Yesterday's walk had clearly knocked the stuffing out of us. I was asleep by 9pm and we both slept nearly 10 hours. Our habit is to do a day-on/day-off mode of exploration/rest during the week, and then just take it as it comes on the weekend. We can't safely do any long forest walks on the weekend because of the hunting. The forecast for the next 10 days is for fine sunny weather and temperatures still up to between 30 and 33 degrees, so it's going to be warm. We thought the temperatures might have been dropping into the 20s by now, but not so. With the air-conditioning not working in the car, it curtails our plans a little.
However, it's an easy day today. We bought a new ironing board cover. That's a treat! Coffee and a read at Bar Pablo (so we could get their wifi password and later use it next door at Le Comptoir). We've embarked on washing the sofa and cushion covers, which were due for an overhaul. It will take maybe 5 loads in the washing machine, and quite a few days for them to dry but the weather looks perfect for it this week.
As it turned out, everything dried really well, and the first sofa's covers were washed, dried, ironed and replaced all in a day. We met friends at Le Comptoir in the evening, and back for a late dinner.
Wednesday we headed into Perpignan to get some new wiper blades, some bits at Decathlon (a mega sports store like Rebel Sports) including pathetically small (40x25x20cm) Ryanair-sized cabin bags, booking the car into Hyundai to see if the aircon could be fixed, and back into the centre for a meal at our favourite La Suite. As always the combination of French cuisine and Moroccan flavours was lovely, and the proprietor as pleasant as ever. He remembers us, even though we only appear on a few occasions during September-November each year.
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| The toilet in the Moroccan restaurant La Suite is very quirky |
I'm a little worried we are getting old! In previous years, when the weather has been hot, we've always got up early (7am?) and gone for our run before breakfast, followed by a weights session after it. Now, we are so cosy snuggled or reading in bed that it's getting exceedingly hard to arise before breakfast. Hence, today we opted to delay our run until 10am, and it worked fine. It wasn't too hot, our tummies weren't too full and we actually surprised ourselves with how well our sprint rep sessions went. We haven't done any HIIT (high intensity interval training) for a number of weeks now, but know they pay big dividends in fitness if you can do them regularly. Unfortunately swimming isn't an option to us because the local pool closed here at the end of August, which is deemed to be the end of the summer season. The closure takes no notice of how hot the temperatures remain.
We managed to squeak a coffee in before midday, this time at the new coffee roaster's tiny cafe. John had asked him last time we were there if he made Flat Whites, and he'd said yes. I was keen to take him at his word, and was very happy with his version made with beans from El Salvador. It made a nice change from a noisette (a little espresso with a touch of milk). The owner is a very nice guy and clearly his new enterprise is doing very well as the small number of tables and chairs are typically full.
It's now 1pm, a Spanish guitarist and saxophonist are serenading diners at the restaurants in the square below us, and all is well with the world. The temperature hasn't yet risen into the 30s, so it's very nice being tucked up in our little apartment looking out at the tall plane trees in part sun and shade, listening to the live music.
For the first time in three months I think I can now say, with reasonable confidence, that the blockage/ringing in my left ear is starting to come right. Ever since I had the ear infection in July, my hearing has been (initially quite severely) impaired and it has continuously felt like I've had water in my ear. My doctor assured me it would come right, but could take a long time. He wasn't wrong there! It's still not as it should be, but I'm mightily pleased that it finally seems to be abating.
We caught up with more friends at Le Comptoir tonight, some from Aussie and an English woman who now lives in Montpellier. The Aussies are trying to sell their property but a sale fell through very recently. However, it's now very likely extended family members will buy it, meaning the couple will still be able to come here for holidays.
Friday has been deemed 'group walk' day, when a number of our friends get together to go for perhaps a 4km walk. It's not fast, the pace being determined by the slowest walker, which can be VERY slow. Because we are walkers, the others are always keen for us to join them. It's always a chance to chat, if not get the heartrate up above resting. We had a nice stroll around the back of Ceret and were back at Le Comptoir for a nourishing coffee by noon. This was followed up with lunch at one of the restaurants in our square with three others. The immediate appeal on the menu was moules frites (mussels and chips), something John always angles towards. It was simple and tasty.
Rest was required in the afternoon in anticipation of watching the All Blacks vs Italy game in the Rugby World Cup. Sebastian, at Le Comptoir, promised to put his big screen up, so a number of us congregated there at 9pm. In the end the match was a walkover, with the ABs playing very well, but I think we would all have enjoyed a closer and more evenly contested match, as was predicted. However, the evening ended on a high note and we're looking forward to watching the Quarter Finals onwards.
