Saturday 13 December 2008

Weekends in France

Sue has had a tummy bug for the last three days. The French endearingly call any stomach complaint a 'gastro'. I always find this ironic as the Brits are so fond of Gastropubs!
Anyway it has meant full on child care for a few days....which is always great fun. Max and Jasper are developing strong and interesting characters. They are great with each other which is very important. They are also competitive! Max can now gallop on his pony and Jasper has mastered a steady trot. We have spent the last two evenings trying to be quiet around the house (which has never been our strong point). We have been gathering firewood from old vineyards that have been grubbed up and walking the dogs in the hills and forests. We have been playing chess and drafts. We even experimented with a 'cooperative' rather than 'competitive' game at breakfast this morning after I went to a fascinating talk last night about 'Jeux cooperatifs'. Tomorrow we are planning to go and see a special theatre show of Aladdin in Montpellier. Sue should be better by then, which is great. My only concern is that I will have to endure a trip to 'Old' McDonalds Restaurant. Maybe its time for a gastro?

2 comments:

Heiko said...

Hi Hamish,

Make sure you don't get a gastro at Old McD! My Sue was teaching kids near us last year and did a survey on Italian eating habits amongst teenagers as they were just opening a McDonald's in a town near us. Made for interesting reading. I put the results on my blog http://pathtoselfsufficiency.blogspot.com/search?q=McDonald. Most Italian kids seem to prefer the cooking of "La Mamma", which makes you quite hopeful.

HamishWM said...

Heiko
Great to hear from you.
I survived McD's!!! It was actually weird/interesting seeing so many people just going for the easy options for a formulaic meal. Just hope I don't have to do it for another 6 months!
Have a fantastic Christmas in your corner of Italy!!