Haircut and neighbours

Tuesday was a very brave day for me... a haircut in french... happily I feel I was able to make myself understood - I had a treatment (hair is really dry) and explained what I was after. I can now advise that hairdressers are the same the world over (Melissa if you read this, you know I love you!!) I asked for about 2 cm off... and she took off about 5 - 8 cms!! eek! Still, I am assured it looks good - and in fact, pretty much the same, but I certainly feel as if it has been layered a bit more and is a fair bit shorter (and fluffier?!) than it was.... still long though. Still, the ends were pretty dry - and probably still are - but they are on the floor of the hairdresser’s now!! hee hee!

We had lunch at home and went to visit my little old friend who lives down the road... I think I’ve mentioned him in previous dispatches. He has a lovely little vegetable garden on the side of the road that I walk down each day on my way to the bus. I have spoken to him a couple of times (in french of course) to say what a pretty garden he has. I had introduced him to Megan and he saw her on the road the other day and gave her a bag of tomatoes and green capsicums from the garden! I saw him on the way into town this morning before my haircut and he asked if he could give me his address so I could send him a postcard when I get home to Aus, as his daughter collects stamps. Of course I said yes. His name is Albert, he’s 76 and very sweet!

So we went down to see him and collect his address. Megan gave him a bottle of ginger marmalade from Buderim and I gave him a little koala key ring. He was thrilled! He invited us in for a juice and even phoned one of his daughters who lives next door to come over and meet us. It was a wonderful hour or so - he gave us some more tomatoes - and tried to give us many more - and we chatted away happily in French. I was translating for Megan pretty successfully, except for a couple of times when I turned to ask her a question and she said, I don’t know - I can’t understand French!! I have a bit of trouble changing the language cassette in my head and had been talking to her in French too!!! ridiculous! Still, a wonderful experience.

And the wine....

In the first week or so that I was here, Lizzie had recommended I walk over to the neighbouring winery to try their wines... Albert suggested the same thing, so we headed off in the afternoon to walk the back roads to the Chateau de Baupre. There were a number of signs around the place saying private property and access forbidden and so forth. We walked around for a bit and wandered past the Automated Village.... not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but it is a fun park for children with giant colourful plastic animals and moving things - actually a little creepy, but apparently hugely popular! We elected not to pay the 10 Euro entry fee and merely walked around looking in with slightly bemused expressions.... We ended up in completely the wrong place but met Albert’s daughter, and as the third person who told us not to worry about any of the signs (we’re locals!), and by giving us some specific directions we headed for the winery and found it! And it was worth it!! I wish I had gone their earlier - the wine and the people are lovely and again I have had to make a commitment to drink more wine before before I leave!