30 January 2008
Two things that haven’t happened in a long time.
Posted by Flea under: News .
Adrian has done himself proud.
Actually, that’s a third thing that hasn’t happened in a long time.
This morning he went to the hairdresser and got himself a haircut. That’s the first thing that hasn’t happened in a long time.
I went along to hold his hand but, really, I didn’t need to. They didn’t speak any English but he got along just fine. And, on top of that, the nice young lady who cut his hair even complimented his command of the language! I think she was just being nice because he asked for a blue mohican and you can see in the picture that that isn’t quite what he got. Anyway, he’s happy and it’s put a twinkle in his eye.
Here are a few of the useful words and phrases he used to get this marvelous cut - feel free to correct them or offer other tips in the comments:
(le) coupe de cheveux - a haircut
un peu plus court sur le derrière et sur les côtés - a bit shorter on the back and sides
c’est parfait! - it’s perfect!
Edit: A French speaker has pointed out that, in fact, Adrian’s request for shorter hair on the back could be misinterpreted as a request shorter hair on his rear end. That would explain the crap haircut! She suggested he may be better off saying something like “un peu plus court derrière et côtés” but our conversation was cut short before we could clarify. I’ll check up on this and come back to you.
Les blattes de la mer
The second thing that hasn’t happened in a long time is this…
Yes, we’re talking un-peeled whole prawns cooked in butter with copious amounts of garlic and lemon! Now, I’d never actually tried this before last night but Adrian and Anabela tell me that the last time they had this was back in Zimbabwe where, because of the high cost of prawns, it is regarded as a bit of a delicacy. Here, on the French Riviera, the packet of around 30 prawns cost them 7 Euro!
Incidentally, if you’re wondering why the picture above just shows the discarded prawn shells and not the lovely looking prawns ready to eat, it’s because Adrian took the photo and he his hoping to lead a revolution in food photography with it. You see, he doesn’t believe a beautiful photograph of food tells you anything about its taste. Rather, he thinks that a photograph of the remains of a meal, such as this one, tells you a lot about how much, or little, it was enjoyed. Go figure.
As you might imagine, I clocked the smell as they were cooking so wandered through to the lounge and put on my cutest “please can I have some” face. It wasn’t long before Anabela handed me some nicely peeled and chopped up prawns - she’s such a pushover. They were delicious but I must say that I hope they buy bigger ones next time as the wait between prawns while they were peeling them was just ridiculous!
Finally, as with anything Adrian and Anabela do, it’s not worth doing unless they can have a bicker about it. Adrian seems to be under the misguided - and frankly, dangerous - opinion that pink prawns have been pre-cooked and that all prawns are gray before they’re cooked. Anabela thinks you get pink prawns and gray prawns.
If you know the answer, kindly let me know by leaving a comment so that I can shut the two of them up!