In the interests of editorial balance, following last week’s feature aimed at our new local readers from Le Quotidien de Faire-Le-Dodo (87), which sought to explain the inability – or reluctance – of the incomers to speak French, today we deal with the thorny matter of the language barrier from the expats’ point of view. * * * * * * * *…
A warm welcome to our new readers from ‘Le Quotidien de Faire-le-Dodo (87)’, following the merger announced last week. One of my key tasks in this new joint venture is to promote greater understanding between the local and expat communities. With this in mind, I’m sure that my already-established readership won’t mind if, in this first post-merger piece, I…
Don’t panic: this is a totally Spice Girls-free zone. It’s what I really, really want. No, today we have serious matters to deal with: nothing less than the effective merger of this blog with the on-line edition of our local newspaper ‘Le Quotidien de Faire-Le-Dodo (87)’. My regular reader may recall that we have already featured…
All shopped out? Thought so. Even the most prosaic shopping expedition – to your local food supermarket, for example – can be a highly stressful experience. The problem of course, is the other shoppers. Obviously, the problem is worse during the holiday season as there are more of them about and they’re buying more stuff, but in truth your fellow shoppers…
“Ask a simple question and you’ll get a simple answer” I was always told when I was a child. Sound advice too, I’ve always thought. The posing of a question is one of the most frequently used of all poetic devices and is particularly popular in modern songwriting. The problem is that even if the initial…
I is useless. ‘Tell us something we don’t know’, you chorus. The archives of this blog are awash with examples of my general ineptitude when it comes to anything practical, chronicling my various struggles with duvet covers, flat-pack furniture and many of the other benefits of modern civilisation. However, this week I may have hit…
Confidential: Draft script for infomercial. Do NOT show to client under any circumstances* Fade up studio lights to presenter seated in high-backed leather armchair. [I’m thinking I M Jolly here, people. No chance of getting James Earl Jones, I suppose] Hello there. Now, if you’re watching this channel at this time of night, then the chances are…
The latest of ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts’ invites us to “write a post in the style of (or simply inspired by) a favourite author”. However, rather than lay ourselves open to charges of plagiarism (and, even worse, doubtless poorly-executed plagiarism at that) we decided instead on a departure from the normal diet of self-obsessed twaddle. So today for the first…
From August 2014, on the art of masterly inactivity. I can’t help it, I’m an analyst “Procrastination. What have you been putting off doing? Why?” We’ve talked about this before on this blog, albeit from a different perspective. So you could consider this as an update. A belated one, obviously. If – no, let’s be fair, when – I’m…
“Drawing the line. Can anything be funny, or are some things off limits?” A tricky one, this. Rather ironically, writing about humour isn’t inherently amusing. I skipped a recent daily prompt about political correctness (is it a useful concept, or does it stifle honest discussion?) because I could see this particular subject coming up, and I think…
the only deadhead in the hameau 