I walked into Starbucks this morning and was greeted with a flurry of school days French. Sue, Jaz and Yvonne all said “Bonjour” and Sue continued the conversation with the words she knew: “Fermer la bouche“, “Fermer la porte“, “Table“, “Fenetre“, etc. I asked for a café crème but Jaz made my usual instead. Her latte art resembled a chorus girl doing the can-can.
In Waitrose, I chatted to Phil, who recently went to Poland on his first, ever, holiday on his own. I’ve been wondering how he’d go, particularly given I’d assured him it would be brilliant. This was from my own experiences of travelling alone. I wanted to make sure he enjoyed it.
He loved it. Well, not so much his visit to Auschwitz. He told me how emotional his visit to the concentration camp was. How he was brought to tears. How the place felt devoid of life. It affected him deeply.
Apart from Auschwitz, he had a very happy time, enjoying the food, the people, the buildings. In fact, he said, he wants to go away on his own again. As soon as possible. Newly separated, Phil is seriously making up for lost time, if you ask me.
Back at home, the gardeners were working away, uncovering the terrace from the bed of fallen leaves, a bit of weeding and setting up the greenhouse for winter. There was no Hannah this week. Dave brought the older Tommy, who hasn’t been for ages.
Tommy wasn’t keen on weeding, so he volunteered to clear the cobwebs from the greenhouse and load up the over wintering pots. He pleaded guilty to using the heater to keep himself warm. Dave said he could have just worked a bit harder.
As usual, the garden looked much better after their visit. And, of course, we could actually see the terrace.
Tonight we watched the final episode of The (American) Office. What an excellent programme with a cleverly crafted finale. We have thoroughly enjoyed it. Have to say, though, we’re going to really miss the antics at the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
