When I logged on to the French news the scale of devastation caused by last weekends storm really hit home. I knew it was ‘ a bigee’ but I had no idea how many had suffered. When you look at the department next to us it is amazing that all I had to fret about was a few hours of no electricity and a couple of fallen branches. It would seem that we are indeed the lucky ones, as of Wednesday evening there were still over 30,000 homes in our region alone without power. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost so much more than electricity.
Molly is back at school now, (small pause for a mummy happy dance), and despite being unimpressed by her early wake up and get your clothes on call the ré-entrée went quite well. Until I turned the calender, I had entirely forgotten that I was going for another French lesson, with coffee, in the morning, so not only had the undeniable fact that it was now March taken me aback slightly, the fact that I had not done any revision over the holidays was a little concerning as well. Thankfully she was gentle with me and tried to drum into my brain the staggering number of ways you can say ‘their’. There are far too many for my limited comprehension, and really is there any need for that many? Apparently so.. By the time we started on grammatical rules I was in desperate need of some gin to help me through, but as it was still only 10.30am I decided that coffee was a more sensible approach. I sometimes despair that I will ever understand this crazy language, but perhaps it would help if I did my ‘homework’. This week I will defiantly do some revision. No I will.
I was very much looking forward to my first Tuesday afternoon with no swimming, but my hopes were dashed as I dropped Moo off at school and Maitress Marion pleaded with me to join them as there are 5 new students who came of age during the holidays and have entered the school, and no extra parents who signed up to accompany them. I knew I should have shaved my legs last night. Instead of getting ahead of my chores to compensate for my unexpected sortie I found myself once more in front of the computer browsing the tourist information sites for Macau. It is 6 weeks till we fly and the excitement is mounting. It looks to be a very strange place with 29sq miles of Island and 28 casinos. There does seem to be a fair amount to do other than gamble though and with mainland China as little as a 15 minute bus ride away, the possibilities could be endless. (This is me focusing on the present rather than the future of course…..hmm.) Back to the reality of now and with the weather gifting us a day of warm sunshine I took the bold step of hanging the washing out in the garden to dry. That may not seem like a terribly dramatic move, but it is really beginning to feel like spring. Wednesday saw me resume my role of teacher. In exchange for my French Lessons I help the Lady’s son with his English, although it has to be said that I am not much more suited to the role of teacher than that of student, but it seems to be going OK. The week was dissolving before my eyes and with all of the preparations, and paperwork they entail, I decided the best thing I could do was make some new curtains for the bedroom. My pursuit of diversionary activities knows no bounds. I hunted through my fabric bags and found the perfect piece. After hanging on to it for nigh on 20 years I have finally found a use for my black pinstripe! When I bought it I had visions of making the perfect suit, then a dress, then it was going to be my duvet set, it has travelled the globe with me and at last it is ‘just right’. There is so much of it that I am finally going to make the fabric covers for my shelves too (trimmed with plum velvet don’t you know). It’s amazing how inspired you get when you know there will be folk staying in your house when you are on holiday. I just hope they like the ‘city/gothic’ theme that seems to be developing …..
A Bientot.
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