Death of a million Hamsters

As anyone who uses iGoogle knows, it will be closing down in a few days. All over the internet there are people like me worrying about their pet hamster. Mine is purple and called Jupiter. She’s lovely and I’m going to be very upset when the plug is pulled out.

Jupiter was invented by a very nice person called Adam Bowman who has shared his work with millions of people over the years.

I've created a new home page using NetVibes.com   It’s not the same, but I will make it into my home very soon. Fortunately, Mr. Bowman has made a new hamster to live in the NetVibes home page and you don’t have to fiddle with code like I did for hours and hours and get nowhere. On your NetVibes page there is a button in the top left hand corner called “Add”, click on that and type hamster into the search box that appears. There is a choice of hamsters, click on ‘hamster widget’ and you can follow the instructions to put your hamster on the page. I haven’t found a way to change the colour so I have a pale grey Jupiter this time.

How else would my computer get the electricity to work on?

Houses and stories

Today I updated all of my blogs! Some of them have been really neglected of late.

The main events of the last few weeks are having to continue antibiotics for a few more weeks. Fortunately, I only need one dose of orange flavoured power in water once a week. (and)  More pleasantly, we helped Dom and J-M move into their new house. It’s rather cutting edge, built to be ecologically kind and has solar panels and super dooper insulation. It was built this year. They have their own bathroom off the master bedroom. They were looking to rent an older house (including an old mill, but the ceilings were too low). Just goes to show, you never know what might turn up. J-M’s mother, brother and a friend as well as Olivier were helping too and Dom and J-M took us to a very good restaurant in Poitiers for lunch as a thank you.

All of a sudden it is autumn. The weather has changed, the leaves are falling and it’s becoming much darker in the mornings and evenings. I don’t know why this year a feel quite sad that the year is drawing to a close. We’ve had a good year and managed to fit in three visits to the UK.

If you’re interested; I updated my official writing blog with the next chapter of a longer story and I’ve started a new short story on my ‘culture’ blog. Inspiration is not flowing from me - I wrote both of the stories 3 or 4 years ago.

We've come a long way

Thank goodness it's not 1952

Back from the UK

We had another week in the UK. It was a little strange at first as we didn’t get to stay with Christian and J because they were in Florida for a couple of weeks.

Mainly the visit was to see M-I-L again. She told us that she’d gone downhill since our last visit, but you wouldn’t have noticed. Despite a couple of days of wind and rain we managed to take her for a couple of walks (or wheels?) in her wheelchair in the sunshine and a cup of coffee in the Colwall Coffee Lounge. We managed several cups of coffee there and scones and lemon drizzle cake. If you’re in and around Colwall, near Malvern, it is well worth a visit. We also took her for a couple of drives around. The country side is beautiful on the verge of autumn.

We saw my sister and my mum too and met up with some friends – more coffee and cakes wherever we went!

We decided that we do not like motorway service stations. They don’t seem to have any real food outside of burgers, chips and fry ups. The escalator down was broken in one we visited and I hurt my knee as the steps are very deep (not noticeable when it’s working). There didn’t appear to be another way down. I would have used the disabled toilets on the ground floor if I had known.

There is nothing like Boots in France

On hold

In the last 6 months I've had to take antibiotics 4 times for different ailments. My eye and salivary gland have recovered, but now I'm enduring cystitis....

What did I do to deserve this?

The wonderful thing about tiggers

It took me a long time to get anywhere near this cat. I don’t know her real name or even if she is a she. "Tigger" was what sprung to mind when I saw the stripes. The first time I saw her she was pretending to stalk the hens in the yard across the road. Needless to say the cock was keeping a careful eye on her. On our evening walks we’d find her sat looking down on us from a high wall in the fading light, just like the Cheshire cat in Alice.


The first time I found her in the garden she was lying in the shade of the clothes horse on a hot day. At first I was not allowed to go near her, but over time she got used to me. I’m allowed to stroke her head while she talks to me in her whiney voice; she doesn’t have a normal cat mew. Then she’ll roll over and squirm around showing me her fluffy tummy which I am not allowed to touch.

She’s been told not to catch the birds in the garden, so when she sees me coming she pretends to be intently looking for a mouse under the hedge. She’s not allowed to roll around on the carrot tops so they are all squashed flat where she’s been. Her favourite trick is to lie down behind me when I’m putting out the washing so if I don’t pay attention I’ll tread on her tail.

When I go back indoors my last sight of her is of a majestic queen sat up straight with her tail neatly wrapped around her front paws.

I'm still alive!

I seem to have been too busy to visit blogs, let alone write a blog post. Olivier is home for the summer and Rob has had some time off, so I haven’t had much time to myself at all. In three weeks we will be back in the UK again to see M-I-L.

I’m suffering from conjunctivitis at the moment. It’s not at all painful, but my eye waters a lot. The vision in my left eye is blurred most of the time which is quite tiring. I’m keeping my eye clean with diluted cider vinegar, it stops the stickiness at least. If you know of any good home remedies please leave a comment!

Yes!!

I expect that you’ve heard these news items in your own country, but they are such good news:

The state of Texas will have to put executions on hold because the European company that supplies one of the ‘ingredients’ has stopped doing business with the state.

The King of Morocco pardoned a criminal not knowing that he was a pedophile and has now withdrawn the pardon. The man left Morocco and is free, out in the world somewhere, but his picture has been seen by millions as the news was broadcast…

I take flight

Rob's been wanting to go on the ferris wheel for some time.  On Sunday morning it was sunny and calm, the ferris wheel goes round at a slow pace so no travel sickness...

 looking towards the St Nicolas tower

 Towards the Port

 The 'Gabut'

 Towards Rue St Nicolas

Me with railway station in background

All photos by Rob who can be seen reflected in my sunglasses.

I knew that I would come in useful one day

Dom phoned me yesterday afternoon. She has a conference in Valencia this week and was packing just before leaving. She telephoned so that I could ask her all of those mummy questions just before setting off on a trip: Have you got your telephone cord?, computer cord?, passport?, ID and so on. She didn’t seem to have forgotten anything. She even had her bikini for her day off. She will be addressing her fellow scientists on Wednesday afternoon. In two weeks she will be repeating the packing to go off to a conference in Berlin (without bikini, I suppose). She did find time to tell me that they have at last arranged their honeymoon. They will be renting a cottage miles from anywhere somewhere in Scotland. They are hoping for cooler weather at least.

 J-M is now an official teacher! Hopefully he will be given a placement not too far from home. Unfortunately, young teachers in France have to go where they are sent.

Olivier is now holding down two part time jobs. He seems to have settled into the local KFC and the weather is hot so that I can wash and dry his smelly uniform without having to rush. He’s been bringing home bits and pieces for us to try, though the desserts have been banned (they are soooo good). Yes, I like the chicken, but the spicy wings are too hot for me. Love the pepper dip sauce!

 He helped a man who had just finished having an epileptic fit. The man’s wife was fetching help, so Olivier found him a bottle of water and stayed with him to make sure that he was okay.

It is so hot here at the moment. After all the months of cold and rain we seem to have swung to the other extreme. What’s the weather like with you?