Day 266 (Wednesday)

It was cold again this morning but no snow, thank goodness. Caught the train into Nice to see Bruno and Neo and he was very well behaved for the full two hours; not one tantrum today. He also talked more than usual and seems more comfortable talking to me. I managed to get the 12.36 train after running to the station so I was back in Villefranche before 1pm and I was shocked by how cold it was walking home. Huw went into Nice today as well and he got home before me, after lunch it started to snow again and the temperature plummeted, I’m sick of this now and I’m looking forward to the weekend when the forecast is sunny and 17 degrees. I’m also really looking forward to being how and sweaty very soon.

I had an email from my sister-in-law (belle-sœur) with photos of her garden in Norfolk, I’m really 

glad I'm here where it's cold but nothing like this.

I forgot to say on Saturday night Helene found a new friend in the bar, Anna from Finland. While we were playing pool they sat at the bar drinking wine and putting the world to rights. They told me that they’d been talking about famous people and played a game of fantasising about of they could meet anyone in the world who would it be. Anna had chosen Brian May, the guitarist from Queen. I found this very funny and I took a short break from playing pool to tell them my Brian May story. In London I had a great friend who used to work for ITV and she could get front row seats to watch Graham Norton and we went along many, many times. After watching one of these wonderful recordings we went to the pub across the road, the one Norton used to use to play pranks on the unsuspecting punters where I spotted Ben Elton at the bar. I have always been a huge fan of Ben Elton as a comedian and an author and have read every book he has ever written. Normally when I see famous people (not that I’ve seen that many) I don’t approach them but Ben Elton I couldn’t resist. I introduced myself saying that I’d seen him as a comedian in Cardiff many years ago and he told me a great story about that night. When he arrived at Saint David’s centre he was asked for ID, which he didn’t have. The man on the door kept telling him that he couldn’t go in without ID and there were huge photos of Ben all over the place and he tried to point this out to the security man but he was having none of it. Finally he stood next to a photo of himself and the security man gave up and let him. All the time we’d been chatting I hadn’t noticed that the man standing next to Ben was Brian May. This was the year that May’s wife Anita Dobson was in Strictly Come Dancing and the only thing I said to May was to wish Anita luck in Strictly! Huw was horrified that I’d practically ignored this great guitarist, well; I was excited about Ben Elton!