Computers ...

We're getting a new computer in the office so I spent a large part of my day there backing up files to an external hard drive, staring at a screen similar to the one in the picture watching files flying from left to right at varying speeds. It's quite mesmerising so you need to take a break now and again! It took ages because the reason we are replacing the existing PC is because it is getting old and slow and bits don't work as well as they should, or even in some cases, not at all. A bit like us really, as we grow older.

This got me to thinking. Sometimes people refer to a year in a dog's life being equivalent to 7 years in a human's life. I wonder how many 'human years' make up a year in the life of a computer? The office computer is only about 5 years old. If we take the biblical idea of a man's life being 3 score years and ten and do the arithmetic, then that makes a 'computer year' equivalent to 14 human years! Just a thought.

A visitor

We had a visit from my brother this weekend. He had an appointment in Kent and stayed with us to make his journey easier than travelling from Northampton. He spent a happy time explaining how he's getting on with his research into family tree. Here you see Uncle and Nephew perusing the result of many hours work!

We had a lovely lazy Sunday. We a short walk after lunch stopping for an ice-cream as it was a very warm day and then spent a happy afternoon reading in the garden. What luxury!

A day off ...

Today being Wednesday, it's my day off. As per usual I had a mental list of all the things that I wanted to do today (often the same things each week) - have a bit of a walk to get some exercise, do a bit of work in the garden and try and empty the ironing basket! Sometimes I add, meet a friend for coffee and do some shopping. All very humdrum things. Well two out of three isn't bad so I think I did quite well today.

After a walk I got stuck into some gardening. Loads to do and I never seem to make much of an impact despite my best efforts.

I think my geraniums have done very well whilst we've been away. I decided a few years ago just to fill a few pots with geraniums as they seem to thrive on neglect - and they get plenty of that!

I avoided the temptation to sit down before I began working.

After a couple of hours though, I think I deserved a little coffee break.

Fuchsias are another plant that need very little looking after, I've found.

I'm really pleased with this dahlia. I only planted it last year and it seems to have established very well. Amazing considering the dreadful soil and lack of preparation before I just 'dug and hole and threw it in' last year.

Well, that's my day off for this week. Hopefully I'll get into the garden to do a bit more work before next Wednesday but there always seems to be something more important somehow!

And finally ...

Just a few more photos before I finally 'put the topic to bed'.

The Pieta outside the church at the top of the Sainte Baume mountain.

I particularly like this shot of the men putting the cover on the swimming pool. 'Heave ho, lads'

Finally reached the end of our journey in France. Relieved to find the tunnel terminal very quiet and have a relaxed half an hour before we caught the shuttle.

A just making sure he doesn't get hungry between France and England!

Just one more photo then, before we put the camera away.

More on France ...

Our friends took a lot of trouble to take us out and show us the local sights and spectacular scenery. I won't say much, but let the photos give you an idea of what we did and saw with them.

One of many colourful stalls in the local market.

A beautiful day to see a beautiful sight - Le Lac in the Gorge de Verdon

A sitting precariously near the edge of the gorge to give you some idea of the depth of it.

More of the lake. It was so beautiful it was difficult not to take too many shots!

A bit of a muddle ...

Monday morning and just about to go into the office to face the backlog of mail etc. I'm looking forward to clearing my desk and getting back to normal.

We've got so many photos of our trip to France it's taking a while to sort them all out. I'm afraid my postings in the next few days will all be out of sequence. I'd like to share some of our photos and experiences without making you sift through the blogging equivalent of hours of home videos! Just a few shots today before I leave.

The Sainte Baume mountain which we could see from our friends' house and which we climbed on our first full day with them.

Tired but happy as we come to the end of the path back down the mountain after a beautiful Mass in the grotto at the top celebrated by the Dominicans who live there. (Weather quite cool and windy at the top as you can see by my gear.)

What a welcome!

We had a very good run down to Besançon where we stayed overnight before continuing our journey on Sunday morning after a super breakfast at the Campanile hotel. We spent a very frustrating couple of hours trying to find a Catholic church locally for Sunday Mass, either on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. We eventually found the local church but Mass is only celebrated there on alternate Sundays and, as luck would have it, we had arrived on the 'wrong' Sunday! We asked several people but no one had any ideas so we drove into town but just couldn't find a Catholic church - quite unexpected really. We have always been able to find a church for Sunday Mass whenever we've been away from home.

We decided to go to the local church near our friends' house as we knew we would arrive in good time on the following day.

We arrived at our friends' house to a very warm welcome and after a drink and settling in we set off to church as we were in plenty of time for Mass at the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in St Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume. We had a very good look around the beautiful building and went into the crypt to see the relics of St Mary Magdalene held there and say a prayer or two but alas, no Mass - every evening at 6pm except Sunday, apparently!

Our friends took us around 'their' village and the photo shows us in front of the cloister of the old 'Couvente' which is now an hotel.



Another shot of the beautiful convent and you can see the tables set out for dinner within the cloister.

Holiday - day one ...

We had a really good journey. Made the tunnel in good time and, as usual, the French motorways are a dream compared to ours.

The picture was taken at the services early on in the journey where we stopped to fill up with petrol full of 'Brits'. We didn't linger! We stopped later for a drink and a snack in a much quieter area in which we felt that we were in France not some strange suburb of Folkestone!

Too much excitement in one day ....

Tomorrow we're off to France to see visit some friends who have a holiday home in Provence. After a fairly busy day I arrived home to find a note from the postman saying I had missed a parcel delivery. I had expected this, but what I hadn't expected was that my very kind next-door-neighbour had taken delivery of the parcel for me. And the timing couldn't have been better! I had treated myself to a super new mini notebook and here it is. It's fantastic, really does work straight from the box and comes loaded with all the things that I wanted it for. The main advantage is the size and portability so I can blog when we're on holiday now.

I literally took it out of the box and plugged it in and up on the screen popped Skype, wi-fi access, Messenger, Google and loads more! It's just a little bit bigger than a DVD in a box.

I had to take this shot just so that you can see the lovely shade of blue!

I was so busy playing with my new 'toy' I was nearly late for our Teams' girls' night out. Here you can see the whole bunch of us having a lovely evening in a nearly pub. Food was delicious, service excellent and the company fantastic.

Roll on France! More photos as soon as I can find somewhere with wi-fi access in France.

A farewell meal

On Saturday we went out for a meal with a friend and colleague of A's and her husband before they left the UK to return to their home in Armenia.

We had a very enjoyable evening and I learnt a bit about Armenia. I must admit that it's a place I've heard of but could tell you very little about and I would probably take a minute or two to locate it on a map.

M's husband is a concert pianist and a very striking couple they make as you can see from the photograph. A has been to Yerevan on a business trip and was interested to compare experiences with our Armenian friends.

This and that and nothing in particular ...

It's been a 'bitty week' this week. Busy in parts and quiet in others. Having just finished with the plumbers we've been visited by the builder who has been finishing off some work begun before Christmas! With a trench in the breakfast room for a couple of days and general activity in the kitchen it doesn't make you want to rush home in a hurry as you feel rather in the way when you get there. Never mind, just a bit of painting to do and 'making good' and we'll have the kitchen back to ourselves.

Mind you, there's always some work to do in a house and the next job will be to raise the level and extend the patio a bit outside the french windows so that we can use that area. At the moment you practically need a parachute to step into the garden from the breakfast room!

I thought I'd take a 'before' shot of the 'death-defying' leap needed to get into the garden from the breakfast room. Note the 'designer' weeds artistically placed in the cracks between the paving slabs!

Next item on the agenda - a trip to France to see our friends in their holiday cottage! Plenty of subject matter for the blog there, I imagine.