only about 2 months ago, and it is an expensive, “boutique” pedal, hand-made by a company in the States. I immediately fell in love with it, so was utterly dismayed that it recently developed a fault and had to be returned, especially given its price tag. It’s particularly vexing that it broke so close to gig time, so I’m not even sure it will make it back to me in time. The company agreed to fix it free of charge, which was nice, but insisted I pay for the outward shipping, which was less nice. Luckily it arrived very quickly, was repaired in a day, and is now en route back to France fingers crossed it will be back in time for our first gig.
We got back from our saturday rehearsal around 4pm and had a brief chill at home before heading down to Milhac to help with preparations for the first (and almost certainly last) Soirée Karaoke. In hindsight, it was probably optimistic to hope that the population of Milhac would be enthused about the concept.
In the end, around 20 people showed up so the event was a financial disaster. However, those 20 people all seemed to have a good time. Matt, of course, stole the show – he got in around 10 different numbers over the course of the evening, ranging from Sinatra to “Lady Marmalade”. Mind you, he had some competition. It is a universal law that there is always one hardcore addict at any given karaoke event, who will get up dozens of times to sing their heart out. You can picture this person at home of an evening, hairbrush in hand in front of the mirror, training for their next gig. Given the dearth of karaoke evenings out here, it was surprising that we had such a person, but whoever she was, she’d somehow caught wind of us and had driven from who knows where to perform. Which she did, repeatedly. A few others got up too, including Barry and the Carols, and also a woman from Milhac Loisirs who had an amazing voice, but it was mostly a 2 horse event.
By around 1am, the karaoke addict had left and Matt had run out of songs he knew so the guy we’d hired to provide the equipment could finally start packing away. It was an hour later when Matt and I left for home and our usual ill-advised nightcap and film before bed.
On the work front, we’re very close to getting Matt’s uncle’s new site live, and then Matt’s got a new project to start for Abby right afterwards. However I’m still in client-induced limbo. I did a count recently and found I have no fewer than 10 websites on the go – and all of them are at the dreaded “waiting for content” stage. I’m confident that most if not all of them will see the light of day, but it’s very frustrating all the same to know I ought to have lots on, but am stuck twiddling my thumbs (and not getting paid). I also fear that they’ll all gang up and descend on me at once with suddenly pressing deadlines. I had a new enquiry this week for a smallish site so hopefully will at least have that to occupy me, unless it too falls into the same quagmire.
On Wednesday evening we had a band practise here for our imminent gig at Jenny’s. This went very smoothly all told so we’re confident our first gig of the season will be a success. We’ve got a couple more rehearsals pencilled in for it and then it will be showtime!
We had a social activity last night. We’d not seen Jenny in ages so invited her over for dinner at the weekend. We invited Benoit and Virginie too so we’d get to see Benoit before he once again heads off to Martinique for work. It turns out actually leaves on the saturday, so we moved the dinner to thursday instead. In the end, there were 8 of us as Jenny’s partner Olivier was in town, as was B&V’s daughter Eva and her boyfriend Lucas.
We had a lovely meal: Matt made his spicy southern fried chicken with sweet potato wedges, and Jenny made the dessert which was a cross between a panna cotta and a crumble. They’re a wonderful crowd too so it was great to see them all. They left us around midnight so despite the mix of vodka, wine and champagne, it was a fairly tame evening and we’re fully functional today.
Matt’s mum is coming over next week for her annual trip -our first visitor of 2016! What with rehearsals, concerts and Matt’s new project, we’ve not planned any trips away like we normally do but I’m sure we can find some things that need doing in the garden to keep her occupied if nothing else! Ok, that’s all I have to report.