Haircut

Wednesday November 24, 2010 Day 147

We took the blue tram out to the end this morning for a trip to Ikea and Casino Géant. It was cold this morning, so I wore my winter coat for the first time. We were shopping for a mattress pad for our bed and some buttermilk (babeurre) for the pecan pie. We had no luck with the latter. I may have to try a buttermilk substitute, or use a different recipe. We already looked at the Monoprix and the Carrefour grocery stores where we usually shop, without success. We checked Ikea first for the mattress pad and found one for 18 Euros but didn’t buy - we first wanted to check out the Casino Géant - the Wal-mart of Montpellier. We were actually looking for a couple of other items as well, and hit a home run with them. We needed some drain cleaner as our tub is slow to drain; not stopped up, just slow. We also wanted some adhesive hooks on which to hang our hats, coats and scarves, as this apartment has no coat closet. It has a lovely hall which leads to the kitchen, and there is a wall in the hall that is just begging to be put to use hanging coats, since I cannot paint it. We managed to find a package of 3 hooks for 4.50 Euros, which is rather high, but we bought a couple of packs anyway. We also found a mattress pad for only 13 Euros. We picked up a pie crust from the dairy case and a couple of miscellaneous items then headed back home.

While Roger was at chess, I went out adventuring. First I took a sample of my butternut squash soup to Judi at the English Corner shop. I asked her where she gets her hair cut, and she suggested a place where her husband, Chuck, gets his cut. She herself gets hers cut in St. Jean de Vedas, a suburb of Montpellier where she lives. She was headed out, so I didn’t stay to chat. Instead I went to a shop we passed this morning on our way to the tram and bought some black gloves, as the cold is coming and I think I will not be sorry. I also picked up some leg warmers, as I tend to get cool in the evenings sitting around our apartment. I dropped into another Two Euro store - a different one from the one we usually stop at - and I found a whole package of 12 adhesive hooks for two euros. I bought them, even though we had already bought six this morning. I also found a couple of small measuring cups. We only have one in the apartment and it is a huge 1-litre cup with no markings for amounts under 100 cl. These are a half-litre and a quarter-litre cups, and they should be great for my cooking.

Then I went for my haircut. I dropped into the recommended shop and there was only one technician, apparently the owner of the shop. Her name is Josiane. She was talking to a woman who had a dye job in her hair, but she agreed to start cutting my hair if she could interrupt at some point to rinse the dye out. We talked in a mixture of English and French, mostly the former, and she carried on a conversation in French with the other woman. It turns out that the other woman teaches English in Lunel, a town on the way to Nimes. The haircut went well - I indicated I wanted it fairly short on top because it is too heavy, and she took off a bit more than I had hoped, but it’s not too bad. In fact, it should hold me until we get to Dallas in January, where I plan to get a cut and perm. On the walls of the salon were four or five large paintings and several smaller ones. Before I left, I had been invited to a Vernissage, which translates literally as a varnishing, but I think it is the opening of an art exhibit where hors d’oeuvres and probably wine are served. In the shop she had an assortment of earrings for sale, and as I looked at them, I realized they were made of paper - strips of paper rolled up, forming a sort of barrel. They were only five Euros for a pair, so I bought one, thinking that since I have a paper hat, I should have a pair of paper earrings to go with it.

I came home and started some rice soup using the rice trio we bought at Arles yesterday. I got it all the way down to the finish when I realized we had not bought eggs today. The recipe called for four, and we had only two. So I separated the soup into halves, put one in the refrigerator and used the two eggs to finish half the soup. I got it much too salty, but other than that, it was pretty good; not great, but pretty good. We ate it with a fresh grain baguette from the bakery. Yum!