Wot, no wine?

I wake in the night with another idea regarding my network problem. So I start working on it again straight after breakfast. Well, I need something to take my mind off my visit to the nutritionist this afternoon. I have no luck, so I will have to bring in the troops. It's probably something simple, but then it always is.

***

Jan kindly accompanied me to the nutritionist this afternoon. Mostly for moral support, but mainly because, if I'm going to get bollocked about my eating behaviour, then she might as well be in on the loop. It will be easier to change with her help. It transpired that my weight hadn't changed. To some people (like me) that was a positive result, but to others, like the nutritionist, it's a failure. Bum. I get grilled (excuse the pun) for 20 minutes and finally agree to cut out booze for one month. A good friend used to give up drink during February each year. He always stuck to it religiously despite my best efforts to test him, so I will do the same. Am I really writing this? I do like the odd glass of wine so it will be a real sacrifice. As we left, the nutritionist suggested that Jan do the same, which I thought was funny, but I'm not sure how funny Jan found it.

A little knowledge does not go a long way

Jan goes out for lunch, with the girls, and leaves me to slave over a warm computer. I spend all morning dealing with phone calls and other bits in connection with next week's trip. We are going to cross the English Channel (for free this time) with SpeedFerries, so I ask Jan to buy me something for travel sickness. Just starting to think about it makes me feel light headed. A seafarer I am not.
(At least you know how people feel when you start spouting off - Ed.)

***

I spend a lot of the afternoon trying to upgrade my laptop to XP. It seems to go well, despite dire warnings from the Dell site that XP is not supported, but after getting the wireless card to work, I have no network connection. In the process of installing XP, I have lost my network configuration so I try and remember what I was taught by Chris W, the original Doctor K, (coincidently, I'm seeing a much prettier, female Dr K tomorrow), but after several fruitless hours I still can't connect it to the network. Bum. I retire beaten, but alive and determined to fight another day.

Bouncing back from a bruised ego

Rearrange the following words into an embarrassing and painful phrase:- morning beat this 6-2 me William. I was still sore from my efforts on Monday, but no excuses, he won fair and square. It was good fun and I love it being competitive.

***

A day for jobs and general autumnal tidying up. We leave for a few days in the UK on Monday and it would be good to have things ship shape by then.

***

Out to Jill and Harry's for dinner tonight. Jill's a good cook and tonight she produced a prawn and mango salad to start, a five hour cooked leg of lamb and crème brûlée over fruit. And yes, I had seconds.

Sand blasted by the seaside

Bar, Harry, Jill and Geoff arrived at 09.30 to join us for a trip to a bird sanctuary, a walk around an etang and lunch in Les Saintes Maries de la Mer. Personally I find the Camargue a bit boring. It is very flat, as you would expect the Rhone delta to be, and unless you are interested in ornithology, then it is not the most exciting place to visit. I'm actually quite good at orni, but not too good at thology. But hey, give it a go and see what happens. We arrived at the Parc Ornithologique de Pont de Gau and everybody started covering themselves in anti mosquito stuff. Now forgive me for stating the obvious, but why are we all heading into an area where we will be eaten by bugs and have to cover ourselves with deet? Surely looking at all the pretty birds is safer and far more comfortable, with binoculars, from the safety of the car. But no, what do I know? The bird sanctuary bit was actually very interesting with, guess what, loads of birds and other wild things. The flamingoes were very pretty close up (out of hundreds, it was the only bird that I recognised) and Jan was interested in the coypus, because we have them in our garden. That is until I told her that they are related to rats. I think I said the wrong thing! Anyway, I enjoyed the bird sanctuary bit. The walk around the lake was far less interesting. The wind was quite strong, not unlike one end of a wind tunnel, and the waves lapped gently around our ankles. I suspect you're getting the feeling that I'm not a great walker, and you'd be right. The only walking I like is the few metres from a car to a restaurant, which is a nice link to the next bit of my story, because we then arrived in Les Saintes Maries de la Mer for lunch.

St Maries de la Mer is quite famous. It has an interesting history, is featured in Alistair Maclean's book, Caravan to Vaccares and there are two huge gypsy festivals there every year. Much more importantly, we visit the Brasserie Le Belvédère (0490 97 92 87), right on the sea front, for Moules and Frites (9 euros). The restaurant is run by Davide, a tall, dark, long crinkly and greasy haired, latino type, who Jill fancies. I can sort of understand why because he is charming, pretends he remembers you from a previous visit and gives you a free liquor at the end of the meal. In fact, come to think of it, I quite fancied him too! (You tart - Ed.)

Lunch over, we wandered around the town with the wind whipping the sand, in an exfoliating kind of way, into your face. Great! It's a nice little town, especially when all the sensible people stay at home because of the weather, so, wandering aimlessly with your face pointing to the ground, out of the wind, you don't bump into too many people. I think you're getting the picture? The fortified church was rather gloomy inside and the internal stone work looked like it needed a good clean. In fact, they looked like they needed a good sand blasting, just like the external walls.
(For goodness sake, stop moaning - Ed.)

Back into the car (yippee) for the short ride to Aigues Mortes, where we leave the others, because Jan and I need to get back to relieve Max. Or, more to the point, let him relieve himself.

***

Because I stuffed my face at lunch time, Jan rustles up a plate of fairly low cal kedgeree for dinner. One of my favourites. Yum.

Max and Min

We intend to visit Max's dog breeder next Monday, on our way back to the UK. On the remote (certain) possibility that we will chose a female companion for Max (above, in his usual elegant pose). We have decided to call her (the mythical dog) Amina. Amina because she will have to have a name starting with the letter A (see previous postings), and also because we can shorten it to Min. So then we have Max and Min - geddit? I would have preferred Asbo which is an acronym for an Anti Social Behaviour Order, however, Jan pointed out that that would have been a better name for Max. Whatever.

***

This morning, William and I play tennis, whilst Jan went off to her art class. I know which I prefer. I was serving well, tried very hard and basically kicked his butt, however, I suffered with a lot of aches and pains for the rest of the day. Ouch. As I suffer, I remember that I meet the nutritionist on Friday so it's all in a good cause. In keeping with this looming deadline, Jan prepared two salads for lunch. The first a beetroot and cumin salad and the other, an old favourite, bean sprouts and peppers with a very tangy and tasty dressing. For all you foodies out there, this how you make the dressing:

Zap all these ingredients in a liquidizer:

Half a teaspoon of ground ginger
Half a small onion, finely chopped
6 Fluid ounces of olive or groundnut oil
2 Fluid ounces of red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
A small stalk of celery, finely chopped
2 Teaspoons of tomato puree
2 Teaspoons of lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

This should produce a liquid dressing that is quite thick and tangy. It has a strong flavour so it will overpower delicately flavoured food. I reckon that it could also be used as a marinade. Play around with the ingredients to suit your taste.

I used to go out with a wild bore

There I am, it's 07.21 and I'm reading. I nearly jumped out of bed when I hear two very loud shots fired in the surrounding hills. Who the hell was shooting? It was still dark for heavens sake! No wonder so many hunters get killed or injured around here, and whatever they were firing at must have been pretty big because, based upon the loudness of the bang, they were using something pretty highpowered. I presume it was a sanglier or some such because anything smaller would have been blown to bits. Such is life in the French countryside. Jan slept through it all, bless.

***

I find this business of water diving very interesting and dido sends me more information. Her tale somewhat mirrors my own experience many years ago. She wrote:

I'm glad that this has produced other comments. I have been doing some research on the subject and it's reported that 80% of the population should be able to produce some sort of result. I mentioned this to "Le Sourcier" this morning as he was here trying to sort out a drainage problem that is affecting our basement and he mentioned that he had his baguettes with him (his brass diving rods) and did I want a try - so I did!

Well, I must be in that 80% because they worked a treat - including the bit where you clear your mind and concentrate and ask them how deep the source is! You count down the depth and when you reach the level they just start turning inwards - it is really quite spooky! The plumber thinks that I may have a talent for this so he is going to make me my own set of baguettes! We will see whether it is true when they come to dig the well in the spring (no pun intended!). I'll report back with the results!

***

Reading this amusing article made me wonder if any other nation plays with conkers?

Please return the goods in an undamaged state

It's been a long time since Jan and I were able to go, on our own, to Sommieres market, so today was a treat. We had nothing much in mind but bought a couple of goodies for lunch, a meat galette from the Lebanese stall, and onion bhajis, made with sweet onions from the Cevennes, from another. We met Lynne, who had left Bob in bed, she didn't say who with, who was trying to find a friend. It was a warm pleasant sunny day and the market continues to be packed. At one bar we listened to a guitar trio playing flamenco and other Spanish gypsy music. Just excellent. I got their card because if we have a party at Christmas, they would be excellent entertainment.

***

With Bar, Geoff, Harry and Jill arriving tomorrow I spent most of the afternoon cleaning the cars. I got them both into showroom condition. Is it just me, or do cars drive more smoothly and quicker, when they have been cleaned and polished? (It's just you - Ed.) They arrive in Nîmes by plane (guess who is going to pick them up?) and want to borrow the Golf. Last time Harry was here he rather carelessly demolished two tyres on his own car, so I will need to remind him that the Golf has 4 perfectly good, expensive, undamaged tyres and I would love to see them again in that condition.

***

In anticipation of setting up a video link with the UK, John, from Salisbury, has been helping me set up my computer. Voice contact using Skype was fine, but the video was not working properly, but we're getting there.

Let's have another strike, mes amis

A few days ago I heard of yet another French national strike. I say heard of, because it didn't affect me one jot, but I know it affected thousands of other people. It says a lot about French character that they so often use strikes as a means of voicing discontent. This is like the England of the 70's, when unions tried to control government thinking on all matters industrial and when England was known as the sick man of Europe. The French, in their own inimitable way, have continued this behaviour and no one seems to mind, nor do anything about it. If I understand correctly, the strike started from the sale (or privatisation) of a nationalised, bankrupt, ferry operator based in Corsica. The ferry employees had been on strike to protest at the bankrupt company being sold. Thousands of tourists were stranded in Corsica as a result. I have never understood the rationale of striking when a company is in trouble. It can only make matters worse. Anyway, after the police were used to allow stranded tourists to return to the mainland, a national strike was then called to voice discontent at this, and government policies on a string of other issues. Hmnnnn.

***

Another beautiful day today, so it was out into the garden to zap the weeds. I increased the weed killer dosage to 'nuclear strength' because the weeds are in danger of taking over the garden and this is one I'm going to win. (My hero - Ed.)

***

William, Christine and Paloma came for dinner. It's prawns in a spicy Thai sauce to start, swordfish with a tomato, basil and white wine salsa and plum crumble to finish. Jan's into crumbles at the mo. Yippee.

More water divining

Last night, as a result of advice I get from this website , I log on to MSN Messenger to see if I can get a better experience with my webcam. Who do I find online? My daughter Cara who is no doubt up to no good but we chat for a while. What a nice surprise!

***

The comments made by dido and myself, on 1st October, about water divining, produced this message from Phillip, who lives in Australia.

I was interested to read about your dabble in “water divining”. In 1967, as a young Lieutenant, I was leading a group of some 20 Australian soldiers on a well digging project in a village on the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea. Their existing water supply had mysteriously diminished and a potential health problem existed. Over a couple of days we manually sunk a bore hole nearly thirty feet deep only 25 yards from the bank of the mighty Sepik (full of crocodiles I might add!). Amazingly, we could not find water. A second attempt at a likely spot produced a similar result. The soldiers were tired and frustrated and morale was not good…not too many social distractions that far into the country. The village natives thought our efforts were laughable. One of the soldiers suggested “water divining” but was ridiculed. I decided to give it a go and stripped a thin y-shaped branch of its bark and took the forks in hand. Strolling around the areas we had been working in was fruitless. I then moved further away from the river and at one location the branch seemed to take a mind of its own and pulled downwards. We dug and struck the water table at 5 feet!! Not surprisingly my skepticism was relieved. Only three of our party could get a result with a branch. One fellow got a result with shaped galvanized wire.........

Cheers, Phillip

***

It was another glorious sunny day, at 21c, as we met Bob and Lynne (and puppy Harry, now 8 months old) at Meli Melo, in Anduze, for lunch. It was nice enough to eat outside on the terrace, which is actually the space between the carpark and the main road. This is an interesting restaurant that offers food from five different countries (French, North African, Spanish, Italian and Thai). Normally I would run a mile from somewhere that offered such a wide range but they have a Thai chef and Thai food is our favourite. It's a better than average attempt, but in a 'dressed up for the French' kind of way. Next time I'll give 24 hours notice and ask for something more authentic. That could be fun. When we got back, I'm sure Max thought that we'd been unfaithful because he could smell Harry as he sniffed and licked us all over. Sorry Max, but you are now just too big, even for outside dining.

Retail therapy

William arrived for tennis at 8.00 and very enjoyable it was too. The set swings one way and then another, always competitive and with plenty of exercise. At one point I said, "Can you smell it?" He understood immediately what I was talking about. The smell of fermenting wine was very pleasant and very strong. There is a cave a couple of hundred metres away, run by Vincent Auquier, but nothing closer, so we put it down to that. Heaven knows how strong it must have been in the cave.

***

Jan has a well deserved lie in and finally emerges at about 9.30. It's sunny with no wind and very quiet. Blissful in fact, but the silence magnifies the lack of extra bodies in the house. We have had people around, virtually non stop, since May, and we are taking some time to adjust to being on our own again. The silence this morning was deafening. I know it won't last.

***

We headed off to the new Ikea near Montpellier this afternoon. For those of a foreign persuasion, Ikea is a huge store, from which you can furnish a house. It is a shopping experience like no other I know, and many hate it, mostly because it is usually so busy. We went for a look see and were generally impressed. It has a massive underground carpark which will be useful in the heat of summer and a similar layout to other Ikeas. As usual there was little that we needed but also, as usual, after two hours we left with a trolley full of stuff. Some of it unbelievably cheap, like an attractive glass teapot and 6 glass mugs for 5 euros. How do they do it? As Jan said, as we drove away, "A little retail therapy without breaking the bank."

***

It was a warm, still evening, so I barbecued Dorade, and Jan cooked pan fried leeks and stir fried cabbage with caraway seeds, yummy! Very healthy, but not when you include the bottle of wine each or the bar of chocolate! Sorry.

Busy, but not really achieving much

Amongst lots of other minor things, we start the day by taking the Jeep into Nîmes to get the seat fixed. Part of the seat mounting has broken so that it tips over when I go round a right hand corner. Very disconcerting and a little dangerous. We leave it for the day. Knowing that we would have to go back into Nîmes, we found things to do and spent the afternoon there. When we go back to fetch the car at 17.00, we find that they haven't finished it. I know I should have called them to check progress but, because we were in Nîmes, I didn't bother. Bum, a wasted afternoon.

***

Finally, late last night, I got some webcams working. One for me and one for Jan. I'd seen them earlier in the day at 19 euros each which seemed a good price. The idea behind this being that, if I can convince Jan's daughter to install one in Brighton, England, Jan can talk to her granddaughter on a regular basis and they can see each other at the same time. Well, that's the idea. I'm not sure why at this stage, but the latency when Jan and I tried to communicate was awful and effectively made the system useless. I need to understand why. We shall see. I'll post the question on my favorite message board, when I can get connected.

Changes in the wind

William arrives for tennis and we both agree that it is too windy. It was just about playable but it would have been no fun. So cancelled it was. Jan makes an early start and leaves for her art class and I spend the morning on the computer clearing up some administrative jobs.

***

You know that the seasons are changing when Jan starts to make soup. Soup is standard lunchtime fodder during the cool months and today was the start of cool. First soup of the season was a sort of Scotch broth, using the remains of the gravy from the lamb shanks (nothing if not thrifty, our Jan).

***

The last two fruits of the year have now been picked. First, was the one and only kaki that grew. It was perfect in every way. I shared it amongst 7 of us and whilst only Jan and I had ever eaten one, it was met with much acclaim. 10 out of 10 for that. Second were three apples which were pretty miserable, badly marked and not very sweet, so only 1 out of 10 for them. Must try harder. I've really enjoyed growing things this year and I'm starting to get the hang of it. Roll on next season.

It's all over now

Alison, Liza, Neil, Toby and Floyd leave today. We shall miss them all and especially Floyd who has been with us, on and off, for the last month. It is probably the last tennis group this year and Jan will have to adapt to a quieter life in the kitchen. This will be good for both of us because we will eat and drink less and generally lead healthier lives. Anyway the last lunch consists of Jan's famous Coronation Chicken, with a spicy rice salad, a tomato salad, cheese and fruit to finish. Altogether a healthy meal, if only I had one helping and no wine. Hey ho.

***

After a quick trip to Nîmes, for the return journey back to Blighty, Jan and I settled to read the Sunday papers, wondering what we should do for the next few months. Part of that question gets answered when Jan asks me to look at the Du Murier de Sordeille website. This is the éleveur where we bought Max. Jan is getting broody again and has been thinking for some time about our 'second child' and getting a companion for Max. The breeders have just had a litter of 10, 5 male and 5 female, and I am delegated to email and ask if they have a female available. We shall see, although it's starting to look like a foregone conclusion.

***

Dinner tonight was leftovers of the lamb shanks from last night. Delicious.

On top of old Smokey

In our never ending quest to stop smoke filling the house when we light a fire and the wind is blowing 'in the wrong' direction, Manny, our plumber, calls to fit a mechanical turbine to the chimney. It doesn't take him long to realise that the cowl is too small for our huge chimney. There will be a solution, he promises, and he will check it out on Monday.

***

OK, so dido writes and tells me about water divining. I have some simple divining equipment myself and I can do some easy stuff but I don't really know what I am doing. For some time I have been thinking of trying to locate a source to help with watering and pool filling. Dido's tale struck a cord. She wrote:

My plumber announced on Monday that he was also a water diviner and did we want him to search for a source (which would be a great saving on our colossal water bills due to pool filling and arrossage!). Anyway he turned up on Wednesday with 2 pendulums and brass diving rods and after much dangling and twirling (including dangling a pendulum over a map of the garden and waiting for it to turn in a circle!) he announced that we have 6 sources and the biggest would give us 7 cubic metres an hour - not bad! Today he brought his friend, a "maitre sourcier" (and yes I did manage to pronounce it sorcier - in effect calling them a couple of wizards - blush!) who double checked the reading and pronounced that 5 metres away from the original finding was a point at which 2 sources meet, giving us 14 cubic metres an hour (perhaps we can sell it?). All we have to do is get it out of the ground (without alerting the neighbours in case they do the same and drain it before it comes through to us!).

Anyway, thanks for the mention. I hope you all have a great weekend and don't eat too much! (I'm very partial to chicken with tarragon myself!).

Best wishes

Dido

I suspect that finding the water is not too complicated, if it exists, but drilling the hole, especially if it is deep, is another matter. I come up with another solution. There is an old community well that is never used, on the boundary of our property. It always seems to be full of water. Why don't I just ask William if I can use that water?

***

It's that time of the month again when, with bated breath, you are waiting for last month's weather digest. September was actually a very kind month, with an average temperature of 24.9c (25.7c in the first half and 23.9c in the second half). There were only four days of wind, the least wind this year, 21 days of sunshine and 29 warm or hot days. Apart from a few days of heavy rain during the first week, it was a very good month. The pool is still at 22c which is far too cold for me but others still venture in - brrrrrr.

***

We visited Saussines this afternoon for their Journee a l'Ancienne and in particular to see the Abrivado Bandido at 17.00. Our visitors never fail to be amazed at the sight of cowboys and bulls careering through the streets, something that would never happen in Health and Safety conscious England.

***

Smoked mackerel paté (not one of my favourites - but Jan's is delicious), lamb shanks and brioche pudding for dinner tonight.