spontaneous oysters

Here are Larry and Barbara being romantic
in Ulla-Bendix sylvan grove after a deal of
oysters...



And Ulla-B himself, engaged in the work.







Apart from the sudden cold snap - its been in
the 20's here, suddenly we are in woolies again -
it was a marvellous party. Hats off to Aileen and
himself for brilliant inspirations: that is, for being
inspired to buy oysters to feed their friends and
for being inspiring anyway. That house is becoming
an artwork.

London Drawings

if you are in London for the 24th March go see PeterC's
show at Morley College....
http://www.thelondongroup.com/artists/clossick.html
and if you persist in being absent go to Andrew Logans
event, the Alternative Miss World, on May 2cnd at the
Roundhouse; this years theme is The Elements. You could
go as Miss EDF and be late.
www.andrewlogan.com will probably have the details, or
google Alternative Miss World.

lottalotto

Yo!
Friday night in Tilling?
Lotto!! To raise funds for the school; to buy new
treadmills for the kids perhaps, who knows.




In France you don't do bingo for money- ho, whats the
point -you do it for food. Duck - pair of, with livers -
smoked hams, panniers gourmand (sauvage) -and etc;
fiercely fought.
The mayor was there and the head of the fire department
plus most of the towns notables.


It happens at the school and the Centre Culturelle.
The numbers are drawn at the CC and spoken
down the phone to the school. By an orange telephone.
We played - thats what its called - from 8.00pm till
after midnight. It was knackering and being in French,
baffling.
Et alors? We lost.
At least two of us had sterling headaches at life drawing
this morning but we think thats because we were sober.

burnout

Sorry Ive not been blogging - I have the very fashionable burnout,
which affects successful bloggers after a while, according to the
March edition of Newsweek. Someone I'd never heard of is trying
to sell his blog for 100 million dollars because hes so exhausted by it.

I know how he feels. Anyone want to buy a blog? Will accept offers
over a fiver.

Out every night this week except the night I took off to do some real
work - which I failed to do, since by the time the components were in
place I was knackered -

Most of my carousing was done in T Rex which meant passing the
trees outside the school. It was PeterG who discovered that the mad
rustling from 5 of them was caused by magpies. They looked
extraordinary, fat black and white balls squatting on the bare
branches - about 40 of them we counted, though our presence
disturbed them and they wouldn't keep still. The next night
there were fewer and currently there are about 3 - the gay
ones, at a guess, who don't have to set up home to breed.

If its one for sorrow, two for joy etc, then 40 magpies
represents (obviously) a clue to the whereabouts of the
treasure of Pere Saunier.

And Neleke and PeterG have seen a whole bunch of Gryphon
Vultures above Rennes les Bains. ANOTHER clue!

One night there was a nightingale in the Avenue de la Gare...
hallelujah, they're back. Though not the next night.
Burnout, probably.

OOH big news, Le Petite Journal carried a sweet report of Andrées
birthday party with photos.
Marvelously it also printed a photo of an empty room, titled New
Colour - in black and white.

update

... Larry and Barbara are here for 2 months, I'm thrilled to say,
so you will meet them soon. They survived their first dinner at
mine last night, or at least I think they did - haven't seen them
today. Annie and Pete added to the fun...
Which occurred after a meeting at the MJC where a bottle of
blanquette was opened to celebrate the success of the ski outing.
Sounded like hell on earth to me but the kids claimed it was great.
The MJC website will be posting the photies when the team have
clearance from the parents for the use of the images.
I suggest in order to get round this difficulty in future the children
wear goggles, hats and scarves as well as their ski suits so that they
are completely unrecognisable.

Kats birthday apero

Kats birthday is the day after Andrée Bonnets.
Despite a certain amount of knackerdness from
Andrées dinner, a fine apero was held and enjoyed,
judging by the photos.
Here is a random selection of some of the more
presentable ones:

Andrée Bonnet comes of age...

Andrée Bonnet, incredibly, is 80.


The fact that the photos are dark, blurred and in many original
ways deeply weird, shows what a good night it was. Something to
do with the energy.

Thirty-six of the usual suspects jammed themselves into the
Café de la Gare for dinner on Thursday to celebrate our favorite
Frenchwoman...



Andrée made a birthday speech which had us all
rocking. She introduced those of her family who were
attending the meal and clearly could make a living as an
after dinner speaker.













Here Andrée and Ulla-B can be seen plotting; perhaps
designing the 90th celebrations.