Witterings (mostly about work)

Hi.

Not sure what to write about but I feel I should pop in…

It’s a frustrating day – I had two lessons planned – both by computer. The first one, this morning, was a failure as the connection was bad and kept cutting out. After 20 minutes we gave up and rescheduled. My student is a really low level, and it would be hard enough face to face. By computer it’s difficult and with a flakey internet connection it’s nigh-on impossible!

Then half an hour before my second lesson, I got a text saying she couldn’t make it because of an unplanned event. At least I get paid for that one – but I’m left feeling like I’ve been marking time today. That’s actually not true, as I spent the morning doing admin tasks that needed doing, and actually, I could get on and do my ironing this afternoon, but it just feels like a day that went wrong.

I’m coming to a dry period with work – most of my Wednesday students finish for the summer, as they’re mostly school students. Of the two that aren’t school students, one has a boat on the Med, and so dissappears for weeks away on the boa. The other still wants lessons through summer, but as she looks after grandchildren and also goes away, I may find that being sporadic. I’ve come to the end of all but 4 of my contracts with one language centre (and two of those will finish by the end of July), and with the other Language Centre, I have about three or four students by computer plus one group who will finish in July too.

Happily, Mr FD’s job, and money saved during lockdown will keep us afloat. Also I should get the full, one-off payment for one course of lessons by the end of July which will be over 1,000€. So I’m not worried about money. Things are always light during July/August/beginning of September and they should pick up when the schools go back.

I’ve made some cards recently – I took photos, but don’t seem to be able to put them on my computer to show you. Frustrating. They were for the three young men that I’ve been teaching who are off to university/ further education in September. I’ll have to try to find some new students to take their places.

I’ve been taking face to face lessons for about a month now – at Bonjour World, the Covid-19 precautions are fairly thorough, with masks being worn in public areas, hand sanitiser and cleaning spray in all rooms, and social distancing (1m) in the classrooms. At Metaform, I’ve been mostly alone in the satellite office – so again, social distancing and frequent hand gelling have been the order of the day. My private students have been less careful – I try to keep 1m apart, but it’s not always easy. The number of cases in our area is low, so I’m not too worried, but I’m still mostly avoiding crowded places, except when it’s unavoidable. Or it’s Noz. But then I wear a mask and try to remember to hand sanitize on leaving (but I’m not very good at remembering!)

Lord, this is a boring post.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve all dropped off into a snoring pile of readers like the cats above!

ANSWERS: Boris Johnson or Homer Simpson

For those of you who haven’t seen the earlier post, these are the answers to the Who Said This: Boris Johnson or Homer Simpson? Quiz

Q1. “Why would women want to go to a gym if there were no men there watching them and judging them?” Homer Simpson (We thought it was BJ because The Simpsons isn’t that sexist!!)

Q2. “I lead a life of blameless domesticity and always have done” Boris Johnson (We went for HS – knowing that BJ hadn’t!!)

Q3. “My policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it” Boris Johnson (Again, we went for HS because, well, cake!)

Q4. “Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true.” Homer Simpson (We got this right. We couldn’t believe BJ would say anything quite so outrageous!)

Q5. “My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.” Boris Johnson (We were wrong – thinking it too wittily clever for BJ!)

Q6. “There is absolutely no one, apart from yourself, who can prevent you, in the middle of the night, from sneaking down to tidy up the edges of that hunk of cheese at the back of the fridge.” Boris Johnson (Again, we though HS because, well, cheese...)

Q7. “Stupidity got us into this mess and stupidity will get us out” Homer Simpson (This one we got right, as we couldn’t believe BJ would admit to stupidity)(But it was a close run thing!!)

What about you? What was your score? Did you beat our measly 2/7?

 

Boris Johnson…or Homer Simpson?

Our Family Quiz has developed over the months of lockdown from a straightforward general knowledge quiz, to one where we have photos to identify (things close up; celebrities in masks), or translated film titles, or identifying quotations…This week’s round from my niece in Manchester beat even the Kanye or Shakespeare round…

Who said this: Boris Johnson or Homer Simpson?

 

Q1. “Why would women want to go to a gym if there were no men there watching them and judging them?”

Q2. “I lead a life of blameless domesticity and always have done”

Q3. “My policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it”

Q4. “Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true.”

Q5. “My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.”

Q6. “There is absolutely no one, apart from yourself, who can prevent you, in the middle of the night, from sneaking down to tidy up the edges of that hunk of cheese at the back of the fridge.”

 

Q7. “Stupidity got us into this mess and stupidity will get us out”

I will give you the answers tomorrow…

But Mr FD & I only got two correct! Which, when you think of it, is really scary that one cannot decide who said what when you are choosing between the Prime Minister of a country and a fictional character, renowned for his stupidity!!

I could Pee on This

Knowing our cats’ propensity for not exactly using the litter tray for its correct purpose, my brother gave me this little book for Christmas:

 

I thought I’d share a couple of the poems:

I COULD PEE ON THIS

Her new sweater doesn’t smell of me

I could pee on that

She’s gone out for the day and

left her laptop on the counter

I could pee on that.

Her new boyfriend just pushed my head away

I could pee on him.

She’s ignoring me ignoring her

I could pee everywhere.

She’s making up for it

by putting me on her lap.

I could pee on this

I could pee on this.

 

UNBRIDLED LOVE

I knead your chest with my sharp claws

To show you my affection

I bite your arm and don’t let go

To show you adoration.

I walk across your throat at night

Because I want to say “Hello!”

I leap from high onto your crotch

Because I miss you so.

I trip you when you walk downstairs

so you know I’m always near,

I sit on your face and block all your air

So my absence you need not fear.

I show my love in so many ways

My devotion runneth over –

So I don’t know why when I approach

You duck and run for cover.

 

Sometimes when I lie on you warm chest

And hear your every happy sigh

I gaze into your two kind eyes

And wonder “Who is that?!“

Book Review: The Carpet Cipher (**)

Straight on to another book review. (Don’t worry, if you’re not a book review kind of person: I haven’t got any more Net Galley reviews up my sleeve. I’m re-reading a few old favourites at the moment, which I probably won’t review.)

But it behoves me to review this book, as being not only a Twenty-five Reviews or More reviewer on Net Galley…

 

… I’m also a Top Reviewer, which means 3 or more of my reviews have been added to any NetGalley title details page by a publisher (I bet it wasn’t for any of my 1 star reviews!!) (I suspect it won’t be for this one either!!!)

So, in return for a free e-copy of the book, I write my honest review of…

The Carpet Cipher

The Agency of the Ancient Lost and Found (A Phoebe McCabe Mystery Thriller Book 1)

by Jane Thornley

PUBLISHING DATE: 12 MARCH 2020

The Net Galley blurb reads: Can a painting hold a secret safe in plain sight across seven centuries? The murder of the last member of an old Venetian family peels back the rug on a shocking truth that draws art historian and textile expert Phoebe McCabe into the fray.

What she sees in the missing Renaissance symbology will shake the foundations of religious and cultural assumptions across two continents and point the way to a priceless hoard. It’s a secret potent enough to pitch rival factions against Phoebe and her team while destroying history as collateral damage along the way.

By the time Phoebe tracks down the truth to its final destination, she’ll need to face her greatest enemy armed with nothing but wry wit, an indomitable spirit, and what’s left of a broken heart. But nothing will stop this warrior of the ancient lost and found. 

From the dark misty canals of Venice to the vivid souks of Marrakech, Phoebe and her friends are pitched against the desperate and the entitled. Who owns a treasure buried on foreign soil? Can the poor ever win against the rich? And most importantly, can love conquer religious persecution and even time itself? 

If you love twisty, action-packed mysteries driven by engaging characters set in vividly drawn locales rich in historical detail, then you’ll love this first book in the Ancient Lost and Found series. Think Robert Langdon meets Lara Croft with a side of textiles.

Well, I need to disclose that I didn’t get to the vivid souks of Marrakech. I was so bored and uninterested that I gave up before Phoebe had left Venice – in fact, I don’t think she’d actually spent her first night there, before I decided I couldn’t be bothered! (But I had already got through more than 25% of the book, so I felt I’d given it a fair go.) And this is what is so strange – there was intrigue and action galore in the first chapters, with a feisty heroine, and a beautiful setting, but – YAWN, who cares?

The main reason I was so bored, however, was because I was actually confused – there were so many references to people from Phoebe’s back story, and references to previous events of lives being saved, and crimes being committed, and artefacts being stolen and recovered, that I believed I had started to read the third or fourth book in a series – I was very surprised when I came to write this review and found it was sub-titled as A Phoebe McCann thriller Book 1. Lord preserve us, I thought, there’s more of these to come?! And – was there another series of books where Phoebe was involved, as she’s had one hell of an exciting life before now!? (I discover from another reviewer that yes there is. Jemima R writes: “An action-packed novel full of adventures that will keep you wanting to read the whole Crime by Design Series. I can’t wait for the next book in the Ancient Lost and Found series!” (I hate to tell Jemima R that this neither kept, or even kindled, a desire to read anything by this author!) But I think to call this “Book 1” in a series, and then continually refer back to events in other books is a really unintelligent way to market it. It clearly is not Book 1 in Phoebe McCann’s story and shouldn’t be marketed as such.

This ended up being a confusing, tedious read – or at least the first 28% of it – which left me noting down the author’s name to avoid in future.

Two stars. And I feel I’m being generous.

 

Book Review: The Day She Came Back (****)

Sorry to those of you who are not really interested in books, or book reviews. I have two, one today and one (maybe) on Monday. But as I am a Net Galley reviewer, I have a duty to review the books wot I read. So that’s what I’m doing.

Lovely, lovely Net Galley sent me a free e-copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review. Here folows my honest review of…

THE DAY SHE CAME BACK

by Amanda Prowse

Publishing date: 7th July 2020

The Net Galley blurb reads:

From the bestselling author of The Girl in the Corner comes a story that asks: how do you forgive the family that lied to you, and love the mum you never had?

When her loving, free-spirited grandmother Primrose passes away, Victoria is bereft, yet resilient—she has survived tragedy before. But even her strength is tested when a mysterious woman attends Prim’s funeral and claims to be the mother Victoria thought was dead.

As the two women get to know each other and Victoria begins to learn more about her past, it becomes clear that her beloved grandmother had been keeping life-changing secrets from her. Desperate for answers, she still struggles to trust anyone to tell her the truth.

To live a full and happy life, Victoria knows she must not only uncover the truth, but find a way to forgive her family. But after so many years, is trusting them even possible?

For most of the reviewers this was obviously a 5-star book – the praise was glowing and people had really enjoyed reading it. I think I have read other books by the author which I enjoyed, so I was drawn to this one. Ms Prowse is clearly a professional writer (something which cannot be said for all the books I read from Net Galley!) and the prose was well constructed with good editing, punctuation & none of the things that irritate me! There were some beautiful passages, which created the atmosphere perfectly:

“…..she lay still taking in the sounds that to most, would have seemed quite unremarkable..…. For Victoria they were like music, a composition just for her. She listened to Sarah open and close cupboard doors, click switches, clatter crockery and the metallic rattle of items ferreted from the dishwasher. She heard her hum and laugh softly, cough twice and chat in both English and Norwegian.”

I thought Ms Prowse wrote with a sense of place too: the descriptions of parts of Oslo made me want to visit a city that seems to be important to the author.

It was a believable, heart warming story with well delineated characters, and yet…

While I believed in Victoria’s sorrow, and shock at the revelations, I didn’t particularly warm to her, and so some of her actions made me think “Don’t be so stupid/ pathetic/ wet/ irritating…” (delete as applicable to the action) BUT I tended to forget that she was only 18, and so – as is the fact with many teenagers – her stupidity/ patheticness/ wetness/ irritating behaviour (delete as applicable etc) was entirely reasonable in the circumstances! Perhaps this was the author’s intention; as I found the other, more adult characters reasonable and likeable, then maybe Victoria was so well written as to evoke those emotions in me!!

Yes, I’d happily give the book 4 stars – mostly because I rarely give 5 stars unless I’ve been blown away by a book. I’d recommend it to those looking for a relatively easy read, but something with a bit of bite to it.

Any (more) Questions?

What other questions were posed by the host of A New Life in Lille for anyone who wanted to take up the challenge?

Well, here is Part 2:

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you? I once lost a brand new plimsoll in an enormous pile of half slurry, half manure.

What drink do you order in a bar at the end of a hard day? Who’s paying?! Possibly a beer, possibly a rosé, possibly a long gin and tonic.

What piece of advice would you give your younger self? You don’t need to know Latin to be an archaeologist, despite what your careers advice teacher says. (And what did she know?!) Mind you, something better than a “C” at history O-Level might also have helped…

What would you do if you won 100 million euros on the lottery? Give to charity (Amnesty International, Phone Credit for Refugees, various small cancer charities, animal charities) – pay off any family mortgages – go on a holiday – give to church all the money I’ve not been able to give them – stop work – invest wisely – build a beautiful new shelter for the Poor Cats – give people presents – pay people to come and put right all the things in this house that need putting right

Which would you choose to stay in on holiday: a hotel, B&B, caravan or tent – and why? I don’t do camping, and a caravan is too small, I think. B&B to meet the owners & other people, for the social side. Hotel if it’s luxurious, for the being looked after!

What song would you like played at your funeral? Hymns: Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord & Lord ofall Hopefulness – these were hymns at my wedding, and Tell Out…is a very special hymn for me.

Other music: When it’s all been said and done

This is a song that always reminds me of a dear friend, Paul, who died from liver cancer about 6 years after we moved here: he was a strong and faithful Christian, and this song was one I shared with him & Danièle, his wife, not long before his death. I think it reminds me of why we are here: to live my life for God, to live for truth, for love.

And after that? I don’t know. Perhaps something to raise a wry smile, but I can’t think what at the moment.

What about you? If you want to play along, feel free. It’s always nice to have something like this to fall back on if you’re out of inspiration!!

Any Questions…

The writer of the blog A New Life in Lillewhich I enjoy reading, was offered one of those awards that come wioth questions to answer, which he passed on to his readers. As I am devoid of inspiration, but have time to write a blog post, I thought I’d answer them. I think I’ll do it in two halves though (giving me another blog post from it!!)

Why did you start your blog? At the time, a lot of people from Ship of Fools (a website I enjoy) were blogging, using a site set up (I think) by one of the moderators. I enjoy writing, and I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon. You can read some of the posts if you go to the section “Some dregs from the other Teapot” up above. My first blog post was on August 24th 2009, and I managed to make a mess up of that first one what with usernames and so forth.

And so it has continued – sometimes with more inspiration than other times, but I enjoy blogging. I see it almost as my “scrapbooks” for the internet age. When I was at University I kept physical scrapbooks, with things stuck in, and the odd journal type entry. This is the updated version of that, I suppose, although this one rarely (if ever!) has my innermost secrets in.

What do you enjoy most about blogging? It has to be the interaction with other bloggers! I love getting comments, and if a new person comments I’ll go to their blog, if I can, to read what they’re up to. If it’s “my kind of blog” then I’ll add them to my bookmarked blogs. I try to comment too, but I’m less good at doing that . I especially appreciated the support from other bloggers, and readers, through my cancer treatment.

Getting “likes” doesn’t mean much, as that’s too easy to do & therefore doesn’t mean much, and I feel that it’s mostly done to get “likes” back. I was horrified when I followed one “like” back to its source and found a conspiracy theory site with disinformation about Covid-19 on it. If I could have taken down the “like”, I would have!

But the writing itself is also a pleasure. I like writing, I love words, and so it’s not a chore to blog. It might be a chore to read my blog however!!

Which is your favourite blog post you’ve written? I really don’t know!! I enjoy reading back over posts, but I don’t really have a favourite one.

Maybe this one written after a trip to the UK is special, because it reminds me of what a joyful weekend I had, even in the midst of cancer

What do you hope the world will learn from the coronavirus? To be more kind, to be more thoughtful and to slow down. The most important things are not to do with money.

Also that the Tory government shafts the ordinary people every step of the way.

(Sorry, is that a bit political?!)

If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why? Again, really difficult to answer. We are happy here in St Just, and will probably stay here…but, for the sake of argument, somewhere a little further south, on one level, traditional exterior but modernised interior, with an infinity pool overlooking mountains & trees…but not far from a village with all amenities. Not much garden (or garden, with a gardener) but room for a donkey and a few goats. And cats too.

Yes, that’ll do!

 

Pause.

Today is a fast day (we’re back on the 5:2 regime, after I was told my cholesterol was getting a bit too high) so I’ve only had orange juice, coffee and tea up till now. It’s 12.30 and my poached egg on toast is calling me.