Something tells me...

... we'll be eating lots of soup here at Franco-British HQ!

Who needs a veggie box when you live next door to Jean-Pierre?! Which is handy, as they don't do veggie boxes in these parts.

Yum.

But I would walk 500 miles

Well, I wouldn't walk 500 miles to walk my dog, but we did take a two hour drive yesterday just to take her to the beach at Fort-Mahon! What can I say, she likes that beach. And incidentally we stopped in to see Stéphan who was there for the weekend.

Enjoyed a bracing walk, watched learner kitesurfers

Went out for dinner just in time to catch the sunset

Had moules frites (mussels and chips) for dinner, then whizzed home and aahed at a lovely waning hunter's moon on the way.

Nice.

All my pictures of you

As if I don't already spend enough time faffing about online. I've started a sort of a photoblog. Sort of. Ish. So I'm on the lookout for other people doing photoblogs so I can link to them. So that if people land on my photoblog and think it's boring, at least they can out-click to something more exciting.

Toady of Toad Hall

Spotted this chap in the garden today. He was happily nestling in the weeds (of which there are many ) when I nearly ripped him up with the hoe. Instead I popped him in the birdbath, where he had a swim around, then moved him to under the hedge well away from garden implements. I wonder what he was doing in our garden. I mean, it's not like we have a pond or anything. What do toads eat anyway?

Tourist

Yesterday we had a grand day out in London. I managed to get up jolly early and off we sailed (with Cocotte, Doggy and Hubby) for the white cliffs of Dover, zoomed up the M25 and parked for free at Lakeside. Yes, it's not especially central I know, but I ain't paying 30 quid for parking. Plus we got dirt cheap day returns with unlimited zone 1-6 travel so it was a double bargain. Yay.

We went to Tower Bridge:

We saw the huge queues for tickets to the Tower of London:

Lucky we hadn't thought "hmm, let's visit the Tower of London", eh?

We spent rather a lot of time on the Tube:

We stopped off at some little-known monuments:

And I spent ... not very much money at all. I went in Selfridges (Pink shirt) and Next (linen trousers and a top). Who'd have thought. And I didn't even set foot in Waterstone's (always a good way to avoid book-buying, because if I go in, I buy). But I bought two books on the boat. I couldn't help it. I was sort of overcome.

Doggy was absolutely the most best-behaved (and, naturally, beautiful) ever seen on the Tube. She was even allowed to come shopping in Selfridges where all the assistants swooned over her (she has that effect on everyone). She really was such a good dog.

We didn't get home until half past midnight (having risen at 5.30am Sat morning) so we were all pretty knackered but we had a fab day out. I don't know why we don't do it more often. Oh yes I do: requires 1 tank of petrol; requires dog-sitter or trip to vet (to be charged to give her the same worming tablet we give her at home); high-risk of retail spending; requires getting up stupidly early. Still, it was indeed a grand day out!

PS - we didn't go on Eurostar because Cocotte is quite claustrophobic and that much time in a tunnel, under the sea would just have been too much. Plus they don't allow dogs. And we hadn't arranged for a dog-sitter.

Creativity-free zone

The lovely Princesse, like me, is a Flickr-er recently started a 365 project. I thought the concept sounded fun. For one year, you take one self-portrait a day, and post it to a Flickr group to share with many thousands of people doing the same thing. The full "rules" are here. I can do that, I thought. So I somewhat ambitiously signed up for this self-portrait malarkey. Thus far I have posted pics of my hands, my feet, my hands, my feet ... my ear (?). Dear readers, surely you must be more creative than I. Any fun ideas for self-portraits??

Be afraid, be very afraid

There is a secondary school in our street, which was refurbished and renovated the year after we bought the house (so, six years ago then). But I only noticed the boastful sign not that long ago.

It says "The local education board is readying the future of the département here". When I contemplate the rabble that attends the school (something I try to do as little as possible), my spirits sink into my shoes ...

Prouder auntie

You are all of course familiar with Super nephew in all his loveliness:


Well, now this particular proud auntie has a Super niece too!


Isn't she the best? Of course, I am most grateful to Bro and Sis-in-law for producing a girl (lol lol), as this solved my possible dilemma on how to distinguish between two nephews. I couldn't have used super nephew 1 and 2 as this implies ranking. It was causing much consternation, but then Super niece arrived and problem solved. First girl to be born into my Mum's side of the family since me, in fact, so she is even extra special.

Homeward bound ... I was

This year being a special birthday year for me (I am now truly in my late twenties), I had decreed that I would spend the day with Mummy and Daddy. In fact, the last time I had spent the anniversary of my birth with my parents I wasn't even at university! So it was time.

And so we piled into the super Lismobile and took to the road. I think we set a new record this time, completing Folkestone to Midlothian in 8 hours including stops. When we got home a little birdie mistook Mum and Dad's house for a suitable roosting site. Aaah. We had to evict it though.


Dad says it was a green finch. He knows these things.

Alas I have nothing entertaining to relate regarding our journey, save for the thorough and far-reaching anti-terrorist controls at the French "border" checkpoint before embarking on Eurotunnel. The procedure is as follows:

1. Have four or five vehicles stop all at once.
2. Take one of those explosive trace swab things.
3. Go from one car to the next, and wipe the swab all around the steering wheel and the driver's electric window controls. Do not change swabs between cars and do not wipe any other parts of the cars.
4. Go back to little hut thing and analyse the swab.

While I am sure that the people who work for the French interior office surely are more clued up on counter-terrorism methods than myself, I have identified a couple of weaknesses in their technique. What do they do if the swab registers positive? Get everyone in all four cars to get out and unpack? And, more to the point, if you want to smuggle explosives into the Channel Tunnel, just ensure you don't touch the steering wheel or the electric window buttons. Best to get one of the passengers to pack the semtex.

Faced with an empty text box

My blogging has been lacking lately. No posts, no visits to my blogroll. No nothing. One explanation is that I have been avoiding my laptop. The horrid fluorescent felt tip pen came back and I didn't want to use my laptop in case it made it worse. Anyway, it seems to have gone away all by itself for the moment.

Another explanation is feeling slightly guilty (as deftly-explained by Princesse Ecossaise) about not maintaining my blog and visiting everyone else. Which is silly really, but that's what I'm all about, isn't it? Silly, I mean.

Yet another explanation is lack of anything blog-worthy to tell. Lately I've been low and worn out and just not right. I can't sleep because my brain likes to be awake at 4am and think about things in a very excited and busy way. My body thinks this is a crock o' shite but it can't get my brain to SHUT UP and GO TO SLEEP. It's been so bad some nights I've switched the light back on and reached for a book to pass the time until sheer fatigue inevitably takes over. Doc has given me some proper drugs because the drowsy-making anti-histamine tablets weren't making a jot of difference. I hope my brain will quickly come round to the idea that thinking is for daylight hours, and the only decent thing to be doing at 4am is sleeping.

Hubby is jolly fed up with his stupid job. When he tells me about the stupid working methods they have and management's flat refusal to invest in any tools that might make his team's job easier and help them produce better, more reliable results, I am struck by how patient he is. I just could not work in the environment he works in. I'd have shouted very rudely at people and probably assaulted my boss long since. Poor Hubby.

The company in the UK that wants a telephone interview hasn't been back in touch this week to re-schedule (the first attempt went nowhere due to difficulties with their conference call system), but hey. Hubby is very diligently practising his English. We used to speak mostly French to each other but now it's mostly English. I have taught him useful idiomatic English such as "innit" or finishing every other sentence with "but" (this is to prepare him for visits to Lanarkshire to see Bro & Family). But he is under strict instructions not to show off this mastery of modern English during any interviews!

Doggy is as delightful as ever. Here is proof:

Pic taken with my new toy, which is now back from after-sales hell and works again. Obviously. That hairy blue thing behind her used to be a slipper, but she savaged it. She's that sort of a doggy. Can you tell from the photo?

If you were paying attention you'll have figured out that Bro & Family have finally moved West. They sold their flat very quickly (within two days of it going on the market!), but finding a new house didn't happen quite so quickly. And when they did find one and their offer was accepted, it wasn't looking likely they would get entry the same weekend they had agreed to vacate their flat. It was all a bit of a soap opera, but they are at last installed and have a postcode that starts with "G". The day they moved in, some curious kids from round about stopped by to see who the new neighbours were. Sis-in-law says she didn't understand one word they said. It's Sis-in-law's birthday today. Everyone say Happy Birthday.

Anyway, that's enough from me. I'm going to change my "currently reading" book and make a cup of tea and visit some blogs. Cheery-bye.

Say "cheese"

Have a new toy...

Photos

I've cleaned up a few of our "holiday" pics and posted them over on fotothing. If you fancy a look.

Man in kilt!

This is for princesse ecossaise. She (understandably) finds that a man in a kilt is a fine sight to behold.
My man was a man in a kilt for our wedding. And he was indeed a fine sight to behold. :)


Hubby's mum went off on one rather badly when he said he was getting a kilt for the wedding (she's a bit ... narrow-minded). But even she was forced to admit that he looked pretty good. We had many men in kilts at the wedding, Brits (Scottish and English), French and an American. It was fun.

Maui skies

Found this photo blog just with photos of Maui skies. It's quite lovely and of course brings a little escapism to the day. Maui is a truly wonderful place where we enjoyed a pretty unique holiday (photos), maybe we'll get back there someday. I'll be forever grateful to Jeni & Andreas for deciding to marry there (more photos), otherwise we would never have gone!

Cute doggy

Lovely doggy is curled up on a cushion in doggy foetal position. Unfortunately I disturbed her when I went to get the camera. Some who know doggy would say she's disturbed anyway. She definitely has a couple of loose screws. The French have a funny and quite imaginative expression: she has a spider on her ceiling. That does describe doggy fairly well.

Talking of her behaviour, I got told off by Le Postie the other day. You see doggy rather hates the mail and tries to savage it as soon as it comes through the letter box. I think Le Postie is worried that she'll mistake his fingers for the gas bill one day in her excitement. Anyway, because we're such DIY-people, we just fitted another letterbox flap to the inside of the door. Now she can't get her little doggy nose right up against the door. She still savages the post though. Quite often in the summer she takes it outside. She's a funny thing.

Wabbits

Been up to the park. Saw some rabbits.

New doggy toys

Cléo (who is not spoiled AT ALL) has TWO new squeaky toys. Lucky doggy.

Nat online

Natty baby has his very on fotothing gallery
http://www.fotothing.com/repete/

Birdie pic

I'm quite pleased with this shot of a great crested grebe:

:)

Pancake day

Another lovely sunny start, so we decided to take the dog to the beach again. This time we choose Gullane. As the tide was just starting to come in, there were no birdies but there was a vast expanse of sand for Doggy to career around on. Which she did for about twenty minutes non stop. At the far end of the beach we did spot some Eider ducks on the water. As we spent ages looking at the Eider ducks, by the time we turned to walk back to the car, the tide had come in quite a way so we walked back over the cliff tops. And Mum spotted a roe deer! Cue lots of pic taking by Hubby and Dad and lots of hushed admiration from Mum and me. And some under the breath calling to Doggy so she wouldn't feel tempted to chase it. Which she didn't.

Pushed on to North Berwick and went for lunch at the seabird centre. Dad would like to go on the boat trip out to Bass Rock so we said he could have that for a birthday present.

Broxburn for tea (pancakes). That was nice :)