Tag Archives: imelda marcos

Monday 29th July 2013 – IT’S AFTER 22:30 …

… and I’m still waiting for my tea. I seem to have made a major miscalculation somewhere along the line and my potatoes in the potato pie aren’t cooked, so I’ve had to put it back in the oven. Still, “you can’t win a coconut every time”, so I console myself.

And in news that is bound to put the willies up every one of my readers, my dream last night was that there were two of me – and it doesn’t come any scarier than that. One of me was working on one floor of this building and the other one was working on the floor above. And all was going fine until something happened to the identity on the lower floor which required the intervention of the identity on the upper floor – witness statements having to be made and the like. That was when my two identities started to become worried, just as your identity is now, I bet. Still, as I have always said, you’re never alone with schizophrenia.

Someone asked me once if I was schizophrenic, to which I replied “I dunno – I’m in two minds about that”.

So, up with the lark and after a leisurely breakfast I started to attack the rubbish, and now there are another pile of bin bags ready to go downstairs.

And I dunno about Marianne – looks like she was taking over where Imelda Marcos left off, the amount of shoes I’m finding in here. But the small bedroom is now empty except for the bed and the wardrobe.

So after a brief pause to eat my now-perfectly-cooked pie, I can carry on.

I’ve also made an inventory of items here that need to be sold, created an account on eBay, and I’ve slowly started to list them all for sale. It won’t take long, in principle … “famous last words” – ed … to empty the place but I need things to start to go.

And the quicker the better. As soon as I can empty the place, the sooner I can go home.

And just by way of a change, we’ve had another monsoon just now.

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Monday 23rd January 2012 – I’VE BEEN SPENDING …

… my money again today.

Yes, doing my “Imelda babe – going shopping, shopping for shoes” bit (and quite funnily, I was listening to Golden Heart, the album from which the above-names track is taken, on the way to Liz’s this morning).

The boots that I bought in a Hudson’s Bay trading post in Canada 15 months ago died a death over Christmas (the sole split) and the canvas shoes that I use for wandering around here aren’t really suitable for much.

And a chance glance across a busy road from the Auchan on the outskirts of Clermont-Ferrand revealed a sale on at a shoe shop

So I’ve now acquired a pair of black leather boots, not exactly what I wanted but they look fairly solid and 50% off the retail price of €59 made it look like something respectable, and they will keep my feet warm and dry for the foreseeable future.

But that wasn’t all.

They had some boots that are a kind-of cross between wellingtons and après-ski boots, with thick soles and fur lining and looking pretty solid, and all for €22 as well.

Having frozen my feet off at the football over the weekend and being up to my neck in mud around here as well, I decided that a pair of those wouldn’t go amiss either – for going to to footy and for working outside in the bad weather.

Two pairs of footwear – you really WILL be calling me “Imelda” now.

So what was I doing in Clermont-Ferrand this afternoon?

Well, we’d been to Gerzat this morning to record the radio programmes for Radio Arverne – spending a lot of the time talking rubbish as I predicted.

But I’m running low on soya milk and not having been to Montluçon and the Auchan there for a while, we decided to multi-task and visit the Auchan on the outskirts of Clermont-Ferrand, which is only a cockstride away from the road that takes us home.

And the rest is history.

Back at Liz and Terry’s, I had a really nice surprise.

You may remember that when we were doing the house roof back in 2009, we had Terry’s little cement mixer running here. It’s only small but it runs on just 375 watts and it ticked over all day comfortably on my electrical set-up here.

But it’s really too small for Terry now that he’s in business and so he’s acquired a big professional mixer that needed repair, and he’s now repaired it. The upshot of this is that “would I like a more-or-less permanent loan of the small mixer?”

Well, do bears have picnics in the woods?

A little mixer like that quietly ticking away all day while I do some important building work won’t half make my life easier and I have plenty of work for it in the summer, that’s for sure.

Aren’t I grateful?

This evening, I had the wood stove running hot, and garlic bread, pizza and rice pudding for tea were all cooked in the oven.

All in all it’s been quite a good day today. Hasn’t it just?

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