Cannot stomach Monarch

It was at dinner in the old square in the very French town of Mouans Sartoux that Peachy Butterfield revealed the problem he had with a gin and tonic recently. Being based in the UK during another typically poor English summer, he made a snap decision to go to Majorca for a few days sunshine last month.  The only flights available were with Monarch Airlines, the budget specialists that make the seating offered by Easyjet and Ryanair look spacious. Peachy is a big chap and having ordered his gin and tonic he discovered that he could not get his table down over his admittedly gargantuan stomach. I asked if he had thought of taking a mouthful of gin then sloshing some tonic in to mix it orally but this had not occurred to him.

The dinner in Mouans Sartoux at Le Coin Natural was extremely good, my scallops tandoori being especially good and with the discovery of a 14% rich and round local wine called rather fittingly Mistral (it disappeared like the wind, but the wind reappeared this morning in a less than pleasant way), a good time was had as can perhaps best be illustrated by my picture today of Peachy being a bit of a bread head.

Peachy Butterfield; basket case?

Yesterday was a day for preparation and trepidation. Preparation for the party we had promised to allow our children to have as a farewell before they both go to the UK for various colleges in the coming week, and trepidation about the possible consequences.  We have put notes through all our neighbours letter boxes to warn them of the event, but with the noise that nice lady decorator and Peachy were making at 1.30 in the morning the night before last, the neighbours could have been forgiven for thinking we had out the wrong date on the warning.

So a selection of the  cheapest wine boxes and rays of canned beer were duly transported from supermarket, tents were erected, ice was secured and then it was time to don crash helmet and goggles until 2am this morning when it was supposed to end.

As it is the weekend, I shall be taking a few days off from my labours on behalf of Currencies Direct as I think it only fair that my readers have a few days away hearing about how they can save money on their foreign exchange transfers, however I will continue to consider the best way of getting the message about Medina Palms across.

The delicious prospect of a whole weekend without a social engagement lies before me, and with the threat of thunderstorms today and more so tomorrow, perhaps at last the summer social maelstrom is coming to an end. That nice lady decorator will be taking daughter Charlie to settle her in to her London college on Monday, and will doubtless consume several pints of London Pride whilst she is there, and will no doubt call me at the time just to rub it in, but with the weather forecast indicating wind and rain back in the UK, I am glad I am staying put here.

Wayne Brown from FR2day sent out an urgent message to his friends on Facebook yesterday, asking all his UK friends if they had any very light and thin jumpers they could spare because it was starting to get chilly on the boat after around 9pm. I know what he means, but the roof of the Merc will stay down for a couple more weeks at least. I guess then I will have to start looking for some long trousers which I last used here in late April, and are still in my suitcase for when I was in England in high summer.

Chris France