It’s been a funny old week at le Brin. The weather has been foul and after cleaning all the terraces and the pool side last week, on Tuesday it proceeded to blow a gale re-covering them with all sorts of leaves, branches and even more dust from the trees. So last week’s efforts to clear away the winter gunge was a total waste of time!
The cold weather has also returned and I’m now back to wearing a vest under my shirt, we’ve switched the central heating back on and J wakes me up in the morning with the news (direct from her iTouch) that the temperature in Cork (Ireland) is warmer than it is here.
Why Cork? Well our exchange student has arrived from there, managing to escape Ireland just as the volcanic ash cloud was threatening to cause airline havoc once more. Now, I’ve a correction to make – his name is not Rick O’Shea, it’s Andrew something or other – he’s so quiet. Slightly built and with a haircut which makes it almost impossible to tell whether he’s male or female, he wanders around the house like a ghostly presence. At least he eats all the food J puts in front of him and he even scoffed a Croque Madame in the Bar Des Sports yesterday but we did learn that he quite often visits his grandmother who lives just down the coast in Italy (Imperia), so he’s probably used to food which is a bit more exotic than Irish Stew.
I unfortunately managed to get an ear infection in my last remaining good ear (which makes it sound like I have more than two) and have been virtually deaf for the last week. It’s a Cupples genetic problem which skips a generation and unfortunately I got it and fortunately my kids didn’t, but unless my ex-wife’s genes have completely overwhelmed mine, my grandchildren will suffer but let’s hope not.
On Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of sitting in Tan’s house watch his team, Tottenham, beat Manchester City to that coveted 4th spot in the Premier League. Watching a grown 6ft 4in mountain of a man reduced to tears of joy (almost) was a sight to behold and of course, with wine bottles a plenty, we sat in the damp cold on his terrace until the early hours, discussing the game. The ‘girls’ meanwhile had been watching some slushy film in my house and only came over when J’s ability to find any more wine became impaired, not by inebriation (she’s never even been tipsy in the whole of her life !!) but by tiredness. I’m sure the bat ears of the ladies also heard Tan mention that such was his delight (at his team winning) that he might even break out the champagne. It just seemed such a coincidence that they arrived immediately he uttered the word ‘champagne’!
And bringing you all bang up to date, I’m now sitting up watching the election results come in and with my bad ear, I’ve had to rig the TV up with a long line terminating in an earpiece. The cats who have risen from their slumbers are now playing with the line which crosses the lounge floor thinking it’s all part of some new game!
The coverage on the TV is a bit chaotic at the moment which does not auger well for the mass of results which will start to flow in an hour or so. Each presenter sees their 30 second slot as an opportunity to impress and we’ve already had two doyens of the BBC having a go at each other although as one of them is the belligerent Jeremy Paxman, who in that well worn phrase, could start a fight in an empty house, it’s not surprising.
What is surprising is that the BBC only has 20 results announced whilst ITV have 33 (Sky have 21) – why the difference, all the stations have reporters around the country? Whatever – the on-screen friction between the presenters on the BBC and the better count coverage from ITV makes that the station to watch.
Interestingly, at this stage, the exit polls are indicating that although winning the greatest number of parliamentary seats, the Conservatives will not have an overall majority and there’s already official word that even if defeated, that charlatan, Gordon Brown will try and form a Government. The great hope however is that the swing in voting from Labour to Conservative, which shows that the Tories might win more seats than the exit polls suggest, will provide David Cameron with the mandate to allow him to become the new Prime Minister.
It’s all very exciting – I’ve just got to try and stay awake!
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