Confused of France

I consider myself a climate change heretic but I'm the first to admit that this is a knee-jerk reaction and not based on anything other than a gut feel.
With this in mind, I found this article interesting.

Is that a ferret in your trousers?

Having got up at the crack of dawn we're sitting here twiddling our thumbs waiting for the removal men and we start to get twitchy. We're not sure why.
Anyway, I decided to call their head office in England only to find that they won't actually arrive until tomorrow. Bum. That meant that we had to cancel a whole lot of stuff for Wednesday and reorganise.
Added to that Max has been very 'quiet' recently. We reckon that he knows that 'something's up', he's a fairly intuitive dog much more so that Min, and is worried about the move.
So he should be. The next move will be to Yarkshire but at least he will have ferrets to chase.

What, no Jamie

I had to laugh when I read this. And there I was thinking that there is too much state control in France.

Keep up

This new crime map (assuming you can get connected) will keep you frightened, on your toes and help you and your favourite old granny avoid getting mugged.
Additionally it will fulfil part of the new government policy of reducing house prices. Excellent.

Getting busy

There's a lot of pressure on us now with less than four weeks to go before we leave. Within that time we also have trips to the UK and Spain to squeeze in.
Ugh, why do we let things evolve this way?

Sort it out

Based on our own experiences, this article is spot on but it raises an interesting dilemma. When do you refuse drugs when they are prescribed for you and who are you, an 'unqualified person,' able to make such a decision?
There's no question that I walk away from the chemist once a month with a carrier bag full of medicines, but surely I have to trust my doctor to be making sensible decisions.

A new discovery

The main idea behind setting out the day before for a distant early morning flight was to avoid having to get up too early. As I sit here typing at 02.56 what seemed like a good idea at the time is just a dim and distant memory.


I sort of knew it but greed took over. As a yoof, when I was learning about wine, and, more importantly trying to get my girlfriend drunk so that I could have my wicked way, I tried and liked wine from Corbieres. Carcassonne is Corbieres country so for me it was less about getting drunk, it was more a trip down memory lane.
Unfortunately as I have got older, if I drink a lot of wine with a meal instead of putting me into a soporific stupor it tends to make me wake in the night for the toilet and with a thirst. Bugger.
Still, one good thing came out of it. To quench my thirst I made myself a cup of Lipton's Lime Tilleul infusion. Apart from the plastic spoon melting in the boiling water, it was excellent.  
See, you knew that I could cook! Jan will be proud of me.

What a bitch

We were in the pharmacy to get a prescription from the vet dispensed for one of the dogs. The prescription clearly showed that it was from a vet.
The woman behind the counter, who we had never seen before, looked at the prescription and said to Jan, "Is this for you?"
Jan turned to me and said, "I know I can be a bitch at times but that question is ridiculous."
We had a good giggle.

A problem to solve

We don't use the Golf much. For large parts of the last few years it has sat in the garage for use as emergency transport with a monthly trip out to keep the battery charged.
Now normally one side of me would say that this is a good thing but yesterday the other side realised that there are complications with this.
The car finally needed a rear set of tyres so I used www.123pneus.fr to order a new set and went to one of their fitters in Alès to change the tyres around and get the new tyres fitted. Everything went well until they tried to remove the last security bolt on one of the wheels. The wheels hadn't been removed for a long time and this bolt had jammed solid and, as a result of trying to remove it, the security key sheared. The bolt had to be removed by brute force which involved a combination of drilling, hammering and praying.
Needless to say the praying didn't work so the car is now stuck in a garage in Alès with a few people scratching their heads.

The most stupid

I've just seen a post on a French expat forum where a woman asked if they celebrated Bonfire Night in France. Gotta say that that ranks as one of the most stupid things I have ever read.

This is one very confused person.

Mixed emotions

Woohoo, a day that really shook up some emotions.


First I get some unwarranted, mealy mouthed comment from my ex-wife (which is I guess one of the reasons why she's an ex) and second I hear that my friend from school, and the best man at my wedding, has died from cancer. That's a real bummer. 


Then, later in the day, I get a call from a friend which really cheered me up. Visiting Paris from the Sates, he's a huge character, arguably the most positive and cheerful man that I've ever known.


At least the day finished on a high note. Thanks Will.

A moral dilemma

Oh my god. I was chatting to Bryan the other day and I couldn't stop yawning.

Alone in the world

My son James, who I used to think was quite smart, is visiting at the moment and just had to show me his new iPhone. It was like a rag to a bull, so I went off on one but I knew that the conversation was hopeless when he said, 'it's not a phone, it's a computer.'

As well as being attacked by Chris in the previous post, I've just read that Craig's got one as well.

Bloody hell, am I the only sane person left in this world? (That's what Napoleon said, n'est ce pas? - Ed)

Win friends and influence people?

What exactly don't you understand?

Ha ha. It was Saturday, so it must be Sommieres and the market.

That also means a wee drink. It was an excellent table, so it turned into a 'big drink.' Full of 'bonhomie', despite talking to people like Bryan, Peter, and Geoff, it was a good laugh. Especially when Geoff started to talk about his past life and his experiences with with 'the boys' in sarf London.

God, I thought that I was well connected. Still, we shared a mutual love of Italian food and things Italian, so that was alright then.

Talking about people who 'don't understand' (we weren't -Ed) and following recent articles about jurors who can't follow a judges' directions, I thought that this was funny. And to think that these people could send you away for 20 years or more. Scary.

They should come to the market in Sommieres, we'd sort them out!

Tiger Woods

What a shambles the Tiger Woods 'apology' was yesterday.

Why does he feel the need to apologise to 'the world'? He's done me no harm. He hasn't changed the way that I behave or feel.

'Man has a series of affairs', big deal. Some (like you -Ed) might be jealous.

If you start to think about it in those terms then it makes his ridiculous, robotic 'apology' look nothing more than the money grabbing exercise it was. Basically he was saying 'sorry' to his sponsors, who were there in number in his personal audience, and indirectly trying to keep the money rolling in.

What a pathetic, disgraceful attempt at media and public manipulation.

Until that point I admired his sporting ability and basically felt sorry for him, given that his marital problems got such a public airing.

Now I think he's a tosser and I'd go out of my way not to purchase his endorsed products.

It was a PR disaster. Idiot.

Twitter

I know I'm a late convert to Twitter (because I never really saw the point) but here's my first post cos I know you are waiting with baited breath.

"Woke up, belched and scratched my arse. Lovely. Got up and showered later. Running out of characters, gotta go, more later......"

Sorry

This is a test post. I'm having problems with Blogger at the moment. I don't seem able to connect or post as normal.

Well blow me down

We were lying in bed watching the news this morning when a sports presenter mentioned that the next England (football) game is to be against Egypt.

I mumbled sarcastically 'that'll be a real test of their skill then.'

My beloved, who isn't really interested in football, preferring rugby instead, said, 'but they've just won the Africa Cup of Nations for a record breaking seven times. It shouldn't be a walk over.'

Well, I'm not usually short of words, but you could have knocked me over with a feather.

I suggested that we should celebrate that knowledge, in the usual fashion, but she wasn't having any of it! Bugger.

Still, there's lots of rugby and football on television this weekend so that's something to look forward to.

Pause for thought

An interesting article. Not everyone's cup of tea but interesting nevertheless.