Wine Drinking in France - decline of

Wine drinking at the evening meal in France has been rapidly declining over the last few decades. This depresses me for many reasons, but one of them is expressed very well by this French commentator quoted on the BBC website today.

"Just look at the figures. In the 1960s, we were drinking 160 litres each a year and weren't taking any pills. Today we consume 80 million packets of anti-depressants, and wine sales are collapsing. Wine is the subtlest, most civilised, most noble of anti-depressants. But look at our villages. The village bar has gone, replaced by a pharmacy."

That final sentence is very telling and very true.

Another well expressed point is this one:

"The traditional family meal is withering away. Instead we have a purely technical form of nourishment, whose aim is to make sure we fuel up as effectively and as quickly as possible."

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Last night's evening meal:

At Gatwick Airport earlier in day and had an utterly dismal meal at Jamie Oliver's restaurant. Had one here before which was equally non-descript - should have learned lesson.

However, last night in Lisbon, could have eaten in a hundred nearby small restaurants. The one we chose was so packed you had to squeeze between other diners to get to your seat.

Pork

French fries and rice!!!

Washed down with above

Cost per head - believe it or not: £4.00

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Currently in hotel  listening to:

Glasgow's Alex Smoke: Don't See the Point

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Some views of Lisbon:

A tram and three sections of typical pavements.

Intercessionary Prayers (again)

Mistral Model Trains

As far as I can gather Mistral Trains is a new company. It's very encouraging that someone thinks that the market for French HO scale trains is sufficiently strong  to start a brand new business with all the associated financial risks attached.

They seem very ambitious and this is a link to their website.

http://www.mistraltrainmodels.be/index2.php?lang=en

They have only a few models in their catalogue at the moment eg this fine looking autorail.

But it's the Sous Marin CC65000 that I have my eye on.

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Last night's dinner:

Provided by my sister in Billericay: pork loin, mashed potato and mashed carrots.

No picture but it was excellent and FREE!

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Currently listening to:

Nothing: the house in Billericay is silent.

But a female Billericay taxi driver was telling me the other night that she hadn't had a holiday in 18 years - found that surprising. But she was taking two nights off in September to see Fleetwood Mac on consecutive nights at the O2 in London.

She seemed thrilled when I told her that I had seen the original line up in Glasgow in 1969 or 1970.

On further questioning it seemed that Fleetwod Mac were the only group she liked.

Original line up

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Intercessionary Prayer:

Finding fascinating, "The Kabul Beauty School" by Deborah Rodriguez.

The memoir of a volunteer Aid Worker who goes to Afghanistan with a whole team of medics when she has no skills except hairdressing.

At one point the team leader tells her that there is nothing practical she can can do that day so maybe she should stay in the hotel room and pray for the success of that day's mission.

I'll now quote from the book:

"Good Christians that they were, they figured that, since I had all this time on my hands, I should sit in my hotel room and pray for the team while they were out in the field. I'm a good Christian, too, but there are some things I'm not so good at. Intercessionary prayer is one of them. I tried, though. I'd sit in my hotel room and start to pray for the team, and then I'd hear one of the Afghan vendors going by singing about his turnips or whatever, and I'd just have to go outside to investigate. Then I thought I'd try listening to spiritual music to drown out any alluring street noise. I put on a CD and my headset and tried to sit still but quickly got bored. I just decided that I was a naturally fast prayer. Instead of taking three hours, I'd whip out those prayers in about three minutes. Then, I was out the door." p 46.

It's the issue illustrated by the lines I've underlined and italicised that engrosses me.

Will Joe Bloggs kept more protection from God if I pray for him for a solid 3 hours rather than if I was simply to utter once, "Please, God, be merciful to Joe today." ?

AGRIVAP

"Sous Marin" update.

I found out that it is a company called 'Mistral' which manufacture the HO scale version of the CC65000 or Submarine.

But, in the course of my browsing I came across this version of the locomotive in a most peculiar livery.

 

It turns out that there is a kind of National Park in France which runs restored locomotives but repaints them in the green livery of an organisation called AGRIVAP which seems to be the name of the park. My French wasn't up to working out where the park is or what  it's all about.

Here's the link.

http://www.agrivap.fr/train/index_037.htm

And here's another of their restored trains.

And an HO scale model of same.

This one is manufactured by a company called 'Brassline' and costs £1,400!!!!!

I could only find a picture of the actual model in a different livery - presumably made from brass.

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Last night's dinner:

We attended my niece's wedding in Billericay so the food was free!!!!!!!

Analysis of last 7 night's costs per meal per head:

Sunday £4.50
Monday  £2.25
Tuesday  £0.97
Wednesday  £0.50
Thursday  £7.00
Friday  £10.00
Saturday £0.00


Daily average per head per meal: £2.33

This compares favourably with the previous 3 weeks' averages of £5.48; £4.11 and £3.69.


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Currently listening to:

Nothing; but fleetingly heard David Bowie's "Where are we now?" as I passed through the hotel reception area this morning.

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West Canvey Marshes:

Yesterday morning found time to drive out to West Canvey Marshes - very atmospheric.

Oil refinery in distance

Apparently, Canvey's Chapman Lighthouse features briefly in Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'.

I told my wife of this amazing fact.

"What's amazing about that?" was her response.

I suppose the answer is that Canvey Island affects me deeply for absolutely no rational reason. Joseph Conrad's novels and indeed his life awaken in me the same emotions.

That there is an actual connection between Joseph Conrad and Canvey Island is for me 'amazing'.

Sous Marin CC65000

Some more pictures of the SNCF 'Submarine' or 'Sous Marin' as the French say.

An HO scale model - not sure by whom

Another HO scale model £250 from Star Boutique in Auxerre

Rather annoyingly, I could not work out from the Star Boutique web page who the manufacturer of this model was: but it was in stock - VERY tempted.

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Currently listening to:

Myself singing/humming/muttering, "Maybe Tomorrow" by the Stereophonics.

Can't get this song out of my head today.

I've been down and
I'm wondering why
These little black clouds
Keep walking around
With me
With me

It wastes time
And I'd rather be high
Think I'll walk me outside
And buy a rainbow smile
But be free
They're all free

So maybe tomorrow
I'll find my way home
So maybe tomorrow
I'll find my way home

I look around at a beautiful life
Been the upperside of down
Been the inside of out
But we breathe
We breathe

I wanna breeze and an open mind
I wanna swim in the ocean
Wanna take my time for me
All me

So maybe tomorrow
I'll find my way home
So maybe tomorrow
I'll find my way home

So maybe tomorrow
I'll find my way home
So maybe tomorrow
I'll find my way home

So maybe tomorrow
I'll find my way home
So maybe tomorrow
I'll find my way home

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Last night's dinner:

A Pizza in Pizza Express Basildon.

Cost per head: £10

Basildon

Submarines

There was a French diesel-electric loco referred to as the 'submarine' because of its shape. Built in 1957 it remained in service until 1988 and was the first diesel-electric loco to have the famous blue livery typical of many subsequent machines.

Preserved in Mulhouse museum

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Last night's dinner:

 

 

 

Brown Trout from Loch Neagh in Northern Ireland, baked potato and peas.

Cost per head: £7.00

Fish was from Fantoosh, Great Western Road, Glasgow.

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Spent the evening in a couple of pubs in Basildon, Essex.

I like Essex people.

They're extremely uncritical and very polite.

Tango Setback.

Browsed web for info about Portuguese model trains:

There was once a manufacturer called VACMINEL and this is their model of the Portuguese SK.

 

Manuel Saraiva the founder of Vacminel.

I think SK stands for Saskatchewan. I think the locomotives were made in the USA and converted for Portuguese use and possibly there were Scandinavian versions too.

 

I suppose that makes sense. Portugal is unlikely to have had an indigenous locomotive industry.

 

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Last night's dinner on a shoestring:

 

Spaghetti and some Parmesan

Cost per head: £0.50

 

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Currently listening to:

 

 

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Tango update:

Terrible session last night at the Tango class: for two reasons.

1) Couldn't remember the sequences of steps for some reason. (Two fellow dancers obviously felt the same way: "Can't seem to connect my brain with my feet this evening." "Not having a good night tonight.")

2) But more worryingly I kept losing my balance and also could not heave my partners about. These two problems occurred in tandem. The man leads the woman in Tango by rotating his torso and thus his arms and thus the woman, and last night I just seemed too physically weak to do it with any effect.

So, I have devised a set of dance exercises to strengthen my torso/hip rotational strength over the next few weeks.

Basically, I am going to place a heavy weight in a rucksack and then strap the bag to my chest and practise the Tango steps as per usual.

Heading for a fall, methinks!

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Sibelius 5th:

On a whim went to the City Halls in Glasgow this afternoon to see the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Sibelius 5th Symphony. A great romantic favourite of mine.

Went by bus. Travelling across Glasgow by bus is a hilarious experience, I must say.

Because it was being broadcast on Radio 3, there was a compere and in his introduction he said that the BBC Symphony Orchestra has Sibelius in its DNA.

The guest conductor was the Finn, Hannu Lintu, who was very dynamic in his posturings.

Repairing Ceramics with Superglue

Last night, when I walked through the door of the ceramics class, the lecturer immediately came up to me with a long face. My St Paul-St Louis church facade had cracked in two during the firing of the gold cross.

Frankly, I didn't care; I knew it would be repairable. But, he seemed really upset and apologetic.

I insisted that it would be absolutely fine after it was glued back together with epoxy resin. He rejoined with "Oh, not epoxy resin; that's an old fashioned technology."

Quite a few of the class had gathered round to witness the tragedy. Someone chirped up with, "Superglue's best." The lecturer gave his approval to this example of "new technology".

So, on the way home last night I purchased a 94p tube of the stuff from Spar and glued the two pieces of the church together.

Broken.

Fixed and in a temporary position

That gold cross.

Spent the rest of last night's class washing away clay from the other building I have under construction.

The gold/brown coloured window frames, roof and doors have been painted with shellac so they don't get washed away - only the surrounding clay does - thus leaving them sticking up.

(Must be a more elegant phrase than 'sticking up'.)

Used a very wet brush with hot water

You can use rapid swirling motions

Or slow linear strokes



The clay that's 'washed away' is in fact absorbed by the brush which one then rinses in the bowl of hot water.The water gets full of clay very quickly so has to be replaced frequently.

I found this process of wielding a wet brush physically very tiring. What would I be like wielding a shovel for 8 hours a day?

No classes for three weeks but I'm hoping that someone will put these pieces in the kiln in the meantime.

The shellac will burn away in the kiln and the pieces should emerge with the window frames etc standing up or embossed.

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Tango class tonight:

Last class for a few weeks.

Feel purposeful.

There is no Beginners class after Easter, so I will have to join the Improvers! If I do that then I'm determined not to spend the evening saying, "Sorry!" My attitude towards myself has completely changed over the last week and if after Easter (or indeed tonight) I perform incompetently then so be it; it's not a matter for apologising about.

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Last night's dinner on a frayed shoestring:

Tin of sweet corn and rice.

Cost per head: £0.97

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Currently listening to:

The new David Bowie CD.