Rest, Rain and Renovation

4.4.14:

Our first obligation today was the funeral of the daughter of the elderly woman that I helped around Girona last Friday. She was 61. The church in Argelès was packed out with people standing up the side aisles and with many, many more outside. There were lots of the local politicians there as her husband is on the Council. The service was a requiem mass taken by a youngish (well as priests go) priest. He had a good singing voice which was a great improvement on the one who ministers to the village. I also liked the way that he acknowledged that there might be non Catholics present  and invited them to join the communicants for a blessing if they so wished.
No sonner than we'd dropped André and Nany back in the village than we set off to Cistella to meet up with Adrian, Pauline, Frank and Penny at the restaurant there.It was good to see the rivers swollen and running fast as we passed through the countryside. Heaven knows, we haven't been having enough rain. The drizzly weather was over, the sun was out and they were well pleased with the outing. Well, who wouldn't be? Blue skies, thickly snow capped mountains in the distance, poppies waving by the side of the road, friends and a good meal. What's not to like?
Christian had a little snooze in the car before we headed home but before settling down for an evening infront of the telly we stopped off at Juste and Joséphine's to say hello over a cup of tea.
Weather:
13° am, 20°pm strong winds dying away later

3.4.14:

Christian feeling brighter which is less of a worry. Our after language exchange session at the bar was a bit different as a Finnish member, who incidently lives in Estonia, made a traditional Easter dessert called "mammi", a kind of malted rye porrige which takes two nights to cook at low temperatures. It's dark in colour and at best you could imagine that it was chocolate based at worst ....... fill in the space yourself. I'm too polite. Served with cream, it was actually very nice and I can honestly say that it was a first for the clients of the bar!
André and Nany were there too and we all ended up eating grilled pork slices and chips together. They even ate a pud but self righteous me gave it a miss. The "mammi" had given me more than enough calories for one day.
Weather:
16° Rain all day, very heavy in the afternoon. Miserable and chilly.

2.4.14
Christian feeling a bit better but still tired. His results show that his sugar levels are up which maybe explains some of it. He spent the day resting at home until the meeting this evening at the Mairie to unveil a proposal for the renovation of the square. It was well attended and the overwhelming majority were in favour of making it parking free. Of course there were a couple who complained that they didn't want to park elsewhere and walk. No comment.
I left before it was finished to join Lynn and Anne for our monthly apérobio The blokes plus Jean-Jacques who'd all be at the meeting came along too afterwards and the women ended up paying for them. Don't need that to happen too often, do we?
Weather: 17° Overcast
Headlines:
Segolène Royale is back in the Cabinet with responsibility for the Environment

1.4.14:

Another sightseeing day out, this time to Perpignan. The group was smaller and younger than the visit to Girona so we did a good bit of walking around the town at a reasonable pace. Our guide, a member of the association is very knowledgeable and showed us various nooks and cranies unknown to us as well as the usual sightseeing musts. Spotted a couple of restaurants on our way around which will be good to check out on our rare visits to Perignan. We had lunch in a crêperie which was full of junk shop finds and everyone was happy with what they ate which is always a sign of success!
Weather:
20° Overcast star, sun later.

31.3.14:

This morning I talked my way around the village while delivering the association newsletter. During this time, even though he wasn't feeling too good, Christian went to the Mairie but I was relieved that he made himself an appointment with the GP in the afternoon. He's to go for a blood test tomorrow.
Weather:
13° am, 16°pm. Dull
Headlines:
Emanuel Valls, who's of Catalan origin from Barcelona and the current  Interior Minister is to be the new Prime Minister. So, now there are three politicians of Spanish origin in key posts, Marie-Sol, Touraine (Health Minister) and Anne Hildago  (Maire of Paris) being the others. It's gererated lots of discussion and is very important to those of Spanish origin who fled Franco and who were looked down upon by the French, to see such public success.