Making a spectacle of myself

What's the most romantic thing you have done for someone? For me it was creating an evening for the two of us (that's Jean-Claude and me) with a theme and my undivided attention. I wanted to show him that he's very special so I created an invitation to a special event and set about creating it. This meant I needed to brush up on some of my bellydance choreographies, design a programme of dances, check costumes , decide on food and especially to decorate my studio in a Middle-Eastern Harem theme. This wasn't easy to do with my limited resources but I had enough.

JC arrived looking fantastic in a suit and tie. He'd made a great effort and accompanying him was a bottle of champagne and yet more perfume for me to use liberally everyday. Very unexpected, unnecessary but thoughful and kind. We explored my efforts at transforming the studio and then settled into the champagne and nibbles. There were fresh dates and dried figs, hummus and chips and pita, dried mango, sausage nibbles, the ever-scrummy peach flavoured heart lollies. We didn't eat much, too busy talking.


Then it was time for me to perform. I'd turned my bathroom into a changing room and timed the CD I'd burnt to allow time for costume changes. The programme had a variety of styles including veil and fan. I was nervous before JC's arrival but as soon as I started dancing I felt comfortable. JC's a respectful and attentive audience.

 My orginal plan had been to cook a meal after the show because I can't eat a lot before dancing. As it turned out, we never got around to cooking and eating a meal. We picked at some fruit and discovered that one of my candles was seriously on fire.

I'd decorated the candles with old bits of dance jewellery and had placed them where they wouldn't be knocked over. Perhaps the air movement from my veil made the candle burn unevenly. The result was that the glass decoration caught fire and needed serious dowsing. That large candle-holder didn't survive the move from NZ very well. Now it's rather black but I've managed to salvage it. We could have had a catastrophe if JC hadn't been observant but the room smelled for a bit afterwards.



JC is lending me a very old bike he had in storage, It works, needs some minor attention and should be of temporary help getting around Cafeolait until I know if I can stay in France. When that happens I can make some more important decisions such as buying a car.

There he was, water-blasting it clean, with me testing the brakes and learning that helmets are not compulsory in France. There's still the problem of where to keep it. I have nowhere under cover-it's too big to put in my one little room beside the bed or in the kitchen section. JC has advised me to chain it to my windows somehow and if anyone complains about the visual eyesore to explain that others have space for a bike but I don't. Maybe someone would let me keep it near their's? Who knows but I do know I have to get to work each day.

Then it was time for me to go home. It's getting harder and harder to say goodbye each Sunday. I have to make an emotional adjustment and that is getting painful. The weeks are long and the weekends are short and we don't have much time together. We don't live in the same town and my need to work puts the usual constraints on things. So, despite my smiles and blowing kisses I was not a happy chappy inside. Of course I adjust back into my solo lifetyle and I keep myself busy but I'm missing him during the week. It's not just his good company, it's everything about him and I'm surprised to discover that it's hard to find fault with him. So I think about him often during the week and am impatient for Saturdays but am sad on Sundays.

I received a lovely message from Laura to celebrate Mothers Day. We're apart but we're in each others thoughts. It's very important for me to have such contact because it's still difficult being completely removed from everything I've known and that was important to me and it's hard being strong all the time. I hope she's ok in her life. I don't know much about it now, unlike the way things were 8 months ago. Still plenty of adjustments to make, even now.

So this weekend was spent being romantically creative and remembering that before I came to France I had a life as a Mum to Laura. I have a few other romantic ideas in my head that I can explore from time to time and I'm looking forward to Laura's visit in just a couple of months.

Photos of my decorating efforts and the view outside my window.