Horse blinkers

The park is at its most amusing best these days. Whenever I have gone for a walk over the past months, there have been people walking their dog but who haven't put on a collar (on the dog that is). These days they see me at a distance, call their dogs and put on the leashes. Can't help thinking, is it out of consideration for me? Or are they trying to protect 'mes petits chiens' from the nutter who's actually afraid of all sizes of dogs. Moreover, the change seems to have happened overnight. Previously, I would have to look imploring at the owner and croak 'J'ai peur de chien. Est ce que vous pouvez removing this thing from around my foot'. It almost feels as if at all the tea parties in Fonty, I had suddenly become the topic of conversation and both master and dog have decided to tolerate me till the academic year gets over. I try to reciprocate their generosity with my sweetest smile possible and a pleasant enough Bonjour. But this leads to even more hilarious situations. Yesterday, one of these gentleman decided to start up a conversation. Anyway, after a Bonjour exchange and an 'Il fait beau' from his end and an 'Oui, tres beau' from mine, I was suddenly totally lost. He spoke. I didn't understand a word. I smiled. He spoke again. I smiled again while my brain was racing - 'Is my french deteriorating by the day, instead of improving. Why can't I understand a word?' This could have gone on for a while but after a bit of a struggle (a lot actually), I decided the problem was not my french. It had to lie elsewhere. So, I took a chance and asked 'Quelle langue parlez-vous?' Wellll, it seems, our man thought I was Iranian and he had been trying to speak to me in Farsi.....

French/ Farsi...for followers of the Queen, its all the same.

Am roughly playing the first page. Need to keep playing and replaying to build up the speed. Can't think of anything else these days.