Nous sommes en vacances.

At the start of the month we packed the car for France.

Boris dog has his passport and he came too, with a scan, a check-in and a visual nod at the ferry! We drove a couple of hundred miles inland from Caen and ended up at a stupendous Chateau in Troo, just a touch south west of Le Mans. 33 degrees each day and gentle exploration of nearby villages, markets, streets, shops and the obligatory boulanger!

Cheese, wine, chatter, patisserie and gentle company as four hounds and 12 people circulated through the house....along with Eros, the fantastic village weimaraner.  We took turns to cook each night and ate well and memorably. We were a lovely mixed bunch and our trip was based on the Le Mans Classic meeting, detailed in the previous post. Impossible French style.


Fine driving, geeky MPG triumphs, taking lovely wine home, and a fine resting week from work. I had a terrific two hours of quiet, from one until three in the morning on our first day, just contemplating being  while everyone else was asleep. I indulged in wine, cheese, ham and contemplation. 'Twas ideal .

Big tick for France....New York beckons next.

24 hours at Le Mans

This impossibly titled post covers an unexpected and fantastic day and a half at Le Mans, where a pal of mine was racing a 1960s Marcos car at the Le Mans Classic. It was a Marcos his father built and raced for the 24 hours in 1965, and it still looked fast 53 years later. I took two trips to the circuit and had an access all areas pass. The circuit was full of impossibly stylish French gentlemen-racers who most likely had a vinyard to go with their Ferrari, Porsche or GT40.

My day visit was car prep’ and I actually helped in a very minor way (helping Chris adjust the anchoring for his seatbelt, and holding the bonnet for a fibreglass patch). The night trip was a racing visit, with three races between midnight and three. The noise was fantastic, the atmosphere electric and the speed of the Jaguar D Types thrilling! A faboulous, spawny and surreal day, for which I am super grateful!

News about shoes.

This week my repaired shoes came back after a good few days away.  I am a chap and therefore my shoe excitement is modest  and my variety goes as far as black or brown. However, these are epic and well worth the price of repair. I am heavy on shoes and walk a good deal for work, so let's see how they go.

They are Clarke approved too!

Bas-mighty!

Last night, 606 days after purchasing it, my fine 10kg bag of rice from The Sweetmart came to an end. Endless curries and Asian dishes were graced by its mightiness and it was rather a lark to investigate and purchase it back in September 2016.

The final grains went to a large rice-prep' Tuesday ready for a few portions of egg fried rice later in the week.

Mighty stuff indeed and a giant cost of 1.65p a day for the duration!

Toby dog - a fine hooligan hound.

A sad first post of 2017 to remember Toby, my brother's fine hound. Toby dog was a chocolate brown labrador, never inclined to the obeying rules as a general principle. He was fond of shoes and I don't think he ever chewed a whole pair, just one shoe, left or right of any pair he might have encountered. He was also a bit trigger-happy on trying to eat working hosepipes, lawnmowers, vacuum cleaners, car washers and laundry baskets. He was shiny and healthy-looking right from day 1, with a wet, cold nose , a taste for mahoosive sticks and an unending inclination to fool about (and snooze). Greg had Toby for about a year and then Quaddy came along, adopted after his owner, who shared the same walking routes, passed away. Between them, Toby and Quaddy made a happy pair and a happy decade. Poor old Quaddy dog will be forlorn and sad this week as his brother stops being there.

Here is Toby from happy, active days with Greg.