Last posts on holiday

Hot sax at Plufur

2009-11-10T10:23:00+01:00

Its very quiet here now since the autumn half term the place is empty of visitors for the first time since the beginning of April so we can shout and scream and no one hears us except perhaps the neighbours.The weather has changed like a switch as soon as the last visitors left at the end of October , the last two months have incredibly dry and warm and now its the rainy windy season which is good for the ground and gardens.I had a quick visit to the UK to pick up a few goodies I had bought on ebay which I get delivered to my brother also to pick up of a chipper/mulcher attachment for my Countax mower from Exeter.I bought one of those electric ones years ago which you use once and then throw to the back of your workshop in disgust as its so slow and inefficient, but the Countax chipper is a good tool as it works direct off the 16 hp motor so plenty of power and can slice up to 6cms but I prefer to do half that thickness and chainsaw the rest in to fire starter pieces. I also bought a second hand chainsaw as my old one I cynically call it French as it works well for 10 minutes and then it needs a 2 hour rest.My brother has moved to Bude in Cornwall where I went to secondary school ( it was a grammar in those days ) and the most worrying thing was I knew 10 people in the street of his house, 4 were ex teachers, 2 were in the same class as me , the next door neighbour played in the town band with me its just too much .Tony the ex-class mate insisted on taking me out for a pub crawl which didn't do much for my head the next day.It was interesting that recession wasn't effecting Bude so much as its a tourist town and the "staycation " fashion helps it survive.

I returned from a walk with the dog at the weekend to find a springer spaniel chasing one of our white chickens around the garden last weekend, after a few subtle words of English it disappeared and the chicken jumped into my arms to be rescued and I was going to put it back into its run but noticed the other chick had disappeared so I dropped it in with the brown chick. There was just a pile of feathers so assumed the dog had carried it off. This was a good opportunity for Paulien to have an in-depth conversation with the hunters on dog control and respecting distances with local houses, as they just seem to shoot anything which moves especially while the maize crops are still standing.However the next day when we moved the 2 remaining chickens ( we move their run everyday so they have something fresh to scratch ) we heard a faint noise in the hedge and found the missing chick minus quite a few feathers wedged behind a water butt, a very lucky chick!

I did a gig a couple weeks ago in Plufur with Anthony ( an ex pro trumpet player ) we played the first set before the other group played, "Feeling" a jazz quartet with a very good singer. It was OKish and in the paper the "Tregor "last week we had our photo in and a write up, Anthony with his "bewitching" trumpet and Simon with his "hot sax " a bit ambiguous !

Flat hunting in Rennes

2009-08-27T11:36:00+02:00

I had to go flat hunting in Rennes with Max as he and Bas are studying there at the university next month. I left the arrangements up to Max and he had 2 rendez-vous organised. The first was on a purpose built block modern Ok if you like fitted carpets on the walls and one of the bedrooms wouldn't have taken a double bed, so it was small,but it was passable and then the agent at the end of the visit said the owner didn't like students, so it was a waste of time and for the second appointment we waited and waited and the agent never turned up and Max didn't have his/her number, but fortunately we ventured into an immobilier at the centre of Rennes and asked if they had any thing on offer and we were offered a first viewing of an apartment which was in the process of being repainted so we had to return a couple of days later ( its only a 2 hour drive to Rennes ).However the apartment was great just a 5 minute walk from the centre, it was slightly old fashioned with a squeaky wooden floor but spacey 68msq and going for 690€ a month.Its great for Max as his uni is just 2 streets away whereas Bas is at University2 which is on the edge of Rennes so a half hour walk,15 min on a bike it seems to be very bike friendly or he could take the metro. Rennes is a very interesting city,very old centre with the newly restored parliament building ( the fishermen burnt it down in 1994, Paulien used to know a fisherman he had a few fingers missing as he had let go of the Molotov too late ) It also houses the appeal courts and has exhibitions in the assembly room and is well worth a visit but I guess small children wouldn't find it too interesting. In the centre of Rennes is the " rue de soif " a wide street flanked by restaurants and bars ( also the Webb Ellis ) the centre of the night life.

Here at Coat Aillis we have our "happy family " week with lots of regulars back and we are in the middle of our annual pool competition sponsered by Npower,CMB and Super U. Fortunatly the Aussies lost the ashies so the Npower memorablie has some meaning otherwise it would have to have been binned. For the juniors Iz has to play Emma but for the seniors it looks like a three way final between Ted, Bas (former junior champion) and Pete (07 winner ) or Xav (a 4 times winner of the juniors )Will post the winner next blog.

On the seaweed front the beach of course is looking very clean and last week the French PM ,Fillon visited with 3 minsters ,agriculture,health and the environment with the usual pledges of money to throw at the problem when the real solution would be effective policing of the rivers and closing down any dirty units caught polluting

Interesting local story

2009-08-11T07:31:00+02:00

We have recently come in contact with our immediate neighbour's ( Etienne ) sister during the EDF chainsaw massacre ( 24/05 post ) as she was doing a dossier on the damage they had done. She is a very formidable short woman with incredible energy when you think she is 84yr. She explained she had a grandson staying in August who wanted to improve his English so we arranged an exchange with Teddy who is staying with us before his parents arrive.During her second visit she explained that her deceased husband had hid in the loft of the gite "les Etables " from 1942 onward as Coat Aillis was the communication base for the local resistance in the last war. During our renovation of that gite we found a Lee Enfield mk2 rifle hidden in the gables

The story that led up to her late husband hiding was he was a "de Staint Laurent " and lived in the local chateau a few fields away and an allied airplane crashed on the beach at St Efflam and the 2 pilots were hidden at the chateau then passed on to escape to the UK , but unfortunately the gestapo came and took the mother away and she died in the camp Ravensbruck in 45 and all the children ( 10 of them ) were dispersed as they were afraid they would be deported as well, so my neighbour who was a couple years old was put in a monastery where as Jacque ( her husband ) who was 17 and good at telecommunications/ morse code hid in the loft of les etables while his older brother escaped to England.

I went to a meeting /demonstration on the " toxic beach" at St Michel en Greve last Sunday where there was hardly a trace of seaweed in fact it was the cleanest I have ever seen no doubt due to the presence of the TV cameras and the national press. The consensus seems to be that there should be better policing of the couple of intensive units inland plus a change of husbandry by the farmers to stop growing maize which is very shallow rooting and leaves the fields bare from November to April ( unless the farmers put in a green manure crop ) and to grow lucerne a crop with a very deep rooting system. The statistics show on average after the maize is cut there remains about 140 units of N in the ground which then leaches into the watercourse. The other consensus was that the entire team of bureaucrats at the prefecture should be sacked!

Toxic smells ,toxic news

2009-08-07T18:50:00+02:00

There was a bizarre story in the press 3 weeks ago of a horse rider who's horse fell in a hole next to the a river and it died allegedly with its head in the seaweed of a toxic gas given off by the seaweed decomposing in the sun. The weed is known as sea lettuce and would be the equivalent of taking a walk on a pile of rotting garden lettuces which have been left in the sun for 4 weeks, something you just wouldn't do.However it being the age of litigation and no one takes responsibility for their own actions now adays the owner is suing the local mayor in St Michel who already has an action pending against "X" who are local farmers ( not identified ) for pollution of the water course ( use of excessive nitrates ).

So a week ago the French press did a blitz on the story and a week later its on Sky news so it must be true. The problem with the English press is objectivity like the swine flu "with the streets of England cluttered with dead bodies due to this deadly menace" so now its too dangerous to open the window of the car at the beach to " sniff the sea air filled with toxic gases " The reality is in the last 20 years there has been 3 or 4 incidents one involving a person the others being dogs and a horse these facts are then taken by the Murdoch press and sensationalised regardless of the true facts. The beaches are as popular as ever and to my knowledge none are closed, there are signs where its "interdite " to swim but those signs have been in place 30+yrs. The excess nitrates is a long going problem with local authorities reluctant in the past to take on farmers but the "tide is turning " and the environment is being given a higher priority.

Previously I lived in Cornwall and the answer there to their sewage problems was to build longer outlets and pump it further out to sea.

Sad news

2009-07-12T08:38:00+02:00

We had some sad news yesterday my mother in law, Hildegarde passed away Friday night. She hasn't been well for the last two years but had been well looked after by Beep ( Paulien's sister who is married to my brother ) in Cornwall. She was a colourful character well know to our client/friends as a slightly eccentric Dutch woman doing yoga and interested in all aspects of life with a very open mind. She was probably the least materialistic person I have ever met a sad loss for humanity may she rest in peace.

The boys are all moving on this autumn, Max has finished his 3 year stint at Brest and wants to do a further 2 years at Rennes studing "European law" (exciting stuff ) and Bas passed his bac and has a place at the university at Rennes to do "lange applique " which is doing the languages Spanish and English with some business studies thrown in, so they will be flat huntting as it makes sense to share and is cheaper per head than having single appartments. Xav is off to the lycee in Lannion to do a CEP which is a vocational course and involves an apprentiship in electrics. I hope he isn't colour blind

Preparing to Elope

2009-06-19T09:27:00+02:00

I know I've mentioned this before, but here is again because I like saying it. I'm engaged. Getting married with all that economic brouhaha going on may sound like a bad idea, unless of course, you are planning to elope. Which is exactly what we had decided to do years ago; being private people it always made sense to us. Now it makes even better sense!

There are still certain costs associated with our getting married, but mostly just revolving around the holiday we plan to take during that period. We will be eloping early next year, and with it being something I am really looking forward to, I am actually planning ahead of time.

I have a list of what I need to have organised, such as the paperwork for the marriage, the hotel reservation, the activities we plan to do on our holiday, find and buying the rings, and what all that will come to in the end so we have specific goal in mind for saving towards this. When I was planning this, I actually thought the very first thing to do was to get a joint savings account. We both already bank with Nationwide Building Society, so it made sense to get a savings account with them, which makes it extremely easy to transfer our savings in there when we get our pay each month. I think online banking is the best!

I am more than a little excited, really. I am having a great time thinking about having a day that we can spoil ourselves on, go and do anything we want, take in a show, visit places we have been meaning to visit for such a long time, and of course, best of all, finally being married to the man I love.

Getting this all prepared truly is a labor of love, one that I am really excited to be in charge of, and really happy that we are doing it our own way! I am very much looking forward to our holiday too!

[Fotolog] : 3 Hari 2 Malam...

2009-06-14T03:16:00+02:00

5,6,7 Jun lepas, famili aku pergi cuti2 Malaysia kat Port Dickson. Best sangat. Hari pertama tak buat apa pun. Hari kedua baru jalan2 gi Pasar Malam kat Teluk Kemang, pastu buat BBQ tepi pantai. Kitorang tinggal kat penthouse Bayu Beach Resort Hotel. Tagline Bayu Beach Resort - The Best Beach in PD. N kitorang sumer setuju yang pantai kat Bayu adalah pantai yang paling best kat PD.

Terkejut aku mula2 sampai pantai dia. Air cantik. Pantai bersih. India jual eskrem tu siap sediakan plastik sampah besar lagi sbb dia tak nak bagi customer dia buang sampah rata2. Kalau nak pergi PD n nak mandi laut, pergi la kat pantai dalam area Bayu Beach Resort. Sangat best! =)

p/s: Untuk ke Bayu Beach Resort, ikut highway Ekspressway Lingkaran Tengah [ELITE], keluar kat susur keluar KLIA / Litar F1 Sepang. Lepas tu, ikut signboard menghala ke Terminal LCCT / Litar F1. Belok kiri bila nampak Litar F1 kat belah kiri. Terus sampai jumpa simpang 4 Bandar @enstek. Belok kanan. Terus sampai jumpa simpang tiga. Belok kiri [signboard Port Dickson]. Terus kira2 13 KM sampai jumpa simpang 3 [lalu Bukit Pelandok]. Belok kanan. Terus sampai nampak PD Yatch Club kat sebelah kanan. Bayu Beach Resort kat sebelah kanan, sebelah Yatch Club. --- Jalan ni best sebab pemandangan sejuk je... Lalu area ladang sawit...

Elections

2009-06-07T09:57:59+02:00

The European election is one of two elections I can vote in ,the other being the local town hall election.For Europe we have a choice of about 20 parties of which 4 are serious and have a chance of electing a good number of deputies ( 5 if you include the national front ) they will probably get around 10% of the vote. The main players are the UMP (Sarkos lot ) Socialists,MoDem ( a liberal party ) and the greens. The rest of the candidates are more single issue policies,such as "esperanto " "breton party " and extreme left,right and green. The voting turnout is always high in France so should be 50-60% with the polls showing UMP in the lead

Paulien brought home a terrorist last week , he has 4 legs ,looks cuddly but is destruction on paws and dashs around chewing shoes and anything left on the floor. The other dogs do their best to ignore him but that is really differcult.The boys have named him " Bealo" after the village idiot in the film Borat.

I see a bit of blue sky so must go and cast my vote.

Monaco suites de Boracay

2009-05-26T03:39:00+02:00

Backed with 29 years of successful hotel operation in Paradise Garden Resort-Hotel, this efficient German Management open a new dimension of luxury living, a luxurious urban highland resort-hotel, "Monaco Suites de Boracay”.Monaco Suites de Boracay a fully registered Corporation recently open its door to hotel industry and hospitality service, accredited as triple AAA from Department of Tourism (DOT) Boracay with 5 star hotel standard boast with 50 ocean view suites on a 13,000 sqm. land. Boracay New born legend...Monaco Suites de Boracay is at southeasterly part of Boracay bringing all-suite accommodation to the premier resort island of Boracay, Philippines.Monaco Suites de Boracay gives unsurpassed comfort to Boracay beach holidays, complementing the tropical vibe that Boracay Island is famous of.Sitting on private beach southeast of Boracay famous long beach Monaco Suites de Boracay brings to its doorstep an exclusive white beach, water sport activities, and other island adventures available in Boracay Island.Every day is a new day at Monaco Suites de Boracay a guaranteed rest, comfort and total relaxation is what Monaco Suites de Boracay is all about all these can be experience in this exciting Boracay Island. Discover Monaco Suites de Boracay...Brings to exciting Boracay Island the hotel comfort of 16,000 sq. m. estate in Boracay finest location along a seaside hill, Monaco Suites de Boracay boasts of spacious units sprawling out across well-maintained landscaped tropical gardens, with a panoramic view of Bulabog Beach. Monaco Suites de Boracay is the only exclusive all-suite hotel in the island that offers infinity Dolphin Shaped Pool, Health Spa, On-Site Water Sports activities from Jet Skiing, Waterskiing, Para-Sailing, Wind Surfing, Kite Boarding, Banana Boat Ride, Fly Fish, Snorkeling to Scuba Diving. It also has a private access road and a private beach with docking port. New Look, Same Great Value...A Contemporary Mediterranean-inspired hotel rooms are comfortably furnish with the best quality of furniture and fixtures exclusively designed by Monaco Suites de Boracay. All rooms have fitted kitchens, stylish en-suite bathrooms, and spacious terraces or balconies with unobstructed views of the sea. The architecture exudes timeless, classic elegance, and is of highest quality that Monaco Suites de Boracay possess offer to Boracay discerning vacationer.A new sanctuary born for travelers seeking comfort and privacy in this world-renowned Boracay island paradise.Monaco Suites de Boracay is the ideal place to meet new people and forge bonds of friendship perfect place to escape, filled with ease and excitement, adventure and tranquility.

” Le Crunch ”

2009-03-19T09:03:00+01:00

One of my simple pleasures ( perhaps childish ) assuming its the correct result is buying "L'Equipe " and reading it in the bar on the Monday and asking somebody French to help explain some words in the article. Its a really good wind up and then I have to see my friend Yves the pharmacists ( he's a real rugby nut we watched the semi finals together in 2007 ) so I enter the shop and all the girl servers start giggling so I say " hi is Yves around or is he too depressed to work or just hiding" A head appears from the back of the shop and we have a good laugh together me more than him. Still it makes my day I made a "faux pas " the other day , someone from the town band is always sending jokes which I usually delete as it gets boring ,however he sent me one of a Dutch carnival which was a bit "risqué " . I mentioned it in the bar and a Sophie said email to me so I can show it to my friend, I immediately forgot but later in the day I had an email from a Sophie to something virtuous such join a petition against genetic modified something, so I hit reply and posted the Dutch Carnival it wasn't till the next day I realised it wasn,t the same Sophie as I don't take a lot notice in the surnames. I think its a Sophie from the jazz band who I hardly know so quickly sent a grovelling apology. A good lesson in deleting rubbish straight away.Bas has received his "permis conduire " but seems to be very sensible he put all the seats in the Boxer and took his mates to the night club the week after he passed the driving test. When they left the night club they were stopped by the police , he was breathalysed and they put sniffer dogs in the van looking for drugs. Fortunately they were clean on both accounts.

Sarko redraws the map

2009-02-28T11:13:00+01:00

Sarkozy sees himself as a modern Napoleon and is in a position to redraw the internal map of France. At present there are 22 governing regions and it is proposed to be reduced to 15 for Brittany it would mean a fifth department with Nantes being re-united to the rest of Brittany. It was Vichy France which separated it in 1941, there could be a competition for the regional capital Rennes or Nantes. Rennes is more central but Nantes is bigger. Normandy is proposed to be united for the first time since John II lost a chunk of it 800 years ago and its also proposed that Paris copies London GLC and represents most of the inhabitants ( including the "revolting" banlieues) instead just the bourgeois centre. There would be a few losers Picardy and Poitou-Charente which by co-incidence is the fiefdom of Segolene Royal who was the presidential rival candidate in the last election. Those regional groups would be merged and disappear in the new regional set up as proposed by the committee of Edouard Balladur. The Bretons are happy but no doubt there will be demonstrations and protests against the reformsBas passed his driving test this week and now drives around with an "A" on the back of the car because he did the accompanied approach he only has it for 2 years if you do purely lessons and pass you have the "A" for 3 years as statistically the accompanied drivers have less accidents and their insurrances is marginally cheaper

A good reason for living in Brittany

2009-02-11T15:46:00+01:00

We had a cold spell last week and on two consecutive days had snow but it disappeared late afternoon but it made driving very tricky for the school run at 7 in the morning, I had to resort to loading the Boxer with a pile of stones to give it better traction on the roads. The first day (Monday ) the buses were on strike so I had to drive into Lannion I think the council workers were also on strike as the roads weren't treated that day but the next day they found their salt stocks and all the main roads were very drivable. The minor roads stayed treacherous until the snow melted.Max my eldest son has at last received a letter of confirmation of French nationality, its only taken 3 years and they seem to ask for the same documents three times but I guess it keeps the bureaucrats in a job. You need to be French national if you want to work in the civil service which is probably half the jobs in France, but at least there will be less jobs lost in the looming recession.There is a big motor construction sector but they have been lobed a few billion to tide them over and Sarkozy is taking of abolishing the professional tax in 2010 ( an illogical tax on business ) which is causing local government to worry over future revenue as they are the main benefice of the tax.I guess they will have to radically increase the "taxe foncier" or " taxe d'habitation" I found a good source of spare parts for my Peugeot classic last week a mechanic in the garage found a local 305 being scrapped so we stripped off the parts I needed for nothing and I just gave him some cash for helping me.The garage had quoted 240€ for just one of the items!My brother who is a wizz in marketing has been on at me to join "twitters.com" its an insane chat site where you can't post more than 140 syllables but allegedly all the "bright things/people" use it.I manage a couple of posting but don't really understand it and then you get followers, who log on to your 140 utterance,bizarre the death of intellectualism.

January 2009

2009-02-01T09:02:34+01:00

Things are not over unless they’re really over. That’s what I have learned for the month of January. Because when I thought nothing eventful would happen by the end of the month, something did, although not something that I would have wanted to happen.

That event, however, would not be (or not just) the topic of this post, because here, I want to share with you all the things that happened to me (and whoever was with me) during the first month of 2009.

Long Holiday

I took a long vacation leave for the Christmas and New Year breaks, but unlike my officemates, I opted to file a long VL after the holidays. So for the whole first week of January, I was in Bicol, just watching TV and downloading movies from the Internet because there was pretty much nothing to do at home. :p

There were only two eventful things that happened during my long weekend in Bicol. First is the annual family reunion being celebrated by my relatives on my Mother’s side, which is held in San Jose, Camarines Sur. Not quite eventful, though, because all there really was were drinking and some money-shower games. But I got to meet my long-unseen cousins, which was the good thing.

Then, I had my birthday celebrated in Naga City, probably the first time since I graduated from college. It was a simple celebration, with me, Egie and Mama dining at our favorite Bicolano restaurant. Just refer to my previous post for the details. :)

New Officemates

When I came back at the office on the second week of January, I saw a couple of new faces and missed a couple of old ones. Back from Japan are Marvin and Sir Alwyn. And while I already know Marvin, Sir Alwyn is a new face to me—someone whom I should learn to deal with. He is a fun officemate, it turned out, but not too rowdy as most Development 1 people are. Hehe.

Not present were Iggy and Kevin, who were already a week old in Development C when I came back from the long break.

Birthdays

Three Dev1 pipz celebrated their birthdays last month—I, Imee and Rommel. But to the dismay of the two other celebrants, they remembered only mine. Hehe. Not that I’m proud of it or anything, but it just had to be written here. :p

I really don’t mind if my officemates would not remember my birthday. After all, I have been with them for only two years. I would mind, though, if my immediate family forgets about it. Gladly, they didn’t. And I am just thankful that my friends and officemates also remembered my special day. In fact, they gave me a Red Ribbon cake on my first day at the office.

Farewells and Parties

Farewells never seem to be complete without parties. Parties celebrated not for the reason that these persons are already leaving the group, but for all those years or months that they have been with us. And for the month of January, we at Dev1 bid Imee and DJ our farewells as they leave our group to be transferred to – well – the other room!

So before the month ended, we had a small party (read: inuman) to commemorate (haha… bayani ang dating) all the hardwork and efforts that our two officemates have shown while they were with us! Haha! Ampangit pakinggan! :p But we really had our month end party, although not just for their farewell.

Well, the night started great and ended quite sour. There was the usual fun, especially when the 1-2-3 pass game started, and the quite expected ending that cut the game short. I won’t divulge the entire incident here in this post. As far as I am concerned, the details of it must be kept private. But I still feel sad that the night ended that way. And I feel quite guilty that I did not do anything when in the middle of it all, I was already expecting something like it to happen.

The End

So that would be it for my January update. This post is quite late to achieve my four posts per month promise for this site, but I hope that you would count it, as well as my previous post, as a post for January. Hehe. Excuses…

Image credit: From Old Books

Frances en Greves

2009-01-30T13:20:00+01:00

Yesterday was "jeudi noir" as most of France was on strike and the boys didn't go to school. Even Lannion had a demonstration of 5000 in the afternoon, I was asking people in the bar why there were strikes and demonstrations and nobody had a sensible suggestion. So half the population doesn't like Sarkozy but the other half does and helping out the banking sector isn't popular but letting it collapse would be worse, but what do I know.A good or bad example of French industry was last week I had to order a small item for the pool, the pipework is by a British company called Certikin and I was told to get in touch with the Perpignan office as I lived in France.Over the next couple of days several telephone calls and emails produced zero response , they weren't interested so I asked for a English company to deal with,one telephone call and the product is in the post. OK its not a lot of money but its an attitude problem they need to learn to love their clients.The pounds continuing decline although making life more expensive if you are sterling dependant makes the UK much more attractive for shopping so I'll have to make a list a do a shop in the spring.My middle son bought a laptop from PC World about 150€ cheaper than he would have paid here and it also keeps him off my PC as well.Its our annual band dinner on Sunday I think its the 30€ menu + wine all paid for by the municipality of Lannion, not sure if they are getting good value.

January

2009-01-20T08:39:00+01:00

The weather has reverted to type for January cold, wet,windy but the temperature is +5 as opposed to -5 which we had for the first 2 weeks of the year. I even planted some onions in my new raised beds. I made 7 of them from old beams I found in my store they measure 1.2 x 3.5m and should make gardening much easier as the soil doesn't get compacted and I can give them a coating of compost at the start of the season.The recession has made its mark in Plestin the upholstery shop is closing down we know the owner well and her work is good and she doesn't appear to be incompetent as a business person. She told us she hasn't paid last years taxes and this year she had a demand of 21k from the RSI (regime social independent ) which includes social security payments and pension contributions. It seems very excessive for a small business I think French economists go to the same school where they invented the square wheel.The Lannion harmony band seems to have the opportunity of going to Bavaria for a week as part of an exchange the only problem is only half the band is interested and we would be short of trumpet players so it would effect the total sound of the band. I guess after the locals have had a few beers it wouldn't sound too bad.

Not a good start to the year

2009-01-06T08:56:00+01:00

Its been cold recently temperatures hovering around 0 then Sunday night it just rained most of the night so the frost went ( so I thought ). I was due to help a friend at Plufur about 8kms in the interior (all distances over 2km are interior for me ) so I zoomed down the hill from St Sebastien , it is a deep valley I guess a couple of degrees colder so at the bottom it was pure ice so my car just slid from side to side and ended up at right angles to the road with the nose buried in the ditch. It looked quite spectacular with the back wheels in the air hanging over the road. At least I got a chance to use the new warning triangles. A friendly passing car took me to Plestin to find Paulien and with a tow rope it pulled out easily. The motor was fine I have just redesigned the front and pushed the radiator back a couple inches ( it was a good job it wasn't the plastic car as that would have been major damage ) so I drove home OK and it is now on the list of things to do. I still had to go to Plufur so Paulien took me which was about 10 minutes after retrieving my car and there was another car "hor piste " on the opposite side of my accident only she had ended up in the little paddock next to the road.I think its the worst driving I can remember in Brittany as it rained again last night and this morning on the school run there are skid marks where cars have slid into fields and in Plestin there was a car parked at a strange angle until you notice the crumpled bonnet and the wall in front of it. The moral is to stay at home and keep warm.The pound sterling seems to have continued the meltdown as it seems to have reached parity with the euro which is fairly tough on ex pats with retirement pensions. I think for us as a business we will get more French and other euro Europeans as being priced in sterling makes us much cheaper. From talking to friends the "perceived wisdom " is that the euro will weaken in the second half of the year so we might/should get £=1.15-1.20. Well its good to be optimistic

December

2008-12-18T09:15:00+01:00

I think i must suffer from SADs ( seasonal something disorder ) something to do with lack of daylight as I always get cranky in December, hate going out and go to bed early perhaps its a primal hibernation urge but it gets better after a few weeks in January. On reflection it might a reaction to the rampant consumerism of Christmas still it passes.My sister came for a week ( so she thought ) at the beginning of the month, fortunately her husband took out breakdown insurance as his car hadn't been starting too good recently and sure enough it didn't start the day before the return and they had to stay another 6 days while the garage sorted out the problem. It was only a sparking problem but as Volvos aren't so common in France the spare parts ( distributor cap and condenser ) had to come from Sweden!Xav has been doing his work experience this week he was supposed to do it in a restaurant in Plestin but the owner has some problems so at the last minute Paulien got him a place in Super U which has been great. Normally work experience is just watching and taking notes but Xav has been stacking shelves hauling pallets around. He comes home completely worn out and is beginning to realise that there is a point in working at school as he doesn't think much to shelf packing as a career option.The weather has been really mild but I am surprised that if you drive inland just 5 minutes its quite a few degrees colder and often they have a frost whereas we have nothing in fact we have had just one frost so far this winter. We get one of our regular visitors tomorrow, she is very cheap to keep as we keep her on a chain in the orchard, yes its a goat from our Dutch friends who go back to Holland every year for Christmas. This is the time of the year to wish all my readers ( all two of them ) a happy and festive time. Bloavez Matt

'Tis the Season.....

2008-12-13T23:17:00+01:00

It's the season to be jolly or like a good few people, ill. I feel that I have cold coming on..
Loads of people here in the good old UK are feeling poorly.

Himdownstairs thinks I get a cold every Christmas time on purpose. Huh, no way Jose.

I believe it is to do with stress, going in and out of warm shops, cold days, hard work and all that stuff. Possibly none of those things but I don't think they help.

If you are feeling a little under the weather, please get well soon.
I am sitting here listening to Mr Presley singing. We invested in a LP2CD thingy. I have just got it sussed, well, more or less. Must look up how to erase before I burn. Along with Elvis I have Pinky and Perky. lol I thought I had erased them off the player. I should read these things properly.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

Maybe a bit early but not to worry. Take care. X X X X

Thanksgiving Leftovers

2008-11-29T01:26:40+01:00

Had Thanksgiving leftovers tonight for dinner. Served the crab au gratin on English muffin, the last of the Pommes Anna alongside them, and a fresh batch of baby spinach sauteed with garlic in olive oil. With the rest of the Beringer's chenin blanc. And more pumpkin pie. Mmm.

Thanksgiving Photos

2008-11-28T23:39:00+01:00

Our Thanksgiving was leisurely. Watched the Macy's parade and football and Miracle on 34th Street (the new version, which I much prefer to the old one, though I know most people don't), took a walk with the dog, and then commenced prepping and cooking the dinner, which took about an hour total (the Pommes Anna bakes for about 45 mins.).

The Crab au Gratin seems to have been improperly named. Technically, it's true, it was crab with browned breadcrumbs and cheese on it. But a more accurate name would be Crab in Sherried Cream Sauce. It was a Mornay sauce, with crab, sherry, Worcestershire sauce and Old Bay added to it, and so even after its 20 minutes of baking at 400F (with Ritz cracker crumbs and Parmesan cheese atop), it remained more a bisque or a dip than a solid mass. Still, it held its own on the plate along with the spinach sauteed with pine nuts and garlic and the Pommes Anna. And it tasted luscious.

Of course, I forgot to take photos of any of the prep or the finished products, until we were halfway through with them. In fact, we had eaten all the spinach already when I remembered. So below are photos of the remnants of our meal, including the Waldorf Salad and the Beringer chenin blanc, which we drank instead of the Riesling that we bought for the event and then forgot to chill.

Near death experience

2008-11-27T09:19:00+01:00

I was being driven my my friend Cogs the other week on the twisty road between Tremel and Plufur and we met a charging articulated lorry on a sharp bend and as the trailer followed the truck around the road became smaller and smaller so we ended up half way up the hedge and missed it my a coat of paint.We both looked at each other gob smacked as they say in shock.needless to say the lorry sped off in search of more victims to scare. The truck I was in fortunately is a 4x4 so easily went off road but the worrying thing for me as a passenger was that it was right hand drive and it would have been that would have been crunched if we had made contact. I was very impressed with Terry's reactions especially as he is 70!Its our first winter in France since we came 16 years ago that we don't have any major building projects ( just as well with the present economic climate ) so I decided to reoganise the garden making raised beds and having less chaos so we might get better production. A friend just nailed some railway sleepers together to form a rectangle and then filled them with earth which seems a good idea so will do something similar. I also made a greenhouse out recycled transparent plastic against my workshop and only had to buy an extra 4 sheets so it cost me around 40€. The construction was the easy part, but as it was built on the same concrete slab as the workshop I had to hack through 30cm of concrete and stone so there is a connection with the subsoil for the plants. I even topped up the fresh soil with compost and scattered some mustard seeds for a green manure effect.Last week the town band did its annual concert for the over 70s in Lannion. There was about 600 of them and they all get a meal , music and a dance band afterwards and its all free! The French certainly look after their ageing population well

Thanksgiving Dinner

2008-11-26T11:04:00+01:00

I'm a pesce-vegetarian, so for Turkey Day we mostly we have either visited friends (our old neighbours) who are vegetarians and partake of the Tofurkey with all the trimmings, or we have bought take-out Indian or Chinese food (ditto for Christmas), or we've gone out to eat someplace where I can get fish. This year, though, despite a couple of wonderful Thanksgiving invitations, we're staying home and I'm making a mini-feast. I don't know why.

Yesterday, I made the pumpkin pie, the Libby's standard with my own pie crust. [I also made the dough yesterday for Windmill cookies, a supposedly easy thing I'll never do again. It nearly ended in tears.]

Today, I'll buy the crabmeat from the local seafood place to make either Diane's Crab Casserole, Crabmeat au Gratin, or a crab meat souffle that I found in a book first published in 1958, Recipes, Party Plans, and Garnishes, by Sadie Le Sueur ("Le Sueur" like those little canned peas). Or very possibly some melange of the three recipes. I want Old Bay and sherry!

Thursday, I'll make and bake the crabmeat thingy after the Macy's Day parade (as we always called it), assemble and bake some Pommes Anna, and saute fresh baby spinach in olive oil with garlic and pine nuts, and we'll say thanks for all that bounty, plus a slice of pie, and maybe later a piece of the Gethsemani fruitcake that arrived on the doorstep today, just in time, with some lovely tawny port from last Christmas. Mmm.

November 11th

2008-11-14T11:36:00+01:00

We were really lucky with the weather for the November 11th parade in Plestin no rain ( although it made up for it later ). There was about 100 people attending and watching , there is the remnants of the Plestin Fanfare ( used to be over 20 in it's prime now down to a rump of 8) and then half a dozen old guys carrying flags ( representatives of the forces and the resistance from the last war ).So we do our usual bit march up and down the road to the two memorials with a bit of music and then I was thinking a quick glass of wine and then home,but no there was a special ceremony in the salle des fetes as some one from Plestin was to be awarded the "Legionaire d'Honour" and there was the mandatory speeches, an hour............... Apparently this type of award is being encouraged by Sarko for active members of the public, but the old boy had had an active life, escaped into Spain in the war ,imprisoned by the Spanish then he joined the Free French in N Africa . Post war he moved to Plestin in the 60s and since has been on 100s of committeesAt last I have got one of the boys interested in music , Xav has started drumming lessons ( obviously has dreams of being a rock star but you have to start with the basics) with the Harmony band.Its interesting in France the schools don't really teach music, only learning to play a recorder and for instrumental lessons you go to the" Ecole de Musique" which is very expensive nearly a 1000€ a year or find a private tutor. I explained to Xav if he got competent he would be able to play at the various ceremonies and earn money as we get 15€ each time so he could get 150€ in a year + develope a skill.I think I have downloaded something nasty recently ( I think it was a trojan spam factory ) as I had lots of problems with my email not working and then last Sunday received about 5000 spam letters and non deliveries as it hijacks the address, so I had to buy a decent anti virus protection and after a week it seems to have settled down again.

Falling leaves

2008-10-23T08:46:00+02:00

Its turned autumnal this last week with leaves falling its time for collecting chestnuts in the woods and roasting them on the wood burner in the evenings.Its also the shooting season we get a lot of hunters around us due to the maize crops which are home to pheasants. They all have to wear florescent red hats as they have a habit of shooting each other. On average about 50 hunters get shoot a year, I had friend who went hunting with some French hunters ,they drank an enormous amount of alcohol did various dangerous things and at the end of the afternoon they shot their dog ( not intentionally ) so had to take it to the vets ( it survived ). The moral is to wear something bright when you walk in the countrysideBas picked up his first speeding ticket at St Efflam, he hasn't even passed his test yet. You don't expect hidden radar traps Sunday afternoon at the sea front.I think its more of a revenue collecting exercise than genuine concern of road safety. Paulien took it on her licence and he paid the fine 90€........Its our last full week this week before Christmas, Plestin has been quite busy with Parisian on holiday at the weekend. I was thinking Plestin must be quite recession proof as there is no industry and 80% of the population are retired and on pensions so the main beneficiaries are the pharmacists, flower shops and the hairdressers although the funeral shop does a good trade.Xav has joined the homework club at school they have a supervised session after school so we pick him up at 6.15 and homework is done . No arguments but its a long day 8.00am - 6.15 pm

Brittany feels the heat

2008-09-20T12:05:00+02:00

Its amazing as soon as the high season finishes the weather suddenly improves , the meteo has continuous sun blobs for the next 5 days with not a lot of tourists around. I guess in general numbers are down 20% for Plestin and Brittany as a whole mostly the French who are staying at home. For the Brits its 20% more expensive due to decline of the pound but the Irish on the other hand find it much cheaper than at home.I see in the papers Bernard Tapie has been awarded 300€+ million by the courts when the banks took over his affairs and sold his various businesses off which included Adias at the time. I thought he was just an incompetent businessman verging on being a crook which explains his inforced holiday in prison but it seems he has been creeping around Sarko and they put pressure on the courts for the settlement so the tax payers have to pay him 20€ each.Paulien had a odd experience last week she had been collecting old clothes from the boys and took them to the centre in Plestin. There is already a "resto de coeur" which hands out free food to the "poor" and it also gives them clothes ( so they can spend their money important things such as drinks,the loto,tv dvd players and other necessities as they can get housing benefits )Any way after they took the 4 bin liners of clothes one of the woman came out and shouted at Paulien she hadn't washed them ( not true ) and ironed the clothes and they were only fit for the dump as they were used to receiving new clothes. So next time we do a clear out I think the clothes will go direct to the dump rather than take unnecessary abuse. It a bit of a socialist paradise,France a very high percentage of the population is on minimum wages but get lots of benefits ,once you are pass the threshold you lose the benefits and are worse off which takes away a lot of incentives to improve your life.

The ”rentre”

2008-09-09T16:05:00+02:00

The last couple of weeks have been a bit dull I slipped a disc so wasn't able to walk properly for a week or so without a stick. Its interesting in France when you have a bad back you go to the doctor and get the usual medications but he also gives a prescription for 10 sessions with a kiniotherapist which is then subsidised by the health insurance. I go to the local in Plestin he doesn't do much but his treatment doesn't hurt and its quick ( although I think I'm a much better therapist I can't treat myself )Max has been working for the Marie in August in their gardening gang which included weeding ,strimming and watering flowers. The Marie is the biggest employer in Plestin ( population under 4000 ) about 70 people on their books not surprising as its a cushy number on Friday they have their first aperitif at midday and then more later in the afternoon so I guess they don't get much done at the end of the week.For the month he received around 1000€ which was OK at least he found it much more interesting than working in Super U . His uni starts again 10th September which could be his last year which would be a Bac+3 or stay another 2 years and leave with a Bac+5 he is undecided at the moment.The other 2 boys are back at college and lycée we stoped Xav's private lesson and told him he has to pull his finger out and start concentrating in class, so far he seems to be working but then its only the first week another 35 to go!The season is winding down we have some kiwis staying who are semi retired but house keep in stately homes very interesting he used to do a lot of refereeing rugby matches which is more interesting

Sax master class at Coat Aillis

2008-08-14T13:30:00+02:00

This week we are very fortunate to have staying a renowned sax player John............... ( not Coltrane ) staying with us , actually he's an ex pro player and now works as a psychoanalyst ( so is eminently suited to staying at the Coat ) So I ruined his wife's holiday by lending him my tenor and he wrote a few simple numbers for me and Emma to play with him. Its useful to have a collection of saxes , so we can play as a trio , Emma on Alto , John on tenor and me on bari, its a bit tough for Emma as she has to play my leaky alto and play a tune whereas I get a bass line much easier to do so tonight we do our first performance at the BBQ. The Coat Aillis Sax trio or " Sax at Coat Aillis "The last two weeks have been the Club weeks where we have a lot of repeaters who come the same time each year and we have been running our annual "pool competition " sponsored by CMB and Super U ( bank and super market ,they provide the cups ) and Npower , they provide the goodies, tonight is also the finals, its a three way leg between Jonny , Teddy ( father son combo ) and Rob ( a mental nurse worker ) . I am beginning to think its some sort of karmic thing so many psychic observers staying in the gites. ( Must vet the clients more in the future ) but John is a great guy must get him to teach me a few tricks to improve my sax playing.Result of pool competition to be in next bulletin

Signing on

2008-08-01T17:10:00+02:00

Today was quite interesting for me because last week we visited the local " Tregor Contacts " which is a sort of job offer place in Plestin for small items of work but no first we needed to sign on at the ASSEDIC and then the ANPE which is based in Lannion. So off we went ,first filling out a form and then waitting for an interview , mine was for today the first interview took 5 minutes then an hour wait for the second with the ANPE or so I thought , a leisurely coffee in town with a few chats with some people I knew then back to the bureau , My rendez vous marked in the letter for 10.00 was in fact for 9.30 amazing incompetence on their part, so more waiting then another 5 minute interview.They needed a label to fit on me so I could be entered in a category.In the end we decided on gardener as I could cut grass and knew which end of the hedge cutter to hold. I don't have a lot of certificates but some of them are interesting such as the one for being a competent inseminater of cows or the one for shiatsu. But the bureaucrat couldn't get his head around them or there wasn't a category on his computer. The idea is to get some form of legal status to work in the autumn between the end of our coffee session in the bar and before its time to pick up the children from school

It's hot

2008-07-24T17:00:00+02:00

You know summer has arrived when Xav opens his ice cream shop insists we buy his stock then he puts up his adverts of the various ice creams and waits for the clients , a venture capitalist at a young age.My own efforts to diversify are in progress I am setting up an e-shop with various exotic goods available + the much sort after new version of the Coat Aillis T -shirt which can be found at Simon's Shop More products to added later.We also went along to the local ASSEDIC office in Lannion ,its the unemployment centre as we thought we should do a bit of part time work officially this winter as we haven't any major projects and would help with the cash flow as the pound has droped nearly 20% against the euro and unfortunately we are priced in sterling.They have a local office in Plestin called Tregor Contacts where you can find local work but first you have to be registered with the ASSEDIC. They said no just go to the ANPE the next link , but no first fill in some documentation at the ASSEDIC then wait for a rendez vous with the ANPE to be assessed for our various skills or certificates ( don't have many )after which they suggest courses etc but as we are only interested in some part time work cleaning or cutting grass to fill in the time between the morning coffee in the bar and picking children up i think their efforts will be wasted! We have a very eclectic group of people this week the normal range of lawyers,teachers,IT etc but this week we have a writer ( 2 books published ) and an .............ex page 3 woman perhaps I should ask her to do some posing photos by the pool showing our collective assets. Paulien returned from London much excited by the Leonard Cohen concert devasted to have missed the "Nuit des Saucisses" I find the music very average the real music is at the festival held in the centre of Brittany " Les Vielles Charrues" which hosted over 215 000 fans this year with lots of oldies such as MotorHead,Duffy and loads of groups I haven't heard of as its catering for a different generation

Apartheid in the veg patch

2008-07-11T08:55:00+02:00

I never knew hens were racists but apparently they are and its differcult to mix red and white hens so we have ended up with 2 chicken runs in the veg patch ,the reds and whites and they both have to be moved each day.I made a mistake in showing Paulien an OAP singing at Glastonbury and she has moody ever since and then Louise rang up and a few taps on the computer she found his next concert so when I had come home she had already booked a ticket at the "Dome " and Ryanair ticket for next week leaving me and the boys to do all the cleaning next weekend, and the singer in question is ............Leonard Cohen only 73yrs and still crocking away.We had an amusing band practise , we had previously lost our mixing table, politics of previous band , however Valerie the wife of the drummer bought a new one for him but unfortunately also bought 5 micros which he has arranged around his drum kit. Its just a shame he can't play it a bit better.I didn't get the subtleties of Sarkos reform of public TV not only was he getting more control of them by taking away their commercial advertising he was at the same time boosting the profits of the remaining commercial TV companies such TF1 who just happen to be owned by his mates.Politics.

Trouble down on the farm

2008-07-04T09:25:00+02:00

We have 2 hens in our mobile chicken run and last week we bought 2 more a grey and a white one, unfortunately the existing residents didn't appreciate the new arrivals , the grey was tolerated as it was bigger but the white hen was bullied mercilessly. So first we tried it in the rabbit pen but that didn't work so we found a temporary home while Paulien made another chicken run and in the mean time the grey escaped twice the second time he was caught by Jimmy the dog who had an early breakfast.I had a bad car month in June first I smashed the driver's window when the ride on lawn mower caught a stone and then it kept running dry due to a leak in the cooling system which I traced to a plastic box where you pour the water in. It looked an expensive piece to replace so we had a trip to the breakers yard but there was a poor choice only 2 smashed up so had to repare the item with some resin , seems OK. And then there is the 305 needing its head gasket sorting out , the cylinder head has been reground ( the last time it can be done ) and all put back together again. I didn't have many bolts left over. To get it going again you have to bump start it vigorously so we towed it for half a km and it seems to be going OK Sarko seems to be having fun sorting out the media, first Patrick Poirve an anchor newsman on TF1 is sacked ( slightly critical of the great man ) and replaced by a young blonde more photogenic . Its purely a coincidence that Sarko's friend is boss of TF1 and then France 2 and 3 are to have their commercial ads removed so they are solely dependant on licence fees so I guess they will be more subservient to the government, shades of Italy

New regs for the road

2008-06-24T08:30:00+02:00

From the first of July its obligatory to carry a red triangle and a reflective jacket in the car and you can be fined if you don't. It seems to be part of a European movement in Spain its 2 triangles and one jacket whereas Austria demand one triangle and 2 jackets, confused, its Europe.Xav has tried again and this time seems to have reached Spain ironically we have received our first Spanish client this week.The fete de musique has passed at the weekend ,21st June , its a super idea with all sorts of groups playing from a bunch of school children playing dots to heavy metal punk groups. The Harmony band I play in did its usual number although the lead trumpeter was under the weather as he had started gigging in the morning at an Irish bar and the guiness was taking its toll. He never made it home he just fell asleep in his car in the parking and woke up on Sunday.There is another fete this week in Plufur one of Xav's friends mother does circus and they have erected their big top tent to perform with other types of activity which also includes the rock band I play in so it could be interesting, so this weeks work is a mix of music in between putting the engine back together of the 305. The garage said it was the last time the cylinder head could be levelled off so its days are numbered.

News in Plestin

2008-06-15T09:00:00+02:00

Usually you go to the bar and say "quoi de neuf " and get the exciting response a boule tournament has been cancelled or someone has fallen over and gone to hospital,but last week there was a fire in Plestin. It was the old building that used to be " St Jo " but was closed about 10 years ago although the primary school still functions. In Plestin ( population 3600 average age 65 ) had 2 schools the state and a catholic school, crazy. Anyway the St Jo has been sold off to property developers who claim they are going to build "beautiful apartments " (for 150 000€ ) it must be true as they have brochures of them and for the last 3 years have been trying to sell them or get people to pay a deposit. However this year some homeless had moved into the defunct school , which is waiting to be knocked down and last Wednesday there was a fire in the top storey very mysteriously at 6 in the morning and 3 fire engines attended it . The gossip is unknown origins of fire and a large gap in the middle section of the roof still can't believe anything is going to be built.Just after it closed we did a tour of the building and the upper floor was for the boarders, just 5 days a week,they would have paid about 500€ a term very cheap until you saw the conditions, big dormitories with a communal wash room with a long trough to wash in.Very 19th century in style.Xav's trip to Spain was a non event he got within 50kms of the border and then the bus turned around and came back to Plestin ( 24 hours on the bus ) as the frontier was blocked by revolting truckers both sides its part of the campaign against the hike in petrol/diesel prices. He said on the autoroute it was marked at 2€/1l whereas here its 1.4€/1l. I suppose it will help bike sales but not much else.

”Fete des fraises”

2008-06-09T14:40:00+02:00

Our dutch friends who grow strawberries for PYO did their usual trick this year and invite all their friends over for a meal mid day and in the afternoon we put straw between the rows of plants now I realise why they are called straw berries. Its a good stunt for them they get a third of the work done for free and its a scial event. I was working with a one parent mother with 2 children sympathising how differcult it must be , but she told me that she got lots of aid from the government . Its nice to know how they are spending my 1600€ a month contribution. I was fairly crocked the next day ,Paulien is far smarter she refuses to do it.We have had an interesting saga with the hens, last autumn I spent an afternoon sorting out Carlos ( A hen seller in the market ) roof and so he offered us some hens in the spring. Well last month he gave us 3 , 2 of them looked as if they had come straight from the jungle and acted accordingly while the third hopped aroung on one leg. Paulien took the 2 black ones back after a week and bought a couple in the market while the one legged one was diagnosed as arthritic by some Dutch vets staying in a gite and by coincidence some English vets were repeating the following weekend I got in contact with them to bring some medication for the one legged arthritic hen.Xav has gone to Spain for the week to stay with a family and improve his Spanish I hope the bus driver is careful as there was a horrendous crash last week in Savoy when a bus was stuck on a rail crossing and 8 ,12 year olds were killed

Dalai Lama 's bodyguard

2008-06-03T08:35:00+02:00

We get a lot interesting people stay at Coat Aillis but an ex bodyguard to the Dalai Lama is special. Its Alan Pittman and he lives not too far from us and runs a course here every May for people working in the health sector . He was down on numbers this year so I did the course and it was very interesting . Its called "La sagesse du corp " (wisdom of the body ) and involves yoga taken from Egyptian and Scythian cultures and their relationship with their environment of fighting ,healing tribal ethics and shamanistic spiritual beliefs. In all a very interesting weekend which will be repeated again next year in May he has an interesting website also I had some bad news with my 305 Bas was driving it and the head gasket has blown again not sure if he ran it too hot as I noticed the radiator hose had come ,it means I have to get my hands dirty and take it to pieces again. At least I should be quicker this time.Most of France seems to be protesting against the hike in fuel prices the favourite method seems to be driving tractors at 15kms along autoroutes or blocking it entirely. The fishermen prefer to block ports I guess the government will do its usual fudge and give them money which the EC will later deem to be illegal subsidies. For us we are biking to the bar for our coffee on our velos.

Do the French work in May

2008-05-07T07:55:00+02:00

Someone in the bar told me there were only 11 working days in May as they have 3 or 4 bank holidays and if they fall on the middle of the week they call it "Le Pont" (bridge ) and have a long weekend so tomorrow is another long weekend as 8th May ( end of war , and my wedding anniversary ) is a "jour ferrie " so by next Tuesday the 13th the French workers will have done 3 official workdays in May so far.Nice work if you can get it.We had a bit "barney " at Geant the other day ,we needed to buy a fridge and as we buy all our white goods there assumed we were considered good clients. Wrong thinking first we arrived during the period between 1200 and 2 pm you almost feel you should apologise for being there and the service was so bad I lost my cool and had to walk out. I think part of the problem is with the French labour laws making it differcult to sack any body so their customer respect has declined I find it a complete contrast to the Uk where I almost feel every one has been on a customer relation course.I have at last managed to sideline my problem with "Echo " by playing the alto sax and my mate Rodger has to go back to playing the tenor and sitting next to him. Serves him right for not attending practises regularly and it gives me a chance to be more objective about his dismal playing. Tomorrow there is another run out by the remains of the Plestin Fanfare , we march up and down the hill , ( a bit like the Grand Old Duke of York ) play the " Marseillaise " a couple times and then go into the Marie to drink a few toasts.

” The Marriage ”

2008-04-30T12:55:00+02:00

We set off for England last Thursday with great trepidation for Louise's wedding at the weekend we had all been kitted out with suits except me as I had to hire a suit with tails so I would resemble a penguin and having to give Louise at the church also had to give a speech later. We stayed with our good friends Jonnie and Francis near Amersham which was a half hour from the venue Taplow near Marlow and the reception was to be held at Stoke Park a superb country house where parts of the JamesBond film Goldfinger was shot.Friday passed in a blur with a bit of shopping ( buying sad things such as baked beans and cheddar + books ) then being measured for my penguin suit and a rehearsal at the church afterwards we dashed back to Aylesbury for a meal at a noodle bar where they messed up our reservation to such a degree we got the meal for half price + free drinks to the point of embarrassment that we chucked in another £20 (it was for 11 people)The big day arrived quickly first I dropped Paulien off to be beautified at Louise lodgings Red Roofs another very beautiful location later on I left with Louise in an 80year old Rolls Royce for the church at Taplow. The most differcult thing about escorting a bride down the isle is trying to avoid walking on their dress and ripping it. The service passed quickly although Louise had to give me a nudge to remember to lift her hand and place it in the vicar's to join the grooms. Afterwards they departed in the " Roller" for Stoke Park to be followed by the rest of us .The reception was magnificent a quartet in the background playing classical music perfect weather for photo shoots good food and service and a sympathetic reception for my mumbling speech ( I spoke first and apparently pinched Adam's ( groom ) best lines ) The evening continued with fireworks then more music (rock ) and dancing we eventually got to bed in the early hours . It was a great time meeting up with friends and family ,Paulien's sister ( she is married to my brother ) and a really interesting experience ( although expensive , I seem to recall we got married for £25 but then I'm probably a tight "git " ) and then we wearily returned to France on the Sunday very tired

Seven months!!! Summer.

2008-04-27T15:20:00+02:00

Today I haven't had a cig for seven months. It has been hard and it has been easy. Still fancy one now and then but in the same way I quite fancy a strawberry ice cream. I won't drop to pieces if I don't have one.

Not that I would have dropped to pieces even on the days I could have killed for a ciggie. I was helped as I have said before by the support on www.stayquit.co.uk Free to join, no fees, very easy to set up. There are other sites too. Joel has a good one. http://www.whyquit.com

Well, April has nearly gone. Soon be May and another Bank holiday. We have had a couple of warm days. Makes me wish we could have more. It wasn't that great up north yesterday but Man Utd played Chelsea and people were in their shirt sleeves and tee shirts. No, not envious.

The return of Mr Echo

2008-04-22T12:10:00+02:00

The dreaded return of Jeano has happened, He spends the winter months in Paris ( I think he must play with a punk band which would account for his total lack of tonality, timing and loud volume ) and the summer in Plestin. Unfortunately for me and the other members of the Harmonie band in Lannion he thicks he can play the saxophone and even worse sits next to me as as the other sax player ( Sophie ) refuses to sit next to him. I think I'm going to have a musical nervous breakdown and can see myself picking up a music stand and attacking him ( they are quite heavy ) and trashing his saxophone and the bizarre thing is nobody other than Antony complains about him as if any idiot can turn up with an instrument and trash all our practise and concerts. I know we are short of players but at least we should have some standards.The wedding is approaching and I guess I've got to sort out a speech so I have done what most students do now a days and trawled the internet for examples and jokes which aren't too offensive, apparently I have to hire tails which will be quite a shock as I usually hang out in jeans and some old trainers. Nobody will recognise me. The downside is I'll miss both semi finals for the HC but I suppose its a sacrifice worth making giving Louise away at least I don't have to give a dowry when I married Paulien I received 2 cows.

Miserable Easter

2008-03-31T10:30:00+02:00

Easter was very wet cold and windy this year and far too early for tourist only a couple of houses rented. One was to a bunch of French who had a drama workshop in Plestin. Sunday is our most social day as we see lots of French to chat to in or outside the bar and the ex-pats a lot them are ex clients who have bought houses here which is a worrying trend temporarily halted by the decling pound. We saw our ex vet from Plestin who moved in the opposite direction , they are living in Truro,Cornwall where he used to work in an abattoir, signing death certificates ( Oliver's joke ) but is now in Brussels their daughter is at Oxford uni. In the afternoon we visited some friends at Locquemeau they said just call in very unusual for French as they like to formally invite people and are a bit put out by cold calls. He had made a pizza oven which I wanted to look at , they live on a newish estate ( 12 houses ) and as we were leaving I saw Phillippe ( kinio and drummer of rock band ) arrive so we had a look at the house his wife has been building for the last 3-4 years. Its made from straw bales and then rendered with a lime mix, lots of alternative materials have been used ,sheep's wool to insulate the roof , compressed straw panels for internal walls and a earth/lime render is smeared on them. The roof is red cedar shingles not a really good idea in a humid climate next to the sea. It has a fantastic view of the coastline of Locquirec and Treberdan and the price he paid for the building plot was 25€ a metre square and he has 1000ms so 25€k a useful investment.The wedding is getting nearer so am getting into speech mode wondering if there are any sites I can rip off a speech..................

Election a damp squib

2008-03-12T08:45:00+01:00

The local election turned out to be a rout with the Mayor's party winning all the seats. The last result had been 12 for the socialists and 10 for the right but this time he has all 23 seats with a majority vote so there is no second round of voting.I think in a small town like Plestin with a population of 3500 the use of political parties is pointless even I knew who two thirds of the candidates so I voted for a mix of the 2 lists but it seems most people just vote either left or right. At least my mate Rodger got elected he was 18 on the list for the SP but what really bugged me was a neighbour who has had the complete bimbo package including brain removal has been elected, quite shocking. The other thing that disturbs me is with total party domination the mayor can push through dodgy development deals as there is less opposition. A couple years ago a developer wanted to but a couple "bunker" 20 retirement apartments on the seafront at St Efflam it was backed by Plestin but the environment party took them to court and the plans were shelved.Its been really rough weatherwise a friend at St Efflam had a wave cross the road and fill her parking space ,the first time she had ever seen that. It could be a good time to move house. Xav is on crutches he seems to have a problem with his Achilles he has just had a growing spurt and it appears to be a common occurrence.

Boring work

2008-03-06T08:35:00+01:00

It seems I got the week wrong for the local election the first round is on next Sunday and voting tends to be a popularity contest the first week with a more discerning vote the following week.At least I can wind up my Irish mate in town although he is marries to a French woman he hasn't been registered as she didn't think he was eligible so I can tell him,criminals ,the insane and Irish don't vote.Have been doing the most boring job of the year getting the accounts in some sort of order before depositing them at the accountant. I always find it a depressing job seeing how quickly money flows out we have to get 4k before we can eat of that 2 and a half thousand are taxes,social security and pensions all obligatory so its no wonder the French economy is such a mess as independent enterprises are positively discouraged. Now i know how the system works ( or doesn't ) I should really close the business then start again and be registered as retired and keep the business in the micro regime which would exempt me from half the taxation.Max has yet another interview at the prefecture St Brieuc for his naturalisation I think he has to recite the words to the Marseilles and swear allegiance to the republic.I have been practising playing with a rock band its quite fun reminds me of the stuff I did about 30yrs ago but we have to organise our own festival to get a gig

Elections at the weekend

2008-02-29T20:00:00+01:00

We are allowed to vote in local and European elections very kind of them as we are also allowed to pay taxes here. However local elections are very interesting spread over 2 weekends the first vote is a popularity vote so you vote for your mates and the second vote is more pragmatic at present we have a socialist bunch running Plestin they taxes us more every year employ more people who work less hard ( around 30 hours a week ) so probably the first round will vote for the opposition + my mate Rodger who plays sax in a couple of the bands I play in. Paulien was getting some bread in the boulangerie this morning so I thought I would ask him what their policies were as he is No 1 on the list for the right and off he rattlied ,improve the roads,heating for the church so I asked him why don't you reduce the Marie borrowing ( it has a loan of 5-6 million €s ) by selling the sailing school and the camp site should raise a couple million and be more dynamic ( the sailing school is actually shut on Saturday in high season ) It didn't go down too well he was a bit shocked by the radicalism.We had a friend call in the other day he has a few houses and always comes at lunch time and as the boys were home and cooking not liking competition in the eating stakes they ground up 4 laxative pills and put it in his soup. I couldn't understand why he was moaning about the soup as I wasn't in on the joke.Hope he didn't have too bad an eveningThe renovations on the gite Etables are nearly finished I changed the roof of the veranda with the aid of the boys this week they have a master's degree in destruction as it only took them a few hours to remove the old conservatory and replace it with the new panels so now the gite can be sealed and dried out and Paulien can do her subtle finishing touches covering my mistakes , as if I would make any .

Saving the world on pause

2008-02-12T19:05:00+01:00

Its seems I got too excited by the possibilities of the air car as it isn't going to be manufactured in France for the moment but is for sure in Australia this year I found a blog in french it explains how the environmental friendly company's such as Total and probably Renault and Peugeot persuaded the government its not a good idea for their profitability to allow the production of a zero polluting auto on the roads. So it looks as if the only possibility of getting one will be to import it assuming it meets the European norms (another word for protectionism ). Tata from India are going ahead to produce them probably for a lower price than the Australians which will be 5400€ according to the blog. I made a few errors on the last blog MDI website is www.wdi.lu they are based in Luxembourg although research is done at Nice also the pressure in the tanks will be 300 bar not 150 as I wrote last time.Mean while the weather is ridiculously warm for February the birds are singing so will be mating far too early and when they hatch their young the weather will be foul and food supplies short but who cares the price of oil is 100$ a barrel petrol companies are making a fortune and governments are raking fuel taxes and the ice caps are melting.

Buy an Air cars and save the world

2008-02-05T17:25:00+01:00

I am seriously thinking of buying a new car , generally I think they are a totally waste of money ,polluting and a reflection of egos, but the car I'm interested in is a compressed air car which costs less then 2€ per 100km and is totally eco friendly. You could say they will have to build a couple more nuclear power stations but you could have your own windmill and there is a solar panel version which would operate the compressor to refill the tank.,recharging the tank overnight takes about 4 hours and the tank is filled to 150 bars + of air. In reality its an electric car without batteries and just uses compressed air as the energy source. Its designed by a French ex F1 engineer and is based outside Nice. His website is www.MDI.com also there is a good short film on youtube at The company have signed a deal with Tata the Indian car company and production has started with the car due on the market at the end of the year with prices starting from 3000€. The interesting aspect is there are going to be major losers ,big car manufactures, spare industries, petrol manufactures and governments which would lose lots of tax revenue they get from petrol/diesel.The concept is fantastic most households would save between 50-100€ a week ,instant reduction in global warming and cheap transport for the masses. If you go to the website you can make a non binding commitment to buy one

White lines in Plestin

2008-01-31T08:15:00+01:00

Some mysterious white lines appeared in Plestin on Monday morning someone has painted white stop lines on half a dozen junctions. Traffic circulation in all villages is a total mess as technically once you enter a village you have to give way to the right regardless if your road is a the principal one. I think its a hangover from ox and cart days so some enterprising person has put stop lines on most of the minor junctions, unfortunately it looks to be interior paint so will not last more than a couple of weeks.Max's interview was a snip it was held at the police station in St Brieuc he said if it was up to him he would have handed a French passport on the spot as he ticked all the boxes. There is a slight racial bias in the system so when they get a " white" " Christian" clean living adult studying law and claiming he wants to join the police as a career move they snap them up. There was a story in the press last week of a Senegalese woman who had received French citizenship a few months ago but as she was 3 months pregnant at the time the child will not be French and her partner was being deported for working with false identity papers. Not sure whether they deported him because he was working ( unfrench activity ) or he had false papers.There will be a few broken hearts this summer as Bas has got a regular girlfriend ,long telephone calls ,taxi service to Lannion and Trebuerden still her parents have a very smart house with good sea views.

In defense of Sarkosy

2008-01-22T19:45:00+01:00

To give the man his due he isn't a hypocrite whereas previous presidents have had affairs and the strict privacy laws stops it going in the tabloids and Mitterrand even had a daughter by his mistress and it wasn't reported until he died. So he's not a hypocrite but whether its seemly for a president to date a singer/model with a very impressive CV of male celebs its very interesting. I have never heard the French mock their president as much as the present one.At last I have finished the roof it will be nice working with both feet at the same level another month and the make over for Les Etables will be completed. Max has his interview on Thursday for French nationality there are certain jobs which are restricted to French nationals such as fonctioners ( civil servants ) which probably accounts for half the jobs in France. Paulien visited the CAF (they are occupied with family allowance and family support ) to get yet another form for his visit to the Prefecture and was told that he is entitled to a student allowance of 150€ a month which would pay for half his flat rental.The system in France taxes the population more but then gives lots of benefits back very socialist and doesn't really encourage initiative and for people to work hard. Whereas the Anglo system ,less tax but more borrowings and less job security makes people work harder. I don't who's got it right

Smokeless bars

2008-01-02T12:55:00+01:00

The new year kicks off with a smoking ban in all bars and restaurants which makes it more pleasant for me when I drink my coffee in the bar in the morning and the smokers have to go outside to satisfy their drug habit ha ha hopefully it will rain soon.We had a few friends over for the new year fete and Paulien stayed up to 10.30 which is quite an achievement for her as she needs 12 hours sleep normally. Our neighbour who has the bio shop ( organic veg ) came with his guitar which is a Stratocaster Fender so he is a very serious musician and has a gold disc but now grows veggies.It was a typical French meal ( 3 hours ) then around midnight everyone kisses including the men (I never realised beards pricked so much ) and then we had a bit of jam session with Steve ( the permaculture Brit ) Christoph and myself with Cloe later playing an accordion Breton style for the dancers. So didn't go to bed till 4.00 am still in the bar next day there were plenty of people who hadn't slept and were still socialable mainly due to alcohol.Max the eldest went back to Brest a week early to revise for exams in a few weeks as they have a high failure rate so he takes it very seriously. The first year about 60% were culled from his course if he had done psychology you just need to turn up and they give you your degree.Its very quiet on the political front as Sarko is holiday in Eygpt with his new girlfriend a starlet model /singer something politicians in the rest of the world wouldn't get away with.The protection of privacy in France is more strict but I guess it allows for more corruption. Last year the magazine Paris Match did some articles on his marriage and the editor got sacked as the owner is pally with the Sarko family.

Friday 28th December 2007

2007-12-28T19:30:00+01:00

Well that's another Christmas over and done with! Both gîtes full with satisfied customers and bookings beginning to come in for 2008. Our latest acquisition (a Christmas present for our daughter) is a moth trap, which will enable her to run moth identification events for our gîte customers. The vast majority of our visitors are keen wildlife enthusiasts and will greatly-appreciate such an opportunity. Wildlife has always been close to her heart - she even had articles published in the RSPB magazines and was a Junior Leader of the local RSPB Wildlife Explorers group - and she is now enjoying sharing her hobby with Renaud and learning the French names for birds and insects. We were invited to the local school's Christmas show (as I am their English teacher), which was held in the "Forum" in Nivillac. The Forum is a Community Centre which boasts a very modern theatre. The children did well - the star of the show being a tiny 3-year-old boy who very happily followed the older children around on-stage whilst managing to look completely bewildered at the same time! All the parents were videoing or taking photos - I don't know if it is still the same in the UK, but I remember years ago at Cheryl's school being banned from doing this, for fear of misuse of the images! I remember thinking that the world had finally gone mad - thank goodness that, for the moment at least, such hysteria hasn't hit France.In fact a lot of the "Nanny State-isms" do not trouble us here. Schools can still collect the insides of toilet rolls for Blue Peteresque art projects and playgrounds are full of children charging about on scooters, trikes and space hoppers. Children share headphones without a sign of a box of sterilising wipes. Parents adopt a let-them-find-out-for-themselves attitude generally towards their offspring and, even though this seems a bit dangerous to my English mind, they very quickly seem to develop good sense. There doesn't seem to be an increase in the amount of children on crutches or in plaster compared with my years of teaching in schools in England - so maybe they are right! When you visit a doctor there is no accompanying nurse - even for the most intimate of examinations! I have never undergone any sort of check, police or otherwise, in order to be able to teach - just needed to pass teaching exams! Again, past experience in the UK has led to such measures being put in place - but, let's face it, the vast majority of folk are good and honest. But then again, in the UK you do not need a doctor's note until you have been off ill for a few days - here you have to obtain one for even a half-day! You also have to visit the "Medecin Travail" every 2 years, or when you begin a new job, to be certified "apte". Oh well, you win some ........

Pineapples on the beach

2007-12-27T08:16:44+01:00

A few weeks ago we had some bad storms and half a dozen containers were swept up on the Brittany coast including a shipment of pineapples destined for Tesco. However they arrived on the beaches between Plestin and Perros and recently there has been a glut of people making pineapple jam and tarts. Further west about half a ton of tobacco was washed up mostly Golden Virgina which even tempted Paulien to go for a walk on the beach the customs were soon on site declaring it was illegal to take it away.Christmas has been very quiet with a couple of families staying on site French/English + the dog and goat of Karen and Kas who have gone to Holland for the festive period so its a happy new year to my 2 regular readers Jonnie and Peter and any one else who stumbles across this blog. Bloavez matt as they say in Breton