les Davey de France

 (Side effects). The doctor told Pat that 50% of people who get the AstraZeneca vaccine suffer side effects ranging from soreness in the arm where the nurse injected you through to full-on flu-like symptoms for one or two days. Take paracetamol. Take it straight away. Don't wait. Pat waited but sure enough full-on flu symptoms developed about 8 to 10 hours after the injection. So she's popping paracetamol. I would see it as an encouraging sign. She's getting a strong immune reaction to the vaccine. Those T-cells are being made.

 So this morning I accompanied Pat to her doctor's appointment. She phoned her doctor the other day to check on the results of an annual blood test - we both get annual blood tests - and her doctor said, "Have you been vaccinated? Would you like to be?"  So Pat made an appointment and we moseyed on over there this morning. The story is that currently people aged 50 to 63 who have serious health issues like compromised immune systems are being vaccinated. However, Pat's doctor knew she would have several doses of vaccine left over from an opened phial so rather than waste it she offered it to people who called. First there was some computerised administration to accomplish, then we went down to the office of a very kind nurse who duly stuck it in Pat's arm. One guy filmed his own vaccination recently, so she wasn't at all surprised when I took a photo. Meanwhile I have started my zero-residue diet. It's essentially an adolescent's idea of paradise - mea...

 

 I greatly enjoyed this short and sweet little article .

  Yesterday they dug a dirty great hole, then filled it in. Today it's mounds of beautiful black soil. We sometimes watch and dream of tall trees full of songbirds.

 This time a short plea to you, and to myself. When someone suggests that you are making a mistake, or committing an error, or on a wrong path, or even suggests that there is some dreadful secret in your life, please don't react with anger and indignation. Your goal is not to establish your own innocence and righteousness. Not if you are a Christian. Your goal is to face up to your own pervasive guilt and moral ineptitude, and to accept an alien, imputed righteousness freely given to you, and then to make progress towards a holiness that at present you do not have and can not obtain, and that you need absolutely if you are to see the Lord face to face. That means even a scurrilous, erroneous, malicious accusation could be useful in achieving your highest goal - glory.  Entertain the possibility that there is a grain of truth in the accusation. There may well be. Thank the person and tell them you will take what they say seriously. Then do so.  Consult someone who knows yo...

 I get lots of cold calls from different companies, and they always try to make it sound like you are expecting their call. They go like this : Allo ? "M. Davey?" Oui "C'est la Société Machin Truc-de-Bidule" That's the moment when I say "Ah non ! Merci beaucoup ! Au revoir !" and put the phone down. This time the conversation went : Allo ? "M. Davey?" Oui. "C'est le service ambulatoire" Ah bon ? "La date du 3 mars est confirmée." It was then that I twigged who it was. The hospital was phoning not to postpone the visual inspection of my innards but to tell me that we're on and to get ready. Ah bon. So here's the timetable : Saturday 28 February - begin the régime sans-résidu. Basically I am allowed lightly cooked lean meat, poultry or fish along with potatoes, pasta or white rice. For breakfast bland cereal or white bread. No fibrous vegetables. No beans or pulses. No fruit. Essentially a really bad, bland ...

 We bought Catrin's MacBook Air when she started her degree course in 2015. Recently the battery has struggled to hold much of a charge, so we looked at it. "Service battery", said the diagnostic. You can order the batteries, the special screwdriver to open the computer and the various bit and bobs to prise the battery out, or you can get a cokmputermonger to repair the thing for you with their screwdrivers, bit and bobs and knowhow. There are three such placed in Bordeaux, but all were booked up for rendezvous-vous a couple weeks ahead. But there's a branch of one in a small town shopping centre on the way to the sea. A short train ride gets you there easily. We booked a rdv for Monday and hied us away. "We'll send you a quote then once you've paid it'll take a week." We retrieved our fallen crests and left the thing there. Next day the quote arrived, slightly cheaper than I expected. We paid. Today the message arrived that it was ready to colle...

 It basically takes up that entire block of somewhat decrepit buildings. The owner is now selling fruit and veg in the satellite town where he lives and some newspaper reports suggest that he is planning to convert the nightclub into cafés and restaurants. 

 Pat and I talked about the past, the present and the future and enjoyed the mild weather with its hint of spring.

So another world-famous preacher with a global ministry named after him has been revealed to be abusive. He is the latest in a long and shameful line, and he won't be the last. Here's my two-pennorth. People say it's a problem of, among other things : a lack of accountability a lack of focus on and involvement in the local church a symptom of our embracing of the cult of celebrity I'm sure these people are all right - it's all that and more. As for me I have been personally bruised and buffeted by a good number of these public, scandalous falls. Here's what I try and learn from them: 1) you can't think your way through - it's often the most brilliant people who wreck their lives 2) you can't rely on giftedness - some of the guys are the most gifted of their generation 3) money can be a huge temptation - so I have no direct access to church funds 4) power is intoxicating, so share it out and give it away (it's why we try always to have multiple el...

 We watched the health minister with bated breath. No, silly, not when he slipped off his shirt to be vaccinated and caused a sensation! When he made the weekly speech. He announced that the virus is circulating and active, but the situation is stable.  We wondered whether our current 6 till 6 curfew would be maintained, or hardened to a weekend confinement, or even a full-time confinement. Last week the government closed all the big shopping centres - eleven in our department, about 7 of the Bordeaux centres - because that's where people mix most just now. The government really doesn't want to close down the economy any further than it is just now, but some scientists are pushing for stricter measures - even for a full confinement. Well no. We stay as we are. And it seems to be working. Last week in Nouvelle Aquitaine our R number was calculated at 1.08. This week it's 0.92. Anything under 1 means a disease in retreat. Our number of cases per 100000 is lower and our rate o...

 As well as the usual advice, like "Get up and get dressed, even if you're working from home", "maintain contact with people and with God", "read helpful things", "don't watch the news too much"... it's important to do the thing that helps you to maintain your physical and mental well-being. For some people it's team sports. For me it's music. It's good for me physically because I've always played wind instruments or sung. It means working on your breathing. Good for an asthmatic. It's good for me mentally because my mind works like that. There's nothing quite like listening to Bach for clearing my brain of it's mental fug. There's nothing like singing or playing in an ensemble for totally engaging your mind.  Jigsaw puzzles, colouring or sudoku don't cut it for me. I do a frightful amount of reading in my work anyway. TV series or films are OK if I have the time and if I feel like them. But I can...

 It stopped raining this morning and my phone said it would be dry all afternoon so we left high ground and took the lift down to the swamp. We decided to walk down to a street in the Saint Pierre district where there are various street food places - one place sold empanadas, another focaccia and so on. When we got there the empanada place was closed and we fell back on something we know, caféincup. I got a toasted pastrami sandwich and Pat decided to go with BLT, but changed last minute for grilled cheese. I also got some ground coffee for my morning boost. We took our bag of scran and found an empty bench looking out over the river. Bliss.

 Our new Carte de Séjour arrived this morning. They're mighty fine and say on them "Permanente" and expiry date of 21/1/2031. This is good news. Next week we'll help our daughter start applying for hers. She'll go on to ask for citizenship.

 It's been so grey and gloomy today that I have ben obsessively putting all the lights on. It didn't actually rain until just before we were due to leave the flat, so we took our new Lidl umbrellas (those swanky ones that kind of open inside out) and headed off to our neighbour's wedding. Pat got to know our neighbour over the last year. She's a woman with three small lively lads and just before Christmas she told us she was getting remarried. We met her fiancé who seems a nice guy, and they invited us to the wedding. So off we went on the tram through the rain to the town hall. We had the time slightly wrong and arrived early, but we weren't the only ones, so we hung around under the portico trying to stop the kids from getting too messy and waiting for the wedding. Two clerks were looking after the wedding parties, and they came over to check which party we were with and herded us into the wedding room, then fussed for a while until the happy couple arrived. The w...

 An unusually high spring tide has combined with the passage of storm Justine to cause flooding along the Garonne. In Bordeaux this has been limited to the river banks. On the right bank the parks and some of the riverside roads have been flooded. On the left bank some of the walkways were under water. Other towns have come off worse, with extensive flooding to town centres and to housing. In one town the mayor has been inspecting the problem in a boat and delivering bread to people who have chosen to stay in their homes. It's perhaps the second or third time I remember this kind of problem in our 15 years here.

 It's not an easy time. The government wants to tackle youth radicalisation, so it's targeting religious groups with a new proposed law. This was originally called the anti-separatism law, but is now renamed the law for the reinforcement of republican principles. The problem in France is that Evangelicals are seen as being relatively new in the country - many churches have been founded essentially since the Second World War, and as an import from US culture - in France dubbed Anglo-Saxon. Recent US history has not encouraged a positive view of US evangelical politics, especially if you have limited exposure to real life French evangelicals, so there's a lot of ignorance around. Thus our Minister of the Interior (equivalent of the Home Secretary) quite regularly gives the most horrifying TV interviews saying things like "anyone must be able to state formally that the laws of the republic are superior to the laws of any god", and "evangelicalism is a big proble...

 We are not in confinement. We can leave the flat at will any time between the hours of 6am and 6pm, for as long as we like and go as far as we like. However, there is a curfew from 6pm to 6am. During this period if we are caught outside the flat we need a good reason, such as coming home from work, walking the dog, caring for a vulnerable person, etc. Also the borders are closed to any country outside the European Union, so we can't go to the UK, for example. Also anyone entering France from a EU country has to have a negative PCR test from within the last 72 hours. All large shopping malls are closed, except for food retailers. And the concert halls, cafés, restaurants, museums etc. are closed. We avoid public transport more than we used to and although the weather is now much milder than in January, it's pretty wet, so buying take-out coffee and sitting on a bench somewhere isn't a very attractive option. So I've taken to walking to one of the supermarkets every morn...