85. Rain - at last

5th September 2010. Another bullfight at Les Arènes this evening.. Thankfully, it was the last of the season..

Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 3 provided the signature theme to the film Shine - which, if you missed it the first time around, is well worth seeking out:

6th September 2010. When we were finally handed the keys to Piperade Towers 3 years ago, I was a bit taken aback by the size of the main front door key - a good 5" long and made of solid brass, it would not have been out of place in the Château d'If..! The front door was fitted with two ancient locks - neither of which would have deterred a professional cambrioleur* (= burglar). Also, the front door was, at best, only an approximate fit in the space provided for it.. This aspect finally sealed its fate last winter when icy draughts would come knifing in. We decided to call in Eric - aka le menuisier magique (the magic carpenter) - to fix it. He came yesterday and fitted a modern lock which did away with the need for 2 locks and he also reworked the door edging to close off the source of draughts. While he was here, he also fitted a ventilator to an external cellar door and, as an encore, went with me in his van to Castorama to select the right récupérateur d’eau de pluie (rainwater collector) which he then connected up to a drainpipe.     

  

* I always thought this would make a good name for a car!

7th September 2010. Overnight I am reliably informed that we had a thunderstorm (I didn't hear a thing!) and on checking the new water barrel this morning, I saw it was full to the brim - all 350 litres of it.

Just back from the doctor - I needed a medical certificate stating that I am healthy to continue rowing.. I am more than happy with the outcome of the tests - blood pressure came out at 125/75 and heart beat was 54 (a marine diesel ticks over faster than that!). Think rowing is doing me some good. I'm working on my weight to get that back to 14st 5lbs / 201lbs / 91kg - which is what I was for years. Did 16km this evening on the river.. (running total now = 153km)

Enjoy John Williams and "Asturias"..

   

8th September 2010. We went down to St Jean de Luz this morning to pick up a few things.. The parking spaces lining the northern end of the golden beach were 90% free this morning as the great mass of tourists have thankfully decamped back to from whence they came.

Low season (Sept-June)

High season (July-Aug)

St Jean de Luz was once again a delight - the sea air had that fresh tang, the circular bay looked beautiful against the backdrop of white houses across at Ciboure and Socoa with the Pyrenees outlined blue against the hazy horizon. The wooden frames for the beach tents were already being dismantled and soon the diving platform moored a hundred metres or so offshore and the line of buoys to keep power-boaters and swimmers apart will be a memory. We walked along the front where a few pampered clients of the Hotel Helianthal Thalassotherapy centre were walking on the beach a tad self-consciously in their white towelling bathrobes.

How can I say this without being accused of ageism but St Jean was chock-a-block with pensioners.. (yes, and I know I'm one!) We've now entered the season of the Silver Tourist.. I try hard not to shuffle about and block pavements but it is catching!

I've finally remembered to post a pic of one of our favourite places in St Jean - the La Buvette Des Halles. OK, the plastic chairs are a bit naff but apart from that small niggle, it takes some beating. Why pay more?

The menu of La Buvette Des Halles - aka the eye test!

Finally, we stopped off at Laffargue to pick up something we'd ordered for Madame's birthday.. I've got a standing instruction that if I never know what to buy her for a birthday, Christmas, whatever - I've just to go to Laffargue..!

8th September 2010. I read the other day that John Lennon would have been 70 next month.. Here's a reminder of him at his best.. (in my view!)

And now, if you'll excuse me, I must start preparing myself for my weekend away with the Resistance! Starting tomorrow.. Now where did I put my Sten gun..?

84. Saturday frolics

3rd September 2010. Last night was very warm and there was a sound outside that we don't often hear..

4th September 2010. I had a good outing in an VIII this morning - instead of pointing up the Nive as usual though, we turned the other way and rowed through the town under 4 low bridges and out onto the much bigger Adour and headed downstream..

The Nive and the Adour.. (clubhouse is just above and left of the nearest bridge)

We then set off at a cracking pace down to the coast. The boat was well-balanced this morning and it was very satisfying listening to the sounds we were making - the whoosh whoosh as the thirty two wheels of the eight sliding seats ran forward and back on sixteen slides in unison, the solidity of the work in the water and the occasional scuddering of the blades across ripples in the water - it's moments like that that remind me why I row. Did 15 km this morning..  (running total = 137km) 

There's a lot of truth in this cartoon below (in my opinion!):

83. On Rowing and Life

1st September 2010. We went for a ride up the Nive again this morning. We caught the river on the turn and there was no discernible current. Another 20kms..

I'd always remembered an old French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest (without knowing what it was called) that sounded as if it had an Arabic influence. It's a song that, to me, should have done better. I had to do a trawl through France's Eurovision entries on YouTube for the last 25 years or so before I found it. It came from the 1991 Eurovision (don't say we're not up to date here!) and it finished 2nd - so maybe not all that bad after all. So, today's Song du Jour is: Amina (& here in English) and "Le dernier qui a parlé" (The last one who spoke):

An interesting clip here on the techniques used to select the "best" eight oarsmen for a racing VIII. The strongest or fittest aren't necessarily the ones that combine best to make the fastest boat. There's read-across into the business model too. Here's a taster:

"There is an interesting parallel to this in corporate life. When asking managers to choose between the most competent and the most likeable candidate for a job, they often opt for the most competent. They’d be thought as unprofessional if they didn’t. However, in practice, they do very much the opposite, provided of course the likeable individual is sufficiently competent."

A thought-provoking comment from the clip: Pick your best VIII, not your eight best..

We took Chibby for a run along the grassy open spaces at Anglet beach this evening. At 7.45pm, it was still 31C.. and the sea was flat calm with the hills behind St Jean de Luz and on into Spain showing blue in the evening light..

Don't mention it to Madame but this has caught my eye..!

  

Hmm...

2nd September 2010. Aah, that's better - life is back to normal.. The July/August mass of holidaymakers have returned home and school has re-started for all 12 million schoolkids today.

I forgot to mention that we had another interesting visitor moored at the bottom of the avenue a couple of weeks ago..

Belem

This was the three masted barque Belem which offers experience under sail to all-comers. She was in transit from Lorient, stopping at Bayonne before heading further south to St Jean de Luz. She reminded me of one of the greatest accounts of life under sail ever written - "The Last Grain Race" by Eric Newby.

In this, Eric Newby's first book, he captured brilliantly all the salty tang of the dialogue of the largely Scandinavian crew on a deep sea voyage in Moshulu, a Finnish registered 4 masted steel barque en route from Belfast to Port Lincoln in Australia in 1939 and the return voyage via Cape Horn, laden with innumerable sacks of wheat. He was just 18 years old. An unforgettable and highly recommended read.

Very nice sortie in an VIII this evening.. 15km.. (Running total 122km)

The late Miriam Makeba exploded onto the scene in 1967 with this memorable record - Pata Pata: