Friday, March 26, 2021

The bench in the sunshine.


We have ordered some smoked salmon from Scotland. It is supposed to be delivered with 36 hours by a 'super fast courier'. We've never used a 'super fast courier' before. Quite how they will deal with post-Brexit French customs remains to be seen. We've not received anything non-Amazon from the UK since the start of the year. This morning , on our start of day comfort break, we see our local delivery driver zip  by along the lane but he doesn't stop. The super fast couriers 36 hours will be up mid-morning.

We also see the French teacher. She has had her jab. Two vials of vaccine, each containing ten doses, were delivered to the local health centre. A message was left with the school secretary asking our neighbour to come in at lunchtime. She was seen immediately and asked to wait for ten minutes afterwards. A bench has been placed outside the front door for this purpose. Newly jabbed's can enjoy the sunshine and a view of the car park.

On Wednesday night the village council held a meeting in the Salle de Fetes. A dozen maskless folk all crammed together round a table. No attempt to open the windows for ventilation or maintain some degree of social distancing. 'The Font' decided this was pandemic central, made excuses and left - super quickly. Tonight, there's a gathering of local mayors. Twenty of them. Same table. Same lack of social distancing. I'm betting the windows will be closed too. The ' it doesn't apply to us it's only a problem in Paris' mantra.


The pale sunrise of winter now giving way to a more fiery hint of summer to come. Sophie's coat turns orange then red as the sun rises. Marmalade dog. She seems rather pleased with this.



Octopus sleep : https://www.livescience.com/octopus-sleep-cycle.html





9 comments:

Taste of France said...

Good thing your salmon doesn't have to go through the Suez Canal.
Have you seen "My Octopus Teacher"? Fantastic.

Coppa's girl said...

Angus, I do hope that your smoked salmon doesn't share the same fate as a birthday gift from a friend in the UK! It was posted last October for January and I'm still waiting. As it isn't perishable, presumably not considered urgent. Apparently there are hundreds of parcels backlogged in the UK due to Brexit and the changes in customs duty. One can only hope that anything fresh, like your salmon, will be whisked through - there must be contingencies for fresh produce.
After a year of lockdowns, restrictions, social distancing, and tragic deaths, surely everyone should have got the message by now? The virus is amongst us, but there are still so many who seem to think that the rules don't apply to them. The village council members have been lucky so far, so perhaps considered that 'The Font's' hasty exit was unnecessarily cautious?

WFT Nobby said...

Love the photos of Marmalade Dog. Best of luck with the smoked salmon! The teacher's experience with her Covid jab sounds quite different from my visit last Friday to Aberdeen's mass vaccination centre. An industrial scale operation in the city's vast new conference centre, all conducted with calm and kind efficiency - a surprisingly moving sight in fact. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Aberdeen, middle class ladies are in meltdown at the announcement earlier this week that our John Lewis branch is to close...
Cheers! GailPS Octopuses are endlessly fascinating. For some amazing footage I recommend this week's episode of 'Chris Packham's Animal Einsteins' on BBC iPlayer.

Angus said...

If the John Lewis branch is still the low ceilinged one in the shopping centre off Union Street I'm not surprised. It had more than a touch of early 70's retail to it. The store that time forgot.

Angus said...

We're hoping that the courier company might actually have done this before and that we're not their first customer. The smoked salmon and smokies are supposed to arrive in a 'chilled' package. Still no sign of it so its more like a 38 hour delivery.

Angus said...

Going through the Suez Canal despite the blockage might be quicker than getting through post Brexit French customs.

Yamini MacLean said...

hari OM
There has been lots of advertising for online car buy/sell over here and I often have pondered how this would work - surely one needs to have a test drive, check the paintwork, etc and so forth... then one of our big retailers (Arnold Clarke) took it up and they have their sales people take you on a real-time video tour. Just the same but distant... YAM xx

Bailey Bob Southern Dog said...

Love the last photo of Princess Sophie Marmalade Dog! She does look very pleased with herself.

rottrover said...

I, too, highly recommend My Octopus Teacher. On Netflix. Good luck with the salmon. I recently read an article on the ordeal of shipping freshly caught salmon from Scotland to Europe. What a nightmare, and so much product spoiled.