Oor hoose

Did we tell you that we have again put our house on the market - this time with a new Wootton Bridge Agent who are trying very hard to earn their fee. We have had two people to look round and it has given us a new life as we have to make sure that the house and garden are in as good a shape as possible. As usual they say what a lovely house, and if they are like the past others, we will probably hear no more from them. (But you never know)
We went out for a ride after our visitors had left and we were passing the entrance to the Isle of Wight Airfield in Lake, near Sandown when I was reminded that they have advertised "Have lunch in our Aviator bar and watch planes landing and taking off" so we turned round and went in to the Aviator and spent an hour lunching and watching and a very pleasant meal and 'watch' was enjoyed. Surprising what aerial traffic there is in such a small airfield. I suppose we saw about twelve people land and come in for lunch before upping an awaying back to home base. The people at the next table to us had flown in from Tunbridge Wells and another couple we heard had come from Kidlington. Small world, Eh? I think I remember reading that a young man had started a regular passenger service to the mainland. Can't imagine what That would cost.

We loved to read about the fish restaurants in Meze and it only increases our yearnings to be among the fish food again. I hope to visit the red shop!. Loved the picture of the froad or tog, Gem. A couple of years ago when we had a pond with water in (it is now another circular garden) we saw little froglets in the water and they duly turned up all over the garden . Three we found were definitely toads. A lazy khaki brown toady that walks rather than hops! They love slugs!
Now that all the trees are in full leaf we can no longer see the squirrels in their trips from the Big Tree in number 6 to our feeding stations until they actually arrive. We have a new family of babies. We are looking forward to our Chinese 'babies' on the 8th June. Pehaps we can visit the Aviator again. See ya soon. Love to all from Dad

Foodies

As luck would have it, we'll be in time to catch a couple of days of the
FESTIVAL De THAU
so it should be rockin' when we get there!














a quick foodie trawl..
Meze Restaurants

One happy blogger writes...
"Restaurant review: Chez Fady
(Meze)

After the previous night's slightly disappointing fish escapades we
decided to satisfy Jackie's moule cravings by going to Meze for lunch.
For those not familiar with it, Meze is a small fishing village on the
northern edge of the Etang du Thau, a huge lagoon and has an old
fashioned port surrounded by fish restaurants. We chose the red one as
it looked busy. So busy in fact that we had to sit in the bar for
several minutes nibbling olives and wondering if they had forgotten
about us. Luckily they had not, and shortly we were enjoying lots of
delicious mussels covered in cream, oysters, clams, snails, crab
(fiddly), longoustine, prawns and some very strange things which
looked like rocks with yellow oyster-flesh-like bits, plus chips and a
free glass of wine. The whole thing came to a third of the price of
our meal at the Tournesol and we left feeling very satisfied and value
for moneyed.
Lesson learnt and to be remembered. The restaurant's chief fish man
(probably the same Fady) should be called Wysiwyg - he was dancing
around preparing our dinner at breakneck speed, waddling and waving
his arms around whist piling on the seaweed in full view.".... mmmmmm

Don't forget the balance is due in three weeks so check your emails or ask me at
steve.merrowsmith@gmail.com
(Warning! Don't go putting your email addresses on the blog unless you like being SPAMMED.. this one is encoded)

Our trip to the IOW

Hi Dad, Mum and all, didn't really understand your post about emails Dad, so rather then email you I thought I'd post our itinery here.

We leave here night of the 7th June and arrive at Heathrow on the morning of the 8th June, we have hired a car and booked ourselves on the Portsmouth - Fishbourne Ferry for 1.30pm on the 8th, (Thursday) so please don't dissappear. We have an off peak Ferry return and have not decided whether we will go to Wales yet, if we do decide to go we would leave on the 15th June and head to London after the weekend in Wales, but that all sounds a bit tuff and we may just want to veg out without the Wales trip, otherwise the stay on the IOW won't seem like a Holiday. So plan B without the Wales trip would have us leaving the IOW for London after the weekend of the 17th. We fly out of Heathrow on the 22nd June.

Bit of a surprise for Gem

Toad
Originally uploaded by gem
.

As the rain has finally let off after three solid weeks and the sun is showing itself, thought I would do bit of weeding at the back door (the daily hop, skip and jump over slugs, snails and other beasts on the way to the bike shed is becoming tiresome and not a pleasant way to start the day if I miss clear concrete and hear the squish under trainer). So prepared for such beasties I started to pull up dandelions and oh my this little fella popped out from the undergrowth. My heart rate has just returned to resting and we took a piccie before he made his way off into the garden.

merrow-smith.org accounts

Dad suggested I check my mail at merrow-smith.org but I can't access that account without a password. Since I wasn't the one to set up the account, I don't see how I can use it. Answers on a postcard please...

Julian, I have another query. Since I lost the hard drive and since my disc drawer isn't working, I cannot look at and print off The Big Tree for a friend who is an author. I have a bulky manuscript but I can't be sure which version it is! I'd like to give her the address to access it electronically but the link is no longer active. Is the e-copy of Big Tree still out there somewhere on the web? Can it be accessed from space? Unfortunately the disc on which I have it is Mac formatted so I cannot guarantee she'd be able to read from it. Added to that it's the only copy I now have so I wouldn't want to lend it out, even if it has proved to date to be a writer's dead end. Whatever those in publishing think, I like it..it's cute and it represents the sum total of all my 'fictional' creativity at the minute!

More answers on a postcard please...

Looking forward to seeing you all soon. Have been researching and looking at cars for fun.

Pete

New email

I am getting such rubbish on merrow@wight365.net, that I have decided to let that one ride and use one of the following.
1. Pete, have you looked in your peter@merrow-smith.org lately ? Please do!
Julian lovely to see that the 'work' is progreesing. Looking forward to seeing the completion. Glad you had a Spanish 'break'

Steve Thanks for the maps, photos etc. Looks lovely. I hope I can rent-a-car.
Cathy Ready for a life on the ocean wave. Are you booked from Portsmouth to Bilbao or Plymouth or Poole or Weymouth?

Nic Looking forward to seeing you guys. Let me know arrival date and how long you will be with us - Are we all going to Wales? An itinerary would be useful.

Finally we have again put up the house for sale with a new agent, as Mum wants to get nearer to Oxford. We may look for an OAP bungalow in the Newbury, Thatcham area. I don't mind so long as I have my Mac
love from Dad

translations

"the lodgings are batis inside a raised and deprived space. After one day at the edge of the beaches you will be able to slacken in these calm places at the edge of the swimming pool and in the shade of the pines or to prefer to be busy with the barbecue. The song of the cicadas will rock your evenings"

don't you just love the translation?! I would like to slacken in a deprived space with cicadas to rocke me , rock me, rock me....

can't wait to see you guys! just wish you were a bit nearer. we've just come back from the costa brava - not much further. sardines on the beach . yum.

Camper car?

Yep, Cath, that's the plan, but like you our first priority is to find a car to get us there! I don't care so much about where we camp; no doubt all the main camps are booked up as we haven't been in a position to book in advance, but I'm confident we'll find somewhere to set up. We have all the soft kit from Africa - tent, sleeping bags and so on - although all the cooking stuff we sold before we left. Still, until we know what we will be travelling in I'll hold off taking you up on your offer. Often there are camper vans for sale down here as people who drive down decide to stay longer. I'll keep you all informed, honest.

Loads of love

Pedro

We're getting exited

John has also 'bitten the bullet', and booked us and a car that we have yet to buy, onto the ferry to bilbao(sic),so it must realy be happening. Hurrah!!!
Pete, are you planning to camp? I have a distant memory of you saying as much, if so will you need anything,can we help.love Cathxxxx

"New" Gite site and Map!

This view is of the large Gite.. it's the upstairs floor
and Mandy and John are on the ground floor all on one level
for Ruby's sake.

















This is entrance to the large Gite accessed up a slight incline to the rear
and the vineyards are all around.. lovely!




















Cliquez-ICI

Travelling

Driving from La Nucia
Driving from Hameau des Courgieux
Driving from Bilbao
Driving from Oxford
Driving from Montpellier
driving from La Rochelle
and finalement driving to Millau Bridge

Free email account

Dear Pete
Can you nip outside and wave cooeee!













Have sent you an invite for gmail which costs nothing to buy or run. Jules can then link your m-s org email to that. Advantage apart from cost is that you get 2gigs of storage space which can act as an on-line hard disk if you get hold of gdisk.

Our house from space

Google Earth have updated the images for our region and as a result I can now give Santa Claus the coordinates for No.3 Carrer Mar Roig. Check out 38˚36’47.30” North and
00˚06’26.56” West to land your sledge on the roof!

I was looking at setting up a new email account but the preferences asked for the account type, account description and the email address. Is it a POP, IMAP or Exchange account and what would the address be to get the server to recognise my computer? I need to introduce a password and so on. Maybe you could mail me the requirements, Julian, if you can spare a minute?

A friend of ours is a retired Norwegian PE and sailing instructor and he is selling his house in Norway with a possible view to buying a 34 foot ocean going yacht that he hopes to sail over to Grenada with his family and some friends. We are on the crew list if it ever happens! Maybe I'll give up class teaching and do some home tutoring for ours and theirs! Don't worry mum, he's done it four times already. We'd have to put in some training by sailing to Ibiza and the Canaries a few times. Oh, the work, the work! Can I cope? Still, just pie in the sky at the minute. The reality for now is that we drive our twenty year old Citroen around and try to make it up to France in a few weeks time!

pete and dad

yes you all have merrow-smith accouts which are sent on to your standard isp email if you want.

Dad thought you were coming here.... confused.j

merrow-smith.org accounts

Dear all, particularly Julian; am I right in thinking that we have email accounts all active for us at merrow-smith.org? If so it might be useful this year as mac.com are keen to get money out of me for next year's membership and I'm not sure whether it's good enough value for money. I'll try sending myself an email...

We have bitten the bullet

I booked our trip on Eurostar today, so at last I have pulled out the proverbial digit. We are collecting June on 20th July and getting a taxi to Ashford to catch the 11am train to Paris, then by TGV to Montpellier where we stay for one night before hopefully hiring a car (I am a bit concerned that I may be too old to book) and setting off for Meze. Be prepared for a panic phone call to a younger someone with a car to collect us. I had no trouble with Avis but who knows?

Will's and Jon's Nu Toon

Sounds a bit like Milkman's Music

Yes, that's your Uncle Nic in 2005 guize with a bunch of folks judging a competition. Quite OK to do that and I should do more of it.

I really don't fancy the idea of staying in an olde gaol Dad but a worthy diversion for you all I'm sure. Always liked porridge our Dad.

Billy Cobham says hi Steve, quite a collection of guys were with him and really quite an good show.

Peter, the trains are coming on and after 30 years, I have actually manage to lay some track which works. Dad, do you remember us going to Olympia Model Railway Exhibition? We bought a box of flexible track which I have now almost finished laying, what year was that 1975?

I will post pictures for you all soon.

Nic

google images

Gemma typed in 'merrow-smith' and hit 'images' in Google and what came up.?.. we want to know who this lot are..
especially the tall guy on the left in the red shirt!

Nic (for it is he) say's there's not much going on lately.. apart from being asked to be an honorary judge

Do not collect £200

Lots of memories of living in Oxford came up when we called in to see the new Malmaison at Oxford Castle this afternoon.
We were spotted gazing round by the general manager who is actually from Monaco. Jean-Pierre got keys and showed us into a converted cell/guest bedroom. It takes two cells knocked through to make a room and another for the en-suite!
They've kept the condemned cell as it was and also the ... gulp hanging pit! which will remain un-marked and unused.
A large quantity of bones have been excavated and Grandad at last found out what was behind his solid stone bedroom wall.. the excercise yard.

plein or thin air painting?

Eastbourne to be wild...

Postcard from Grandma arrived this morning to show that bandstand at Eastbourne hasn't changed...and that bloke in the white sun hat is still stting down the front eh Dad?

Gem x

Arrangements

By telephone from Lennie.. Flowers are acceptable and donations to Lenny for
Marie Curie Cancer Relief.
St. Mary’s Church, Old Swinford at midday on Tuesday 16th May To be attended by the Bishop of Worcester.
Map

St Mary's Church
Rectory Road
Stourbridge
DY8 2HA

Tel:01384 441003

for Cathy
ROUTE FROM Llandewi

Oxford to Stourbridge

Many Happy Returns Gorgeous!

I called the Hotel to wish you a Hesty Birdy but the nice man said you'd gone out to the Theatre.
Hope you had a lovely time and enjoy all the goodies that have been laid on.. a bus trip with all the ladies coming up I hear so lots to tell us about on Sunday when we see you. Are you going to check out the Bandstand.. see who's on?
lots of love Steve

happy birthday Margaret

Happy Birthday Margaret from Ruth and Julian! Hope you had a good day and a scrumptious din dins!

We are collapsing under the piles of prints waiting to go off. What a crazy day packing and losing quinces and finding extra lemons! Our entire kitchen has become home to a veritable industry. Meanwhile next door is coming on shiningly and today they baked us a hemp cake, which was actually quite nice!

The weather seems to have improved. I hope they are storing all the sunshine up for July! We can't wait to see you all here.

Happy Birthday Grandma

Raising a glass to you Grandma on this perfect summers evening. Hope it was lovely and warm by the sea, its been very pleasant here inland. Makes you want to skip off work and go for a nice chilled glass of chablis down by the river!! See you at the weekend... (knocked 5 mins off my cycle in ths morning..aha progress).

ps. don't mention last nights 'boro game v Sevilla (didn't want to win the UEFA cup anyway).

love Gem x

Happy Birthday Mum

I hope that you are having a wonderful day and a lovely meal tonight,good old Nic! And tomorrow I see that you are expecting to have a gig and some buppies,Whow! last time I read that blog I'm sure it said 'a jig and some bubbly. some kind of transatlantic scrambling machine at work! We are very exited because,tomorrow John's niece Emily,partner Tom and their baby Lilly(sitting not crawling,phew!) are coming to stay for a few days,we were expecting them a few days ago but they had to cancel as Tom had a job come up, so we thought that the moment may have passed. lots of love Cathy

Happy Birthday Mum

Hope you have a super day Mum. The weather is looking good from this end so I hope it holds up for you. If not, get yourselves down here for a few days break - you're more than welcome. If not, looking forward to seeing you in July.

poppies

poppies
Originally uploaded by meanwhilehereinfrance.

Be sure to check Ruth's blog tonight look!

Archives...

Tazappy.

Archive

the stuff is still there .. a work around is to click the bottom entry on Recent Posts, when that comes up do it again. I followed back to Christmas.

Thank you Nic for your kind offer

Yes, Nic; Mum would love to dine at the Mirabelle on her birthday. Question is ?what do I buy for her? Will you be making the arrangements from Sg?.
Mum spent all day (almost) trying to decide what to wear. Of course she has a lot to think about (dresswise) as we will be having a varied week, requiring many clothing changes (she says).
What with travelling to Eastbourne tomorrow, spending all day (probably) on Wednesday, looking round the town and enjoying what Eastboune has to offer. ??A walk along the Prom? Then dining out on Thursday at the Mirabelle. (Kindly paid for by Nic)
On Friday we meet all the delegates attending the conference at a Civic Reception. On Saturday she is going on a coach outing with all the Ladies and once more to The Grand at night for buppies and a jig about, before returning to our hotel (The Bay Lodge) on Saturday night. Then we are going to Oxford on Sunday as Steve has kindly offered to drive us up to Stourbridge to attend Linda's funeral on Tuesday. Perhaps we will have a rest there?? What a programme for a couple of olds
Thanks, Peter for your email which I have printed out and will give to Lenny (so much of it as it concerns Linda).
We have changed our ferry time to 2000 on Wednesday at no extra charge, then we go home to rest!!!
Well done Gemma for your spartan efforts. Git on yer bike. Love from us both.

That Billy Cobham!

Nic you gotta GO Go Go GOOOoooo!
Saw him in 1971 at Newcastle Town Hall and there was so much noise that there was dust and debris coming down off the rafters!
That was with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra!
Never saw so many drums in one place!

35 min cycle to work, 15 min to get home!

today it was...but tomorrow it should be...



yes got thoroughly soaked on first cycle to work, but was determined even though my friend called me to offer me a lift. I was all psyched and focused so set off with anorak and a change of clothes, and arrived with fully satisfied feeling of achievement. Plus lots of impressed looking work colleagues. Then this evening for the way home (after wrestling the new bike lock for 15 mins) almost freewheeled all the way home in 15 minutes!! Grandma it's almost all cycle path from door to door so have minor contact with nasty cars. Here's hoping for sunny day tomorrow (please, please, please come on summer).

St Marys Church

In my last blogger the name of the church 'St Marys' came up like a link so I double clicked on it and a lot of information about Linda and her church came up, so it looks as if any collections instead of flowers would go to her church appeal, so don't go and spend a lot on wreaths etc. Just a thought Cathy says it would be too much to expect to drive to Stourbridge by 12, so we will give her apologies. Good for Gemma - tell her that Grandma is worried in case there is no cycle lane so go easy. Just because we get free bus rides!! Lol

Green Issues

Gemma's gone green and started cycling to work..
Get your FREE LIGHTS

Someone wants to be all toned for July I think!

Linda's Funeral

I have spoken to June and she will be traveling with Rebecca on Monday, 15th, staying the night and returning home on 16th so we will be making our way to Hertford St on 14th, if that is ok with you guys. Thanks for the offer of transport to Oldswinford. The funeral will take place at NOON on 16th at her old church of St Mary's in Oldswinford (in Stourbridge). I remember going there once - it is near the Brierley Crystal works. All this is from June so perhaps we ought to get confirmation of date, time and place, before turning up at the wrong church. Dad

Mont St Victoire..

as painted by M.Cezanne 100 years ago, and then made into a poster, ...and the pretend but equally impressive Google Earth version!














Had an enjoyable evening playing with my pooter and listening to the online Radio version of "Cezanne's Mountain" on the BBC website.

I personally believe in John Mortimer's theory that a bottle of champagne a day would significantly improve my mood, and rather than taxing booze, HM Government should make it available on prescription for medicinal purposes only of course.
Tell Mum I've got loads of Port but she needs to bring her own lemon! LOL

Thanks, Steve

I have changed my ferry time to leave Portsmouth on 17th at 8pm. I will keep in touch re getting to Hertford St. I'll see if June is going to the funeral. Love Dad.

We went out to lunch today to Totland where we have been before - a rather super-duper restaurant called The Country Garden. Mum started with a gin and orange and had a large glass of white wine with her chicken, so she really enjoyed the day out. I haven't heard her laugh so much for years!! We had a lovely day. We will have to take you next time you are over here, although laughter is not guaranteed!
Julian - Mum, June and I would like to drop off at Avignon on our way by TGV to Montpellier on 22nd July. Is that possible and could you do the honours for us - like meet us? It should be warm enough for us to sleep outdoors
We have been watching a programme called The Impressionists. All about Degas, Monet and Renoir in the form of a play. Verrry interesting. Degas has a lovely beard. Hope the house improvements are progressing favourably. LOL Dad and Mum

Chimpanzee That!

Hope the Birthday Card to EDMUND caused a laugh.. we need it don't we.

No problem about Grandma and Grandad staying in Hertford Street on the way to Bewdley.
We can all go up together on the 16th.. I'll drive!
You can call in at Junes on the way how ever you want to do it Pop.
Hope your legs are feeling more comfortable.

Sorry if the tone doesn't quite fit but I know Linda was a great one for making life easier to bear like she did for me in 1998.
I put on the card to Auntie Lenny that I was very struck at the age of 4 or 5 by Linda's smile and tried to smile like her for a bit, but I think the effect wasn't quite the same, me with my wonky teeth.















That smile

I hope the Bishop is up to the job.. I hope we are too. Hopefully the smiles will be back soon, we've got no choice but to carry on.
love from Steve.

ps I bought some stuff off ebay and the guy sent it down addressed to E Zappy,! Trouble is I missed the postman so had to explain at the post office why I had no ID! LOL

Well, the date is 16th May.

I telephoned Lenny this evening and she tells me that the date of the funeral is Tuesday week 16th May.
If Mum and I go from Eastbourne I will have to change the ferry times. Whether we go via Oxford or Sevenoaks will depend on what turns up. Obviously none of the boys will come, nor would I expect them to, nor Cathy, to travel all the way from Wales, but I sensed the fact that Steve may go. Let me know your views, Steve, Although we will be on the mainland, it will need some thinking about. Today was a very wet day, but am I bovered?? Dad

Don't Forget Mum's Birthday on 11th

We are booked in at the Bay Lodge Hotel (01323 732515) on the seafront from 10th May until 13th and we leave Eastbourne on Sunday 14th.
We have not heard any arrangements for Linda's Funeral, but if it is fixed within a reasonable time before we return to IOW (we are booked on the 8pm Wightlink Ferry from Portsmouth on 14th) perhaps we can make some arrangements to stay either at June's or in Oxford and change our ferry booking. No doubt a message can be left at the Bay Lodge
Love to all from Dad

Queen visits Grandads old house.

bbc.co.uk/oxford
The Queen was in Oxford today to officially open the new Oxford Castle & Prison complex.

Love to everyone - thinking of you all at this time
lv Gem xxx

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

Cousin Linda, who has been suffering bone cancer among others,for many years, died on 30th April 2006, aged 56.
Messages of sympathy may be sent to Auntie Lenny at
Mrs. Lenny Woolhouse, Prestwood Nursing Home, Wolverhampton Road, Stourbridge, Worcs DY7 5AL
No funeral arrangements are yet known. As Linda was a Vicar of the Church of England, the funeral will be taken by the Bishop of Worcester. Linda was our eldest niece and my and Mum's God Child. I don't think we will be able to travel up to West Midlands for the funeral. Dad and Mum

Fire-breathing dragons

Small pictures from last night's correfocs in Alfaz del Pi reveal that Marco Polo didn't include the user instructions when he brought fireworks back to Europe from the orient! It was only a small affair compared to the town's own fiesta later in the year but Beth and I went along and enjoyed the fun.