I almost forgot to mention this one: A man walked into a school in France and tried to take a little girl by force. He hadn’t reckoned with the rest of the children. One brave boy went for him and tripped him up while the others made lots of noise and ran to fetch an adult. They were all only 7 and 8 years old.
The headmistress of the school is very proud of her pupils but still has to explain why the school gate was left unlocked. Since a hostage taking at a nursery school over 10 years ago school gates are supposed to be kept locked.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Yesterday was not a good day for me.
In some of the exams the students are allowed to have what we call an ‘anti seche’. This is a piece of paper of designated size where they can note information they feel that they might need during the examination. They choose the smallest writing possible, the tiniest margins and cover the paper all over. This is often for an exam on business law like yesterday. My job was to check everyone's paper, which I did. Then I came across a young man with paper which seemed rather thick. He had two papers! As the exam had not started I asked him to put the paper away and take his bag to the end of the room as usual. I still felt uneasy about this paper and kept an eye on him all through the exam. Towards the end of the exam I could see that he did indeed have the second paper under his note paper. He swore he didn’t use it and I don’t think he did but we had to make out a report. Checking his answers he hadn’t cheated. He barely answered any of the questions. I felt really rotten, but it’s important for the reputation of the school that there is no cheating in exams.
Rob and I went for our evening walk, there was a beautiful sunset reflected on the water which was really calm. When we got to the cliff we could see that something was wrong. Further down there was a car on the rocks. Our cliffs aren’t that high really, if you decided to jump you’d probably break your ankle and suffer a few bruises. A young man had decided to try to kill himself by driving off the top of the cliff. The emergency services arrived soon after we did. The tide was coming in and it was getting dark. We were stood with a few other people near to a camping car which was parked up for the night (illegally) and when a woman arrived (from the scene of the accident) another woman asked if she knew if her husband was okay. The newly arrived woman was really stroppy with her and walked off. The woman started to cry and explained that her husband had gone to help (remember the tide was coming in). I comforted her the best I could and we watched the rescuers running around trying to sort out how to get the equipment onto the beach round by the cliff. We sent the woman into her camping car and watched for a while. The husband returned and was soaked. He told us that the man had wounded his neck and was still alive. Not long after that a helicopter flew over towards the fire station (there is a helicopter pad in front of it). We walked home and I went to bed.
Olivier was on the beach at the time it happened, heard the car rev up and saw the car go over the cliff and roll over a few times. The young man had taken off his seatbelt and finished up in the back seat. Olivier told me that as the car was an Audi the body wasn’t damaged much. The helicopter came back with equipment was used to help remove the roof and then lift the man to the top. The car was pulled up from the beach this evening damaging the already fragile cliff. The rumours have started, some say the man was dead when they got him up from the car. Olivier doesn’t think so because they fit him up with a drip.
I didn’t sleep very well and it suddenly occurred to me in the small hours that my young man who was cheating could have been the man in the car. Not true of course.
Rob and I went for our evening walk, there was a beautiful sunset reflected on the water which was really calm. When we got to the cliff we could see that something was wrong. Further down there was a car on the rocks. Our cliffs aren’t that high really, if you decided to jump you’d probably break your ankle and suffer a few bruises. A young man had decided to try to kill himself by driving off the top of the cliff. The emergency services arrived soon after we did. The tide was coming in and it was getting dark. We were stood with a few other people near to a camping car which was parked up for the night (illegally) and when a woman arrived (from the scene of the accident) another woman asked if she knew if her husband was okay. The newly arrived woman was really stroppy with her and walked off. The woman started to cry and explained that her husband had gone to help (remember the tide was coming in). I comforted her the best I could and we watched the rescuers running around trying to sort out how to get the equipment onto the beach round by the cliff. We sent the woman into her camping car and watched for a while. The husband returned and was soaked. He told us that the man had wounded his neck and was still alive. Not long after that a helicopter flew over towards the fire station (there is a helicopter pad in front of it). We walked home and I went to bed.
Olivier was on the beach at the time it happened, heard the car rev up and saw the car go over the cliff and roll over a few times. The young man had taken off his seatbelt and finished up in the back seat. Olivier told me that as the car was an Audi the body wasn’t damaged much. The helicopter came back with equipment was used to help remove the roof and then lift the man to the top. The car was pulled up from the beach this evening damaging the already fragile cliff. The rumours have started, some say the man was dead when they got him up from the car. Olivier doesn’t think so because they fit him up with a drip.
I didn’t sleep very well and it suddenly occurred to me in the small hours that my young man who was cheating could have been the man in the car. Not true of course.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Crime Time
As usual the week started off with the grocery shopping for the next seven days. I knocked a jar of strawberry jam off the shelf and I was sure everyone was looking at me; “There goes that woman who broke a jar of strawberry jam”.
When I was going through the till, the cashier suddenly started to chase after a women who I thought was the woman in front of me who had forgotten something. I offered to help but the cashier told me to stay where I was. Strange, I thought, I was only trying to help. I also thought it odd that the cashier had trouble catching up with the woman. As it turns out I was at the furthest till that was open and the cashier had spotted a woman coming from the other end with a full trolley. She’d sneaked round by the frozen desserts and tried to make a run for it. In France you have to be stopped before you leave the shop. They brought the woman back in but I didn’t see any sign of the police before I left.
Olivier has a friend who is an apprentice chef, he works for three weeks of the month and goes to school for one. One of the other boys in the friend’s class has left. The reason why he’s left is because he and some friends attacked a man outside a night club a few years ago and killed him. He’s now in prison for eight years. He’s only 19 so you can imagine how old 27 must seem. Olivier was quite shocked by this. It usually happens in other towns to other people…
When I was going through the till, the cashier suddenly started to chase after a women who I thought was the woman in front of me who had forgotten something. I offered to help but the cashier told me to stay where I was. Strange, I thought, I was only trying to help. I also thought it odd that the cashier had trouble catching up with the woman. As it turns out I was at the furthest till that was open and the cashier had spotted a woman coming from the other end with a full trolley. She’d sneaked round by the frozen desserts and tried to make a run for it. In France you have to be stopped before you leave the shop. They brought the woman back in but I didn’t see any sign of the police before I left.
Olivier has a friend who is an apprentice chef, he works for three weeks of the month and goes to school for one. One of the other boys in the friend’s class has left. The reason why he’s left is because he and some friends attacked a man outside a night club a few years ago and killed him. He’s now in prison for eight years. He’s only 19 so you can imagine how old 27 must seem. Olivier was quite shocked by this. It usually happens in other towns to other people…
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Bad news week
Recently we cancelled the local paper as ‘nothing ever happens around here’ and we didn’t have time to read it anyway. Last week there was a house fire in the village and a lady living on her own has been made homeless. She’s been helped by our friends at the campsite who have installed her in one of their cabins. We walk a lot but the burned down house doesn’t appear to be in the parts of the village where we go. Olivier doesn’t know where it is either.
The second piece of news was very sad. For around twenty years a homeless lady, Marie-Ange, has been more or less camped outside the smallest department store in la Rochelle. The story goes that she used to work at the store and her boyfriend /husband would meet her everyday after work. One day he stopped coming and she started to drink and I presume lost her job and spent her time waiting for him. This week she wasn’t asleep outside the store she was dead.
La Rochelle is a town where there are a lot of big houses and wealthy people and it’s considered very chic to live here. There is another side to life…
The second piece of news was very sad. For around twenty years a homeless lady, Marie-Ange, has been more or less camped outside the smallest department store in la Rochelle. The story goes that she used to work at the store and her boyfriend /husband would meet her everyday after work. One day he stopped coming and she started to drink and I presume lost her job and spent her time waiting for him. This week she wasn’t asleep outside the store she was dead.
La Rochelle is a town where there are a lot of big houses and wealthy people and it’s considered very chic to live here. There is another side to life…
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Red Alert
I was watching TV last night around 10 o’clock when we had a red band appear on the screen. I’ve only ever seen this once before. A 5 year old boy had disappeared in the Paris region, last seen with a man with his arm in plaster. Dom told me this morning that by the time the midnight bulletin came round the boy had been found safe and sound. The man has been in prison before (what for we don’ know) and was wearing a blue plaster cast.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Breaking news
Time for a general news report. For the second time in a year Rob and I have found a car in the stream which runs alongside the marsh. This one was right on its side. *I looked around a bit, no sign of breaks being jammed on, looks almost as if they did it on purpose. Perhaps a romantic couple who thought they’d park on the side of the road – and fell into the ditch?
*We’ve got Numb3rs back on French TV so I’m being extra observant at the moment.
The big news in our region is that one of the inmates of the revived Big Brother on French TV is a very pretty ex police woman from Bordeaux who doesn’t mind pole dancing and stripping on the side. The worse part is she quit the police to go into the gold fish bowl and has broken a 5 year contract. I'm not the only one to blog about it, one of the young men she arrested recently was first.
*We’ve got Numb3rs back on French TV so I’m being extra observant at the moment.
The big news in our region is that one of the inmates of the revived Big Brother on French TV is a very pretty ex police woman from Bordeaux who doesn’t mind pole dancing and stripping on the side. The worse part is she quit the police to go into the gold fish bowl and has broken a 5 year contract. I'm not the only one to blog about it, one of the young men she arrested recently was first.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Our local newspaper
reported yesterday that cafés in Charente Maritime will not be able to open earlier than 6.30 in the morning. Previously opening time was 6 am. The reason behind this is to cut down alcoholism. I did wonder how many people were pouring into bars at 6 o’clock in the morning for their first drink of the day? On closer inspection I discovered that the problem lies with night clubs closing at 5 o’clock in the morning. Night clubbers were hanging on an hour for the final drink before driving home (!).
A lot of people in town here start early in the day, fishermen and market workers who meet up for their first coffee before work. Most café owners weren’t serving alcohol until 9 anyway. Why can’t the night clubs close half an hour earlier?
reported yesterday that cafés in Charente Maritime will not be able to open earlier than 6.30 in the morning. Previously opening time was 6 am. The reason behind this is to cut down alcoholism. I did wonder how many people were pouring into bars at 6 o’clock in the morning for their first drink of the day? On closer inspection I discovered that the problem lies with night clubs closing at 5 o’clock in the morning. Night clubbers were hanging on an hour for the final drink before driving home (!).
A lot of people in town here start early in the day, fishermen and market workers who meet up for their first coffee before work. Most café owners weren’t serving alcohol until 9 anyway. Why can’t the night clubs close half an hour earlier?
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