Drama in the Pulpit

   Last Sunday, a shocking event happened in our little church at Matha. Yves, our Pasteur, was in the middle of his sermon when he suddenly stopped speaking. After a moment he apologized and continued, I thought perhaps he was stifling a burp! He continued for a couple of sentences, then stopped for good, and it was evident he was not well. Several people helped him to sit down and one of our congregation, Catherine, who is a nurse called the emergency services. A rapid response car arrive in moments, then the red emergency ambulance, which bizarrely is run by the fire service in France they were not happy with Yve's condition and called in a helicopter to evacuate him to La Rochelle, they don't stint here! As you can imagine it was an emotional moment for the congregation, we prayed for Yves of course and tried to continue the service, singing several hymns

  I am happy to report that our prayers were answered and Yves has returned home after tests which have not revealed any cause for his malaise. All hope it will never recur.

 Bye for now, battery low!

It's the Ark's Anniversary!

   It was in March 2011 that the very first Overloaded Ark saw the light. Since then 228 articles have been published and 16533 pages have been viewed by readers all over the world. It's not an extensive readership by blog standards but it does make you think how information and opinions can spread, for good or ill in the computer world of today... I shall have to be careful that the facts and opinions I publish are as correct as possible!

  Just one new fact for today--yesterday I saw the first swallow of the year. I know the proverb advises against celebrating the arrival of summer but still it's a hopeful sign!

 Bye for now, coffee calls.

The floating Ark

 For a few days the Ark has been in trouble due to an unexpected problem in picture loading. When I tried to upload photos, instead of the normal arrival of the picture I got several lines of machine gobbledegook and no photo. True the shot did appear if I tried to publish, but in odd places and it was not possible to have an aperçu at all.  I even tried to rename theArk as a new blog without making any difference.
  However, I am happy to say that timely advice from Jacqui Brown provided the clue to solving the problem and making blogging a pleasure again. Somehow I had altered the setting from 'compose' to HTML thus making a grave difference in the display method. Now all is well again and I hope this will spur me on again to be more regular in my blogging!

    Bye for now tea-time calls!

Trial blog 3

   Hooray, we`re back in business!!  Thanks a million, Jacqui!

Struggles with a blog

Regular readers of the Ark might have noticed that I have not posted for a while, this is because I have had a problem with Blogger. Due possibly to my own unfamiliarity with my new I-Pad, the system has corrupted in some way and it is no longer possible to upload pictures, which is a severe handicap to an attractive blog! I am going to experiment with starting a new blog with a slightly different name, to see if that will cure the problem--watch this space and await the birth of a new Ark in a day or two. Bye for now--until we meet again!

Emergency Ward 10--Stark Drama in the Recovery Ward!

   Abot two weeks or so ago, I noticed our old dog, Jilly, had a lump in her right ear-flap. It felt like a fluid-filled blister and there was no external sign of an injury. I left it for a couple of days to see if it would go down on its own but if anything it gradually increased in size. I therefor arranged an appointment with François, our local vet at Chef Boutonne.

  On examination, François said it was due to a small blood-vessel broken in the ear-flap and he proceeded to evacuate the blood by drawing it off with a hypodermic. Sounds simple like that, doesn`t it, but it took me, François and the girl on the desk to hold Jilly still and we were all spattered with blood and the poor girl scratched on the arm by Jilly`s claws-- oh it`s not all stroking fluffy bunnies being concerned with animal care! The ear looked normal and the usual injection was given to aid recovery. François did say that it was possible the vessel might continue to leak.
 
This is what happened, in fact, and a week later it was as bad as ever. A minor op was clearly necessary to suture the leak, and this was fixed for yesterday afternoon. Jilly was once more put on the operating table and I stayed while she received her injection to put her under, less stressful for her like that. Come back at 6.15 was the advice, which I duly did. The nurse on the desk said she hadn`t yet come round so I waited in the waiting room.

   Suddenly, there arose a dreadful screaming and howling, I recognised Jilly`s voice. The other clients waiting were somewhat concerned; I was asked to come through immediately and found Jilly most unhappy and expressing her fright freely! I talked to her and hugged her and she calmed briefly then continued her lament. François appeared ( I think he was doing another op) and gave her a Valium injection and suggested I walked her in the back yard. I think he was afraid he would lose all his clients present!

   She calmed down but lapsed back into unconsciousness so couldn`t be walked. François was involved with his op and I think we were a bit forgotten out there. Eventually I fetched the Berlingo up close and loaded the comatose Jilly with the aid of the nurse, who had remembered us. She was very sleepy and wobbly all evening, staggering here and there and walking into furniture with her funnel-collar, put on to stop her scratching at the wound, but not very comfortable for Jilly.

   She got me up at three last night whining, perhaps to go out but when I tried she would not `perform`. This morning she is much better, starving hungry and `going` much more normally. I have found I have to remove the collar as she can`t choose the ideal spot as normal and can`t or won`t go....All`s well that ends well as long as the op is a success, of course, can`t see under the bandage. Couldn`t face another evening like that!

   Bye for now, going to get some lunch
 

Some Tyred Old Jokes

   Looking at the nice tyres on our latest transport cast my mind back to some of my earlier cars, back indeed to a tatty Austin A30 which was, I think my third four-wheeled transport. In those halcyon days the dreaded MOT had not been introduced and one ran a vehicle until it ceased to run and then scrapped it. a friend ran a Vauxhall Velox with a chassis so rusty that it broke in two one day, going over the level crossing in Military Road! The same care-free attitude applied to tyres  They were replaced by paupers like myself, not when they went bald but when the carcase started to show through the rubber.... And yet I can`t remember the accident rate being any higher than today.
    I was bowling merrily along in the region of Abergavenny when a loud bang from the rear of the car made me leap almost from my seat. Hoping I had just run over a stone, I slowed down carefully but as the speed came off the car sank down at the back, a puncture. In fact, it was worse than that, the tyre had burst. As you can imagine, this was not my first experience of this, and I soon had the little car jacked up, changed the tyre and we proceeded on our way to Portsmouth, or rather to Gosport, my home at the time.

    The cheapest shop for tyres locally was a little one-man shop in a side-street between the High St and Forton road  I replaced the tyre and while the proprietor was fitting it, I admired his display of `killer tyres` in a rack outside, all bald and worn. I was a bit peeved when he came out with my old tyre, removed the least bad of the display and substituted mine....

   Mind you, this chap was a real joker. He told me he had whiled away his hours of waiting for a customer by a series of practical jokes. His most successful was to braze a coin, say a sixpenny piece onto a broad-headed nail with his welding torch. He would then hammer this embellished nail into the asphalt pavement outside the shop and wait for the fun to start. A passer-by would spot the coin, glance round and make a furtive grab, only to find the sixpence firmly stuck. Some would leave it, others would break their nails on it. One chap was down on his knees working away with his pen-knife to free the coin! The tyre-seller was amazed at the lengths to which folk would go to possess this small coin. It didn`t stop him roaring with laughter at their antics! A variant of this was an old leather wallet firmly nailed to the ground. It is an indicator of the style of his wit, when I say that he had filled it with dog-turds...
    Happy days.. Bye for now, going to make a cuppa