R is for Really?

Je nageis completement — I was all at sea

Where?

The other day, Gavin went to answer a knock at the door. He reported back that it was the electrician’s son, who was selling raffle tickets to raise money for a school trip to Libya.

I thought it was a rather exotic and somewhat unexpected destination for a school from a small town like St Antonin. On closer study of the raffle tickets, it turned out the trip was to an amusement park called Walibi, which is near Toulouse.  Anyway, we won a very nice pack of playing cards and I’m sure the children enjoyed their outing.

When?

Gavin decided to join a local choir. After a couple of weeks, he came back to say they would be giving a concert in a church near Toulouse. A coach was being hired to take the singers, so I could go along as part of the audience. We were due to have a fairly late night the day before, so I asked how long the concert was expected to last. He said that, as the coach was leaving at 6pm and the choir had rehearsed five songs, we surely wouldn’t be later back than 10.30pm. That didn’t seem too bad.

It turned out the venue was the other side of Toulouse. Yes, the choir was singing five songs — and so were three other choirs. Not forgetting the Russian lady playing several (long) pieces on an obscure percussion instrument. The concert finished at around 11pm. Time to go home? No. We all had to go to the local community centre for a buffet supper and some wine. We got home around 2am.

What?

Some strange machines have started appearing in the vicinity of local supermarkets. Put your money in (after having read the rather complicated instructions or, in our case, watch someone else do it first) and you receive a plastic bottle. You then proceed to fill the bottle with milk fresh from a local farm. And while you’re doing that, the machine makes mooing sounds at you. All that entertainment for one Euro — and you’re helping local enterprises.