Builders and developers seem to get away with murder and in practice it is best to stop any errors or oversights in their tracks. Certainly, relying on the council or the courts to reverse excesses once they have been 'set in stone' rarely works. Keeping an eye on the builders requires vigilance, and in the…
A gift horse in the mouth
In the UK we have silver sixpences buried in Christmas puddings. In France it is tiny porcelain statuettes, called fèves, hidden in galettes des rois - 'king cakes'. Both coins and fèves have magical properties, bestowing special powers on whoever finds them. But for the sixpence, nowadays more likely to be a twenty pence piece,…
Cupboard love
Joe Collier works through his difficult relationship with a piece of furniture Yesterday a tug-of-love in the Collier family was finally, or probably finally, resolved. The central character in the saga is a dour, antique two-piece wooden cupboard with glass-fronted top that we brought in 1980. It cost £3.50 and was spotted by my wife…
The house that Joe watched
Maybe it’s a man thing, but I love peering into building sites. Somehow, watching as a crater is dug, foundations are laid and then a building grows is absorbing. But observation is often difficult as construction companies often build screens to obscure the view. And, although peeping between corrugated iron sheets or through the knotholes…
Wake up call
When it comes to providing entertainment, last weekend will take some beating. First it was to the theatre to see Racine's Berenice, then to the cinema for Amour. Both were captivating, the play intellectually and the film emotionally, and one can’t ask for more than that. Added to all this was a most unusual experience…
Coming home
There is something delightful about seeing friends and family being reunited. Standing in an arrivals lounge, or in a station foyer, a whole spectrum of emotions is on display and for those being watched it is as though the rest of the world doesn't exist. And, of course, for those actually involved, the emotions are…
Brief encounters
There was a hint of musical chairs about my train journey home last Monday. It started when a young woman plugged into her mobile sat down beside me. It was impossible to escape from her chatter so after a few moments I upped and moved down the carriage. There I found a space with no…
Hand me downs
Peter was a quiet-spoken man with a beguiling laugh. He was also the ‘father’ figure of the local allotment where his fruit and vegetables, neat paths and absence of weeds made him the envy of us all. Around twenty years ago he had retired from his work as an architect specialising in the restoration of…
Friends in high places
Luck was on our side when we bought our Paris flat. By chance on our doorstep were quality shops and restaurants, plentiful public transport above and below ground, and a traditional newspaper kiosk. But there were drawbacks too, particularly at street level. First, the pavements were often so narrow that when it rained, passing with…
The only way is Sussex
There was a short detour to be made before booking into our restaurant-cum-hotel on the edge of Lochinver. Our aim was to pick chanterelles. In Scotland they are at their best in late summer and one September we had stumbled across a carpet of them growing in their favoured Eeyore environment - a damp mossy…
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