And The Beat Goes On
Just a few lines to let the three of you who are reading this know what’s going on out here. It is sad to say that even my family don’t bother to read this as I will prove by challenging any of them who do to chastise me either openly on Facebook or by whatever means they see fit. I’m fairly sure that I’ll hear nothing from any of them. I must be a boring old fart. In fact it would be a good exercise to know who is reading this, maybe I’ll pack it in, so if anyone who is reading it could take a mo to use the comments just to let me know, no need to say anything except to say that you’re following the blog and give your name. Thanks to G&J who do follow it.
Onward, upward and full speed ahead, the reason for writing this is a quick update on what’s been happening here while the weather’s not so good. I’m actually waiting for Trevor to come as we’re going out to a restaurant in Lucon for dinner, that’ll be another review to do and I’d just caught up, ah well never mind.
Dorothy and Dave my next door neighbours have gone home, Dorothy was here for the school holidays and Dave was here with Ashley one of their grandsons for 3 weeks. During the last week of their stay and at their behest I organised the transfer of the old house to them and 3 estimates for its demolition and the installation of a fosse septique. This was no mean feat as August is the main holiday period for the French and getting anyone to do anything is tantamount to walking on water, even some restaurants close in August. Also the Englishman who has a house behind the discotheque (he suffers from mega noise on Friday and Saturday nights but has a wonderful view of the foam parties) waited 2 years plus for a single estimate, and in the end I was instrumental in getting that for him. I must hasten to add that this has little to do with my charismatic personality and is much more down to the fact that I have a reasonable command of the French language.
I went to my second Fete on Sunday the Fete des Chaseurs (hunters) with the Family Richard. It’s like a big meal under a very big marquee, there are normally about 150 people from Cezais, but the hunters draw their numbers from further a field and so there were less of the locals that I’d met at my first Fete. I was the only English person there and occasions like this certainly tax the language skills. At these do’s everyone brings their own crockery, cutlery and glasses, it would never happen in England too many people would use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. Here it’s an excuse to get all the family together and to go out and socialise with friends and neighbours, while getting pleasantly squiffy. There are all age ranges from the youngest of children to great grand parents, here in rural France the extended family is still functioning, although I have noticed a change in the young, they seem to be engaging less and less in this type of event. It will truly be a pity if they disengage the family, like so many of the young people in England have, and decide to follow the American model. This fete was as usual great fun, I ended up getting pleasantly mellow and talking to a very attractive woman from Paris, her 12 year old daughter who was incredibly pretty reminded me of a famous female, but I can’t for the life of me place who it is. They were a charming family and it transpired that they only lived around the corner from Christian’s sister Sylvianne in Paris. We did exchange addresses but being mellow I seem to have mislaid it.
Having been interrupted while writing this it has now gone from Friday evening to Tuesday morning and the weather which had been dull for a few days is now stunning again and so Marie-Jo says is set fair for the rest of the month. It is music to my ears but it won’t help with the writing. A case in point is yesterday evening I left the pool at 6PM I could have stayed until 7PM but I was making Pizza for dinner which is a bit labour intensive for me. The Phone rang it was Tony (behind the discotheque man) he wanted some help with a form he’d received, could he come over. What can you say, he didn’t leave until 7.30 then I had all the prep for the pizza and cook it by the time I’d eaten it was 10.15 and so life goes, writing is something I squeeze in when I can. It is true that I could spend less time by the pool, but that’s what I’m here for and the winter is long and cold without the opportunity to sit by pools.
Onward, upward and full speed ahead, the reason for writing this is a quick update on what’s been happening here while the weather’s not so good. I’m actually waiting for Trevor to come as we’re going out to a restaurant in Lucon for dinner, that’ll be another review to do and I’d just caught up, ah well never mind.
Dorothy and Dave my next door neighbours have gone home, Dorothy was here for the school holidays and Dave was here with Ashley one of their grandsons for 3 weeks. During the last week of their stay and at their behest I organised the transfer of the old house to them and 3 estimates for its demolition and the installation of a fosse septique. This was no mean feat as August is the main holiday period for the French and getting anyone to do anything is tantamount to walking on water, even some restaurants close in August. Also the Englishman who has a house behind the discotheque (he suffers from mega noise on Friday and Saturday nights but has a wonderful view of the foam parties) waited 2 years plus for a single estimate, and in the end I was instrumental in getting that for him. I must hasten to add that this has little to do with my charismatic personality and is much more down to the fact that I have a reasonable command of the French language.
I went to my second Fete on Sunday the Fete des Chaseurs (hunters) with the Family Richard. It’s like a big meal under a very big marquee, there are normally about 150 people from Cezais, but the hunters draw their numbers from further a field and so there were less of the locals that I’d met at my first Fete. I was the only English person there and occasions like this certainly tax the language skills. At these do’s everyone brings their own crockery, cutlery and glasses, it would never happen in England too many people would use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. Here it’s an excuse to get all the family together and to go out and socialise with friends and neighbours, while getting pleasantly squiffy. There are all age ranges from the youngest of children to great grand parents, here in rural France the extended family is still functioning, although I have noticed a change in the young, they seem to be engaging less and less in this type of event. It will truly be a pity if they disengage the family, like so many of the young people in England have, and decide to follow the American model. This fete was as usual great fun, I ended up getting pleasantly mellow and talking to a very attractive woman from Paris, her 12 year old daughter who was incredibly pretty reminded me of a famous female, but I can’t for the life of me place who it is. They were a charming family and it transpired that they only lived around the corner from Christian’s sister Sylvianne in Paris. We did exchange addresses but being mellow I seem to have mislaid it.
Having been interrupted while writing this it has now gone from Friday evening to Tuesday morning and the weather which had been dull for a few days is now stunning again and so Marie-Jo says is set fair for the rest of the month. It is music to my ears but it won’t help with the writing. A case in point is yesterday evening I left the pool at 6PM I could have stayed until 7PM but I was making Pizza for dinner which is a bit labour intensive for me. The Phone rang it was Tony (behind the discotheque man) he wanted some help with a form he’d received, could he come over. What can you say, he didn’t leave until 7.30 then I had all the prep for the pizza and cook it by the time I’d eaten it was 10.15 and so life goes, writing is something I squeeze in when I can. It is true that I could spend less time by the pool, but that’s what I’m here for and the winter is long and cold without the opportunity to sit by pools.
No comments:
Post a Comment