Monday 29 November 2010

La cantine

Exciting news! The menu for the end of November, through to the end of this year has just been published. Currently I am taking advantage of the school meals which are delivered to the school. The meals cost 2.85 euros per day (about £2.60). The proud boast is that all the food used is “Bio” but I have my doubts. Most days there is one or more small plastic pots of yoghurt or mashed-up fruit cocktail and when cheese is on the menu, it comes individually wrapped in a very small plastic packet. Rumour has it that most of the food is not sourced locally and I think that feelers have been put out to find an alternative caterer, so we could have canteen wars at some time in the coming year.
Not that I’m complaining. Okay, I have to eat it sitting in a classroom, sitting on chairs meant for 6 year olds and at a desk sized appropriately, but I don’t have to buy much food, do much cooking or for that matter washing up. Luxury indeed.
Here is the latest menu. Apologies for the small type, but it arrives in a font size which is probably around 5pt. It is hard for them to fit the starter, main course, cheese, sweet / fruit into one line of an A4 page otherwise.

Saturday 27 November 2010

Current affairs

It was a Friday afternoon. I had worked my two hours for the day, eaten my lunch in the school cantine and returned home. It was a dry day, so I decided to hoover, was the floors in my flat, then sweep and wash the stairs and main corridor. Mason man had not been around when I had come home, and I had seen him heading off to work (about time) at around 7:40am.
I heard a noise in the corridor and looked out of my window. An unknown car was parked there. I started on my apartment and by the time that I had finished that, the unknown person was driving off.
I picked up the broom and started sweeping my way down the stairs. There was a notice on Mason mans door, telling him that unless he chose a power company to supply his electricity within the next 48 hours, his electricity would be cut off.
A nice present for someone to come home to on a Friday evening!
I continued sweeping the stairs, took the corridor carpet outside, then started washing the wooden staircase from the 2nd floor, down to the entrance door.
I then replaced and hoovered the carpet. What a star!
Mason man eventually returned home and shortly thereafter I could hear him talking loudly, presumably on the telephone trying to prevent the threatened execution of his electricity.
On Sunday I returned home after being out for lunch just as Madame was heading out. She scuttled after me and told me that the EDF had come and cut off my tenant’s electricity supply. She suggested that I talk to mason man and find out exactly what the situation was... I did not share my knowledge with her and she went off down the path towards her car, safe in the knowledge that she had done her good deed for the day.
I expect that  during the French Revolution, her ancestors did a lot of knitting.
UPDATE: His electricity was cut off sometime on Monday. It is now Thursday evening and he is still living in the dark .

Thursday 25 November 2010

An English lesson for the English

Amongst the songs that the choir is learning this year, is one in the German language. As you will know, German is a very precise language. Amongst our number is a retired French lady who taught German in schools. I learned German for about 4 years in secondary school. I too know a bit about German pronunciation.
I sit silently while the choir leader tells us how to pronounce the words. He then sings them. Instantly all of the words lose their endings, becoming meaningless.
I say nothing. I sing the words putting in all the endings.
Over the last 3 weeks we have also begun to learn “Deep River”. This is written in English. I listen to the choir leader mangle the words. He is certain that he is pronouncing the words correctly. The result is unintelligible to any English speaker.
I stop singing as it is too painful. Eventually I am asked for my pronunciation of the words. I go over the words “eez” becomes is, “Dee Reeverr” becomes “Deep River” etc etc.
There are two people in the choir who are French but 1 who still teaches English in schools (a bass) and one a retired lady. The retired lady was not there that evening.
The following Monday there was a “women only practice”. On the Wednesday there was the usual “full choir” practice.
We plough through our songs, finally reaching the Deep River. We sing a bit, then some pronunciation clarification is sought.
I go over the words again. The male teacher tells me that I am pronouncing “Land” wrongly, it should be “Lend”. I assure him that it is pronounced land. He is convinced that I am wrong. So we now have the bass section singing “lend”. Personally I don’t go around telling French people how to pronounce French words, but the French have always been noted for always being right, or in other words they are never wrong.
At the end of the practice the female ex-English teacher took me to one side and asked me what I had been teaching the choir the previous Wednesday. I went through what I had said. Apparently there had been some dispute at the women only practice over how I had pronounced some of the words. People are convinced that I am pronouncing some of them incorrectly and have put it down to being Scottish pronunciation.
Just don’t get me started. Thank goodness they can pronounce English better than me.
No wonder the French children listen to English spoken by native Eengleesh speakers with complete incomprehension. What a stranje lend thees eeze! Bearing in mind that it was now nearly 11pm at night, I could not be arsed arguing about English. I said C used to be a German teacher, why isn’t she telling our leader that he is not pronouncing the German words correctly. The reply was that C had tried and been told by him that he spoke German and knew exactly how the words were pronounced...

Moi, à la fin de la journée, Je m’en fiche!!!!

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Raclette grill

After the success of buying a cheap yoghurt maker earlier in the year (still safely tucked up in its box n the spare room, thank you very much for asking), I have been hankering after a raclette grill as per one of my posts last year. Yes it is that raclette time of year again. I had been watching the prices in the shops and in the shop advertising which arrives in my letter box each week.
Finally there was a Tefal machine on special offer in a nearby town for 29.99 euros.
I started twitching. If I went out and bought one, when would I use it. It was for 6 people, when would I ever have six people over for a meal?
I procrastinated and managed to not jump into the car for a 50 or so kilometre round trip to buy one.
I happened to look at the Foire Fouille web site and there, on the front page of their online advertising, for 14.75 euros (about £13) was a Tristar raclette grill.
The very next day I made a 7 kilometer round trip and for once I managed to find something that was advertised.
I got it home and undressed it, admiring its oval shape. It has little cooking shovels for 8 people, there is an area on the top surface for cooking bits of meat etc and also a shallow round area where you can make crepes!!!
The instructions suggested washing the metal cooking surface, drying it and then switching it on for 10 minutes to burn off any remaining grease from the manufacturing process. I did this and was treated to my own little black mushroom cloud.
The cooking surface is advertised as non-stick but it looks more like black paint to me. Still what can you expect for the price?
Now safely back in its box, it is getting to know the yoghurt maker. Far be it from me to disturb them.
The strange thing is that looking back at my raclette blog from last year, the one that I have bought looks exactly the same as the image I used on that very blog.....
Last week I saw an electric cheesemaking machine in LeClerc ...........

Sunday 21 November 2010

Snow White and the 8 contes – Castagnade

I missed the apple festival because of the choir weekend but now it is the turn of the châtaigne, or chestnut. At one time this small brown nut was a very important staple. Preserved, added to cakes, fed to cattle. Below is a part of a French Wikipedia article. "The term castagnade itself evokes the action of "chestnut" that is to say "pick up chestnuts, "in Occitan acampar las Chastanha. The practice of eating with family or neighbours of roasted chestnuts was called Roustide in Occitan rostida and French "toast." Thirty years ago the term "castagnade" appeared, gradually replacing that of Roustide. Synonym tasting Chestnut, the castagnade is a celebration related to chestnuts
The cultural history of the "bread tree" is centred on the chestnut and its shaft. Indeed, this fruit was the staple diet of men and beasts. Preserved in various forms (dried, flour ...), it allowed for a supply of food for the year.The fallen tree provided lumber, carpentry and cooperage. Its essence is rich in tannin, is deemed to be unalterable and defy time. Its hollow trunk closed with a door is still used to accommodate swarms of bees, this piece is called "Berle. "The chestnut is also an economic resource. During the Industrial Revolution (1882) Clement Faugier revolutionized the transformation of the chestnut by designing products like cream and chestnut puree."


When I arrived at the village mairie, two metal cylinders full of chestnuts were being rotated by hand over a blazing fire. I went inside and paid my 2 euro entrance fee.
The room was set out with chairs facing a small stage area in one corner of the room. The storytellers (conteurs) were already in situ. One was whittling a stick, one was hacking away at a branch, one was crocheting and one was peeling chestnuts.
The leaflet indicated that the event would start at 9pm, so at roughly 9:30pm after people had completed the greeting ritual, the show began.
There were roughly 60 people present, including a baby, a toddler and about 9 of the children from the school.
Each of the 4 storytellers took a turn at telling a tale, while the one working stage light, flickered rapidly on and off throughout.
The storytellers stopped. That was the first half of 25 minutes over. It was time for the castagnade.
Three long rows of tables and chairs had been set out in the adjoining room. Fortunately I was joined by the headmistress and her husband and the maire, so I had people that knew me, to talk to.
Big whicker trays of roasted chestnuts were brought to the table and decanted onto dishes for us to eat.
2 large jam making sized vessels containing the vin chaud, (hot wine / mulled wine) were brought in and ladled into our plastic cups. It was much to hot to drink, so I continued to peel my nuts and eat them, my fingers rapidly getting blackened from the soot.
The headmistress asked if there was anything else to drink, as she didn’t fancy the vin chaud and so it was that her, her husband and the mayor got given white wine. The mayor then had a beer for his next drink.
While the adults sat eating and drinking, the children ran riot amongst the tables and chairs in both rooms.
An hour later we had to go back to our seats for the part 2 of the contes. This time the children were sitting or lying on the bits of carpet which were laid on the floor between the first row of seats and the stage.
The tales in the first half had all been about nature, chestnuts, leaves etc and I had understood most of them.
For the second half they each told one story each, but I found it difficult to concentrate. The baby and the toddlers were making lots of noises and / or wandering round the room. Only one of the sets of parents tried to keep their toddler under control but they were fighting a losing battle.
Somewhere in the second last tale Blanche Neige (Snow White) and her dwarves came into the plot. I have no idea why. By the 8th and final conte, kids were wandering about on the stage, falling over, talking to themselves.... I have no idea how the man kept his concentration going. Perhaps it is often like this and therefore “normale.”
one of the activists just before he / she fell over onstage
Many of the French children are kept up very late at night by their parents and I have often heard the teachers discussing how completely knackered the children are them finding out how late they went to bed.
(It seems certain that the school hours / days will be changed once again, and Wednesday or Saturday morning schooling re-introduced, as child fatigue and the beefing up of the curriculum has left pupils and teachers struggling. If only the parents would put their kids to bed at 7:30pm like the English parents of a child at the school do .......)
Anyway, I digress. So that was my first celebration of the chestnut so I suppose you could say that I have lost my chestnut.
I wonder if they do a cherry festival anywhere nearby?

Friday 19 November 2010

All along the watch tower - All tock and no action!

After the visit to the graveyard during my recent lunchtime walk in the sunshine I continued on my tour of the village. The main feature of the village is a tower perched on a hill above it. It’s been covered in scaffolding for the last few months while the walls are repaired and re- crepied, so it was time for your roving reporter to see just what is going on up there.
I don’t know if it was one of the network of signal towers used to transmit messages across France in Napoleonic times. The neighbouring big town also has a similar tower, but there is no line of sight between the two as far as I can see.
The tower has always been closed when I have climbed up to it in the past. There are now 4 round holes in the walls, where the clock faces used to be.
What have they done with the clock bits? I hear you ask with genuine concern.
Well, I don’t know where the hands and other bits are, but the clock faces are stacked on top of each other on the grass.
clocked off
Will the work be completed before the end of the year? We will have to wait and see.
I stood on the hill with white butterflies fluttering around and bees buzzing by. The recent sunny November weather must be confusing the insect life. Certainly the flies are back in number in the classrooms.
From the hill you get a good view of the village and the surrounding hills. Here is one of the views, looking back towards the cemetery with its two plane trees? Still standing up straight like  2 sentries, with their green foliage still intact amidst the autumnal colours.
Oops! Is that the time? Work starts again in 10 minutes. Still, it’s downhill all the way.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Grave matters - Toussaint

“During this bank holiday, French people traditionally pay tribute to their relatives but La Toussaint (French All Saints) is also today a good opportunity to get together and spend time with the family. Visiting cemeteries and bringing flowers to the graves of their loved ones is now part of French people's All Saints traditions. November the 1st is indeed a national Jour Férié in France, meaning that most of the shops, restaurants, schools and companies are closed. La Toussaint (All Saints Day), although deeply rooted in the Catholic religion, is actually widely respected in France and has given rise to a few customs. Generally speaking, French people like to attend the All Saints Mass to remember the Catholic Saints as well as honour their late relatives. Then they usually take the advantage of this bank day to visit some cemetery and lay down a symbolic bunch of flowers at gravesites as sign of honour. On November 1st it is a common sight to see French people laying chrysanthemums or wreaths of immortelles (everlasting flowers) on the graves of loved ones. Chrysanthemums are indeed so closely linked to La Toussaint that the French never give them as a gift.” (Thanks to http://www.french-property.com for the information). So what does this mean? Well some of the supermarkets are selling arrangements of plastic flowers, small plaques with appropriate messages on and bouquets of real flowers. Everything in fact, that the grave visitor might need.
The local cemetery in the commune in which I work has been tidying up over the last few months.
 The interior cemetery walls have jet washed, the gravel on the ground has been topped up, and people have been tidying up the graves of their loved ones. Even the Jesuses have been given a lick of paint.
Of course some of the older graves remain uncared for, the plastic flowers faded to a dirty off-white colour, or with no flowers or ornaments left at all. Little white notices on these graves inform us that unless someone claims responsibility for the upkeep of the grave soon, the plot will be cleared to make room for a new occupant.
Here then are a selection of graves for you to admire.



The graveyard has magnificent views of the surrounding hills and the snow-capped Pyrenees some 40 kms. away, can be seen in the distance.

Monday 15 November 2010

Moving experiences

They live in a modern apartment block with nice wide tiled stairs, so quite why the numpties across the road chose to remove their two settees though the window of their 1st floor flat remains a mystery to me. Being geniuses they also didn’t ask any of the other residents if they would mover their cars so that they could hurling their furniture around with no chance of damaging occurring. Of course two of their mates chose to park in my garden and carry boxes across the road from the flat and load up their cars. Once again, not even a “Excuse me, I know that you have all these signs up saying private property and No parking, but can we park in your car park for a couple of hours so that we can help our mates move house...








I wonder how much it would cost to install an electricity supply down there and install those big posts that can rise up out of the ground?
A few days later I was taking advantage of another summer-like day, minding my own business, cutting my lawn, when an unknown van with a slatted double mattress frame pulls into my parking.
Fortunately I noticed that Madame was in the front passenger seat, so I kept mowing.
“We will need your help, she said. I want to install a sonnette at my bedroom window, so I will need to put a cord round the metal of the railings outside your bedroom window” she says.
The woman is mad, I think to myself. I ask her where exactly the sonnet will end up as I don’t want to have a doorbell right outside my bedroom window.
“He doesn’t understand a word that I am saying” she say to the man driving the van.
Eventually I understand. She doesn’t want to install a doorbell, she wants to hoist the mattress frame up in through her bedroom window using a block and tackle and rope looped round the railings outside my bedroom window.....
You see, if only the French would speak clearly....
A sweaty hour later, we had forced the bed through the window shutter frame and into her bedroom.
Her old bed mattress was still in situ, including the bedclothes, so the bed had to be stripped, the mattress manoeuvred to one side. The old mattress frame was covered in material and was thicker than the old one.
After attempting to saw it up so that it would go through the window, and finding that due to the wire frame and bedsprings inside that this was impossible, a hole was made so that the rope could be attached more securely for lowering it down, should we manage to fit it through the window.
We manoeuvred it almost completely through the window. Madame was supposed to take the weight of the frame on the block and tackle / rope combination.
The bed is over the sill and I am taking pretty much the whole weight myself. The man goes downstairs and thankfully I am no longer taking all the weight.. My arms are a few inches longer and my ribs feel as though they have popped out and back in again.
There is also the lawn to finish.
We put her bed back together complete with mattress and bedding, and I returned to my role as gardener, wringing with sweat.
Before you ask, the stairs in Madam’s apartment are very small and narrow, so the stairs were not an option.
Quite how one man and a woman with numerous disabilities including a bad back were intending to do this bit of sommeiller shifting on their own is beyond me.....

Saturday 13 November 2010

Boat

Did I ever mention that I had a boat? S bought it for me about 7 years ago, while I was investigating the viability of buying a small narrow boat. The result of my investigations had been that the upkeep of a boat (maintenance, bottom scraping etc), mooring fees, fuel, emptying the sludge tank, insurances, licences, mariner training recommended etc, meant that only rich people could comfortably afford to own a boat.
Then there was the speed of the thing. Travelling at under 5 miles an hour (or was it kilometers) would mean that you would never get very far on a weekend before having to turn round and chug back. It would be like Groundhog Day, always reliving the same 15 miles of river ad infinitum. Yes I know that a few years ago you took 8 months off Christine, to travel the length and breadth of England, and yes the shots of your boat cruising down the Thames past Tower Bridge and the Housed of Parliament were impressive, but for me, it was not to be.
Whilst I had been round to the French family’s house for crepes I mentioned that I had a boat, which I had never used.
C looked sceptical, so I explained that it was still in its box and that I had never used it.
C and her youngest started hunting for batteries and I was despatched to get the boat and my car. They knew of a pond nearby where the boat could be sailed.
So it was that I unexpectedly found myself pulling into a small car park behind the nautical centre.
The boat was de-boxed and batteried up and for the next 30 minutes the two younger girls splished about in the muddy water manoeuvring the boat with the remote control.



look at that baby go!












The two big ducks were not impressed and stayed standing motionless on the bank of the pond.
After the boat had been tired of, we then played table tennis on a concrete table tennis table. C had brought along 3 bats and 3 balls knowing that the table existed. Unfortunately there was a large, deep puddle at my end of the table, so I had to play maintaining a motionless leys, straddle position.
This reminded me that I always wanted my own table tennis table, so I have mentally added it to my professional sized babby-foot table on my list of sporting items to acquire.

Thursday 11 November 2010

Mellow velo

Two weeks ago, during the Toussaint holidays I climbed into my car and set off to follow C from the French family and the three girls to the nearest voie verte. Just as in the U.K., many local railway lines were closed down with quite a few now gaining a second lease of life as cycleways / walking paths. Unfortunately although the nearest cycle path is only a few kilometres away, much of the route follows a narrow, twisty, uphill route which has wire fences along one side to stop landslide rocks from hitting passing traffic (not always doing the job successfully).The plan is to eventually extend the cycleway to my town, but how they will manage that is a mystery to me.



 
The good thing about these cycle paths is that they are flat and mostly travel in a straight line. The bad thing is that this can be a bit monotonous.
The weather was warm and sunny as we set out to join the path, crossing over a viaduct with its intricate wrought iron balustrades still in good order.
The girls disappeared, returned, disappeared as we walked at an unnecessarily brisk pace along the path.
There was not much to see, trees, more trees, but I did find ripe chestnuts lying at the side of the path and there was also a tree with tiny plums, perhaps they were damsons.
We passed behind the centre for the underground river that I visited earlier this year and kept going, maintaining our fast pace.
Unfortunately I was wearing my ordinary shoes, so my feet began to hurt. I was sure to have some blisters the next day. The path was very hard and unyielding.
After about an hour and a half we stopped for a rest. I had been tasked with bringing my thermos containing hot water and a jar of hot chocolate powder for our half-time drink. The girls just love chocolat chaud.
We had been passed by two lycra-clad cyclists on the outward journey. On the way back it was rush hour. Cyclists, people, dogs.
The pace was still relentless and my left hip now joined my protesting feet but being a man I didn’t complain and kept smiling through the pain. All this exercise would be good for my regime is the thought that kept me from hopping over the fence, crossing a few fields and employing “le stop”, hitchhiking. I explained to C that I had been looking at the Decathlon website and that there was a promotion on that if you chose from a certain selection of bikes, they would deliver it to your house free of charge. C told me that this was not a good idea. They had recently bought the middle daughter a bike from Decathlon for her birthday. The assistant had spent half an hour making adjustments to the bike. What adjustments? I asked.I had the oldest daughter in my car as a passenger on the way back. “How did you manage to switch from driving on the left (in the U.K.) to driving on the right? Was it not very difficult?”

C listed the many essential adjustments most of which I cannot remember, even if I understood them at the time. They included saddle height (reasonable, and adjusting the wheel spokes with a special key..........???
If you buy a bike online you will not get all these adjustments C said, obviously thinking, just how mad foreigners are.

I shrugged modestly in Gallic fashion and thought “Yes, I am a frickin' genius.”

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Little town squirt

I was mooning around in Rigsby Towers recently when I heard the sound of running water outside. Earlier I had noticed Madame’s Portuguese friend examining Madame’s motley collection of plants that she keeps outside on her terrace during the warmer months. This must be the day to take all the plants inside her apartment, I thought. No room for her to move around inside until next May or June.
Madame had my hose out and was standing in her doorway dressed in her dressing gown, directing the jet of water at all the mud and crap that had accumulated over the year.
She was not making a very convincing job of it. so her pal took over the hosing.
The result of this cleaning spray, was that my paths and steps were covered in dirt, grit and mud.
All the rest of her crap, old sink, bits of wooden box, broken plant pots, breeze blocks, red bricks, broken wooden chair etc remained in situ. Some people might think that she is a lazy wotsit. Surely not...... She does possess a broom, but it was not woken from its slumber against the wall. Despite her often telling me that the twig brush is the best, I have only seen her use it once in over 2 years.
She has been hard “at work” over the past weeks, going to demonstrations with her banner and loudhailer. She must be exhausted poor thing ......
Miaowww!

Sunday 7 November 2010

Shelf-ish - School library


Just why is the maire standing in a room, talking to a gathering of people?
Well this was the recent official opening of the little library at the school where I work.
To get to it, you have to climb a rickety old wooden spiral staircase, through 2 doors and then you are in a small room with 3 bookcases, some rugs, cushions, a table and chairs and a small sofa. Not forgetting the large blue ball which lives on top of the non-fiction bookcase.
At 6pm we were all gathered together in the school canteen waiting for him to arrive. After 10 minutes there was a consulting of mobile phones to see if anyone had his mobile number. Luckily the teeny-weeny lady who cleans the maire and the school had his number. He was sure that the headmistress had told him to be there at 6.30pm. he would be there directly.
The assembled throng was not convinced by his story as the written invitations clearly said 6pm, and he had already been similarly late for a meeting the week before.
They are very proud of their library. Instead of all the books being scattered throughout the 5 classrooms, they are now gathered together in the one place. Oh, alright then, just for the anoraks.
Fiction is arranged a-z by first letter of the author's surname and the non-fiction clumped into broad dewey decimal system bands of 000's, 100's 200's etc.
Yes I know, I know. The systems were already in place before I got there. I have however put the fiction into A-Z order as it was just anywhere on the shelf before I got involved..


Speeches made, everybody set off downstairs, only the children having troubled the books on the shelves.
There were various cakes and eats on the tables and two bowls of planters punch.
There was coca-cola and orange juice for the non- drinkers.
I hope that the cleaner wasn’t driving, because she was really enjoying the punch, which was quite strong.
No one disgraced themselves. All the food which had been prepared by two of the teachers was eaten up.
The maire (mayor) is by far the most powerful person in any French community, so it does no harm at all to invite him along to things. Most, if not all school expenditure is controlled by the mayor and we may even get a decent bookcase for the non-fiction books as a result.
I am currently processing 69 new books for the library and we need something more safe and stable than we have at the moment. I don’t know where the big blue ball will move to though.......
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the mayor. What a nice man!

Friday 5 November 2010

No U F O

At around 9.30pm one evening, I happened to glance out of my window. There was a strange blue light moving between my path and the grass.
I switched off my room light and went to get my camera to record the event. Perhaps the papers would pay handsomely for photos of a U.F.O., especially after recent sightings over various cities throughout the world.
It was dark outside, and despite setting my camera to 800ASA, its fastest setting, I wasn’t having much success.
I realised quite quickly that it must be mason man, hanging his washing on the line under cover of darkness.
It had been a sunny and he had been in all day, so it remains a mystery as to why he chose that time of night to do his washing.
He is Portuguese, so perhaps it is there equivalent of the Germans booking all the sun beds in advance with their towels ....
Or perhaps he just wanted to try out a new headband torch. It rained all day on the Sunday and he was working away all week so the washing stayed on the line until late the following Friday.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Still on the job 3.11.2010

Well have finally received a copy of the contract renewal paperwork, so I will be in employment until at least the end of June 2011, with the possibility of a final renewal of 6 months after that. So good news on the financial front. Especially as the French government has had about 4 thousand euros off me recently in income tax, social charges and other taxes. I did get my promised tax rebate on the 3 new double glazed windows that I had installed last September, so that clawed a bit back.
Next years tax demand will cover my first period of employment, so I dread to think how much they will want from me next year.
I should be grateful that I don’t have to pay rent as that would seriously damage my wealth.
Just don’t get me started about the UK Government dicking about and raising my pension age to 66 (thanks for that, you well paid, gold-plated “I’m alright so what’s the big problem?” tax evading bastards). Allegedly.

Monday 1 November 2010

Weather report

You may be interested to know that if you have been reading my blog since it recommenced in August this year, (after a break of about 3 months), you have read over 26,500 words. So to give you all a rest and me too, I will try to make the next few posts as brief as possible. The rain has been coming down non-stop for around the last 24 hours and looks set to continue for at least the next two days.
This is not such good news as a few weeks ago we had continuous torrential rain for 3 days and this was the result in my living room, with water trickling down the wall.
I believe that the roof is still under its 10 year guarantee, so I must do something about getting this and the other two stained areas, one of which is in the small bedroom at the back, sorted out before the snow and ice come.......