Not a bad day today. I've moved into the other bedroom whilst the guest is in residence as it's quieter and I can get some sleep. It's strange pointing in the opposite direction again. Very bizarre, the things you think about.

Drove to Nontron in the afternoon to do some shopping and have my tracking (parallélisme) done. Even though there were two mechanics and only one car in the garage, they couldn't do it today. Brian told me I should expect this; French garages aren't like the ones in England where they swarm onto your car as if it's in a pit lane. So one (cute) guy came to look at Mildred and then go away to come back about five minutes later with someone else who also looked. About five minutes after that, they put her on a jack and took the wheels off, then thought about things for a while, went and did stuff to the other car, came back and looked at wheels, disappeared then ushered me away for a quote. It took roughly 40 minutes to get a quote just for having my tracking done. Heaven help me tomorrow when I have to wait for them to do it. The garage in Piégut apparently has a bar in it, which doesn't bode well.

Brian's after shopping and cepes hunting. Steak and chips with William (not part of the meal), lots of wine - no fags - and stuff followed by the remaining two episodes of Ab Fab and Plunkett and Macleane. I'm not counting things that weren't strictly cigarettes in my smoking tally for today. There was some tobacco but it was necessary.

I still have to figure out what I'm up to next week. Prague strikes me as a wonderful idea, although I'd have to go by train as it'll take forever by car. That said, a nice exploratory drive across Europe would be fun. Terri called me today to find out if I'm going to go and see her in Brussels, so I see a big train voyage in the near future: Angoulême, Brussels, Prague, Angoulême might be quite good fun. Anton was supposed to supply ideas for Amsterdam/here but they never materialised. Brian and I toyed with the idea of whether I should invite Christophe as experience shows there's no better way to get into someone's pants than the premise of a paid-for holiday somewhere.

Squishy duck pâte with black pepper. Very yummy.