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Perfect bliss — 6 Comments

  1. Why the fuck anyone would want to give up the drink just to give cash to a "charity" that is already rolling in cash is way beyond me…

    Well, GD, CRUK have a lot of expenses, you know. Like the head honcho's salary, which I believe is hovering around the £280,000 pa mark (plus expenses, natch, and gold-plated pension). And don't forget the all important mission of persecuting smokers and making their lives miserable. That costs a lot of money, you know. Surely you'd forgo the booze for a month to contribute to such a noble cause, wouldn't you?

    No?

    I haven't spent time there for some years now, but I'm very fond of France. And yes, the Dordogne is lovely. The towns and villages are real picture-postcard stuff. And I love driving in France. I tend to avoid the Autoroutes and stick to the Routes Nationale. Wide and tree-lined and not much traffic. And some great roadside restaurants. I used to look out for the ones with 1 acre car parks that catered to the truckers. Great food, great value and huge portions. A lot of Brits seem to have a problem with the French, but I've always found them to be generally very pleasant, and my French isn't up to much. I learned what I know from living for 3 or 4 months with a French girl who spoke no English back when I was 19 years old. Although they do say that the best place to learn a language is in bed…

    Yes, lovely country, France. If Herself doesn't like long drives, you should break up the journey staying in B&Bs. Take three days to drive to Périgueux or wherever you go to. Nice and easy.

    • I wonder how many of CRUK's staff and [in particular] the management are going to go on the dry for the month?  Life isn't easy without that daily bottle of Chardonnay?

      The usual routine in France was to ferry across to Roscoff and then drive to Poitiers [they got to know us quite well there!].  The next day we would do the final dash to the Dordogne.  The return journey was a little more leisurely as we had an extra day before sailing times.  We usually stopped over in Poitiers [again] and Caen and then spent the last day pottering around Cherbourg before the evening sailing.  I love the driving [100 miles in France = 10 miles in Ireland if you know what I mean?], but Herself gets a bit cramped even with frequent stops at roadside cafés.

      The trick I always found with the French is to announce early on that I was Irish and not English [*cough*].  Did wonders. The antipathy seems to work both ways!

  2. I have just had supper at the bar, owned by an Englishman married to a French lass, like me, in the picture post card Bastide of Molieres which is sort of between Port de Couze and Beaumont du Perigord, nearest big town Bergerac, in the S/W Dordogne. If you ever decide to come down this way again you are very welcome to stop by for something to eat and a tour of places and restaurants not on the usual tourist trail and fecking excellent to boot!

    • Heh!  If we're down that way again maybe I'll give you a shout!  Last time we were that far south we stayed near Beynac which is only about 15 miles as the corbeau flies?  I've just been browsing Google Street View – getting the hankerings again!

  3. I'd love to know what salary Kathleen O Meara of the Irish Cancer Society is on.

    More nonsense from her today about raising the already ridiculous taxes on tobacco.

    And making free NRT available.

    Also no mention of e cigs despite mentioning the number of smokers have dropped by 250000 since 2009. In fact she actually despises e cigs, presumably because they aren't made by her pharma sponsors.

     

    • Whatever she earns [and I can guarantee it isn't minimum wage] she seems to spend most of it on a diet of lemons and sour grapes?

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