A Bientot!
Aside

The French have gone and the silence is deafening; Maman, Daddy, fourteen year old boy G, ten year old boy D ( the one who expects my demise any time soon but seems quite content I’m still here) and five year old E, a little girl with soft curly hair most of the way down her back. Now they are back in France – the boys preparing for a chess tournament.

This time they spoke to me in English voluntarily and I was impressed. I asked them what they liked about England and the parents joined in:-

1 Marmite
2 Cornish pasties.
3 Sausages and bacon.
4 Jacket potatoes
5 Pub meals.
6 Better value clothes.
7 Animal documentaries.
8 Shops where the boys can play video games whilst the parents do boring shopping.

The things they didn’t like:-

1 Young girls looking ‘tatty’.
2 The closing of public conveniences.
3 The profusion of unnecessary traffic cones.
4 The weather – gales, torrential rain and hail stones interspersed with some sunshine in the space of an afternoon.
5 Traffic – they had a nightmarish journey returning on the M4.

We had an early celebration for MTL’s birthday at a Chinese restaurant of which they are fond and of which there is a shortage where they live. We had a charming server but couldn’t decide his/ her gender and then the teenager pronounced her a girl because ‘Granny Pat called her dear.’
One night – at their request - we had a meal of sausages, bacon, Cornish pasties and baked potatoes – by no means our normal fare although we did throw in vegetables. I have to admit it was very tasty and I didn’t realise how delectable pasties can be. Fortunately we have stores of dark chocolate because they like to eat it with bread or a plain biscuit – a sort of pain au chocolat I suppose.

I shall miss the little girl sneaking up behind me when I am at the computer and giving me a loving kiss. It will soon be her birthday ant they bought a gold princess dress with tiara for her party. As soon as they got back here from Taunton she pointed out that the black security thingy was still attached. It was impossible to remove without tearing the dress and the local shop didn’t have the correct equipment so there was another trip to Taunton. At least the shop re-imbursed the petrol but it’s worth looking out for that happening.

My DIL is very helpful and stripped all the beds for me so I can’t ignore them till the next visitors and we are festooned with sheets and towels. At least there is sunshine today so I had better get on with it.