A Mad Month

May is a mad month in France, there are 4 ‘date specific’ bank holidays, so they change their day of the week each year. So if it’s a weekend you don’t even notice it, if it’s midweek then it’s chaos as everyone does ‘le pont’ and takes the off the days bridging the BH and the weekend, even some of the schools. However the 4th one, Pentecost, was ‘abolished’ in 2003 but the public sector still takes it off whereas the private sector does not. So people find they have to work while the schools are resolutely shut. Charming.

So we have had three 4-day weeks so far and I’m totally confused as to what day it is and whether I have to take the kids to school or not (there is also no school on Wednesdays - are you still with me?!). Plus it’s birthday party season, so when we’re not at school we’re trying to get the right kid to the right venue with the right present. Pickle is very popular and has had more invites than Poppet but she has developed a cunning strategy of accompanying her brother to the door and somehow blagging an invitation. She’s gate-crashed 3 so far, are we grooming an ‘It Girl’ here?!

They’ve also each been ill, not together of course, that would be too easy. Poppet had the 24-hour-high-fever one so we spent the day on the sofa watching Barbie till we both developed annoying accents, and Pickle now has a cold with accompanying asthma so he’s spending the day at the computer and the night calling for Mummy every hour. (I now look like a zombie.)

I went into Paris on Monday night to meet up with a friend I haven’t seen for 7 years who now tours with the Pet Shop Boys. I was able to watch the gig, catch up with my mate, sell T-shirts to the fans and take a look round the tour-bus. It was great fun, although that was also the night Pickle got ill so after creeping in at 1am, I was then up all night, and not in a fun way. The PSBs moved on that same night to Amsterdam; life on the road, now that is mad!