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Post by fumobici on Apr 10, 2023 5:20:40 GMT
I was invited to an Easter lunch at old friends of our family's who live a twenty-minute walk through trails in the woods (a trail I had to open up again since I last did it last year). Four hours of wine, eating traditional Italian Easter dishes, and conversation. I thought I might explode after and was glad I chose to walk rather than drive as I really needed to walk a bit I was so full.
Today is Pasquetta (Easter Monday) here and *everything* is closed, even more so than Easter Sunday, I'm contemplating driving, then hiking to an ancient Franciscan hermitage up near the top of a local mountain today I've never been to. This is a very Italian sort of thing to do for Pasquetta, I hope it's not busy. Luckily this hermitage is pretty darn obscure. The priest or monk or whatever he is apparently makes and sells herbal bitters there and is quite friendly. I am told his predecessor there would decide who could enter and who couldn't by looking each person up and down and deciding on the spot based on if he liked the way you looked. I have been assured this judgment by sight is no longer in force.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 10, 2023 5:34:08 GMT
I remember those family meals in Lorraine. Lunch lasted so long that often a light dinner happened at the same sitting with maybe a one hour break for the women to wash the dishes and the men to shoot the bull in the garden.
In the old days, things were closed in France too. Maybe they still are in Alsace-Moselle. Now all of the shops are open during every holiday except May 1st and even then a lot of places are open.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 10, 2023 6:09:28 GMT
To shoot the bull, an idiom i had never encountered.
I hate these meetings where you just sit and eat.
Yesterday was great. Gardening and a walk and a bbq.
Today will be ckearing a room at my wife's house so that work can proceed, cleaning, loading the trailer with garbage so that i can drive ut to recycling park That kind of things...
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 10, 2023 8:47:50 GMT
Daughter off on her travels again. Dublin on Wednesday then Los Angeles and Florida in a week or so.
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Post by bjd on Apr 10, 2023 12:21:26 GMT
We spent Easter Sunday afternoon at the beach. It was sunny and 24° so there were lots of people but nobody in the water except for a couple of little English kids. This morning our local market was open with lots of sellers.
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Post by lugg on Apr 10, 2023 18:42:19 GMT
Your Italian Easter sounds perfect Fumobici ; yours sounds busy Whatagain .A day on the beach sounds just what I would enjoy bjd nobody in the water except for a couple of little English kids. hardy souls
Mick your daughters job sounds amazing - does she enjoy all her travels or is just so regular that it becomes a pain ?
Quiet Easter for me ...cooked for daughter and sis on Sat and we enjoyed our time together. Today I finally managed to visit a garden in Herefordshire that I have wanted to see for years. It did not disappoint , it was just incredible despite the usual lack of flowers at this time of year . I will definitely visit again later this year.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 10, 2023 18:59:42 GMT
No she’s fine with it lugg and the trip to Florida allows her to meet up with an old school friend who lives there.
The Dublin trip is to sort out a pop up shop in Kildare. In the States she meets up with Disney, Netflix and Universal.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 14, 2023 9:56:12 GMT
The Passport saga goes on and is progressing well. They have sent me the invoices to cough up the Passport Fee. I don't know if it will help in the decision making of YES, but I decided to send them my Family Tree. It shows I am a descendant of a farmer in Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex who died in 1702. My maternal grandmother is his direct relative. Might count for nothing might sway the Passport people (UK Government).
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 14, 2023 11:17:24 GMT
It sounds promising..
Mind you after Brexit an Irish passport is very useful.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 14, 2023 12:19:05 GMT
Yes, any Irish in your family tree? Maltese will also work.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 14, 2023 12:29:47 GMT
Sadly no Irish..... only Scottish on my grandfathers side. My son has obtained his UAE passport but is now wanting to apply to somewhere in the Caribbean. I'll tell him about Malta Kerouac. It is no secret that South Africans are packing up and buying properties in Portugal and Spain and applying for those passports. I was told another place that might sell you one is in the Greek Islands.
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2023 13:19:57 GMT
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Post by whatagain on Apr 15, 2023 17:28:32 GMT
Just went to the fancy fair of the previous school of Marie. Hada good time, meeting friends and friends of friends. All very friendly. Had a great time. Then met a guy who thought Chloë was my wife... hum. Instead of apologising or better, to laugh it off and buy me a beer he started explaining she looks older etc. Then he started talking about all the rich people he knows, and more. Fascinating guy. Instant dislike. He looks like a real loser, which he probably is... My daughter loved him too.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 16, 2023 12:41:12 GMT
Oh Whatagain, what a pompous ass! When people have to tell you they have rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous......they don't have a cent to their names. Secondly, not all famous people are worth meeting. I thought I was in the pound seats when Rod Stewart stood next to me at a traffic light crossing in Soho, only to learn the locals didn't really think too much of him. We were flying to Las Vegas next day and who do you think was looking down on me from a huge billboard on the Strip advertising his show....yes him. Yes I'm cool...
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 16, 2023 12:52:08 GMT
He watched me play cricket once.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 16, 2023 13:19:48 GMT
Oh, well that clinches it.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 16, 2023 13:37:40 GMT
I met François Damiens yesterday. Begian actor. Nice, discreet, shy actually.
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Post by bjd on Apr 16, 2023 13:49:47 GMT
Speaking of Belgians, we had some nice wine at lunchtime. A white chardonnay/viognier blend made by a Belgian winemaker in the south of France.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 16, 2023 14:03:09 GMT
Viogniervis my fav. For whites.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 16, 2023 14:54:48 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 16, 2023 16:16:50 GMT
I am impressed that you found that, or even that you remembered it.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 18, 2023 6:33:32 GMT
A word about my new colleagues. Very international... My boss is chinese. Her boss and several colleagues are french. My main technical contacts are arabic (where from ?), belgians (one walloon, several flemish and 2 brusseleers). On a specific project i talk to a nigerian and a greek. Of course the usual locals are german Romanian etc. We have some ukrainians but i have been told i would not be much involved. We have - we had - one plant in ukraine. A place called Bakhmut.
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Post by bjd on Apr 18, 2023 6:57:55 GMT
We have - we had - one plant in ukraine. A place called Bakhmut. No longer, obviously.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 18, 2023 8:08:46 GMT
Heard it described as flat. Bombed 3 times at least.
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Post by bjd on Apr 18, 2023 8:50:23 GMT
I fail to understand Russian strategy in this war. These are places they claim to want to keep but they are bombing them into complete rubble. The same with Mariupol and other cities.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 18, 2023 10:23:23 GMT
I loved hearing about your new job Whatagain. I hope you tell us lots more as time goes on.
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Post by fumobici on Apr 18, 2023 13:39:26 GMT
I fail to understand Russian strategy in this war. These are places they claim to want to keep but they are bombing them into complete rubble. The same with Mariupol and other cities. It seems to me that the Russians just like to break and destroy things: people, cities, countries (even their own). Civilization just passed them by somehow.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 18, 2023 14:43:39 GMT
They could contribute so much to the world but they seem to have a paranoid death wish.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 19, 2023 13:17:12 GMT
Maybe suffering the lack of Absolut Vodka now that they have stopped exporting to Russia....
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Post by fumobici on Apr 19, 2023 16:04:14 GMT
They'll get by on krokodil and rotting potatoes, no worries.
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