:(

Well, ‘beloved tutor’ has returned to Paris (and we didn’t fall out once, not even one harsh word) so I’m feeling a bit sad. It’s been nice having a Frenchman around, especially as he cooked lots of nice meals for me and, as I’m sure you know, cooking (amongst other things) is in their blood! Oh well, I’m focussing on positive things, like the SF-Clermont match this evening: come on Stade ..

Score: SF: 45 Clermont: 13 :)

LONDON WALKS

Having ‘beloved tutor’ to stay means that I get to go exploring more than usual and so we decided to make the most of a sunny day last week by going on a London Walk. Now habitually, I’m not one for anything organised but luckily the group was small and our ‘Da Vinci code’ guide, a barrister by training, was ever so knowledgeable and informative and (happily) just as sceptical as we are about Dan Brown’s literary credentials. We learnt a lot about Temple and monarchical history while enjoying the London sunshine. Great walk!

TOP 14

And Stade are top of the table after their 26-16 win away against Castres yesterday evening! Yaay!

AMAZING

© many frogs

Now you swimmy people might take this sort of thing for granted but yesterday, I experienced something amazing: for the first time EVER in my life, I went underwater, stayed there and opened my eyes. It was an astonishing, indescribable experience.

EXCUSES

So, the swimming lessons were going .. well .. swimmingly .. until ‘beloved tutor’ went to see a friend for a few days and I fell over and hurt my ankle. Nothing serious but now he’s going to think I did it deliberately to try to get out of the lessons. Not true: I’m more determined than ever to get rid of ‘beloved float’!

ET C’EST PARTI

© stade.fr

Brilliant start to the season with a 52-20 win for Stade over Montpellier! The fourth try (and therefore the point de bonus) was scored by Mirco! And Stade have new pink socks as part of the kit (modelled above by the versatile Mathieu Blin). Brilliant!

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

While buying our train tickets to London, 'beloved tutor' was struck by the strange fact that a single ticket cost only 10 pence less than a return ticket. To which I had no explanation. However, I think one of the possible reasons came when the inspector checked our tickets and punched them with his little heart-shaped puncher! There was probably a smiley-faced one too. Really, couldn’t they either re-think the cost of tickets or invest the money more wisely!

RUGBY BEGINS AGAIN

© stade.fr

Yaay – after a long absence, the rugby starts in earnest this week-end. The team against Montpellier has been announced and ça s’annonce bien since Mirco is in the starting team at centre. Even though I won’t be there in person, I can’t wait – bring it on!

EXHAUSTED

Well, I’m pleased to report that I survived the swimming lesson and beloved tutor and I are thankfully still talking after over an hour together in the pool. The objective was achieved (even if my fingers did remain firmly in contact with the side of the pool for most of the time) and in fact, my good behaviour was even rewarded with an ice cream. Tomorrow’s objective: leave the side of the pool, co-ordinate legs and still hold onto float ..

PREOCCUPATIONS

With barely a month until I return to Paris, I have finally managed to: agree the contract on the new flat, plan my escape route, start to think seriously about what to pack, collect materials for future lessons, attack the garden so that it appears less jungle-like and even have a bit of fun in-between. However, a more immediate concern remains: the imminent arrival of beloved tutor .. just praying he doesn't mention the dreaded 'swim' word ..

By the way, it took less than an hour for the 's' word to be mentioned; I have a date with my new swimming instructor at 12.30, objective: whole body, plus head, under the water .. oh god ..

RESULT!

I’m very happy to report that the final pre-season friendly resulted in a 75-17 score for Stade Français against Brive. That could have meant a try for every member of the team (without conversions of course) :)

HOLIDAY SHOES

I realise that while I may be a big kid, my feet are not so big (size 5) but do you think I could find any beautiful gingham espadrilles in 'normal' sizes while on holiday? Not even any stripey ones! :?

PASSEIG DE GRÀCIA

Even the attention to detail in the paving stones is beautiful in Barcelona but since I wasn't allowed to steal one of these from the Passeig de Gràcia (which, of course, would have been WRONG), I had to make do with a replica.

CONTRASTS

I can’t tell you how gloomy it feels to be back in autumnal England (imagine finding clusters of ripe blackberries in my garden) after the baking warmth of Barcelona! It was definitely the place to be. And surprisingly for a continental coastal city, it’s even got special restaurants just for veggies! It was also funny to have been on holiday with almost the entire population of France as, at times, I heard almost more conversations in French than in Spanish. Maybe it was the influence of these former that gave rise to a worrying occurrence: I queue jumped. Admittedly, it was for ice cream so I could just about be forgiven but by rights I really should’ve been eaten alive by the queue devils. But it was wonderful to wake up to warm sunshine and to wander around Gaudi’s city, studying his fluid, organic, sinuous architecture, knowing that the next time I go back, Sagrada Familia will have evolved still more.

HOLIDAYS!

Time for some sunshine! See y'all soon! ;p

PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY

© leicester tigers

Yesterday was the first ‘friendly’ match before the rugby season begins in earnest: Stade Français against Leicester. It seems that Lionel Beauxis is a great new signing as kicker (and try scorer) for Stade. Unfortunately a last minute penalty for Leicester meant that Stade lost - only by one point – but a loss is still a loss.

UH OH ..

While chatting merrily away with ‘beloved tutor’, I suggested (foolishly it would appear with the benefit of hindsight) that a little trip to England would do him the world of good and improve his lovelife no end! No sooner was the idea suggested than he was on eurostar.com and by the end of the conversation, the ticket was booked. Don’t get me wrong, I’m over the moon that he’s coming to stay with me for two weeks. It’s just when he mentioned the dreaded words ‘swimming pool’ that I realised exactly what I’m letting myself in for!

REJECT

It’s the time of year when I come over all altruistic and report to the local blood donation centre to give blood. Except this time, my preliminary test drop of blood stubbornly refused to sink to the bottom of the tester pot. After being checked on the haemoglobin machine, my sample was found to be 114 g/l (i.e.: below their healthy donating threshold). So now I am tucking into apricots and parsley and Guinness and feeling very rejected :(

SUMMER MUSIC

© rodgab.com

I’ve ‘discovered’ some great new music that I have to share with you – forgive me if you are already listening to them but you know how far behind the times I am, if it’s not on Radio 4, I have no idea! But just in case you haven’t heard of them, Rodrigo y Gabriela are wonderful. My ears are glued to my ipod with the sounds of them at the moment. Brilliant!

TOURISTS

© cultivate

I played tourist this week-end since two lovely friends were over from Paris to explore London. I can tell you without exaggeration that we had a great day, wandering far and wide across London and finally ending up at Tate Modern. However, going back to an earlier debate about national stereotypes, another thing the French are famous for is their arrogance and their complete inability to recognise a queue, let alone stand patiently in one. Anyway, on arriving at the restaurant on the top floor of the Tate, off strode Pascal to the reception desk only to find that the restaurant would not open for another minute (and not a moment earlier – this is England after all). Imagine our horror when, after following him to the desk and quietly enjoying the view while we waited, we turned around to realise that the 20 or so people at the bar were not actually also ‘just’ enjoying the view with some drinks but were, in fact, waiting in a queue (like good English people) for the restaurant! All we could do was laugh out loud at his audacity, and anyway I'm sure people were saying to themselves “Well, what do you expect, he’s French!” In any case, it worked, we were second in the restaurant and had impeccable service!