Anna’s Personal Stuff

French Letter

July 17, 2011

We’ve heard from the Boss, by phone, secondhand (thank-you, Mr G). [Update: You can read the background here.] The news is that Anna has had her Op, and Didn’t She Do Well Brucie, she may be out in a small number of weeks after another scan to make sure that the cyst is completely removed, [...]

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Blood Sucking Bureaucracy

July 14, 2011

I’ve got the hang of the local accent now; I rattle confidently through the questions with them as they laboriously write out the answers in triplicate. Nom, prénom flies out in the correct back to front order; I deliver my telephone number in batches of two digits at a time, no longer do they turn [...]

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Michael Lyons.

July 6, 2011

As a Quaker, I have mixed feelings about a man being forced to kill another man. It may be true that because I have mixed feeling about being forced to kill another human being, that I am a Quaker. Chicken and Egg. Michael was jailed for seven months on Tuesday because, having served in the [...]

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Life in the goldfish bowl.

July 2, 2011

I have always been fascinated by how the law, invariably shaped to deal with the ‘hard cases’ that make the headlines and force change, pans out to affect the ordinary, the mundane, the banal, that vast chunk of the population that must abide by them and shape their everyday responses to accord with them. Politicians [...]

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Dordogne Angst Unlimited.

June 30, 2011

This nightmare that I had woke up in the hospital suite And thought “my, this is worse than bad” just where on earth did I meet That chick with whom I share this room? Champagne’s inappropriate right now and so are those balloons got no cause to celebrate. I was determined that I wouldn’t turn [...]

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Party Time!

June 1, 2011

Hello my darlings – I haven’t half missed you all! Rural France excels at things like growing lettuces, keeping families together, fostering community spirit; by heck, it struggles when asked to integrate with the modern high tech world. I have moved house over the past week, only a matter of around 100 yards, but it [...]

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