Tony_S

We have just managed to have a picnic hamper (filled with food stuff) delivered to Switzerland. I believe it was in a carton. So we have sent a carton to a Canton. The actual delivery was two days from Ireland to Zurich but it had an extra overnight stop in a pickup locker in a Migros store while DHL sent my nephew a release code. Perhaps next year we will organise something with a Swiss supplier. Using an Irish business this time worked but I hink they were bit overwhelmed with Christmas orders, but it was convenient to be delayed until this week. Tony

Well as the driver licensing authority here seem quite content to provide access(is it for a fee ?) to some dubious car park companies I expect there will be similar arrangements with whomsoever is chasing foreign fines here .

I think I would prefer the French and German system where pollluting vehicles are forbidden entry or time restricted rather than the system in the UK when people polluting vehicles are permitted if you pay a fee.

It would appear that European authorities are also able to bill UK citizens.

I have registered my car for access to Brussels and Antwerp’s congestion zones so I don’t see why Belgian drivers can’t do the same for here. I have French Crit Air and German Green Zone stickers. It isn’t difficult.

I suspect the police in many countries don’t get involved. If the motorist doesn’t pay up it gets turned over to debt collection agencies. Mil received a fine for speeding in Italy last year. She hasn’t driven for years and we were able to deal with the misidentification in time before the named agency took over.

Until you get in the car and find out it is Bristol airport…

Hopefully soon forgotten?

There is a restaurant in Quebec that has lots of rabbit based menu items. Matthew was taken there as a thank you by a couple of Americans he had helped while visiting.

Leftovers. Seriously though, when we stayed with a friend in Connecticut she made something called a breakfast omelet that seem to be similar to your creation. It may have been some traditional family recipe for all I know.

I thought it was a BSA M20 but then I think all motorbikes like that are BSA! Ariel were made in Birmingham too. Tamiya make a BSA M20 but a 1/35 kit wouldn’t look right on Q’s model.

Robbie was really friendly towards cats he met on his walks. However cats in the garden were a no no. It was no use them standing their ground and hissing he just launched himself at high speed. An agile cat could run up,a fence and escape. This usually meant Robbie crashed into the fence. His first cat encounter probably influenced his territoriality. We were sitting in the garden and Robbie was dozing when the neighbours cat (very elderly, big and saggy) sort of fell over the fence and landed on Robbie. I don’t think that cat had moved so quickly in years. After seeing off cats Robbie used to do a kind of triumphalist march round the garden making little woof sounds. Really amusing. He wouldn’t bark or growl at passers by when he looked out the front window but if they stepped off the pavement onto our grass he would become more alert. That line he set is remarkably similar to the one now on my movement detectors for our cameras.

Because privatisation was absolutely nothing to do with the railways. It was ideological. Many other publicly owned services were sold off at the same time. Gas, electricity and water for example. Schools and medical services endured financial cutbacks. There was no interest in instituting the kind of systems developed for running national infrastructure in other European and Asian countries.

All my uncles and my grandfather (Mum had quite a few brothers) worked on building sites. I never heard them swear. Though I was never on site with them!

My son was rather impressed by its use in the Melbourne office establishment he had an internship in to get some experience of a workplace before he started a Masters course at the LSE.

Perhaps it bypassed the terrestrial channels and went straight to the web?

What about the Pavlova?

I thought I recalled that the rockets had been an anti balloon weapon so,I did a Google search which confirmed it. It was a French invention. The article stated that the French Air Service were also concerned about rockets firing from doped fabric too so they did ground trials on for the time very fast car to test the concept.

I remember getting parcels wrapped in brown paper tied with string from them. Not sure when they went over to taped cardboard boxes.

I suspect the time to do so was probably a few years ago but I suppose it wouldn’t do any harm to know. One problem is that although I rarely look ill,I have a number of health conditions that are well looked after here. If I become deceased I think Aditi would move but to somewhere a bit nearer her brother with whom she has an excellent relationship. Tony

Aditi is considering leaving the country. Not sure how easy it is now for people of our age (71 and 70) to be allowed to settle elsewhere in Europe. So,I don’t think we will actually be looking for somewhere in France now and will remain in Essex. Some years ago Adit I was rather keen on retiring to France . Matthew say he didn’t feel any attachment to Essex and would visit us wherever we were. However Aditi felt she couldn’t go while her mother was alive. I don’t think I would have had any problem moving to France. I would have been quite keen to learn the language.

I think I have just shortened the Christmas and birthday card list somewhat. Aditi’s Mum was upset about some of the care arrangements being made for her. We were totally unaware of the changes, so it was difficult to calm her down but we did our best. Mil was upset again tonight. Aditi asked her sister why we hadn’t been told, we would find it easier to be supportive if we had the information. This led to accusations of things we had done with information like saying when we were booking holidays a year in advance. Even though they are at times when they never ever go away, they consider this unfair as they might want to go away! Then there was some weird excuse about how hard they had worked to prevent us being upset by MiL after Matthew died. Instead of just listening to the conversation,I intervened and made my opinion somewhat forecefully. We cope with some of MiLs karmic interpretations of life and death. Using the fact that we go on holiday which is one of the few real pleasures Aditi has nowadays was a nasty bit of whataboutery . I think I need my blood pressure tablets now rather than later. Tony

Spicy seems to have such a wide range. We took Aditi’s Uncle to a local Turkish restaurant. The starters were accompanied by a selection of sauces/dips. The waitress (her description) said some people found the chilli dip quite hot. Aditi tried it and said it was and she used the other sauces. Uncle Vinay said it was bland. At least it didn’t turn violent. On a school sixth form field trip Matthew and his friends were in a late night kebab shop. He asked for the special chilli sauce and the server said it wasn’t “for little boys”. So Matthew asked for a taste and said his Nan would call that “totally bland”. The man chased him out waving a cleaver. One of his friends loved that story so much she told it during the ‘does anyone want to say anything”. at his funeral.

It isn’t really snowing here, I think it may be one of those “wintry showers”. I am glad I am not going anywhere. My only trip out today was to the compost bin. Aditi went a little further and visited the dentist. We can see our dentist’s surgery from our lounge window so it isn’t very far. Though from the rear bedrooms we can see Kent and that wouldn’t be somewhere I would happily walk to. Not a problem with Kent, just the distance.

One thing that happens here more often than in years gone by is “checking the doorbell” still works. The security camera shows that some don’t even bother. Royal Mail do ring and rattle the letterbox flap.