Ride A Cock Horse

On Bank Holiday Monday, we went up to Banbury to see my mate’s daughter, who has just moved into a beautiful little village. We went to the Carvery for lunch (I don’t think I could have eaten more if I had tried!), and then took her dog out for a long walk through the fields. We had to go through one field with cows in it, so she put the dog on the lead, and walked though the field. I couldn’t believe it though – both of them were shit scared of the cows! Unbelievable – what a pair of wussy townies! I tried to explain that cows are just nosey, but they would have none of it, and even though I explained that if they ran, so would the cows, they still didn’t listen. I walked right through the cows. The scariest thing about cows is falling over in a cow pat! I grew up in the country in Scotland, and my cousins and I would play in the fields all the time – cows are not scary!
We spent most of Tuesday painting in the house, and decided that we really needed some fun, so we went to the pub quiz. A friend of my mate’s came with us – completely changing the subject he brought me some Yumyums! He had mentioned them on the phone earlier in the day, and I wondered what they were so he brought some. They are like very light doughnuts, with icing on, and are absolutely gorgeous!
Anyway, back to the pub quiz…we went up to the pub, and had dinner there, as we had been working too hard to think of cooking! As the pub quiz started, the compere bloke said he was so pleased there was such a good turn out – there were six tables!! If that’s a good turn out, I’d hate to see it normally! We were joined by the chef and his wife, so there were five of us. We had a good laugh doing the questions, along with a bit of heckling! We did end up winning, and it really upset the boffin team, who apparently normally win! It’s good to give them a bit of competition! We had a really nice, fun evening – the sort of evening I’ve missed in France. Our local bar isn’t bad, but you never get the atmosphere of an English local. I mean, I’ve only been in this pub three or four times, and there are already a few people that I can say hello to in there and pass the time of day with.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and early, and we went out for our early morning walk. My mate does it every day; I do it if I’m awake when she goes. We then finished off a bit of painting, while we waited for another friend, LW, to pick me up to take me to Somerset. I was leaving Tewkesbury, spending the night with them in Somerset, then leaving from Bristol on Thursday. She got very lost trying to navigate along the temporary one way system in Tewkesbury, whilst having the wrong directions that Via Michelin had given me that I had sent to her. We had lunch – a really yummy meatball recipe that my mate does with cheese and cherry tomatoes – I’ll try to get it from her. We left around half one, because LW had to get back to pick her daughter up from school. Slight problem though, we got very lost in Bristol! There were roadworks in Cabot Circus, and the road we wanted was blocked, but it turned out that it was only partially blocked. We ended up, more by good luck than good management, on the right road out of Bristol, but LW had to phone her partner to pick her daughter up!
We had a lovely evening. I hadn’t seen her daughter since she was two, and had never met her youngest son. Her two older sons are hugely tall now, and very grown up! Her daughter is a really sweet little girl – one of those children that it is just a pleasure to spend time with, and her little boy is adorably cute! I’m sure that they are not always angels, but they were brilliant that evening! We were up until 2am - catching up on four years of gossip in one evening! The next morning I went with her to school, and then we went to Bristol.
We didn’t get lost this time, the airport is easy to find. I was a bit worried about my suitcase being overweight, and it turned out to be 22kg! The guy at the check in told me it was going to be £90, and I said I don’t think so. I don’t think he meant that, he was foreign (of some description) and I reckon he probably meant £19. Either way, I was not prepared to pay anything, so I did some juggling. I had ten packs of sausages, 2 pork pies, and numerous bags of sweeties for Isla which couldn’t go in my hand baggage, so I moved some other bits and when it got down to 20.6kg he let me off with the rest! I had to empty my hand bag though, fill my jacket and jean pockets with iPod and phone etc, just so I could get my bag into the little suitcase! What a hassle!

I got into Toulouse on time, and the first person I came across was the woman at immigration checking passports. I think if she had smiled or said Bonjour her face would have cracked – if her face was any longer she’d have tripped over it! Welcome back to France – I don’t think so. In three weeks in England I have come across nothing but friendliness and helpfulness – as soon as I get back to France I’m met by a miserable dour faced misery guts. Vive la difference!

Isla loved all the presents I brought with me, and we had to open the suitcases within minutes of getting back to the house! My dogs went bananas, except Murphy, who refused to speak to me until this morning!