All the stuff you never knew you needed to know about life in rural France.....and all the stuff the books and magazines won't tell you.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Versatile, eh?

Ayak at Ayak's Turkish Delight has kindly passed me 'TheVersatile Blogger' award, for which many thanks, Ayak.

If you don't yet know her blog it is one of the best around...sincere, caring and funny. Get yourselves over there and enjoy meeting her.

But there is no free lunch. I have to tell you five 'quirky' things about myself and dob five more bloggers in it.

So, to divert attention from my revelations, I'll reverse the usual order and tell you about the bloggers to whom I would like to pass this award.


John Gray at Going Gently has a multifaceted blog...his work, his family, his animals,.his life in a Welsh village. It's a blog followed by many people, but if it hasn't crossed your bows yet, do take a look.

Genius Loci takes you on journeys with the author..journeys to work, journeys to go fishing, journeys to see family...journeys to the local park....and you'll want to journey with him on a blog I find so well written and rich in language.

Delana at du jour tells you just why a fifty year old woman CAN pack up and move to France. You've got it all here...super photographs and descriptions, and even cupcakes...whatever they may be.

A blog I enjoy very much is Chez Charnizay where Niall and Antoinette offer their observations on the seasonal round...deceptively simple and beautifully presented.

A fairly new blog you might not have come across yet is Secretly Skint, where it's all action, from helping with animals to fighting the tax man via family counselling...I'm beginning to think it might well be subtitled 'once more unto the breach'.....!

Now, with any luck you'll have become engrossed in one or all of the talented blogs above, so I can slip in the required revelations under the radar.

After years of eschewing their dark arts, I went to a hairdresser when in London this summer and had my mane cut and coloured. Felt wonderful.
Consequence...now have to find a hairdresser to repeat operation. Not so wonderful.

Having bought a pirate music disc on the local bus for the equivalent of one pound fifty entitled English classical music (in Spanish) I discovered that it was music 'classics' from the 1980s and that I enjoyed nearly every one of the 146 tracks. Some I even recognised.

I never thought I would taste a kipper again...you can rate friendship by the willingness of visitors to pack kippers in their luggage for a long flight to a hot destination....until we found a fish called cola de bagre which when salted and smoked tastes like the real, pre Mac Fisheries thing. (Yes, we salt and smoke it ourselves.)

I have consigned my non functioning Kindle to whichever circle of the Inferno will do it most harm.
Amazon were most helpful...but The Thing had clearly detected my apprehension of it and reacted like a rabid dog. Poxy object.

I am in disfavour with the local (American) expats...now why doesn't that surprise me?






15 comments:

  1. I remain ambivalent about Kindle - though my wife swears by it. Can't beat the instant functionality of a good book in my opinion.

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  2. Thank you for the kind words Fly.

    I sympathise re hairdresser...when the bombshell dropped into our lives I couldn't afford the maintenence of my hair colour and had to endure the horror of growing it out.

    It took ages too and that two tone bonce was truly awful.

    I became awfully fond of hats!

    Bonne chance with finding a competent hairdresser,

    SP

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  3. Thanks for posting some cool bloggers - I'll have to get over the ones I don't know.

    I can't imagine why the American expats would put you in the dog house... lol

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  4. How can you do this to me, Fly? I'd just decided that the list of blogs I follow was getting unwieldy and would have to be pruned when you go and introduce me to some more splendid specimens. Arggh!

    I enjoyed your five examples of quirkiness. I too shun hairdressers, as they never do what I tell them, and cut my own. perhaps I should reconsider....

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  5. Like Perpetua, after years of enduring horrible cuts from hairdressers, I do my own now. It's exactly as I want it. Why can't professional hairdressers do that?

    I love my Kindle. It's my most treasured possession. No more sore in-between-thumb-and-index-finger from holding unwieldy books, no more having to decide which books to take with me anywhere (I can take them all!), no more complaints about lights when reading in the bed, no more waiting 2-3 weeks for Amazon to deliver the book I wanted 2-3 weeks ago...Useless for flicking back a couple of chapters to check something you've forgotten, of course.

    Thanks for the links to new (to me) bloggers - unlike others, my list is slowly dwindling as the people I follow (yourself excepted)slowly stop posting.

    Can'y get kippers in Spain either. Here's my alternative: take any white fish fillet and put it in a marinade of strong lapsong suchong tea (3-4 teabags to 1/2 L boiling water). Leave for a few hours. Drain. Use.

    Sorry for the super-long comment...

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  6. Thoroughly well-deserved award for an always thought-provoking blog. I shall check out the other blogs you mention.

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  7. Thanks very much for the mention! Some interesting notes about yourself too, I think being in disfavour in certain circles is sometimes for the best!

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  8. I agree about Genius Loci and Mt Gray, very good indeed.

    No kippers - terrible. I used to live near Craster in Northumberland. No finer kippers in the word.

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  9. Fly - thank you so much for your kind words. I'm touched [as is Niall -it's Antoinette writing]. :-) We try to mix the seasonal/everyday with the historical and not become too "anorak-y" on the historical stuff.

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  10. Steve, I thought it would solve my problem of waiting to have books delivered....which it might if I could get it to work. I didn't like the feel of it, I must admit.

    SP, it was the first time in my life that I have had my hair coloured and the cut was wonderful.
    I would not let a French rural hairdresser within bargepole distance and hacked my own for twenty years.
    Now I have to start lurking outside hair salons checking what leaves them and probably being arrested for stalking...

    Perpetua, I find blogs I enjoy seem to go out of existence...almost a bereavement in some cases so it's lovely to find new ones.
    As to the hair, well, as I remarked to SP no French hairdresser was going to get within snipping distance of me...wouldn't like mother to think that I was not only a lesbian (shingle cut) but also a scarlet woman (colour preferred by said hairdressers).
    The cut in London was super and the chap gave me a deal on the colour, so Scots blood was satisfied too.

    Pueblo girl, I was somewhat apprehensive, but I'd seen what they'd done for my friend's hair so took the plunge.
    I thought the Kindle would do for me just what it does for you...but the B thing won't workI'll try the tea...

    Sarah, one can't imagine why, can one!

    mrwriteon, thanks you! I'm sure you'll find something to enjoy.

    Genius Loci, you're most welcome and yes, there are some people whose disfavour is a compliment...

    Mark, good, aren't they?
    As for kippers, one hardy soul brought them through customs in her luggage, but for most visitors that is a kipper too far, so finding this fish was a boon.

    Niall and Antoinette, a super blog and as far as I am concerned get as anorak-y as you please, the quality will be the same!

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  11. Good to have some blog recommendations. I will check them out for sure.
    :-)

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  12. Not wanting to write yet another post bemoaning the shortcomings of Blogger, I just want to let off steam here and say that I have tried numerous times today to start following a couple of the blogs you mention, Fly, and Blogger just won't let me. Or rather it lets me then boots me off again, so that they don't show up in my reading list or Google Reader Argggghhhh!!! I feel better now.....

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  13. Ooh you've got me thinking about kippers now...haven't had them for years. I love them.

    I just cant get enthusiastic the way others seem to about Kindle. Somehow it just doesn't seem the same as REAL books so I guess I'll still be dragging them back in my suitcase every time I go to England.

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  14. Perpetua, as Pueblo girl pointed out to me once, it is great that Blogger exists...but it would be so helpful if they had a helpline that worked too.

    Ayak, I thought I'd try it, but it wasn't very symathetic to hold...and the Thing won't work anyway!Nadgers!

    Kippers....life without a kipper certainly lacks something. You'd better make up for missing them when you're next visiting your daughter.

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