There’s been complaints

Or rather, Peter tells me, one complaint, of inactivity on the blog. (I don’t know, you head away for a rest and then you are getting hassled.) Well you’ll be glad to know there’s been plenty of activity from our side in the shape of golf, well ok, one game.

I appreciate there is a section of the population who don’t regard golf as a fitness sport or even a sport for that matter – tell that to the first winner of an Olympic Gold Medal in Rio! Back however to the Marsilly Olympic Golf tournament which took place at the local La Pree course on Friday.

We had opted for a 5pm tee time and in order to build up our strength we rested in the back yard all afternoon reading. We thought the course would be quieter and this turned out to be. The gold medal was in no doubt, yup I won again… oh dear hope he doesn’t lose faith as there was a few merdes, stamping of feet and banging of clubs when the ball did not get past the ladies tee.

However what yer man was most upset about was not losing 12 balls, or that he might have lost again to moi, it was that he forgot to bring out his step counter so his average of 7,000 steps a day he had been achieving took a hit. Seemingly it’s all about statistics I am told.

Peter adds – whenever we were near water on the golf course we kept seeing one particular semi-aquatic mammal – there were dozens ranging from a cute Guinea Pig size o a whopping 40cm plus tail – and they all sported very big front teeth. Here’s a photograph – what are they? Answers by last post Monday!

We got back in time to see the only athlete on the planet that matters, Lyndsey Sharp, oh no sorry Usain Blot, appear at Glasgow. Thank god none of the first three guys carrying the baton dropped it -  what would we talk about. Clearly Gaby Logan got it wrong, the games were better with Usain, at least it stopped everyone talking about the English and Scottish gold medals – there were other people taking part you know.

Saturday it rained and with little else to do I resorted to cleaning the upstairs and how lovely it looks. Beds were pulled out, curtains pushed back, cupboard moved and hovered everywhere – phew bring back emails I’d say. The upstairs is now ready for our guests and I have three days before tackling the vast space that is downstairs.

On Friday my email crashed and I have been without emails. One might think that’s liberation from the world but it brings its own stresses. How do I keep up with those invaluable messages about diet tablets, menopausal creams and facelifts I wonder?

In fact the lack of emails and plenty of rain even prompted me into cooking! Now that’s not sometime one writes about much. I made not one, not two but three dishes! Peter is still speechless and in recovery. I made coleslaw, bean salad and granola bars. I do fear I might have got the quantities wrong because we are still eating them.

We felt that after this amazing development and something unlikely to last we should celebrate and headed out on our bicycles to La Batleur, our favourite spot in the next village, about 2 miles away across the fields. We settled into our seats at about 9ish and wait for Sao Paulo duet Gabrielle Lima and Flavio Nunes to start their set at 10pm.  The guy who runs the music side of the bar/resto is called Emmanuel – we know that now of which more later, however he greeted us fondly (he does that to everyone, we know we are not special) and said how delighted he was to see us. We said we were looking forward to the music and he says of Gabrielle “oh yes she is beautiful and she can sing!” Yup readers he is French and clearly never heard of sexism. Sure what can you do, we smiled and ordered a glass of wine?

The singing and music turned out to be great but the best bit was during the interval of Gabby and Flavio and Emmi (as he is known to friends - of which we are now) played “Oh What A Night” and within seconds the “ladies” in the audience were up ON TOP of the piano and dancing. To give you a picture in your mind if Peter had joined them he’d not have been the oldest!

Oh and speaking of yer man, he made a new friend, she is called Anne-Marie, she is Italian, living in La Rochelle, wears too much perfume, asked him to dance and oh yes she’s 67. She was really nice and a bit of fun and once we got her talking slowly in French, himself and herself had a great chat. He will tell you more no doubt.

The cycle back across the field at 1.30am was a little tricky with only one bike with a front light and it was a little disconcerting to find once we got back to Marsilly all the street lights were turned off. God knows why, maybe there’s a recession in France and it is cost cutting. At least we didn’t fall off our bikes this time.