Smiffy2

Me too.

You look after yourself! No gallivanting or 'I'm probably OK'ing. Julie didn't and she's suffered the effects for years... That's good news about Matthew, too.

Absolutely true.

Rather like the Flemish speaker who refused to give me directions because I asked in French?

We (at work) had builders in who unplugged six industrial-size freezers, full of food. In the first week of the summer holidays, it wasn't amusing come September... Like a lot of 'accidents' in schools you often suspect the work of that kid who was always being given detention.

Yes, but that was where the long delivery times came from.

If I order a new gazebo from a French company for delivery to France it seems to take weeks. 6-8 weeks... One website promised me delivery before Christmas (Eh?). Through Amazon UK I can have it delivered here (for an extra fiver or so) in 6 days...

There's a lesson there for us all.

The gazebo is, alas, no more...

Morning all. Just. Ouah Neil, il pleut ici! Comme une vache pisse as the French say... Huuuge electrical storms last night (and loss of internet) passing to the west of us going north, hitting St Malo according to a friend there. Massive thunder and lightning in and above the clouds, but nothing at ground level here, just high winds. Then the rain started this morning. Just waiting for the window man to come and have a last look at the windows before fitting a new window/roller shutter in the kitchen. Will also ask for an estimate for a roller for the front door. Then totally secure. On a side note - does anyone have any experience of putting gazebos on patios and using weights around the legs to secure them? I've seen weights which are plastic tubes which clamp around the legs and are filled with water. Has anyone ever used them? Best wishes to the ailing, Baz and his back, Neil's foot and others. And the others I've overlooked whilst skimming. (And well done Fernando - great showing and in for the win until the engine blew...)

Wonderful Jacques Tati movie. Yesterday we were in St Hilaire du Harcouet and the circus came to town - the lead vehicle was a huge American artic (with gaudy trailer) in metallic deep red - huuuge - and there was a gleeful small boy in the passenger seat giving it all it was worth with the hooter - which was bigger and louder than most locomotives! Put me in mind of the arrival of the little funfair in Jour de Fête! But bigger and noisier. A nice sign of things both changing and staying the same.

Bonjour tlm from La France Profonde, where the sun is shining like a mad thing, the bees is a-buzzin' and the little oiseax are cheepy-cheeping. Sadly the flies are abandoning the cows in the hope of a free meal indoors. Good news is that the cluster flies seem to have departed! Went in to see Claude's sister Elisabeth when we arrived. It seems that he was lopping the top branches of a tall tree, standing in the bucket of his tractor, and he fell. No broken bones, no internal injuries, but evidence of a heart attack. So, most likely he had the crise cardiaque and then fell. He was still alive when found, but in a vegetative state and they turned the life support off after a few hours. He may have been lying there a couple of days... As is the French way, Elisabeth offered us un p'tit aperitif. Of course, the bottles are what Claude put in. She offered us some port, and I don't know what was in the bottle but it wasn't port. More like the Calvados that's made illegally by the farmers here... Complete firewater. So then out to our garden, where we struggled for half an hour to put up an old gazebo, then decided we'll go out tomorrow and buy one of the self-erecting ones. Does anyone know if they can be put on patios? I'm assuming the can if the legs are weighted. We also had a long fight with our rectangular parasol, and decided that's for the chop as well. We have patios front and rear and move around with the sun. I often wonder how a working class kid from a council house deserves all this, and then I remember - hard work! Cooked a proper dinner last evening. Started with oysters (€11 for 24 from the supermarket) followed by veal escalopes (€4.50 for 4 - same supermarket), pommes de terre rissolée and ratatouille. Then some very nice Saint Agur with crusty bread. All washed down with some fizzy pink. Aaah.... Motorsport frenzy today, Monaco races then the Indy 500. Lunch will be sardines (supermarket again), and some roast chicken and veg for dinner. Perhaps a little rosé. Must go, man in a tractor with a small girl in overalls and Wellington boots just drove past, visitors for Elisabeth. Will nose. Have a great day everyone.

We passed through small towns and communes today with flags, the tricolore, the EU flag, the Union Jack at half mast. Fraternité. Solidarité. Amitie. I sat in the garden' listening to the wind in the trees and the birdsong and drank a glass of sparkly rosé to mon ami Claude. Je suis heureux. Comme Dieu en France. Mais triste.

Proper ER tomorrow - off to France for a bit. Looking forward to some lazy garden time.

I used to run those; there are several different schemes or simple Communities of Enquiry. Very rewarding.

Like everyone, appalled, distressed, horrified by an attack on an audience mostly made up of children.

MN or WC?

'Battersea Bog Cleaners'? Really?

Really?

Well, I've not been around much lately, due to that manflu thing. Seems to be over now, apart from the cough. Apologies for unauthorised absence. It's been a rollercoastery few days. Best news - son's partner's sister had a boy - Rochford - and Henry and Laurence have a new cousin. Other good news - Rose had her 2nd birthday, and Daisy has been good. Done some modelling - refurbishing some old 0-16.5 carriages I made back in 1980... it seems I could solder a brass kit together in those days. Who knew? These are for the Lancre Narrow Gauge Raile-Way, a spur from the Ankh Morpork and Sto Plains Hygienic Railway into the witch-rich lands of The Mountains. There are some carriages, some goods wagons, a loco (No 5, 'Gytha') but, as yet, no track... Less good news - Just got a Facebook message from an ex-student (now in her early 40s) to say that she was out for the evening in Soho and was approached by a beggar whom she recognised as a boy from her year at school - one I taught. She said it threw her, in a few seconds he recognised her and backed off, justifying himself saying he'd had a hard time. He then disappeared, obviously on drugs and looks homeless. Made her so sad. "He was such a joker at school. Wish I could help him..." He was a great kid, looked a bit like Alfred E Neumann, always a bit cheeky, as she says, a joker. I wouldn't have seen anything amiss in him at 16. There but for some bad luck go you or I. I hope he get some help. Governors' Meeting this afternoon. Long, convoluted and hot. Nice site walk, though. Morning off tomorrow, then Daisy and Rose. Should be excellent weather for a romp in the garden. More modelling in the morning. So best wishes to all, and so as the knife and fork of the weekend slide into the dessert spoon of the weekend, I wish one and all happiness.

Happy Birthday, Don! - Happy Backday, Rick!

She didn't. A reporter for The Sun (Brittany Vonow) heard of the fairly standard meeting, put two and two together and made five, and then dummied a story. Which she then published on the website...

So, Prince Phil has decided to retire at 96. Earth shattering news. But someone at The Sun will have got their P45.

Some of us got it...

Feeling roughety-rough with a head cold, cough, headache, a true Niagara of mucus and exciting gastric adventures. Also every joint aches... Only skimmed the preceding posts, so affection and empathy to all. >koff<