Out to Lunch

I've been out to lunch quite a bit, recently. Last Thursday, it was with Ken (Living the Life in Saint-Aignan) and some of his friends whom I felt I knew already, from comments left on his blog. It was at a couscous place in the 15th, not far from CHM's apartment, where Ken was staying. Paul and I both had brochettes and merguez. We were nicely seated in the courtyard room with a nice artificial sun roof, so that, even if the weather had not been nice, we wouldn't have noticed. The food was good; the conversation excellent. We were among the first to arrive for lunch and were the very last to leave, more than a couple of hours later.
On Sunday, we (four of us) went out to Verrières to see P&G and we all went out to a couscous place in Vauhallen. The couscous was pretty much the same as on Thursday. Maybe the marga was a bit tastier. Again, lots of good conversation and we were among the last to leave. And we left just so we could carry on the conversation in the cool and quiet of the living room at the house. Monday, the Verrieres Lebelles came home from China for their summer vacation. Paul picked them up at the airport, so I haven't seen them, yet. Usually, the first couple of weeks are taken up with doctor's appointments and such.
Tuesday, I met Victoria (The Franco-American Flophouse) and we did not have couscous! We went to a Vietnamese place on rue de Montessuy and got a sidewalk table in the shade for a very pleasant meal. Again, wonderful conversation. I can't get over how many blogs she reads a day, how many tweets, and how she actually follows up with phone calls. After lunch, we went over to the library, where, for once, I was not going to stay, even though it was Tuesday. She returned, and I picked up, Embers of War, by Fredrik Logevall, about Vietnam. Interesting. I'm still in the World War II part, though. As I was walking home from the RER station, later, I heard lots and lots of aircraft and then remembered that the Bastille Day parade is coming up, so they were rehearsing.
I mustn't forget that the month started with the AARO meetup lunch on the first Monday of every month! Not many people signed up, but we ended up with 13! When there are so many, it's hard to be a good host and follow conversations. D, sitting opposite me, came up with a reasonable theory for why brokerages do not want to do business with people who have foreign addresses. According to him, it might be because if they do transactions with such people, they could be deemed to be doing business in the country and subject to tax, therefore, they would avoid doing business in countries that looked at it this way. Well, if that's a reason, why don't they just come out and say so? And charge the customer for the tax, giving the customer the choice. So, unless a brokerage tells us why they have these new restrictions, it's just another plausible speculation.
Meantime, at home, we eat raspberries. I weighed a bowlful the other day -- about 375 gr. Every day, we pick a bowlful. We either save it for immediate consumption, freeze it, or give it away. We're coming to the end of the season, though. Just a few more bowlfuls left. I looked at the price of raspberries: €2.99/125gr. at the grocery store; €4.00/125gr. at the market.