A bit of a high-speed mad dash

Bonjour from la Ville Rose!

It was not, in fact, the last time you would hear from me yesterday.

Since I took a frankly unholy amount of selfies this morning I figured I would have to post them on the blog, and so I would be forced to then write a blog to accompany them.

So!

We awoke at 7:45 to my nice soft alarm (daybreak, for those with iPhones) except it must have scared me because I actually jumped from my sleep like full on jumped. Andrea, who had been awake, can confirm.

But despite this, I lay in bed for like fifteen minutes, despite us having made a rigorous schedule the previous night. Andrea then came back into the room, and was like “up up up!” And I assured her that we had plentyyyy of time.

But I did eventually get up, and we had breakfast on the balcony (in bowls, this time), and then I realised that we were SUPPOSED TO BE LEAVING IN 15 MINUTES!!

So it was a bit of a high-speed mad dash to make the bed, and get dressed, and pack, and brush hair and teeth, and do the dishes. I was worried that we would not make it so we did push back our planned leaving time by five minutes, and good thing we did because we literally just made it out the door (having no end of trouble with the three locks) by our assigned time, that is, 8:30.

As we strolled down the street, vaguely short of breath, I said to Andrea, “see? We had plenty of time!”

I really am lucky we’re still friends tbh.

But the way back to the station was not long, and before we knew it, we were looking for seats. You see on the first weekend of the month, you can get train tickets for 1€, which is well convenient, except there aren’t assigned seats, and since we were later than most other travellers, they were almost all gone.

Four carriages later, we finally found a four seater that was empty, sat down with a sense of accomplishment, and then *immediately* a couple say with us, and we were vaguely annoyed because it’s just annoying, you know? But there was nothing to be done.

So we, having the window and table seats, played our final round…

… of Skyjo.

A quick recap: on the train up, Andrea wins, and I, annoyed, pause our game at 1 point for me, 0 for her, by destroying my card arrangement. With a laugh, she says “we can continue another day”.

The next day, in a moment of pause, we continue the game. Andrea, ahead of me, but some miracle leads me to success: I am ahead of her, and by quite a way (4 for me, 48 for her). She “pulls a Ruby” so to speak, messing up her hand of cards. I, in turn, laugh and say “we can continue another day”.

And the Reckoning comes.

On the train, barely enough space for the cards, watched by a couple beside us and also the nosy group from over the aisle. The final showdown.

I draw ahead.

Andrea retaliates.

I remain in the lead.

She starts winning; I begin to fear, and wonder if I should “pull a Ruby”.

But my competitive streak makes me resilient; I do not give in.

Points go up; they go back down. They fluctuate.

And, finally, I win.

It had to be said I will never play again; I must quit while I’m ahead.

Anyway!

And so, here we are, in the train, the couple beside us having left, listening to our shared playlist (titled Sali Mali and Le Petit Prince of course).

And then Azizam by Ed Sheeran comes on? And it felt sort of like a full-circle moment, because we had searched it specifically on the train down to Toulouse, on the first day, just to hear what it sounded like, and there it was on the last day, and despite having only listened to it twice in the whole trip, I feel I must declare it the song of our trip.

And now, we approach our destination, Andrea is reading her book, we listen to music (and give each other eye-rolls when the other’s song comes on because our music taste is *not* the same: she insulted Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac and so I in turn had a go at Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish.

I plan also on reading after this, I assume I will not have anything else to write about from this train trip, and so I leave you now, with this complete account of our trip to Toulouse.

No moments of silence; no comrades have fallen.

Bye lads!Read more