December – 2017

The round of classical concerts continued along with the fortnightly changing art exhibitions at the local gallery and long beach walks with Cassidy.

The great excitement of the month was the anticipated visit of my Son Jon, his wife Nikki and daughter Charlotte. Sadly Henry was going to be working so not available. On the 22nd I left for Bordeaux to pick them up at the airport having left the apartment clean and polished and adorned with tree, gifts and cake.

On the way I called into the hospital at Montpon to visit Patti and take her a small Christmas cake. As I was heading for the airport I had a call from Jon to say that the plane was delayed. Deja vue! Last visit their flight was delayed by 5 hours! I was in the camper and had Cassidy with me so it wasn’t too much of a train smash. The problem was that an aircraft had left the taxiway and blocked the runway so no planes were coming in or going out. Next news was that they were to take off at 10pm and were destined to break the previous delay record! Finally the flight was cancelled. Jon went home and tried to find a flight from another airport but the earliest available was for the 27th. The next day they called to say that they could drive to the channel tunnel and then drive across the country to me but they would have to leave again early on the 27th. Painful as it was this did not make any sense and would have been very stressful for them so we regretfully agreed to give up on Christmas and plan a proper break for the spring.

23rd. Was a miserable day spent feeling very sorry for myself!

24th. Snapped out of the funk and decided that I was going to have a little Christmas dinner of my own, stuffed chicken and roast potatoes followed by bread and butter pudding. When I got back from the supermarket one of my neighbors called round and invited me to Christmas lunch with them. So I will have my roast on Boxing Day and take the pudding as my contribution. I really love this place, the people are sooooo nice.

Continuing in the mode of !not feeling sorry for myself” I drove into Royan in the evening to view the lights, the ice rink and the Christmas market. Sadly there were no skaters on the rink as the surface was being repaired.