French And English Food
Friends Steve and Jo have just arrived
back from a 3-week trip to England. They brought back a consignment
of food for me.
One of the pleasures of being here in
France is the good food, particularly the fruit where I am. However,
there are still some English foods that reign supreme on my palate;
the same goes for friend Steve, who got his fill of bitter and fish
and chips while in England.
The problem with English foods here is
not generally that they are unobtainable but that they are
exorbitantly expensive. The only food I asked Steve and Jo to bring
back that I have seen nowhere here is vegetable suet, which I use to
make dumplings for a stew. The other food stuffs were much as might
be expected: Marmite, kippers, baked beans, brown sauce, cans of
bitter, bacon, sausages, pork pies and a gammon. Most of these are
obtainable here but at 2-3 times the UK price. I think they are
artificially priced up by supermarkets because the supermarkets know
that British residents can often be persuaded to pay a premium for
them.
English sausages are not obtainable and
there really is no French equivalent. French sausages can be very
good but not the same. Bacon is a similar case; some winter mornings
only a bacon sandwich fits the bill for breakfast. The French
“poitrine fume”, similar to smoked streaky bacon, comes close,
just not close enough; and there is no equivalent to back bacon. The
same goes for pork pies. The gammon is to make a ham for Christmas
and I haven't found that here; the French “jambon cru” is cured
to be eaten as is rather than cooked. Tea bags, even English
breakfast, which should be strong, how I like it, is easily
obtainable at reasonable prices but the pieces of tea leaf in the
bags would seem to have been counted out individually, so around
three bags at a time are needed to make a decent cuppa. The other
items are all obtainable but, for instance, a very small jar of
Marmite will cost the same as a very large jar in the UK.
Anyway, I am now well stocked for
winter
A Boules Problem
Many fewer people play boules in winter
than in summer, as might be expected, but even those hardy few have
been diminished this winter. The problem is a particular player. At
her worst, which is not infrequent, she apparently feels the need
always to win and also to tell other players how they should play.
The result is, when teams are being drawn up from the players
present, she tries blatantly to create teams that are clearly
unbalanced in her favour, when everybody else is trying to create
balanced sides. She (a pointer) also tries to tell the shooter when
to shoot. If others don't do as she says (dictates) she is
immediately in a bad temper and often simply throws her boules
anywhere. Several of the regular players have said that they come
for a good time and don't enjoy playing if she is, so they do not
come any more.
That's the problem in a nutshell. I
think the answer is to refuse to accept her behaviour, to refuse the
team line-ups she proposes and ignore her when she tries to dictate
how one plays. That is what I do, in the expectation that she will
change her behaviour if she sees it has no effect. Unfortunately,
I'm the only one who does that, which makes the dispute one between
her and me and I don't want that. The other players grumble but say
nothing to her and to me say that it is pointless because she will
never change.
So they stay away and are proposing an
email list, from which she is excluded, so that teams can be
pre-arranged before going to play. This strikes me as difficult,
cumbersome and unnecessary but I shall probably go along with it if
that is what happens.
What strikes me most is the disruption
and unhappiness that can be caused if a single individual who is
effectively a bully is not stood up to by the “silent majority”.
That is the way dictators come to power; and I suppose that
over-statement illustrates how such a minor matter can get blown out
of all proportion, as seems to be happening.
The Book
As the winter weather has been creeping
in I decided to get down to writing a chapter of my proposed book
(see previous postings). It's fine and makes a decent-sized chapter
but I've realised that I've used about a quarter of the material I
had outlined for the book. In short, I can't now see enough material
to make even a modest-sized book. So......it's back to the drawing
board or a search for another project for the winter.
