The Visit And After

 

The Visit

My family arrived on schedule on the Saturday afternoon for a 10-day visit. For the whole 10 days the weather was indecently hot and that dictated to a great extent what we did; that is, we kept as cool as possible. Every day except Wednesday when we went early to the Buis market started with Breakfast at the Bar du Pont. They spent a lot of time in the pool and I left watering, around thz house and at the 

llotment to the early morning or late evening. This really was very similar to previous years: Natalie relaxing, swimming and reading, Eilidh swimming, learning to dive coached by Andy, taking trips to the Ouvèze to see how many little fish she could catch and also reading a lot; Ahdy swimming and managing to get in the compulsory cycling rides in the early morning. And we all went to the pizza and moules-frites evenings. A trip to the allotment was of course obligatory where Natalie gathered the last of the gooseberries and the first of the blackberries while I watered. We measured Eilidh against my tallest sunflower but she is still not quite there yet.

Also I thought it a good idea for my family to meet my friends so we had open house on the second Saturday evening where everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and Andy did a barbecue. This may not seem very exciting but all the family declared it a very good holiday and I got a lot of practice with my “Ferrari” as well as the pleasure of being with my family.

On the practical side Andy markedly increased the lighting in my kitchen and living room and I Bought a larger screen TV which Andy hooked up to the fibre connection I now have so that I’m in better shape than I was to deal with my failing eyesight.

Obviously I was sad to see them go but, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. But not quite all things. I have music to console me: the crickets’ chorus in the day and the frogs’ chorus in the evening. And I can still sit on my balcony in the evening, listen to the frogs , encourage the grapes growing overhead to ripen, drink a glass of Calvados and contemplate the day. That’s not so bad.

Then it is back to the watering and whatever I can find to do in between. When the heatwave ends I shall start playing boules more often.

And After…….

After the visit I still had the meal in the street and the 14^th July to look forward to.

For our annual meal in the street, since there was just me, I just took one dish this year: the usual coronation chicken. Other years my family has been there and I also baked a baklava. I mentioned to Olivier, who is on the council, that watering the plants opposite my house and at the washhouse was becoming difficult for me and the thought that these plants would die when I could no longer do it saddened me. He said that that wasn’t going to happen, that thzeMarie had taken photos and the area was now protected. Great news! It must mean that my digging up of the side of the road opposite (strictly illegal but the neighbours encouraged me) is now officially sanctioned.

The 14^th July was like none previously. Usually the fun and music starts at 9.30 with the national anthem. This year the music started at 6.30 and the national anthem came from the TV on the terrace of the Bar du Pont at the start of the France-Spain match. The music stopped and all attention switched to the TV. I ventured to some friends that if they wanted some more music they could think about singing Viva Espana; but I got no takers. I went home to watch the match as I couldn’t see what was happening on the TV from distance. If the music did ever resume I presume it would have been the funeral march.

Corruption

I am not so naive as to believe that corruption is rare in the western world but the extent and openness of it recently has surprised me. In the Uk there is Farage accepting money from foreign sources to sustain his efforts to change British politics and in the USA clown prince Trump trying to rig the World Cup, aided by the Italian Infantino. In France the managing director of the la rgest European bank, BNP Paribas, has been caught out in what could be described as short-changing customers Money, the accredited source of all evil, is of course at the root of it. This is not the petty corruption that seems commonly to occur around local councils in many places, it is large-scale and not too difficult to discover if not actually in the open. Sleaze reigns, the mega-rich ripping off all and sundry and ,attempting to make the world dance to their tune. When will people at large wake up and put a stop to their game rather than believing in the media and voting for the political parties that support them?