Lazy afternoon

We went into Narbonne today, to meet Aunt B for lunch -- we haven't seen her since before Christmas. We stopped on the way to visit Sue in hospital, which was an upsetting experience. It's only a week since I last saw her, and she looked just awful. She was awake, just, but not really responsive. I hope she at least appreciated us being there. It's almost exactly a year since I accompanied her to her first hospital appointment and it's so sad to look back.

Once at B's we drove into town and lunched at one of her regular spots by the canal. We didn't eat much, just a dish each and cafés gourmands for me and S. Quite exciting for me since I haven't eaten out since Christmas! I did weigh myself this morning, so I ordered a salad, but then felt justified in choosing the three tiny desserts with my coffee. 

It was a long and leisurely lunch, and afterwards we strolled down the Barques with B as she needed to go to the bank. She'd been to sort out a problem with her card at her local branch this morning, but whatever she did was unsuccessful. When she inserted her card into the machine here, she entered the wrong code and it ate her card. Cue panic as she's leaving for the UK on Tuesday. The branch wouldn't reopen till 3 pm; it was a quarter to. "What shall we do now?" mused S. "Have an apero!" said B promptly, striding smartly to a nearby open-air bar. So we enjoyed sitting in the warm sunshine for another half hour or so, sipping drinks (a glass of wine for B, soft drinks for us) and watching the world go by. It's so pleasant to just enjoy the present moment in balmy sunshine.

Once in the bank, we had to wait a while, but B's problem was quickly sorted by the very nice manager. She even managed to get B's card back (not normally possible) because she spotted the guy who maintains the ATM arriving and ran after him. And she was able to issue some cash to tide B over until the card can be reset tomorrow.

After that we drove B back home and then headed home ourselves. There was a surprising amount of traffic, and it took us nearly an hour. Just chilling out for the rest of the evening.