the hundred best books?

On wikipedia they apparently asked several famous authors to list the best books in the world.. Looking at the list I am not a well read person at all.

thursday/friday

It has been decided that as much as possible I am going to go to the place where the physio has her "cabinet" an office of a sort with a consulting room and a small gym with equipment in order to give me a better work out. The problem is timing, so twice a week she can drop me off, but the other day C will have to pick me up, it is just a bit too far to walk back to the house. The physio manipulated the non operated leg yesterday .. she is a kinesiologist, and often she seems to make one move in minute ways. I was amazed how much the other leg was affected by her , an example…you assume the position of a lunge, holding still in the position, the physio on her knees, she puts her and behind the knee and pulls but not a lot and then pushes in the front and then with hr fingers pushes side to side.. she does this movement say 10 times in a minute.. but it kind of destabilised the old knee . Shall have to talk to her about it when she I go this morning. She has two young children and C has given her old car seats to her.. she is amazingly grateful. The snow is nearly all gone, a small snow man is the only testament. Went to the shopping centre for groceries and for me to get some money out of the banking machine. Insead of money I got a message saying I should contact my bank.. always a heart stopping message. Anyhow it turned out that I had, many years ago, made an arrangement to limit the amount of money I could remove from the bank in a day , and asking for 300 euros..exceeded the limit. I had not thought to reduce the amount I asked for.. but will next time. Gemma is writing in french an essay on the development of the romanesque style in churches. So all evening we have been buttressed with questions. As C said, the definitive development was the flying buttress, allowing for more light. Think of the Rose Window in Notre Dame in Paris. ed My friends are coming from Paris next week to visit me.. James has arranged a nice tour of Cern and lunch with the chief of research for the husband , who was a colleague of Henrys. I will be home all next week said James but then he is gone for 10 days. Now looking on line for colourful cushions, EBAY is a remarkable source.

wednesday//snow tires

Well the adults returned safe and sound. They came bearing crumpets and english bacon and tea. They devoured the curry and then James cleaned up.. hurrah. This morning it began to snow, and snowing it is. C rushed off for snow tires. They do not provide a spare tire now when you buy a new car. I find it hard to imagine. But the garage fellow told her that the latest is a tire which when it gets a flat fills up with something that allows you to drive a certain distance to a place to REPLACE the tire. The garage fellow said that this has become a great problem as very few people carry these tires. So C got the old fashioned snow tires and a canister that can be used to pump something into the flat so that she can get to a garage. I shudder to think about being in the wilds of Canada where you might have to drive a hundred miles at least to get to somewhere to have your tire replaced. The children are doing their homework in-between going out to play in the snow. Anna cannot go without being on a lead because the chickens are loose The chickens are so funny, when you go outside they rush up to you in that funny chicken walk/run, imagine that you are running with your hands tied firmly to your side.. you would waddle, well these chickens do a waddle run. The chickens are hopeful that there will be tidbits. It is still snowing hard, about 5 hours of it now but it is quite mild so as C says, when you shovel the drive it melts quickly. The new car is so far a success. All mod cons as they would say.. As James said.. here is a German owned car, assembled in Portugal, sold in England and now registered in France. Buying it is England saved them about 20,000 euros. So well worth the journey. The car has heated seats.. I must say I would hate to own a car that did not have heated seats. While living in Edmonton during the winter even tho the car was in the garage it would take a long time for it to warm up but the heated seats came on immediately and made you cosy cosy. Saxaphone lessons, english homework, french devoir.. lots happening. Costumes being readied for Carnival.

tuesday evening

Well all the activities have happened and all the chldren are home, in PJs teeth brushed etc. they are hoping that their parents will get home before they must go to bed. C phoned from Folkstone is where you get on the train with your car.. this is not the old fashioned car ferry that most of know about , but rather an amazing train which you drive you car along and when there is an open door on what is a sort of box car you drive your car in. You stay in your car and the journey lasts about 40 minutes.. and then voila you are in France. the journey from Calais is about 7 hours or so.. so I am hoping they will arrive around 2200 hrs. I made a green thai curry from scratch, going to the market on sunday I was able to find some lovely hot peppers and the rest I improvised. No lemon grass, but I ground up the skins of the lemons and the effect is rather pleasant. I have no idea whether or not they will want to eat anything after that long drive, but one thing about a chicken curry it keeps . C's friend came for Anna again and we walked up along past some old farms where the children often go to get fresh pasteurised milk and amazing cream. The little dog now is on chlorophyl pills.. and is doing fine. This is the first dog this family has ever owned so it has been a bit of a learning curve.

tuesday.. the busy day

When we went outside yesterday to walk to school a very large dog about the size of a german shepard but the colour of a grey collie dog was there.. he walked to school with us and was friendly, a long plume tail waiving about and with a grin on his face. Ciara who a few months ago would not have walked anywhere near this size of dog was fine with it , altho pretty wary..which is not necessarily a bad thing. Then a friend of C's came to walk Anna and her young Sammy up the mountain , her little 8 month old has just come into heat and this grey dog found them and the walk was difficult as of course this large dog thought he had come to heaven. I had walked so much on the Saturday that altho I walked quite a bit yesterday I did few exercises. This morning the day starts at 0600. Gemma makes herself porridge each morning and we sit in companionable silence while we both gather ourselves together. By the time I waken the twins and make their breakfast and walk them to school one feels that a good part of the day has already passed.

sunday night / monday morning

I was determined to get everyone to bed early, as I knew that my early start would feel better if they felt better. Aat the English bookstore I had bought 3 books which I said would be a surprise..so last night shortly after 7 we were all upstairs.. one of the books had a great title.. Tell me something happy, then in smaller print..before I go to bed.. It was charming and the narrator was a bunny, Ciaras favourite thing. This little book was so charming that they read it several times over Ciara read it out loud, Gemma came and listened as well. The book I bought for Naomi was called Captain Cat, about an old sailor who tho a trader who would give away treasure for a cat. This brought him ridicule but eventually fortune. Naomi read that out loud to all of us. This settled everyone down nicely by shortly after 8. For Gemma I bought a book by that author which I always find delightful., Eve Ibbotson.. about a boy and a dog.. that she read to herself. On the whole it worked and at least there was peace and quiet fairly early. Then at 0300 the dog began to bark and bark. waking everyone.. I sleep on the ground floor , the others upstairs, but even so.. a loud barking dog in a sleeping house is very noisy. I got up, of course, checking doors etc and then finally let the dog out. who just stood by the front door.. did not venture any further than the length of her body , it was very windy and rainy, I think something must have blown around, but whatever , there was not way she was going out.. so in she came, back to bed we all went and then the 0600 alarm forGemma. It has already been a long day. A friend came to walk Anna up the mountain with her 8 month old sammie.. but Anna did not want to venture without me. so we had the usual abandon and hide routine until she gave me up. I can walk to the beginning of the mountain path b ut not up it, as it is very rough and I do not have hiking boots with me.

sunday

Well J and C got off to London early the in the morning, but not before James had made up batter for crepes. We had breakfast, and then in due course I went to the market with a friend of Cs. It was nice to visit and to get fresh supply of meat, veg and cheese. There are now two places selling rotisserie chickens and they are delicious one of the things they do is roast potatoes under the turning spits and the juices from the chicken drip down on to the potatoes.. they drop very herbs like rosemary thyme and sage.. down on to the potatoes.. and you can buy small to large containers.. they are always tasty. We are now facing the sunday on slaught of visitors.. little ones.. a friend of Ciaras who is in her athletic class.. Ciara asked me what I thought they should do, I asked what does her friend like to do.. she replied.. she likes to RUN! They are now outside k jumping on the trampoline and running. she is a french friend and marvels of marvels understands my french when I speak to her .