Wednesday, 31 July 2013
I can't resist cat humour
We're off to Donzenac for some sightseeing, and as I had saved a couple of funny pictures of cats, that will have to do...
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Monday, 29 July 2013
A quick funny picture
There's a storm approaching, so I can't stay connected very long. If another computer gets fried, the insurance company is going to have a fit...
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Lisbon
The trip to Lisbon was incredible! The Portuguese are very hospitable, funny and generous. Lisbon is a beautiful city, with little surprises around every corner. We tried to see as much as possible in four days, but it's a very tall order...
The food is fantastic, but we had to be careful after the first dinner. Somebody recommended a restaurant, praising the sardines, something my sister was very keen to eat. We arrived and there were only a couple of people in the restaurant, and they didn't look very happy. There were no sardines. We ordered some prawn rissoles for starters and they were still frozen in the middle. We sent them back and ordered Bacalhau à Brás. It wasn't too bad, but we had better before... The only nice part of the meal were the desserts. We decided that from then on, we were going to check the atmosphere of the restaurants, watch people's faces, see if they were eating with gusto. All the other meals were really good, it proved to be a good system.
I took my camera, but, for some inexplicable reason, I left it at the hotel for the first two days. Some of the photos were taken with my sister's i-Phone.
We also visited Sintra, about 40 minutes from Lisboa by train. The old kings of Portugal had their summer palaces there. The village is very beautiful and well preserved.
We took a tour on a very old jeep and went to Cascais to get the train back to Lisbon.
The next three photos are of a place called Boca do Inferno (Hell's Mouth). We found it quite dramatic.
I was so impressed with the friendliness of the Portuguese, so taken with the beauty of the country, that I wouldn't mind moving to Portugal...
The food is fantastic, but we had to be careful after the first dinner. Somebody recommended a restaurant, praising the sardines, something my sister was very keen to eat. We arrived and there were only a couple of people in the restaurant, and they didn't look very happy. There were no sardines. We ordered some prawn rissoles for starters and they were still frozen in the middle. We sent them back and ordered Bacalhau à Brás. It wasn't too bad, but we had better before... The only nice part of the meal were the desserts. We decided that from then on, we were going to check the atmosphere of the restaurants, watch people's faces, see if they were eating with gusto. All the other meals were really good, it proved to be a good system.
I took my camera, but, for some inexplicable reason, I left it at the hotel for the first two days. Some of the photos were taken with my sister's i-Phone.
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| We had to pose next to Fernando Pessoa, a great Portuguese poet |
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| This guy's make-up gave him the appearance of rubber. He would stay suspended like this for hours... |
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| Torre de Belem |
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| The Jeronimos Monastery |
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| We went to this expensive restaurant for some good food and fado. We got neither... The food was mediocre and the woman couldn't sing to save her life! The guys playing the guitars saved the evening. |
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| Entrance to the Museu do Azulejo (The Portuguese make the most wonderful wall tiles) |
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| We think they took some mind altering substances in the XVIth century... This panel is about the marriage of a hen, organized my a load of monkeys! |
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| The leopard hunt. Please note the second leopard, waiting to look in the mirror. |
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| Castelo de São Jorge |
We also visited Sintra, about 40 minutes from Lisboa by train. The old kings of Portugal had their summer palaces there. The village is very beautiful and well preserved.
We took a tour on a very old jeep and went to Cascais to get the train back to Lisbon.
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| This is Cabo da Roca. It's the westernmost place in Europe |
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| Dora has a cheeky smile |
The next three photos are of a place called Boca do Inferno (Hell's Mouth). We found it quite dramatic.
I was so impressed with the friendliness of the Portuguese, so taken with the beauty of the country, that I wouldn't mind moving to Portugal...
Sunday, 21 July 2013
Beauty
Amy sent us a very large collection of photos and I selected a few for this post.
I'm going to Lisbon tomorrow to meet my sister for a few days of gastronomic indulgence. We'll be back here on Friday the 26th and she'll spend a week with us.
See you soon!
I'm going to Lisbon tomorrow to meet my sister for a few days of gastronomic indulgence. We'll be back here on Friday the 26th and she'll spend a week with us.
See you soon!
Saturday, 20 July 2013
Creative plant containers
Here are some cool plant containers. I'm too hot to think of a more complicated post!
Friday, 19 July 2013
So sleepy...
My friend Dominique sent me this video. There are cute bits and funny bits, something for everyone!
Thursday, 18 July 2013
Dark in here
View sent us this joke, which is very nice after yesterday's post... Thank you, View.
A woman is having an affair during the day while her husband is at work. Her 9-year-old son comes home unexpectedly, sees them and hides in the bedroom closet to watch.
The woman's husband also comes home.
She puts her lover in the closet, not realizing that the little boy is in there already.
The little boy says, "Dark in here."
The man says, "Yes, it is."
Boy - "I have a baseball."
Man - "That's nice."
Boy - "Want to buy it?"
Man - "No, thanks."
Boy - "My dad's outside."
Man - "OK, how much?"
Boy - "$250"
In the next few weeks, it happens again that the boy and the lover are in the closet together.
Boy - "Dark in here."
Man - "Yes, it is."
Boy - "I have a baseball glove."
The lover, remembering the last time, asks the boy, "How much?"
Boy - "$750"
Man - "Fine."
A few days later, the father says to the boy, "Grab your glove, let's go outside and have a game of catch." The boy says, "I can't, I sold my baseball and my glove."
The father asks, "How much did you sell them for?"
"$1,000"
The father says, "That's terrible to overcharge your friends like that... that is way more than those two things cost. I'm going to take you to church and make you confess."
They go to the church and the father makes the little boy sit in the confession booth and he closes the door.
The boy says, "Dark in here."
.jpg)
The priest says, "Don't start that sh*t again."
A woman is having an affair during the day while her husband is at work. Her 9-year-old son comes home unexpectedly, sees them and hides in the bedroom closet to watch.
The woman's husband also comes home.
She puts her lover in the closet, not realizing that the little boy is in there already.
The little boy says, "Dark in here."
The man says, "Yes, it is."
Boy - "I have a baseball."
Man - "That's nice."
Boy - "Want to buy it?"
Man - "No, thanks."
Boy - "My dad's outside."
Man - "OK, how much?"
Boy - "$250"
In the next few weeks, it happens again that the boy and the lover are in the closet together.
Boy - "Dark in here."
Man - "Yes, it is."
Boy - "I have a baseball glove."
The lover, remembering the last time, asks the boy, "How much?"
Boy - "$750"
Man - "Fine."
A few days later, the father says to the boy, "Grab your glove, let's go outside and have a game of catch." The boy says, "I can't, I sold my baseball and my glove."
The father asks, "How much did you sell them for?"
"$1,000"
The father says, "That's terrible to overcharge your friends like that... that is way more than those two things cost. I'm going to take you to church and make you confess."
They go to the church and the father makes the little boy sit in the confession booth and he closes the door.
The boy says, "Dark in here."
.jpg)
The priest says, "Don't start that sh*t again."
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
Venting
We seem to be terribly unlucky with neighbours in our building. The apartment similar to ours, but at the back of the building, was bought by a person who rents it out. The first lot were a couple of teenagers with a baby. They had horrible fights and all the screaming, shouting and throwing of stuff terrified the baby (and us). I had promised myself that I would call the gendarmes if it happened again, when the girl informed me that they were moving.
Then came the nice ones, a middle aged couple, friendly and considerate. They were here for about six months. We miss them...
The latest tenants are the neighbours from hell. It's a couple around 20 years old, with one of those ferocious dogs. We can tell that it's not a pet, it's an attack dog. It belongs to the girl, who we assume made the guy get rid of his own generic (but nice) mongrel in favour of the beast.
The dog is left alone in the apartment all day, howling and banging against the door. When the guy comes back from work, we suspect he gets furious about the destruction (and perhaps some fouling) and all hell breaks loose. The other day he shut our access door, meaning that our cats couldn't come and go. I opened it and saw Pirouette sitting by the door with her hairs all fluffed up, so I took a peek outside and the dog was sitting at the bottom of the stairs (they're outside the building), foaming at the mouth. He had fouled the road just outside the building and had puked in front of the first step.
I saw red and went to knock on their door (being careful to shut their access door behind me, as I didn't want to become a dog snack). I gave the guy a piece of my mind, said they're too lazy to own a dog, don't take him for walks and don't clean the mess he makes. He apologised, took the dog back in, left it there, then went out with the girlfriend somewhere. I had to leave them a note about cleaning the sh*t and the vomit. They half cleaned it and were lucky we had that storm the next day, because it finished washing the mess away.
This morning I woke up to incessant barking that didn't appear to come from their apartment. I went downstairs to investigate and found the dog shut in the cellar! It's that same cellar where Madame Precious had stashed all her rubbish, which she then proceeded to padlock. It's a common area housing the water meters and all residents may need to access it at any time. The girl came back after a while and took the dog upstairs to their apartment. I went down to see if the dog had fouled the cellar. I'm not sure if he did sh*t anywhere, but he ripped all the expensive insulation Peter and I had put on the door.
I've been reading about the laws regarding dogs in France, dangerous ones in particular. This afternoon we're going to the mairie (mayor's office) to ask a few questions and might end up having a chat with the gendarmes. As far as I could gather, if this dog is not pure bred, but a cross of any of the attack dogs, they've been banned since 2010. People who owned one before then need to apply for a special permit and abide by some very strict rules. As the girl is barely 20, she would have been a minor in 2010 and not allowed to own this kind of dog. Whether it's cross-bred or not, this young couple have broken a number of rules and are not responsible dog owners. Even if they had a little poodle, they would still have to clean after it!
I'm also going to talk to Madame Mim and to Dominique, who still owns her apartment, so we can call a meeting of all the owners and vote on banning this kind of dog from the building. The guy who rents the apartment out would have to vet his prospective tenants and make it clear what the rules are.
Enough is enough.
END NOTE:
I had finished the post and gone downstairs for lunch when the girl came out with the dog. I thought she was taking him for a walk... but no, she shut him in the cellar again and went out on her bike!
Then came the nice ones, a middle aged couple, friendly and considerate. They were here for about six months. We miss them...
The latest tenants are the neighbours from hell. It's a couple around 20 years old, with one of those ferocious dogs. We can tell that it's not a pet, it's an attack dog. It belongs to the girl, who we assume made the guy get rid of his own generic (but nice) mongrel in favour of the beast.
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| The dog looks like this one |
The dog is left alone in the apartment all day, howling and banging against the door. When the guy comes back from work, we suspect he gets furious about the destruction (and perhaps some fouling) and all hell breaks loose. The other day he shut our access door, meaning that our cats couldn't come and go. I opened it and saw Pirouette sitting by the door with her hairs all fluffed up, so I took a peek outside and the dog was sitting at the bottom of the stairs (they're outside the building), foaming at the mouth. He had fouled the road just outside the building and had puked in front of the first step.
I saw red and went to knock on their door (being careful to shut their access door behind me, as I didn't want to become a dog snack). I gave the guy a piece of my mind, said they're too lazy to own a dog, don't take him for walks and don't clean the mess he makes. He apologised, took the dog back in, left it there, then went out with the girlfriend somewhere. I had to leave them a note about cleaning the sh*t and the vomit. They half cleaned it and were lucky we had that storm the next day, because it finished washing the mess away.
This morning I woke up to incessant barking that didn't appear to come from their apartment. I went downstairs to investigate and found the dog shut in the cellar! It's that same cellar where Madame Precious had stashed all her rubbish, which she then proceeded to padlock. It's a common area housing the water meters and all residents may need to access it at any time. The girl came back after a while and took the dog upstairs to their apartment. I went down to see if the dog had fouled the cellar. I'm not sure if he did sh*t anywhere, but he ripped all the expensive insulation Peter and I had put on the door.
I've been reading about the laws regarding dogs in France, dangerous ones in particular. This afternoon we're going to the mairie (mayor's office) to ask a few questions and might end up having a chat with the gendarmes. As far as I could gather, if this dog is not pure bred, but a cross of any of the attack dogs, they've been banned since 2010. People who owned one before then need to apply for a special permit and abide by some very strict rules. As the girl is barely 20, she would have been a minor in 2010 and not allowed to own this kind of dog. Whether it's cross-bred or not, this young couple have broken a number of rules and are not responsible dog owners. Even if they had a little poodle, they would still have to clean after it!
I'm also going to talk to Madame Mim and to Dominique, who still owns her apartment, so we can call a meeting of all the owners and vote on banning this kind of dog from the building. The guy who rents the apartment out would have to vet his prospective tenants and make it clear what the rules are.
Enough is enough.
END NOTE:
I had finished the post and gone downstairs for lunch when the girl came out with the dog. I thought she was taking him for a walk... but no, she shut him in the cellar again and went out on her bike!
