Keeping up with friends

6.7.18: Food, friends, footie and all that jazz

Delivered the posters for a forthcoming  exhibition of photographs by one of the Association's members, stopping on my way around at the new wee salon du thé. Then it was lunch followed by supermarket shopping with Maggie. Lunch was a good deal in one of those purpose built restaurants on an estate accommodating small businesses and workshops. Thus it's only open Monday to Friday and its clientelle  predominately pensioners (good value for money) and male workers.
Turned down an invitation to join Jacques, his partner and 4 other friends for a BBQ but I did make dessert for them and to be sociable, stayed for an apéritif when I delivered it.
Later I met a few friends at the bar to listen to some jazz on the terrace. The yellow mug with tea in it, is mine!
Inside, the football was on and here's Nicole in the Belgian colours. She's becoming quite a legend with her footie get-ups in the colours of one of the teams in action.
Weather:
29°, sunny

5.7.18: Forward Planning

Language exchange, a cuppa afterwards at the bar, time on the computer and a meeting to try and advance "project cornemuses (bagpipes)". Despite the two members from the Mairie not turning up (one was stung by a wasp and dealing with the aftermath, it went completely out of her head, the other chose to go to a vernissage in Perpignan instead), it felt as if there was a bit more support and willingness to be involved. However, having been let down the last time, I decided to take the minutes myself. Not anyone's favourite pass time. Still, a glass of rosé rather than a cuppa at the bar was a good pick-me-up.
Weather:
29° sun and light rain shower

4.7.18: Rosé for two

Met Nicole at the other bar for a tea which was followed by a glass of  rosé and once we were able to have a conversation without interruption or banalities.
Nothing else of interest.
Weather:
34°, sunny and windy

3.7.18: An evening in

Arrived at the bar at 11.30am, an hour later than usual. The terrible two were just about to leave .... result! Nicole, bless her, stayed on.
For once, I spent a good part of the afternoon in the kitchen preparing tapas for Michel, who's back from Thailand, his two visitors and Jean-Jacques. It was good to have some new faces and conversation along side old friends and a reason to open some cava. Patrick and Christian were appreciative of the evening which leaves me wondering why I don't do it more often.
Weather:
32°, hot and sunny

2.7.18: An afternoon out

Gave coffee a miss in favour of doing stuff around the house. Went with Florence in the afternoon to see the Dufy exhibition. As you can see below, the title is Dufy's Perpignan studios. I naively thought that there would be lots of paintings that were painted there. Yes, there were but they were of the studios themselves! Not you'd know it from the museum's website. This photo is of the card I sent to my Mum.
Upside was that there weren't many people there so we could take our time to navigate around the exhibition rooms and studiously read the notes alongside each exhibit.
http://www.musee-rigaud.fr/fr/actualites/expositions/raoul-dufy-ateliers-perpignan-1940-1950
Being Monday, many of the independant shops were closed; is it any wonder that the centre is dying, we asked ourselves. The two "salon du thé" that we'd thought of going to were also closed so we ended up in a brasserie on the way back to the carpark.
Spent the night in with my wee pal Netflix.
Weather:
30°, hot and sunny