Well reader its nice to see the newspaper media keeping thier senses of proportion in these troubled times. The London Evening Standard, tagging its self as London's quality daily paper leads this evening with Fans Furious as John Quits Strictly. A reference to John Sargent's decision that he is going to stop being the butt of everyone's jokes in the BBC's hit Saturday night show Strictly Come Dancing, so what the hell I may as well jump on the band waggon as well. After all its not that important that another 10,000 Londoners lost thier jobs today, I guess that is just not news any more. Even another interest rate cut on the cards did not enthuse London's Quality Daily, and the coverage of the Baby P enquiry has reached that point where it slides from the front pages to the inside as the papers wish for something else to come along and grab thier attention, as they start to run out of things to say.
But back to the band waggon... I mean.. pressing news of the day... did John Sargent jump or was he pushed, I'll let you make your own mind up.. but lets get the swingometer out to measure public opinion, what does Mr Obama think, I'm sure he is tapping a note to the BBC on his Blackberry at this very moment, will John's poor timing affect the England performance tonight..
ok ok enough is enough :-) or is it....
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Birthday weekend....
Last weekend was a special weekend, it was Fleur’s birthday. Friday was her actual birthday and she took cake and drinks to school as is the tradition in France, and now apparently in the UK too, never happened in my day that I can remember…
Saturday was the day of the Fleur’s birthday party, and to be honest it was something I was slightly dreading. The thought of having ten 6 years running around that I could not understand, and they not being able understand my feeble attempts at French, was not my idea of fun. However as it turned out I had nothing to worry about it all went well and I understood most of what was said to me and I think I mostly made myself understood as well.
Franca of course did most of the talking and she did an excellent job of organising all the games, and marshalling the children. We did all sorts of old fashioned games such as musical chairs, musical statues, blind mans buff and a few others I had never heard of, and all the children took part enthusiastically. Everything was conducted at 100 decibels or more and at lightning speed, as six year olds never walk they always run (not like Sting’s Englishman in New York). After three hours Franca, her mother and I were exhausted, but it seems like children had a good time, and fleur enjoyed herself which is the main thing.
Fleur got lots of lovely presents I think more than 20 in total as well as quite a lot of money too, from us she got a new bike, a proper one which is just a tad too big but she was enthusiastically riding it around the garden on Sunday. She also got a traditional Dutch game from Franca’s mum which we played at the party called Dutch Shuffleboard, which is quite addictive. Thanks to all those who sent pressies and money Fleur appreciated them all.
No sooner is Fleur’s birthday over than thoughts turn to Christmas, I popped in to Toys r Us in Bordeaux as it has been years since I have been in a toy shop (excluding Hamleys once a year for stocking pressies), to look at potential Christmas presents, and the queues at the checkout were enormous, I was glad I was not buying anything, Still my Christmas shopping weekend is this coming weekend as I am in the UK, still with the credit crunch hopefully the shops will not be too crowded.
Christmas in France is not as huge as it is in the UK luckily so we will not be mortgaging the house for presents like some folks do, though we seemed to have joined in the competition to see who can get the most lights on their house, though we are way down at the bottom of the league thank goodness. Christmas is a one day festival in France with the 26th being a normal working day. The turn of the year is marked very quietly too, no crazy parties, and no fireworks, though the French do push the food boat out even further than normal with a 12 course meal and midnight almost passes without acknowledgment in comparison to the UK and Holland.
Saturday was the day of the Fleur’s birthday party, and to be honest it was something I was slightly dreading. The thought of having ten 6 years running around that I could not understand, and they not being able understand my feeble attempts at French, was not my idea of fun. However as it turned out I had nothing to worry about it all went well and I understood most of what was said to me and I think I mostly made myself understood as well.
Franca of course did most of the talking and she did an excellent job of organising all the games, and marshalling the children. We did all sorts of old fashioned games such as musical chairs, musical statues, blind mans buff and a few others I had never heard of, and all the children took part enthusiastically. Everything was conducted at 100 decibels or more and at lightning speed, as six year olds never walk they always run (not like Sting’s Englishman in New York). After three hours Franca, her mother and I were exhausted, but it seems like children had a good time, and fleur enjoyed herself which is the main thing.
Fleur got lots of lovely presents I think more than 20 in total as well as quite a lot of money too, from us she got a new bike, a proper one which is just a tad too big but she was enthusiastically riding it around the garden on Sunday. She also got a traditional Dutch game from Franca’s mum which we played at the party called Dutch Shuffleboard, which is quite addictive. Thanks to all those who sent pressies and money Fleur appreciated them all.
No sooner is Fleur’s birthday over than thoughts turn to Christmas, I popped in to Toys r Us in Bordeaux as it has been years since I have been in a toy shop (excluding Hamleys once a year for stocking pressies), to look at potential Christmas presents, and the queues at the checkout were enormous, I was glad I was not buying anything, Still my Christmas shopping weekend is this coming weekend as I am in the UK, still with the credit crunch hopefully the shops will not be too crowded.
Christmas in France is not as huge as it is in the UK luckily so we will not be mortgaging the house for presents like some folks do, though we seemed to have joined in the competition to see who can get the most lights on their house, though we are way down at the bottom of the league thank goodness. Christmas is a one day festival in France with the 26th being a normal working day. The turn of the year is marked very quietly too, no crazy parties, and no fireworks, though the French do push the food boat out even further than normal with a 12 course meal and midnight almost passes without acknowledgment in comparison to the UK and Holland.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
leaves on the line.....
Its that time of year again in the UK, when all the trains are delayed by leaves on the line. For 2 weeks or so each year during autumn when the wind and rain combine they strip all the autumn leaves off the trees in a very short period of time which for railways is a fatal combination. The weather in the UK over the weekend had been wet and windy so...
This Monday I landed at Luton on time and the shuttle bus was waiting to take me to the railway station, so we got there nicely on schedule, I just had time to buy a ticket and a sandwich before the train arrived. Then it started, "First Capital Connect is sorry to announce...." and then three trains in a row were cancelled or severely delayed, so instead of arriving at the office at 2:00pm it was after 3:00 when I finally arrived. Travellers were confused as first one train was scheduled to arrive then suddenly it is changed to another. Luton Airport Parkway station may be unique in suffering from too many public announcements, the automatic announcements are so loud that you cannot hear the ones made by the station controllers, so you are none the wiser.
There was also chaos at London Bridge in the evening as well as trains were delayed or cancelled there were changes of platform, and a total lack of announcements about the situation as the destination boards flipped back and forth trying to keep up what was going on on the ground or should I say rails.
To be honest we really do not know if it was leaves on the line or something else entirely as nobody told us, but as it appeared to be so widespread we can only assume that leaves were the problem.
oh the joys of being a London commuter, why don't we give it all up and move to France..... ah....
This Monday I landed at Luton on time and the shuttle bus was waiting to take me to the railway station, so we got there nicely on schedule, I just had time to buy a ticket and a sandwich before the train arrived. Then it started, "First Capital Connect is sorry to announce...." and then three trains in a row were cancelled or severely delayed, so instead of arriving at the office at 2:00pm it was after 3:00 when I finally arrived. Travellers were confused as first one train was scheduled to arrive then suddenly it is changed to another. Luton Airport Parkway station may be unique in suffering from too many public announcements, the automatic announcements are so loud that you cannot hear the ones made by the station controllers, so you are none the wiser.
There was also chaos at London Bridge in the evening as well as trains were delayed or cancelled there were changes of platform, and a total lack of announcements about the situation as the destination boards flipped back and forth trying to keep up what was going on on the ground or should I say rails.
To be honest we really do not know if it was leaves on the line or something else entirely as nobody told us, but as it appeared to be so widespread we can only assume that leaves were the problem.
oh the joys of being a London commuter, why don't we give it all up and move to France..... ah....
Silly Me...
I have to come clean here and admit to my English language reader (because Franca has already told it in Dutch) about the howler of a mistake I made last week.
It is probably one of your worst nightmares, next to loosing your passport in a foreign country, it is also why there has been no blog for a week or so, I flew back to the UK last Monday as usual with no problems went to work and then at the end of the day headed back Lee for a well earned early night. However when I got to the front door of the house I could not find the keys, and then the sudden horror dawned on me that they were probably still in France, so I phoned the wife and yes they were on the bedside table. Franca phoned the house owners in the hopes that they had left a spare key some where and indeed they had, a neighbour had a key, trouble is you need two keys to get into the house. So I had no choice but to go back to London and then to my parents in Southend, going via Next & Boots on the way to buy some clothes and toiletries. Luckily I had somewhere to go otherwise it would have been London hotels and it would have cost even more, just when we are trying to save as much money as possible for the house.
Such is life, I still do not know what the keys were doing on the bedside table, I never take them out of my jacket pocket in France, the departure checking before leaving the house will be even more rigorous, and I will get a spare second key cut to leave with the neighbour,... and Joy I appreciated the text on Sunday night hahahaha...... I don't think I will forget keys ever again...
It is probably one of your worst nightmares, next to loosing your passport in a foreign country, it is also why there has been no blog for a week or so, I flew back to the UK last Monday as usual with no problems went to work and then at the end of the day headed back Lee for a well earned early night. However when I got to the front door of the house I could not find the keys, and then the sudden horror dawned on me that they were probably still in France, so I phoned the wife and yes they were on the bedside table. Franca phoned the house owners in the hopes that they had left a spare key some where and indeed they had, a neighbour had a key, trouble is you need two keys to get into the house. So I had no choice but to go back to London and then to my parents in Southend, going via Next & Boots on the way to buy some clothes and toiletries. Luckily I had somewhere to go otherwise it would have been London hotels and it would have cost even more, just when we are trying to save as much money as possible for the house.
Such is life, I still do not know what the keys were doing on the bedside table, I never take them out of my jacket pocket in France, the departure checking before leaving the house will be even more rigorous, and I will get a spare second key cut to leave with the neighbour,... and Joy I appreciated the text on Sunday night hahahaha...... I don't think I will forget keys ever again...
Monday, November 10, 2008
A Marathon Weekend....
This weekend was Jarnac Marathon weekend, we had 9 runners staying with us on Friday evening, and they all needed breakfast at 6:30am on Saturday morning so no lay-ins for us on Saturday either. So having feed the runners and waved them off at 7:30 we cleaned out the rooms ready for our marathon run on the washing machine, and I got to work trying to install the new ceiling for the new bathroom I am working on.I worked the whole day Saturday until the light ran out and it really did not look like I had done a great deal, but as they say it is all in the preparation. Bogdan our builder told me on Friday afternoon I needed to double up on the insulation I had put up which meant lowering the ceiling by installing ceiling rails that hung from the existing wooden roof struts. He told me I was putting them in the wrong way, I was fixing the rails along the roofing struts instead of across them, but this worked out better for installing the marine plasterboard. By the end of the day my arms and my shoulders were really suffering, I find it hard work working above my head for a whole day, marine plasterboard may only be 1.5mm thicker than normal plaster board, but that still makes it a lot heavier than the normal stuff, so I collapsed in bed around 9:00pm and slept quite soundly.
Sunday was tidying up day and cake making day, it is Fleurs birthday next weekend, so we needed to make cakes for school and for her party on Saturday afternoon. Fleur and I did the tidying up together, we tidied up the mess I left from yesterdays work and the mess that Bogdan left on Friday, I’d rather tidy up for him, then I get a bit more real work from him for my hard earned Euros.
The cake making was nothing short of a disaster, for someone who spent a year making them professionally. It came down to not knowing your ingredients, or at least trying to match an English recipe to French ingredients, and then learning the French way of doing things. The first two cakes I made did not rise a millimeter, then I discovered that although I had got flour for patisserie it was not self raising flour. Then it was trying to get the amount of baking power right, which I failed to do on the third cake and I think only just got right on the 4th cake, so finally after 4 hours of cooking we managed one dubious cake for decorating, I then discovered that my ready rolled lazy persons icing had gone missing, so Fleur and I made our own, and finally we managed to get one cake decorated. (you can see the results on Franca's blog). Franca is going to have a go at another cake during the week, using a French recipe, and I think that is the key, trying to use French ingredients with an English recipe does not always go smoothly, as we have discovered more than already.
So its Monday morning in the rain, which has fallen for most of the weekend, and I am at Bordeaux airport waiting for my Easyjet flight back to Luton, November is nightmare flight month, as everything is expensive (half term holidays), the winter time tables have started, and the best time slots have been given to winter destinations, so I am on a 12:20pm flight back to the UK and on Friday the return takes off at just after 9:00am so I am loosing a lot of billable time, luckily over the last few weeks I’ve built up a lot of additional hours credit to tide me over.
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