Friday 22nd August: Gig en terrace.

I decided to stay in today and get some work done. I spent some time looking at other author's accounts on Amazon, I just can't understand how some of them have thousands of reviews. How on earth do they get so many?

Pepin came bounding into the cottage this morning, followed by Solange, calling his name. Had to laugh at the expression on his face when he saw her -- he's in love with her!

"He has, how you say, a girlfriend! We get him to be father for baby dogs," she laughed.

I told her about Laura's cat, Buzz, who's supposedly been neutered, but humps her old teddy bear at lease once every hour. The teddy bear greets him with open arms and a fixed grin! (I think some of my Franglais was lost on Solange as she seemed a bit confused).

The gig with Rodrigo went well last night. We played on the terrace of a very nice hotel near Dinan. The place was packed. During our break I told Rodrigo what happened at the restaurant in Carnac.

He said I shouldn't go back there. He told me about the accordion player and the singer who play each Saturday at the campsite restaurant. The only people who seem to enjoy their performance are the campsite owners and their family who turn up each week. Rodrigo imitated them by linking arms and dancing around. He kicked his legs and placed his hands on his hips, swaying from side to side; "They are Louco!".

Rodrigo has classic Brazilian looks which attract a lot of attention from admirers. I pointed out that a couple of women at one of the tables had been gazing at him throughout our playing. He started to get worried and asked me, if they should come over, to tell them he's gay. This has happened before and it's so funny when he puts on his camp act: so hard to keep a straight face.

A few of the guests came up and asked about the pieces we played. A very nice couple from Arlington in Massachusetts came over. It was their first visit to France, to celebrate their 25th Wedding Anniversary and asked for a request (normally this would be difficult to oblige as all our music is rehearsed beforehand). However, they happened to ask for TheGirl from Ipanema which is an easy one for us to do. We were about to play it when someone else came up with another request: The Girl from Ipanema, would you believe it! So we ended the evening like heros.