Living it up in the Aude

It is a little-known fact that we have rather a good library in
Tilling. Opening hours for this years sell-off are are
Tues. 22cnd June and Friday 25th, 2.30 to 6.30; Weds. 23rd June,
9 - 12 and 2 - 6.30; Sat. 26th 9-12.00; plus Sunday 20th 9-12, as
advertised above -
See y'all there!

melancholic

Did you see the match last night? We watched on french TV
which had the attraction of an amusing commentary - lots of
OOh la la's which helped to make up for a very dull game.

My favorite was when the commentator described Peter Crouch
as 'comme ma tambourine'
I don't know if tambourine means something else in French but
since he was leaping and heading at the time suspect not.

Bob left this morning after a very quick visit - arrived Friday.
Glum. Kat sweetly took me to Alet-les-Bains where rain made
the vide grenier a very dismal affair -

But then Edith came round with this superb bio lettuce; who
can be sad in the face of such lettuce?

-and tonight the newly-returned Pete, the present Kat and possibly
others are hoofing it to T-Rex for a spot of proper french cooking.

happy news

Our little town is trilling with the happy news of Louise's
pregnancy!!
I wanted a photo of the scan to post but for some reason
don't have a copy.
The baby is due on Issac Newtons birthday, 25th December,
so astrologically we can expect great things -

abandon hope

Like most of us whose lives were disturbed by the building of
the new home for Alzheimer sufferers, I was consoled by the
fact of its existence and the assurance that it would be there
for me and my mates when our turn comes.

This morning my neighbour was telling me the sad tale of a
friends' slide into the disease.

And the dreadful news that there are 26 places in the new
home - for (so far) 100 people waiting.

I guess we live long enough to get it now. I'm off to discover a
cure, other than death.

my two best men

here are Bob and Larry, in London - wish I'd been there too -
big kiss to Barbara for the photos. The group ones are being
distributed and may end up in art works.

Youth: kill them?

Last couple of nights have been noisy with the bands of these
parts playing on the stage behind the school, by the river.
Not sure this photo gives the
flavour - think dry ice and light shows, not that it matters
because its the noise that counts. Friday nights was
dreadful, I thought, and last nights rather good - but hey,
actually, thats neither here nor there really. Though one
wonders why the event is no longer in the square but by the
house of the ex- mayor.
What matters is not the vomit by the river nor the litter - all
this will pass - but the fact that the local kids inevitably pull
the flowers out of the flower boxes and hurl them about.

I propose that the town hall remove the flower boxes before
an event, or put little wire cages around them so that a
healthy electric shock brings young blood to its senses.

dinner with the neighbours

My neighbours Jeanette and Louis invited me to dinner. Their
son Michel was there; their friends Francis and his son Philippe
also.

We started with fish soup with toasts coated in garlic mayonnaise
flavoured with saffron, with a crust of grated elemental. With
that we drank muscat.
There followed a large coquille St Jacques; the corals of the
scallops in a cream sauce under a pastry made largely of butter.
With this we drank a chardonnay.
Then came a salad; very simple, those green leaves with red tips,
about 2 ins wide, not the green and red wavy ones. They were
dressed in olive oil and wine vinegar with a little salt - that was all.
Perfect.
Next was the guinea-fowl. The insides - don't ask - had been
taken out after cooking and liquidized with ham and liver, spread
on toasts and baked with home-grown preserved tomatoes, done
with herbs and garlic. Naturally we drank rosé, a Tarvin - new to
me- pretty good.
Cheese next. I had a chevres from Bugarach and a Chantal, with a
good red wine which I loved but the others thought wasn't
perfumed enough.
A *light* gateau next - pear at base with a great deal of cream
and crunchy stuff and a blanquette, methode ancestral.
Coffee. Home made mandarin liquor from home grown mandarins.

Louis has a respectable bass voice and sang selections from
Carmen and Verdi.

They are off to Cuba soon to celebrate their 60th wedding
anniversary.

I'm stunned. And stuffed. No wonder the french are happy and
long-lived.