posted on 21 June 2007 09:21
by
Christine Phillips
21/06/07 Exciting new projects
We had a fantastic time in the UK for Matthew and Christine’s wedding. The wedding itself was perfect – a beautiful day and lots of very happy people. The bride and groom had smiles a mile wide on their faces all day and their happiness radiated to everyone who was there. We are now getting lots of photos e-mailed to us which is great. I plan to print off some of them and make up an album of memories for the future. The rest of the visit flew past. We were quite busy with Geoff treating it as a working visit and I got asked to do a days supply at college which was a strange experience! I found myself quite enjoying working again but it was nice to leave it all behind at the end of the day! Everyone kept commenting on how well I looked and what a great advertisement I was for living in rural France. I dread to think what I must have looked like before I left!
We returned chez nous to find that all had gone well with Lydia and the animals. Chester seems to have made a friend for life! Mind you Lydia seemed very pleased to be going home as her friend had not materialised and Chabanol, although lovely, is very quiet especially for a 16 year old on her own.
For once the weather in England was better than it was, and still is, here in France. We have had some pretty bad storms recently with lots of rain. There have been quite a few incidents near here including a car being washed into a normally innocent stream and the occupants are still missing. That will give you some idea of the ferocity of these storms. We were treated to a fantastic (but a bit scary) lightning show the other night right across the valley. The dog was terrified and hid in the bathroom and I have to admit I was tempted to join him at times! The garden has responded to all the rain by growing rampantly and I am now trying to tame it again. My tubs and pots are also looking bedraggled but better weather is on its way so they will soon perk up again.
Now for these exciting new projects! I was contacted by a lady the other day who has asked me to record the English commentary for a DVD which is being made of the abbey church in Issoire. My name had been given to her by someone in the Croix Rouge and once again I m so grateful to them for getting me involved with this project. I have wanted do something like this for years and it is really ironical that it is happening here in the middle of rural France! The recording is scheduled for July 12th and I am really looking forward to it. I need to go and do a bit of a look around the church to familiarise myself with it a bit.
Geoff too has a new project. He has been asked to work with a fairly prominent business in Issoire in his capacity as a business management consultant and starts work with them this week. It is his first client in France so he is quite excited by the prospect. Fingers crossed that it will be the first of many.
One of the few things that I miss here is going to the theatre. We feel that it would be too difficult to understand at the moment but I really love anything to do with the stage so it is a big miss for me. So I was very pleased when, for my birthday, the kids bought me a ticket to go and see one of the most popular musicals in France at the moment – Le Roi Soleil. Geoff and I went to see it at the big Zenith arena in Clermont Ferrand on Saturday and it was magnificent! Being a musical spectacular it was easy to follow (with the help of an exorbitantly expensive programme!) and the music, costumes and the staging were fantastic. We really enjoyed it and would recommend it to everyone.
We are now just about to start our busy time for the gite – and hopefully the B&B too, now that at least one of the rooms is ready for visitors. We have guests arriving on Friday and then it will be almost non stop until the end of August. We are a bit apprehensive, not having done “change over days” yet and I am still a bit worried as to how I will cope with all the French visitors language wise, but we feel that we are ready now to start sharing our little bit of paradise with others. So as my daughter would say - bring it on!!