The gendarmes come calling

Last week I was just checking my emails and glanced to the right and saw a blue car pull in with two gendarmes. This is interesting I thought as they didn't clap any handcuffs on me , I obviously wasn't their target. One of them speaks good English as he is married to a girl from "up north " he met during the year he spent working with the men in blue near Blackpool ( I think anyway north of Watford )

"I'm looking for Susan the owner that car " ( I noticed one of the giters car had returned without the driver so he had driven it back. Had he been arrested ? )

" Try that gite "

"allo Susan "

" No I'm not Susan " I crinched " Sorry wrong gite try that one over there "

We found Susan just sat down relaxing with a coffee on the patio when she was confronted with two gendarmes with their full kit ,pistols, French truncheon and a few other riot control toys, really necessary in Plestin. The poor woman nearly had a heart attack.

"Don't vorry your usband as a liettle accident "

What had happened was he had just been to the tabac in town and was walking to the boulangerie when a passing lorry slowing down for the traffic lights rear door opened and whacked him on the shoulder leaving him lying on the pavement. Fortunately for him a nurse was in the following car so she called all the services and he was taken to Urgence at L Lannion where he was treated for the bruising ( nothing broken )

I blame myself I shouldn't have told him the night before about the attractive nurses in A and E!

Walking the dog can be dangerous

Its funny you wake up each morning do your routines, for me its drinking a pot tea while I read my emails and the online newspapers and then I take the dog for a walk then work Usually a very uneventful morning only last Saturday as I had lot of things to do I decided to walk/run the dog with a bike ( left behind my a client which I can understand now ) It was fine I just got to a good speed then the chain jammed in the dérailleur and the bike stopped and I continued using the road surface to slow my progress. The result was a lot of blood not a good sign so a quick repare of the bike and slowly back to chez nous to wake Paulien to take me to the surgery. Its amazing how you can jump the queue when your face,arms and T shirt are covered in blood! It was no good as the doctor reckoned I had touch a little artery so back to the car and a trip to urgence at Lannion. The service there was really good 2 nurses instantly hosed me down and the intern doctor started preparation for the stitching operation. You know you are getting old when the nurses and doctors are the same age as your children. I managed my best French line of the year during the interrogation when she tested my reflexes one of the questions was "does your head turn " resonse " seulement quand j'ai vue une belle femme " I think I have lived in France too long

An hour later I was ejected with head wrapped in enough bandages for a turban to cover the 4 stitches and a good excuse to avoid cleaning duty but recovered sufficiently in the evening to go and play with Air Groove ( the jazz fanfare band ) we had a gig at Ker Uhel with a couple drumming bands. I even had a solo in one number I must have looked like an escapee from a mental institute with the head bandage under the beret!