Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to do. I went inside to get a cup of tea and a snack for everyone. Since the finger incident,
we had installed a rule of taking a break at least every two hours.
An hour later the walkie-talkie in my pocket rang. Sophia was sitting on the top step, de-
lighted to have successfully accomplished her mission. I made her a cup of tea and a bri-
oche and turned on the television. Soon the buzzer went again. It was Sophia calling us
because Ellie had woken up. I gave her some breakfast and they settled down to watch the
French kids' television shows.
Two hours later I took a break from the merlot to take the girls and Inés-Melodie, Sonia's
daughter, up to school. The day was working like clockwork. By nine o'clock all the merlot
was in the winery, leaving just the cabernet sauvignon to pick. For that we'd probably be
waiting at least another two weeks. It was a different world to our previous harvest.
Chandra, the tall, dark and practical daughter of Canadian friends, arrived. At first she
seemed rather bristly, like a hedgehog under threat, but she was organised and our house
after six weeks of intensive harvest time was extremely disorganised. Nothing except the
absolute essentials were taken care of in that period. It was a true corridor of crisis. My dad
would have had a heart attack on the spot. Chandra kept opening cupboards and looking at
disorganised shelves and saying, 'I couldn't live like this.'
I wondered how long I could live with her given the constant commentary about my cor-
ridor of crisis. But there was a lot more to Chandra than met the eye. She was a qualified
lumberjack or tree surgeon and a horticulturalist with a good knowledge of medicinal and
edible herbs. For the previous two years she had worked as a fire-watcher on a tower in
a remote part of Canada, accessible only by helicopter. For four months a year the only
human she saw was the pilot of her monthly food drop. She had learnt to be tough and
resourceful; but wolves and bears hadn't prepared her for one-on-one combat with Ellie
Feely.
At two and a half Ellie was a forceful character. She would get home from school, fix me
with a powerful stare and say,
'Donne moi des bonbons!'
(Give me sweets!) On getting no
satisfaction she would deepen her mafia-style glare and repeat,
'Donne moi des bonbons!'
I
learnt to offer up something in response like juice and a chocolate brioche, and Ellie, while
not completely satisfied with the state of affairs, would deign to eat that. She was a tough
act.
A
fonctionnaire
from our social services organisation came around at my request. I ex-
plained that now that Ellie had started school I wanted to work for our vineyard and wine
business a couple of days a week. Up until then I had officially been a full-time mother
