While I waited for the ratatouille to slow bake this afternoon, I managed to watch a bit of Ronnie O’Sullivan playing snooker. It’s always a pleasure watching him play, particularly when he’s in splendid form. Which he was. Mostly. Though his opponent, Pang Junxu, was also very handy with a stick.
Though, there was an odd moment of high drama when Pang Junxu failed to declare a ball, following a touching ball decision by the referee. This ended up in a foul situation but, otherwise, as I popped in and out of the room, there was a lot of speed and skill on display.
But the drama of an international snooker competition was not to be enjoyed until late in the day. First we had visitors.
Last night, we had a message from Nicoline asking if Todd and Frank could come over and visit the girls this morning. Of course, we said yes, and they duly turned up at around 9:30 to throw tennis balls for Emma and for Freya to spend a lot of time asleep on Nicoline’s lap. It was a glorious day so we sat on the deck with coffee while the boys did what energetic little boys do so well without the need for caffeine.
It was a lovely couple of hours spent, mostly, in the sun. There was an anxious moment when Todd admitted he couldn’t turn the TV on, but I soon fixed that. Obviously, Todd and I can’t communicate very well but, through miming, grunting and direct pointing, I managed to find something for them to watch that involved very clever dogs flying planes and driving fire engines. This followed the one word that we all know and which transcends language: Netflix.
It reminded me of so many times watching movies with Tom. Though, I didn’t hang out with the boys, opting instead to rejoin the ladies outside. The fact that I switched the language to Swedish for them may have had something to do with my decision.
A ,little later, as we waved goodbye to Nicoline and two of her grandchildren, Harald pulled up ready for an onsite meeting regarding the painting of the house.
Mirinda is off on her uni dig next week and she’d arranged for Harald and Roger to paint the lounge, corridor and kitchen while she is away. I will be living in the stuga for two weeks giving them free access to the house. It will also give me a chance to see what it’s like living in our holiday cottage.
I still have to finish my task of working out the square metres of paint required but, hopefully, I’ll complete that tomorrow.
All that remained for me to do, after Harald had gone, was to make dinner. Following yesterday’s major success, I decided to try another one of Géraldine’s recipes. I went for cod with a pistachio crust, and slow baked ratatouille. There was a moment of panic when Mirinda and the dogs failed to return from their walk on time, but, eventually, the food was on the table and smelled great.
Mirinda declared it delicious. I declared that I’d gone a bit mad with the garnish.
