This is how the story begins…..*
I went into town an hour early yesterday because I had to renew my bus ticket and sell NHL 2k3 for Olivier. As the school year is starting I had to queue (wait in line) for the bus ticket. I waited half an hour without moving an inch, so I left without renewing my ticket. There was a mass of people at Mega Games. I presume they were all selling their old games before going back to school. I didn’t bother to go in. I arrived at City Center hot and flustered. I don’t like first lessons anyway.

I settled down to read while I waited for my new pupil. After twenty minutes I asked Lionel if he had the phone number. Lionel phoned for me. The time had been changed without either of us knowing. My lesson has now been moved to Wednesday. We have to get through 70 hours of lessons before October 8th. He should have started at the beginning of August. Fat chance.

Sold Olivier’s game for more than he was expecting and only had to wait 15 minutes to sort out my ticket in the end.

*Do you remember Funnybones?

Spider in the works?
I wrote about a spider in Dom's room on 29th August. It is now half past five on the 31st and I still can't see it. Can you see it? Can you see this?

Winter is a coming in
Dom called me in to remove the first giant spider of the season this morning. If there are a lot, we are told, there will be a hard winter. I'm not super brave, I suck them up with the Hoover.

Goodbyes
Our friends have returned to England, still feeling ill. Fortunately the flight is just an hour. I bet they’ll be glad to get home. Even though they were staying at the campsite, the house feels empty now that they’ve gone.

This is the lovely postcard I received fron Michelle in Norway. Rob loves it. I think it reminds him of when he used to go fishing with his Norwegian Grandpa. 

Peyton Place
Yes it was that book. Would you believe I couldn't put it down. Perhaps I'm becoming middle aged. Dom treated me to a copy of a couple of short stories by Isaac Asimov the other day. We'd just gone into town to get her Russian Dictionary for next year. I see she sometimes reads it before she goes to sleep.

Lourdes
A couple of weeks back the Pope visited Lourdes. The poor Pope and the French population were treated to a long speech from the President (This could only happen in a republic). I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help wondering what would happen if he got better……

As I’m in a theological mood, I listened to a very interesting program on BBC radio 4 about Black theology. I would have learned more, unfortunately, the radio kept blacking out. The program started off by talking about the colour of God. Interesting question, Olivier says blue. What colour is God for you?

Back again
I’m sorry I haven’t been here sooner. Life has been quite eventful. Our English visitors have had the holiday from hell. As well as being a sad time for them, the weather has been dreadful. They went out to eat in La Rochelle on Wednesday and have come down with food poisoning. The 14 year old is very ill and Rob just phoned to tell me they are waiting for a second visit from the Doctor. I hate to say it, but I have heard talk that some of the more touristy eating places do have a bad reputation. As locals we have our repertoire of more select places and try to guide our friends there.

Lots of work too. Two very enjoyable weeks of intensive refresher courses. I hope my students have enjoyed themselves as much as I did!

September starts with a 70 hour contract. I think this must be the first September I won’t be worrying about whether I will work or not.

Where is he?
Has anyone seen or heard from Spyke? Has he moved to Germany? Has any one been to Denmark and come across a multilingual taxi driver? Where is he?

Just my luck
When Lionel's photocopier died he took out an account with the office supplies shop. They have a really fast, state of the art model. I made a special trip into town today, in the heat, just to get my photocopies ready for next week. The photocopier has broken down.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Sting::The Police
   
2. BMW:: car
   
3. Jeremy:: Irons
   
4. Audacious:: daring
   
5. Drag Queen:: Danny Larue
   
6. Title:: For Whom the Bell Tolls
   
7. Stamp:: letter
   
8. Bad:: good
   
9. Snow White:: 7 dwarfs
   
10. Delegate:: pass on

??
Which novel starts with the opening line;
‘Indian summer is like a woman. Ripe, hotly passionate, but fickle, she comes and goes as she pleases so that one is never sure whether she will come at all, nor for how long she will stay.’?Who wrote it?

I am here…. Somewhere
I‘ve been rather busy. I cleaned and painted the kitchen. When Rob gets round to taking a photo I’ll let you see it. It’s yellow and so much brighter than it was before. I’ve added some new posters and am very pleased with the result. I did it all by myself! I also spring cleaned the toilet and put up new posters etc. It really is a different room now.

Last Friday Olivier had a minor operation at a clinic in La Rochelle. He had to stay in over night and has been ‘uncomfortable’ since he came home. You can imagine I’ve been pretty taken up by trying to keep him entertained. Normally he’s so active and never stops moving around, he even leaps about when he’s playing with his Xbox. Now you know why I wasn’t around.
Next week will be a bit the same as I have lessons every morning and friends are coming over from England for two weeks. They stay on the campsite as we haven’t got the room, but we’ll be out on trips etc. It’s not going to be easy as our friend’s ex-husband dropped down dead about three weeks ago, he was only 47. They had been separated for almost two years and were due to start divorce proceedings this month. She was hoping they could get back together again. Problem is, they had a couple of really nice holidays here with us and it will bring back a lot of memories.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Testicles:: men
   
2. Ribald:: crude
   
3. Auction:: e-bay
   
4. Inch:: mile
   
5. Tony:: Blair (!)
   
6. Phony:: false
   
7. Stool:: bench
   
8. Coyote:: animal
   
9. Cinderella:: slippers
   
10. Battery:: power

Memory book.
I’ve been getting fed up with comments about my forgetting to do things. I’ve started a memory book and I’m going to write everything down in it. If I remember and if I can find a pen.

Progress report
The hall and corridor and finished now. It looks lighter and more spacious(I chose white). Next is the kitchen, so I’ll be furniture humping today so that I can get at the walls, we’ll just have to live in a reduced kitchen for a few days. Wish me luck!