Time flying by

Ste Ingrid

We had a call from a friend yesterday inviting us to supper on Friday. 'We'd love to of course' I said and went to write it on the calendar. We thought that after a heavy few weeks we had at least two weeks free to concentrate on home before we disappear to the Midlands for a weekend (more on that later).

Last week, after our last staying guests for the time being went home we had time to clear out the chalet and restock the fridge, then it was bookclub and friends to supper night, followed by quiz night. We had this week free, then a couple of things on next week culminating in the Messiah performance on Saturday evening. A few days later we head to Paris and then on to Birmingham and Shropshire. So we were looking forward to a few quiet days.

Then on Saturday morning as I was heading for the bakers my mobile rang:

'We're in town and thought we'd drop in and see you as we head home. You did say that you might have some bread and cheese to share for lunch'....

Of course I did, as Jon says, I'm very free with my invitations for people to 'drop in' even if, as in this case, it isn't actually on their way home - they live in the opposite direction!

Thinking on my feet, I bought extra cheese, and a few sliced meats too to pad out lunch.

It was lovely to see our friends as they had been back in the UK for 6 weeks and hadn't been well before they left. We spent a couple of hours catching up and, that was most of Saturday taken care of.

On Sunday we were expecting people to lunch. We spent the morning getting lunch reading and tidying the garden which had been neglected for a week.

One o'clock came and no visitors. Two o'clock, two thirty..... At three I started making a cake, convinced that they would like something to eat later with a cup of tea. And we ate our lunch without them (it was very nice).

At four fifteen they called and it was apparent that they were heading for another village with the same name (almost) as ours. Finally at 5 o'clock they arrived. We had a nice cup of tea and lemon drizzle cake in the garden, showed them around the house and they went off to their hotel not very far from here.

At eight we went to a restaurant where we had planned to meet them. At eight thirty they turned up.

It was a lovely restaurant just north of Cahors at St Martin. We had a very nice meal, delicious, beautifully presented, excellent service and not too expensive. Just a really relaxed evening with some lovely people. They had offered to take us out to dinner at a restaurant of our choice and it all worked out beautifully. We said a sad goodbye to them at the restaurant and hope to see them again soon, probably back in the UK.

And we didn't once mention lunch.