The Canary Dave

Back from an 11 day Western Isles voyage..... been epic.... now catching up back home

 

The first of four public holidays in the month, so of course it is tipping it down with rain. I ordered a nine-month supply of tea bags from Amazon fr. for delivery this week. Rather surprised to find they were coming from Watford, as they are Yorkshire tea bags. Following the tracking, I find that they are delayed in customs and the carrier wants information from me. So off to their website where I can see the shipping agent's reports. That says it has cleared customs, which I hope is correct, as by the weekend I will be in need of them. Life used to be so straight forward. Have a good day all.

 

I now find that my teabags have been stuck in customs for three days. Not French customs, but UK ones. As the French tracking service tells me, they have been liberated at last, but are still stuck on the wrong side of the Channel. At one time they would take two to three days from placing an order to arrive here, but with the world beating customs system that now exists it is much longer. My existing stock runs out Saturday morning, so do I buy some of a different brand from the local supermarket? I will follow the progress of my order during the day before deciding. Have a good day all.

 

My experience of Customs Officers and foodstuff suggests that your teabags will all have been made freely available in their lunchroom by now.

Don't hold your breath....

 

Watford Jigsaw
Free + postage to send, in the UK that will be £3.69.
Football Crazy, Watford FC, 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Puzzle completed once so pieces in very good condition
Present from Mme, have completed once fun but not very challenging
If no one is interested it's off to the charity shop
COYH!

 

Crisis averted! My tea bags have arrived, which seems pretty good to me as they were in the outskirts of Paris at 3.00am this morning. Three days in UK customs, three hours in the French ones says that something is very wrong when the UK needs to sell abroad to survive, even it is only by selling tea bags. I now have 1,042 to keep us going for some time, but next time I will order well in advance of our need.

 

Grim we lost.

Drove the ring of Kerry today. It was lush.

Been downing the local brews here too.

Here the lovals make Mexicans look tense. A laid back part of the world. Twas sunmy today too.

 

Preparations are well underway for the Summer Olympics over here. My granddaughter volunteered to help out at Chateauroux where the archery and shooting events are taking place. Having raided the university for people, organizational meetings have been taking place, and she has been asked to act as one of the team leaders because she is bilingual. I think that people with other languages will also be a point of information for visitors from abroad. It really is a massive challenge to organize such things, with events taking place all over the country.

 

There are images that stick in your mind for various reasons. This one is from thirty years ago, and I remember it when I pass the spot that it happened.

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Yet another damp grey morning, so still too wet to start veggie growing. Everywhere I go I see that new telephone cables have been installed at the top of the poles. Thinner than the existing ones that are still in place. They spent three days bringing them into and around our village, but now a grey/white box has been added to the polls at a low level. I guess it is all to do with the fibre network that has been spreading throughout the rural areas as well as the towns. My internet is now at the dizzy heights of 19 mbps, rather different to my early days here when it was about 2 mbps providing not too many were online at the same time. Have a good day all.

 

Morning all. At last a dry day, and the sun is blazing through the windows, warming the house. Today Mme has her birthday, one of the big ones, so the living room smells like a florists shop with the bouquets sent by our children in England. We had hoped to go out to dinner with friends at our favourite restaurant, but with yesterday and today being public holidays, the owners decided to take the week off. So instead of that we will be spending time with the family over here, and our daughter is making the birthday cake. At least I remembered, so she is still speaking to me. Have a good day all.

 

Northern lights were all around last night... .I slept through it all in ignorance.... . even in Creuse in France too..... Frenchie did you get them?

 

A bit of a mixed bag up here - can't remember seeing this much green before

 

This from Switzerland put ours to shame.

 

No sign of them here.

 

Slept through it, like a total plonker, as it's something I've always wanted to see.

 

Me too. Hopefully making up for it tonight!

 

away with the grandkids... put them to bed....and slumbered.... . fell asleep and saw nothing.... second night running!

 

We do not have light pollution, as our five street lights do not come on at this time of year. So staggered out just before midnight, with the only light coming from the stars. I walked carefully until I could get a clear view of the northern sky. Nothing!

 

Missed them on Friday night, Mrs Fez took us out on a drive last night:

nada, zip, zilch.