Software Problems, Grape Varieties And Weather

The Paris-Moscow Express

When I first saw in the news that this was coming I immediately thought of a new fast rail link between the two cities. No so; rather it was Arctic conditions arriving with a strong wind, just when I was beginning to think that winter was over. If the weather forecast is correct we'll miss the worst of it here and it shouldn't have too much effect on what I have been planning to do except that a final clear-up in the garden at the back will have to wait and I doubt I'll be playing boules for the next few days. I went into Buis today but played only one match before deciding with several others that it was too cold to continue. Maybe I'll do some more ambitious cooking, although I've just made myself a number of Cornish pasties to consume during the week and probably pass out to some friends. English cooking is still regarded among my French friends with a degree of suspicion despite the efforts of friend Jo and I to inculcate trust.

Anyway, the first asparagus and strawberries are in the shops.  The asparagus is from Spain and the strawberries from Morocco but local asparagus will be around in the next 3-4 weeks and local strawberries a couple of weeks after.  Signs of spring and the good local produce to come so to hell with the Paris-Moscow express.

Grape Varieties

At lunch on Sunday friend Steve produced a couple of bottles of wine to replace our usual favoured local red. One was a Côtes du Rhône but with just a blend of Grenache and Carignan, without the usual supporting Syrah or Mourvèdre. On tasting it I was instantly reminded of the dessert grapes I used to buy in the winter in England, which were always called Red Flame grapes (from south America). I think those grapes must have been either Grenache or Carignan, so why weren't they labelled as such?

It seems strange to me but dessert grapes seem never to be labelled, either here or in England, by their variety, with the notable exception of Muscat. In the autumn here red Muscat grapes are in all the shops, labelled as such. Both here and in England there are also grapes labelled Italia, which are most probably Muscat but could just be Ugni. Apart from that all the labelling I have found says just red or white, which is really redundant, pretty obvious when you look at the grapes. It occurred to me to wonder why this is, particularly in France where people are much more conscious of grape varieties than we Brits are. I wonder whether the same applies across Europe.

Resolving Software Problems

I had been using Skype to see and chat with my daughter and her family until a couple of week ago when Skype failed on me; when I tried to make a call it went immediately to “call terminated”. So I installed Messenger and used that instead. Then Messenger failed on me, refusing to initiate a call and insisting I review parameters which were all as they should be. Scratching my head about what was going wrong I decided the best solution was probably to uninstall both and then install them again. That seems to have solved the problem but.……………...what a crazy way to have to proceed.

I remember at the 1968 NATO conference on software engineering a guy from Bell Laboratories commenting on a problem they had had with one of the earliest telephone switching systems. He, responsible for keeping the system up and running, had had to resolve an intractable problem the essentially the same way, by rebooting. Called before the Board to explain why a large part of the Bell telephone network had gone down for some time; he explained that he had done it deliberately (to resolve a problem). He said the Board totally failed to understand why someone employed to keep the system up and running would deliberately tear it down (and he ondered about his career progression).

Two things occur to me. One is former friend Edsger Dijkstra's stricture that when we create systems we don't adequately understand we are on dangerous ground. The other is how the hell a desperate measure conceived half a century ago still manages to be a common answer to software problems today.

But the culture shock produced by computers at the time was very considerable; people struggled to understand.  In the same period the UK Customs and Excise totally misunderstood the import/export of programs. Programs punched on cards passed duty-free because the cards were used whereas boxes of unused cards attracted duty.  And magnetic tapes had to have an extra long leader attached to them because Customs was entitled to sample goods passing through and sometimes did.  I often wondered what they did with the bits of magnetic tape; try to get a tune out of them or find some pictures? 

Mollans And Brexit

In Mollans

I went to the old people's lunch last Sunday and a very good lunch it was, prepared by the cooks at the Les Tilleuls restaurant in the village. There were cocktails to start followed by canapés filled with pieces of pork in a delicious sauce surrounded by salad and a «quenelle». Quenelles, a Lyon speciality, are a rather bland concoction of flour, milk, probably egg and i'm not sure what else; I'll have to look it up sometime. The French love them but I find them lacking in any discernible flavour. This was followed by fillet of pork in a very good cider sauce, vegetables and the usual selection of wines, served by members of the village council. It was all very good and enjoyed by about 100 of us, as the photo shows.

Cheese and dessert were to follow but I left after the main course to watch Chelsea play, much to the amazement of the mayor who was standing outside as I departed. I explained that I had to watch a football match but he still seemed perplexed. Non-believers in the true religion will never understand! The match was not on TV so I had to get it on my PC via a very dodgy Russian website. The Russian mafia have their uses, although even they seem to be finding it harder and harder to intercept broadcasts; at least, I'm finding it harder and harder to get a good feed to my PC.

So far we've had a quite mild winter, the coldest weather being in mid-December. Most days have been sunny and quite warm in the middle of the day, with also a reasonable amount of rain. We are bit yet through winter, of course, but a cursory glance around my plants suggests that most of them have survived.

Brexit Again

A recent Sky News item suggested criteria for a successful dinner party. Among the things definitely forbidden was any discussion of Brexit. Why? The subject is somewhere on most peoples' minds so why not discuss it reasonably? The answer would appear to be because most people can't; the issue goes straight to the emotions and reason quickly goes out the window. The lack of reason perhaps explains some of the government's dilemmas in trying to decide what can be negotiated.

Brexit Follow-up

Brexit Follow-up

A friend pointed out to me that my seeking French nationality as an “insurance policy”, for purely practical purposes, as I put it in my last post, could be construed as an insult to the French and their nationality. I have to concur that it could be construed that way although that is not at all what I intended. My friend also stated that gaining nationality where you lived enabled you to play a full part in the life of where you lived and I agree totally with the importance of that.  I have always felt that I wanted to make a positive contribution wherever I lived. The point on reasons for nationality stuck with me and made me try to work out what nationality is really all about or should be about. It is necessary for practical purposes; being stateless can cause all number of practical problems. However what is or should nationality be all about?

The first point that occurred to me is that, from a historical perspective, for the vast majority of people their nationality is almost certainly recent. My historian friend Steve would be only too happy to recount to anyone interested the extent to which national borders have changed over the last two centuries, even in Europe let alone the rest of the world. Every time a border changes so does the nationality of the people in the changed areas. Thus any idea that one's nationality necessarily connects one to the nation's long-term history goes out the window. So do political parties that seek to impose some kind of racial “purety”; it can't exist other than in a negligible minority of cases. Over the past few centuries nearly all of us have become mongrels, even if we weren't before.

There are nonetheless easily discernible differences in different regions of the world, often associated with specific countries, but are these differences necessarily national? There are geographical and climactic differences but these are a continuum and take no account of national borders. There are historical differences that do often relate to specific nations but not necessarily nations as currently constituted; in any case, few of these have much to do with nationality today. Neither does religion recognise national borders; even states with a national religion include many inhabitants with another religion. And there are cultural differences of course but all of these that I can think of either relate to legal and administrative differences (practical matters) or are regional rather than national. In matters other than schooling and language (both administrative) a Frenchman who has long lived in the south of France is most probably more culturally similar to near Italian or Spanish neighbours than he is to a Frenchman who has long lived in the Dunkirk region.

What is left? Only emotion, I think, and duty. People may be emotionally attached to the country of their nationality (or to one of them) but this may be for any number of disparate reasons and anyway isn't necessarily the case. Duty has two aspects. There is a duty to abide by the laws of a country (and if you want to change them, to do so by legal means) and there is also a duty to defend the country, one way or another, in time of war. This last point is, I hope, and most probably, hypothetical in the case of European countries.

I have one further point: is nationality desirable? Mitterand said that nationalism means war and nationalism can only be associated with nationality. So I come to the conclusion that nationality has no intrinsic characteristics and may not even be desirable but is necessary for practical purposes. In other words I can't think of any intrinsic reason for having or choosing to have a nationality other than for practical purposes. Some people may be insulted if another chooses to obtain their nationality for purely practical purposes but I think they would have a lot of difficulty explaining why they feel that way, other than as a purely personal emotional response.

Religion

As I am engaged on explaining (justifying?) myself I thought I might as well have a go at my thoughts on religion at the same time. I am not a believer in God (any God) so religion rarely impinges on my thoughts. However I often find myself not neutral but definitely antagonistic to others' religious beliefs and I sometimes try to work out why. The first point is that I won't accept anybody else's right to tell me what is morally right or wrong; that explains an innate antagonism towards Catholicism, even though I can see value in some of its doctrines. If that, in my cultural context, would make me a protestant, then I have objections there too. I think Calvinism, as I understand it, encapsulates them. Calvinism proposes that there is no enjoyment or satisfaction to be had in life except in positively pleasing its version of God. Hence the saying that every Scot who enjoys himself in some other way (Scotland being a hotspot for Calvinism) knows that he is going to have pay dearly for his pleasure afterwards; bring on the guilt! A S Neill, a significant influence on my thoughts, would call this attitude “anti-life” and I would agree, which explains my antagonism to much of protestantism. I would also dismiss out of hand claims or compulsory practices by any religion that are based on evidence supported only by superstition or some script written around two millennia ago. And I abhor anyone who wants to kill others on the basis of their religion. I accept that many people with specific religious beliefs do a lot of good in the world, also that many of the same do (in my view) a lot of harm. Other than that I have no problem with religion.

Maybe I'm just being self-indulgent here.

Brexit

Brexit

I have now started gathering the documents I need to apply for French citizenship. I have prevaricated over this and delayed, possibly too long, thinking that the UK population would come to its senses and Brexit would be reversed. I'm no longer so sure and clearly need an insurance policy: French nationality.

I have presumed that, if and when Brexit actually happens, little will change during the transition period, which would give me until some time in 2021 to obtain French nationality. The Prime Minister has said she will guarantee retention of the existing rights of British nationals in Europe after Brexit but her word is worth little given the numerous U-turns, rethinks and double-thinks the government is displaying. I simply have to hope that my assumption about having until 2021 is correct. All my English friends and acquaintances here seem to have come to the same conclusion and are engaged in the same process or have already completed it.

That decided I am trying to clarify my attitude to Brexit and to understand better why I deplore it and believe it should be reversed. I find there are several aspects, which I will explore here.

The Referendum

The first is the legitimacy of the referendum and its result, on which I find several acquaintances (let alone a number of MPs) divided. On the one hand is the fact that most MPs said before the referendum that the result would be binding. On the other hand is the fact that all the legislation enabling the referendum clearly states that there is no way the result could be binding. Therein lies an anomaly and people have to make a choice as to how to resolve it. If one chooses to accept that the result is binding it cannot (by definition) be classed as democratic, so the idea that the referendum result was a democratic decision has to be false. It may nonetheless be accepted. It may surprise some people that a free vote and its result can be undemocratic but democracy is more complex than many people think. If, on the other hand, one chooses to accept that it is not binding there is a conflict with majority view in the UK's supreme democratic body, Parliament. Anyone's decision cannot be other than a personal choice and I, of course, refuse to accept the view that the result should be binding. As an aside, this is simply one of a number of anomalies regarding Brexit that can be decided only by personal choice; if any rules could apply, they have yet to be written.

That is a detail, albeit an important one. There is also the larger world view, of the UK, the EU and the role that each may play in the evolution of the global social and political picture. The EU has made no secret of the fact that it seeks, in effect, to “homogenise” Europe. That is, it will seek to iron out and reduce the differences between the member states. The devil here is in the detail (which we will come to next). The idea that the UK should in some respects lose its national identity is understandably anathema to many Britons: “hence “we want our country back”. The same, of course, can be assumed to be true of every other EU member state. Every other EU state must be expected to also want its country back so the eventual compromise can only be a matter of negotiation (and speculation).

The Global View

Given that stated aim of the EU, what is likely to be the social effect? My take on this is focussed on what I believe to be a major question in the UK: the wealth gap. Historically it can easily be demonstrated that as the wealth gap increases so it leads to political instability and extreme forms of government. This is already evident in the UK, with extreme right and left wings vying for power and no one apparently seeking the middle ground. Whatever the result of EU social aims they must inevitably lead to reducing, over time, the wealth gap in member states. There will, of course, be other social effects of EU legislation, such as initiatives for a cleaner and safer environment already enacted or in the pipeline, but exactly what they will be is unknown at present as also is whether the UK will do anything similar (and be able or choose to finance them).

In the world view politically it must be clear that the UK will lose clout. Whatever clout the UK has as a single, albeit important, nation it must have less than it would have as a member of a 28-nation group with much greater collective economic and demographic power. Does the UK's global political influence matter? That is a matter of personal preference but must surely rule out any idea of an independent UK having more influence. Why would it?

Even more important in my personal view are the advances in education, science, research in all fields and security control that have been achieved through pan-EU cooperation. The UK will automatically be excluded from these at Brexit; re-inclusion will be only with consent of the EU and may be denied, particularly in fields where the UK has less to offer and more to gain.

The Economics And Practicalities

I may as well state right away that I believe Brexit will cause the UK to be economically weaker. Such indeed was the opinion of virtually all MPs prior to the referendum. For a start, the UK will have to renegotiate as a single country some 50 trade agreements previously agreed as one of a group of 28 countries. I cannot conceive of how one of that group, not even the most powerful economically, can obtain more favourable agreements than were obtained previously. So I believe that UK must lose out to some extent here, even ignoring the cost and time needed to renegotiate the agreements. Just the time needed must put pressure on the UK to concede more; other states will still have their agreements with the EU in place, they need just an agreement with the UK alone. The UK will urgently need an agreement with the other 50 or so states.

The divorce bill has been variously estimated at between £30 and £50 billion. Whatever it eventually proves to be, the cost in terms of increased civil service personnel must be the next most important. Various numbers have been mooted, even the smallest in multiple thousands, and increased border control can only add to them. This is in the context of a public sector already reeling from the effects of austerity cuts. The only certainty is that public sector costs must rise significantly, to add to the divorce bill. And that will coincide with a time when the UK must compete economically with rest of the world at a disadvantage to its current position. So I can only conclude that the UK will be significantly economically weaker.

One other economic effect comes immediately to mind. All EU states obviously want a safe environment (safe drinking water, clean beaches, clear product labelling, etc). One benefit of the EU is that legislation to effect all such measures has been negotiated by the EU rather than each member state deciding it individually. The cost savings per state are not negligible. The UK can take advantage of such legislation on past issues but will have individually to incur the cost of future legislation, or neglect to legislate.

There are many other practicalities of course, the status of the Irish border being just one important one of very many.

Conclusion

I've already stated my personal conclusion: the Brexit decision should be reversed. I think that although anyone can quibble with some of my statements it would be difficult to substantiate any significant disagreements to the broad conclusions; the only basis for disagreement can be blind hope. Britain must end up poorer economically and in terms of global political influence (and in many other aspects in my view).

So why wouldn't any reasonable Briton want the Brexit decision reversed? I think there are two sticking points. One is anyone's personal choice on the status of the referendum result. That is a personal choice and not subject to argument. The other is trust in the EU, with immigration control as a central issue.

Immigration is a sensitive issue and the Leave campaigners successfully hid the fact that the UK had many avenues for control open to it which it simply chose not to use; the fault of the government rather than the EU. Be that as it may, immigration remains an emotional and ill-understood issue and could be a reason for maintaining a Leave stance, despite the overwhelming evidence that the UK badly needs immigration in one form or another. I doubt that the practicalities of the precise control that Leavers would advocate have ever been thought through by them. I've tried thinking them through and find them impossibly complex, unmanageable. But I wrote “reasonable person” as the test and this of all the issues seems largely to be decided emotionally rather than rationally. It is, to an extent, an emotional issue for me too. The racist and bigoted element which exists in all societies has in the UK claimed Brexit as a “win” for its views. Whatever is a “win” for its views is anathema to me.

The remaining question is whether belief in the EU, with all its faults and unknowns, is a preferable bet to a seemingly bleak and perhaps even more unknowable future outside it. That again is a personal judgement, although the weight of evidence of what is known favours remaining in the EU.

As I said at the beginning I have started on the process of seeking French nationality. I hope that if and when I obtain French nationality it will facilitate my son and daughter gaining EU citizen status, should they choose to do the same in the future.

Snow And Orange France

Snow

We had our annual one day of snow in the village ten days ago, about 15cm of it, much more than usual, and vestiges hung around for some days. The photio shows the scene that I saw from my kitchen when making the first coffee of the day. Higher up there is a lot on the hillsides and mountain top. There is plenty of time for more but I hope we'll avoid the worst of it in the village. There is only one way out of the village without ascending a few hundred metres and that one way is a narrow icy road that sees a snow plough once a day if it is lucky. So travel gets difficult if there is snow at this level.

English Conversation

Steve and I gave our last English conversation class before Christmas on Tuesday; we'll start up again onthefirst Tuesdayin February. Steve brought mince pies that Jo had made, I brought Christmas cards and the class gave Steve and I some bottles of very good wine. So we had a festive ending to the term.

I had thought that probably everybody in the surrounding area who might be interested had heard about the classesand so we wouldn't have anyone new. However, one new person, now a regular, came in September and three new people came in the last few weeks. Whether they will come regularly in thefuture remains to be seen but we have a hard core of eight or nine people who come most weeks. That is enough to make it worthwhile.

I've started putting a circonflex accent on words when I write them on our whiteboard to indicate where the stress is and that seems to work quite well. Everybody understands that there are no written accents in English and I had been struggling to think how I could represent the tonic accent. I don't know why it took me so long but the obvious answer was to show a tonic accent, as in Spanish, even though it is not written in English. I find that the French, particularly those whose English is good, most often make a mistake when the English and French words are the same or very similar, as with «families» for instance or «development». I'll do that all the time next term.

Brexit News

Being completely in favour of the UK staying in the EU I can't quite make up my mind whether the latest Brexit news is good or bad. What it seems to indicate is that Parliament is unwilling to countenance a hard Brexit, which is certinly good news, as is the fact (at the moment) that Perliament will have a say in accepting or rejecting whatever agreement is finally reached. However, chabges are occurring from day to day so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed and hoping. What I understand least is the position of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party.

Orange/France Telecom Service(?)

I'm having a problem with my telephone landline. Some three weeks ago I found I had no dial tone when I picked up my phone but my internet connection (via Free) still worked, albeit spasmodically. However I managed to report the fault to Orange France (not to be confused with Orange in the UK). It seems there are two methods to rack progress on a fault. One is via the interent and the other is via a portable phone. Since I didn't then have a portable phone I gave the number of a friend's phone and duly received a message that the fault was on the France Orange network and would be repaired by 18.00 on November the 29th at the latest. Since my landline still wasn't working when the November 30th arrived I tried tracking it on the Orange France website and found that the tracking service wasn't working either. I tried again a week later and the fault tracking service still wasn't working. My landline still isn't working now (December the 18th at the time of writing).

Last week I asked a friend if he would report the fault, which he did. It took him some time though. He said that Orange France have a menu system when you phone them, which is quite usual these days, but that the menu didn't allow for someone other than the landline holder to report a fault. So a landline holder can report a fault by phone only if he has two landlines, one of which is working, or if he has a mobile phone. And friend can report the fault by phone only if he waits until the menu options are exhausted to speak to an Orange France employee; which my friend did. He waited, he said, 20 minutes before he could talk to someone. He was told that there was a fault on the Orange France network and it would be repaired end of day on December the 22nd. I tehn tried tracking the fault on the Orange website and found that this time the fault tracking service was working and that there was a file open on the fault. So I tried to track the file and got a message that there was no file on the fault. I am bemused (to put it mildly). In despair I bought a mobile phone (and, as you might guess, the contract is not with Orange France). What do I do next? Well, obviously I have to wait until December the 22nd to see if my landline is repaired than. I shall also investigate whether there is a means of registering a complaint other than to Orange France and see if I can be compensated for having paid for a month for a landline that I haven't had. I'm not holding my breath but I am monitoring my blood pressure.

I've mentioned my predicament to several French friends and their reactions have been much as they were to my previous problem with Chronopost, the French Post Office parcel service. That is they either said «It's awful» or shrugged their shoulders and said «That's Orange France, what do you expect?». The French are generally a tolerant lot but the extent of their tolerance is beginning to amaze me. I rather think, when (if?) this story is concluded, I shall recount it on Facebook in French as well as English. In fact, I might even do it now. Will Orange France even notice, will itcare? But it's the least I can do.

THINK

Double Think, Wishful Think, …...Think?

It's a mad world. Natasha Devon, former government mental health guru, told a meeting of girls' school headmistresses (oops!) that they shouldn't address girls as girls or ladies but as pupils or students. Why? Because that reminds females (is that OK?) of their gender, which in Devon's view could cause said females great anxiety and mental health problems. Corresponding cautions should apply to boys' (oops again) schools.  No more boys' or girls' schools, only pupils'schools.

Unfortunately (in my view) the same problem arises with the use of the words «she», «her», «he» and «his». So obviously these words should be avoided too. What then? We'd presumably have to refer to all individuals as «it». But this, of course, could be interpreted as dehumanising people, objectifying them, which could definitely cause anxiety and mental health problems. Then again there is the problem of names. Some names are gender neutral, such as Lesley. However some aren't; have you ever met or heard of a boy called Agatha or a girl called John? So, to avoid mental health problems should we ban all gender-specific names or be compelled to use girls' names for boys and boys' names for girls, just to get rid of gender bias? Difficult one that.

Fortunately we Brits don't have the problem that Romance langage speakers have of every noun having a gender. Then we would really be in trouble, with anything sentient. So what can we conclude. One suggestion I have is that government mental health advisors should be tested for mental health problems before being appointed. Another is that Ms (can I use that; …….M, It?) Devon should get a life.

Elsewhere a mother has asked a school to ban the Sleeping Beauty fairy story because the Prince kissed Beauty while she was asleep, without first asking her permission. I suppose, by the same criterion, we could ban most literature written before 1950. What exciting lives some people live! More seriously, what has been said about people who want to ban books?

It is easy to make fun of such misguided people but, even if they are well intentioned, they do their cause no favours. There are still some serious issues in male/female interractions and the ridicule these people invite tends to trivialise these issues.

Things sentient do not include animals, according to media coverage of the government's proposal to exclude Article 13 of the Lisbon Treaty from the Bill on leaving the EU now going through Parliament. Article 13 places an onus on governments to take animal welfare into account when creating new legislation so this onus would be excluded. The media coverage proclaims that the government thereby believes that animals are not capable of having feelings (causing God knows what mental health problems to people; animals may not be aware of media coverage). Michael Gove, shining knight of all lovers of the truth(?), is outraged at what he calls this distortion of the truth. Of course the government is concerned about animal welfare, he says; in fact, exclusion of Article 13 provides an opportunity for the government to create even more protection for animals than that provided by Article 13. (This, like everything else, will be better after Brexit). What he didn't specifically state, in his determination to clarify the exact truth, was that of course the government won't have to consider animal welfare (that onus will be on the animal owner) and won't have to create stronger legislation. It could create stronger legislation or it could completely ignore the issue and place animal owners in a difficult if not possible position. But what government, determined to cut all costs to the bone, would do that?

Well, let's have a little look at Gove's overriding concern for the truth, at his rôle in the Brexit campaign for instance; the little matter of the £350 million for the NHS? Do the sayings a kettle calling the pot black and leopards not being able to change their spots come to mind? Ah well, who ever accused politicains of honesty?

It really is a mad, mad world.

Remembrance And Education

Remember, Remember

I have fun explaining to the French why we Brits celebrate November the 5th. After all, celebrating an attempt to blow up the democracy of which we are all so proud is ironic in a very British way. We didn't go through it this year in the English conversation class as we had already done that last year. Then I explained that although traditionally it should be Guy Fawkes who was burned there had been local variations. In the village in which my mother lived, for instance, it used to be the Pope who got burned. That would be politically incorrect nowadays of course and, anyway, I find the idea of religions persecuting one another rather obscene. However, I think the idea of burning (in effigy) someone almost unversally disliked has some merit. Anyone for Trump, Boris Johnson, Theresa May……?

It is also a time to remember the dead in both world wars of course: the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For some reason I keep meaning to investigate, the ceremony in the village is at 12;00. I seem to remember that that changed from 11.00 a few years ago and I think it must be because winter and summer time didn't exist at the time of WW1, so 11.00 then would be 12.OO now. Maybe someone decreed the change in the last few years but I still don't know for sure. Anyway the ceremony went off almost smoothly in the village, when the names of those from the village who were killed are read out individually followed by the words «mort pour la France». I find it quite moving. At the end (before the obligatory communal aperitif) the children at the village school sing the Marseillaise. They were to be accompanied by the music but, enthusiastic as they were, they started off well in advance of the music and the singing and the music never really got together again. A shame, I suppose, but it had a very sympathetic Clochemerle feel to it. Perhaps that is how it should be, a living and improvised contrast to the otherwise formal proceedings to remember the dead.

Education

The last couple of English conversation classes have been particularly good, running seamlessly for 90 minutes. At the beginning of the one this evening I proposed an idea I had had and checked with Steve that we should offer the class toipics for conversation (generally of their choice) but that we should start with education. After all, we have all been through it (and may be continuing it) so we all have experiences, good or bad, to talk about. The idea went down well. Steve and I will provide a vocabulary beforehand to help the discussion along.

The idea came back to me while I was helping my son compose a rather sensitive letter. I well remember offering to read my daughter's thesis before she submitted it when she was at university and her refusal because, she said, I would criticise her grammar. Grammar was not in question when I was helping my son but niceties of expression and pereption were. Language can be such a supple and nuanced instrument for communication that I feel more than ever that the period when it was «taught» (in English schools certainly and, I gather, in French schools too) as simply free uncritical expression was almost criminal. Just tick the right box, or Eats Shoots And Leaves, if you know the book.

Cold Snap

I gather there has been a cold snap in the weather in the UK and so has there here, although the cold during the day is only evident if the wind is blowing (it's the Mistral) and you are not sheltered from it. However, snow has been falling on the summit of Mt Ventoux for the past week and that doesn't usually happen until around mid-December. I hope this doesn't herald a harsh winter but I think I'm now going to have to protect the plants I have that will not survive a hard frost.