Bicycle links

I have posted before about our uncanny connections with all things bicycle related and the way our lives seem to revolve around them (forgive the pun!). While we were away Mike wanted to drive over to a neighbouring town to look at some metal work and other things that a woman was giving away. I can't remember the name of the place we drove to but it was about 40 km away in the Lot et Garonne and by a lovely canal. The woman and her husband had moved to this house three months before from Tenerife, where they had been living for 18years, and bought a run down and badly renovated house. They had just stripped out the insides of 5-6 apartments and were looking for a new use for some of the contents. This suited Mike quite well as he is renovating his house into one bedroom flats.

The woman told me that her husband was a keen cyclist and when I spoke to him about it he said that in his youth he had turned down a place in the 1964 Olympics as in those days there was no money in it and no possibilities of a future career in sports and he had his own career to consider in dentistry. How times have changed!

Upstaged by my mother

I was telling my mother about my glimpse of someone who I thought might be Vinnie Jones. Name dropping makes no impression on her now however, since she is quite settled in her apartment in Windsor. Together with all the other residents, they keep a watchful eye on the local goings-on and generally try to keep up to date. One of the ladies was in an art shop in Windsor today and looking around she came across a group of young men and thought that one looked familiar. Realising that she had been staring for some time she thought that she may have appeared a little rude and turned to one of the young men and said

"Oh, I'm sorry if I have been staring but you do look just like Prince Harry"

"Well I am actually", came the reply.

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I was actually just looking for some candle holders"

"That's all right, they're just round the corner on the right"

Now I don't know whether I believe all of this story or not but my mother made it sound convincing!

Seaside life

Today I went to meet with a couple of people in a seaside town about 40 miles down the coast. It was a lovely day and as I had chosen to use public transport I was 45 minutes early and so went for a nice walk along the seafront. It is amazing what you can see when you have the time to look!

The first thing I came across was this little boat with a notice advertising the sale of fish at 1pm! (I found out later that this is not a daily occurrence). All was suspiciously quiet except for the fluttering of the flags on some other boats. On closer inspection these bright 'flags' were made from bits of high visibility jackets and other work clothes!

I walked along the beach a bit more and as mid-day approached a few people began to gather by the blue boat. There were a couple of men, a few Koreans and eventually two elderly ladies in their matching motorised wheelchairs. About 20 minutes later I heard a creaking sound and saw an older fisherman hauling his small fishing boat up the shingles, using a motorised winch. The crowd began to clamour around the boat. "What has he got today? Any hake?" said one of the ladies. "No, just a few mackerel I think" came the reply. The fisherman went to his hut and set up his filleting knife and bucket and I looked into the boat. In the bottom was a pile of nets, with mackerel, still flapping around! A proper queue had formed by this time but the elderly ladies thought they were being left out so levered themselves out of their chairs and took their place! I mentioned it to he person I was meeting who said that the man and his fish were in deed very popular! Well, you can't get much fresher! Unfortunately I had several hours before I could get home and to the fridge and so had to forgo the pleasure of probably the freshest mackerel I am ever likely to get!

Marjorie

Bambi's owner is called Marjorie. In the past I have picked up the dog and taken it to the agility class and not really had much chance to talk with Marjorie. Now she comes with me we have a chance to talk in the car. It is not so much of a conversation as a monologue from Marjorie, as her hearing problems prevent her from understanding what you say to her with all the background noise from the road. Never-the-less I got a feel from Marjorie yesterday that her story is very interesting and if I had the time and the patience to listen to it I think there would be a lot that would be of value. She started telling me about how, at a young age she was placed in children's home as her mother couldn't afford to care for her, how she talked her way into an office job in a legal firm and really enjoyed it, how she had no money to buy herself lunch, that she was married at 18 but after 9 months he died.. (She did not tell the story in that order; I had to piece it together!). Unfortunately I didn't get to hear any more as we arrived at the dog class!