a new year approaches

fare thee well 2006. greetings 2007. Not long now before this year is done and the new one starts. Review of the year. Business wise - not brilliant. Personally/socially - pretty bloody good. General state of mind at end of year ? Positive. So that's a good sign I reckon. We have a busy evening ce soir and then we are off to Evreux to chill out with Grégoire's parents and some of our old friends from yonder part of upper Normandy. Trip to Paris will obviously be in order given that we will be so close....so might do a museum stop or two to make this holiday period complete. Ciao ciao. Bonne année. Happy New Year.

noel noel

Well, its over. Had enough food to feed a small polish army. Menu was foie gras, oysters, smoked salmon, goose, roast parsnips, chocolate log, plum pudding, stilton, chocolates, dried fruit and wafer thin sable biscuits. Much sherry, wine, champagne and coffee was consumed. Lovely time had by all. Photos show off the start of the meal, the three generations of Binns girls present, and the beautiful shrug and brooch made by Maylin (thank you thank you thank you). A quiet evening of junior scrabble and chocolate awaits us.

winter solstice

Frosty mornings, bright afternoons and temperatures starting with the word minus. Winter has arrived and how!
Still doesn't look like it will be snowing for Noel. Shame for the children, relief for the grown ups. Days now start getting longer .. does that mean that it is nearly spring time?

Rockin' around the Christmas Tree...

Tis the season and all that. We are in the midst of illuminated village tours. Which means most evenings we have coachloads of between 50 and 60 hungry 60+ year olds stopping in the restaurant to gobble up a plate of hot food and spend most of their allotted hour queuing for the toilet. Why they don't use the luxury facilities on-board their superduper fancy coaches I don't know..but hey, who are we to argue? They arrive, race for the loos (jumble sale argy-bargy has NOTHING on French pensioners who need the loo), bagsy seats next to their mates in the restaurant, eat hot food quicker than you would think possible, drink lashings of cider and red wine, dash to the loo again then leave - taking everything in their sight with them. Like bloody locusts they are. We quickly learnt not to leave around anything of value - whether that be pens, cigarettes, postcards or teaspoons. If it is on display it must be free. But we love 'em really. They are all great old granny and grandads. If only all oldies could be as merry and jolly as them.

bedroom antics

wood, wood and yet more wood. Sounds smuttier than intended. The bedroom makeover continues apace and is starting took pretty damned good. Nearly finished and then we just need to order the spiral stairs, fit the radiators and hey presto - we can do the changearound which involves : Scarlet moving to our room, us moving to the spare bedroom, the spare room going into the library, the library remaining where it is and sharing space with a bed, the office going into Scarlet's room, the living room being knocked through and made bigger and the office become a laundry rooom. All very complicated and I am yet to fully believe in the end result. Vision, must have vision.

Ode to a bloggeuse

oh to be a blogger, typing on the web
creativity unfolding
effortlessly like the ebb
and flow of the tide in a sea of words
and phrases.

Don't think I'll ever be very good at this malarkey. Ah well. Here goes...Life carries on as normal in this neck of the woods. Little events amuse us daily. This afternoon, whilst hiding downstairs from the cleaner [ok: I confess, I am scared of Mrs. B our not very efficient cleaner but superb ironer and leave her in peace to do the weekly clean of our not very lived in flat] Patrick walked in the bar. Ahhhh Patrick. How can I describe the man? He is a divorcee with drink and smelly feet issues. The drink I can handle. The smelly feet is more problematic. He is also bestowed with two rows of front teeth - like a shark I suppose - both rows (the incisors) being in half rotting condition. I often think of the Extreme Makeover programme when dear Patrick walks in ..how on earth would the cosmetic dentists in Hollywood deal with a man who already has an entire set of second teeth in his gob? I cannot see any amount of bridges, caps or enamel tips working on this man. His overall appearance isn't helped by his milkbottle bottom glasses and his mad professor hair. He had 2 beers (as he always does) and mumbled incoherently about apples and cider, horses and the races and then switched back to apples and cider. He was slightly drunker than usual so leered rather more than is necessary. Luckily for me he left to inflict his smelly feet (he wears sandals and old socks - in all seasons) on some other poor unfortunate quite quickly. Christmas time has come to St Fraimbault and I have been prevailed upon to do the village creche. Not a little mini creche in the church as I originally thought, but life size wooden cut-outs of the good virgin, her innocent husband (ha!) 2 lambs, a cow, one donkey, a praying (pleading?) shepherd and one of the 3 not so wise men. Many paint pots and black marker pens later I came up with the above inserted picture...my shame will be total when it goes up on display in the village for all to see and gaze on in wonderment .....