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.
Sunday, 25 November 2012
Eurovision it's not...
Something like this used to announce European events...like the Eurovision Song Contest...nul points...before the bloated functionaries of the EU decided to pervert Beethoven's Ode to Joy to celebrate their ascension to the gravy train...
The reports of the last budget session made me wonder if the EU leaders were living in a land through the Looking Glass...cuts to the budget for cross national transport, development and broadband accessibility...to let the French keep their farm subsidies....and the EU bureaucrats their perks.
I would like to have the modern version of these camped on the lawns of the Berlimont building in Brussels...
And then we'd see a new blitzkreig!
Which is to say that I'm off to Europe for a few weeks...back to the old country...back to intermittent internet access..back to bureaucracy on the grand scale....back to mad taxes....gin eand ear trumpet work with mother...and some super meetings with fellow bloggers!
I will try to keep up with your blogs but please forgive me if I cannot comment....
Wow. Great post, Fly, thank you. I am going to miss you, my friend. Please stay safe. Thank you so much for all your comments on my posts, you are a huge encouragement to me. Take care of yourself.
I'm no fan of David Cameron and his ilk but he did one thing that impressed me. At the latest summit (so the papers report) he turned down the £120 a bottle red wine in favour of still water.
No! Ode to Joy is a ukulele anthem. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain play it as the finale to all their concerts and everyone brings their ukes and joins in. The EU anthem? I'm horrified. A hex on them all. Have a good trip!
It's the broadacre farming subsidies that are the biggest problem, encouraging more and more landscape scale monoculture. These big farmers have immense political punch, and are prepared to play dirty, unlike the conservationists who are lobbying to reform the CAP. The Grassland Indicator Species may be plummeting, but wheat farmers think they don't need them, so a few tiny token prairies will be fenced off, with great trumpeting to announce how interested in biodiversity the authorities are.
Retired, I'd lived in France for about twenty years after leaving the U.K.
Tired of listening to the 'living the dream' nonsense, tired of people shooting my rooks, I thought it was time to spill some beans from the cassoulet.
And having spilled the beans, I'm starting on the rice...out here in Costa Rica.
Posts
Wow. Great post, Fly, thank you. I am going to miss you, my friend. Please stay safe. Thank you so much for all your comments on my posts, you are a huge encouragement to me. Take care of yourself.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to keep up with reading....with a little help from my friend's computer!
DeleteSafe journey... and welcome back to the madness that is the old world.
ReplyDeleteYou could not be more right....it's like landing in Bedlam...
DeleteI'm no fan of David Cameron and his ilk but he did one thing that impressed me. At the latest summit (so the papers report) he turned down the £120 a bottle red wine in favour of still water.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the odds that it was tap water???
But charged as Evian....
DeleteSafe journeys, Fly. I wish I could have been be one of the bloggers you meet, but I look forward to the accounts of your travels in due course.
ReplyDeleteI too wish I was meeting up with you....so little time....
DeleteNo! Ode to Joy is a ukulele anthem. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain play it as the finale to all their concerts and everyone brings their ukes and joins in. The EU anthem? I'm horrified. A hex on them all. Have a good trip!
ReplyDeleteNo point calling up Dark Forces to deal with the EU...they are Dark Forces....
DeleteCurrently enjoying minus zero temperatures...
Hope you have a safe journey, a lovely time, and come back laden with tasty cheese.
ReplyDeleteVery much enjoying friends...and cheese...but could do without the weather...
DeleteTake care Fly, and enjoy the good bits of your trip, and I am sure there will be many. Fondest wishes, Janice x
ReplyDeleteThank you...there are already lots of good bits!
DeleteThere, there, calm down before you enter European territory. They might not let you in if you throw a strop!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful time, I wish I could meet you.
It's a pity that the trip was almost fully booked with things like taxmen, lawyers, doctors, etc even before I started....
DeleteIt's the broadacre farming subsidies that are the biggest problem, encouraging more and more landscape scale monoculture. These big farmers have immense political punch, and are prepared to play dirty, unlike the conservationists who are lobbying to reform the CAP. The Grassland Indicator Species may be plummeting, but wheat farmers think they don't need them, so a few tiny token prairies will be fenced off, with great trumpeting to announce how interested in biodiversity the authorities are.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is exactly the problem.
DeleteHave you the read the report by the ex depute for Orleans on the monopoly of one of the farming unions over funding?
And the trumpeting about 'bio' support...when the reality is one of destruction of diversity makes me furious.
Europe is not going anywhere at the moment. Enjoy your trip and come back with some interesting tales for us.
ReplyDeleteBit of a curate's egg so far....of the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead....
DeleteBon voyage.
ReplyDeleteState of play so far...
Deletevoyage ...yes
bon...no.
More stories and humor for your blogs...Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the home run now....
Delete