an intense day

France, night

So long since last time I wrote here. First, great gold medal of Pellegrini in the 200m swimming.

My mom is here now. We finally made it to the beach today. My mom got here on sunday, and monday and tuesday rained cats and dogs (I haven't seen rain here except for when my mum is here) all the time. So no chance for the beach.

Beside this, my mom had the pleasure of finding out how slippery the streets of Montpellier can be with the rain. The choice is between having the right shoes and not slipping or having the wrong shoes and ending up with your butt on the floor.

Our plan was to leave today to visit some places around here and then drive toward the Spanish border to be in Barcelona for my birthday this coming Friday. Yesterday and today I spent my day stressing out about the "never ending story of the apartment". The owner of the place where I live now doesn't want to fix anything. Not even the wallpaper which is pealing off from the wall in the bathroom or from the ceiling. Since yesterday, the agency in charge of my renting contract is trying to convince me changing my apartment. I moved here a month ago and since then everything has been really stressful. Now, they would like me to move again to another place, which may have a better owner but that I like less.

So, we are still in Montpellier. Finally this afternoon, after telling the person at the agency for the third time that I don't want to change apartments again now, my mom and I made it to the sea in Frontignac. Really nice place. Or at least, nice place compared to the beaches around here. I swam, the water was cold, and I relaxed a bit. I brought some papers from work to read, but in the end I decided that I deserved some relaxation too....I just submitted a grant proposal yesterday.

The best part of the day today was our dinner in Sete. We picked up a restaurant, it took about 20 minutes for the waiter to come to ask what we wanted to eat (people are definitively taking it easy here) and then this was my conversation with him:

-Me: I have an allergy to milk products. Does the fish soup contain milk, butter, cheese or cream?
-Him: cream yes
-Me: Ok, so I will take something else. What about the swordfish? does it contain any milk product?
-Him: yes, cream
-Me: ok, then I will go for a salad. That should be safe. I would like this salad (and I indicated to him which one). Does the sauce or anything in there have milk product?
-Him: no, no, that is fine, no milk products in there.

My mom got the fish soup and the swordfish. They didn't contain any milk product at all.
I got the salad. It had on top of it a pate made out mainly of butter. Of course, I didn't think it was made of butter, so I had a piece of it, before to feel the buttery taste. Result: now I have stomach problems.
I thought of ending the disaster with a fruit salad. I ordered one.
After let's say 10 minutes my mom tells me: I don't think you will get your salad. The waiter put the preserved fruit salad in a bowl, looked at it, showed to other two waiters, talked with them about it and then trashed it.

I stared at her. They just brought two fruits salad bowls at the table next to us.

The waiter comes back to the table: Sorry, we just run out of fruits salad. Do you want anything else? Strawberry with cream (DIDN'T I SAY TO HIM THAT I HAVE A MILK PRODUCTS ALLERGY?)? chocolate mousse?

-Me: no thanks, just the bill.

Basically my dinner was bread, lettuce, a couple of tomatoes and little more. And I got butter.
But I guess I am lucky. Probably if I would have eaten the fruits salad by now I would be sitting on the toilet instead of at the computer writing this blog.

So, I feel lucky today!