Part IV. Armagnac.

Maps that bore no relationship to reality became a bit of a theme on this holiday and the ecomusee was no exception. Essentially we wandered round the vineyards and etangs enjoying ourselves but having no idea where we were. Thankfully the degustation came at the end of the walk because after a glass or two of floc (aperitif - yes i know i've spelt that two different ways in my blog) and armagnac (digestif) the place looked even more like a maze than before.

I've never done this kind of thing before and on most days of the holiday I felt like I was wandering through a classy travel guide or photographic art book.

part III. nicked photos.

Some great pics taken by Phil from our trip that I have shamelessly stolen from his livejournal scrapbook.

Part II. Arcachon.

This is a view from the Dune de Pyla (spelling varies dependent on your map!) which is the largest dune in Europe. It is enormous! Phil, who joined us on our trip, said that it dwarfed his 4x4 sand dune exploits in Morocco! I visited Pyla 18 years ago with Karine and her family and it was a lot of fun going back with my own family.

The pictures of the Basin d'Arcachon remind me of pictures from 'The Earth from the Air' book that you look at and imagine you'll never get to see yourself. I felt very lucky on this trip away.

Perfection part I

Back from a week in the stunning La Bastide d'Armagnac A region in south west France in the departement of Landes.

Famous for it's pate de foie gras, Armagnac eau de vie, Floc aperatif, pine forests, atlantic coast, wine regions and bastide towns.

Our accommodation was stunning. Many hours were spent soaking up rays by the pool in the back garden.

We spent mornings swimming and sleeping off the alcohol from the day before.

We took a day trip out to the basin d'Arcachon that I visited 18 years ago. At Pyla, they have Europe's largest sand dune. which is a killer to get up but a lot of fun going back down. The view over to Cap Feret, the bay and sandbanks is breath taking.

quote of the day

"Do you know if Audrey Hepburn has done any other books apart from 'The Time Traveller's Wife'?"

Laugh if you will...

Laugh if you will but I have discovered the delights of Edith Piaf. Two cd's at 97p each from Tesco have given me 30+ of her tracks without resorting to the obvious 'Je ne regrette rien'.

'La vie en Rose' has a most wonderful tune and Edith's voice is stunning whether or not you understand the French.

She has a look that is indisputably French and of the 30's & 40's that I love. Closing my eyes I can imagine the music is coming out of a bakelite wireless in an inter-war Parisien kitchen...

48 hours and I'll be back in her pays de naissance avec mes reves d'habiter encore au pays qui me manque depuis des annees.

3 work days and counting.

1405308184. page 183.

things i wish i could say (join in!)

out of print means you'll only get it by tomorrow if i sit up all night copying it out by hand and my customer services don't stretch that far.

i think the word you are looking for is thank you.

so go to the competition, we'll probably buy them for christmas anyway.

you really are very stupid aren't you.

come back when you know what the hell you want.

ooh let me think, it's blue you say, well naturally our products are colour coded, primary colours upstairs.

don't look at me like i just work behind a till, you're the one buying dan brown.

new tattoo.

Hopefully clicking on the picture will show it off better.

trial by fire

4-10 init, 11+ init, 4-10 non-init, 11+ non-init taken care of.

Now working on 1-3 from 06 + 05 acad. rpts.

4 screens

ph*x 1: isbn search
ph*x 2: gp coding by acad sub dept
ph*x 3: running exp order
bkdata: checking new eds, OP, UC, RP etc

line by line. like rolling a stone to the top of a hill, watching it roll down the other side then going back down and pushing it back up again. did someone do that already?!

customer comment

Are all your books in here the same price?

cheddar part III

This photo needs no explanation.

cheddar part II

Rather chuffed with these 'thirds' pictures.
Amazing weather at Weston and a huge, empty beach to scamper round!

Managed to catch a bit of the sun on my pasty face making

me just a little frecklier!

cheddar part I

What a FAB three nights away. I could have stayed longer. The weather was mostly clement, the site was great, my pitch was perfect, the beach was enormous and I had a lot of fun. On the left you can see a quick snap of the gorge which is really stunning. It was the first place I thought of when I was deciding to go away for a bit. On the right you can see my pitch from the other side of the river. Next to all the bigg tents for grown ups my little two man tent was miniscule.

My pitch was right next to this pretty river. It was shallow enough for the hound to go in and drink and cool off and was teeming with little fish. On my first or second day there I saw a kingfisher zip down low across the water. There was a resident wren and a pair of collared dove creaking their wings late into the evening. Monty spent most of his time on the lookout for other dogs daring to be on holiday in the same location as him.

The best afternoons were spent on Weston-super-Mare beach. It was mostly overcast but warm. Monty turned loopy lurcher for hours leaping back from those very scary waves then running headlong into them to chase other dogs before he realised he was in up to his belly!

a few more santa pod beauties for ya

beasties

i have been munched by some evil parasitic low lifes and i now look like an illustration from a medical journal.

colours of summer

colours of summer
Originally uploaded by unkempt woman.

A photo from an e.friend's flickr site. thought this was worth sharing. i'm a sucker for great colours and pattern.

Strange light

This evening, just before the lightning started there was an eerie pink/yellow light and some stunning clouds that i just had to stand on my wall and snap.

releasing my inner mutant

Mutant, cannibal and narcissist.

Only some of the gems that didn't make it to my c.v.

Audi pardner

You've heard of road rage, now I bring you road flirt!! Does this exist already or did I just witness a first.

I'm driving home and this TT behind me gives a tiny flash. I wonder if he thinks I'm not going fast enough. Unlikely. A mile or so further on he flashes and I look in the mirror to see him waving at me. I only know one person with a TT and it really doesn't look like them, I assume they must have mistaken me. He flashes again. So I wave back and give an exaggerated shrug to indicate I don't know who he is. He then waves some more and playfully indicates leftrightleftrightleft. I turn my hazards on and off cos I figure I might as well have a bit of fun on the way home from work. He toots. I give the royal wave out the window. He flashes his lights. I slow right down and spray water from my screen all over his car then accelerate. I can tell he's having fun messing around and I'm laughing too but wondering who on earth this guy is. Anyway, this goes on for about 5 miles then when we get to Bedford, I turn left at the round about toward the retail park and he goes straight ahead down the bypass, giving me a wave...

I'm just laughing a lot at this point and wondering if he takes that route home regularly.

I'm just heading up past the retail park and beyond the railway bridge when who should come shooting past the other way but the guy in the TT! He's obviously bombed up the bypass, come off at the next exit and torn round to come past me the other way. He's flashing and waving and I'm just creasing up!

Of course I'm intrigued and hoping I might see this mystery man tomorrow!! He has a distinctive registration plate so I will keep an eye out when I park from now on.

If any of you know anything about this you have to tell me!!!

BUG JAM 20

Madeleine had a fun day out at Santa Pod but has been pestering me for her own jet engine since we got back.

No can do. People waiting behind us at the lights might complain.

I got very jealous of some beautiful new bugs,

some fabulous restored bugs

and some golden oldies...

There was no shortage of the quirky, groovy and plain show off!

I have so many more pics than these but I have to stop blogging at some point this evening. Anyway, in brief, it was a fantastic day and I never thought I could get so stoked on cars. To be fair, I didn't think it possible for a bug to shoot 20 foot of flames and be out of sight in 6 seconds.

another day in paradise

me: Hello, can I help you?

customer: Oh, I was going to ask him (points at colleague)

He looks like he'd know more than you.

more festival pics

French Market

Novel ways to cross the river.

The guys in the raft race were pelted with eggs by their 'friends' on the embankment!