Iain went on camp last Sunday and suddenly I was home alone with not much planned. The summer has been tough this year. Normally we have a stream of visitors, breaking up the holidays and keeping us all occupied and sociable. But of course, Coronavirus has stopped all that. Although people could travel, they would face major quarantine restrictions upon reentering the UK, and there's always the threat of actually picking up Covid-19 while travelling. So it's been a very quiet house this summer.
The first few days of Iain being away saw William and I pottering around the house and going for walks around town. The weather is still obscenely hot. William had an unplanned stop at the fountains last Sunday and walked home in his undies. Cares, not a jot. We've spent some time going through his old toys to try and shift them on to other families. It's good to have him involved in this process. On Wednesday afternoon, I bit the bullet and took him to the State Nautique. This would normally be at least a weekly activity but given the current situation, I've been really reluctant to visit the pool. But, I needed to do something fun! So we went. But it's not the same. Normally, in the summer holidays, there's lot of equipment to play with and they also set up slides, but none of this was available. It was just a straightforward swimming pool. William still enjoyed his time though and we stayed for about an hour and a half. It was quite quiet when we arrived but after about an hour if really filled up and it was actually starting to annoy me. So. Many. Daft. Teenagers. Covid? Schmovid.
With four full weeks of summer holidays already under my belt (plus almost three months of lockdown prior to this) I needed some time to myself, and William needed some time with other kids. Yes, we've been out and about doing things and meeting up with people, but, as he gets older, he needs more stimulation - there's only so much of his mum he can take. So, I did a wee bit of research into the Summer Holiday Programme at the Recreation Centre just next to William's school, put my Big Girl Pants on, and went down to see about signing him up. As you'd imagine for France, this became a bit of a rigmarole; they didn't have the application forms in the centre and you couldn't download them from their website so I had to go to the main office on Ave Honoré Baradat; the woman at the main office seemed to think there were no places left at Maison Daran so she didn't want to give me the forms; once I completed the forms I had to take them down to the centre to see if / when they actually had places available; and they were reluctant to have William eat there due to his allergy but the computer system didn't have an option to enter a child without lunch. However, the people at the centre were really warm, friendly and enthusiastic and William couldn't wait to get started. They offered us Thursday and Friday last week and every day this week. I took everything! By Wednesday night, he was absolutely amped to be starting. I was a bit apprehensive dropping him off on the first day as they were going on a trip all day - talk about throwing him in at the deep end - but he didn't mind one bit and wasn't fazed by the french, or all the new people, or anything. One of the activity leaders has really good English so I knew that would be really helpful, then the icing on the cake was that Giddy turned up too! So off he went, and off I went. I did a 6.5k run to the red bridge and home, joyously listening to an episode of Serial and later that morning went for a solo brunch at Blend with my book. I considered texting a few people to try and meet up, but I really just wanted some time on my own. It was bloody marvellous. By 4.30pm, I was desperate to see my boy again and went down to collect him but the bus hadn't even returned yet! When they finally got back, around 5pm William was actually gutted that he needed to go home! A blooming brilliant start to his time at "Le Centre Loisirrrrrrrrr" as he calls it.
I said when I bought my black Asics runners at the end of confinement that if they were still giving me grief in three months, I needed to write them off and seek professional advice. So, last Friday, that's what I did. Went to the running shop in Billère which, in many ways, felt like Mr Olivander's Wand Shop. The guy had a look at my old shoes from different angles then disappeared in the back only to return with a pair of absolute Bobby Dazzlers! They weren't cheap but hopefully they'll have me back running again without all the achilles and heel pain I've been struggling with. I collected William from Daran and took him for some Friday treats at La Gourmandaise and Passage. Iain got home late on Friday night after their first hit out. Things had gone well but he was just pleased to be home after a whole week away.
Last weekend was pretty chilled. It was just good to have Iain home agin. We had a bit of a wander on Saturday afternoon up to the playgrounds around Verdun and on Sunday morning we did a 6k-er along the river at the fallen tree, the kayak centre and past the newly opened skate park. We made a late choice to head out for Sunday lunch and with service being so strict here, we ended up at the new Francis Miot place which serves until 3.30pm! Most of the dishes are open sandwiches so it wasn't exactly brilliant for me, but I got a great salmon and anchovy salad which I really enjoyed. Especially with the wine. ;-)
This week has just seen me ticking along. William has been at the Centre Loisir all week and he's absolutely loved it. It has been such an excellent decision to enrol him there. It's given us all some time apart, making the time together so much more fun. I've had a good week, getting my ducks in a row around the house by sorting baby gear and going for solo runs. I caught up with Lee and we went for a big cycle followed by some decent sized cocktails, and then went out for drinks and tapas with the rugby girls later that night. Covid is deffo on the rise here though and the council have now made masks mandatory in the streets.
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Part of "team courgette"!
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As ever, I've been experimenting in the kitchen. Last week I rolled out an old favourite of creamy garlic salmon pasta (with extra scallops) and William and I both devoured it! On Friday, it was homemade KFC. And it was amazing.
That's it for now. Next week there's a birthday coming so it's all eyes to that. Eeeek!
Lorna.
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