Brushing-up my French

I have been brushing up my French over the last few days. It's actually a language I like very much and studied it at school many years ago. I do with I paid more attention though. It was one of the few subjects I really enjoyed and to this day, I have retained a few words and phrases. The course I am learning with is from Michel Thomas. It is different to other courses as you are actually the third student - there are two others on the CD and they are learning also, making mistakes so you don't feel you're the only one failing. The system actually works and very well. I have already learnt quite a lot and more importantly, I've retained what I've learnt. One day, I'd really like to visit France again (last time was in 1989) and spend some proper time there. I have suggetsed to my wife that we move there when we retire...

I've heard absolutely nothing from Stagecoach despite two letters, one of them to their head office. I'm convinced now that they don't care and my respect for them has all but disappeared.
I haven't completely given up on my wish to have a PCV career but I am being forced to look for IT-related jobs. I was turned down for the job at the local schoool though I notice they haven't found anyone as their vacancy has been extended. I did though find a vacancy at a components company at Wisbech. I had no idea they existed but a little research threw up the fact that they are one of the UK's largest component suppliers. Quite how I hadn't heard of them I don't know. It just goes to show what's on your doorstep sometimes.
So I've applied for the position of IT Technician looking after the computers and network at their offices. I hope to hear something in the enxt few days. Even if it's a polite 'no thank you' then I still have what's needed for my mortgage insurers to pay out.

I've been able to harvest a few tomatoes which I'm quite pleased about. They taste wonderful - sweet and juicy. There are many more still attached waiting to ripen and I hope that they weather allows for them to turn red before the frosts set in. We are forecast cold temperatures, ice and snow in the coming weeks.

I have been self-pollinating my watermelon plant. The female flowers have a round ovary just beneath the flower and I have been pollinating them by removing the male flowers and bringing the stamen into contact with them. If successful then the ovaries should begin to elongate after a week or so and develop into a water melon. Again I'm hoping the weather doesn't turn too cold as this may affect their growth.





My parents are decorating at the moment. They're currently working on the kitchen and have chosen a greeny-blue colour which frankly I think resembles that of a public convenience. But hey ho I don't have to live there. I visited this morning and was relocated to the front dining room, comfortable and with nice views.
They have a friend coming to visit on the 20th from London, a good friend of the family hence the panic to get everything redecorated in time. I know my father would rather be tinkering in his garden. At 72, he's really too old to be painting ceilings and walls. Well that's my view.
While I sat there with my breakfast, I recorded these images for posterity and it made me realise how we take for granted our location and what's around us.

It struck me that I hadn't really noticed how eleborate the fireplace is...

The view as I sat eating my breakfast and the garden still full of colour...

The view from the front looking out on an almost unspoilt view across the fields toward the Wash...

Besides my French language course, I've been listening to a range of different music types. Music for me is very much like sunshine and has similar effects. It is food for the mind and soul and can alter the way I feel or the way I think. So, I've been feeding my ears with the likes of Rick Wakeman's Myths and Legends of King Arthur how I ever missed this I don't know), Eurovision winning ditties, Gheorghe Zamfir, music from the Soong Sisters and anything else that pushes the right button. I've also added to my already immense MP3 audio book collection - lots of new mysteries and ghost stories, perfect as we approach Hallowe'en.
 Which reminds me, I must ask my father to provide a pumpkin for my little man. I've convinced him we need one so we can scarte away the witches...

Broadband

Broadband is one of those things we try to leave alone. When its working, we hate anything to interfere with it, but when it does, it is worse than having an illness.
So, why am I writing about it? Well, I have been with Pipex for as long as I can remember. Not so long ago, they were swallowed-up by Opal and not long after that, Opal were swallowed-up by TalkTalk. Now I have a letter telling me that Pipex are being taken over by TalkTalk. This is confusing enough. But what really gets my goat is the fact that I'm being forced to pay more for the priviledge of my service being migrated and pay more for what is in fact a lesser service (40Gb limited Internet rather than unlimited).
But the worst part of all this is the experience I've had to endur this afternoon in trying to discuss this with someone at TalkTalk. It has been as painful as having my arm foreably removed from its socket. It has left me feeling utterly exhausted.
Why oh why does anything Broadband related need to be so bloody difficult? Why is it so difficult to speak to aomeone and be understood? Why do I have to repeat my dilema to every person I am put through to? Why am I told my exchange 'hasn't been upgraded' so cannot provide me with unlimited broadband, when I have had unlimited Broadband for the last 9 years? It's all so absolutely ridiculous.
Sort yourselves out TalkTalk. I've had enough.

Three Depressives and a Birthday

Today was special for being one of the days in October which broke our weather record. It has been unseasonably warm and sunny, weather which frankly is far from the norm for this time of year. Tomorrow will be the day things begin to change and I'm told we can start seeing overnight frosts and possibly snow very soon.
It was also my wife's Godson's Birthday party and we were all invited. For a change, I was quite relaxed and rather looking forward to it. It was a very pleasant event. My son was in his element, a little hoarse perhaps from a recent cold, but he joined in with glee squirting water at everyone and generally running around as kids of his age do.
While I was sitting there, it suddenly dawned on me that I was accompanied by two others who have been affected by varying degrees of depression. We have all been affected in different ways for this illness is quite unique to the individual. But to each of us, our experiences were intensly private and whereas three men would normally exchange banter about football, gardening or the weather, this did not happen. Of course we all had a good idea of what we had each been through - and were still going through - but it's simply not the sort of thing you can strike up a conversation over. There was just a very quiet knowing sense among us of the dark places we had all been to, and most probably feared returning to.
For I don't actually think depression is something you can discuss in a 'therapy' kind of way. It's not like being an alcoholic or drug abuser. You don't choose to have depression, it forces itself upon you like some enormous weight, pressing down. I know this.
So amongst all the jovality and the fun, I was so deeply aware of this 'secret pain' that existed hidden from normal view. But it is something all the 'grown ups' are aware of. They understand and are sympathetic, for they all know someone who is affected by it. I felt comforted to know this and a closeness quite unique to 'people like us'...