Party

I had a little English party with a friend last night. My children were away so we had the place to ourselves. We did all the things English people do at these times: gorged on Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, Cheddar cheese and pickle, pulled a cracker, watched English videos, sang vaguely-recollected songs from our youth and generally acted like fifteen year olds. We then opened a bottle of pink champagne (yum), a bottle of Morgon (yum, yum) a bottle of something else and so on (can’t remember much after that).

No matter how long you’ve lived in a foreign country, a little bit of England still clings to you like lint. It usually takes the form of food and drink lurking in the cupboards of every English person: Marmite, Branston pickle, Walkers crisps, HP Sauce, Shredded Wheat…and of course, proper tea. To wring any taste from French tea you need to use four bags per cup and leave them to steep for – oh, at least an hour. Even then, all you've got is a homeopathic version of tea. They do coffee much better. And wine…oh, yes. They do wine very well indeed…