Watched a dated and disappointing 2hr episode of Morse in bed after last nights excesses which was very naughty as it was obviously a beautiful morning out there. The new month has hopefully heralded new weather and we had our first breakfast on the poop deck.
Collette cracked on with her washing which she wanted to finish and get dried the old fashioned way so I rigged a line and it was good to see Doucette looking like a laundry barge again. I fitted a new carpet in the shower/heads before we mounted the steel wheeled steeds and hit Atac for a shopping raid. I have grown to love shopping in France. I wander round spending interminable amounts of time studying wines, cheeses and meat cuts and trying to make some sense of the pricing and what the hell is what. For example I needed some single cream for dauphinoise. The bottle said creme freiche. Now whats that all about. Thankfully it said in English on the small print on the reverse label, single cream. You need a bit of help over here! The crew purchased loads of fruit of course. Only time will tell how much of it goes overboard, although I am slowly munching my way through an orchards worth of cherries whilst penning this blog. I did get a result hopefully on a new water hose. there were two identical tickets pricing the hose at 32 and 21 euros. I enquired and was told I could have it for 21 so in the trolly it dropped.
Back at Doucette, excited with my spanking new hose, I uncoil its enormous length (as someone once said) only to discover my fittings would not fit on the 19mm newby. Maybe not such a bargain still I would be able to fill up in a couple of minutes once I found some new fittings. Sounds like a minor issue but one has to remember that the French specialise in have a plethora of different fittings for water hoses and I have just about completed my set. My only hope is a one off adaptor which I have assured the crew is the case. For now she seems placated.
We hit the loungers for some lobster time. Eric and Jill on there catamaran "Duet", out of port solent were on the front sunbathing and inevitably we started chatting. The boats are just a few feet apart so it was a novel way of having drinks without anyone actually hosting. Nice one. We talked and drank on this balmy evening. This was what it should have been like for the last month and suddenly it was 8.30. I knocked up the dauphinoise which was never going to cook in time and lit the magma. Collette prepped the esperges and these were soon on. The phone rang and we spent a lovely 35 minutes laughing with the smeds, frammo`s and browns on Just Betty. Excitement levels are past bursting point for our chums who count the days before they too set off across the channel for a 3 month French sojourn.
Thanks to them the esperges have gone too soft and well past there best but it was very worth it. The dauphinoise had still not cooked even though the gas bottle is still running somehow. We had bread as an able substitute with the belly pork and the meal was still a delight which we enjoyed sat on the poop with some mellow Andorra skiing grooves drifting into the night sky.
One day of perfect weather and a new month and the world is a wonderful place again.
No comments:
Post a Comment