Or frightened to death by a pig. Most kids these days won’t ever have seen a pig in real life and would certainly be overwhelmed if someone were to pass a pig to them. I imagine that it would develop into a game that would be even faster than a game of “Pass The Parcel” in a pub in Belfast.<\/p>\n
And then I was on board a spaceship and we had two main electric cables that had been accidentally cut somehow so we were trying to solder them together somehow using a cigarette lighter. While we were doing that, we were watching some kind of strange guy try to leave by one of the doors. We thought “we hadn’t seen him in here before. I wonder what he’s been doing and where he’s been hiding”. <\/p>\n
That’s certainly a novel technique but here in France what in the UK would be called “Garden Shed Engineering” is called Syst\u00e8me D<\/em> – the “D” standing for something vulgar. It’s when you do the work that needs to be done with the equipment that you have to hand, so if you need to solder some cables together and all you have is a cigarette lighter, all you can do is to do your best.<\/p>\n The nurse and I had an argument this morning. There he was, in full-chat mode asking me stupid questions and when he asked me the same stupid question that he’d asked me five minutes earlier, I snapped and he cleared off with a flea in his ear. Talk about getting on my wick!<\/p>\n After he left I made breakfast and while I was eating I was reading my book again. The guy is a beautiful writer, as I’m sure that you’d expect when you see prose written by a poet, but much of what he writes, in what is essentially a travel book (albeit a very early one), is quite superfluous and detracts from the information that he gives. He needs to make up his mind what type of book he’s writing.<\/p>\n However it is a bit too late for that now, seeing as he passed on “to another place” in 1917.<\/p>\n Back in here afterwards we started up our Summer School, the first day. We are twelve students and I’ve been on previous Summer Schools with a couple of them before. These classes are, as you would expect, very parochial.<\/p>\n And it’s amazing what you learn. The word for “pumpkin” is pwmpen<\/em> and for “courgette” it’s corbwmpen<\/em>. Apparently the prefix cor…<\/em> when in front of a word means “small”<\/p>\n So it took us much longer than it ought to have done to work out that Corgi<\/em>, the breed of Welsh dog much loved by the recently-deceased monarch, simply means “small dog”.<\/p>\n During the lunch break I was preparing an on-line order from a well-known on-line retailer and at the end of the lesson went to pay for it, but for reasons that only my bank in Belgium will know, payment was declined<\/p>\n That is of course total nonsense but it was too late to ring up and complain. Consequently that’s a job for first thing in the morning.<\/p>\n There were a few other things to do, like make another flapjack, but I didn’t feel at all like it. Instead I came back in here after a very late hot chocolate and rather regrettably crashed out.<\/p>\n When I finally awoke it was rather late and so since then everything else has been running late. Tea was a stuffed pepper and I think that I’ve missed something out of the stuffing, and the pepper wasn’t cooked enough. It just wasn’t my night I reckon.<\/p>\n So tomorrow I’ll be late for class because I have an appointment down at the Centre de Re-education in the morning. I wonder what they want. I really have no idea.<\/p>\n But it’s good news that they are still interested in me. However just imagine if they offer me a series of courses like last time. Three days per week having dialysis, two days a week down there – I’ll be whacked. And so will the poor drivers who will have to help me upstairs if my loyal cleaner isn’t about<\/p>\n She’s dropped in twice today already for different things. It won’t be long, at this rate, before she moves in here for good.<\/p>\n But the recently-departed Lizzie and her Welsh Corgis – it’s a good job that she doesn’t live in the castle at Y Fflint. Apparently the Y Fflint players offered once to take her dogs for a walk but she told them to clear off
\n"Why’s that?"<\/em><\/strong> asked manager Lee Fowler. "I thought that it was a very noble gesture"<\/em><\/strong>
\n"2-0 up against Y Barri halfway through the second half and you end up losing 3-2?"<\/em><\/strong> she roared. "Before your lads take my Corgis for a walk they’ll have to learn to hold on to a lead."<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
