Just made it upstairs, have'nt been up here for four weeks. Change of scenery;) Paul had already put another tv in the bedroom, but daytime tv is terrible! Well I shall at least sleep in our bed tonight so no wooden slate poking in my spine.
My daughter and Lillie came over the weekend, their last visit before the whole family go off to Switzerland for a holiday with Karen's aunts.
Switzerland is expensive, the flat they are renting is not cheap, but the family go back there every year. Marc, Karen's cousin owns a sushi firm, they trade with the big supermarkets like Migros. I have only eaten sushi once, not my kind of food, we were taken by a client of Paul's to a restaurant but it does not appeal.
A young photo of Tom devouring a chocolate bun, probably in Vevey. Their great grandfather Con was a church warden in Territet in his retirement and if you can find the video on Wikipedia you will see what a beautiful place the lake was with the mountains tumbling down to the water. One could watch a thunderstorm approaching over the French mountains and whip up the lake to a frenzy of waves. Chateau Chillon is situated on the lake, Byron once wrote a famous poem about it, The Prisoner of Chillon, but Con also wrote one to, not as good I have to admit!
The Tourist's Lament by C.J.Opper
A rainy evening in Vevey,
Fills me with intense dismay,
The faded splendours of Montreux
Leave me feeling rather blue;
And if we must stick to verity,
I don't go overboard on Territet.
And, I must say,
Whoever got hooked on La Tour de Peilz?
For Corsier, Blonay, Chebres and Corseaux,
I'm unequally unmoved or even more so;
If there's a place I'd rather not be on
Its the top of the tower of the Chateau de Chillon.
In Southend they would'nt have the cheek to serve,
That cupper tea we got at Villeneuve
We got fish and chips just beside the church
But you have to ask for fillet de perche.
So..... you just ask your mother why we're here,
When we might have been on Wigan Pier.
I bought back a copy of his unpublished book from my trip to Todmorden, which is of course biographical and about his life working for the Colonial service and then Unesco but have yet to read all of it.
I would guess that boredom has long since set in--we sometimes think we would like to 'sit down'--when it is enforced by injury, it loses the appeal.
ReplyDeleteGoing up and down stairs with a laundry basket here--accompanied by cats--I sometimes fear for my aging bones.
I'm glad you can make it upstairs to your own bed-surely a comfort!
True Sharon, sitting becomes an absolute bore. Well I have to go up on my behind at the moment. One of those Stannah chairs would not come amiss but of course makes you lazy and the only one I ever tried was very slow ;)
ReplyDeleteHow is the ankle coming along Thelma?
ReplyDeleteAs to the 'poem' - maybe least said soonest mended, although I actually rather liked it.
Paul said what a terrible poem, then I remembered all the terrible jokes on visitors that Con played, pretend cakes, snakes jumping out of the mustard jar, rubber dog poo, and that poem sums him up ;) The ankle is prone to pain quite a lot of the time, I put it down to healing but it is a bit of a misery to hop everywhere!
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