Really me
I’ve been listening to a three part series on the BBC about personality. A fascinating subject. What makes us who we are? I was surprised to hear one of the experts saying that a very accurate picture of someone’s personality can be found by looking at their website (if they have one). I think that my website is me, I hope that it gives a cosy impression, not too fussy, reasonably tidy, but could do better in some departments, that’s me!

What do you think about your own site? ……. What do you think about other peoples?

Was Jesus a woman?
He might have been, thanks to Linky & Dinky.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. I’m waiting:: As usual
   
2. Speak:: talk
   
3. Roger...:: Rabbit
   
4. Knock knock:: Who's there?
   
5. Hybrid:: Rose
   
6. Can’t believe my eyes:: amazing
   
7. Hooked:: habit
   
8. Pontificate:: Pope
   
9. Slime:: green
   
10. Unwelcome:: close the door
    

Happy Easter!

This is a post card I received from Mary Lou. I became interested in the adventures of Lewis and Clark though 'Blue Highways' by William Least Heat Moon. Hopefully one day, I'll be able to see some of it for myself!

I love this song
Sung by colin Blunstone

Though you are far away
I'm with you in every way
close your eyes and you will see
Sleepy head lay close to mine
and I wisper softly in your ear
close your eyes and you will see

If you ever feel sad, down and lonely
think of me
I'm thinking of you
If you ever feel you need somebody close to you
think of me
I'm thinking of you

So between you & I
time and miles are not to cry
close your eyes and you will see
Though you are far away
I'm with you in every way
close your eyes and you will see

Lyrics by Jasper Steverlinck
Found here

Look no hands
This post is being written and posted to you via a disconnected modem.

Golden oldies
As there is nothing going on today, I’m going to find two three diaries at random and see what I was doing X years ago:

24thMarch 1983
I didn’t write much at all. The only thing of note is that I did the washing!

24th March 1987
Christian was about 6 weeks old, bless him, so I wasn’t doing much on that day either!
I found time to make a meat and vegetable pie.

24th March 1982
I was preparing to move in to my new home, all by myself. I bought two tea towels.

I honestly think that my life has been so much more interesting since I started blogging!!

I didn't sleep well last night
I was reasonably comfortable but felt anxious about something. I went through everything in my mind and couldn’t find what I might be worried about. Then the alarm went off, I felt dreadful. I still feel uneasy today, like something nasty is going to happen. I hope it doesn’t.

Mirror, mirror
When I went to art class I used to practice a lot by copying paintings I liked. Rob’s kind colleague gave me an old calendar of Kent Wallis paintings. Today I decided to look him up and found a painting which I had copied and framed and put in the hall (In French law you can copy paintings as long as you don’t sign them at all). Here is the real painting. The calendar publishers had printed the painting the wrong way round!!

Yesterday was a normal day
That is to say, Rob was working so I wasn’t dragged out for ‘experimental’ walks. So with tidying the house, cooking meals, a twenty minute round trip to the post office (on foot) and a thirty minute walk with Rob in the evening I clocked up 12,948 steps (7.63kms) . I didn’t realize I was doing so much walking. I should be really slim, but I’m not.

So far today (midday): 5,502 steps

Next tactic: smaller portions

Spell with Flickr

Well, I find it amusing

It’s springtime!
Love is in the air. Congratulations to Michelle and her cowboy. It really is lovely news, now we’ve all got to figure out how to push South Africa up towards North America.

Another view of the park. 

Snow in the park at L'Houmeau. We have lots of trees from all over the world. When there was a monastary in the village monks used to come and bring seeds. 

We didn't have that much! 

Our house in the snow at the beginning of March 

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Stink:: smell
   
2. Renewal:: licence
   
3. I remember...:: the good old days...
   
4. Loneliness:: ache
   
5. Ooooh:: hoooO
   
6. For real:: true
   
7. Titanium:: Magnesium
   
8. Get down:: and do it
   
9. Rupture:: break
   
10. Dramatic:: Shakespeare
    

One step at a time
Like Andre's mum and Jody , I’m now the proud owner of a pedometer. Rob and I went out to buy ourselves one each yesterday. To be really fit and lose weight you should aim for 10,000 steps a day. We do a lot of walking and I’ve often wondered how far we go every day. Rob bought himself the super dooper version with speed , time and all that on but I wanted to know how many steps I did. I had the last laugh, my cheapo thing works all the time, his sophisticated version turns off if you rest for five minutes and you have to remember to turn it on when you start moving again. Rob is a very enthusiastic person so he wanted to know straight away the how far, how long etc. of all our favourite walks. We did four walks yesterday. Our average speed is just over 4 kms. An hour. I did a total of19254 steps (11.35kms.) and I only put the thing on at 11 o’clock! I slept really well last night.

Today is a ‘normal’ day, I’ve been wearing the pedometer for 6 hours and I’ve done 5714 steps so far.

Yes, I know I should have checked how to spell 'pedometer' in the leaflet.

She woke up 30 years later
A few years ago I came upon a text on a lessons site about Annie Shapiro. The true story of a lady who was in a coma for almost thirty years. It’s a fascinating story, think about how the world changed between November 1963 and October 1992. The only thing that hadn’t changed was that ‘I love Lucy’ was still on TV. Comas are very much in the news at the moment. I wouldn’t like to have to make the decision to withdraw life support

Christian sent me this postcard when he went on a day trip to Amsterdam this week. He was taking advantage of cheap flights that travel agents enjoy.

I spent the morning cleaning
I didn’t mean to. We have some patches of damp which appear over winter because of our ventilation system. As the weather has been good and everything has dried out I decided to clean the patches. Then I noticed a little bit of a stain in the corner above the cooker. I couldn’t get the step ladder to it so I had to move the cooker out from the wall. Oh no, behind was really dirty and the floor underneath the cooker needed cleaning too. So I tackled that and realized the sides of the cooker needed a clean, them the front. I decided to ignore the inside for today. I am not a houseworky type, what’s more, nobody will ever notice what I’ve been doing.

Christian sent me this postcard when he Christian went on a day trip to Amsterdam this week. He was taking advantage of cheap flights that travel agents enjoy. 

Question
On Tuesday evening there was an excellent programme on TV about type 1 and 2 diabetes. Our channel five is half French half German and talked about what was going on in the two countries as more and more people are becoming obese. What annoyed me was that they blamed American style food. By this they mean MacDonald’s and fast food in general.

As a blogger I have quite a few friends now from the USA and I like to say that they, more than most, enjoy home cooked food made from good fresh ingredients. If you want a good recipe, ask an American! I’d be interested to know what you think about this.

Spring is on it’s way at last

• The last couple of days have been mild and sunny even though the mornings are still cold.


• I went out and did some gardening on Sunday afternoon, Just an hour as my back has been a bit stiff lately. I’m clearing away an old rosemary bush, it did smell nice!


• This morning I opened wide all of the windows at the back of the house for a while.


• Across the road, where they have a few fruit trees, there is a sprinkling of blossom.

New addition
I’ve now added Ric Seaberg to my blogroll. He who invented the word “Roombar”. I found him on blogexplosion, a very good read and you can listen to his songs too.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Shape up:: get fit
   
2. New Orleans:: Way down yonder
   
3. In the bedroom:: sleep
   
4. All the time:: always
   
5. Philosophy:: thought
   
6. Tyler:: Mary Tyler Moore
   
7. Disturbed:: annoyed
   
8. French kiss:: slurp
   
9. Solidify:: hard
   
10. Furtive:: cunning
    

Three more Columbo DVDs arrived yesterday! 

Ready for that round the world cruise ?
A little quiz to make sure that you don't offend anyone with your 'bad' manners

Sniff Sniff
In my life is closing the doors to the public. Carol has turned off her comments so I can't say thank you for sharing a year of her life with us. I can say it here though, thanks Carol for the lovely photos, for sharing you family's highs and lows. For asking some pretty profound, thought provoking questions. I shall miss you.

More protests
On Tuesday Dominique joined the 3500 to 4000 students from all of the lycées around La Rochelle on another protest march against educational reforms. She said that she saw a few skinheads had joined in. She kept well away from them.

Yesterday it was the adult’s turn. Rob was part of a crowd of between 6000to 10000 who marched around the town protesting about poor pay amongst other things.

Olivier stayed in bed. We had been asked by the parents association not to send our teenagers to school. I prefer to keep him home on strike days anyway. Loads of kids with nothing to do and very little supervision always spells trouble.

I was one of the people who was disrupted because there were fewer buses. I spent two hours in town for an appointment of 10 minutes. I had a good look around the shops. I can always tell I’m going to have a poor year. There are loads of things I would like to buy. If I have money to spend I can never find anything I like.

Early start
I went into the kitchen this morning and found a note from Olivier asking me to wake him up extra early so that he could do his maths, French and biology homework. He’s not a stranger to homework first thing in the morning, but three subjects?

$86,400 a day
See post March 8th “Et si c’était vrai…..”

When I first saw the amount I thought to myself ‘why 86,400?’. The answer is that there are 86,400 seconds in a day. Every day you wake up you receive an incredible gift. Spend yours well!

Moi
I hope that you all like the new photo, Rob made me laugh when he took it. We were pleased with the result. Lip gloss is Madeline Mono gleaming pink. I’ve had it for about twenty years (it smells and tastes okay). Dom let me use her photo place and helped me installed it for me.

Mmmmm
Yesterday evening we ate our first Cadburys cream egg of the season.

Père cent revisited
Today is Père Cent, again!!! One hundred days before the start of the baccalaureate exams. I asked one of the students why there had been two. Apparently today is the real Père Cent. This week there were even more costumes, Father Time, two yellow chickens, clowns, Charlie Chaplin, fairies, angels and devils, a strawberry, a sprinkling of hippies, cowboys, Indians, several pink rabbits and two bunny girls. They do brighten up everyone’s day!

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Usher:: church
   
2. Cherish:: adore
   
3. Mistreat:: neglect
   
4. Forum:: discuss
   
5. Systematic:: automatic
   
6. Warning:: danger
   
7. Wash:: dry
   
8. I wish:: I dream
   
9. Candles:: light
   
10. Metallic:: shine
    

“Et si c’était vrai…..”
I’ve just been reading “And if it was/were true…..” by Marc Levy. The book has now been translated into English and Stephen Spielburg is making the film. It’s a very special love story. If you can get hold of it, I highly recommend it.

There is a game in the book I thought you might like to play;

Every morning when you wake up you are given $86,400, which must be spent during the day , you can’t save any money left over at the end of the day. Every morning you will receive the same amount, but the game could stop any day. What would you do with the money?

I’ll reveal all in a couple of days.

Meanie of the month
Stacey often reports having problems with parking in disabled parking spots when she goes to Starbucks, I hope she never has this problem.

Our local paper has recently reported that a handicapped man was attacked in a town near to La Rochelle. A man, who was old enough to know better, was trying to make room to park his car outside a café by ramming another car. The owner of the rammed car made his way out of the café to see what was going on and to ask that the assault on his specially adapted car, stop. The first driver, who was very angry, leapt over his car and pushed the handicapped man to the ground, hitting his head and back with great force. The handicapped man was immediately helped by passers by while his attacker drove off in a hurry. Fortunately, one of the passers by took the registration number of the car. The injured man was taken to hospital where his physical and psychological injuries were diagnosed as requiring him to have several days off work. The aggressor was later arrested by the police.

Père cent
Today is Père cent, one hundred days before the start of the baccalaureate exams. Students dress up in incredible costumes and wonder around the streets asking for money. This year the most popular costumes seem to be cow suits complete with udders protruding from the stomach. There were also butterflies, surgeons, old men, nuns, a lady bird, cross dressers, accident victims and lots more.
The money collected will be used for a night on the town. Last chance before the real work begins. I must admit that when I first came to France I was shocked that they spend the money that they raise on themselves. In England any money raised by students during rag week went to a good cause.

So now you know


You're Brigitte Bardot!


What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Mr Teacher
asked about what could be left out of CVs. This is a la Française by the way. Name address and telephone should appear in the top left hand corner. No need to put anywhere that it is a CV We were told that you are not obliged to state your age We didn’t talk about sex (I mean male or female!) You don’t need to say if you're married, if you’ve got children, if you’ve been unemployed. If you haven’t got a phone or rely on Mrs. Nextdoor, best not to mention the phone at all (think they must have published the text books some time ago). If you have a different nationality, you should mention that. Only talk about what is relevant to the job. For instance I was a banker when I lived in England, no need to go into that. If they are curious they will ask questions at the interview. The idea is that the CV should stick in the mind of the person who only spends up to 2 minutes maximum reading it.
Any questions?

Curriculum vitae
I went to a C.V. workshop yesterday afternoon and learnt how to make a better C.V.. Seems to me what you leave out is as important as what you put in. This morning I shall try to type out a new one out using everything that I have learned.

When I got home Rob had bought me some roses! I got him to take a photo of them this morning and will post it, along with ‘our house in the snow’ when he sends them to me.

The Chain tower with the Lantern tower in the distance 

The Lantern Tower