After the Non-Stop whirlwind that was driving around Europe for the last 2 and 1/2 months, both Audrey and I were happy to have some down time: not trying to find some place to sleep or activity to do.  Because this could be Audrey's last time home for awhile she spent a lot of her time visiting friends and families.  I just did nothing.  Literally nothing. Truth is we both didn't care much about seeing and doing things so it was good timing that her brother Geoffrey and his partner Fanny gave birth to they first child.  This meant that we at least got out of the house for a weekend and went back up to Grenoble to visit the new niece.  You can't spend the whole time with the new family so on the Friday we took a drive around Grenoble, up into the hills to visit a famous monastery, Chartreuse.  Yep the same Chartreuse that you have a nip of to pick you up when you are feeling a little worse off after too much beer.  The green, strong spirit called Chartreuse if you haven't worked it out yet.  I've known that Monasteries all over Europe have developed their own drinks over the Centuries but had no idea about Chartreuse's background, so it was a pleasant surprise to find this.  It also brought back memories of a particular night a long, long time ago when Troy Coote, Glen Orrock and myself stayed behind at the Club late one night after training and tried all the different spirits that were stocked.  Chartreuse and Drambuie were both well received.

At dinner one night with friends of Audrey's parents we were treated to an impromptu Guitar playing, sing-along.  We participated, poorly, but it was a fun evening AND it stirred up a long forgotten dream of Audrey's, to play guitar.  But still she wasn't sure until one of the men, who played very well, said he only took up guitar when he was 40, he's now 42.  It inspired her to the point of wanting to start learning immediately.  But without a guitar it made it hard to learn.  I made a little joke about her parents probably having one down in the cellar somewhere as they seem to have lots of shit everywhere.  I was wrong.  It was up in the attic ....  Apparently Audrey's Dad bought it for her Mum over 40 years ago as a courting gift and it's been sitting in storage ever since.  And guess what, a monster was born.  Every spare minute Audrey spent on that guitar, and every other minute was spent thinking about it.  Audrey best friend Ben came over all the time with her guitar and it was just the two of them strumming together, occasionally trying to sing one of the songs they were playing.

All lazy things must come to an end eventually and our leaving date was approaching quick.  The last couple of days were spent cleaning up our mess and getting things finalized.  We left for Madrid early on Thursday amidst hugs and tears, not me, Audrey, she was crying like a baby ;)  Vegas here we come.