Week ending 18th September, 2005

Week ending 18th September, 2005

Friday, 16th September, 2005.

To stay positive, the journey from Paris to Normandy was not to bad, just one hour and 25 minutes… Laurence cooked chicken the Basque way, sort of Spanish style! To-morrow will be hectic, Post office in the morning, then my acupuncture session for allergy and weight control.

More to come…

Week ending 11th Sepember, 2005.

Friday 09th September, 2005.

We will not talk about work, shall we? Thanks God it’s Friday and the best way to celebrate is to go out for a meal.

Laurence booked a Chilean restaurant, on the East Bank of Rouen (River Seine does separate Rouen in almost two halves). The drive to Rouen from the suburbs of Paris took more than two hours. I arrived home at 20.23 and after freshening up, took Laurence’s car for dining out.

After circling around the restaurant to park the car, we decided to go in an underground parking. We know the restaurant, so we were greeted nicely.

The restaurant was quite busy, and there was only one waitress. She smiled at us and we were reassured that we will not starve ;-)

We ordered avocado with marinated shrimps for Laurence and I had a puff pastry filled with minced beef and onions with a tomato, coriander and onion relish (Chilean National meal). As main course, Laurence had some grilled meat and I preferred grilled chicken and beef with a lettuce salad all covered with the tomato relish, again… My mixed grill was served on a table barbecue and continued to cook while we indulged in some carnivorous endeavor. Laurence had a Mexican beer and I settled for H2O because I wanted to sleep in my bed and not at the Police station. Sweets were permitted by Doctor Jimmy in that it was milk cake, (condensed milk). No coffees, the waitress made us taste a Chilean drink. I took a sip, just like Grappa.

Saturday 10th September, 2005.

Hay fever was killing me, so I visited my GP. Oh man, she got me on the scale, lost one kilo, blood pressure OK. She thinks that my left ear is inflamed. Well, we rushed to the pharmacy and discovered that my medical card could not be read by the Chemist. He demanded money! So Laurence needs to sort this out on Monday as she works for the Social Security.

After doing food shopping, buying a new toilet seat (Italian one, transparent and with red orchids), we sent for electronics shopping. My cd player in my office is KO and despite the armada of cdroms at the office, I still want a traditional cd player. The DVD player in the living room is silver sort of thing. So I might take it to my office and replace the one in the lounge with a all black one that can read MP3 and JPEG etc. (BTW, the home theater amplifier, tv, satellite decoder etc. are all black)

I cooked, stir fry prawns with vegetables. And we shared a pizza. Yougurts and diet coke! National and Satellite TV were inconsistent….

Sunday 11th September, 2005.

I woke up early and went out to buy fresh bread from the bakers (luxury in France) I settled for bread with sunflower. Laurence woke up just as I put my key in the front door. The cat quite was upset because I did not serve her before going out…

I worked a bit by Remote DeskTop on my office computer. I had pasta for lunch, Laurence a flan. Laurence was busy with a few things and at around 15:30 we went to a Car Boot Sale, 500 stalls in Andelys (50 kilometers East of Rouen). After getting hold of an inkpot for Laurence desk, the rain, a deluge succeeded in getting us back to the car park and rushed back to Rouen. I drove with the heater on to dry the few hair left on my skull and my IBM T-shirt, completely soaked!

I cooked a fish curry for me and grilled fish for Laurence. Rice with vegs in a nice olive oil. Coconut cream for me and Laurence had a “crème caramel”. Being naughty! Just watched CNN and saw the tribute to 911. Four years already…

May God bless you!

Week end ending 04 September, 2005

Saturday 03rd September, 2005.
An old friend and associate of mine Charles needed a LAN, connecting his laptop, his wife PC and his. I woke up at 05:30. I took the tramway to the train station. I got the 07:09 train to Paris. Then I had another ride on suburban train to Gare du Nord, in Paris. Then trouble started; there was a connection from a place out of nowhere called Mitry.

The train was announced on platform 1 at 10:13 and at 10:13, a train left on platform 3. The girl from the station was not even slightly worried for me as the next train was at 12:39, just a couple of hours watching the rail track.. I phoned Charles and he came to pick me in a taxi from London. Wait a minute, a taxi from London, in the middle of nowhere in France, with the advertising painted on the cab, the wheel on the right, the taxi lights etc.? This is a joke and the people waiting for a “normal” taxi got slightly worried. Charles was at the driving wheel…

We arrived at destination and got to work. Usual story… However, Marie was at college in Rouen and Laurence went to pick her at noon. She got there had loads of problems with the driving in town as there was an antiques day, huge traffic jam… She arrived at 15:24, Charles kids went to McDonalds for lunch as they were starving! We had lunch near the pool then the girls chatted together and at 18:45 we had to leave because we were going to a spectacle in Picardy, phew some 90 kilometers away. We were also invited for dinner before the spectacle.

We stopped at a petrol station and the price seemed to have changed (again) over night, 1.47 Euro per liter… Simon was expecting us at 06:30 as they have around 50 people plus us for dinner. We arrived at 08:25 PM, got introduced to the family and enjoyed the salads, cold meats, local cheese (Brie, pronounced bree) with the farm flour and the apple crumble (home made). They also have a shop where they sell Angora stuff from pullovers, gloves etc. I did visit the rabbits as well, big ones and around 50 of them. Sadly, the conversation was very nice and we had to rush to the show in another village. Simon is an actor in his a spare time and we followed him for shortcuts as he was himself going there to get ready.

What I can say about this spectacle is the grandeur of it all. 700 actors and figurants performing during one hour and a half. A retrospective of the history of Picardy starting with the liberation of Picardy in 1944 by the GIs, jeeps and trucks with soldiers waving at the tribune full of 3000 people and we went through hundreds of years on life there, 1914 war, The crusades, invasion by the British, 100 years war, French Royalty, French Revolution, with flashbacks across the centuries with real horses, animals from the farm, to end up in an impressive fireworks. Simon had invited us to visit the back stage and the time was 23:40 already and I had some 127 kms to drive back, heading for Rouen of course. So we declined his invitation and the lads chanted good bye. The last time I had such a farewell was on a US destroyer where I replaced the Honorary Consul of Japan for the day and cannot ever forget that. We safely arrived in Rouen at 01:27 AM

Anybody wanting to have a peek: http://www.aillysurnoye.com/

Thanks Simon for your friendship and the show! Well done and keep up the good job.

Sunday 04 September, 2005.
I woke up at 08:30… Checked the emails… Then, I prepared breakfast. Laurence did not appear until past 11:00 AM and we rushed to the shop to get hold of lunch and dinner. Pasta for lunch and beef for dinner. Steaks for the girls and curry for me. Rice and salad. Diet coke and low fat yogurts. At this stage, we were ready for lunch and I had a couple of things to sort out on my computer.

This afternoon we went to a  car boot sale (white elephant) some 15 kms of Rouen. This led to a purchase of small school desk that Laurence got hold for ten Euros after bargaining from 15, then 12… I did the bargaining. So what a nice week end of course! Now time to relax and watch Bullit on the satellite TV. The French President is in hospital. And, the USA is on alert after Katrina.

God bless them all.