a twickering weekend

tonight i went to visit them at the hotel in heathrow. brought m.reb some twinnings fruit infusions tea from planet organic for his wife - she likes infusions. i especially felt indebted to him because he gave me FOUR (a rare caps, but deservedly so) tickets to the london 7s. make that the london 7s including the jonah v johnno testimonial match on saturday night. make that lower-west stand seats. and make that the match in which carlos spencer will definitely feature as flyhalf for the jonah team *swoon*.

i'm still heady with glee, man it's going to be so so awesome. m.reb gave me 4 tix (and there were plenty more where they came from; he gave me two at first and then kept asking me if i needed more tickets) and i'm giving 3 to mer and a couple of her fijian friends. though deep down i really wish that some of the blacks girls could be here to watch a great weekend of rugby with me. (somebody is arriving one month too late. and ah-vette! i'm feeling really sorry for you at the moment :( hopefully next year?)

back to the french team.. i found myself more comfortable with them when i'm not their l.o. - i think i take responsiblity far too seriously most of the time. still shy and reserved around some of the guys though. most of the time i sat in the coach's room with the encadrement and just listened silently to fast-paced conversations about politics etc (when someone asked my reaction to the french "non" vote, there was a sudden silence and four pair of eyes fell on me. i stammered, and stammered). it's times like these that are bittersweet - on one hand i'm glad i actually understand at least half or more of what they're saying, but on the other hand i wish my french is good enough for me to participate in their riveting debates. after about 3 hours of constant french speaking and listening, my head started to throb a bit (i'd gone - or rather, fallen - into bed at 5am yesterday morning - but that's a tale for the next post).

le regret du jour, c'est que j'ai pas assez parlé avec patey. quand je l'ai vu, ma tête s'est rendu idiote - il m'a parlé et je ne lui ai pas compris. je suspecte que j'ai un petit petit faible pour lui ;). mais vraiment, il est bien foutu, avec les yeux si ouverts et si clairs. l'essentiel, c'est qu'il est simplement sympa.

met jul, she's a really friendly frenchwoman who's best friend of the coach's wife, who's been working in london for almost a year now and - wait for it, wait for it - drives a really really cute mini. it is so adorable!!! we left the hotel at about 10:45pm and she gave me a lift to west kensington (which seems to have a number of dodgy-looking guys hanging around the tube station at night). hope i'll see her again on sunday.

allez la france :) bon courage!

je envoyerai peut-être à patey un text de mes meilleurs souhaits demain, i've got nothing to lose.