A fine week off

 Last week Gwilym and Beth arrived from Norwich to spend the week with us. This coincided with various special events. Firstly my 64th birthday last Tuesday. (It turns out that they still appear to need me and thus far they have continued to feed me.) Then we celebrated Christmas 2022 again, complete with a (small) tree, Christmas lunch, exchange of presents, and an action film.

The weather was splendid and Bordeaux was at its best and brightest. For my birthday I considered the many fine restaurants available to us in Bordeaux and decided that we should meet at the Bordeaux Wine School's wine bar, then get a kebab and eat it on the quays.I think this was my first ever kebab, and even then I was too timid to eat the rotating meat, choosing chicken freshly grilled on skewers. It was a great evening. 

Another highlight was an escape game that we all played together. Once more a first for me. It turns out that we make a pretty good team.

We spent a fine week together, but now Gwilym and Beth have gone home, we're back at the mill and normal life is resuming once more.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor
Read more

The Kitchen

 Our new apartment will be equipped with toilet and bathroom etc. but not with anything at all in the kitchen. Not even a sink. So we need to purchase a kitchen and engage a kitchen fitter. A friend who knows how to fit kitchens suggested buying an Ikea kitchen. "They're guaranteed twenty years and they honour their guarantee", he said. "I've proved it". Well I don't know any other kitchen laces in France, and I can't imagine there's much that's cheaper than Ikea, so I was happy to accept his advice. So it was that on Monday I booked an appointment with the Ikea Kitchen Planning Service in the centre of Bordeaux. The woman was friendly. "You've already started the process", she said, (have we?) "so that will save us lots of time". "What are you aiming for?" Something not too country, something discreet, something that can adapt to whatever colours we put in the rest of the room. She understood our dislike of
Read more