Author: sheona

The tragic accident reported in today’s papers of the coach carrying British children and accompanying adults going off the motorway stirred memories of school trips I have been involved in.  Every such accident does and can even lead to nightmares.

I remember leading a trip to Paris where we travelled by coach.  I suppose we should have realised at the start, when the driver complained mournfully that he wasn’t driving his “own motor”, that there might be problems.  The coach he usually drove was off the road for repairs.  We arrived safely at our hostel and the driver took the coach off to a safe car park.  The following day he drove us into the centre of Paris, we arranged a pick-up point and set off to show the pupils Paris.  Each adult was responsible for a small group of pupils, as is normal.  It wasn’t the driver’s fault that when we got to the Eiffel Tower, one of my colleagues broke down in tears, begging me not to make her go up the tower. Just what you need – one adult short on the highest monument in Paris!  The following day we set off to visit the castle at Rambouillet, because we knew Versailles was closed for repairs. The driver, still reminding us that this was not his “own motor”, insisted he knew the route I wanted him to take. When we passed the exit for Rambouillet and headed off towards Rouen,  it took a lot of argument to persuade him we were on the wrong road and must turn round. Continue reading “School trips”

I realise that it looks as if I’ve really got it in for France today, though it is a country I love and where I have many friends.  But I learned just today that from the spring motorists will be required to carry not only the yellow safety vests and warning triangles but also a breathalyser – well this seems a bit much. The gendarmerie want to breathalyse you and you have to provide the implement.  You then have to make sure you have a fresh one ready for the next time.  There could of course be a market here for producing breathalysers which always read zero!

Just in case the heavy snow has not disrupted transport enough in France, there is a strike by airline pilots from today until Thursday. It’s to protest against the government’s plans to impose a minimum service condition on strikes in the air transport sector.  Apparently there were 350 such strikes last year, some of them timed over the Christmas holiday to cause maximum disruption.  The French government feels that such actions give the country a bad reputation abroad – no kidding? – and damage the tourist industry.

Last week there was a teachers’ strike on Tuesday and a local train strike on Thursday.  A minimum service stipulation  has already been imposed on the train unions, but employees do have the right to withdraw their labour if one of their colleagues is attacked.  This is unfortunately a regular occurence on the line between Nice and Marseille.  And a one-in-four train service from Nice to Tende, in the mountains near the Italian border, which only has about four trains a day is not good.  This forces passengers who have to travel to take a train to Ventimiglia, one of those actually running, and wait for an Italian train from Genoa or Savona to take them to Tende or one of the other stations on the line.

We are scheduled to fly back to England on Thursday.  Nice airport has already had problems because it had no de-icing fluid available, so airlines simply cancelled flights rather than leave their planes in Nice overnight. Now the news is that this pilots’ strike, which was supposed only to hit Air France,  is causing delays and disruption to other airlines.

This may explain why a Scot has chosen such a title.

Last night we went to see Clint Eastwood’s latest film, “J Edgar”, with Leonardo Di Caprio in the title role and Judi Dench as his mother.  I would recommend it, even to people who, like me, have never found Hoover an attractive character. It taught me some more American history and had me googling people like Emma Goldman.  I didn’t know about the bomb and gun attacks on senators and returning servicemen after the First World War.

There were many little details, such as Bobby Kennedy’s crisp New England accent and the crewcut of one of Nixon’s  henchman, which demonstrated the trouble taken to get things accurate.  Nixon didn’t come across as lovable either.  There was only one scene of Hoover putting on one of his mother’s dresses and the relationship between him and Clyde Tolson was portrayed as that between two repressed homosexuals.  It was interesting to see Hoover’s insistence on the development of FBI forensic laboratories, which led to the arrest of Bruno Hauptmann, kidnapper of the Lindbergh baby.

The final scene of Hoover’s faithful secretary shredding his private files as soon as she heard of his death leaves one wondering just how many scandals were hidden.  Must have had Nixon wondering for the rest of his presidency whether something nasty was going to crawl out of the woodwork.

Reading about the tragic ballooning accident in New Zealand got me thinking back to our own ballooning days. It started with an article in our local paper offering a balloon flight with our local club to the first dozen readers willing to write a sizeable cheque to the club’s designated charity. Husband was right there with the chequebook and on the appointed day we drove with our excited children to the Black Horse pub in Great Missenden, the club’s  HQ which had a large field beside it. On arrival husband was immediately put to work as a crew member on his designated balloon while I  was instructed to keep the children out of the way.  You can see why from this photograph.

Continue reading “Flying Colours”

I recently read a report about two Frenchmen who are alleged to have knocked down and killed a young Israeli woman at the end of September. They had left a nightclub (in Tel Aviv, if I remember correctly), leaped into their rented 4×4 and driven off at speed.  They did not stop after the accident but simply took the first plane out of Israel back to France. Shades of DSK?  Now one of them has been stopped and fined for speeding on the A8 motorway in the South of France in a car rented at Nice airport, according to Nice Matin.  France does not extradite its own citizens to stand trial in other countries, but it strikes me that this guy is going to kill or seriously injure someone else soon.  It would probably make France a safer place if he were banged up in an Israeli jail. Needless to say that is where the family of the victim would like to see the two Frenchmen, but they are refusing to return to stand trial.  There’s something wrong with this system, I feel.  Should an Israeli citizen knock down and kill a French person in France and then escape back to Israel,  I’m sure the French government would be demanding action.

How sad to see this article in today’s DT, barely two minutes after Christmas Day has ended.

How-to-dispose-of-your-unwanted-Christmas-gifts.

Do people really need to be told how to get rid of items they don’t want?   It seems so coldhearted.  I have also seen adverts in the local papers offering Unwanted Wedding Gifts for sale, and hoped that the donors didn’t read that paper and recognise the description and telephone number.  If I did, I would be very tempted to go round and reclaim my gift.

Just to let you know that there was a TV programme on Channel 4 this evening about the riots in England in the summer.  So they were definitely not just  Australian propaganda.  I didn’t watch it, since I wanted to watch “The Young Victoria” instead.

I want to wish you and Boadicea, setter of fiendishly difficult quizzes, as well as all Cherished Colleagues, even in Edinburgh, a very happy Christmas and a good New Year.

 

Today we visited the British Library exhibition of Illuminated Manuscripts.  It is very well organised, starting with the preparation of the parchment and vellum and the grinding of malachite and lapis lazuli and other minerals to provide the colours.  The careful application of gold leaf was also demonstrated on video.  When you think that the work was carried out by either natural light or candlelight, it is amazing how painstaking it was. The folds of the gowns, the expressions of the people depicted.  Breathtaking!  Much of the collection belonged to Edward IV, who commissioned works from the masters in Bruges, where he spent time in his exile.  One bible, originally the property of  Cardinal Wolsey, had been used by him and Henry VIII in their attempt to bolster his petition for divorce.  Unfortunately the pages on display did not show any of the notes in the margin.

The earliest books on display are from the 10th Century, showing the neat, squareish Anglo-saxon hand, which is actually easier to read than some of the later ones.  The illumination in these examples is less ornate and colourful than in the medieval books.  All of the books, mainly religious such as Books of Hours, had been specially commissioned by nobles or royals, who obviously didn’t mind a few oddities  such as the army of the Midianites in full medieval armour. The beauty of these illuminations is absolutely stunning, done by artists who devoted their life, and probably their eyesight, to the work.  Even the pattern work on the borders of the pages is entrancing.

If you are in London and have the time, it is an exhibition well worth visiting – at about half the price of the Leonardo at the National Gallery.

When I received an e-mail from the English Osteopath in the south of France asking me to vote for her in the regional round of the Prix des Femmes, I naturally did so.  I looked at the other three candidates sponsored by Nice-Matin and was convinced a Brit would have no chance against French opposition, especially since one of them seemed to be a politically correct, human rights type.

Today I received this e-mail.

Well with your help… we did it!!

Rachael, our osteopath who was nominated by the Nice Matin, to be this regions candidate for the Prix des Femmes, to find the woman who has contributed most to her community, WON the public vote…

Rachael has not only set up two osteopathic practices, runs a community pilates class for those with back pain, but she also set up and is the current President of a charity whereby she and other osteopaths give their time for free to treat disabled children, children from low income families and young african children brought to France to undergo life saving heart operations.

So in 3 weeks time the Nice Matin is flying her to Paris to meet the other 14 regional finalists and to have a (non competitive), (yeah right) lunch to meet with the jury to decide the  top 3 with a prize of 10,000 euro.

As the only British woman to have ever got this far we are understandably really proud, and would like to thank those of you for reading the previous email and acting on it or by reposting it to your friends and putting it on your social networking sites, which we heard that some did.

Apparently Rachael won the most votes out of the entire nationwide candidates, which says a lot for our lovely international/expat community and the power of a mass marketing emai!!

Thank you again.

Rachel is a delightful lady, full of energy, and treats the injuries of those who work on the boats along the Riviera as well as all her charitable work. I am delighted she has won this round and wish to apologise to the French for my unworthy thoughts. They are not, thankfully, all like Sarkozy.