Mad Darby Diaries

I finally managed to catch one of the lizards that was running round my house, and deposited it outside in the garden.  To be fair there was no skill involved.  I think it was getting tired and hungry and so resisted arrest. I don't what is more mad - American politics or Brexit.

1. At the beginning of the year a great big wall dividing my house from my neighbour's fell down.  The insurance refused to pay out because it was caused by rain, not wind.  I paid up. 2. In August I decided I really needed to do something about the degradation of the walls of my house and take urgent action to stop them deteriorating further.   The house is built of tuffeau stone and French houses rarely have a damp proof course.  The combination of this and the soft stone causes the walls to crumble.  So at enormous expense I have had a damp proof course put in.  I now wait six months and if I have any money the walls will be re-done. 3.  I was at the top of the Pont de Normandie in Le Havre, having just got off the ferry when I tried to change gear and instead of it engaging it stayed in neutral.  I cruised down the bridge and let the car follow the road until I spotted a piece of ground between the autoroute and the route nationale....

I have a neighbour called Monsieur Tutee but my 2 year old grandson calls him Mr Patootee.  Cute. While I was in Romania with 2 of my sons we went to Dracula's castle, which has little about Dracula but is in a beautiful setting.  As we were heading through the mountains it was pointed out that we were passing the highest mountain in the country.  Ah yes, I thought, I remember it well.  A few years back a friend and I had got lost on that mountain for 2 days and were probably lucky to get out safely. Back in Bucharest the drivers see no point in obeying the rules of the road.  Red lights are a minor distraction and not to be stopped at.  Beware any pedestrian who sets foot on the crossing when the green man shows and if you are a driver don't assume that because you have a green light that cars will not cross your path.  I counted three vehicles where the driver was actually wearing a seat belt and children were standing up in the well of the fron...

I have been travelling for most of this year, sometimes babysitting, sometimes going to other countries.  It has been busy and enjoyable but with every up there are 3 downs and so it has proved to be.  However I am an optimist so humour must take precedence over disaster. I was sitting in a service station on the autoroute enjoying a coffee.  An English couple, who appeared to be stone deaf were shouting at each other, not in anger, just trying to communicate.  The woman spread all her Euro coins on the table and demanded to know how she was supposed to know which coins to spend in which country.  Her husband picked some up and put them down again.  Meanwhile his wife was complaining about how stupid the Euro was and it was a good job that the UK hadn't joined.  I looked around the room to see people's reactions but clearly they didn't speak English so missed the insult to their currency.  After about 10 minutes of the wife's complaining, her h...