les Davey de France

Mrs Davey and I both take life-giving herbs that we obtain from our local doctor. He's a fine young man of remarkable efficiency and a head smooth as an ice-rink. Every time I see him he makes some remark about his baldness, and every time I remind him that he still has some hair, around the edges, but that he shaves it off. I'm off the point. Anyway, Mrs Davey has been suffering from alarming palpitations, so she is in the middle of examinations and treatment for that. I, meanwhile, have a painful left foot. I have treated it myself with stretches, massage and sensible shoes, with the entirely predictable result that it's got steadily worse. So I waited till my next order of life-giving herbs was due and went to see the doctor with my foot. "It's my foot." "I suspected as much when I saw that you had taken off your pump." He prodded and probed. "Ouch!", I said. "Well", he said, "you have to knead it and wear sensible shoes.&

 Mon nouveau permis de conduire a été livré !  On Thursday afternoon we found a slip from the postman saying that he had tried to deliver something on Wednesday. Quite possible - we were out all day. But no fear, my post would be available at the nearest Post Office from Friday. Well I was to be tied up all day from 10 on Friday, so I scuttled off to the Post Office ready for it to open at 9. After a bit of scanning, searching and sorting the envelope was in my hands.  And there it is - my new French Driving Licence ! (It looks just like my old UK driving licence.)

 Our new apartment will be equipped with toilet and bathroom etc. but not with anything at all in the kitchen. Not even a sink. So we need to purchase a kitchen and engage a kitchen fitter. A friend who knows how to fit kitchens suggested buying an Ikea kitchen. "They're guaranteed twenty years and they honour their guarantee", he said. "I've proved it". Well I don't know any other kitchen laces in France, and I can't imagine there's much that's cheaper than Ikea, so I was happy to accept his advice. So it was that on Monday I booked an appointment with the Ikea Kitchen Planning Service in the centre of Bordeaux. The woman was friendly. "You've already started the process", she said, (have we?) "so that will save us lots of time". "What are you aiming for?" Something not too country, something discreet, something that can adapt to whatever colours we put in the rest of the room. She understood our dislike of

 On the way to A Coeur Ouvert, our hub café, we saw some cranes flying overhead. Normally we see them around the middle of February, and they are harbingers of warmer weather, just as their departure in November signals the arrival of the winter.  Our hearts were warmed by the sight. Poor dupes. As I was thrashing out Hebrews 11:1-16 with the lads at lunchtime we noticed a strange perturbation in the air outside. Snow. Lots. Falling hard. Silly cranes! I hope they turned round and flew off back south again. Anyway I later trudged through the streets to post off my bank loan application and then to meet Pat to go to her hospital appointment.  Sometime before Christmas she was subject to quite a violent arrhythmia which resulted in her being admitted to hospital by ambulance. The situation stabilised, she was sent home with provisional medication by taxi. Now she needed further examination - an ECG and a heart ultrasound - and a decision about the next step. A charming lady administered

We've had notice that we can go and see the new place late February and take our kitchen fitter with us. This has, of course, put me in a blue funk.  SO MUCH TO DO!  SO LITTLE ENTHUSIASM TO DO IT! Oh well, I must gird up the loins of my sorting, selling and throwing away and get ready!

 The other Saturday we decided to go up to one of our favourite coffee places in Bordeaux. They occasionally have made the unique croissant au chocolat - a croissant with cocoa powder in the pastry! Really good. I used to ask for it every time I went there, but they seldom made them. They combine being pastry chefs, selling to businesses in the area, coffee-roasters, selling to coffee shops around, and running the café. But running the café comes third in their plan. Sometimes it's been closed. Sometimes it only does espresso. At the moment they do most things but only for a few days a week, and with few tables. So it was that Saturday all the seats were taken. We caught the bus home. Yesterday we decided to go to our nearest chain coffee shop, Columbus coffee. It's not wonderful, but we feel it's a step up from Starbucks, and it's nearby and well placed for people watching. We chose hot chanlate. You can get big, enormous or colossal. They offered a muffin, baked on th

 The agency that deals with driving licences is based in Nantes, and when you exchange a UK driving licence for a French one, as I now have to do, you first upload quite a number of documents to their website, including proof of address, proof of residency right, birth certificate, proof of right to drive from the UK government website, etc. etc. I did that at the beginning of November. Strangely, last night, I dreamt that I was driving in excess of the speed limit and passed a police car which registered my excessive speed. I wondered how they would send the notice of fine to me, then realised that I was just dreaming. Well I just received the call to send my original driving licence off to Nantes, so that my new French permit de conduire can be issued to me. Hurrah !