Seeing Friends, Enjoying Food and Following Floats

28.2.15:
Much better weather today, so there was no reason not to go with the float to the carnival in Céret. First of all, however , there was the club's 28th birthday lunch. Shame that those of us were going had to eat quickly and get off; especially as of course, the cavalcade didn't start any where near the dot of 3pm. Still there was a good atmosphere and it was fun. There were floats featuring Mexican bandits, a batmobile, eskimos, 50 shades of grey, duracell rabbits, Queen (H.M. and Freddie) and more besides. We even won a prize! André and Christian came along but sat watching the floats go by from the comfort of their seats on the terrace of a café, beer in hand . Click to see the photos https://picasaweb.google.com/114284735716067114333/CarnivalFeb2015 At the end of it all the group went back to the club room for a wee refreshment and to rest their aching feet. Despite a full on meal at lunch time, André, Nany and ourselves went to the restaurant for a bite to eat and a good bottle of wine. My dessert (chocolate charlotte with peanuts and salted butter caramel) was very rich and decadent; so much so that I left the boudoir biscuits that surrounded it. And so then it was to bed for a good sound sleep and a new month tomorrow.
Weather:
15° sun shine and rain at the end of the evening.
Anecdote:
Please excuse me but I must tell you that Maria, an elderly Catalan woman, who lives down the street from us, greeted me at the lunch like a long lost friend and full of smiles said to her pal 'if only all the neighbours were like this one ....!" I didn't get the rest as she speaks a mix of French and Catalan but her body language was positive. Just a wee thing but I was really chuffed as when we first moved here she'd pass me in the street with head down. Can't remember how many years it took to even get a "bonjour"!

27.2.15
Nothing other than a trip to the supermarket with Maggie where I met  Hortense who gave me a signed copy of her small book of poems and lots of laughs during our conversation.
Weather:
12° Cold, Strong winds
In the News:
Assassination of Boris Nemstov, outspoken critic of the current Russian government a few yards from the Kremlin.

26.2.15:
Finally, we were able to take Jean and Françoise out for Jean's birthday lunch. With being able to eat

later in Spain, I was able to go to the language exchange and Christian to the Mairie first. It's been a long time since we'd been to El Forgons de Canadal as it had lost it's way for our liking. Glad to say that it was great. We ate well and most of all, Jean and Françoise (always the most critical!) were delighted. http://www.fogonsdecannadal.es/el-restaurante/
From here we went up to La Vajol and the rain that was quite heavy when we left the resaurant was much lighter. Can Conxita was closed so we took our coffee in the square. Not on the terrace though! As Jean and Françoise didn't know the village, we took them around to see all the sights - the sheperd still without his mermaid (as featured in the poem "Empordà" by Joan Maragall) and the Retirada monuments. Then came back home via the forest track.
Weather:
14° overcast with showers

25.2.15:
Met Françoise (another one) to go over the translation that I'd done and then in the evening went for my pronunciation workshop. Otherwise, "nowt!"
Weather:
12° Heavy cloud

24.2.15:
Michel for lunch.
Weather:
10°, Cloudy and very windy








23.2.15:
Distribution of the association's newsletter for me and his usual meeting at the Mairie for Christian.
Weather:
17° though it didn't feel like it. Cloudy with rain in the evening.

22.2.15:

As Henri and Michèle couldn't join us for lunch yesterday, they invited us for lunch at theirs. A good time catching up with three weeks of news. I should have been with the village carnival group for the cavalcade but there was a howling wind, it was bitterly cold and the float didn't leave its shed so I, too gave it a miss.
Jean-Jacques came around for a late supper as he was just back from his S. America trip. There was a knitted beret for me and an ointment of a dubious substance for Christian!
Weather:
10° Blue skies and strong winds

21.2.15:
After doing a quick supermarket shop, we had lunch chez Molas but sadly with cloudy, dull weather there was no rush to grab a table by a window
Weather:
11° Drizzle, cloudy
In the News:
Chaos on several roads leading to the Alps as heavy snow had led to 3 motorways being closed.