Stardom!

I may be over-egging the pudding here, but during my absence from blogging I have been making the most of my retirement plugging away at the different music ventures I'm involved with.

Most of the effort has been put into my duo, H&D, where a friend and I sing many diets along the lines of Simon & Garfunkel, Everley Brothers, The Proclaimers, (but not the bloody awful 500 Miles!), and groups like the Eagles, etc. We've been building our following around the area and now it has paid off as we have nabbed a residency at The BDQ Taproom, bar and brewery, in Puivert, a popular Friday night drinking spot in the ex-pat community and quite a lot of the French residents too. So every last Friday of the month we will be appearing, with a few fellow musicians to bolster us, for an evening of merriment and music making. (Think something along the lines of a music night in an Irish pub). Not paid as such but we will have free food and some free beers and we can pass the hat.

Luckily I have a school mate who is a tour manager, it can only be a matter of time before we need his services, surely! And he's been a bit short of work since David Bowie popped his clogs. 

A Plague of Daughters

 I surface once again.

And indeed I am surfacing following a visit by The Magnificent M's three daughters. The occasion being that of middle daughter's 40th birthday, and M's slightly higher than 40th birthday. They were here for five days. We dropped them at the airport and immediately had to go to the supermarket to replenish our cupboards, fridge and freezer as they has gone through the kitchen like a swarm of locusts. Our wine stock has taken a beating but the economic forecast for the booze industry here has taken a marked upturn. But, despite this devastation, a good time was had by all. Even me. And that says a lot. It was helped though by Marj winning the family quiz on night one, (I was quizmaster), and I won the subsequent nights on my own with two of them per team. A timely reminder to the young whippersnappers that despite them thinking we will be gaga in the next few weeks, months at most, we can still face them down in questions of intellect. 4-0 to the Oldies!

The Anger of the Gods

Yes, I know there is a little matter of the US Election but quite honestly this is much more important.

Having returned from the blogging wilderness I have thrown myself into reading and commenting, at least a little bit. Well, the reading bit is going well thanks to my Mum, Fieldings School and the fact the cataract slowly covering my left eye isn't rushing to fulfil it's destiny. The commenting on the other hand is going less than smoothly. Nor because I haven't tried, Oh, how I've tried. I think in all the comments I have made, one has been successful. I fear I have angered the Blogging Gods who are casting my wise words to the four winds, thereby depriving the world, well at least those who visit Messrs. Masher and Brennig's sites. Am I ever to wander the world wide web wilderness wordlessly waiting?

Answers on a postcard, or possibly in comments.

Scary Little Things

"Do the French celebrate Halloween?" I hear you cry. Well yes they do. American life has infiltrated here as shortly the young children of the village will be making their annual round of trick or treating. Or as they call it in French, Le Trick or Treat. The guardians of the French language are not impressed!

As one would expect of an Englishman living abroad, we do the obvious thing of locking the front door, pulling the curtain across and ignore anyone who knocks. I would be happy to carry on with this tried and tested tradition but we have made the error of inviting friends round. Friends who are happy with kids carrying out their nefarious Halloween activities. We have come to a satisfactory compromise. We will not lock the door and pull the curtain and they will supply the treats. Oh, and if any treats are left over, I am having them!

Those Were The Days.

 Monday evening, as everyone must know, is the BBC's quiz night. I, for one, am more than happy to spend half an hour in the company of Victoria Coren Mitchell trying to work out which hieroglyph to choose to try and get the music question. (My go to hieroglyph is The Horned Viper). 

The quiz either side I can take or leave depending how quizzy I feel, but the real gems of the evening follow on at 9pm over on BBC4. Call My Bluff followed by Face The Music!

These quizzes from 50 years ago are a delight. Call My Bluff, chaired by Robert Robinson, has one team captain, the bow-tied Frank Muir taking on the other team captain, Paddy Campbell, in a word definition game. It is funny and the whole family can play along. One of the interesting things is that Paddy has a speech impediment, a relatively severe stammer. These days he would have to be lauded for his bravery and people championing the cause of having more people on TV with disabilities and impediments. They must have equality. Yet here we were half a century ago, quite happy watching Paddy, perfectly accepting his stammer and just revelling in the word play provided by the two captains and their guests.

Face The Music looks somewhat twee and probably somewhat elitist to many as the whole programme is based on classical music. There'll be no-one commissioning that sort of quiz going forward. Joseph Cooper hosts with Regular panelist Robin Ray and assorted guests, who include the likes of Joyce Grenfell and Joan Bakewell. A round where you have to guess a piece of piano music from the clatter of the keys as no sound is produced may be followed by one piece of music played in the style of a classical composer. Can you recognise both the tune and the composer? Yes they do look a little smug when they get the answers right, but then, when a viewer gets one right there is a frisson of superiority over the general TV viewing audience. Is there a name for that, as there is with Schadenfreude?

For me though there are some major plusses to both programmes. They are gentle, no shouting, no loud music, and they expect that the audience has a reasonable level of intelligence. They are an absolute treat and hopefully we are going to get a long run of them.

It Was 1149 Days Ago Today

Since I last posted. I think that beats my record for being quiet. Many may be disappointed I have re-emerged from my self-imposed exile.

Like young Masher, whom I see has retired having looked back at his posts, I too have hung up my pool managing tools. Well, all but one pool which I have looked after until this year, just so I can say I have worked for 50 years. I may do it again next year just to keep my hand in. I also like the client, although the fact he gave me a dozen bottles of wine a few weeks back may also be influencing my decision.

Life is now full of performing, be it music, (the majority of time), or drama, (the rest of it). Our laptop is giving up the will to live and so I need to set this up on my tablet and I might start posting again.

Still living in France obviously, but spending at least a week a month in St Albans with my Mum who is now 93 and likes the company. 

Everything else will fall into place with upcoming posts, he says optimistically....

It was 20 years ago today...

 that I went to Virginia Water, armed with a yellow Garmin Etrex hand held GPS and found my first geocache. 

I rarely geocache now despite intending to and the game is much changed from those early days. I used to enjoy a five mile hike to find a box with wonderful views. I have little interest in finding a minute plastic container hidden at a roadside or finding loads within a small area. For me it was always quality over quantity. And whilst there are still lots of good caches I am sure, wading through the chaff to find them is more effort than I can muster.

Who knows though. I might still be connected enough to celebrate my 30th anniversary.

The Difference.

 I find myself in the UK. I had to have a pcr test before I left France and one on day 2 here.

With the test in France, which is free to all until next week, I had the result in 2 1/2 hours.

With the UK test, which cost me £75, I got the results 3 1/2 days later.

Not good enough UK. Not good enough by a long chalk.

A New Era

 After the success of Leeds getting into the Premiership last year they are now they are now joined by my second favourite team, Brentford. 74 years since they were in the old First Division the arrival of their new stadium earlier this season is just in time.

I'm not a great football fan but I think I may have to go see Leeds when they go to play The Bees. I have no idea the last time they might have played against each other in the top division, if ever, but I want to see it this time.

A pair of endings.

 The first one, what with it being the 28th of Feb, is the last post of the Blogathon 2021. Not sure how we made it through with such a lack of activity but we did.

The second is another step away from work and into retirement. I have cleared out and cleaned my van, which will be returned to the company we have leased it off, first thing tomorrow morning. It feels like a very significant step but once more, perhaps being made worse by the times we live in. It's not the giving up work that is getting at me but a sort of loss of freedom I suspect. Who knows.

A few years back I kept going with daily posts until mid May, perhaps even the end of May. I'll not be doing that this year. 

Wallet

 The contents of my wallet are presently;

McDonalds Loyalty Card
Nat West Debit Card
Revolut Card
BNP Debit Card
Another BNP Debit Card
Carte Vitale Health Card
Axa Health Insurance Card
The French version of a EHIC Card
My French Driving License
30€ Cash
A Prayer Written by a Close Friend
A Euromillions ticket which didn't win but I haven't thrown away.

Art Club

 I may have mentioned previously that I have the manual dexterity of a retarded wombat but I had an overwhelming desire to join in with Grayson Perry's Art Club 2nd series. I didn't watch the first one so I'm not really sure why. I quite like Grayson because he seems really grounded. 

So I started watching and then realised that you needed to know what subjects were coming up. A quick search revealed the five following subjects from tonights episode. 

Which is when I discovered the next two subjects were already closed so no doing those ones if you can't send them in.

Having made a note of the last three subjects I thought I'd read about sending stuff in.

Which is when I discovered it is only for people in the UK and Eire.

Bums.

New Toy

 I got a new phone today. We had to reduce the mobile contract I was on from extortionately expensive to something reasonable. Because we had an all singing and dancing package when we were working, which meant having calls to everyone in the world, it was costing a frog's leg short of €90 a month. Thankfully we have got it down to €19.99 a month. Unfortunately, because it is a change to an existing contract there was no phone with it and I was using a substitute phone as I'd broken the original and the present one was dying on it's feet, or mainly on it's screen upon which I drop it with regularity.

I was just sighing with resignation when TMM asked whether she was due an upgrade. Indeed she was, so she enquired whether I could have it instead. And they agreed! Huzzah.

I couldn't get what I would really like, the latest Samsung, S20? because although an upgrade we had to pay for a proportion of the cost and that was still astronomical, but for just a €1 coin I was able to get the latest A42 release. It has four llenses on the back which may or may not be good. I'll know when I take a photo, but what is better, is it ships with 128gb storage. I am faint with excitement. The phone it replaced had 16gb and I only had 600mb spare. I listen to downloaded audiobooks on it so I had to delete one to get the next one on. Now I can store a virtual library on there.

Until I start apping it up. Which reminds me, I need to get the geocaching one on there.

Oldsters Today

 When Mum stayed with us during lockdown, to break up the monotony of only having knitting and puzzles to do she went back to reading which she had given up a few years before because of cataracts. Having had her eyes done she realised this line of pleasure had been reopened to her. We had some romance stories, her preferred genre, and she got through a few before a window opened to get her back home. Since then, I have been picking up books for her on Amazon and getting them delivered. She has worked her way through the three books that Anton du Beke has written, he of Strictly Come Dancing fame, And yes, they do revolve around ballroom dancing.

Next, I have got her some some books by Nadine Dorries. Romances set in Ireland and Liverpool. And she has just about finished them. So we were discussing whether she wants more books by Nadine or whether she fancies a different author. Although it took her virtually half the first book to get into the writing style she says she has enjoyed them and she is happy to have more of hers. And then she told me they are a bit racy. I advised her that maybe she should shut her eyes and not read those bits. 

"You must be joking" she said, "I'm learning all sorts of stuff I didn't know".

As long as she doesn't ask me any questions!!!!

Looking Up

 Just as there are bad days, there are good days too. Today is one of the latter.

The Magnificent M went to see the doctor this morning for a repeat prescription. So, as we do every time one of us sees him, she asked what news of the vaccine. We are on his list. For the next two weeks he only gets 10 doses a week and after that it is 30 per week. He is duty bound to vaccinate the most vulnerable first but a) he thinks we will have had our first jag by end March and therefore the second by end April. This means we could be in a good position to get into the UK when the borders open depending on what rules there are. He also has us on his emergency list so if people don't turn up we might get called to come straight in. 

Next up was that we both got an email to say we have our appointments to get our Carte de Sejour, the all valuable Right to Stay. This is in mid-April. They have accepted the forms we have sent them with the supporting evidence that prove we have lived in France for 5 years +. So all we have to do is take our passports, a typical passport sized photo, the email they have sent, and once they have seen those they should issue a card. All this is free from what we understand. Unlike the renewing of my passport which will wait for another day's scribblings. So again that would make travel easier if we can leave the country in May onwards. The other good thing about this, for us, is that it is one more physical sign of our integration into French living. Unlike many British who are scared stiff of identification cards, (whilst complaining about it on their mobile phones which are never more than a foot away from them), the French don't mind them. They make everything run much more smoothly. We will not be able to get the National Identification Card unless we take French Nationality. Which we probably won't, mainly for practical reasons should we wish to go back to live our final years "back home", although it feels less and less like somewhere we would think of as home with every year that passes.

A Breed Apart

 So, if I was to get a dog, and it's a big if, particularly as The Magnificent M says we aren't having one. what would I get. I might actually like to have one and I did of course put my foot down, but not until she left the room obviously.

I know I want a dog and not a glorified hairy rat. So no yorkshire terrier or chihuahua for me!

I'm perfectly safe in my masculinity so I don't need a macho dog, like a Rottweiler, bull terrier or bulldog.

Nor are we made ofmoney so the feeding costs mean Great Danes, St Bernards and other oversize dogs are out.

In fact I probably only have three dogs I would consider.

In third :  In reality I probably would rule this out but I love Bedlington Terriers. But in the end I think it's probably not quite "dog" enough even though I love the look of them.

Second : This is my runner up and may in the end be the winner. Of course, they are as mad as a sack of monkeys, but a cocker spaniel appeals greatly. A friend in the past had one and so does a friend now. Both completely mad. But loveable and a bundle of fun.

The Winner : Firstly, I think it is a good size for a dog. Secondly, they always appear to be grinning. Thirdly, I was born in the area they are named after.  It's one of these. An Airedale Terrier!

Bad Day

 We were meant to be going out to a friends for lunch today. We are allowed such freedoms over here. And then they cancelled. Normally that would be met with a shrug of the shoulders, a quick FFS, and a plan to perhaps have a day out or go for a meal somewhere. But those are luxuries that are not available to us these days. We would have gone to the coast but there isn't anything open and we would have to leave very early to get home before curfew. And so no meal out either.

Shouldn't be a problem, but things like that in these times take on an extra downturn. So today hasn't been just a bit of a disappointment but more.

And then news came that the Magnificent M's best friends mother died early today. Not from covid but she had advanced Alzheimers. no-one with her because of restrictions, but she died clutching her teddy bear. At least her friend will be allowed to go to a funeral.

This covid is just a complete bastard.

Really? Really??

 If I live to be a 1000 years old I will never understand why anyone would find Ant and Dec funny. All I see are two Morecambe and Wise wannabe's but without the talent. To be fair, I've never sat through a whole episode of Saturday Night Takeaway. I have caught odd bits before and have never seen anything to change my mind. And the Santander adverts are a waste of space as well. Maybe they appeal best to the Byker Grove generation who grew up with them and not those who grew up with M & W.

And as for 17(?) national tv awards? I'm obviously missing something.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Steps

 And not the ones with the funny hand moves whilst singing Tragedy.

Many people have taken this period of lockdown to take a good look at themselves and decide they need to address their fitness levels and increase their exercise. I am not one of those people.

At the beginning of the lockdown I came down with a strange sensation that enveloped my body and made it nigh on impossible to exercise. It is called laziness.

I have been very good at it if my step counter is anything to go by.   My step counter, up until yesterday shows my best day as 3058 and my most immoblie day was 371. I mean, it is about 80 steps to come downstaira in the morning and go back up at night. so I only managed 290ish during the rest of the day.

Actually, I think the watch has been counting steps incorrectly, It doesn't think I've walked anywhere in the last 3 hours but even I am not that sloth-like.

Even so, I am somewhat short of the recommended 10,000 steps a day. And yes, I know the answer is get a dog!

Perseverence Pays Off

 Sod what I was going to write today. For a child who grew up in the 60s, things landing on Mars is exciting. I know they will grab a load of rock and they might discover traces of some sort of microbes but a small part of me hopes they are going to find something amazing, like if Dan Dare had gone there. He'd find something! Knowing that the unit had to slow from 19.000 mph or whatever to about 2 mph is exciting, just because it is. That's like really really fast to really really slow. How many things they said would happen have fallen short and taken longer to achieve but tonight there is another slight step forward. 

I'm probably never going to see  a manned mission to Mars, or at least a manned landing but I know it is coming. And maybe at the same time we finally get there, The Mighty Mekon will be arriving from his galaxy.