Yes, I poked out of the sands of a beach on the south island and was NOT in China. Drank a fine Guinness Stout in a local pub and returned to my hole to turn right and head to China in a NEW Hole! Yes, another hole. I bissected the original pipe find and collaborated with the one coming from under my kitchen. A new spot. I took the 6 ft breaker bar and began the dig. We shall see if China reveals herself one day real soon now. We also read the notice given us by the Veolia man, it notes that we have ONE YEAR to complete this rerouting. Hmmmm.
___
Else, tore into the doorway wall this morning to see if the material used on the right side was also used on the left side, one never knows in these ruins. It appears it is of the same construction and so now I'll de-nude BOTH walls and the ceiling over the opening as well. The MUR (Wall) through which the doorway proceeds is some 24 inches thick of waddle and daub as they call it...basically mud and rocks (typical olde construction method) and the openning to the dining room is coverred with a very fragile layer of 1/2" thick unglazed tiles of varying sizes. Interesting... yes, delicate... yes, rustic... yes. What's to "NO" about? Well poopsie...if I shatter, break, chip, any of these fine tiles I will get to glue them back together as nowhere on this earth will you find ANYTHING like these except possibly buried behind some grass hut in outer Mongolia or maybe Botswana.
___
Then I tore apart an old picture frame and remade it in a different size for a print we got when we were in Scotland some 15 years ago! It's finally getting FRAMED in France! Amazing. Yhe whole IDEA of framing pictures in cut down frames from an early time period...seems nice, easy, cheap and ecological on some remote level. In reality it is a far more DIFFICULT thing to do as accuracy COUNTS and true 45 degree CUTS COUNT and I'm apparently not that capable as three of 4 joints are good...c- work, decent fit, small chips etc. and ONE joint is a friggin' mess of out of angle cuts and chips the size of the frame itself. It's NOT the saws I'm using either...it's ME! I need more practice you say, sure I do...but there is little time left for practice, this IS the real world, measure twice = cut once (old adage) abd get on with it! I do...and I've cited the results. Shit! I have another sitting up in the grenier (attic) to tackle any day now that I want to feel inadequate.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Off to the Medicin...
#95 Off To The Medicin...
Yesterday afternoon came our friends A&R to sit at tea (an English Thing you know!) with a delicious pastry bought at the grouches boulangerie at the round-about. The grouch there is the young woman who it seems is far less happy with her chosen career than she should/needs to be. Every order taken with a surley groan and a look that says "You English/American/Hollandaise swine, bothering ME like this, Get your bread somewhere else!". Nonetheless the breads and pastries from the place are superior so we all go and hope we get the nice middle aged woman instead. Such is our little world. There ARE several other choices, even the Proxie next door but that place gets the nod, surley or not.
We chatted away for a couple of hours about the weekend, the brocantes and the parties we attended. Such a Life we all lead together, like one big ex-pat family. Eventually I bothered "A" to tell us how to make a doctor's appointment in French as we have never done that here in the last 6 years of visits. We are both running low on our meds and need valid prescriptions to take to the pharmacy to get them refilled. A promptly took the phone and made the call herself and got ME an appointment in two or three easy sentences! A-bloody-mazing! Little does the Medicin (doctor) know he's getting BOTH of us for the same services...Kelly and I at the same time. We are joined at the hip. I will fill you in on the gory details when we get back.
GORY DETAILS: We walked thru the streets of Lignieres admiring all the old archetecture and all the newly painted shutters and doors. We arrived at an empty waiting room attached to the side of the Doctor's Grande Maison Du Bourg (Big City House) we sat down in the waiting room for a few minutes admiring the artwork and archetecture of the room. Soon the door to the doctor's office openned and he greeted us with a deep "Bonjour Mrdame (Miz-sur-dahm)", in we went and he invited us to sit down. His office space was chuck full of both medical equipment and art, drawings, etchings and paintings and a bronze sculpture of a human chest on the mantle.
He asked us in French (Remembering we were referred to him BECAUSE he spoke English!) after i said we were American, " What do you want?" or something to that effect. I explained I needed to get prescription refills for three drugs and produced the empty bottles for him. He quickly went to work checking the lables for dosage and soon called the pharmacist to aid in determining which could be had in France and what their names HERE were as well as any dosage differences. This took a bit of time, occassionally he would query us as to how often we took this or that one and what it was for. I always keep a list of my prescriptions and dosages with me in my wallet (good practice for travellers!) and gave him the sheet. He studied it and called once again to the pharmacist to enquire as to those drugs names etc. All in all a very efficient service done with a smile and friendliness that I didn't expect. He then asked me to come to the exam table so he could take my blood pressure and listen to my heart. "Bon, Bon" he said as he looked at the resulting measurement and then he listened to my heart with a stethescope, "Bon" he said and I was through. Then it was Kelly's turn. Same thing, he took her blood pressure but was not as happy with hers and told her so with a concerned look on his face. A few minutes later he had filled out a form on his computer and printed it, an invoice! 22 Euros each! Yea gads, such a bargain!
Only one thing, we only had 20's and 10 Euro notes, Kelly gave him 50 and he couldn't make change so gave back the 10 with a shrug. I told him I'd drop the other 4 Euros by later.
Then hand shakes and "Merci's" to him and off we went to the pharmacy around the corner to get the new prescriptions filled. What an easy process this was and a very necessary one as well.
___
I watched "Cloverfield" the newish movie about a monster tearing apart NY City and scaring the holy-be-jezus outa lots of people running in the streets and metro. I found it interesting in the first 10 minutes, never thrilling and even less scary. In fact it was tedious, all the jerky camera motions, inadequate character development, under-seen monster led me to not give a shit whether anyone survived. Who cares? Give it up! Some psycho-thriller. Oh well...Hollywood.
Yesterday afternoon came our friends A&R to sit at tea (an English Thing you know!) with a delicious pastry bought at the grouches boulangerie at the round-about. The grouch there is the young woman who it seems is far less happy with her chosen career than she should/needs to be. Every order taken with a surley groan and a look that says "You English/American/Hollandaise swine, bothering ME like this, Get your bread somewhere else!". Nonetheless the breads and pastries from the place are superior so we all go and hope we get the nice middle aged woman instead. Such is our little world. There ARE several other choices, even the Proxie next door but that place gets the nod, surley or not.
We chatted away for a couple of hours about the weekend, the brocantes and the parties we attended. Such a Life we all lead together, like one big ex-pat family. Eventually I bothered "A" to tell us how to make a doctor's appointment in French as we have never done that here in the last 6 years of visits. We are both running low on our meds and need valid prescriptions to take to the pharmacy to get them refilled. A promptly took the phone and made the call herself and got ME an appointment in two or three easy sentences! A-bloody-mazing! Little does the Medicin (doctor) know he's getting BOTH of us for the same services...Kelly and I at the same time. We are joined at the hip. I will fill you in on the gory details when we get back.
GORY DETAILS: We walked thru the streets of Lignieres admiring all the old archetecture and all the newly painted shutters and doors. We arrived at an empty waiting room attached to the side of the Doctor's Grande Maison Du Bourg (Big City House) we sat down in the waiting room for a few minutes admiring the artwork and archetecture of the room. Soon the door to the doctor's office openned and he greeted us with a deep "Bonjour Mrdame (Miz-sur-dahm)", in we went and he invited us to sit down. His office space was chuck full of both medical equipment and art, drawings, etchings and paintings and a bronze sculpture of a human chest on the mantle.
He asked us in French (Remembering we were referred to him BECAUSE he spoke English!) after i said we were American, " What do you want?" or something to that effect. I explained I needed to get prescription refills for three drugs and produced the empty bottles for him. He quickly went to work checking the lables for dosage and soon called the pharmacist to aid in determining which could be had in France and what their names HERE were as well as any dosage differences. This took a bit of time, occassionally he would query us as to how often we took this or that one and what it was for. I always keep a list of my prescriptions and dosages with me in my wallet (good practice for travellers!) and gave him the sheet. He studied it and called once again to the pharmacist to enquire as to those drugs names etc. All in all a very efficient service done with a smile and friendliness that I didn't expect. He then asked me to come to the exam table so he could take my blood pressure and listen to my heart. "Bon, Bon" he said as he looked at the resulting measurement and then he listened to my heart with a stethescope, "Bon" he said and I was through. Then it was Kelly's turn. Same thing, he took her blood pressure but was not as happy with hers and told her so with a concerned look on his face. A few minutes later he had filled out a form on his computer and printed it, an invoice! 22 Euros each! Yea gads, such a bargain!
Only one thing, we only had 20's and 10 Euro notes, Kelly gave him 50 and he couldn't make change so gave back the 10 with a shrug. I told him I'd drop the other 4 Euros by later.
Then hand shakes and "Merci's" to him and off we went to the pharmacy around the corner to get the new prescriptions filled. What an easy process this was and a very necessary one as well.
___
I watched "Cloverfield" the newish movie about a monster tearing apart NY City and scaring the holy-be-jezus outa lots of people running in the streets and metro. I found it interesting in the first 10 minutes, never thrilling and even less scary. In fact it was tedious, all the jerky camera motions, inadequate character development, under-seen monster led me to not give a shit whether anyone survived. Who cares? Give it up! Some psycho-thriller. Oh well...Hollywood.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
#94 Sundai School in Chezal Benoit
#94
Not just ANY Sunday either! Chezal - Benoit (Che-sahl - Ben-Wha) was having it's annual Brocante (junk sale) and mental health summit. You see Chezal - Benoiy is the home of a Mental Hospital and the sellers occupy the town right up to it's gate. Too, many of the patients are present adding their own color and grunts to the event. L came to the Ruin at 9 am and while she made the huge green salad for the party we were attending afterwards at A&R's, Kelly and I scrambled to both wake up from the party the afternoon and early evening of Saturday (yes we do these things serially it seems) (where 5 of us drank 7 bottles of the finest below 2 Euros sparkling wine and wine). I made Spinach Canneloni and it was very, very good if I do say so myself. Followed some hours later by a Pasta Povera with garlic, capers. It always works, a very simple dish that I've described in my blog before. That was Saturday's food scene, Sunday afternoons at our friends A&R's was an Asian-styled food fest. A and R had preped vegies galore, carrots, radishes, green and red bell peppers, onions, lemons and had various bottled sauces and condiments. I was put in charge by the Master Chef herself who provided me with the valued kitchen support I needed to create an asian feast. It was great creative fun and there was more than enough food at the end for A&R to have leftovers for two meals at least! I came up with Oyster Sauce Beef, Musselman Curry, Vietnamese Lemon Pork, Red Pepper Chicken, Chop Suey (YES!), and a couple of other ad hoc dishes thrown in for good measure. All over rice, thai rice noodles. Much wine was drank, as usual. The French couple from up the road (Chicken Farm) chatted amiably with all of us, in French of course...but we seemed to rise to the occassion. I had a bit of trouble understanding which isn't unusual as the speed at which the French speak is, at times, intimidating. They also brought along their own product...goat cheeses from their heard of Goats, it was, without doubt, the FINEST goat cheese I have EVER enjoyed! The Ash coverred round loaf was spectacularly good. Wonderful light texture and a lemony aftertaste that just faded to the next bite. Anyway, we all enjoyed ourselves emmensly in A&R's sunroom under ever darkening skies and eventually the late afternoon pouring rains. Here's the link to the YouTube movie of the Brocante we enjoyed in the morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT6Ztt_Iz1o
What a lovely day, rain or not. Great fun with great people, tons of chat and laughs galore, Life hardly could be better than this.
Not just ANY Sunday either! Chezal - Benoit (Che-sahl - Ben-Wha) was having it's annual Brocante (junk sale) and mental health summit. You see Chezal - Benoiy is the home of a Mental Hospital and the sellers occupy the town right up to it's gate. Too, many of the patients are present adding their own color and grunts to the event. L came to the Ruin at 9 am and while she made the huge green salad for the party we were attending afterwards at A&R's, Kelly and I scrambled to both wake up from the party the afternoon and early evening of Saturday (yes we do these things serially it seems) (where 5 of us drank 7 bottles of the finest below 2 Euros sparkling wine and wine). I made Spinach Canneloni and it was very, very good if I do say so myself. Followed some hours later by a Pasta Povera with garlic, capers. It always works, a very simple dish that I've described in my blog before. That was Saturday's food scene, Sunday afternoons at our friends A&R's was an Asian-styled food fest. A and R had preped vegies galore, carrots, radishes, green and red bell peppers, onions, lemons and had various bottled sauces and condiments. I was put in charge by the Master Chef herself who provided me with the valued kitchen support I needed to create an asian feast. It was great creative fun and there was more than enough food at the end for A&R to have leftovers for two meals at least! I came up with Oyster Sauce Beef, Musselman Curry, Vietnamese Lemon Pork, Red Pepper Chicken, Chop Suey (YES!), and a couple of other ad hoc dishes thrown in for good measure. All over rice, thai rice noodles. Much wine was drank, as usual. The French couple from up the road (Chicken Farm) chatted amiably with all of us, in French of course...but we seemed to rise to the occassion. I had a bit of trouble understanding which isn't unusual as the speed at which the French speak is, at times, intimidating. They also brought along their own product...goat cheeses from their heard of Goats, it was, without doubt, the FINEST goat cheese I have EVER enjoyed! The Ash coverred round loaf was spectacularly good. Wonderful light texture and a lemony aftertaste that just faded to the next bite. Anyway, we all enjoyed ourselves emmensly in A&R's sunroom under ever darkening skies and eventually the late afternoon pouring rains. Here's the link to the YouTube movie of the Brocante we enjoyed in the morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT6Ztt_Iz1o
What a lovely day, rain or not. Great fun with great people, tons of chat and laughs galore, Life hardly could be better than this.
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