Living in Brittany

I was being driven my my friend Cogs the other week on the twisty road between Tremel and Plufur and we met a charging articulated lorry on a sharp bend and as the trailer followed the truck around the road became smaller and smaller so we ended up half way up the hedge and missed it my a coat of paint.We both looked at each other gob smacked as they say in shock.needless to say the lorry sped off in search of more victims to scare. The truck I was in fortunately is a 4x4 so easily went off road but the worrying thing for me as a passenger was that it was right hand drive and it would have been that would have been crunched if we had made contact. I was very impressed with Terry's reactions especially as he is 70!
Its our first winter in France since we came 16 years ago that we don't have any major building projects ( just as well with the present economic climate ) so I decided to reoganise the garden making raised beds and having less chaos so we might get better production. A friend just nailed some railway sleepers together to form a rectangle and then filled them with earth which seems a good idea so will do something similar. I also made a greenhouse out recycled transparent plastic against my workshop and only had to buy an extra 4 sheets so it cost me around 40€. The construction was the easy part, but as it was built on the same concrete slab as the workshop I had to hack through 30cm of concrete and stone so there is a connection with the subsoil for the plants. I even topped up the fresh soil with compost and scattered some mustard seeds for a green manure effect.
Last week the town band did its annual concert for the over 70s in Lannion. There was about 600 of them and they all get a meal , music and a dance band afterwards and its all free! The French certainly look after their ageing population well

We were really lucky with the weather for the November 11th parade in Plestin no rain ( although it made up for it later ). There was about 100 people attending and watching , there is the remnants of the Plestin Fanfare ( used to be over 20 in it's prime now down to a rump of 8) and then half a dozen old guys carrying flags ( representatives of the forces and the resistance from the last war ).So we do our usual bit march up and down the road to the two memorials with a bit of music and then I was thinking a quick glass of wine and then home,but no there was a special ceremony in the salle des fetes as some one from Plestin was to be awarded the "Legionaire d'Honour" and there was the mandatory speeches, an hour............... Apparently this type of award is being encouraged by Sarko for active members of the public, but the old boy had had an active life, escaped into Spain in the war ,imprisoned by the Spanish then he joined the Free French in N Africa . Post war he moved to Plestin in the 60s and since has been on 100s of committees
At last I have got one of the boys interested in music , Xav has started drumming lessons ( obviously has dreams of being a rock star but you have to start with the basics) with the Harmony band.Its interesting in France the schools don't really teach music, only learning to play a recorder and for instrumental lessons you go to the" Ecole de Musique" which is very expensive nearly a 1000€ a year or find a private tutor. I explained to Xav if he got competent he would be able to play at the various ceremonies and earn money as we get 15€ each time so he could get 150€ in a year + develope a skill.
I think I have downloaded something nasty recently ( I think it was a trojan spam factory ) as I had lots of problems with my email not working and then last Sunday received about 5000 spam letters and non deliveries as it hijacks the address, so I had to buy a decent anti virus protection and after a week it seems to have settled down again.