Happy it's Monday again

I'm happy it's Monday

I was quite glad to wake up this morning and find that it was Monday and the start of a brand new week, as the last two weeks have been hectic and I’m rather pleased to see the back of them.

The first week was a week of lasts. The last of my English conversation club sessions at the local college before the summer break, and with staff changes in September it may well have been the last ever. The last of Ed’s music group sessions and electric guitar lessons for this year and I waved Ed off from the gate for the last time to take the eight am bus to school from the stop by the church in the village, sniff. Ed has now finished school, as we know it. He has taken his Brevet (end of secondary school qualification) and has been given a place at a lycée just over twenty kilometres away, where from Tuesday 1^st September he will be a weekly boarder. I think I felt more emotional at this important life stage than he did and certainly hadn’t expected it to feel as stomach sickeningly nerve-wracking as it did when he sat his exams, but we seem to have survived. Since school has finished his social life seems to have been a whirl of sleepover parties and celebrations, with emotions running high as they fumble along in the confusing world that is adolescence and independence. As I write this I have been invaded by five extra teens, the pool is crowded and the sound system is blasting their favourite music at a volume to rival a concert at Glastonbury. I'm not used to such noise!

French village Glastonbury

Last Tuesday, while Ade was working away in UK, Ed and I woke up to a house with no power. I managed, eventually, to work out how to flick the all-important switch to get back most things, but we were left with no lights in the bedroom or bathroom and no hot water! The electrician came on Friday and very quickly traced the fault to the pool pump, which we discovered had melted, as had we all in the heat wave, but at least the enforced cold showers were actually lukewarm and quite refreshing. It is amazing how these things only ever seem to happen when Ade is working away, but thankfully the French Air Traffic Controllers cancelled their proposed strike on Thursday and Friday enabling him to come home and pick up the pieces, as buying and fitting a new pool pump is not something I could have done. With temperatures into the high thirties most of last week I had enough to do with all the watering, weeding, picking and preserving the vegetables and fruit etc although Ed is in charge of dog walking and has been persuaded to help around the house a bit more now school is out.

I'm hoping this week will be a bit more relaxed and at least I’ve got the Tour de France TV coverage and Ned Boulting's 101 Damnations book to keep me entertained and lots of courgette (zucchini) cooking to keep me busy.