Get your own
   diary at DiaryLand.com! older entries newest entry

And in my spare time I read:

enfinblue
pennyjar
smartypants
ladyloo
harri3tspy
teranika
stepfordtart

2010-08-30 - 1:36 p.m.

...France...

hey summer has gone by in a flash! Kiddies all go to school this week (and two to new schools) so we will be experiencing the bipolar excited-worried spectrum.

But first I think I have a couple of blazers to label, and then there are the pencil cases....

Had a FANTASTIC time in France - I am trying to figure out how we can all live there, or maybe get a holiday home there, or in any case, go back for a longer time. 11 days of glorious sunshine, 40 degrees, fantastic food (um, I think I've gained about 10 pounds) and great people. I also may never go back to Paris again. The southwest is filled with much nicer people. And no cars.

Sadly, now I am back at home surrounded by hideous amounts of washing, and chores and tasks to be done. sigh.

So some of the unexpected highlights were: finally abseiling, after refusing when I was 10, crying in front of my whole class that I just couldn't back off the cliff, and having to trudge, humiliated, down the other side. Went climbing and abseiled down. OK, I didn't go very high AT ALL, and I shut my eyes on the way down, but I did it, and when we go back to do all the stuff we didn't have time to do, I will see if we can go climbing in the Pyrenees again.

Nicole having a hornet land on her hair. Dang, I forgot just how BIG those suckers are. Her brothers nearly drowned her in the pool to get it off her, and then it died tangled in her hair. So a bit of drama ensued.

Falling asleep to crickets. I like crickets. Dont' like cicadas. But little crickets I like. Also because they drive hubz crazy, and I'm mean.

Eating dinner with folks who have always lived in the countryside near Dax. This means that they have nearly whole ducks in the freezer, make their own foie gras (which is just far too delicious), and make seventy different kinds of desserts like I make sandwiches. I am imagining my friend ALS's family, only with all French ingredients. Also being instructed in which wine to drink with which course.

Then there's the whole English car in France thing. Makes toll booths entertaining.

Went to bull jumping, which was very mind bogglingly fun, but demonstrated clearly to me a significant difference between French and English cultures. My experience in England has been that if something might maybe possibly be dangerous, then it will either be prohibited or have big signs and barriers. The French seem to have a much looser version of this, based more on well if you do THAT you have to take what comes. So driving doesn't need to be on the road if you offroad carefully and don't hit anyone. Similar for parking. And when the audience was invited down to run around the arena with the bull (having been shown how to vault over the walls if necessary), and then 30 seconds in, one man got trampled on and was taken off on a stretcher while the other men continued to flag the bull to head their way and then run away, our host said to me, "It is good that he [the trampled man] did what he had to do, or he could have been injured. That didn't look too bad."

I heard that a lot (in French). He (or she) did what he (or she) had to do. I was still amazed at the fact that I was the only one fazed by what had happened.

Anyway, then they brought out a tall see saw thing but with ropes, and two men volunteered. So they each hang on the ropes, and when the bull charges to one side, the man on the other side pulls hard and the other man flies up, only to bounce down and pull hard so that his partner similary flies up and therefore misses the horns of the bull. OK. Hope that makes sense. Remember that these are just folks from the audience.

Well the second set of men were pulling and jumping to avoid the bull when one of them just let go and vaulted out of the area, which left the other guy holding a rope and trying desperately to climb it with his legs tucked as high as he could before the bull wranglers distracted Toro. Everyone was laughing away, and commenting that maybe the man who had run away had forgotten something.

MENTAL. AND THEN they invited any children who might want to have a go at running with a little bull. And they came flying out of the stands. There must have been about 40 of them when they let the bull calf out. So ok, it is a calf but still big enough and can run fast - flattening the first kid who got in its way (enter bull wrangler, shake it off kid or at least that's what it looked like). MENTAL.

The first part, the professional part, was the various bulls (and they weren't fully grown by the way as if that matters) running straight for a man who either stood his ground and then pivoted at the last minute to avoid the bull, or other men who leapt over the bull as it ran towards them. I think the most impressive one was the man with his legs tied together who really did jump over the bull. The others did flying somersaults.

Now I am sure that some of you have experienced this sort of thing, but I hadn't. I had however experienced the joy of children stuck in the car from london through France nearly to Spain. He's LOOKING AT ME. Stop TOUCHING ME. How come HE'S...OW! MUM!! Well, just keep that up for 7 or 8 hours. Had a DVD player so I can recite Surf's Up if you would like.

Anyway, think I should go find some more laundry - I've hidden it somewhere.

xx

leave a note

holidays 2010.... - 2010-12-26
Goodbye to Sandy - 2010-08-30
...France... - 2010-08-30
definitely not a technohead - 2010-06-08
it's a house, it's a laptop, it's a guinea pig! - 2010-06-01

previous - next

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
  your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!