Happy birthday

After all the partying last month I had thought that we'd have time for a little R & R in September. What I hadn't taken into account was that Barbara had a very special birthday on the 21^st. It had been a real struggle to keep our plans a secret from the birthday girl and apart from telling her we were booked on a flight from Rodez on Friday 18^th (it wasn't hard to guess we were off to London as that's the only flight from Rodez) everything else was a big surprise. I'd booked into the Travelodge in Covent Garden (no expense spared) and had arranged to meet Rebecca and Matthew at one of the hundreds of pizza restaurants in the West End. Fortunately R & M had chosen well and the birthday weekend got off to a great start especially as it was two pizzas for a tenner. Saturday morning and it was time to hit Regent Street which, despite there being a 'credit crunch', was heaving with people, most of them with bags full of purchases. I took the opportunity to don my anorak and headed for the Apple store and watched a very interesting presentation on Snow Leopard!! After a very nice lunch at Princi it was time to reveal the first major surprise of the weekend, tickets for Les Misérables. I didn't think it was going to be my sort of musical, not that it mattered as it was Barbara's birthday treat, but I thoroughly enjoyed despite Susan Boyle and found “I Dreamed A Dream” amazing live. After a quick dash back to the hotel for a wash and brush up we headed for the Oxo tower and cocktails and a

fantastic view of London. Sunday and it was off to Greenwich and the final surprise of the weekend, a visit to the planetarium at the National Maritime Museum, a great finish to a very busy weekend. There was one thing that was missing from what other was otherwise was a fantastic weekend, a pint of good old English bitter. There was certainly no sign of a pint of Boddies at the Oxo Tower, no surprise there, but at one of the pubs we visited they only had Belgian beers on offer! With over 30 brews to choose from you'd have thought they could have at least managed a pint of London Pride.

Back at Lagarrigue it was time to get the work clothes back on (not a suit and tie) and earn a few Euros. I'd been asked to help renovate a couple of barns with a friend and it looks like it'll keep us out of mischief until at least the end of the year which will do nothing for my waistline. The barns belong to Jo who, some of you may remember from previous posts, is very hospitable and insists on an aperitif before lunch and another one before we clock off for the day. Ah well taping away on a laptop creating Powerpoint presentations seems a long long time ago.

We're now the proud owners of a fully completed balcony. The carpenter arrived with the banister last week and after a couple of coats of varnish it was time to enjoy a gin and tonic in the last few days of summer sun. Makes all that crawling about in years of merde de vache worth it.