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The Canary Dave

Discussion in 'Watford' started by geitungur akureyrar, Feb 1, 2014.

  1. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Seeing the dreadful news about the flooding and loss of life in Germany, I hope that all is well with you cologne.
     
    #20861
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  2. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. Grey and still no sign of the sun that was promised. Still it is warm enough to be outside and getting on with some gardening if the soil has dried out enough. We didn't apply for our pass sanitaire, they just arrived by e-mail. Details on it of what vaccine we received, batch number, where it was manufactured and date we received our second shots. As we will need them for going to shopping centres, music festivals or football matches starting in August, it is a well thought out and developed system to get them to us so promptly. The rate of people getting vaccinated has soared since it was announced Monday that this will be the way of trying to contain the virus and get on top of it again. Have a good day everyone. <ok>
     
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  3. colognehornet

    colognehornet Well-Known Member

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    Everything ok. here Frenchie. Our cellar had water in it - the electricity was down for the region so our pump didn't work. We have a generator but it creates too many fumes to be used safely within 4 walls and outside was a deluge. So it was all manual bucket work <doh> It was very regional here - so our town of Engelskirchen didn't get the brunt of it whereas only 15 miles away streets were turning into torrents of water and houses were collapsing. The city of Cologne is classified as the most flood endangered big city in Europe when the Rhine rises (which it is doing) so problems are coming there. Just up the road in Düsseldorf the Rhine is much wider and less problematic. About a hundred people have died as a result, with many more missing. One major problem was that some cellars have electric sockets at ground level - thus turning a flooded cellar into a death trap unless the mains supply is cut off. 2 firemen lost their lives. The area most affected was the west (NRW), the Rhineland Palatinate and Saarland, together with the south of Belgium which had it the worst - Liege was nearly submerged ! The whole area of the Ardennes, the Eifel and the Sauerland is used to storms but I've never seen anything remotely like this.
     
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  4. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Glad all is well with you cologne, though saddened to see the loss of life and devastation. I had a look at the river that flows through the centre of our commune, that two days ago was so high that the road leading to the bridge had disappeared. Today despite the water flowing very quickly the level had returned to normal.
     
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  5. yorkshirehornet

    yorkshirehornet Well-Known Member

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    phone signal very poor where we are.. Really the back end of nowhere.. But i have now had to get a cheap pay you go as a uk mobile does not work for the orange password system... Argh..
     
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  6. Bolton's Boots

    Bolton's Boots Well-Known Member

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    I think you might be better off using one of these Heinz mobile phones. I believe the password is 57...

    please log in to view this image
     
    #20866
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  7. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. At last it is bright and sunny and expected to stay like it all day. Sunday, so no workman around, just a few neighbours pottering around doing jobs in their gardens. Around 900,000 people yesterday were vaccinated, and opinion seems to have received the health pass well, with the majority in favour of the measures. However there were demonstrations against, with the loss of liberty being quoted. It is certainly true that you cannot please all the people all of the time. Have a good day whatever you will do. <ok>
     
    #20867
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  8. yorkshirehornet

    yorkshirehornet Well-Known Member

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    Enjoyed a fête des voisins last evening... Basically a pot luck meal in the farmyard with the entire hamlet... 23 of us... Was great fun to watch our neighbours let their hair down... Lots of great food, drinks, music, and dancing... One neighbour who has always seemed very formal.. Got blind drunk in a way that only French country people seem to...
    .... The reality of the government regs however means no family can get over to spend time with us this summer sadly.. So mixed feelings...
     
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  9. Toby

    Toby GC's Life Coach

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    :bandit:
     
    #20869
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  10. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. Bright blue above with a warm breeze. Much more like summer should be. Seeing Yorkie's account of his hamlets social gathering reminds me of the ones that have been held here. It is a shame, but we have not been able to hold one for a couple of years, partly due to the restrictions, but also the dwindling numbers. George L. was the first to pass away in his armchair, surrounded by his cats as he watched TV. George F. was the next to go in spectacular fashion one Sunday lunchtime, with huge uproar from the lady who came for her dinner with him, and the emergency services that turned up en-mass. Mr. Magot was next as he overdid it collecting cherries from his trees, and his wife left to be looked after by their children in Paris. The English who have holiday homes would always make sure that they were here to take part, but they have not been around for eighteen months now. So our get together is on hold for now, but hopefully will return one day. Have a good day everyone. <ok>
     
    #20870
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  11. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. Bright blue sky and likely to be pretty warm by afternoon. Spent the afternoon yesterday down the fields, with a few spells sat on one of the seats as it really was very warm. The large field at the back of mine had a combine harvester trundling backwards and forwards collecting the grain from the barley, and leaving rows of straw behind it. Sometimes, not yesterday, you will see a hare or even a small deer sprinting across the field before the machine uncovers its hiding place. There are so many natural things to watch that it is a wonder you get anything done. Have a good day everyone. <ok>
     
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  12. yorkshirehornet

    yorkshirehornet Well-Known Member

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    I have received 10 emails after signing up for the Internet... All increasingly complex for such a simple task.. Buried in a click on from one is a message saying we have an installation booked.. All a bit odd.. And very unclear. Our French neighbours both nod and scratch their heads at the confusing communications... We also had to buy a French mobile to receive the password and 'other communication' and a new fixed line phone as French phones have two types of connectors.. And due to the vagaries of where the sockets are we could not put an adaptor in.... All crazy stuff... The pass key for the WiFi is about three times as long as in the UK... Oh what fun... We await Thursday morning with interest.
    Meanwhile Mme has some work today so we have booked a salon at a local-ish cooperative enterprise so she can have a good connection and do her zoom meeting...
    I have two days zoom work in the next month and am hoping our connection will be up and working well for that.
    Fine weather has finally hit Central France and this is a hot week but likely to change into the weekend..
    Bon journee!
     
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  13. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. A lovely Summer like morning, and a temperature of 30°C expected this afternoon. It makes us smile when the UK forecasters suggest that this is extreme heat, and people should be warned. Sure sign that Summer is here when you find the route barrée notice in front of you as it is to accommodate the course cycliste. There are other means of stopping your journey for a bike race, ie the marshal who has been given a stop/go lollipop sign and takes his/her short lived power very seriously. It is not advisable to argue or plead with these individuals as you will be simply wasting your breath and time. Note the direction they are pointing in and you will find a way around a 10km diversion. Have a good day whatever you have planned. <ok>
     
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  14. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. Summer continues for the time being with temperatures in the morning fine to do things outside, but seeking shade in the afternoon is the better option. The buddleia plants in the garden are in full flower now, both the purple and white ones, and they are attracting the humming bird hawk moths. Fascinating to watch them hovering above a flower and dipping their very long proboscis into them as they extract the nectar. Watching such acrobatics could take up all your time. Have a good day whatever you have planned. <ok>
     
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  15. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. Rather more cloud about this morning, but still warm and dry. As we sat and had a cuppa earlier, in a ten minute period we counted eight aircraft very high up all heading in the same southerly direction. As government advice is to take holidays in France this year, I do wonder if they are all going down to the Med. or maybe further. As usual in the holiday season, the traffic on the autoroutes is forecast to be very heavy especially down south, and is one of the reasons we are lucky to be able to choose when we go away, and avoid being sat for an age at a toll booth. Have a good day whatever you will do. <ok>
     
    #20875
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  16. Bolton's Boots

    Bolton's Boots Well-Known Member

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    The sun is out here after a rather dreary/cloudy start this morning - a morning made worse by the fact that I said goodbye to my trusty old Renault Clio. I don't know why I called it trusty as it was carted off to be scrapped after being progressively less than trusty over the last couple of months - culminating in the final straw of an injection failure this week. Watching it being loaded onto the transporter, I was in awe of the driver - he had been totally unfazed by having to drive the rather large transporter through our small village streets. We live at the end of a 200 metre long cul-de-sac with nowhere to effect a turn in a vehicle that large - watching him cheerfully reverse back down and out into the main road without a care was a rare sight indeed.
    Am now off to wash the 'new' Peugot - which my wife has already nicknamed Pepe...
     
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  17. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. A very rapid change to the weather here. Yesterday was hot, and Mme required assistance to move the many plants that sit on our patio. Fallen leaves, soil that had come out of the pots, weeds in the cracks and moss all meant it had to cleaned up and pressure washed. By the time everything had been moved I was dripping in the heat, and didn't really cool down until the storm arrived with some rain and freshened everywhere up. The temperature is much better for working in now, which is just as well as all those containers will have to be moved back again some time today. I will escape to the fields and leave her to clean the paving. Have a good day whatever the weather. <ok>
     
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  18. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. Overcast with rain on and off. All very quiet in the hamlet this morning because of the rain. I was given a solar powered water fountain for the garden here. I needed some decent looking stones to sit in the bowl, and I found some eventually in a garden centre. The patio clean up in part was done to accommodate it, and now there is no sun to make it work. That is life. Have a good day sun or not. <ok>
     
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  19. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. Sunshine and showers is the forecast for today. All still very unsettled. I see that the government in France is still working, even on a Sunday, passing the new regulations that will affect out lives over the coming months. Quite a lot of details have been worked out for those who are likely to try and flout the regulations, but the numbers of the whole population, not just adults fully vaccinated, is growing at pace, so maybe it will just be the extremists threatened by fines, or even jail. I will continue to exercise caution and obey the rules that seem to be fine unless you want to ignore the safety of others. Have a good and safe day. <ok>
     
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  20. oldfrenchhorn

    oldfrenchhorn Well-Known Member
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    Morning all. Overcast this morning, with showers forecast for this afternoon. When some restrictions eased here I did give a fleeting thought to taking a holiday in Corsica, but then read that thousands of others had the same thought, and it was going to be even busier than normal in July and August. I am glad I did forget about it as the number of new infections in half of the island are the highest in France, and restrictions are being imposed there again. It needs the tourists, but the locals can tell you about the problems of being an almost one industry region. Have a good day everyone. <ok>
     
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