Today is the 4th July, American Independence Day.
I wish all my American friends and colleagues a fun-filled day.
Police want to contact girl about Waterlooville attack – Local – Portsmouth News
I’m plagiarising the whole article from the news in order to help spread the word. We don’t need this sort of activity in Waterlooville.
POLICE have released an e-fit image of a teenage girl they want to speak to about an attack on a couple in Waterlooville.
An 18-year-old man was walking with woman through an alleyway from Stakes Hill Road to Purbrook Way when he was sprayed in the face by a teenage boy who was passing by with a teenage girl. Some of the spray also went in the woman’s face.
The girl is white, about 18 and has a boyish pixie haircut with dyed blonde hair. She was on a bicycle.
She also had arched and thin plucked eyebrows and at the time of the incident she had black eyeliner on both eyelids drawn to a point at the outside corners. The offender is white, of medium build with short, dark hair. Det Con Pete Budgen said: ‘This type of assault is thankfully rare. It was a mindless and unprovoked incident. The couple who sprayed the substance may have thought it was a joke, however the consequences could have been more serious.’
Anyone with information can call 101.
Police want to contact girl about Waterlooville attack – Local – Portsmouth News.
Pininfarina Dies
Iconic car designer Sergio Pininfarina has died, so says an article published by Reuters.
Sergio Pininfarina, whose family company designed almost every Ferrari since the 1950s and whose name is still synonymous with some of the world’s most glamorous cars, has died aged 85.
The company said on Tuesday he died overnight in his Turin home.
They’ve Landed
Spotted en-route home on Saturday 30th June. Somewhere in France
Spotted en-route home on Saturday 30th June. Somewhere in France
488
That’s right, 488. Four Hundred and Eighty Eight
That’s the number of emails I had waiting for me this morning.
I was only gone for two lousy weeks
Back To Earth With A Bump
Yes indeed. Back to earth with a bump. Back to work, in the office. Its soggy wet outside. Raining hard and blowing a hooley.. Its only taken two days for the holiday shine to be tarnished.
Ce la vie !!!
Packing and Cleaning
Day 15 – Friday 29th June
Today is a sad day. As we will be travelling home tomorrow we have to pack our kit and give the gite a bit of a clean.
I made my last 3km run to the boulangerie earlier this morning. Picked up a “petite boule”. It has been hard during the last few days, the decision making that is. A petite boule, a grand boule, a pavee or perhaps a baguette. I am going to miss the daily bread trip. I don’t know where the nearest artisan bakery is at home. The nearest we have is in one of the supermarket chain stores.
I’m not likely to get a bright smiley Bon Jour from a bland, help yourself, bank of loaves. Let alone the same varieties of bread.
So we have packed and scrubbed, rewarded ourselves with an ice cold beer and relaxed for a while.
We visited a local cave to buy some local wine. This descended into farce as I initially tried to ask concrete truck drivers mate if the cave was open. He of course couldn’t understand me but wouldn’t know anyway. He did indicate a guy on a tractor. So I went and introduced myself asked if he spoke any english. He shook my hand said something in French, climbed down off his tractor and ran off behind a building. In the meantime a black and tan dog came and introduced himself.
There are no language barriers betwixt man and dog.
A couple minutes later another guy turns up on a tractor. Speaks in French at 1000 words a second while first pointing at his cement covered wellies then at the building works and the truck. Eventually I understood him to be saying that he couldn’ deal with us as the concrete truck had arrived late. That he now had to deal with the concrete before that went off and could we come back tomorrow morning after nine.
We said not to worry, we couldn’t come back as we would be travelling home. As we were leaving he came running after us with a bottle of wine. Presumably as a consolation for not being able to buy his wine. I protested that it was not necessary, but not too much, and accepted gracefully. We bid our adieu’s and headed off to Aigre.
In Aigre we headed into the supermarket, to hedge our bets and buy some commercial wine. After that we went to research the two restaurants and decide which one should have our custom for our last relaxed meal in France.
The lucky winner was Le Square, who provided us with an adequate meal which with beers cost us over 50 euros. This compared to a really good meal with wine and beer which cost us just over 31 euros at Les Colombiere the night before.
And so back to the gite, a couple of games of Rummikub and early to bed.
Another rest day
Day 13 – Wednesday 27th June
After such a hot and strenuous day, traversing half of mid-western France, we opted to spend the day at the gite .
So after a leisurely breakfast it was of to the sun loungers to give the reading matter a hammering. I have finished the Kellerman that I started last week and I am well into a Jack Frost story. First Frost is written by James Henry, actually to fellers, supposedly in the style of R. D. Wingfield, Frosts original creator. To be quite honest I am not over keen on the style. It works well enough when converted for TV but it all seems bit light weight as a read. However, as it is set in Thatcherite Britain I feel quite at home.
As the day progressed so did the temperature levels. At one point I brought the thermometer out from the kitchen. Mid afternoon it was reading 30 + deg C in the shade. This is of interest as the interior temperature of the gite never seems to get any higher than 22 deg C. Although, when I returned it later it didn’t get back below 25.
Which is why I was sitting outside, writing this, at ten to midnight. It was hot and clammy. My wife had just gone up to bed and I still had the remains of our 2nd bottle of red to see off.
I also noticed that the quiet. No bees, no other insects, best of all no mosqitoes. Most unusual there are no owls calling.
Maybe the heat was too much for them too. There was no air movement either.
Occasionaly I could see and hear a bat as it performed its aerial gymnastics in search of its prey.
Mooching
Day 11 – Monday 25th June
Decided today would be an unstructured day. Just drive out into the countryside and see what we can see.
Our initial direction took us to the next village, where there is a small chateau, and on to Chives (pronounced sheeve). Here there is an unusual church with what looks like a garage attached.
From Chives we headed deeper into the countryside where we came across a shady stream. Photo opportunity methinks. Soon I am laid on the ground, all professional and artistic, even got the external flash attached. Turns out that the batteries have enough oomph to drive the flash display but not enough for the flash itself. So I made do with what I had and plugged away.
Then we thought, “Why don’t go walk round Aigre ?”. We have passed through the town several times just to visit the nearest supermarket. It was time we paid a visit.
It turns out there is not a lot there but Aigre provides all the basics. Post Office, bank, pharmacies, a Spar, tabac and a couple of restaurants. We plan to give at least one of them a test in the next few days.
Didiers Tours
Day 8 – Friday 22nd June
Decided to stay around the gite today so not much to report. We were loafing. Well we were both reading and my wife was catching the rays.
It was not a wasted day though. Enter Guided Tours by Didier. Initially this was an offer he made following a conversation we had about birds in general and owls in particular. The conversation had moved on to a particular bird that is a migratory visitor to the region. Didier’s bird guide had a name but no picture so we couldn’t tell if this species had an English name. Didier suggested he take me out to see if we could spot them out by the fields. Apparently they prefer to run, rather than fly, and are quite often seen on the roads.
We didn’t spot the elusive bird but did discuss many other things.
Didier explained how his family used to dairy farm but had moved on to grapes and other crops. Didier’s father had felt tied to the farm when they had cattle as they require 24/7 care. They then switched to grapes but discovered that they required a different kind of attention but were nonetheless demanding. Other crops are now the order of the day. In this area, in addition to the ubiquitous grape there are fields of various cereals, sunflower, maize, pea’s and Colza, used for its cooking oil although Didier claimed it is also used to run the tractors.
As Didier drove us around the maze of roads criss-crossing the patchwork of fields I wondered how the farmers kept track of which field were theirs. This potential confusion has been further exacerbated by the undocumented “swapping” of land to allow for a form of crop consolidation. The details of these swaps, he tells me, are held in each persons head.
At one crossroads I pointed out a large earthen, obviously man-made, structure. He informed me that it is a water reservoir. The water is stored during the winter and used during the summer to water the crops. This takes the burden off the local streams and rivers and also off the local water table. The local farmers were further encouraged by a government subsidy. A sensible and green action you might think.
However, something about this scheme has enraged the green activists who have obtained legal injunctions. So no more reservoirs will be built for now.
Go figure !!
Many vineyards have been cleared and the land now used for these other crops. There are also tracts of land that have been cleared and just left.
Again, Go Figure !!
WrAnTz 