New girl in town

My early week guests departed on Wednesday and Thursday and a group of four arrived on Thursday morning, thankfully on separate flights, although two of them were on the late running Stansted flight that brought Debrah, and our very good friend Mel, here for the weekend. It was a bit of a squash in the car but we made it back safe and sound.

Mel's arrival has caused a bit of a stir in the local community. During canapés and cocktails with the new guests (who are all policemen and women!), Mel was the first to make an appearance and was assumed to be my wife until Debrah made her grand entrance ten minutes later, which caused some mildly amusing confusion.

Later last night, we wandered up to the Makhila, where Mel was greeted with enthusiasm by the usual crowd - in fact, their reaction to her was slightly astonishing to behold. David went very quiet before making his excuses and departing early to polish his boules, Bob was like an excited puppy dog who couldn't finish one sentence before starting the next, Chris had had a shower and a shave and Pierre went into full on 'Pepe le Peu / aah, cheri' mode whilst telling her about his two donkeys in the Ariege with soft noses whilst simultaneously stroking Mels nose with his forefinger. Blimey! - talk about causing a stir.

As a result we agreed to meet up this evening to play boules, but not before we had enjoyed a varied and lovely day in the Autumn sunshine. We went shopping in Les Halles for our supper and then clothes shopping for Mel (Debrah considers herself to be Mel's personal shopper) and then lunch at Felix in the square before some more shopping, back home for a short nap, some domestic work on the ironing board, trying out a couple of new cocktail mixes and finally our pre-arranged boules match.

I have been trying to meet up with the guys for a game of boules for some time and tonight I finally managed it. David had made some pasties (how very British) and others had bought some wine and sandwiches which we all consumed under the lights at the Boulodrome whilst we played two games well into the evening - and a lot of fun it was too, with everyone producing the odd brilliant shot amongst the fairly average play.

Meanwhile, the race to open the Irish bars continues at a hot pace. It looks like the old Irish bar will get there first, but Patrick and his team won't be far behind with the new bar, to be called The Celt, despite losing Chris and Declan to the USA next week. Personally I just wish they would both hurry up so that we can get some big screen TV sport watching back in town.