St Geoffroy
Yesterday's weather: bright and cold.
We watched a programme last night that has had me thinking ever since, and I'm still not sure what to make of it.
The programme in question was ' George Melly's Last Stand' and was a documentary programme about the jazz singer's last few months before his death, in July, of dementia and lung cancer. I was never a fan of Melly, whose style of jazz never appealed and I found the programme last night rather disturbing but I don't know why I should have found it so. In an effort to find out a little more about him today, I came across a very well written obituary in the Independent. This man lead the most incredible life and I will try to read more about him, perhaps that will help me to work out why I found last night's programme so disturbing.
Whilst searching the internet this morning I found an even more disturbing website. Forgive me if you have already come across this one, but it was certainly new to me. Deathlist is the most macabre website. The committee of which elects, and names on 1 January each year, the 50 famous people that they expect to die during the coming 12 months.
Talk about the Grim Reaper.
Luckily they don't seem to have much success as their record is only 14 of their expected 50 dying in one year (2003 if you are really interested), so hopefully anyone who finds their name on the list shouldn't be too concerned that it is the kiss of death, so to speak.
And to be honest, including Fidel Castro and Ariel Sharon for 2007 would have been a pretty good bet but of course they only have 8 weeks to go before the end of the year and they're still with us.
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Yesterday Jon discovered a blog that speaks the absolute truth about policing in the UK today. Written with a brilliant sense of humour and a mistreatment of political correctness that will get him in trouble if anyone discovers who he is Police, Camera, Paperwork says it all and is well worth bookmarking.
We just wish we had the nerve to say it all ourselves!
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Monday, 5 November 2007
Sunday Afternoon in Front of the Telly
Ste Sylvie
Yesterday's weather: Sunny and bright
We aren't great sports TV fans to be honest, but yesterday we fancied one of those lazy Sunday afternoons in front of the box. As there wasn't a comforting Fred and Ginger black and white film on, we elected to watch the New York Marathon, purely for the scenery, you understand.
We didn't see much scenery. Where were those lovely overhead helicopter shots that you get during the London Marathon? However what we did see was pure magic.
Paula Radcliffe on top form striding out ahead of the field to win in great style. What a wonderful race she ran. Well done to Paula, inspired by baby Isla just 10 months old, and husband Gary on hand as ever. Inspirational telly watching.
Which is more than can be said of the ITVs adaptation of E M Forster's A Room with a View last night. I am so glad we only caught the last 40 minutes. Merchant Ivory's 1986 production was so true to the book that it has to be a standard. ITV's butchery and mad additions to the story were such a disappointment, despite the wonderful cast. I will have to go and read the book again, and maybe watch Merchant Ivory to eradicate its memory.
Yesterday's weather: Sunny and bright
We aren't great sports TV fans to be honest, but yesterday we fancied one of those lazy Sunday afternoons in front of the box. As there wasn't a comforting Fred and Ginger black and white film on, we elected to watch the New York Marathon, purely for the scenery, you understand.
We didn't see much scenery. Where were those lovely overhead helicopter shots that you get during the London Marathon? However what we did see was pure magic.
Paula Radcliffe on top form striding out ahead of the field to win in great style. What a wonderful race she ran. Well done to Paula, inspired by baby Isla just 10 months old, and husband Gary on hand as ever. Inspirational telly watching.
Which is more than can be said of the ITVs adaptation of E M Forster's A Room with a View last night. I am so glad we only caught the last 40 minutes. Merchant Ivory's 1986 production was so true to the book that it has to be a standard. ITV's butchery and mad additions to the story were such a disappointment, despite the wonderful cast. I will have to go and read the book again, and maybe watch Merchant Ivory to eradicate its memory.
Monday, 2 July 2007
Where's ya bin?
St Martinian
Yesterday's weather: Will you British please stop sending rain south?
Happy Monday everyone.
I have one of my least favourite jobs to do this morning. Our rubbish isn't collected and today I will have to tour the local bins looking for one empty enough to pile in a weeks' worth of recyclable rubbish. All household rubbish in rural France is collected from big wheelie bins placed at strategic points where there are a collection of houses. For the three houses along our track the nearest bins are on the other side of the main road. Unfortunately the same bins (one for household waste, the other for recyclable rubbish) also serve another 5 houses and I haven't yet worked out which days they are emptied, there doesn't seem to be a pattern. So, on any given day of the week they are likely to be full to bursting and we haven't recycled for a week.
The good thing about recycling here is that everything goes in one bin. Plastic, cardboard, polystyrene, tins, they all get sorted at a depot. Glass goes elsewhere and there are even fewer of those, so it could necessitate a visit to any of the 4 nearest villages to find an empty glass bin. We are recycling much more here than we did (to our shame) in England because it is so much easier, we are also composting as much as possible so our household 'smelly' rubbish (things that can't go on the compost or be recycled) is considerably less too.
Unfortunately we don't go out too often. Well, there is so much to do here and every excursion takes half a day; not to mention the fact that we are so happy to be here that we don't like to go out that much. So, the rubbish gets done once a week. Jon has volunteered to start painting the outside of the house (while the rain holds off for an hour or so) so I am on bin and shopping duty this morning.
I will just put on a balaclava and hoodie. I just hate people thinking that I have been hoarding my papers, wrappers and plastic bottles.
Diana Concert
Did anyone watch the concert yesterday? What were your highlights? I must say that I thought the sight of those two princes bopping away (even if William did look a bit like his Dad from time to time) was great. I am a little suspicious of Tom Jones' hair - only a really vain man would dye his eyebrows quite that dark, don't you think? Good to see Take That back together again too - shame about Robbie, perhaps he thought it was beneath him? Jon really surprised me by saying that P Diddy and Kayne West were fantastic. Rod Stewart was amazing....
Yesterday's weather: Will you British please stop sending rain south?
Happy Monday everyone.
I have one of my least favourite jobs to do this morning. Our rubbish isn't collected and today I will have to tour the local bins looking for one empty enough to pile in a weeks' worth of recyclable rubbish. All household rubbish in rural France is collected from big wheelie bins placed at strategic points where there are a collection of houses. For the three houses along our track the nearest bins are on the other side of the main road. Unfortunately the same bins (one for household waste, the other for recyclable rubbish) also serve another 5 houses and I haven't yet worked out which days they are emptied, there doesn't seem to be a pattern. So, on any given day of the week they are likely to be full to bursting and we haven't recycled for a week.
The good thing about recycling here is that everything goes in one bin. Plastic, cardboard, polystyrene, tins, they all get sorted at a depot. Glass goes elsewhere and there are even fewer of those, so it could necessitate a visit to any of the 4 nearest villages to find an empty glass bin. We are recycling much more here than we did (to our shame) in England because it is so much easier, we are also composting as much as possible so our household 'smelly' rubbish (things that can't go on the compost or be recycled) is considerably less too.
Unfortunately we don't go out too often. Well, there is so much to do here and every excursion takes half a day; not to mention the fact that we are so happy to be here that we don't like to go out that much. So, the rubbish gets done once a week. Jon has volunteered to start painting the outside of the house (while the rain holds off for an hour or so) so I am on bin and shopping duty this morning.
I will just put on a balaclava and hoodie. I just hate people thinking that I have been hoarding my papers, wrappers and plastic bottles.
Diana Concert
Did anyone watch the concert yesterday? What were your highlights? I must say that I thought the sight of those two princes bopping away (even if William did look a bit like his Dad from time to time) was great. I am a little suspicious of Tom Jones' hair - only a really vain man would dye his eyebrows quite that dark, don't you think? Good to see Take That back together again too - shame about Robbie, perhaps he thought it was beneath him? Jon really surprised me by saying that P Diddy and Kayne West were fantastic. Rod Stewart was amazing....
Sunday, 1 July 2007
Dishes and cloths
St Thierry
Yesterday's weather: Fantastic, 26 degrees with a nice breeze
We have a new hobby. A few minutes every now and then are spent trawling through the thousands of channels on our new satellite system trying to find something sensible to watch. We got the system so that we can watch main-stream French TV but we haven't yet been able to align the dish to the correct satellite. This is not an easy task as it relies on one of us up a ladder moving the dish and the other testing the signal on the TV. So we have doors and windows open and one of us (usually me) running from the TV to the window to say what, if any, signal we have managed to find hoping that Jon hasn't moved the dish a fraction of an inch in the meantime. I think we have got as far as the 'M's in the listing now. Media TV was particularly boring (Italian), and the 'Coming Soon' channel (also Italian)was thrilling stuff (not). I can't wait for the zeds. Zoology TV? That will probably be Italian too.
Flappers
We were up early this morning having a cup of tea on the patio at 7am. Sunday mornings are the quietest of the week here. No traffic passes on the road below us, all we could hear was the sound of Mrs Veranda flapping her tea towel.
View across the valley (April 2007 - before the trees were in leaf)
Mrs Veranda (not her real name!) is someone I have aspired to be for a long time. She lives on the other side of the valley to us and, although we can't see her or the rest of her household because they are too far away, we are aware of their presence. Mrs V gets her washing on the line by 7am every day. She airs her bedding over the balustrade of the veranda and is forever flapping. She flaps tea towels, towels, floor cloths, dish cloths and I'm sure she would flap her husband outside to dust him off if she could. Of course by the time we hear the flapping she has already gone indoors just because of the time it takes for sound to travel across the valley. So, as I say we have never seen her and wouldn't know her if we bumped into her in the village store and, actually, the desire to get my washing out on the line earlier than her is beginning to wear off now. However, I think it's time to get outside and beat the rugs.
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