General Witterings -
Easy Life on Rosy

Not only has the telly arrived on Rosy, but so has a safer chair.  The old "computer chair" - actually a cheapo "Captains' chair" - finally collapsed under me, just as some boaty neighbours were off in their car to Paris for a few days.  They kindly called in at IKEA, and brought me back a small swivel chair, which is solidly built, and will last for ages.

The telly is OK.  I've not yet got the BBC TV channels on it, but they should spark up in the next day or two.  Nor have I got any bonking Italian housewives on it.  I had high hopes of the "Mainly Lingerie" program on the Fashion channel, but callow youths strutting their stuff in their shreddies wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

Apologies for the recent lack of boaty stuff, but being moored alongside, waiting for the canal to open in a few weeks time, doesn't lead to many adventures.  I did start on the window frames today - they are black anodised aluminium, but quite a bit of the black has gone away, so I cleaned them up the starboard ones today, and hope to get a primer and top coat of matt black Hammerite applied tomorrow ...

If I live, that is.  Last night I had dinner with Claire and James on Castor.  They are very generous hosts, and I left quite late, having sampled the wine that I took along, and that which they produced.  I awoke this morning feeling extremely unwell, and went through my medical decision tree, to discover that I either have SARS or a hangover.  If it is the former, then tonight could be my last.

I hadn't realised that there are so many advantages to having a lady dog.  The latest discovery is that one has a free kick at any overly enthusiastic/expectant male dog.  Two so far!!!  There was a third prospective one, but its male owner ripped his clog off, and threw it at his dog, accurately, and with considerable effect - enhanced, from my point of view, by the owner having to hop over the road to retrieve his clog!!

It's taken Fanny some four months to kill the squeak in her plastic lamb chop.  Four months!!!  The late, great and much missed Wilfy could kill the average squeak in about ten minutes.

The other morning, I was reminded of another advantage of living in France.  There are still a lot of "artisan" shops around - shops where the goodies are made on the premises.  There are four such bakers in Briare, baking bread and all sorts of cakes etc.  That is an advantage in itself, but the side effect is that on a cold and frosty morning, one can catch the aroma of baking bread - scrummy!!!

Er ...

That's it.

Toodle pip!!

Bill