Coming and going

St Gérard
Yesterday's weather: Sunny 26 degrees

We have friends who spend part of their time here and part in the UK. There are quite a number of Brits who do this for various reasons but it sounds very complex to us. These friends tell us that when they get back to the UK they spend the first couple of weeks catching up with their children and grandchildren, then there is all the correspondence to see to, bills to pay, garden to tidy and general house maintenance to see too. They have to be sure their travel insurance is OK, the car is up to the journey, the dog's vaccinations are up to date, book hotels for the journey, and so on, and so on. It sounds all rather stressful to us.

When they return to France they completely relax, visit friends, a bit of DIY, a bit of gardening, swimming, cycling.... Yet they wouldn't change their way of life for the world.

When they are here in France we try to meet up for lunch every couple of weeks or so, depending on whether either of us have guests staying. This week it is our turn to act as hosts.

I do try to keep a note of meals we have prepared for friends and have a little notebook going back to the early 1990s. There are gaps because I couldn't always find the little notebook at the time I needed it but now I am trying to keep it up to date again. It's just as well I didn't write in what we had intended to feed these people three weeks ago (see previous post regarding the accident concerning a tiramisu and some stone steps). Needless to say, tiramisu won't be on the menu this week, I'm not risking life and limb to save one of those again!

As I am still not able to stand around cooking, we've tried to come up with a menu that will be easy for us to prepare in advance and that I can do a lot of whilst sitting down - lots of chopping and blending! This week we have decided to go for a Middle Eastern flavour. I hope I have planned the shopping list with precision as we are going to our favourite foodie shop this morning (well, Jon is, I'm just going along for the ride and to keep him company in the car). Tomorrow's weather forecast is warm but rain, so we will have the day to prepare lots of lovely mezze and dips for hors d'oeuvres and to make the main course, which improves in keeping overnight and reheating, and also the dessert. That will just leave the rice to be cooked on Friday morning.

It sounds as though we should have a fairly relaxed morning on Friday before our guests come. That'll be a first!