les Davey de France

I hate being away from home. One of the things I hate is the lists you have to make of all the things you need to take with you and you're sure to have forgotten something important. That's the phase I am at now, as well as the trying to get done all the things I have neglected to do so I can leave everything tidy and sorted out. I call this "clearing my forelog". When I come home there'll be lots of  new things to catch up on. That's "clearing my backlog".

Al Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Seminary, is no fool. So when he says that if you are not using the social networks wisely then for the under-30s you don't exist, it's wise to take him seriously. Watch him here and read him here . That's why I just spent about 1/2 hour starting up a facebook page for the French church. We have a website that we hope will soon be brought up to date. The church council gave me the job of creating the facebook page, and I wanted to get it done before going to the UK soon. That way we can add other administrators and it can be kept basically up to date and become a useful means of folk finding the church and of communication. FAC, the student outreach, now has a professionally built website. The English Service already has its website - a simple noticeboard made with Blogger, but it works and enables people to find us. There's also a Facebook page for the English Service. The Chinese group are present on the web and on the ...

The BBC News magazine has a nice article this morning here which talks about the London French. (Makes me chuckle, that, with images of French friends doing la marche du lait , like the London Welsh did y wâc llâth  all those years ago and set up Welsh dairies in London where they did not water down the milk...) Anyway I feel I ought to make clear that while there are approximately 250 000 people who live in Bordeaux itself, that would be like saying that the population of London is those that live in the square mile. Everyone regards London as including a far wider area, and everyone would regard Bordeaux as including the CUB, which has 800 000 inhabitants. Be that as it may, we're thankful for the friends who are reaching French-speakers in London, amongst them our friend Maxime !

Friend Richard from Paris is in Bordeaux on business and had a free spot last night. Could we meet up ? The buses were on strike yesterday (la pénibilité de la vie) so I suggested that he come by tram to Pessac Centre and we'd pick him up. A little while later - the trams were now on strike, too. (1st missed logical inference - if the buses strike the trams usually follow). "I'll come and get you". Happily zooming down the ring road when - HUGE TAILBACK. (2nd missed logical inference - when the trams and buses are on strike everyone drives into town and the roads get clogged...) Eventually I arrive at the station and we find each other. We'll go back home and eat and talk. On the way home we find they had closed the ring road for resurfacing and diverted us down the Toulouse road ! By now I am desparing and ready to strike over the penibility of life... We get home via Léognan, Villenave d'Ornon, Gradignan, Talence, Bègles and eventually the ring r...

The letter says that Catrin passed the test and can ask to go to François Magendie on her official form.

Don Carson is helpful again today here