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I have had a minor arthritic knee and hip for about 10 years now. Not surprising when you think of what they are carrying. I could control the pain with cocodamol but I was a bit loathe to take too many. Then about 3 years back I found a miracle cure…. well not 100% but it did wonders for the arthritis…..A new mattress. For 30 years I have suffered from hard mattresses with absolutely no give in them. This time I decided as I was the one who spend most nights sleeping on the mattress I would get the choice so I ordered a medium mattress. Gone are the nightly cocodamol, it is great. What reminded me of this was the bed in Paris, it was like a board. Jim finds it so comfortable. When we eventually get our bedroom finished I am going to order a half and half mattress. Jim’s side a board and mine a medium. The other mattress will go on a new bed. (The old one is strong enough for Jim and I so we don’t want to tempt fate.). We also need a new bed for Rachael’s room. Does anyone know where I could get a bunk beds made to measure? Then Rachael could be on the top bunk and Duncan on the bottom.

Back to the warmth of Scotland. Paris has had biting easterly cold winds. We were in St Andrews on the shore today and it was positively balmy in comparison. It was very grey and violet though.

Yesterday we went out for a nice meal at Le Connetable in Rue des Archives. We don’t exactly frequent the place but we do like it. The food is good , the atmosphere great and we like it. I had chicken livers with green beans and Jim had a terrine to start with. Then I has some duck with pimento sauce and Jim had some other dead animal. The vegetables are excellent, pureed parsnip some grantinee potatoes and a broccoli and cheese. All washed down with a pleasant Cote du Beune. We had puddings , I can’t really remember them then I had a calva and Jim a Grand Marnier with his coffee. It was good so I ordered another calva. We then asked for the bill and then got handed another huge calva and a huge Grand Marnier. I don’t think they remembered us from the past, I did order their signature starter but i didn’t expect that. Jim is a regular in a restaurant /pub and often get gratuities but we are not that regular. The bar downstairs also has music in it all sorts I think.
And in order to get to this place you pass the gay area or male gay area. Bars with single sex couples, in a city where homosexuality has never been illegal. The poseurs, the fashion, the tattoos, jack boots, life is different on the other side.

Yesterday , Jim and I were walking through a shopping area in La Defence. All the shops were closed and the windows appeared to be like mirrors. There was hundreds of teenagers there practicing their break dancing. They had their ipods and ghetto blasters and they stood in front of these “mirrors” and did some fantastic stuff. It was like a free gym for them and it kept them off the streets and out of trouble. This sort of thing should be encouraged in every shopping precinct. Gives the kids something to do …it’s healthy… and social. There are also classes run there for them. In fact there are community workers who get paid to entertain kids ( like Rachael) one of them could run something like this.
In the main shopping centre at lunchtime there are dance classes, as well, such as line dancing and ballroom, (for adults). I am beginning to think that we are wasting space in the shopping centre which could be used more productively in the evening instead of closing them.

More rumbles a 6.0 in Chile and a 6.4 in Taiwan. But there is a place in Chile that is getting aftershock called “Liberator O’Higgins”. wonderful init. Not the aftershocks, the name of the place.

You will all be delighted to know that it is colder today. I went to the Pomp and the exhibition that I thought was on was not. I thought Francis Bacon was on but there was a collection of women artists and one of them was Francine Bacon. Lucien Freud is on next week, and he is an interesting painter. Home tomorrow to even colder weather, but I think it is a bit warmer this weekend. We shall see and not hold our breath.
The shoogles in Chile have lessened. They have reduced to 9 in the last 16 hours (of 4.5 and above). it still must be pretty scary though.

Back to Paris for a few days. After last weekend storms ( which I wasn’t there for, 45 dead in France) the weather is very pleasant. I brought my gloves because my fingers are very sore and they are badly affected by the cold but I had to take them off because my hands were getting too warm.
Today I went to a Munch exhibition. Some of his work is exceptional but most of it was very ordinary. There are country scenes, portraits and these are fairly boring.I think he must have been a depressive (aren’t all the good ones) as many of his very good stuff is about distress.
Tomorrow is back to the Pompidou where there is a Francis Bacon exhibition. That should be interesting.
Jim is in a new flat which you cannot swing a cat in. I have just looked for a bread knife and a corkscrew and neither was to be found. We are in FRANCE and no corkscrew or bread knife, incredible. But the cheese we are having tonight , St Feliciene is excellent. Dinner is boring because Jim doesn’t like me buying too much food. So I cannot buy enough to cook with. He is taking me out tomorrow night.

A big scary earthquake off Chile. Yesterdays in Japan was 7.0 but this Chilean one was a whopping 8.8. This is undoubtedly a major tsunami risk as the big 26th Dec tsunami was around the 9.0. There have also been serious aftershocks. There was a pacific tsunami warning yesterday after the Japan earthquake but this must be compounded now with this big one. There is a severe warning in Hawaii. But there is talks that the danger of tsunami goes as far as Antarctica. Though it is not so serious there as only the penguins will be affected.The biggest earthquake ever recorded was in the same Chile region and it was 9.5 in 1960, today’s earthquake is the 8th strongest ever recorded.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

No, I haven’t been on holiday. I just didn’t blog.
I was out for a meal in Dunfermline tonight as Jim got an early flight and one of his Norwegian pals was in Dunf so we had a very enjoyable meal, talking about oil and suchlike.
I got home and looked at my iphone… there has been a big earthquake in Japan. 7.0 same as Haiti. There is also a sunami warning.
Next week I am going to Paris. Hope the weather is better than here, snow ,snow and more F****n’ snow. Looking at the weather for next week it says that Paris is going to be sunny Monday and Tuesday and dry on Wednesday and it will be considerably warmer than here. That would not be difficult as it will be snowing all week here.

I’ve been having fairly shite nights sleep recently. So what do I do tonight…. stay up after “Frost ” to watch “Poirot” …. sincerely stupid as I undoubtedly have seen it before. The I played a few games on the computer and it is 1am and I am still not in bed. I don’t have to be up tomorrow but I will waken at the usual times every morning. 2am 3am 4.30 am and 7am ish. Yesterday I went to sleep early before 11pm and had another wakening at 00.30am . As Jim isn’t snoring I do manage to get back to sleep. I am going to bed now and hope for the best . g’night.