A Study in Rosé and Turquoise

A Study in Pink and Green

Unfortunately I'm not sure what sort of plant this is and I have no books with me. If I were in Villeneuve there would be plenty of people to tell me. So if no one has posted a name in the next few days I'll let you know.

The Fête Evening

I have absolutely no idea how to start this post never mind end it. As for the bit in the middle..... I had not intended to go to the dinner and dance on the evening of the Fête. Not that I'd told anyone that. David, of course, knows me only too well and had already mentioned to at least one person that he thought I'd find an excuse and bow out. However sometimes things in life really surprise you. That evening was one of those things. Over the previous few days we had been practising on the pétanque court: easy because it's just opposite John's house. A number of other British people from the Village had joined in and they became quite a social occasions - I'm not sure that I've ever seen quite so many wine glasses on the Napier court! So there were going to be quite a few people I had met at the dinner and making excuses was going to need even more courage than attending it. So I went. And boy, did we have a blast? (I'm sure that's not a modern expression but we used it when I were a lad - which is rather how I felt).

Right. Before I go any further I have to explain that I had had a glass or two of wine. However I was sober even by my standards - evidenced by the fact that I spent several hours on the computer when I got back to John's (after 0100), got to bed at 0330 and was up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at the crack of dawn. Now I've told you all that because anyone who knows me is not going to believe the following picture which, unbeknown to me until I downloaded the photos, was taken by Trevor who was sitting next to me but who had resisted the temptations to dance more vigorously than I. I think it was because he refused so vigorously that his wife got me up on the floor.

In fact I was persuaded to dance a lot and with quite a few people and a chair. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the chair and I have no idea whether it enjoyed it or not. Given that the next person to dance with it relinquished his partner in its favour tells you nothing - or lots.

Of course that was only one part of the evening and one chap (with a very dry sense of humour) managed to pour water all over Viv's chair just as she sat down. She took it very sportingly!

He also did a good line in enticing people into cupboards (and dancing with chairs).

There were many other pictures I could have shared but anyone who dances with chairs can't complain if his picture appears and Viv is the only other person to give her consent (for which read 'persuade me to do the post').

Thanks Viv.

A Reminder

One of the things about living in New Zealand in general and Napier in particular is the ever-present threat of earthquakes.  I have experienced minor quakes but never anything too bad.  They are, however, quite scary even at fairly low magnitude when things fall off bookcases!   Last night my time and in the middle of rural France as I am the internet came into its own when I learned of the huge earthquake which had some six hours previously struch Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.  I am acquainted with a number of people in Christchurch and many friends have friends and family there - New Zealand is a 'small' place in that it's 4 million or so population is spread far and thin.

To give some idea of what Christchurch is going through the distribution of the last 30 earthquakes in NZ is shown on the following map.  The four not concentrated over Christchurch happened on 1/2 September but the 26 over Christchurch have all been in the last 24 hours.

The following five happened within about an hour starting (bottom first) with the major 7.1 magnitude quake.

Some of the pictures to be found on New Zealand's Television Station website are:

And the very latest note from a friend in Christchurch: