Burglars, cameras, quizzes

I am about to be judgemental and say Bugger Burglars.  No, really, bugger the lot of them.  All the nasty, sneaking pick pockets, thieves, conmen, snatch purses and highway robbers at large in the world.  Bunch of bloody spongers - no good for anything but scrounging money off others by horrible methods.  Yvette Bickerton who is a sweet natured, gentle, peace loving woman is now in hospital with a pulmonary embolism, possibly brought on following the robbery which she and her husband, Mike, suffered last month by the Spanish highway.  And not just the robbery – all the hoops and stress they were subsequently put through to be issued with new passports, bank cards and the like.  So bugger burglars – and over-officious passport and bank officers.  And get better soon, Yvette.

We had a really lovely evening out with Mike and Yvette on Friday.  Three of us – Mike, Mary Gargent and I were very kindly treated to a meal in Hautefort to thank us for our help after their robbery.  We went to Table d’Erillac, one of the nicest restaurants in the area.  Apart from the delicious things to eat and the good company, something very wonderful happened.  About 18 months ago we went to England for a family birthday party and subsequently couldn’t find the camera anywhere.  We decided it must have somehow fallen out of our laden car at one of our petrol/food stops on the return journey.   Now we know we were wrong.  Just after we came back from England it was my birthday and we went to Table d’Erillac – and left the camera there.  Although I may call down curses on thieves and conmen there are also righteous people at large in the world. The kind of people who keep a customer’s camera safe for 18 months and return it.  I’m sure we must have eaten in there since then, but maybe the camera keeper wasn’t serving on that day.  As soon as she saw us she brought it to us.  Wonderful.  

We now have to order a new charger for it.  I had given up on it to the extent that I had thrown the original away.          

It has been a busy weekend.  On Sunday three of us had planned a quiz and buffet to raise money for Medecins Sans Frontieres.  Brenda Durham and I did the catering and Anne Ingham set the quiz and shouted it out.  Brenda and I picked up the keys to the village Salle des Fetes on Friday afternoon and went down and laid out tables.  This is not a suitable job for two women.  The tables at the Salle are left folded in the kitchen and are huge and heavy to shift.   We put 9 of them up before staggering home.    

Saturday was entirely taken up with preparing buffet stuff and Sunday was the actual quiz.  People came, quizzed, ate and bought raffle tickets.  It was hard work but we enjoyed it and we’ve made over 400 euros.  And we got some kind men to put the tables away for us.