Saturday, December 20, 2014

Scratch card day.


Bob sits on the stairs while I put on my shoes. He does his best to be patient. When we get to the cafe under the arcades the 'beer and absinthe' crowd are engrossed in their weekly scratch card ritual - conducted in sepulchral silence. The man with the red metallic motability scooter is wearing his 'lucky' white baseball cap - back to front. 


Off to the big electrical goods store to buy a sloping cooker hood that 'The font' won't forever be bumping into. There are no assistants around. They're on some form of strike. We leave cooker hood less. 




The woman at the fancy cake shop is in a bad mood. In fact she's in a terrible mood. Her assistant is down with the flu and the phone is ringing non-stop with locals ordering things for Christmas. '' The country's gone mad " she says to me unfestively. 




A carol service near Toulouse. Airbus commuting territory. A decidedly Teutonic flavour to the evening. Angus finds a table at a cafe outside the church. He orders a rather cheeky St.Joseph 2010. The PON's, unbidden, get water and some fish flakes in a bowl. They consider this to be very civilized. To show her pleasure Sophie burps.


The Font joins us after this final, un-French, carol : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egb77BpnJPQ


5 comments:

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

Good heavens, customers wanting to place orders for Christmas? What's the world coming to.

WFT Nobby said...

Surely one couldn't stay grumpy for too long, working in and amongst those cakes!

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

Maybe the woman at the fancy cake shop should try her own baba au rhum cake. I've no doubt one of them with an extra injection of the rum would put her back into the Christmas spirit.

The un-French carol is a lovely way to end an evening.

Julie said...

Oh the cakes! I never thought, maybe if I ring my order through they'd send some over ?

VirginiaC said...

My dear Angus, have you ever been around to witness any scratch card winnings by the "beer and absinthe" crowd? I can hear their jubilant cries and loud invites to have a beer with them....they seem a rather happy crowd, or should that be a rather happy family?
Sophie is so endearing...burping to express her approval of the fish flakes made me laugh out loud...very loud.
As for the cheeky St.Joseph 2010, I wonder how the Font puts up with your behaviour sometimes....the church service would have served you well, but I guess you could still enjoy the music from outside the cafe next door....very cheeky of you.
I would have waited no end (bad mood or not) to purchase some of those yummy looking pastries from the fancy baker.