Update, Part I

Where to start?


I've returned from a week of meeting old friends, catching up, drinking champagne and having a fabulous dinner with my classmates -- meeting them after all these years is indescribable -- and another week of family and more food !

My dearest friend and classmate, Sylvie, met me at the airport, and there ensued a week of very happy times, sharing the old bad things we had individually gone through and laughing at the very good place we're at today. It took me a day to switch my mind over to the French language and we talked non-stop, cooked and ate the most wonderful food, salads from her garden, yes, cucumbers and tomatoes too! Cheeses Sylvie brings over from her forays into France where she visits her parents in the Bordeaux area and excellent wines. We burned the clafouti we made for the alumni dinner, but it didn't dampen our spirits. We made another one the next day and it turned out fine. We shopped, we fed some seals in Dun Laoghaire where we went to buy fresh fish; we went mushroom hunting. We ate lots of fish and mushrooms, while Callum (Sylvie's husband) ate other things; not a fish or mushroom eater he. But he surely knows his wines!

Sylvie in her beloved garden.

A Mediterranean garden in the middle of Dublin!