Softy

Whilst walking around in Rennes, and again in a tree in our lane yesterday, I saw a mostly green or blue very colourful bird. I mistook it for a kind of parrot in Rennes, thinking it must have escaped from somewhere. However, it seemed too much of a coincidence to see another one yesterday - 100 miles away from the first! Unless I have a parrot stalker. I looked it up online, and it seems I may have seen two European Bee Eaters. Beautiful. They would do well around here, after that swarm we saw by the village church as we walked past week!

Market day in Paimpol today. I went in straight after taking Alice to school so there was no queue at le boucher, then I had a walk around. I took a few photos and I almost blipped a photo of the onion stall - that's all it sells, just lots of varieties of onions and garlic.

It's been dull, overcast and a bit drizzly at times, although it brightened up in the afternoon. Alice and I managed a kick around the garden at lunch-time, and I tried to take photos of Softy. I noticed that it was a year ago yesterday when I last blipped him. He seems to be doing ok in spite of the vet's gloomy prognosis. He's going outside a lot, just walks around, uses the facilities then comes back in. He's not keen on cameras though, and he was doing his very best to ignore our attempts to make him look at us. Softy invariably has front his legs crossed just as you see him in the photo - even when he walks.

He spends most his time though on a dining chair next to M's, where he has easy access to lots of fuss and food. Whenever M practises his clarinet, he does so at the dining table. Without fail, every time, as soon as M starts playing, Softy jumps (slowly lowers himself) down and sits by the back door waiting to be let out. I fully understand :-) Even M acknowledges that his high notes don't sound the best.

This afternoon - all French study for me. I have to vary it a lot - listening, watching, reading, writing using internet or books.

M and I walked to the bar/tabac for coffee and waited for Alice. When she arrived, she was again very warmly welcomed by la patronne, who subsequently let her have a Kinder Surprise half price, and gave her umpteen free little animal toys (previous contents of Kinder eggs I think). Alice had taken a long time to decide what she wanted. "that is the question" said la patronne (in English) and the other customer started joining in with the English. On the walk back home, a neighbour stopped Alice to chat (I was about 25 yards behind, and M another 25 behind me!). She`s not sure what was said, although she said she said "bonjour" back. The lady had gone inside by the time I caught up.

I had my Skype lesson for conversation practice this evening. I was asked to recount how I had got on at the conference last week, and specifically, what I had said during the workshop. I repeated exactly what I had said. However, her response was "attention ta prononciation !" It seems I had introduced myself, to a full workshop, as a mad whore ! Oh la la ! :-)