shibbyonline

Long live the Poisson Rouge

“je suis un poisson rouge”
That is the limit of my French speaking skills. And I have no idea where I got that from!
Yet I’ve just come back from a weekend in France and some how I managed to get food and water. Ok I was with people who have a better understanding on the language than I do.

Around 4 years ago my parent’s bought a small converted barn/cottage in Northern France; just North of Boulogne Sur Mer. I have been over there a couple of times but since no renewing my passport for the last 3 years I’ve not left the comfort of the British Isles.

Now I have a new Passport I thought I had better stretch my legs and see what France had to offer. For one it was a beatiful day on Saturday, so our walk round Boulogne was very pleasant. Second was the awesome selection of Cheese’s on offer. Finally there was the idea of ‘getting away from it all’, worth the trip on it’s own.
It was only a quick trip, just a day to spend out and about and we spent it looking around Old Boulogne. New Boulogne was built outside the orginial town walls. Where as the old town is still in it’s roots inside the walls, along with the Catherdral.
I am not a religious person by any stretch but you can not ignore the buildings used as places of worship, coupled with that the French Architecture which in my mind is eyeopening at the best of times and I was lost for the afternoon. More photos from the day.

I’ve forgotten what it was like to spend a few days away from everything and just unwind. However it is now Monday and the phone is ringing…

Bank Holiday weekends

After my visit to to the D&D house on Friday (see below) Lucy and I kind of got invited to a BBQ with Carol and John with Dan and Dell. It started out a bit on the strange side trying to get Augie down to the pub and onto the house without the use of a cab but the ever adventure seaking Dan and I opted to walk and what a good decision. Weather was top notch and worth effort. After a few jars in the local, ok a fair few we stumbled out to lit that primitive oven and have a laugh.

Gas BBQ’s rock, light it and 10 minutes later you are cooking, as long as you remember the gas eh John!

Thanks to Carol and John who looked like they must have cleared out the local butcher or at least taken some livestock straight of the meadows, I’ve still got some ribs left.

Even Augie seemed to be enjoying the day, well he was being treated like a king and being feed the food of the gods, well in the dog world it must be, thou the cat biscuits rocked and even I had to enjoy these!

What Bank holiday week end would not be complete with the age old ‘Englishman in newspaper hat’. John your a star and I did warn you I would put a picture on the internet, all the best!
After the food it was back to the house for a quick drink and a mooooovie, thanks all for a great day!

Painkillers

One in three Friday nights for me are a bit of a non event, Lucy is at work and so I have no real intention of doing anything, most of the time this is used to perform the regular maintainance on this site and the [[DAO]] one. This Friday was a bit different, I got a call from Dan who wanted to try an install of Linux, so with my Mandrake discs in hand I popped round to see what I could do. Well one thing lead to another and some one mentioned beer and wine might ease my back, I have no idea if the pizza would really help but what the hell worth a shot.

The main man Dan and I sat there for hours, putting the worlds to rights, deciding what colour is best for this coming Thursday oh and having a quick tour back to the eighties and remembering the days of British Knights and school disco’s!

The night would not be the same without the woman indoors (you know I don’t mean it!) great thanks to Dell for keeping the Hamwiches coming right up to 5 in the morning when I left to find my own bed!