This weekend was pleasant with both Dom and Olivier at home. Olivier was helping a friend’s sister and her family move so we didn’t see much of him really. Dom arrived with a copy of ‘The catcher In The Rye’! I haven’t read that since I was 17/18. it’s funny, but when I read the first page while was waiting for the kettle to boil I remembered the words so well.
On Sunday afternoon Dom went to visit a friend who has had a baby. It’s a very funny feeling seeing your daughter cooing and aahing over her friend’s baby. She did take some photos so I could say aah too. Dom also told me that one of our ex neighbour’s daughters is expecting – I remember seeing her on her first day out of hospital when she was born. How did that happen? Time goes much too quickly.
Dom isn’t planning anything in that direction at the moment. Normally she’s going to Chicago in the summer, August I think, she’s decided to go whether or not she’s presenting her paper. Her summer job is in Poitiers so we won’t be seeing much of her this year.
Olivier is coming home on Thursday for two weeks and then he’s almost finished. I think that he said that his final exam is on May 10th. He’ll be home as he’s working in the towers with Rob during the summer.
Today was a beautiful day. Warm and sunny. Tomorrow is a high tide and strong winds are forecast again. Everyone is keeping their fingers crossed that the small amount of work done after Xynthia isn’t undone again by tomorrow evening.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Spring, a time to be cheerful
Unfortunately I don’t have much news as such. Today is dull and wet, a contrast to the sunny days we had during the week. At least it’s not freezing cold.
Something I haven’t done for a long time a few years, is dip into my diaries to see what I was doing on this day in the past….
20th March 1999
1999 was the last year that I managed ‘a page a day’. The 20th was a Saturday too. Christian had been on a school skiing trip and we collected him at 7.30 in the morning. I was really pleased to see him as I’d had a phone call on the first day that he arrived asking us to come and fetch him as it was awful. The following day he telephoned to say that everything was wonderful and that they were going to have a karaoke evening. Somewhere amongst my papers I have a letter from Dominique, written when she was around 12. She went on a school trip to Carcassonne and wrote to tell me how much she hated it and that no one liked her and she didn’t like anyone either. ...
Christian left home to live in the UK when he was 16 and Dom left for Poitiers when she was 17. They are both happily settled, so their first times away from home couldn’t have been too bad.
Something I haven’t done for
20th March 1999
1999 was the last year that I managed ‘a page a day’. The 20th was a Saturday too. Christian had been on a school skiing trip and we collected him at 7.30 in the morning. I was really pleased to see him as I’d had a phone call on the first day that he arrived asking us to come and fetch him as it was awful. The following day he telephoned to say that everything was wonderful and that they were going to have a karaoke evening. Somewhere amongst my papers I have a letter from Dominique, written when she was around 12. She went on a school trip to Carcassonne and wrote to tell me how much she hated it and that no one liked her and she didn’t like anyone either. ...
Christian left home to live in the UK when he was 16 and Dom left for Poitiers when she was 17. They are both happily settled, so their first times away from home couldn’t have been too bad.
Friday, March 19, 2010
It’s difficult
Last weekend when I took Olivier back for his lift to Poitiers, we took the road which was furthest away from the sea. It didn’t seem right somehow to ogle the misfortune of the people that live in that village. Even on the road we took we could see that the sea had entered into the fields, there was still a lot of water. We could smell the sea too.
This morning I went to collect Olivier and decided to take the road nearest to the coast. Everywhere is brown, the sea and salt burn the plants. We can see where the sea came to in our village too, just by the browned grass and winter wheat. The ‘sea’ smell was very strong and the side of the road was just about there. Some of the tameris trees have fallen as the ground around their roots was washed away. The worst part were the houses that had been flooded, some of them empty ,now. Outside piles of ruined bits and pieces of furniture, wood and other belongings and everywhere the trace of brown silt, now dry, but covering everything at ground level. Olivier said that even as they arrived in the village this morning they could sense that something had happened. He was right.
I parked outside the school which is our arranged pick up point. I used to teach there when I was an assistant. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the teachers having lost some of their pupils.
Olivier is taking the train to go back on Sunday. I’m pleased I don’t have to go there again for a little while
This morning I went to collect Olivier and decided to take the road nearest to the coast. Everywhere is brown, the sea and salt burn the plants. We can see where the sea came to in our village too, just by the browned grass and winter wheat. The ‘sea’ smell was very strong and the side of the road was just about there. Some of the tameris trees have fallen as the ground around their roots was washed away. The worst part were the houses that had been flooded, some of them empty ,now. Outside piles of ruined bits and pieces of furniture, wood and other belongings and everywhere the trace of brown silt, now dry, but covering everything at ground level. Olivier said that even as they arrived in the village this morning they could sense that something had happened. He was right.
I parked outside the school which is our arranged pick up point. I used to teach there when I was an assistant. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the teachers having lost some of their pupils.
Olivier is taking the train to go back on Sunday. I’m pleased I don’t have to go there again for a little while
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Calm after the storm
The water has all gone on our little bit of coast. The marshes have been drained so the water level is lower than it was before the storm. There are still mountains of stones from the beach that need pushing off the road and back into the beach. Several people drowned in the village where I take Olivier back for his lift to Poitiers. When I went for my leg treatment last week my doctor told me that her husband operated on a man from that village just before the storm and on Sunday they had to tell him that three of his family were gone.
A man was arrested because he’d gone to the mayor of the same village claiming to be in charge of the cleaning up procedures. The mayor was suspicious and made inquiries. It turns out the ‘official’ has already been in prison for organising the building of two kilometres of motorway a few years ago. (the modern version of delusions of grandeur perhaps?). He’s on his way back under lock and key.
The wind has turned around and is now coming from the North-East (Siberia). It has been very cold for over a week and looks like we’ll have to wait for another week to get back into spring mode. It’s lighter in the evenings, so when Rob gets home we go out for a walk, it’s lovely, but so cold.
I have daffodils! About twenty years ago I planted some bulbs and for several years now I’ve seen the leaves but no flowers. I think that some animal or bird must have moved them around or something because they are quite separated out and I have four flowers.
A man was arrested because he’d gone to the mayor of the same village claiming to be in charge of the cleaning up procedures. The mayor was suspicious and made inquiries. It turns out the ‘official’ has already been in prison for organising the building of two kilometres of motorway a few years ago. (the modern version of delusions of grandeur perhaps?). He’s on his way back under lock and key.
The wind has turned around and is now coming from the North-East (Siberia). It has been very cold for over a week and looks like we’ll have to wait for another week to get back into spring mode. It’s lighter in the evenings, so when Rob gets home we go out for a walk, it’s lovely, but so cold.
I have daffodils! About twenty years ago I planted some bulbs and for several years now I’ve seen the leaves but no flowers. I think that some animal or bird must have moved them around or something because they are quite separated out and I have four flowers.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Taken with Rob's iPhone
I'm afraid the quality isn't up to much. As you can see the weather is beautiful - now.
Where did the bridge go?
The road is one big jigsaw puzzle
The cycle path!
No way out of the village this side
This was a field yesterday
A lot of damage can be done within a few hours.
Where did the bridge go?
The road is one big jigsaw puzzle
The cycle path!
No way out of the village this side
This was a field yesterday
A lot of damage can be done within a few hours.
Xynthia
Yesterday night started calmly enough: We went to bed around 10.30 and I wondered if the storm was a false alarm. I woke several times and the wind was blowing and then not. At two thirty the storm was really raging, the trees quite close to the roof were making a lot of noise. I couldn’t sleep, so an hour later I got up to make a cup of tea, just as the kettle boiled the electricity went of and a few minutes later Olivier came in. He had only been two minutes away normally but he got home a lot quicker!!
We woke around seven (I say woke, but we’d hardly slept at all) and the electricity was still off - it came back on just before 9. Once we’d had breakfast and cleared one or two small branches from the foot path we could see there was very little damage around us and the roof was fine.
Like 1999 the sea had come over and across the marshes. The bottom of the road parallel to ours was submerged. We walked round to the beach on the higher road and there was a lot of damage and a lot of water. Roads into the village were flooded and an old path used mainly by hunters had fallen into the water. There was more water damage because it was an exceptionally high tide. One tree had fallen in the park.
The port of La Rochelle is flooded, as well as the station. People the other side of town were rescued from their roofs by helicopter Water has got into the basement at the Chain tower and caused a lot of damage. Rob’s spare bike he kept there is soaked. Fortunately he’s not working today. He did take some photos but there is a problem with his camera so we have lost them all…
One of Olivier’s friends took his bag for him on Thursday when he knocked himself out. He bought it home for the weekend and his house has been flooded so Olivier has probably lost all the notes etc which would have been in his bag for his lectures on Thursday.
It’s still windy, but pleasantly so and the sun is shining, a lovely afternoon for a long walk.
We woke around seven (I say woke, but we’d hardly slept at all) and the electricity was still off - it came back on just before 9. Once we’d had breakfast and cleared one or two small branches from the foot path we could see there was very little damage around us and the roof was fine.
Like 1999 the sea had come over and across the marshes. The bottom of the road parallel to ours was submerged. We walked round to the beach on the higher road and there was a lot of damage and a lot of water. Roads into the village were flooded and an old path used mainly by hunters had fallen into the water. There was more water damage because it was an exceptionally high tide. One tree had fallen in the park.
The port of La Rochelle is flooded, as well as the station. People the other side of town were rescued from their roofs by helicopter Water has got into the basement at the Chain tower and caused a lot of damage. Rob’s spare bike he kept there is soaked. Fortunately he’s not working today. He did take some photos but there is a problem with his camera so we have lost them all…
One of Olivier’s friends took his bag for him on Thursday when he knocked himself out. He bought it home for the weekend and his house has been flooded so Olivier has probably lost all the notes etc which would have been in his bag for his lectures on Thursday.
It’s still windy, but pleasantly so and the sun is shining, a lovely afternoon for a long walk.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The lumpy course of life
Olivier is home for the weekend to celebrate the 20th birthday of one of his friends (I’ve already mentioned that). Just after lunch he beckoned me into his room and asked me to promise not to get upset. If anything gets a mother going it’s being asked not to get upset. He’s been into hospital. On Thursday morning he slipped on the staircase of the student residence, fell down some stairs and knocked himself out. He remembers passing out waking up and then waking up again in the ambulance. He didn’t want to stay in hospital, but they told him that they would call the police if he left and locked up his clothes. Anyway Dom had to go and collect him yesterday afternoon as they wouldn’t let him out alone. He didn’t mention it last night when he got home, in fact he came in, muttered hello and went out straight away. He says he feels fine today after a decent night’s sleep. We now have to sort out his social security information as his new card arrived Monday and was here. Now he understands why it’s important to have the card with him.
As I write, we’ve put away all of the garden furniture and collected up candles lanterns matches etc. (We don’t have a torch that works at the moment). There is a storm coming towards us. On the shipping forecast they said perhaps hurricane force 12. When we were at the café the prefecture phoned and told them to put everything away and not go out later on. The boys were going to go into town to celebrate the birthday, but as the bars will be shut up, there is no point. They will celebrate at a friends and Olivier is aware that he might not be able to walk home even – if he’s capable, that is.
All we have to do now is wait.
As I write, we’ve put away all of the garden furniture and collected up candles lanterns matches etc. (We don’t have a torch that works at the moment). There is a storm coming towards us. On the shipping forecast they said perhaps hurricane force 12. When we were at the café the prefecture phoned and told them to put everything away and not go out later on. The boys were going to go into town to celebrate the birthday, but as the bars will be shut up, there is no point. They will celebrate at a friends and Olivier is aware that he might not be able to walk home even – if he’s capable, that is.
All we have to do now is wait.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Did someone say February?
Half term has come and gone, so has Olivier’s 19th birthday. Two weeks ago (already!) Dom and J-M came for a quick visit. J-M never comes empty handed and presented me with a glass vase with mini daffodils in it, the kind where you can see the roots. When he arrived there were about 7 flowers, now the plant is past its best with 20 blooms!. Does anyone know what I should do next? Should I plant the bulbs out in the garden for next year? Olivier is back this weekend for the 20th birthday of his friend. I remember the 20th birthday party of one of his sisters which was more of a thanksgiving*.
I’ve been enjoying the signs of spring. Walking to the post office yesterday I saw a red squirrel and the tree in front of the house looks as if it is about to burst into blossom. We had high winds last night (with more to come), this morning the skies were blue and the sun felt quite warm in places sheltered from the wind. The robin is still hanging around waiting to be fed in the mornings. I keep meaning to find out where they go to in the summer.
Where did February go?
*"This is my story of September 11th, even in a small village across the atlantic we felt the vibrations when the towers fell....
Our neighbours daughter, Hélène, had just come home the week before from working for a year as au pair for a family who lived close to New York. In fact the Mother of the family worked in one of the towers. She changed to a new job in a different place the same time that Hélène left them. Hélène also found herself a new boyfriend Mike. She spent several days trying to contact everyone, the phone lines were down and it was impossible to send e-mails. To make matters worse her families computer wasn't working properly, so she came to us checking her mail box regularly for news.
Everyone was safe and sound, Mike studies in France now so that they can stay together. It's nice to have a happy ending, isn't it? "From September 11th 2003
I’ve been enjoying the signs of spring. Walking to the post office yesterday I saw a red squirrel and the tree in front of the house looks as if it is about to burst into blossom. We had high winds last night (with more to come), this morning the skies were blue and the sun felt quite warm in places sheltered from the wind. The robin is still hanging around waiting to be fed in the mornings. I keep meaning to find out where they go to in the summer.
Where did February go?
*"This is my story of September 11th, even in a small village across the atlantic we felt the vibrations when the towers fell....
Our neighbours daughter, Hélène, had just come home the week before from working for a year as au pair for a family who lived close to New York. In fact the Mother of the family worked in one of the towers. She changed to a new job in a different place the same time that Hélène left them. Hélène also found herself a new boyfriend Mike. She spent several days trying to contact everyone, the phone lines were down and it was impossible to send e-mails. To make matters worse her families computer wasn't working properly, so she came to us checking her mail box regularly for news.
Everyone was safe and sound, Mike studies in France now so that they can stay together. It's nice to have a happy ending, isn't it? "From September 11th 2003
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
BlogExplosion logging in and surfing - or not
**Update**
Perhaps I was too quick off the mark. It seems that the problem has now been fixed by an administrator. It will be interesting to see what happens next…
The good news is that, by chance a few days ago, I managed to find the names of some of the people at LiveUniverse that we wrote to last year. I’m not sure how many of them are still there. As some of you know as long ago as last September there were reports that LiveUniverse were unable to pay some of their employees. I’m going to try sending messages to them via LiveUniverse
I think it goes without saying; don’t buy any credits or banner impressions for the time being. If you paid using PayPal and want to get your money back you probably can – it certainly works like that on eBay.
What you can do to help
Spread the world! Post on your blog about what is happening, you can copy parts of this post if you like – I don’t mind. Ask other members that read your post to spread the word too. I’ll try to keep you updated on my blogs and the forums should be pretty active if the last few hours are anything to go by
Hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as possible
Perhaps I was too quick off the mark. It seems that the problem has now been fixed by an administrator. It will be interesting to see what happens next…
***
If you’re reading this chances are that you’ve come through Google or book- marked my blog for future reference. As I write some members cannot log in and if they do they are unable to surf. We are trying to find out what is going on, but as there is no administrator it’s very difficult. You should be able to log into the forums and even if you can’t log in, you can read the threads. We’re trying to keep them as up to date as possible. Please DO NOT send in a support ticket - there is no one to deal with them.The good news is that, by chance a few days ago, I managed to find the names of some of the people at LiveUniverse that we wrote to last year. I’m not sure how many of them are still there. As some of you know as long ago as last September there were reports that LiveUniverse were unable to pay some of their employees. I’m going to try sending messages to them via LiveUniverse
I think it goes without saying; don’t buy any credits or banner impressions for the time being. If you paid using PayPal and want to get your money back you probably can – it certainly works like that on eBay.
What you can do to help
Spread the world! Post on your blog about what is happening, you can copy parts of this post if you like – I don’t mind. Ask other members that read your post to spread the word too. I’ll try to keep you updated on my blogs and the forums should be pretty active if the last few hours are anything to go by
Hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as possible
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