What's in a weekend

Yesterday, 

mana_trini and I took five of the neighbor kids to a beach named Moya II (I've posted pictures of it before at the bottom of this entry). We were quite a sight--all seven of us piled into our Renault Clio with J's longboard passing from dashboard to trunk. J let me drive so he'd be the one hunched over in the passenger seat under the board. Too bad we forgot to take the camera.    Moya and Moya II are the prettiest beaches on Petite Terre, and they are rather secluded from the inhabited areas of the tiny isle. One has to go down a good stretch of potted, rutted dirt road to reach them and the taxis take a special commission for going out so "far," which is why the kiddos that we took have never been there, even though they are only a few kilometers away.

As I mentioned in my last glimpse post, the surf's up in Mayotte, and there were half a dozen surfers catching the waves  breaking at the entrance of the horseshoe bay of Moya II. J watched them longingly, but he stayed by the shore with me to lifeguard our five charges, none of whom is a stellar swimmer. I played in the surf with four of the kids while J paddled the fifth around on his longboard. When the kids were all shivering and their teeth chattering (the water's getting "fresh" now), we herded them out of the water to eat tuna sandwiches, chips, and oranges. A good time was had by all, and it was a nice "going away" party. Maeva is moving back to Madagascar and J and I are moving house/neighborhood next month.

Today, I'm going to do some more sewing. I'm going to make a top for moi and at least start on a carry sack for J's spearguns. The sack might be tricky because of it's size (almost 2m long) but also because of all the padding he wants me to sew in it to protect his material. We shall see; we shall see...

ETA: Got the top made. It's a rather simple affair but it took hours. That's what I get for sewing without patterns. Tomorrow, I'll concentrate on J's sack. That means it'll be Tuesday before I get to make the pants that go with my top. And then on Wednesday...harem pants...I hope!

 

 

Multiplex

But a rugby multiplex (switching between games) rocks less. Yesty was the last day of the Top 14, meaning that the teams battled it out for the final standings for positions 5-14, and the television moguls decided to subject the fans to a zapping frenzy on one channel rather than spread the matches out over the three sports channels that they own. Apparently they do this every year. The semi-final will be next week, and my fav team (Toulouse) is in it, currently ranked n°2. I would have watched even if they weren't.  

Since the Top 14 is over, today I'm catching up on the international test matches (SA vs Wales, Australia vs Ireland, and England vs NZ). Tonight is the semi-final for Pro D2 in France to decide the second of two teams that will be joining the Top 14 next year.

What a lovely way to spend the arvy...Except it's hard to sew and watch the matches at the same time.

ETA: Ouch. The southern hemisphere totally dominated the northern teams in that round. But that's no surprise really. While watching the England/NZ game, I heard that England have beat the All Blacks twice in NZ and France have beat them thrice. No other European team nor Argentina have triumphed over the All Blacks while playing in New Zealand. 

France hasn't yet participated in these preparatory matches for the Oz tourny because our national championship is still going on. The team that we will be sending will not be comprised of any players from our top four teams since they'll still be battling for the title here in France.

I'm sure you all read Writer Beware

...but on the off chance you don't, they just announced that there is a scam in SWFA-clothing setting out to prey on the unwary who don't do their research.