Mad Darby Diaries

I am not surprised at Erdogan's behaviour towards the President of the European Commission.  Since he took over, Turkey has gone from being a secular country, with comparative freedom for the press and the judicial system, to a dictatorship where women are tied to the kitchen sink.  The person I am most annoyed at is Monsieur Michel, who instead of speaking up or at least offering his seat to the President of the Commission, stretched his legs out and ignored her.  If Europe is going to give way to sexist dictators and the like then we are doomed as a female race.  Have we really fought so hard for so long to be subjected to this behaviour by our leaders in Europe? I have to question why French drivers move into the middle of the road in order to turn a corner, seemingly oblivious to the fact that traffic is coming towards them. I need to sell some furniture but it is far more difficult that one might think.  I have a very old dining room table in very good cond...

With everything happening at once, including an offer on the house, I set to sorting, filing  and destroying paper, tons of the stuff.  Anything with personal information I shredded, some I tore up and nearly all my teaching stuff I just threw away.   Paper has to be taken to the  recycling bin, a hundred yards from the house, not a great distance, but paper is heavy.  Have you ever tried to put shredded paper through, what is essentially, a letter box?  It takes on a life of its own, flying off in all directions, clinging to bushes, landing in what looks and feels like oil while some is simply carried away by the wind.  I am very conscious of littering, and besides, there is a sign threatening big fines if found not putting everything in the bin, so I have spent an inordinate amount of time chasing tiny pieces of paper around the countryside. I made ten trips to the recycling bin before I had finally completed my task of sorting out and destroyin...

 It has been a somewhat tumultuous week with good news followed by bad news all in one day.  With my head full of the complications of both I spent a totally sleepless night, pacing the house and making lists.  I find that therapeutic.  Yes I know I am odd.  When  I turned the news on I heard the Duke of Edinburgh had died.  At 99 it was not surprising but like our own death, we know it is coming but somehow we hope it never will.   I met the Duke of Edinburgh twice, once when I was only 15 years of age.  We had sailed over from Portchester Yacht Club to participate in Cowes Week and while registering  our arrival in Cowes Yacht Club we came across the Duke propping up the bar.  I had never seen television so I had only seen his picture in the newspapers but there was no mistaking him.  He was with three other men and they were being rather loud.  The Duke's contribution to the conversation was littered with swear wor...

I, like many others, have looked at empty pages in my diary for over a year now.  Recently I have been able to play tennis two or three times a week and found great pleasure in writing it in.  Now all has changed with yet another lockdown.  The tennis courts are 14km from the house and the limit  for going anywhere is 10km.  So I was staring at my blank week in the diary when the telephone rang and for once it wasn't a junk call.  It was the man who does the inspection of my septic tank.  Oh happy days, something is happening this week. I got the scissors out yesterday and set about cutting 3 inches off the bottom of my hair.  This is not easy, but I have done it before so was quite confident that I could do it again.  I stared at the result in the mirror and the only word that came to mind was 'wonky'. Apparently we should all stand on one leg for one minute a day and then 10 seconds on one leg with our eyes shut.  This should stop us a...

 Had Macron spoken a few hours later we could  all  have dismissed his speech as an April fool's joke but unfortunately it wasn't and we are back in lockdown, although with the curfew and cafes closed etc it has never felt as though we left lockdown.  Will outside tennis stop?  I hope not but I am waiting to hear. This morning the cuckoo appeared dead on cue.  Is it really a year since we were first locked up? I phoned one of my sisters this morning.  We were six but my eldest brother died, followed by my eldest sister.  The sister I spoke to is next in age and the conversation went like this.  'I hope we are not dying in order of age,' she said, 'because that would make me next.'  'So would you prefer that one of us goes first?' I asked, meaning another sister, a brother and myself, all younger. 'Well you have already had cancer so by rights it should be you next,' she replied.  Thanks, I'll see what I can do.

I went to get my first jab on Thursday at the local hospital, or rather closed down hospital now re-opened partially, in order to vaccinate people.  Armed with all my pieces of paper I joined 15 other people in a waiting room.  Each of us was given a clipboard with yet another form to complete but only after we had shown our identity cards.  One harassed man was co-ordinating this task  and I did feel sorry for him.  The people were elderly, some very elderly, and the man soon realised that most of them were incapable of filling out their  forms so he had to go round each one and do it for them.  This delayed people going through to the next stage. Eventually the first three people disappeared through the doors.  I had already been there nearly an hour when it was finally my turn but all that happened was that I was sat in another waiting room.  Once called from that room I was ushered into the cubicle for my injection but not before showing ...

 Yesterday  I finally got a form from my doctor saying I was eligible  to get the vaccine so put aside today to try and get an appointment.  Last evening an irate person from Thouars hospital phoned to ask why I hadn't kept my appointment at Mauleon, which is a fair distance from  where I live.  I told him I didn't have one, although I would like one, but he was not happy.  This morning I went on to  the appointment site and managed to book an appointment for tomorrow.  Incredible.  After months of there being no available appointments I get one immediately.  I suspect it will be the Astra Zeneca vaccine because people have been  put off having it but I don't care which one it is.  Now the problem is will I be able to play tennis on Friday with a sore arm?