September 11th

I imagine that nearly everyone can remember what they were doing on September 11th 2001. Most people know someone who knows someone, or has a tale to tell of that day. The thing that always makes me catch my breath is the English (as a foreign language) text books used in secondary schools. Every book had a character who was fortunate enough to travel to New York and they always visited the twin towers. Book published after 2001 include a visit to ground zero.

In one book someone who was in the towers on the day, talks of meeting “fire fighters rushing up the stairs” on the 30th floor. Can you imagine being able to continue rushing up the stairs at the 30th floor? How many stories of bravery are there from that day that we will never know about? – More than 3000.

September 11th was my grandfather’s birthday, had he lived he would be 99 years old. Today is also Isaac Stozfut’s 91st birthday, he disappeared without trace just over two years ago. Here is the poem he wrote about September 11th.

Fahrenheit 451

I know I don’t usually ‘do’ political posts; just a few ideas going around in my brain at the moment:

Is supposed to be the temperature at which paper burns. (it’s 450 °C which is 842 °F) I remember being horrified by the book of the same name. Who in their right mind would want to burn a book, any book?

I’d also like to say that in my opinion God does not dwell just inside churches and holy books. God is around us and in open spaces. Burning books will make matters worse. There is no such thing as a holy war – how can there be?

I own a copy of the Koran, though I’ve read more of the Bible coming from a Christian background. When I opened my Koran to read I was amazed to find the same stories inside…

I found this online this morning, which explains a lot to me as someone living outside the US. What it boils down to is democracy. We’re supposed to be free to have our own ideas and beliefs. Is democracy a good thing? I remember the two weeks of worry I and many of my pupils (all of us immigrants) went through when Jean-Marie Le Pen almost became President of France – the result of democracy.

When I lived in England the Irish conflict/ war was in full swing, but we certainly didn’t think that all Catholics were terrorists.

Fahrenheit 451

Jean-Marie Le Pen

Brought to my knees

Dom is home from all of her adventures safe and sound. We went to Poitiers yesterday with Olivier’s things, so we spent some time with Dom and J-M too. She had a great time in Chicago both on a professional level and touristy level. She took some great photographs and remembered my copy of the Chicago Sun Times. She also met and spoke to the main scientist in her field, who sounds really nice and the best part was that he asked her lots of questions about her work.

The visit to England so that J-M could meet the family went perfectly too. They had time to visit London and Bristol where she took photos of fantastic rainbows. They saw the family and all went perfectly – even driving on the left!

Olivier’s apartment is really nice too, spacious, and as Dom would say ‘flowing’ with light. He has two windows and a skylight.

They both live on the 2nd floor (third in the US) and I went up and down both sets of stairs twice, I also ran up the steps to the park near to Olivier’s twice. When I got home I tripped over the doorstep and fell onto my knees. Very painful (to put it politely), I was frightened to move at first. I massaged my knees with arnica gel straight away and before going to bed. My left knee hurts where I grazed it but there is no stiffness or sign of bruising. Today has been back to work catching up on what I didn’t do yesterday.

Complicated son

Life can be complicated, especially where Olivier is concerned . He’s been home since the end of May and has worked all of June, July and three weeks of August. He finished work last Thursday and announced that he was going camping with his friends until Tuesday. On Tuesday I had a message to say that he would be home on Wednesday. We were supposed to take him and all of his belongings to Poitiers yesterday.

In the meantime he transferred his telephone account into his own name and ordered a Blackberry. The phone was to arrive on Monday and I would collect it on Monday and put it on charge. As it happened I went to the collection place on Friday to collect the new bedding I’d ordered for him and the lady explained that she doesn’t have deliveries on Monday and anyway he must collect his own order with his ID card. He called there on Wednesday, on his way home at seven, just as she was closing and had already turned off the computer. She was closed Thursday morning so he had to go Thursday afternoon.

The agency for his apartment couldn’t see him to check over the place (a legal requirement in France) until Saturday, So he’s still here until tomorrow. Rob is now at work until Tuesday so we won’t be going until Tuesday or Wednesday to take most of his belongings. The phone is lovely and didn’t need charging up for too long. It isn’t connected yet so he’s taking two phones with him. Oh I forgot to mention, he hasn’t fixed up his electricity yet….

I keep telling Olivier to be aware of Mr. Unforeseen-Circumstances who is always hanging around waiting to stick his leg out and trip you up. He never listens.

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…

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

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.

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…

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.

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.