I mentioned in my last post – the one about the sauce – that we have a cellar that contains many, many empty bottles.
Despite the snide comments one hears sometimes about expat drinking habits, these were not emptied by us. A previous owner of the house – one Roger – was an enthusiastic and prolific [...]
Continue reading 'Journey to the Centre of the Cellar' »
Some years ago, following a clear out, a friend of mine gave me a nifty little device that looks just a smidgen like an overgrown garlic press.
Except that there is nowhere to put the garlic and the handle is on the wrong side.
But you get the idea.
Its purpose in being, its raison d’être, is to [...]
Continue reading 'Bottling It' »
A billet doux from Ted enquires as to my silence over the past week and a half. Has Trixie the Troll carried out her multiple and varied threats and comprehensively discombobulated me, he wonders?
Ted, you may rest easy. I’ve just been intensely busy with the business of gites, providing people with the best holidays we [...]
Continue reading 'That it Should Come to This: A Battle of Wits With an Excessively Horny Guinea Pig' »
I’ve become intrigued by the increasingly popular practice amongst expat Brits in France of buying their groceries from UK supermarkets and getting them delivered, ostensibly as a way of saving money.
Predictably, perhaps, this raises strong emotions within the breasts of the Anglophone community, as can be evidenced by this thread on the Total France forum.
Read [...]
Continue reading 'All Lost in the Supermarket' »
Some time ago, in a weak moment, I joined up to a sort of internet network thingy called… well, I’m not going to name it because they might go all huffy on me and say horrid things about me.
But the point is this: I have no idea how to quit it. Which is a shame [...]
Continue reading 'So, Where’s the Exit?' »
My niece having been over staying with us the past week or so, I have enjoyed something of a half-holiday.
One of the nicest things about living where we do in the Vendée is the close proximity of the ocean. It is a simple matter to decide mid afternoon that one fancies a couple of hours [...]
Continue reading 'Half Hols' »
It’s never entirely sporting to blame previous administrations for cock-ups, but the fact remains that, just occasionally, it is unavoidable.
Some years ago, under the information-poor regime of our former mayor, a little land transaction took place. There was nothing untoward in the transaction: agricultural land near the centre of the village owned by a local [...]
Continue reading 'Reading the Small Print' »
A couple of things to tidy up this morning.
A message overnight via satellite from Ted with his thoughts on the small matter of integration.
Ted is currently camping out in Northern Saskatchewan where he is hunting Sasquatch in the company of someone named Billy Two-Legs.
He and Billy are being plagued by what he describes as “mosquitoes [...]
Continue reading 'Couple of Loose Ends' »
As Pierre-Yves wended his thoughtful way home, some thousands of kilometres to West a crisis meeting was taking place.
The men around the table – and they were all men – were rich, powerful and very, very worried. They represented the secret funding resource behind the bid by one Rev. Elstow J [...]
Continue reading 'Night of the Radish – Part XI' »
This is not an ad free blog.
Actually it is, and I could pretend that this is the result of some high-minded stand on my part, but, the fact is, no-one has ever asked.
If someone came along and said something like “Jon, we’ll pay you €100 per month to host an ad for Baby Slayer Integrated [...]
Continue reading 'Not the Ad Free Blog' »
