I’ve been away on holiday. Maybe you missed me, maybe you didn’t, but I’m back now after an excellent break.

Looking back on it we really should have gone away straight after Flutewise Live! because it totally exhausted me and I got even more exhausted trying to get on with work after it. I needed a rest. Well I’ve had one now so it’s back to work.

We went to France, to a tiny village in the Dordogne called Bearonne. My cousin Marilyn has a holiday house there which she kindly lets family use whenevr they want it. It’s lovely, a very ‘French’ house. We drove down over two days, staying in a hotel in Le Mans, the road was named after Olivier Messiaen – he wrote the famous flute piece, Le Merle Noir (that translates to ‘The Blackbird’ – I’m really good at French now). Over the two travel days we had torrential rain, but as we arrived at the village the sun came out.

The house in France

We went into the house and opened up the windows and shutters and started to sort ourselves out. My husband went to turn the water on at the mains and then we had our first problem, a tap in the toilet room wouldn’t turn off, water gushed everywhere. He managed to find the correct tools and a new tap and he fixed it! I was very impressed (and so was he). While we were occupied with this problem the black clouds had gathered above us. We had the most amazing storm with hailstones as big as marbles. Look at the photos and bear in mind this was 8 June!

Hailstones

After the storm

After the storm was over we discovered that the bedroom on the ground floor had flooded, so we had to start mopping up. What a great start to a holiday. From that point it improved enormously, the sun came out and the temperature rose and we enjoyed some lovely walks, listening to music, reading books, talking, eating good food and drinking wine.

On the Thursday we had a very special day with a trip to Atarah’s house for lunch. She lives about an hour away from our family house and it was great to see her. All you flute geeks would love her house – there are flutey things everywhere. We chatted and gossiped for ages and really put the world to rights. It was a really lovely day.

We were really very happy. Until Saturday night. The local amateur dramatic society were having a show at the village hall. It didn’t start until 9.00 pm. We returned to the house after having a meal out and decided to watch a DVD on the laptop (no TV and no internet connection – good or bad? I don’t know). So we watched a few episodes of My Name Is Earl then a few Shameless and then a few more Earls and decided it really was time for bed. The show finished at 12.45 – and then the party started! It was a boiling hot night so all their doors and windows were open and the screaming, shouting, laughing and music (really awful music at that) went on and on and on – until after 4.30 am! I really wished I had had a piccolo to do some top note tone work outside the bedroom windows of everyone at that party at 7.00 am the next morning!!

Apart from that it was a very peaceful holiday, just what I needed. I made friends with a donkey in the village who made more noise than you could imagine and I also saw a huge snake.

Now I’m back I’m putting the finishing touches to the magazine and that should go off to the printers on Monday. I’ve then got to get the Flutewise Live! website up to date (sorry for the delay) and then I’ve got events to plan. And maybe think of the next holiday.

In Atarah's garden