I decided to spend another day in Nasbinals. I didn’t really want to stay but a number of factors contributed to my decision, the one with the greatest weight was the thick blanket of snow that appeared overnight and despite some of the comments in your emails, neither the  shortness of skirt nor height of the waitresses heels played any part.

I had breakfast with Grandma Matriarch who was complaining about the lack of heating, she is a delightful old dear and despite my poor French we managed to communicate quite well, yet as I sat there in my t-shirt and shorts struggling for a breath trying not to imagine dessicated desert scenes from the English patient, I could not find any sympathy for her and just thought “buy some thermal underwear”.

I did however think that she would be an ideal companion for my Uncle John, who has been mentioned previously with respect to temperature. He has a fisherman’s cottage on the East coast of Scotland and I am convinced that he could grow the rarest and most demanding of Orchids in his living room, despite the sea lashing the windows on a regular basis during the winter. People in the UK do tend to overheat their homes in  the winter, but my Uncle John flying determinedly in the face of current opinion  is intent on leaving as large a carbon footprint as possible with I suspect  “Jet waz here” written below.

Anyway after breakfast and Grandma Matriarchs complaints, the Gite temperature was further increased to 1 Aran Jumper, which is so warm I could barley survive and retired to my room with the radiator off and the window open.

Later heading into town, I visited the Tourist Information where I had an informative chat about the area with the preceding TI officer. The current one is as dull as dishwater. There was an exhibition of photograph upstairs of Kazakhstan, which just urges me  impatiently on. After a busy morning visiting the TI, butchers and grocers I visited the bar for a Christmas beer and perused the evening menu.

When I arrived back my Crocks had disappeared and when I asked if anyone had seen them, an Asian girl came towards me  wearing both my Crocks and a red face, I felt quite guilty so I gave her my thick socks and headed for a shower.

Going down to lunch I discovered they had re-arranged most of the tables to an ugly monolith that dominated the room and ruined the atmosphere and as I went in the patriarch came hurrying towards me and pointing to a table in the corner beside the door asked me if it was ok. I suspect I should really apply for a license for the look that I bestowed upon him, as it strips skin as easily as it does wallpaper and Artex.

The room had gone from having an open friendly atmosphere to an exclusive one. Where there had been six groups of tables, space for the adults, kids with various activities and the other residents. Interesting how such a change can affect a room and the people. I was pretty pissed off at them as until then we had all mixed, comfortably but after this the adults were perched around the edges of their  uncomfortable creation, the children stayed away and the rest of us at the Gite felt as though we were invading their space.

Later ignoring the arrangement, I set myself up in the middle and laid out the bread, cheese, sausage and wine I was having for lunch. Amongst the group there was a little girl who was all 1970′s Afro and as bright as a button. She decided that she was having some of the sausage Id just sliced. She made very quick work of it and appeared from nowhere quickly followed by one of  the adults who was admonishing her. I chased the adult off and asked her to first say please before raiding my plate. She did and by the end of my lunch she had eaten more of the sausage than I did and half my pear, but said please on each subsequent raid. She is smart, cute and bold and will go far.

Sorry pictures are thin on the ground, I am disappointed not to have some pictures of the children and the Gite.