I met another of my readers yesterday! Sue Lawrence, who has just bought a house in Rivel. We had a wonderful evening and a great dinner at the Commerce in Mirepoix.

When we went out to get in the car, we saw that the village is all decorated with lights for Christmas. It looked so pretty and cheerful. JM and I tried to remember from our visit last year (next week will be the anniversary of when we found the house), and neither of us remembers seeing lights then. So, maybe they hadn’t been put up yet? Or, perhaps, these are new ones. I will ask around to find out.

Just as we were getting into the car, one of our village friends stopped me. She wants me to tutor her daughter and two friends in English. These will be my first kid students, so that will be interesting. I hope I can make it fun for them. And, I hope they will learn something. It’s one thing to teach adults who just want to have a bit of conversational ability, and quite another to have the responsibility for some kid’s school grades!

And, speaking of teaching, at the Commerce, our friend Sylvie mentioned that I should really start giving French lessons to the English-speakers. She’s not the first person to mention that to me. Of course, I don’t know if people will want to learn French from a native English speaker though. On the one hand, I’m clearly less perfect than someone who grew up speaking French, on the other; maybe it’s less traumatizing to speak French with someone who has shared their struggles. I will look into the possibilities after the holidays.

As for the holidays, I think that after tallying up the costs of moving and renovation, the Possums will be having a very subdued celebration this year. A nice meal and maybe we’ll find a DVD that we want to see and splurge on that. There’s not that much that we need in the way of gifts anyway. As embarrassing as it is to admit, probably the only thing I’d want for Christmas would be a new pressure cooker! I’ve got the one I want all picked out, but it will probably have to wait until later. Is it sad to want a pressure cooker instead of jewelry?

Ciao for now!

R
(see pictures on my personal site.)