Kieran tells me that Kate and Rob have been complaining that there hasn’t been a blog to read over dinner recently; humblest apologies and here’s one to make up!

We’ve been busy; Nick and Kieran have finished putting up the upstairs ceiling in the new house, but the French don’t plaster the whole lot, just fill in the edges and screwholes (600+ of them), which is my job. So Kate, you’re the expert at this; please will you come to give me some lessons in how to do it.

The lads have also built the wall that will be the edge of the kitchen and have attached the rails to the first wall; next comes the insulation and plasterboard.

Apart from all the work, it’s party season, with village fetes, music festivals and end-of-year (school year) parties all over the place. Nick went to the cycle club party last night, several local clubs had hired the motor race circuit at Nogaro for the evening; it was well attended, with over 80 riders racing round part of the circuit, a bit more slowly than the cars and motorbikes that normally use it, but pretty fast for pedal-power. Once the racing was over, there were aperitifs at the clubhouse, to restore spent calories. No photos, though, as Nick forgot to take the camera.

For my part, I had the choice of the Pilates or band parties; the band won and we joined with other groups who use the same building, qigong and dancing among others. Everyone took food and drink and when we’d eaten, we started to play for the assembled crowd, even Alain, the other guitarist, joined in with the dancing, leaving me to work out the chords to stuff I’d never heard before. A few bum chords here and there, but on the whole, I think it sounded OK.

Last weekend we played at a music festival; I’m just waiting for Michele to send me the photos, to do a post.