When life isn't as expected

Thursday morning got off to a strange start. My phone is cracked and I must have bumped it at some point on Wednesday evening. My alarm didn’t ring; just made that horrible «I’m buzzing towards the edge of the table” sound. Fortunately I was awake already, so didn’t miss it.

When we got up we realized that although the toilet flushed the tank didn’t refill. I went to put some water in the kettle and there was just a pathetic trickle. Rob walked along to the village shop and discovered that there was a fire in a silo at a local farm. The water had been cut by the firefighters so that they could fight the fire. It came back on again so that I could wash up the breakfast things but the pressure was pretty pathetic all day as they were using water for over 12 hours.

It really is strange to have no water at all. I had bottled drinking water which we could use sparingly. We take so much for granted. Just the simple act of rinsing my hands after peeling an orange became complicated.

All is back to normal for us, but it won’t be normal for the farmer’s family for quite some time to come.

Green stuff...

A couple of weeks ago one of my students asked me to help her write a letter to a company in the UK. She wanted to buy a specially adapted mouse for her husband’s computer as he has Parkinson’s disease.

A week later the letter had come back as the company was not at the address. I tried phoning the number which appeared on the website and a nurse on a stroke ward somewhere in the UK answered. She was very nice but couldn’t help our quest.

The following Saturday I decided to see what I could find out and came across the French website of a company that sells the same adapted mouse . I contacted my student who emailed back a few minutes later to say that a mouse was on its way! When she came for her lesson last Thursday she came bearing a plant as way of thanking me for my help. Her husband is very happy now that he can use his computer with ease.

This is an excellent year for hollyhocks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them grow so tall. One in our garden is more than twice my height! I dragged Rob out to take a photo so that you could see it. I’m 1 meter 67 (around 5’ 6”)

To finish off; I received a message from Dom at the weekend. They live in the Boivre valley which is a protected site of natural interest. They discovered a deer at the fence at the back of the garden, eating their plants.

Weird and Wonderful

Exceptional sites this weekend:

We live next to the ‘Mairie’, town hall and if there is a wedding on a Saturday afternoon we usually hear and see some of it.

This Saturday was different. I heard the sound of bagpipes coming up the road. Fortunately I was in my office which is upstairs and when I looked out of the window I saw this little band coming towards the house.

They are a traditional Breton band of musicians so the bagpipes are in fact cornemuses. Isn’t it interesting that one of the men is wearing what looks very like a kilt? Must be the Celtic blood.

Afterwards they went into the town hall garden and played to the newlyweds and guests.

Last night I was closing the shutters upstairs before going to bed just before 11.30 and saw a row of lights. At first I thought that they were cinders from a fire floating through the sky. I ran downstairs to get my phone and was lucky enough to take some pictures. My phone is just a humble Samsung with no smart bits.

I was facing the East and the lights were moving from North to South. They were a reddish colour and seemed to flicker like flames. Very beautiful and I didn’t feel threatened of frightened by them. In the picture they are just above the streetlight. I didn’t count them, but there must have been around ten of them. I’ve always wanted to see a UFO so I feel very privileged.

The sun sets at around 10 o’clock here so I wondered if perhaps it could be the reflection of the sunset on a flock of swans flying over. A bit late for that perhaps. Do swans fly at night?

Death and destruction

I can’t believe that time has gone so quickly – again!

We had a bit of an adventure last weekend. On Saturday, I was sat at my computer and looked over to the farmyard across the road to see that there was a dog attacking the hens! I went across straight away to see if the farmer was there – he wasn’t (the windows of his house don’t face the yard where the hens roam). So I headed for the piece of land he has behind the town hall. On the way a man in a car stopped and asked if I’d seen a husky dog so I told him yes, the dog was in with the hens. In the meantime, Rob was shouting from the office window to try to distract the dog and saw that the man had difficulty trying to call the dog, the dog ran off down the road.

We saw the farmer on Sunday morning and told him what we had seen. The dog killed 6 hens. Anyway, because of this, I found out what kind of hens they are: Poules de Maron. They are very special hens that lay “golden“eggs

   

Image from Wikipedia

 I’ve seen the farmer since then and the dog owner hasn’t been back to apologise.

Do not feed the horse

This is a picture of Groseille (Currant) the local star in our village.  She's very friendly indeed if she thinks that you've got something for her to eat.  We used to take her an apple every time we walked by.  Someone told us that the apple should be cut up, so we cut it into four pieces.  She can count and would wait for the forth piece before continuing with the grass.

Unfortunately, everyone was feeding her tit-bits, including stale bread.  See how muddy her back looks in this picture.  One day as we were preparing to feed her an apple her owner, the mayor, came over to us and explained that she had been rolling on the ground in agony with colic.  So he's asked everyone not to feed her.  She's written a very nice notice explaining how too much food makes her ill.

Unfortunately she doesn't come over to say hello anymore, just snuffles a greeting and continues grazing.

Sad news

Regular readers of my blogs might remember me making friends with an elderly man one day when I discovered him struggling to breathe on my way back from the post office. I’m afraid to report that he died this week; he was 85. As I remembered he was a Major in the Gendarmes. He also fought in Indochina (Vietnam) and Algeria. I always enjoyed my talks with him when we met up.

 Here is some of his story.

We didn't see them go by!

Around Christmas 2009, Rob and I were having a cup of coffee...



...when Google Earth passed by

Bring on the sunshine

I met my friend Robert this morning and we stopped for a brief chat in the park. We were both wishing for some sunshine. He asked me if I could find some on the internet; I didn’t find any, but I found out how to make a sunshine:

☼ ☼ ☼

The sun didn't shine today, but I did try.

The post about the new Doctor

Friday; I needed to renew my prescriptions so I went to see the new Doctor in the morning. The morning was different for a start, the old Doctor had his surgery in the evenings. I took my blood test results for the last year,test results from the Swedish Chef, the scan of my thyroid from two years ago, my prescriptions and notes about anything else I could think of.

Our Doctor (I still think or him as ours) was a smart man who liked interesting shoes and different shirts. The new Doctor was very casual indeed. I know I shouldn’t say it - rough and ready – sorry. I started to explain to her about being pre-diabetic. There are two schools of thought on diabetes; she’s in the one that says you are either diabetic or not. I’m not. I can have a test every six months. I can have a test for cholesterol once a year. Fortunately I’ve learnt how to eat to keep the numbers down over the past few years. She also tut-tutted because I’d had the urine tests where you collect urine for 24 hours – I don’t need them as I’m not diabetic. As if it was all my fault. At least I got my thyroid tablets.

We can change our Doctor here very easily, I’ll see how it goes

The lost man and me

I was preparing lunch around midday and looked out of the kitchen window onto the street. There was an elderly man looking very confused and lost so opened the kitchen window to ask him if I could help. He had a lot of difficulty speaking and could only answer ‘yes’. I popped outside to talk to him properly and asked him where he had come from and his name. He couldn’t remember and could only say ‘yes’. I tried to think of questions that might help him to remember, but he couldn’t. Locking up the house we set off down the road and round the corner. I rang the doorbell at a house where someone was home and the person there didn’t recognize him. She phoned the retirement home the other end of the village, but everyone was present for lunch. We set off in the other direction to see a neighbour who is on the local council and is married to a villager born and bred.

My neighbour didn’t know him either, so we all set off trying to jog his memory walking though the local streets while my neighbor telephoned the gendarmes who said that they were on their way. The post office closes at one In the village so I spoke to the post office lady who was just arriving home for lunch. She didn’t know him either. She fetched a chair and a drink of water for the old man who seemed grateful. The gendarmes seemed to take ages to arrive, their base is only 10 minutes away. We left him in their care.

My neighbour’s wife has just phoned. The gendarmes eventually took the old man to the emergency department at the hospital where he was known. The line was bad so I’m not sure whether he’s been reunited with his family or taken back to the home that he ‘escaped’ from. At least he’s safe and sound now.

Olivier was very worried, he’s home for the weekend and heard me lock the front door. He went into the kitchen to find a half prepared meal...

Another week skids by on the ice rink of time

After getting wet and frozen on a visit to the next town for an auction. last weekend was spent in the company of Dom and J-M. Dom has decided that she wants to study more about artificial intelligence – does the name Susan Calvin ring a bell?

On Wednesday I did something really stupid. I couldn’t get online. I was really pulling my hair out. Fortunately Rob had a half day and when he got home and couldn’t get online either. He telephoned one of his colleagues who is geeky. He told Rob to try pulling out the plug and putting it back in again. It worked – why didn’t I think of that? We’re still suffering from very poor internet connection, nothing to do with that though

Yesterday was the day that we woke up to snow. No school for the children and no buses. It was nice to walk through the village and, because of the snow, to see everyone enjoying themselves. It started to thaw out pretty quickly and now we have nasty frozen, half melted snow.

The invasion of the hornets...

Continuing the hornets saga. Our Mairie (town hall) is situated in the park and I walk through the park every morning. This morning, returning home, I was very surprised to see blue flashing lights and a fire-fighter’s van coming into the grounds. The fire-fighters were greeted by our village policewoman who pointed to a huge hornet’s nest high up in one of the trees It was like a huge ball suspended from a branch. Now the leaves are almost gone from the trees it had come into view. At that point I met Robert, my elderly friend, so we watched them looking at it and he told me that someone had pointed out another nest to him in a tree in the middle of the village. Hopefully next year we will be rid of them.

When we were small, my two sisters were attacked by a swarm of bees one hot Sunday morning. The owner of the hive decided to move them (not a good idea on a hot day). Years later people were still giving us advice on what to do if you see a swarm coming. Lie face down on the ground, the swarm will fly over you. When they are swarming the angry bees stick to and sting whatever gets in their way.

An amusing review of ‘The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest’ film.

The river of life flows on

I’ve been to see the doctor twice recently. Once for the usual check up and renewed prescription; All of my test/examination results are excellent. This week I had my flu vaccination which apparently includes the new flu too. I also asked him to look at my knee which I injured two months ago. It still has a swelling on the side. There’s fluid trapped in it, I’ve got to massage it with some gel every night for a couple of months and it will disappear – hopefully.

I was suffering from headaches for about a month. I tried to resist taking too much paracetamol because it gives you… headaches! I cured it by buying a new pillow. - Woke up the next day feeling completely different and no headaches since.

Our doctor will be retiring at the end of the year. He’s been here since I was expecting Dom, she’ll be 22 in ten days time. That’s an awful lot of family history passing under the bridge. He’ll be replaced by a lady doctor.

Talking about time passing. Have a look at this. You have to scroll down to read what it’s about.

Warning - Don't follow me!

Last week I received an email supposedly from my sister. A company called Feed Share was asking me to follow her. There were ‘yes’ and ‘no’ buttons and it said that I could choose to follow or not but I must click. I didn't like the way it told me I MUST click on 'yes' or 'no', so I Googled it and discovered that it was a virus.

I wrote to my sister who already knew about it via other friends who had been victims. Her sons dealt with it as they are both in the computer business. The part that is worrying me a bit is that she said she didn’t click but she opened the mail. I hope that no one has received an email from me inviting them to follow me on Feed Share. I don’t like those kind of things anyway.

Over the last couple of days I’ve turned on my computer twice to find that it’s gone back to the beginning, as it were. I’ve been invited to take a tour an find out how to set up the computer as I’d like it. Fortunately I’ve turned it off and left it for a few minutes and everything is back again. Anyone any ideas as to why it should do that?

I’ve posted some history that I’ve recently learned about the occupation of the village on Still Learning. I thought it was important to write it down as quickly as possible so that it’s preserved. I hope that you find it as interesting as I did.

Yes!!

In front of the post office is a handicapped parking space with plenty of room to get in and out of a car if you have difficulties. Rob and I sometimes sit drinking our coffee and watch people drive into the space, often they pull out again when they realise. Some of them that stay look very fit and sheepish. This morning there were two gendarmes in motorbikes (gasp), I think that they were doing some training as they were going quite slowly. A people carrier drove into the space carrying two well to do middle aged people. The gendarmes stopped and asked if they had a disabled sticker. They said they were parking there because there weren’t any other places. The main car park is about 10 meters away from where they were. They had to move – poor things.

We’ve got the brocante (think boot sale without cars) in the park this weekend. If you’re thinking of coming there will be less parking space than ever. Four houses are being built on the field that was used by the stand holders and the one way street now has a foot path along with a wooden fence to protect walkers from the traffic and parked cars. To add to the chaos as from tomorrow (Tuesday 15th) all junctions will be priority to the right (more gendarmes on motorbikes!!!).

An interesting exchange

A week or so ago I was walking back from the post office when I saw that an elderly man walking a few meters in front of me needed to stop and rest. He sat on a low wall and looked very out of breath, so I stopped and asked him If he needed help. He assured me that he would be fine after a brief rest and that he’d had two operations on his heart which wasn’t working too well. I decided to leave him as I didn’t want to agitate him by making a fuss.

This morning I saw him again, this time sitting on a bench in the park to rest on the way home. He was very pleased to see me and we walked slowly together for a while. He explained that he would be having new tests and that they would change his medication as his heart was beating very slowly. He joked about visiting Lourdes. In fact he had visited Lourdes when he was a young man - not that he needed help then. He remembered having a great time. He also told me about visiting London – he saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, which he enjoyed. Our village is full of newcomers, but he is a real villager and remembers the war, when he worked at La Pallice (Wow! Some of Indiana Jones II was shot there ) and then after the war was over he joined the army and made a career of that. I think that during our conversation he forgot about his health for a moment. I really enjoyed our little talk. Next time I see him I’ve got some questions about the history of the village.

Sunday was a good day

Even though it was wet we enjoyed our morning walk. There was a meeting of marching bands being held in the park. The rehersals for that were noisy to say the least, but all of a sudden the load speakers were playing Verdi’s requiem - Dies irae, a pleasant surprise. The afternoon walk was rewarded by a pair of swans showing off their 7 sygnets. Why they are called ugly ducklings, I’ll never understand. They were so sweet and kept together with one parent in front and the other behind.

Strikes, history and colds

Rob and Olivier are on strike today. Olivier went off to school early for history which was the only lesson he had with a non-striking teacher. The buses are on strike most of the day so he hasn’t come back. He’s probably hanging out around town or perhaps he joined in the march. Strikes are tolerated in France – You wouldn’t like us to get the guillotine out again, would you?

We’ve all been ill with colds. This is my first cold for three and a half years. The last one I had was in England on our last visit. No exams this week but I have four mornings next week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed there won’t be another strike next Thursday – I’ve done my share of walking to work in the past. Looking up the dates, I've had a long walk to work and back every two years, perhaps I should start taking bets on next week...

A new housing estate is due to be built in a field on the outskirts of the village. While they were digging and surveying they found remains of a settlement. The dig delayed the start of work by 8 months and now some buyers are backing out because of the economical problems at the moment.

That particular part of the village was inhabited from the 2nd century onwards it seems. There were a lot of bones. Families buried their dead around where they lived in the past. There were traces of buildings and some kind of oven. Sorry, the site is not in English. If you click on the photo the rest will be displayed one by one. It seems that near to that place other remains were found 20 or so years ago but the previous council decided to ignore it and allowed building to carry on. The little port next to the village has always been used even by Romans, Normans and was even visited by the King on one occasion.

I’ve never found anything of interest on the garden, except for fossils and geodes.

Just village life

Our mayor is being taken to court by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Before he retired he was the inspector of inspectors in the Ministry of Education and his mission was to research the various sects in France. He wrote something in his report that the witnesses did not like, something to do with education. He’s a good man and has done a lot for our village, particularly the schools which were neglected under the previous mayor. BTW: Our schools are named The Rose (maternelle or nursery) and The Fox (primary) after ‘The Little Prince’ because Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s great uncle was Mayor of L’Houmeau (Now I'll have to go and find out the years).

There are even more road works. We seem to have had roads closed all over the village since the turn of the century (I’ve always wanted to use the phrase ‘the turn of the century’). The cars are being diverted through our quiet little road. We live on the corner and it’s quite noisy at times as drivers are in a hurry. I’m waiting for someone to miss the corner.

There is a plant in our post office. It’s grown very big over the years and occasionally has rose like flowers though I think it’s more of a Begonia* type bush thingy. The post office lady, who has been there longer than us (more than 22 years), can’t remember a time when it wasn’t there. This morning she was sweeping up leaves. The poor plant looks really sad and is losing its foliage. She’s tried feeding it but it seems not to even want watering at the moment. This year it had more flowers than usual, I suggested that perhaps it was tired.

*Begonias are named after Michel Bégon who was steward of La Rochelle 1694-1710.

Helping people

This morning I was heading for the door into the newsagents and the lady in front of me held the door and waited until I came. I thanked her of course. She shuffled ahead of me, obviously handicapped and I was struck by the effort she must have put in to hold that door open. On my way out I held the door open for three men who came in at the same time (the door opens inwards so it was logical or me to hold it open for them). The first man said nothing, the second thanked me and the third, who happened to be my doctor, thanked me and wished me a good day.

Chandni has been writing about helping people too.