Monster fly!

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Bonjour my lovers,

It is Saturday, my day of repose, which means i am all alone (marie has gone home to Bordeaux) and i'm minorly bored. The weather is terrible so here i am again - about to regale you some of the latest embarassing episodes of my life. It always stuns me that theses things continually happen to me. I feel like Bridget Jones. Am currently wearing comfy clothes including some bizzarre brown/violet aladdin pants i purchased here and Ed's blue checked canada top. Just to give you all a mental image.

So my afternoon job is starting to pick up a little. 16 kids the other day. And mostly its fine- i smile and nod a bit still with the littlies - but they don't seem to notice my lack of comprehension so i shall continue. Slightly scared that im gonna be struck off of some french list which allows me to work with children for 2 reasons.

Firstly - i was very casually lounging around the pool when a pretty papillon (butterfly) decided it was thirsty and swooped around us all for a bit. I got a bit caught up watching it and didn't really register that it had landed on the front of a young boy's swimming trunks. Unfortuantely the people behind him couldn't see the butterfly and thought i was just staring lasviciously at his crotch area.

Secondly - there was some kind of child's dispute happening at the end of our afternoon session and this deteriorated into a sand throwing battle - never wise i know - but to diffuse the anger i joined in. Unfortunately i managed to throw a shoe, filled to the brim with sand, at a boy's head exactly as his mother came around the corner to collect him. Seeing his dazed eyes, i gambled that he could be easily persuaded to celebrate the mess rather than cry at the pain and so i started wooping and jumping up and down clapping. He eventually smiled and cheered too and then set off running around again. Thank god children forget quickly. His mother did glare at me suspiciously but as i haven't been removed from mini-club responsibility im assuming im safe for now.

The main hugely emabarassing thing which happened to me this week was falling off of the voiturette. This is basically a golf buggy type thing that we use to take a tour of the campsite before the evening entertainment - on this particular occasion i had been chosen to stand on the back of it and shout at people trying to encourage them to join us for the evening. Everything was progressing well, i was yelling, we were dashing around all corners of the site, people were noddinga at my cries, there was a small boy cycling after us on his bike, all in all i was feeling very useful and very much part of the team. This is obviously the perfect moment for the Gods to have a quick laugh at my expense - so they sent a monster fly. I am not joking or exaggerating - this thing was huge - maybe the size of a chihuahua or my eyeball - and it attacked my face!!!!

Obviously i employed my hands to deal with this onslaught and waved them furiously around my face - it was at this point that Charlotte decided to handbrake turn us around a corner. I lurched sideways, shrieked and basically flew off the voiturette. Whilst this effectively got rid of King Kong, my lightning fast reflexes meant that i was now running/fllying alongside the buggy, with only my left hand as an anchor. I know now that what to do in this situation is to take a deep breath and yell STOP in french. However this is one of those lessons of hindsight and as such what i actually did was make some odd, gurgling noises as i tried not to a) swallow dust/sand b) let go and fall flat on my face. Charlotte being french, her driving skills questionable and my commicative skills even more so she didn't stop. After about 6 seconds - which is a long time - about 100m to be exact. I decided enough was enough - and launched myself sideways. I have 100% belief that had there not been a tent exactly at my point of departure that i would have executed a perfect lara croft leap and tumble. As it was however i simply ran sideways into somebody's tent - which was frightening for everyone - as neither they nor i were expecting my arrival in the vicinity of their makeshift lounge. And i may have ressembled a charging rhino. I was miraculously unhurt, my forced entry broke nothing and so after taking stock i beat a hasty retreat, crawled out of their tent, gabbled an apology and jumped back onto the voiturette. (The family and i sang a song together at karaoke last night to commemorate this bizarre and hilarious moment.)

Karaoke is another truly odd experience here. To explain more clearly the english songs i've had here are 'Time of my life' - standard: everyone knows Dirty Dancing. 'Beat it' - again everyone knows Jacko - but the french only know the choruses so i tried to sing the rest - but im pretty much a failure at anything like that so that went down like a ton of lead. Shaggy's 'It wasn't me' - the french accent is truly horrific when in song and the rap was way too fast for them. And something by Destiny's Child - eclectic mix. And all massacred. Can't wait for english school holidays so that i can hear our songs with the correct words again - even if the tune is completely out.

I love you all lots. Just been told that the man is gonna come try and fix our shower shortly - yay. We are also hopefully gonna have our first night out tonight - which i think means buy alcohol, sit on the dune and get hammered. Will take my camera.

Send me love. Meggie xxx

p.s have tried to add some photos - but don't know until after i publish if its worked.

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Photos

Day 1 on Dune
It was horrendously windy - not an ideal welcome.

The Girls
Me, Charlotte, Marie - please note the voiturette that we are sitting in. I usually stand in the box bit behind.

Magic Show
Obviously we didn't do the magic - there was a pro for that - and his girlfriend did facepaint for kids yay! So i took a trip back to age 9.

Another evening costume
With some of my kids. I don't know if you can see it here - but in dedication to the costume i am only earing one dangly earring. I lost the air guitar competition though - sorry Rob!!!

The Stairway to Heaven
They only ascend 80m out of the 117 - the last bit is hell on the calves!

Yet again looking gorgeous.
This was me for the minidisco on thurs!