Good evening! This is my first post since William finished school for the holidays. Without a doubt, the overriding aspect of the last 10 days has been the heat. It has just gone up, and up, and up. The hot stint a couple of weeks ago was made bareable in that it came and went in just two days. This time around it has been day after day of relentless heat, giving little time for the house to cool down at night before the sun comes up and comes at us again. We've taken to only really venturing out in the mornings and in some ways its felt a little like a lockdown life again as we try to find activities to keep us all busy whilst indoors. We've also watched news of forest fires gripping areas around the Arcachon basin and I read the horrendous news this morning that one of the campsites we visited last year was completely destroyed yesterday. All in all, not a great start to a post but it's the reality we've been facing. In terms of keeping busy, here's the run down with any photos to illustrate:
Fri 8 July
We started the first day of the holidays with a big cycle out to and around Lac Laroin. It is, bay far, the longest ride William has ever done (about 22k) and he did brilliantly. Keeping him full of food was key! Iain packed a brilliant picnic and we enjoyed it by the river. How William didn't end up right in the water, I don't know!
Sat 9 July
A solid sorting day. After Iain breaking a spoke on his bike the day before, we went to Intersport to try and get a new one. We also managed a shop at Auchan and Grand Frais. The Sunday Sausage from GF is the best in Pau. In the afternoon, I spent ages cleaning the garden and after a week of very little building work going on, we set up the outdoor furniture. If they need it moved, it's no biggie but it's just great to have our terrace space available again. In celebration, we had a BBQ.
Sunday 10 July
A simple morning of colouring in and making glider planes then taking them to Hèdas to find the best launch points. In the afternoon, William and I spent ages building the train set on the outdoor table and once he'd had enough of his mum and wanted to watch a movie, I managed to get some blogging done. It's going to be hard keeping on top of is all during the holidays but I'm determined as I've already done so well getting things up-to-date. Iain made dinner and it was awesome. Moules marinièrs but instead of using white wine, he used beer, as recommended by the fishmonger in Auchan. They were brilliant. As was the garlic bread and the chips!
Mon 11 July
I'm rather proud to say that even with William now on holiday, Iain and I started the week very positively in terms of our usual fitness regime. He was at the gym and I managed a workout in the garden. Yaaas. The car tyre has been playing up again so I took it to get checked at Norauto. There wasn't much feedback in terms of the problem but apparently there had been a small hole and they were able to fix it. Good stuff: we'd been carrying a bike pump around in the boot for about six months as it had been so temperamental! While the car was getting fixed, William and I grabbed lunch in Auchan. Amazingly, Brioche Dorée now do a salmon salad that's gluten free. Dinner was the now very popular chicken and chorizo paella (using chorizo that I'd brought back from last week's roadie to Spain). The photos just don't do it justice.
Tue 12 July
Monday had felt like a lot of hanging around the house so I was desperate to get out and tire William out on Tuesday. It's quite remarkable that I therefore decided to go for a run as I just don't know the last time I hit the pavements. I managed 4k and it was actually quite good. My ankle is still giving me jip so I was a bit worried about that and my back is tight so I didn't want to overdo things but I generally felt that fitness wise, I was decent. I even managed a stretch in the park when we finished. Nature does wonders for the soul. Oh and I had William laughing on the way home as I taught him how to give someone a backie!
In the afternoon Iain went to get his bike fixed (it was a bigger job that he anticipated) and he also took William for a much needed haircut. It gave me a chance to head out to the shops on my jack jones. I enjoyed the air conditioning of B&M, Carrefour & Lidl and couldn't have been happier. And for dinner it was Taco Tuesday!
Wed 13 July
This ended up quite a busy day. I started off with a meeting at MACIF to sign off a lot of new insurance things. I still have a few issues to iron out but it's just about finding the time to do it. Humph. I got home and Iain was just leaving to meet the Whitelocks for coffee and to return their keys so I duly joined. It was great to hear all about their travels. In typical fashion, they packed in heaps. Iain had lots of meetings in the arvo so William and I busied ourselves with lego which spurred me on to do some organsing of said toys. I think we really need a new storage system so William and I did some research into that. I have been very determined not to buy anything new for the house though so I'm not sure if I can justify it! We'll see. I managed a gym session in the arvo (go me!) then it was home for another BBQ in the heat.
After hearing nothing from Edinburgh Uni, I decided to drop them an email. We'll see what happens.
Thurs 14 July (Fête Nationale / Bastille Day)
I woke up to a reply from Alan McPherson at Edin Uni. He's on annual leave but suggested we have a chat on Tuesday. At least I'm getting actual contact from someone this time. I'm kinda expecting a big KB but I just want to know.
Anyway, this is only my second memory of the 14 July celebrations in Pau. We went to them the first year we lived here then they slipped past for a couple of years, then it was covid and they were cancelled. So this year, we wanted to embrace things. In the morning, we did a family bike ride through Gelos (and bumped into Sally, Benoit, Aidan and Ruben!). We were home for lunch then hunkered down for most of the afternoon (building lego) while the city baked. They actually had to push the official parade back an hour to try to get some cooler weather but it was still about 35°C when we headed to Clemenceau at 8pm. The streets were absolutely packed and we enjoyed an evening of wandering, drinking, dancing and finally seeing the fireworks at 10.45pm. We bumped into Odel, Tim, Gabriel and Iris so William was absolutely delighted to end up spending a large part of the night with his bestie.
Fri 15 July
With such a late night on the Thursday, it's little surprise that we all slept super late on Friday morning. It was about 9.30am by the time William woke up! Friday, in general, was pretty slow so there's not much to note here apart from the fact that both Iain and I managed the gym. Guns. Guns. Guns!
Sat 16 July
The weather really started to get ridiculous on Saturday so it was another day of avoiding going outside in the afternoon. We bit the bullet and booked flights to Scotland for the first two weeks of August (hopefully it will be a bit cooler there! ;-) ) and in the evening we had a good BBQ and a few cold vins.
The temperature topped out at 38° on Sunday so we got out early for a wee bike ride and a run around at Beaumont before heading home for the obligatory Sunday Sausage and a Lego Megabuild. We had pizza in the garden for dinner. Probably not a good idea putting the oven on though. Brutal.
Mon 18 July
We've felt a bit sorry for William over the first week of the holidays. It's been so hot to go outside and everyone just seems to be staying at home to avoid the crazy temperatures so he's been pretty much stuck with us two every day. I organised a play date with Noah and Katerina on Monday morning and we took the boys, on bikes, to the chateau park for a ride and a runaround. My god, William needed it. He pretty much spent about 30mins throwing branches down a large hill with Noah and was as happy as you'd ever see him. Iain went to the gym in the morning and did some uni work and in the afternoon we switched it around so that I managed to get to the gym as well as sorting some home admin. There was yet more Lego Masters going on and the boys even fitted in the new Buzz Lightyear movie. The temps yesterday were ridiculous and it's definitely the hottest that our bedroom has ever been.
Tue 19 July
Hurrah! A high of 29° today. It's amazing that that is classed as a cooler day.
Anyway, I had my call with Alan McPherson at noon. As expected they've offered the job to someone else but the process has become very complicated and they don't know if they'll accept it. Therefore, they don't want to close the process with me yet. What a situation! Aaaaargh. He said that he's not even ready to give me any feedback on my interview yet as they've not appointed someone. Who knows how this is going to play out. Watch. This. Space.
The rest of the day has been about trying to teach William about money. Him and Iain counted his money jar and deposited some of it in the bank. William then took some of it out with me today and he got to choose a new toy. This became a very serious business and he finally settled on a NERF type gun. Not what I expected, whatsoever, but he's delighted and I even bought Iain a very small one so they can shoot each other. I don't know who's happier?!
Tonight's dinner was amazing. Iain did a Thai inspired Sea Bass and it was really brilliant. Oh, to be back in Phuket!
So that's a full week down already. Almost two. It's been heat, lego and good food.
Lorna.
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