Tag: Paris

Home and Away

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Taken by my son last year
Taken by my son last year

France,  and Paris in particular, are recovering from the recent atrocities inflicted on that beautiful city and people are returning to normal life and revisiting the places they once felt safe in. One restaurant owner said that all traces of the  damage had been erased and the place repainted and customers, albeit slowly, are coming back. My son  spent last year touring Europe from Vienna to Casablanca spending the longest time of his tour  in Paris. He greatly enjoyed wandering the

The Tomb of Napoleon ( son's Photograph)
The Tomb of Napoleon ( son’s photograph)

streets of Paris, paying his respects to the  Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe and then paying My respects to the Emperor Napoleon. John  liked Paris a lot and was greatly saddened by the damage inflicted on her. Oddly enough , and I apologise to any Italians, he didn’t like Rome at all. Some of the photographs in parts of Europe that I use were sent to me by my son

Been a tad on the warm side this week with temperatures hoovering around 40c. Cooler today – only 38c – but a day of extreme fire danger since high winds and possibly dry lightening strikes are forecast. However, I think there is a cool change forecast for late Monday or early Tuesday.

Our Moderator and his wife visited us yesterday (Sunday) conducted the Service and joined us for Christmas Lunch afterwards. We had been criticized by some  for the money we spent on the installation of two reverse-cycle air-conditioners, but at 41c, there was not a single adverse comment in sight – a very pleasant lunch in a pleasantly cool hall. Of course, safe to say that the majority voted in favour of the  air-conditioners, but the dissenters were very vocal, however,  fact is that without these air-conditioners  the hall would have been much too hot and uncomfortable to spend any length of time in, let alone have the whole of the congregation sit down to lunch.

The expected cool change came in a little earlier than expected and there was widespread lightening strikes across the State – we even had some rain. However, we were not too bad but parts of the lower state are without power and will be for some days. We have our own power station here – Northern Areas Power Station ( NAPS) – but this is a coal fired station which is coming off line

Hello..
Hello..

during 2016. From then on we will be part of the main system and whatever power failures they get, we will probably get too.

The good aspect to all of this is that Benji never missed a beat. The noise of the thunder and the rain – such as it was – didn’t seem to bother him in the least. It didn’t last long at all.  Herself always felt really sorry for Chienne because the noise so severely affected her and there was not a lot we could do other than the Vet

Chienne and The Man
Chienne and The Man

medication to try and calm her down. We did buy her a Thundershirt, but it didn’t work for her. It’s cleaned and packed away since Benji has no need of it. I have also been trying to give away one of the dog houses but no one seems to want it and BJ has no need of two. Actually we did have three but I dismantled one and stored it in the garage – will probably do the same with the other one.

Annabell and Benji get along well, so much so that at lunch she becomes his BFF – I get ignored because he really doesn’t like my diet  food – I guess he figures he’s a dog not a rabbit.  Benji is still not registered yet. I have written to the Canine Animal Register in Victoria and they still have not sent me his Registration and Microchip papers yet. It is now ten days since they informed me that the papers would go into the post that very day, and I  believe that either this was a falsehood or there has been a mail holdup by highwaymen on the Cobb & Co Stagecoach ( Australian Wells Fargo)  because using a stagecoach is the only way a letter could take ten days to come from Melbourne. Why don’t I register him here anyway?? I cannot because his microchip  still lists his previous owner and if anything happened here and he  went wandering I would have difficulty  getting him back because he would be shipped off to Victoria and I have no proof that he is my dog, so I need these papers.

Blue Lake, Padlocks and Bridges of Paris

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but if I did, I apologise. Some weeks ago it was discovered that there was a serious electrical fault in this area so  teams were brought in to examine

The driveway thus far.
The driveway thus far.

the pipes – mostly by a  sort of x-ray machine. After several hours it was discovered that the fault was right underneath my driveway. I gave permission for it to be dug up and the following morning I moved the car out to the roadway and the bottom part of the drive was dug up. They started with only a part of the drive then since that was not the area, moved to the whole length of the drive.  They

found the fault and set about repairing it — However– in digging up the area to repair an electrical fault and replace a cable, it was discovered that there was a gas fault, so  SA Gas was called in, and after trying to get the part needed anywhere in Australia it was decided to put on a temporary patch until they could source the part from somewhere. The trench was backfilled and heavy crusher  dust – a sort of very fine gravel – was pounded in and that was that. It has now been over a month  since this was done and still no replacement part and from what the supervisor was telling me that even if the part arrives it may not be enough because a whole section of  pipe is suspect all along the front of the house, so that may have to be dug up. If not now – in the not too distant future. This means that for the time being I can’t do a lot of work at the front of the house because I don’t know what is to happen there or when they might decide to replace the pipe.

Padlocks and the Blue Lake
Padlocks and the Blue Lake

The weather has been a lot cooler these last couple of days. It did reach  42c at one point but it did come down with a cool, overnight change. I think it will be fairly reasonable when I  drive to Adelaide on Tuesday. This will be the last meeting of the West Terrace Committee for the year and since other things are sort of up in the air, no more  travelling until February.

Some may remember the story of the bridge in Paris that lovers bolted padlocks to and how the massive number of steel padlocks was compromising the structure that they had to be removed, much to the consternation of the lovers. Anyway, a similar event took place in London and now it seems people are doing this in any tourist area that has a metal structure close  and, it would seem Mount Gambier is not immune. I did notice that the viewing platform, which has an open steel and timber guardrail has attracted padlocks.

I liked Mount Gambier and from what I saw of it, the place has a vibrancy that seems to be missing here. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it seemed  exciting and interesting as if something was about to happen. Also I couldn’t help but notice how clean and fresh the place looked. And of course the drive through the area called the Limestone Coast and the  vineyards on either side of the roadway, the forests and the rolling pastures and then the Wineries, it was all a very pleasant experience. I  really must  take time out to get some photographs next trip there in May.

 

Travelling – Home and Away

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
This is what rain looks like...
This is what rain looks like…

Was down in Adelaide for two days and saw my son off at Adelaide Airport. He is flying Emirates to Glasgow, staying in Glasgow for a few days then to London and the Eurostar  to Paris.  He’s a week in Paris then on to Madrid, Granada, Fez, Marrakesh and Casablanca.  He will be touring Italy before ending up in Germany where he meets up with engineers – of course!  Last I heard – a few days ago – he’s having a ball. He can only message when he can get WiFi.  Anyway, he’ll probably bring me back a T Shirt  :o)   Ah the good lad did take some photographs of Napoleon’s Tomb for me  :o) Adelaide was cold, wet and miserable and driving through the rain on the Port Wakefield Road – in the Dark – was not my idea of fun. It has been cold the last week or so and I have had the fire on most nights.  The

A sledge-hammer would do the job just as well!!
A sledge-hammer would do the job just as well!!

Man sleeps a lot now but he still seems ok. When he is Awake, he eats well and runs around the house.  He falls a lot but he just gets up and carries on as if it’s normal. It hurts me more than it seems to bother him. I have built a little platform for his  food bowl so that he does not have to bend  down  too much to eat. I also went to the upholsterer and bought foam to put under his bed so he has a sort of cushion, which, we hope, will make tings a little more comfortable for him. Goodness, who knew that foam was so expensive, but  if it  helps him to get a bit more comfortable, that’s all that’s  important.  When he is sleeping in the evening, Chienne and I slip quietly out and go for a walk.

I have been helping to do more work along the back fence that I spoke of a while ago. The Bougainvillea is gone but the vines are proving to be a major problem. Some of these are so thick Tarzan would be proud of them. I head off back to Adelaide on Wednesday for a meeting Wednesday afternoon. If I drive down I would have to stay overnight and I would prefer not to, so I will do the same as I did last time – take the early morning coach. Still gives me time to do some shopping in town before heading home on the last coach.

I don’t know what the situation is in other places but here continual pop-ups are driving me to distraction. No matter what I do I cannot get rid of them. I have a pop-up blocker in Firefox and one in Windows 8 but they never stop. I have even had  pop-ups and a win lots of money sort of survey from a New York Lady, who likes Butterflies and  watches Cricket. In a little while I am going to shut this computer down and have it removed for a bit and put the AppleMac back in its place. I hope that Apple, with its different system, is not infested with these things because I am starting to get really annoyed.

Well,  here we are – returned  to  the Apple again. I’m starting to feel like Eve, can’t resist an Apple  :o) Actually not really true, I’m more of a Samsung person. But anyway, the AppleMac seems to be pop-up free.  I think the next desktop computer I get will be an Apple and not a PC

Have not heard from John for  nearly a week but he did say that this would happen once he crossed into Morocco. Not all that good with WiFi in Arab countries.  On Monday he will be in Seville, so I hope to hear from him then. As far as I know he is enjoying himself and he is with a good tour group.