Happy Return

Well, we`re back! Back home again from our annual Christmas visit to our `other family` at Lille. We got back in on Friday after a trip of 625 kilometres, all done in one day. On the outward trip we broke our journey at Orléans, so as not to arrive too exhausted, it`s not very polite to arrive at a friend`s house and demand to go straight to bed!
  We had a fantastic time chez Cécile and Patrick; the weather was relatively mild, unusual for Lille, we  had snow last year. At least the dogs, having to spend Christmas in the car like SDF`s, were not too uncomfortable. Still, they get loads of walks. Here it is even milder I walked them yesterday without a coat on (me rather than the dogs!) The down-side has been LOADS of rain, Paris was nearly underwater when we passed on the outward voyage and it rained nearly all the way.

Oysters--see if you can spot the pearl

Coquilles St Jacques + side dish

    We are really spoilt while at Lille, there are for example two separate dinners for Cécile`s family and Patrick`s, and we get to go to both! Kim has taken to Jax`s habit of photographing her food, so here are a couple of shots... Have to admit that neither of us are brave enough to eat oysters but an alternative of ham was provided.
























Oh, yes, you live high off the hog there and my digestion is still recovering.
   While we were there, Patrick took delivery of his new computer. He was not happy with the old one, which, he said ,was acting up. He disconnected it to install the new one and it worked fine on a temporary connection, seemed to be putting out its tongue at him!  Anyway, he generously gave the old one to me, so I am now the possessor of a much more modern Apple than my present Leopard and I am hoping that Ade can sort out any problems on the new Tiger OSX 10.4.3  A suivre!
   The Peugeot ran impeccably for two trips of over 600 kilometres in spite of the rain, I`m very pleased with how it continues to run. The only down-side at the moment is that Kim has returned with a Northern France cold, so I am nursing her back to health and we had to give church a miss this morning.  And it seems that a fox has seized the opportunity of our absence to eat our two Muscovey ducks....Oh, well, that`s life...RIP Alyson and Rebecca :(


  Right, that`s all for now, going to eat a small, dry biscuit with a glass of water...

Heart of the matter

   Yesterday was, to use our Pasteur`s words, une journée particulier. I had an appointment with the specialist for a `doppler` (ulta-sound? I don`t know the English equivalent) examination of my major blood-vessels. Our Doctoresse, when arranging Kim`s normal controle visit to the Cardiologue had `suggested` that I had one too, despite being in good health. She is petite but forceful, so I cravenly agreed. The Cardiologue, while finding nothing wrong, suggested a scan of the neck arteries in view of my mother`s early decease from a stroke. So, four months later, I find myself lying on the Experts `work-bench` while he applies an extremely cold probe to my neck. You don`t feel quite so confident that all is in order at this point. What will he discover on his little screen, just out of my line of vision? He touches a button and a loud swooshing noise makes me jump--perhaps blood squeezing through the narrow gap still open? Drole de bruit, he remarks, to my alarm. C`est normale, ça? I seek reassurance Ah, oui, tout å fait normale he assures me. I settle down while he pursues his research...
   After he had finished, he showed me the pictures and discussed his findings He mentioned a very small piece of plaque on the wall of the carotid artery. Sounds alarming, but the picture showed a tube with a tiny spot, like an ice cream carton lying on the floor of a Tube tunnel, absolutely no problem to the passage of blood. He dictated a report to my doc on the spot and relieved me personally of his fee, some of which I shall get back from my assurance and the Sécu. Still, a small price to pay for peace of mind, and if there had been any problem, it would have been caught early, so something could be done in good time. We are well looked-after out here!

  Bye for now, going to celebrate my continuing good health with a cup of tea and by putting up the Christmas deccies!

Talented cats!

   Now, I have said before that we have a talented crew of animals on the Ark, but a couple of items have surfaced in the last couple of days to display this very graphically. The first concerns Mrs Noah`s new laptop.
   This shiny machine, of which she is very proud is often left open on the coffee table beside her favourite chair, as closing the lid turns it off and she often wants to retain a game or occupation on which she is working. However, one of our talented cats had seized the opportunity of doing some programming on his or her own account. Whatever mysterious input was applied, it had a most bizarre effect on the laptop-- the screen picture turned upside down! It proved far from easy to reverse the damage and we thought we were going to have to call in our favourite trouble-shooter--hello Ade! However a bit of research on Google on my machine ( Kim`s was far from easy to use in reverse!) came up with several sites offering advice on this problem and Kim was able to follow the advice of a thirteen year old expert to reverse the effect. A happy outcome to a feline crime...

    The other bit of talent was shown today by the grey kitten, Storm, who is a bit under the weather today with the cat equivalent of a streaming cold. To cheer her up, we let her share a bit of a brand-new loaf we were eating and she picked up the crust between her front paws, stood up on her haunches and nibbled it as a squirrel eats a nut. I have never seen a cat do this, we were quite impressed. No photo unfortunately but will try to get one later if she adds this trick to her permanent repertoire. It`s no good laughing, Storm!

   Bye for now going to lock up my computer!