Don’t ask why, but Anna calls me the Goon and she is often known as Spanna, so there you go.
So, picking up where Matt left off, Monday morning saw me up and drinking tea by 6:30, thanks to two very over-excited wee kitties who just would not be persuaded to leave me alone or go back to sleep after Matt’s departure. It was totally overcast out and a lot cooler than it has been for days, which wasn’t entirely unwelcome. Anna emerged around 9, mostly recovered from her Bavarian Beer Festival ordeal, which saw her, lederhosen and all, swilling beer till 3am. She decided on an early morning swim to get rid of the cobwebs, so out we went.
This was a fine plan in theory, especially given that the pool, at 26 degrees, was considerably warmer than the air. Only problem with this plan is the getting out bit, especially when you are wearing a thick, sodden t-shirt and shorts and there is no direct sun to help dry you off. Anna did show up with a bag, but I never found out what she had put in there. She had “packed” after coming to that morning and had failed to grab a number of essentials, like underwear, summer shoes, a swimming costume or shorts. That she had a passport and had even made it out of the country still amazes me…
Fortunately, by noon, the sun had demolished the clouds and we were back to scorching heat again. We lunched on the same regulation sandwiches that Matt and I have eaten more or less every day for 8 months (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!) then spent the day chilling by the pool and enjoying the insane frollicks of the boys in the garden. Sharon returned in the late afternoon, much to Oscar’s delight, but was in dire need of a chill out with a stiff drink, so we didn’t see much of her that night.
We had leftovers for dinner, with a few bevvies, and then – surprisingly for us – made it an early night. Mind you, neither of us had exactly started on a full tank of gas that morning. It was an extremely hot and stuffy night so neither of us got great sleep – making my second 5:30am alarm call in a row extremely unwelcome. Thanks, boys… Again, there was nothing for it but to get up and try to wear the little buggers out. Bless ’em.
We decided to head down to the local restaurant in “town” (a 20 min walk away across fields and through woods) to see what the menu du jour was. Unfortunately, the 2 meat options were rabbit or trout, neither of which worked for us, so we thought “hang the expense”, let’s go a la carte. 2 hours, 4 courses and some red wine later and we were obscenely full, but pleased with our decision. After that, it was back for more poolside chilling – most welcome after the walk home in the blazing afternoon sun. That evening, Sharon joined forces with us for dinner: Anna and I put together a curried chicken salad, served cold with various fruits in it, and Sharon made delicious veggie kebabs of mushroom, garlic ciabatta and red onion, with rosemary stems for the skewers, which we ate by the pool. Yum!
Wednesday was…. well, it was pretty much a carbon copy of the previous day: pool action, lunch at the Beauséjour, more pool, dinner (I whipped up some carbonara), booze and bed. It truly is a tough life out here. The one difference was a little cat-related incident in the garden. An unknown, long haired, grey cat appeared out of nowhere during their afternoon frollick and took a swipe at poor Louis (not one of nature’s fighters, bless him. Had it been Smeagol the intruder attacked, he would likely have gotten more than he bargained for!). Louis escaped with a small scratch on his shoulder and a couple small holes in his coat, not that he seems in the least bothered about the whole incident. Next, Oscar surprised them both when they out investigating the pool. I got them both inside no problem, but not without sustaining an impressive 6-inch scratch on my belly, courtesy of the Smeag.
The next morning it was time for Anna’s return journey, the first leg of which involves getting to Limôges. I had managed to find a suitable train from Périgueux which would have gotten Anna to within a short cab ride of the aeroport, so asked Sharon if she would mind getting us as far as Périgueux train station. Sharon immediately offered to take Anna all the way to Limôges and wouldn’t hear a word of protest, which was obviously incredibly kind of her, so 11 am saw us hitting the road. We dropped Anna off at Limôges by around 12:45 and made our gradual way home, ticking quite a number of chores off the list as we went. We eventually returned some 5.5 hours later, both sweaty and in dire need of beverage and swim. It was probably the hottest day so far this year (peaking at 37 degrees), so spending it in the car was a challenge to say the least.
Anyway, Anna made it home safely – and even found that her veggie garden was intact. As part of her nightmare organisational skills for this trip, she never arranged for anyone to water her veggies in her absence, and was expecting to be throwing a lot of lettuce, courgettes and tomatoes away when she got in. Fortunately, her neighbour had taken it upon himself to give the veg a hosing, so they were all fine. Well, as I write this, a storm seems to be coming in. Either that, or someone has replaced all the air in France with wet, warm treacle. Hope it comes soon, we are in need of it.