Skip to main content

Nothing happens in August

The French disappear in August but thankfully I managed to get a game of tennis with a Frenchman yesterday.  He beat me spectacularly but we both did an awful lot of running and most games went to deuce.

There is a small bridge near where I live.  When I say small it is about 75 meters maximum.  It is not a fancy bridge, nor is it old, in fact it looks as though it was made out of those barriers that the police put across the road.  Anyway, they started painting it in May, or at least scraping the paint off, so temporary lights were erected and the daily trip took an extra five minutes.  We had lovely dry, hot weather in June and July but there was little action taking place on the bridge.  This week it started to rain so the painters came along and erected plastic shelters so that they could work in the dry.  It is three months since they started and I would estimate another 3 months before they finish.  Thank goodness they are not painting the Forth bridge.   Macron says he will reform the labour laws and reduce public spending.  Good luck with that then.  The Unions are just waiting for their holidays to finish before they start the strikes in September.

Glen Campbell died yesterday.  I remember seeing him perform live.  I think it was about 1975 in the States when he had just brought out his latest single, Rhinestone Cowboy.  He actually came on stage riding a horse and he did look every inch an cowboy.  He began to sing but the horse clearly didn't appreciate it and turned round and faced the other way.  Glen desperately tried to get the horse to face the audience but every time he managed to turn him, the horse turned round again.  Finally Glen finished the song looking backwards over his shoulder.  I hadn't had such a good laugh in a long time.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Oops!

 The air conditioning has broken in my car so it was some relief when the temperature dropped  back to the 30 degree mark.  This gave my neighbours fresh enthusiasm to clear up overgrown vegetation.  At my request my American neighbour climbed down to a flat bit of ground where a tree had grown about 6 feet in as many weeks, to lop it.  My job was to clear all the debris when it fell and drag it to a parking space in the courtyard.  The system was working well with another neighbour and her granddaughter joining in to help me clear the debris.  Meanwhile. up above us the American was in full swing, not stopping at 'lopping' the tree but cutting it right back to its roots.  Soon great big branches were hurtling down and that is when it happened.  One branch, instead of coming straight down to the ground decided to take a detour onto his garage roof, creating a big hole right above where his precious car, a Tesla, was being kept safe and sound....

I'm Free

 After being incarcerated in my son's house waiting for the results of the day 2 test I was finally allowed out today.  I went to Chichester and was saddened by the number of familiar shops that have disappeared from the town centre.  Bognor is the same.  You wouldn't die of thirst in either town though as the number of cafes has increased.  Both town centres were busy making it difficult to keep a safe distance from others but many people were wearing masks in the street. I was pulled over by Customs in Caen.  As I opened the trunk of the car one of the officers asked me if I was carrying goods.  'Yes,' I replied, ' French Champagne and French wine'  They nodded approvingly and waved me away. During my 3 days in the house, I have cleaned, filed all their paperwork, mended the shower, cooked dinner and tried watching television, the latter being totally uninspiring.  The news consists of covid, travel restrictions, forbidden Christmas parties...

Playing by ear

My father could play the piano.  Not an unusual skill but he was deaf.  He lost his  hearing fighting in the army in India in the 30s so he was an adult when he lost it and therefore remembered tunes, even though he couldn't hear him.  However he didn't have the skill to learn anything new so  either you liked the old music or you didn't.  He used to say that he played by ear and then would roar with laughter.  He would have struggled in many ways with modern living but most of all during the pandemic, he would have lost his ability to communicate as he always lip read.  There must be thousands of people like him today who still rely on reading lips to understand,  in fact all of us do it to some extent, so please be patient if someone is struggling to communicate while you are wearing a mask. I went to the supermarket today and at the check out, the cashier asked me to move the trolley into a particular position.  As I manoeuvred it ...