Busy week
Well that one certainly went quickly! My lessons went perfectly the whole week. Now I'm itching to get back to college. Still haven't heard anything yet. I just had the idea to go onto the site in Poitiers, perhaps they put up lists or something? It's been hot again, though this morning my toes are cold as I'm sitting here.

Olivier and I had to deal with two enormous black spiders at the beginning of the week. As the weather has been so hot I didn't expect them to start coming in yet. They really are big! I'm afraid to say I get the vacuum cleaner out and suck them up. I point the nozzle and Olivier turns on the power. Not a job for the faint hearted

This morning
I started my lessons at a language school. I've got around 15 hours this week. The group I'm teaching are okay. This week is going to fly by. It's also a nice place to work, quite laid back, but we certainly work hard. Olivier and I went for a swim this afternoon, although it is hot, it was windy and the sea was choppy. We came home pretty quickly. I'm glad I don't need to load the car up and drive miles to get there, it's just ten minutes on foot.

The Weekend
was hot,hot,hot. We spent Saturday at La Tranche Sur Mer again. Got burnt this time, Olivier asked me to walk along the beach with him for a while and look for good waves, I forgot to cover up!! We discovered a new restaurant, fortunately we ate reasonably early as everyone else has discovered it too.
Sunday, Rob and I went for a long walk, I've got a very red nose.

Blogshares
In the last week my Blogshares have somehow doubled!! I am now a millionaire three times over.

The return of The Partner
Just finished the book. It keeps you guessing right to the twist at the last page. I'm going to try "The Street Lawyer" next.

The Partner
by John Grisham, it's what I'm reading at the moment. It's not at all my type of book but I can't put it down. One of Rob's collegues was throwing out some books in English, so she passed them to us. Her English must be excellent to have read this. He's rated as the worlds most popular author, I always thought that was JK Rawling!

Changes
As you can see, I've been playing around with the colour scheme. I hope you like it, although it isn't finished yet. I'm also tuning off my archives for a few days to see if that helps, as I mentioned on Sunday. I'm almost there but I just keep getting the present month.

"Last night I dreamed the strangest dream"
I dreamt that Rob and I were walking round the corner and out from under the wall were poking about four pairs of legs. The man who lived at the house had decided to keep sheep and he had knocked holes in the bottom of the wall so that people could wriggle through the tops of their bodies to watch the sheep.

I couldn't do it. When Rob was studying for his bankers exams I remember helping him to revise law and there was the case of a woman who was raped when she got herself trapped in a sash window. The top half should always know what the bottom half is doing....

Fiddling and pruning.
Well, I had a jolly good fiddle with my archives I can tell you. Unfortunately the posts and all that don't update very quickly, so I won't know till tomorrow if I've done any good. Somewhere I read that switching them off completely and then switching them on again might work. I might give that a go. If I'd have started my blog up a month later I'd have been on New Bogger with automatic archives. I also pruned the roses and the deutzia. My back aches.

The Return of Invaders
It was made in 1995 with Scott Bakula. I watched the first part and went to bed. Olivier came along later and said he didn't want to go to bed. This morning Rob told me he watched till quite late but it got pretty horrible. I prefer the Quantum Leap. Poor Scott Bakula, he'll be forever stuck, just like Sam Beckett! Ho hum, next week we're back to good old Charmed.

I don't really like Sundays
I don't know why. It's been like this for years. Perhaps it's having nothing to do. I certainly don't sacrifice my entire morning to cooking the Sunday roast like my mother did. This afternoon I shall continue ironing, I say continue because it never finishes. Oh, I am in a good mood today, aren't I? Perhaps it's because tomorrow is Monday.......

Holiday
Today is a national holiday, as France is a republic we all have a day off to celebrate Assumption. It's Napoleon's birthday too but we don't celebrate that. The end of the holidays is drawing near. On Wednesday we went to buy school materials. We are given an A4 sized list of supplies to get for the coming year. The supermarkets are almost deserted except for the aisles designated to school supplies. I'm glad when we're home again, but I love all the new pens, paper and copy books! I'm starting to worry about whether or where I shall be teaching. I try not to dwell on it but there is a growing niggle in there somewhere.

What to do in a heatwave.... afterwards.
Rob came home yesterday evening and told me that the minister of culture had at last sent round instructions to the monuments. "What to do during the heat wave".

1. Drink at least 1 1/2 litres of water.
2. Do not sit out in the sun.
3. Do not carry out any tasks which require great physical exertion.

Ther temperature in La Rochelle yesterday had dropped to 26°C, the heatwave is over (we hope). The governement have called Doctors back from their holidays and are taking steps to help areas which are suffering the most. Very economical policy, wait till it's over and then act.

The main problem is what to do with all of the bodies? They just can't cope. This is worse than a flu epidemic. Apparently our retirement homes are the worse understaffed in europe. Hospitals cannot cope with the 35 hour week imposed on staff under normal circustances, let alone in an emergancy like we've had over the last three weeks. No doubt we'll probably be on strike again when school goes back in September.

I did a quiz: What movie do you belong in and this is the result I got...

Cinderella!


What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Cars
It seems to be fashionable today to talk about cars. We've got a 10 year old Renault five, so you can see that we're not really 'car' people. Olivier and I are working on Rob at the moment to get a Renault Kangoo. One of his friends bought one recently and he's pretty impressed. I would be able to do the grocery shop without having to drive home with half the shopping on my lap. (Only kidding:o)) The second interesting bit is that when you see the TV advert for the Renault Megane, the bridge is actually quite close to where we live (about 5 minutes by car). We saw the helicopter that was filming it Na Na Na!

The Archers
My favourite soap. I told Zoe I would write about them as no one ever talks about radio soaps. This is probably the longest running soap in the world (please let me know if I've got it wrong). It was started in the early 50's as a round about way to inform farmers of new rules and regulations etc. It takes place in a fictional village based roughly around where I lived in England. I listen to it now from time to time, it's quite easy to drop and pick up again. This week Ed Grundy has been arrested for burgulary and Will has got engaged to Emma. If you'd like to know more, they have their own place on the BBC website!

Aunty Chris
Last week my sister phoned to tell me that Aunty Chris had died, she was 85 years old. She wasn't my real Aunt just a good friend of my Mum's. When I was small I loved visiting her house, it smelt so nice, she used to dry apple rings which were delicious. Her house was full of books. She was the library for my Mum! For us too when we were older. If you put her full name, Christine Trollope, into Google you will see that she translated an awful lot of Freud's works. She also translated French books too. She spoke 10 languages and wrote some of her own stuff. She encouraged me to write poetry and showed one of my plays to the manager of the Swan theatre in Worcester! I remember she would work on the floor surrounded by books and dictionaries. Having done some translating myself I know how there is never enough room on a table! She was never pretentious and we were always welcomed into her home. In her final years she had Alzheimer's so that wonderful person was lost. This is my little memorial to her. I'm glad that I knew her.

Bad jokes
Olivier and I were coming back from the beach and having a discussion about why we couldn't just have a swimming pool. "Anyway" I said, "we aren't allowed to fill swimming pools as there is a water shortage, you are being very selfish."
"Selfish!" he cried "I don't sell fish, only potatoes!"

If you don't use it, lose it
I've tried to keep these words in my head as I've tidied up this summer. Today was a good one; an old gramaphone (1970's) which we haven't used for at least fifteen years. The corner where it stood has filled up again pretty quickly as there was so much junk on top. I also found a badge from the 1996 Clinton, Gore campaign, Rob had spotted a tourist wearing it and they told him to keep it. Last week some Irish euros arrived. One of his collegues collects euro coins from all over europe so Rob asked a group of Irish tourists if they had some. They said no but they would send some on. Aren't people nice?

Tea time
Yesterday afternoon we went to have tea with some friends in La Rochelle. It was really wierd on the way in, hardly any traffic on the road. Russian Earl Gray is suprisingly refreshing on a hot day. Later we went to the park to see the animals and birds. Olivier found some bread to throw to the swans and ducks. Even they weren't too enthusiastic in the heat. This morning it is 34°C in the shade and the weather is set for another week.

Just visiting
Every morning I try to visit my blog friends. Everyone leads different lives. It's so interesting. With the comments boxes I join in on all sorts of conversations and most days I add a new blog to my list. I also feel good because I see that I'm getting one or two more visits. Thankyou for popping by. I don't usually have much to say but I assure you all that my life feels just right at the moment. (My kids would ask "Have you been smoking the carpet?"). Fingers crossed for September, but I'll worry about that when it comes. If someone could just turn the temperature down a few degrees.......................;

In the middle of the night
I wake up with the most brilliant ideas for posts. Why can't I remember them? I can't run to the computer because , as it's the holidays Dom is on till the early hours. It's the only time she gets to be on her own as everything she does is top secret
I heard that one of Dom's friend's Mothers thinks that I'm irresponsable for letting my daughter on the internet late into the night. She might meet a rapist or something. Sorry, that just about puts all American males out of bounds as they only use the internet at night (looking at it from our timezone point of view) I just happen to know that her daughter, who always goes to bed early and never talks to strangers etc., had to go to the school nurse for a morning after pill. At least I know where my daughter is and what she's doing. I also have confidence in her choice of friends and boyfriends (Is that okay Dom?)

Backache
I'm having my first bout of backache in a long time. This is my question for all you people out in Blogland. Do back problems make you more clumsy? I always seem to drop more things on the floor than usual. I'm pretty good at picking things up with my toes, the problem then is reaching my toes to take what has ben picked up! I wonder if someone would like to use this question for a thesis? Walking helps me a lot and I like going for walks so in a few days I should be recovered.

Well
we're off to a hot start again today already 30°C in the shade and it's only 9.44 in the morning. Yesterday evening Dom and Olivier were swimming in the sea untill 10pm, the beach was pretty crowded; people and mosquitoes. We went to collect them and then on to the campsite for a glass of cider. On our way out we saw Monique and she told us they now have perry too. We shall be back to visit them before the end of the week I'm sure. Monique is at the very top of the page!

Thanks Kevin
I'm still struggling with the archives but I've still got plenty of ideas. Dom who knows how to do everything with a click of the mouse has gone for a swim at a friends. As it's so hot here she won't be in much of a hurry to get home

I found
this and this about Michael Van Straten, if you are interested.

Archive update
Dom and I are getting closer. Someone visited my site via the archives!! This inspired us to have another try, you will now get a diffrent type of message if you try to visit them. We think it is something to do with dates but we can't quite see where to put them in the template. Of course Dom's blog publishes it's own archives automatically. (It would)

Peanut butter helps you lose weight!!
Peanut butter helps you lose weight!!
Writing in "Woman" magazine, Michael Van Straten reports that U.S. studies have found that a teaspoon a day can help you lose weight. Yippeeeee! It can also help to prevent adult-onset diabetes. Good news for people like me who are at high risk of diabetes.
Michael Van Straten always gives such sensible advice on alternative health with a touch of humour. Thanks Michael!!

I was
sorting out my kitchen shelves this afternoon. I found lots of treasures; sea shells, marbles, miss spelt love letters from the children when they were small. I've got lots of recipe books and cuttings of recipes. Can someone please tell me how to organise myself to actually remember to use them?

In southern France
recently we have had terrible forest fires. Most have them have been started on purpose. A lot of smokers who have been intervewed on TV have admitted that they throw down their cigarette ends without even thinking. I've watched people do this too. They don't see the end of a cigarette as litter or a fire hazard. Cigarette filters take between five and fifteen years to disintergrate, depending where you get your information. Of course they disappear much quicker if they happen to burn up in a forest fire....