Day 720 (Wednesday) 29^th May 2019

We managed to find a spurt of energy last night and now the living room is just about done.

Badger has found a new place to sleep during the night – on my head!

What a day it was today; we had to check out Huw and Tracy from Cactus Roc and get it ready for the owners who are arriving this afternoon. We were just about to get on Kisbee when we saw Kevin and Angie and her niece going to the beach; they were dressed like tourists and had all their beach kit with them, we were so jealous. It was hard work getting the apartment ready but we did it in just over two hours and we were both aching by the end of it.

We went home for half an hour then Huw took me to Saint Jean. When we were getting on Kisbee a group of women wearing pink blouses got off the train and were heading to town, the bride-to-be was wearing a veil – what a strange choice of destination for a hen night.   

Florence wasn’t there today and neither was Claree so I spent an hour and a half with 9-year-old Ocean today and the cute puppy called Havana. Considering I don’t like children I rather enjoy working with Ocean and it amazes how long she can concentrate, she really is very sweet. I finished a bit earlier than usual because the lesson came to a natural end so I had a little walk around Saint Jean before going to the bus stop. It is a really lovely little town and it was so good to see it coming back to life for the season.

 

The bus was late and full of English people wearing very skimpy clothes – it’s lovely and warm today but it’s still not skimpy clothes weather – it never should be skimpy clothes weather for a lot of fat people. The traffic was hideous so I sent a text to Guillaume and Jeannine warning them that I might be late. Being British I detest being late but luckily the French do not have the same obsession as we do about punctuality. I was only seven minutes late but I still hated it. Guillaume told Jeannine about his leaving and she was really sad too but after he left she asked me if I could do private lessons with her after the season is over. She manages a small hotel in Nice so she will be flat out for the next four months but in October she would like to start again with me so I will get more black money – yay!

Nice was full of skimpily dressed people as well and most of them sounded British or American and most of them really shouldn’t wear such skimpy clothes. Monaco has a law that stops near nudity off the beach and I think this should be applied along the whole Cote d’Azur.

I had a bit of a wait for the bus home from but it wasn’t too painful. I called into Le Phare for a well-earned beer before going home – it was a very long day. I saw this photo on Facebook that Kevin had posted this morning. We often watch this fisherman coming and going from our balcony and I was amazed to see the size of his catch - who would have thought that the Med was so plentiful – I’d have thought that the pollution from the boats and ships would have killed a lot of the fish but hopefully I am wrong if this photo is anything to go by.

  

Today’s French sound is

Blow a raspberry

Difficult to spell, this is the noise that babies make when they blow out their cheeks, or the noise of someone making a farting sound.

Unlike in British and Americans cultures, though, in French this is not rude, it's simply a way of saying 'I have absolutely no idea'. It can be used as well as or instead of a shrug if you've asked something that is simply impossible to answer.