I got on a bus recently. Let me tell you, my life is one long party. I had a suitcase with me so, wanting to stay close to the luggage rack, I flopped down in the nearest seat, only noticing a couple of minutes later that it was one prioritised for the elderly and infirm. My…
For one who has turned self-effacement into an art form, ‘doing’ this blog doesn’t come naturally, especially when – inevitably – little autobiographical details emerge from time to time. Nonetheless, today I’m going to lift the veil just a little bit more. Rest assured that absolutely no self-aggrandisement is intended. I’d frankly rather pull out my own teeth than start vanity publishing.…
Today, 24th June, is the 1,000th day since I retired from working life. I know this because I have an App that counted down the months and weeks towards my retirement date and then forgot to stop. 1,000 days. That’s about 33 months. 143 weeks. 24,000 hours. You can slice and dice it as finely…
The traditional tranquilité of our commune was shattered yesterday when two members of the local constabulary were called to an altercation at La Petite Superette et Salon de Thé. This is believed to be the first time that the gendarmes have had to be diverted from their usual job – manning speed traps on the Route Départemental…
Impelled by the desire to reassure my small but perfectly formed readership that I haven’t turned my toes up just yet, I thought I’d better do something. This isn’t so easy. I’m quite heavily reliant for inspiration on the daily prompts, but since most of those recently seem to have been recycled from last year’s…
‘Granpa, do you miss being a kid?’ Not the sort of question you expect to come, à propos of nothing, from a seven year old tucking enthusiastically into his breakfast. Nonetheless, a fair enough one, and deserving of a measured response. ‘Well no, because in my head I still am a kid’ was my eventual reply. ‘But…
As our regular readers know, this site has merged with the online edition of the local newspaper, ‘Le Quotidien de Faire-Le-Dodo (87)’. As a public service, we are reproducing below an article written by Jean Le Bidon, the paper’s chief investigative reporter, in which he addresses an area of major concern to the local expat population. We…
Some people swear that “It’s impossible to eat badly in France”. Well it isn’t. It’s certainly possible to eat extremely well in France – often in the unlikeliest and unpromising places, which is part of the country’s great charm. But restaurant quality is as variable here as anywhere else. Contrary to the image that they try to…
Back before the advent of blogging, I would sometimes give an idle thought to writing a book about my experiences in the investment industry. It wouldn’t be fiction because, trust me, you couldn’t make this stuff up, and there’s certainly no shortage of humorous, not to say surreal, material in that strange world I left,…
Eh? Now what’s he on about? Let me explain. My highly educated readership will obviously know what ‘pretentious claptrap‘ is: I assume that’s what drew them here in the first place. ‘Hermeneutics’ might be a bit more challenging though. Especially if you turn for enlightenment to the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy: “The term hermeneutics covers both the first…
the only deadhead in the hameau 