Spinach quiche

This evening I had the honour of attending the village school's end of year show. "Le spectacle pour le fin d'annee" pulls in crowds from literally yards away and is a chance for the kids to show off various talents.

This years show was themed "Around the World" and was a colourful event, quite literally as kids blacked up and drew on chinese eyes... who says there's no place for political correctness these days.

The performance began with the les petits running round in circles, clapping and waving hankies in the air. cute.

Then on to the serious stuff. The older kids had put together a routine involving classical dance and 'eeeep op' (hip hop). Oliver busted out the robot. It was immense.

To round off the evening there was a fantastic buffet - more pizza and chocolate brownies than you could shake a stick at. Got to love the French dedication to fine dining. Slight cringe moment when I tried a bit of spinach quiche, decided it tasted like vomit, stealthily put it back on the plate with a bite missing, was accosted by a mother who said 'oh have you tried my quiche?' then picked up my half chewed slice and proceeded to eat it. need to work on my buffet etiquette...


H xxx

PS - Today we were in the forest doing a treasure hunt with a group of twenty 3-5 yr old knee high French kids. Andy said "I feel like a giant for the first time in my life." bless.

Angry Pig

Velcro chilling in the sun.



There is an angry pig tonight roaming around outside. Carla was getting pretty thin from feeding her 9 piglets so we thought we'd do her a favour and take some of them off her hands and put them in a separate area. This involved cornering the piglets, and then grabbing them as they made their escape. This is harder than it sounds - particularly when you think you have an enormous angry mother on your heels literally chasing you across the farm after her squealing baby. Then once we placed the piglets in their new pen, we realised that they could all escape from it due to a small hole. Chaos. And really... a piglets squeal is RIDICULOUS.

I also took Molly to the vet this evening to get her the morning after pill equivalent. It's actually a course of 3 injections though and we have to take her back tomorrow for it to start.

Other projects on the go include mint tea making (well drying mint to chop up anyway), we're due to start building a tea room soon, and we're still to properly sort out the reception area for the summer.

Update on the Molly/Oakley sitch - they are at it every two minutes all over the place. They are acting extremely coupley the whole time as well which is bizarre. When Molly left for the vet earlier he wouldn't stop whining.

Bed time

CHICKS.

Elton John and Scotty the Peugeot 106.

Last week, Andy and I spent a few days going round local towns leafleting to promote La Maison des Chameaux and pull in some crowds for the summer season.

We quickly set up a roadtrip routine:

8.15 - wake up, cup of tea, weetabix.

8.30 - shower, dress, clean teeth.

8.45 - pile in to Scotty the Peugeot 106 with a zillion leaflets and posters. put Elton John "Tiny Dancer" on the iPod full blast. roll the windows down (yes ROLL down. no electric windows in this bad boy). hit the road...

The villages around the farm are stunning and is the countryside between them. Quaint just doesn't even begin to describe it and they are about as French as you could possibly get.

We also quickly discovered that every village has a a dog grooming parlour and at least 25 hairdressers. Although this does not seem to have any effect on the amount of horrific 80s throw back hairdos we saw on people and dogs alike.

(i'm upstairs right now and I just heard Andy outside say "Oh god, she's just pooing everywhere". I dread to think which animal he's on about now...)

We targeted these hairdressers as well as launderettes, supermarkets, beauty salons, greengrocers and flower shops. Our basic thinking was that we would put leaflets in places where women would find them and then drag their families to the farm over the summer holidays. The same line of thought saw us avoid mechanics and electrical shops. Men don't get to make decisions where family outings are concerned. Fact.

Perhaps most importantly, these long drives around the French countryside gave us the opportunity to work on our trucker tans. My right arm (driver side) and Andy's left arm (passenger side) are now nicely bronzed. Also - 70mph is the perfect speed to do 'air boobs'. If you've never done this, you've never lived.

H xxx

PS - CHICKWATCH: we now have 6 chicks hatched. 2 black, 4 yellow. CUTE.

Morning After

After an eventful night yesterday what with Molly and Oakley getting entangled (as Harriet explained) (and now I've learned that its my job tomorrow to take Molly to get the dog morning after pill equivilent), we've had some new arrivals this morning - the chickens are hatching!

A typical morning on the farm really - came down to a new baby chick, baby pigs being rounded up just next to the house & Sarah spinning wool on a old school spinning wheel. The rest of the chicks are still in their eggs in an incubator inside, but they should be out by the end of the day (pecked holes are appearing, photos later).

Its 9.30am and the farm opens to the public at midday. Till then our duties are to open to front gate, make sure everything is generally in place and safe for the kids... and then sit wait and drink coffee until the first guests arrive.

Right now as I'm typing Harriet is pretending to be a horse for Chrissy the vet student, who's practicing to clicker train her. (this involves harriet making jerky movements occasionally and Chrissy clicking when she's still). It's pretty weird to watch.

On a bit of a down note, have found out that Oakley (golden retriever) won't be staying here for much longer, he's moving on to another family as he killed a duck on the farm and therefore is a bit unsuitable for sticking around considering the amount of other animals everywhere. Shame, as I got pretty attached to him he's a really cool dog (apart from the duck killing).

More soon! Andy

p.s i had my second driving lesson from harriet yesterday, and we're both still alive. the country rounds roundabout are perfect, luckily there hasn't been someone coming in the opposite direction just yet...

The birds and the bees...

Picture the scene if you will... We're all out in the garden after a lovely BBQ, enjoying a glass of wine or two. Grant comes out to the door of the kitchen and utters the following:

"Um, guys, Oakley has got his cock stuck in Molly."

So, we all run into the kitchen, where Molly and Oakley the dogs are getting it on. Not only that... they are stuck together and both looking a tad uncomfortable.

Cue all adults fall about laughing (Andy takes photos) while Oliver (age 10) and Elliot (age 8) look confused...


Oliver: what's happening??

Adults: um, they're just tangled.

Oliver: but why? how are they attached??

Elliot: um, are they kissing with bums?

Paul: well...

Oliver: just tell me what's happening? why are they stuck??

Paul: ok, well, Oakley has his bits in Molly's bits. They're making babies.

Oliver: But when will they let go?

Paul: When Molly relaxes.

Oliver: (shouting to the dogs) Molley, let go of Oakley.

Paul: It's all natural, it's all fine.

Oliver: Did you do that to mum once?

Paul: Um, yeah.

Oliver: That's disgusting. I'm not having children. and that's official.

Paul: Well that's what's happening.

Oliver: ok, well i dont want to know any more.


And so we get to know about about the birds and the bees. Important life lessons for one and all...

Elliot has just informed us that the dogs are "deglued". Thank god for that.

Tomorrow Molly is off to get the canine morning after pill.

Confessions of a City Girl

I don’t like animals. There, I’ve said it. I know this makes me a bad person. I wish I liked them more, really I do.

There are however two exceptions. The first is cats and the second is my pet goldfish Horatio (who has ADHD and a penchant for neon.)

So coming to work on a farm full of animals for the summer might have turned out to be the worst decision I had ever made. My thinking was that it was about time I came face to face with my four legged nemeses and that this experience for me would be a make or break in terms of whether I could ever become an animal lover.

Since I’ve been here these have been my first animal experiences:

- A baby goat has shat on me.
- I’ve brushed a camel.
- I’ve watched a sheep play football and a piglet dance.
- I’ve tried and failed to round up a pig called Carla.
- I’ve fell in love with three kittens, Diablo, Marilyn and Velcro.
- I’ve seen a baby duck being dissected. Gross.
- I’ve been woken up daily by a cockerel at 6am.
- I’ve had dog slobber on me at regular intervals.

Also, today I took a dog for a walk. Now I know this is a pretty normal activity for many, part of a daily routine for dog owners everywhere. But for me, this is a big step. Of course I’ve been on walks with dogs, but always with other people. Today was my first solo dog walk. Just me, Oakley the Golden Retriever and the open road. We walked to the post box and back, looked round a medieval church and headed home. The evening sun was warm but not too hot, the countryside was beautiful, golden fields, blue sky, blah blah blah. Basically, I quite enjoyed it. Perhaps a turning point?

I’m not promising I’m going to be the next Dr Doolittle, but it’s a start I guess...

Harriet x

PS – to honour the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death today we listened to Beat It once and Andy tried to moonwalk. We felt that was sufficient.

we work on a camel farm

So having arrived at the camel farm about a week ago, there have been some things to get used to. Watching out for stepping on kittens, rounding up escaped goats, plastering oneself in insect repellent and of course the colleagues.

Harriet shares the same responsibilities on the farm as I do, and is also a French student at Notts. It's been a relief that someone else here appreciates a bad pun as much as I do. She is also extremely calm when being pooed on by a goat which is an essential ingredient to an enjoyable summer at the Maison. Apart from puns and poo she has a great sense of humour and is good at remembering various camel facts that I tend to forget when put on the spot. (For example did you know that camel penis' can turn through 180 degrees to wee on their legs to keep them cool? or that they can drink 200 litres of water in one sole drinking session?) All in all its great having Harriet here to share the experience with. Also hoping for a lift back to England with her in September so sucking up obvs.

First proper update coming soon.

Andy

My First Blog

Due to creative differences earlier than anticipated, we've decided to take turns writing posts on the blog and Andy's chosen to be a gentleman and let ladies go first.

Having decided that writing a blog is a suitably pretentious thing to do on a year abroad, I am hoping that writing a shared blog will halve the amount of self absorption. However, I'm a little concerned that the the key to any double act's success is that both are equally known, loved, cared about...

I realise that those reading this will probably fall into one of two camps - Andy's Friends or Harriet's Friends (those in both should consider themselves an elite and incredibly lucky). So I thought it'd be a good idea for us to introduce each other for the benefit of our respective teams of acquaintances.

When I first met Andrew, two things hit me. His nobbly knees. (I know he won't mind me saying that, as not only is it true, but he's also quite proud of them.) That, and the fact that I was impressed he had managed to hitch hike to the farm from the nearest town, which is a good distance away. I'd arrived a few days before having driven down from the UK, so was looking forward to meeting Andy who I knew I would be spending a lot of time with over the summer. Of course I'd done the obligatory Facebook Stalk and it had shown me that he liked SLR photography and TuPac (is that how you spell it? I'm not cool enough to know...)What followed on his first evening at La Maison des Chameaux involved wine pong and him being molested by two large dogs. I laughed til I cried, and I knew from them on that we would get on just fine for the summer.

Two days later, I was told that I would be sharing a room with Andrew. (for legal reasons I would like to point out that we have separate beds.) What might have been a potentially awkward situation has turned out well... so far. No snoring, no sleep talking and no judging about my collection of overwhelmingly pink and flowerly luggage/towels/blankets/etc.

Since then we've been working together pretty much 24/7 on the farm, which we'll tell you all about soon, and it's all been going incredibly well. Guess we're still in that honey moon phase...

Now I have to wait and see how Andy chooses to introduce me...

(at this point i'd like to come up with some catchy sign off, like gossip girl with the whole XO XO thing, but I cant think of one. any ideas, let me know...)

Harriet x

a little introduction.

Welcome to our blog of our life and experiences at La Maison des Chameaux in the south west of France - an animal park specialising in camels. We've decided to team up and write a blog together.

The farm (at Castelnau-Rivierese-Basse not too far from Tarbes or Pau for anyone that knows the region) was set up in 2007 and is home to a pretty big range of animals from the house pig Buttercup to brooster the bell ringing alpaca and of course the camels themselves. It's open to the public as well as school groups etc who visit the farm and take part in a load of activities including helping to train an acrobatic goat, chilling with and feeding baby animals and seeing various demonstrations.

Our job on the farm is quite varied. We're here mainly because we speak French and can chat to the visitors and take them round the farm. We also get involved in the demonstrations from distracting a suspicious llama, getting mischievous goats away from wrecking demonstrations or just occupying the kids (human form) with games or just chit chat (and of course amazing camel facts we've picked up along the way). Then there are the various other tasks at hand round the farm, like drinking the local wine, winning water fights, keeping the kittens entertained or making the tea. We also do a hell of a lot of leafletting in local towns.

We're not by ourselves here, and live with our amazing adoptive family the Birds - Sarah & Paul, Oliver (10), Elliot (8). There is also currently the incredibly talented handyman Grant, and veterinary student to be Chrissy who help us with the wine as well.

Imagine a cross of Dr Doolittle, Big Brother & The Wild Thornberrys - and you're almost there.

This is our (camel themed) life.