Just Around the Corner

So.  Christmas is just around the corner and I have this odd feeling in the pit of my stomach that I have forgotten to do something...and I hope that it is not that I have forgotten a gift for someone but if I have, well, there is little I can do about that now.  Other than that, the chook is defrosting and waiting to be cooked, the pavlova is cooling on the tray and my feet are looking forward to a day off.  We will be open again on Boxing Day as we have done every year, to save the sanity of the travellers so I will have to make do with just one day off this week for Christmas Day.  That is why my plan is to cook the chicken tonight and save tomorrow for relaxing with family.

At some point in that I might allow myself the luxury of half an hour to read.  At the moment that is Joanne Harris' third installment of Vianne Rocher's story, "Peaches for Monsieur Le Cure".  It all began with "Chocolat", that now well-known book about a mother and daughter, travellers blown by the north wind to the conservative little French town of Lansquenet.  They change the inhabitant's lives forever, tempting them during lent with the mystique of chocolate and generosity.  This time after having fled to Paris in the second book "The Lollipop Shoes", Vianne and her daughters return in response to a letter from beyond the grave and find their old haunt much changed by new arrivals bringing a new religion and culture.  If Vianne did not fit into Lansquenet, then the Muslim community that has taken up residence in Les Marauds, certainly will not.  Father Reynaud is still the self-proclaimed upholder of morality and tradition in Lansquenet but he has changed greatly since he last met Vianne.  In the context of today and the challenges the world faces with social cohesion and tolerance of cultural differences, this books is a lovely way to remind ourselves that friendliness, neighbourliness and gentle acceptance goes a long way to bringing people together.  I am enjoying the book so far and I'm only a third of the way through but look forward to every moment snatched to read a couple more pages here and there.

I wish everyone a happy summer break and hope that you get more time off than me to enjoy a rest at the end of the year.