… on the last row of tongue and groove as you can see. I finished off the row under the eaves this morning – I did it all at once as my back managed to hold out pretty much. And this afternoon I started on the scaffolding, which is much easier for working.

I’ve got to the first window now and I’ve built a framework around it. It needs to be tongued and grooved in the plane that you can see, but it also needs to be tongued and grooved “upwards” to enclose the different layers of the roof. It’s out of there that the roof breathes so when I’ve done it I have to drill some holes and put air grilles over then.

I was once again kept pretty busy on the phone too. Working it out, this last 24 hours I have –
i) translated an e-mail from English to French late last night (how anyone thinks that they can get any kind of coherence out of me after 19:00 is a mystery to me)
ii) helped out this morning a little with the arrangements for Friday night
iii) liaised between a garage and a client over some repairs to a car
iv) liaised between a client and the local mairie.

Last night I was talking to my friend Alexi on a messenger program that I use.We were both bemoaning the lack of night school opportunities over here on the mainland. Back in the UK I used to go to as many as I could and so did she. And that got me thinking about all of the people who have moved over here from the UK either full-time or for holiday purposes and who haven’t learned any French at all. I just dunno why, especially with all of the night school classes that the UK has.

But that’s not the point of this blog entry – people do as they please and how they feel comfortable.

But nevertheless, many people who read this blog have connections to the Open University and have engaged in the heavyweight debating conferences that exist there. I spent many a pleasant evening scrabbling through reference books and the like to back up points that I was making, and so did many others. That was probably the most rewarding part of our entire study.

But there was one competitor … er …. contributor who most people will recall and I shan’t mention any names. And while we were quoting data and statistics gathered from all of the far-flung corners of the world-wide web and the like, this contributor would come out with the most utter … er …. well, nonsense. And when we were asked to name our sources and quoted things like “The CIA International Yearbook” and “The Auschwitz On-Line Museum” and the like, this contributor would say that “well, I overheard someone talking about this in the Post Office this morning”.

And one of that person’s favourite hobby-horses was to go on and on and on ad infinitum about the flood of foreigners in the UK who can’t be bothered to learn English and have to take interpreters with them to the local council and the like (like I have to do quite often for the English living here but of course you wouldn’t expect people like her to understand that). And the bunch of mindless morons that loitered in the wings would come out in total agreement and sympathy. And now have a look at what I’ve been doing all day, apart from tongue-and-grooving. Yes, sometimes you really can’t understand how it is that the total irony of the situation goes way over the heads of most British people.

But when you break it down to the barest facts, the difference is that “we” are white and “they” are brown. And that somehow makes it all right.

Another favourite hobby-horse of this person is how certain sexually-transmitted diseases come from the (brown-skinned) peoples of North Africa because of their (alleged) social habits involving camels (Open University debates could be quite exciting places to be) but in this case the contributor definitely got it wrong. And how! In fact, the story originates from the days of the French Foreign Legion when a new Legionnaire signed up at the fort in the middle of the Sahara.
“What do you do for female company around here?” he asked
“Ohh, the men take it in turns to borrow the camel. In fact it’s your turn in three weeks time“
So three weeks later, when it’s his turn to borrow the camel he goes into the stable, removes certain items of his clothing and sets about the camel. And halfway through doing what it is that he’s doing he notices all of the other legionnaires standing around watching him.
“What do you think about this then?” he asks proudly.
“Well actually, all of the other men, when they borrow the camel they ride it into town to look for a woman“

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