A Reason to Celebrate

After 2 days of feeling sorry for myself and not going out apart from a trip to the osteopath, it was good to have a nicer reason to go out. Took Juste and Joséphine to Mas Salelles to celebrate their wedding anniversary and it was warm enough to put the hood down on the car. We drank cava, ate snails and scallops , went for a stroll by the lake and gathered some kindling for the fire. Once back to theirs we were joined by Marie-Loudres and Jean who had been invited around for pancakes and we even managed to keep off contentious subjects relating to village politics. Juste's Mum has been found a place in care so they can concentrate on the imminent arrival of their first grandchild.

Purple Haze

Managed to walk up to the committee meeting but the leg hurt even more so I saw the GP this afternoon. Came away with anti-inflammatories, something to protect my stomach from the anti-inflammatories, cream, heavy opium-based pain killers and advice to see an osteopath. There was no prescription, however to deal with the constipation that the pain killers can bring. I guess it will need to be prunes!
I did make an effort to go to the local wine bar with Juste and Joséphine for tapas and latino music.

Ouch!

From out of the blue, my right leg has become so sore, that I've had to rummage in the first aid box to find some pain killers. On second thoughts, it must have been when I carried up that overloaded basket of logs from the garage last week.

Lemons and What to Do with Them

Christian who we hadn't seen for an age called in with a huge box of lemons from the garden where he is staying. Some will go to Joséphine and ours will end up preserved à la Claudia Roden or as juice frozen in ice cube trays for future use.
http://www.thegoodsoup.com/recipes/preserves/claudia-rodens-quick-method-for-preserving-lemons/

Plan B

Wandered around the market without buying anything and as it was a lovely day, decided to go to St Laurent de la Muga for lunch. We had hoped to find our old favourite open but we were out of luck. Stopped off at "La Fornal" which lived up to it's reviews with some creative cooking that was well presented. Stopped by at Juste and Joséphine's to catch up with their news and stayed to eat a Spanish omlette

Weather Update

The cold weather has finally eased up a bit but the wind is still blowing. I don't remember it being so strong for so long. Even though the sun has been shining, we're fed up with having to wrap up, both inside the house and out. And don't talk about the heating bills .... we've had red day after red day, though that does mean that there are only 4 to come before the end of March.
Today, France said "adieu" to the franc. Italy did the same but the Governement hadn't publicised the fact that they'd brought forward the cut off date and made a packet in the process!

Funny Valentine

Why go out for a romantic lunch in a chic restaurant when you could spend it with a group from the Association in a Chinese "all you can eat "buffet? We ended up there after a guided tour of the new theatre in Perpignan. Some interesting architectural features and apparently, it's the top for the artists and technicians. Pity there's no leg room for anyone over 5'2"!!!
Still, Christian had bought me some red roses this morning, so all was not lost.
In the evening, David and Laura came round for something to eat as there wasn't much time to get things ready when we got back that we had a raclette which was fun and went down well.
Christian who had finished the course of antibitics that he was given when he finanly went to see the GP about the cough that wouldn't clear up, is still coughing and now has an allergic reaction. So, off he went, back to the GP and came home with cough mixture and skin cream. Here's hoping that it will do the trick.

News Update

The news is all a bit grim at the moment ... 334 prisoners dead in a prison fire in Haiti, death on the streets in Syria, demonstrations in Greece about the austerity measures, a war of words between Argentina and Britain over the Malvinas/Falklands, "The Artist", a silent movie, won several Baftas and Whiney Houston was found dead in her bath. In France there's alot of electorial posturing between the Presidential candidates with Sarkozy finally declaring his intention to stand. Now there's a surprise! There was, however, a funny moment when watching what else but "Whitechapel" the gruesome crime drama about a serial killer, when asked if his Seargent was like family, the DCI said, "well, I wouldn't want to spend Christmas with him, so I suppose he is!"

Togetherness

With bitterly cold weather spoiling us, apart from going to the bar for a hot chocolate, yesterday was a day spent at home in front of the telly so it was good to have a reason to go out today. Juste and Joséphine were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversairy and we were invited for champagne and cake. Jean, Marie-Lourdes, Emilie and Michel were there too but they left earlier than us and missed out on the lasagne and left over cake that we had for supper.

Blustery Friday

It's still cold but even so Christian battled his way to the Mairie against the wind and i went to Spanish. This afternoon, Jany came around for a coffee and ended up getting "kippered" when the wind blew the smoke back down the chimney.

Special Delivery

Our new state - of - the - art fridge arrived as promised much to our surprise by urgent delivery from Alsace. The weather is still cold, how we're paying for those lovely unseasonal days in January. Snapped this sunset from the Nest when I went up to close the curtains.

No Let Up

Still cold and I'm still not budging far from the fire. This afternoon, however, I had company when Joséphine, who needed cheering up, came around. There was nothing else to do than open a bottle of cava, was there?

Arctic Weather

It's been so cold that I haven't been out for three days and Christian for two.... and of course there has been a succession of "red" electricity days where we pay 10x the normal price. There's been nothing else to do but grin, bear it and keep the fires on. The time has been spent either catching up with domestic chores or sitting by the fire watching tv. Christian even cooked lunch on Sunday, his tried and tested scallop stir fry. Today, however, we had to go out to shop for, of all things a new fridge, and some food to put in it!
Had lunch in the restaurant by the supermarket and in the afternoon attended a cheese cake demonstration given to the Association by Mayor's wife. We even got to bring home two individual cakes and they were just scrummy.

Soirée Tapas

About 60 of us braved the biting cold winds to attend the Association's tapas evening. Martine was there and seems to have forgiven Christian. As usual there was lots of interesting food to try and lots of people to talk to.

Disaster!

This evening we were invited to Martine's with all those who had stayed with Laura and David in Scotland. All went well with champagene and canapés, a Provençal meal, good wine .... that is until a plate hanging on the wall behind Christian's chair became entangled in his sweater and came off and broke. Apparently it was a limited edition and given the look on her face was of some importance to her. It really was an accident waiting to happen but she didn't see it like that. Luckily, it happened as we were all getting ready to leave so we made a dignified retreat and fled for home.

Another Galette

I think that today's galette chez Joséphine should be the last of the season. It's about time they went home bearing their gifts with them. No really, it's delicious, if somewhat calorific and if you're interested you can find the recipe at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/galette-des-rois/
Mother is well installed but her illness, of course, makes life difficult and there's still no hot water in the house, so even without out the promise of the galette we would have still gone over to see them, in case you were wondering!