Back in the UK, where it’s considerably warmer! Well, milder, than when we set off a couple of weeks ago.
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Everyone tells us we missed the summer here. We also missed most of our small front garden’s moment of glory when it was full aquilegia flowers in a lovely range of colours, as it does every year. We have returned to a garden overgrown with tall buttercups, aquilegia gone to seed, a fern that has gown exponentially and pampas grass which has spread everywhere. There are roses in profusion as well but I need to release them from the surrounding mayhem as soon as I can raise the energy to do some gardening.
I had a small argument with RyanAir staff in Faro airport. We regularly travel on “priority booking”, which allows you take a cabin-suitable suitcase, of specific dimensions and weight, which can go in the overhead locker, and a smaller second bag, also or their specific dimensions, which must go under the seat in front of yours.we are very careful with our suitcase, even using a handy gadget to check the weight. In the aairport, at the gate was a young man demanding to see proof of priority booking and selecting suitcases to check in a RyanAir device. Phil’s new hard shell case was passed at a glance. My now rather ancient Ikea spotty case, originally bought for it budget airlines dimensions, was selected for measuring. The young man put it in at an angle and declared it too big. I remonstrated and insisted he put it in correctly. Grudgingly he let it pass. I had read that some employees were being offered a budget for every case they rejected in hold luggage with, of course, an extra charge. Not to mention the hassle of waiting at the carousel for your suitcase to emerge.
A small victory! Stand up for your rights!
We flew back from Faro to Leeds- Bradford airport yesterday. It’s the first to e we have flown to that rather confusing airport. Our daughter volunteered to collect us and drive us home. We emerged into a largely un-signposted area, headed for an exit and called her. She had parked in the pick-up carpark she told us, but was now inside the airport looking for us. We failed, however, to meet inside the terminal. So we agreed to head for the carpark and meet there. Fortunately it was not raining. We found each other eventually. She had been unable to find a “meet and greet” area or anything specifically labelled “arrivals”. We headed out and the carpark charged her £14. Various quite well-hidden signposts indicated that there was a free carpark for up to an hour but we were unable to locate it. Our verdict: could do better!
I read that the Iranian-French artist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi has died at the age of 56. Known for her graphic novel ‘Persepolis,’ Satrapi spoke out on exile and women's freedom. Her family says she died of ‘sadness’ after the death of her husband. Marjane Satrapi, author of the autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis, recounting growing up during the Iranian Revolution and challenging stereotypes about Iran and its people, died yesterday. She was only 56. Her family said she died of sadness, her husband having died a year ago. Do people really die of sadness? Apparently so.
While wars continue to wage in various places, despite claims about peace talks and agreements being bandied about, the pictorial record of another war is getting set to travel from France to the UK: the Bayeux tapestry. Some people think it should bot be a,lowed to leave France,for historical-sentimental reasons also out of fear that we will just keep it. However, Lord Peter Ricketts, the former British ambassador to France and UK special envoy, has told French politicians, officials and specialists, “Yes, of course we will give the tapestry back, safe and sound.”
It seems the French have perhaps agreed to the loan only because the tapestry’s permanent home in the northern French town of Bayeux in Normandy closed for renovations and for a new building dedicated to the artefact to be completed.
France and England have been enemies on and off throughout history. It’s reflected in aspects of the two languages. If you go absent without permission we English say you ”take French leave” while the French use the expression “filer à l’anglaise”. There are other examples but they are perhaps too rude to include here. Despite longstanding rivalry and enmity, Catherine Pégard, the French minister of culture, said she understood that the loan would “allow the English people to contemplate on their own soil the act that was the birth of their nation”. More than an entente cordiale, it was an entente amicale – an act of friendship “marking 1,000 years of shared history … and occasional rivalry”, she said.
If only our politicians could be as diplomatic!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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