Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Matching dreams

I had a lot of difficulty sleeping last night. A couple of years ago I had blocked salivary glands and, the doctor told me, a touch of arthritis in the jaw. When I’m stressed I lie in bed wondering if I’m holding my jaw in the right position (The opposite of grinding my teeth I suppose), then I tense up and it starts to ache which makes me worry more and the circle continues. My legs were restless too. I finally drifted off to sleep with the help of some paracetamol and started to dream. Rob was in the car and kept on getting out of the car without putting the handbrake on so the car was rolling backwards as he walked away. He did it three times even though I told him not to do it again.

This morning I was half awake when Rob told me he’d just be dreaming about me driving a bus, but I kept on leaving the handbrake off.

I wonder what that means…

Monday, August 23, 2010

Third Forth time lucky

Since Friday I’ve been trying to write a post about our visit to Tours last Thursday. I’ve finished the first sentence a couple of times only to be interrupted by major events like tea making or urgent ironing..

Anyway, we went to Tours for the viewing of an upcoming auction. This time we took an earlier train so that we could explore the historic part of the town during the morning. We weren’t disappointed. It’s lovely. We had a great lunch too, a little way from the very touristy part – which just seems to be restaurants and very crowded when we went back later. During the afternoon we went off to the viewing. Lots of good postcards and albums, it was hard to prepare a list, if only we could afford to buy all of them.

The best part came afterwards. We had a little time left before the train home and wondered through a little park. My attention was drawn by a huge cedar tree. Just like the one in Nimes. The cedar tree in Tours is just over two hundred years old and needs a bit of support, but is magnificent nonetheless. Rob called me over to see a poster on the wall. It was Fritz! I’d forgotten that I was intending to find out where Fritz was. When I finished reading the poster I turned around and there he was, on display. Fritz was big as elephants go. The link to my post about him, explaining his sad story with a picture is at the bottom.

When I’d finished admiring him it was time to get the train. It wasn’t too crowded, but we were still glad to be liberated at la Rochelle station. Just as we came out of the station my phone rang. Dom phoned to give me her news about what a lovely time she was having in Chicago. She was making useful contacts and her work has been appreciated by the right people. She’s got some pictures of some paintings by Monet which are in a gallery somewhere in Chicago, but I’ll probably have to wait until after her trip to England to see them. She remembered my copy of the Chicago Sun Times.. we talked for five minutes.

Since then she’s confirmed she got home safely on Saturday. I expect she’s dealing with the effects of jetlag as I write.

Now all I have to do is find the time to get this posted to my blog and wait to see if our bids were accepted. (It was then time to go for a walk so I had to wait yet again – hopefully I can do it now)

Cedar tree image

Cedar tree in Nimes


Fritz

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Good people doing good things

I’ve recently started to read a blog about a centre for aid for handicapped young people in Hanoi; Hold The Future. The blog is a cheap way to let the world know about what is going on there and show off the website selling some of the beautiful gifts that the young people are making (Click on the Union Jack in the top right hand corner for the English version). There are still scars left by the war that finished in the mid 70’s. Children are still being born with disabilities because of the use of ‘Agent Orange’. Today I read that they have set up a Wikipedia page.

Good person number two is Peter the Worldman. I think he’s just about to retire for the third time. Will they let him go? I wonder if he will be sent to Pakistan next. Thank you Peter for all of the years of hard work you’ve put in to help people in need.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The chicks fly

As I’m writing this Dom is probably at the airport in Paris waiting to board her flight for Chicago. I hope that she hasn’t forgotten anything, her poster for example, which she’ll be presenting here. Dom is number 18 on Page 8. An old school friend of hers will be in Chicago too to keep her company and help her to explore in her free time. We’re wondering what ‘continental breakfast’ is like Chicago style and do they have croissants and are they anything like the real ones.

She came to stay for two weeks at the beginning of August, it was good to see her, especially as she is a good cook too! J-M came for a few days too and mended the gate!! Remember the episode of Sliders when they thought they were in then wrong universe because the gate didn’t squeak anymore?

At the end of August they will be driving to England so that J-M can meet the family.

Olivier will be moving into his own apartment in September. I’ve seen the pictures and it looks quite spacious. It’s very light as there are two windows plus a skylight. We’ll be taking him to Poitiers on the 2nd September. I’m looking forward to seeing where he will be living for the next year or so. It’s next to the park, I’ve seen the park on lots of old Postcards of Poitiers but never managed to see it for real.

Rob and I will be real ‘empty nesters’ next year. Once Olivier is settled I expect he won’t be home at weekends.

On Thursday Rob and I will be off to an auction viewing; This time we’re giving ourselves more time to visit the town of Tours. I always enjoy seeing our ‘expert’ he’s a human Google and Wikipedia rolled into one. Of course we’ll be seeing some beautiful postcards too…

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Back to normal



I’m sorry that I haven’t been writing as much as I usually do, (real) life gets in the way sometimes. I’ve missed you all. Hopefully from now on I’ll be catching up with visits and comments. I’ve also got some great new blogs to add to my list.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Radio ExposeYourBlog! needs you

Did you know that ExposeYourBlog! Had it’s own radio station? Did you know that you don’t even have to be logged in to EYB! In order to listen? All you need to do is click on the link of your choice.

WinAmp/iTunes
Windows Media
Real Player
All others

If you have any requests or ideas about the type of music you’d like to listen to, if you’d like to be interviewed or if you are looking for a lost blogger, pop along to the forums and leave a message in the Radio ExposeYourBlog! section.