K -K -K -Katie

 

My youngest son was at school with the lovely Katie (below), but not in the same 'stream'. He didn't really have much to do with her, even though they were contemporaries. However, he does remember her.

After school Katie did some modelling, and became what we call in the UK 'A Page 3 Girl'. In other words, she took her clothes off for money.

At some stage she thought she didn't look how she wanted to look, so she had bits enlarged, bits tucked, and other bits tightened. She became known for it, and seemed never to be out of the newspapers with some new trip to Poland, or Turkey, or other places, to have more cosmetic surgery.

Her nips-n-tucks all cost a huge amount of money, and what cash she'd made through her 'modelling career' soon disappeared, and she eventually became bankrupt; owing over £3.5 Million. Her 'mucky mansion' was seized, as were her pink cars, horses, and anything else of value.

So now, after all those years of 'beauty treatments', she looks like this (below).

Money well spent you might say. I'm sure by now she must have achieved her goal, and looks how she always wanted to look.

Good on yer Katie, you look gorgeous Babe. Those lips are so kissable, and that smile so appealing. It takes a lot of money to look so good!

Oh; and all your tattoos (out of view) are FAB!

A day in the life...

Kimbo: Who are these people behind me?

Lady M: Look, I've been working my hands to the bone!

Wills: Are you sure this jam doesn't contain meat?

Cro (wearing new watch): There's a wasp drowning in my coffee!

Boo Boo: Leave me alone, I'm still in bed.

Just a typical breakfast with the Magnon family. Croissants, Pain au Chocolat, Coffee, Home-made jams, amusing repartee, planning the day's events, plenty of irrational suggestions.

We decided to go to the lovely market in the village of Cazals. Far too many people, mostly Brits, with the women wearing long diaphanous dresses and large straw hats, and the men in awful shorts sandals and long socks. We head for a shady bar and drink ice cold beer before heading home for lunch.

Lunch is varied. I eat water melon, others eat bread and cheese, someone even opened a tin of mackerel in a white wine sauce. No two people ate the same things. All very relaxed.

Swimming, snoozing, walks with Billy. For supper I cook roast chicken and roast potatoes with a salad. We eat quite late then attempt to empty Europe's 'wine lake' until our sides begin to burst from laughter. We play 'Guess the flavour' with our crisps.  It's been just another sunny summer's day in the Magnon household. Boo Boo has kept us amused, we also played a very silly general knowledge game (but with Kimbo's oddball rules), and we all retire feeling well fed and very tired.

It's been about 28 C, and tomorrow (today) will be 33 C. Still not overpowering, but it's heating up again after a brief lull. Traditionally heat builds-up to mid August, then we have violent storms.

We have all that to look forward to. Kimbo flew back to Blighty yesterday afternoon. Otherwise, all is well.

 

My father's birthday

Certain birthdays are etched into my memory; others that I should remember, are sadly not.

Today, August 5th, was my late father's birthday, which I never forget. He was born in 1905.

I suppose he was very typical of his ilk. Privately educated, he was reserved, correct, and honest. He worked hard and was successful. He was also highly respected. However, as a 'father' he probably lacked certain skills, as I expect many of his era did.

I don't ever remember kicking a Football with him, or playing Cricket in the garden. But at the age of about 11 he did buy me a BSA Air Rifle; which I still have. It was very out of character, and I was never sure what he thought I'd do with it.

I still regret that I wasn't with him when he died. He'd suddenly been moved to a different hospital, and I hadn't been informed. A day later I received the inevitable phone call that said he'd 'gone'. I would liked to have been with him, and held his hand, as I was with my mother; but it wasn't to be. I do hope he didn't think that I'd abandoned him, but I suspect he would have been unconscious.

His photo hangs in my sitting room here in France. I have so much to thank him for. I shall look at his picture today and do so.

 

Pride weekend

It's been 'Pride' weekend in Brighton. Probably one of the biggest LGBT parades in the UK.

Brighton (and adjoining Kemp Town) are well known for being a very liberal community, and have been at the core of the UK gay scene from time immemorial.  

I've never actually been in Brighton for Pride Weekend, so I cannot report first-hand. However, my DIL, Suzie, is there at the moment and sent me photos. The whisp of silver hair in the photo belongs to my good friend Sami, who just happened to be amongst the roadside audience. Susie was standing behind her, with Sami unaware.

The naughty angel seems to be enjoying himself.

 

My boys.

If anyone had asked if I like surprises or not, I would probably have sad "Not".

However, it came as an extremely PLEASANT surprise that when Wills and Boo Boo arrived yesterday afternoon, they were accompanied by Kimbo. The scallywags had organised it all in secret in advance and they'd picked him up at Brive airport. I could hardly believe my eyes. Champagne was consumed by all; even one sip by Boo Boo. 

Both my boys do enjoy the finer things in life, and Wills arrived in this Merc' CLE 200 Cabriolet (top speed 236 km/h). A Cruise Missile on wheels. Personally I'm happy with just an engine, steering wheel, and gear stick; too many gadgets in a car frightens me.

But I must admit; it IS a gorgeous car!

The boys surprised me in another way too. I woke yesterday morning to find that I now have a brand new internet service that actually works! I'm making Elon Musk even richer than he already is by having subscribed to his superb STARLINK service; and what a difference compared to the rubbish French Orange Internet we've had until now. I now have a speed of 330 Mb/s whereas before it didn't even reach 1 Mb/s (if that means anything to anyone). Wills went up on the roof after I'd gone to bed (below). They set up the whole system (during the night) without my knowing.

Incidentally; Musk's STARLINK will cost us 40 Euros a month, whereas our Rubbish ORANGE was 60 Euros a month. No brainer! God riddance to ORANGE!

As you can imagine, a few tiles broke in the process of installing the dish, and those were all replaced too.

So, a few days of fun ahead. Boo Boo is loving being back here, he seems to be in his element. Billy is, of course, loving having him here too; they are inseparable. I think the weather is getting back to Summerish too; perfect timing.

There was also another wonderful surprise, but I'll keep that for another day!

 

Hunting in August?

You can imagine my surprise when, yesterday morning, I left the house to find three hunters amongst the Sunflowers, about 20 yards from my front door.

They looked like a bunch of ex-Army mercenaries. They were wearing full camouflage clothing, and two of them carried very high-powered-looking rifles, with big fat silencers and telescopic sights. The third just had a pair of binoculars. The two with the guns had them resting on shoulder-height 'props'.

They stood in amongst the Sunflowers looking south into the valley below; hoping, no doubt to see a few Deer with targets painted on their sides.

As soon as they saw me they turned and went away. I tried to take a photo of them, but only managed to take one of the grass. However I did see them get into a car and they drove off. You might just see their car behind the leafy twig in the middle of my awful photo above.

Hunting here starts on September 8th, so what these people were up to I have no idea; poaching I presume.

With all the kit they had, it was more like target practice than hunting. Thank goodness no Deer were about, they wouldn't have stood a chance.

I'm not anti hunting, but I do like it to be done correctly, and with safety in mind. These people would have been shooting blind, without seeing what was behind their targets; an absolute SIN in the world of hunting. There are always a few deaths amongst hunters each year, no doubt that will continue!

I hope they didn't shoot anything.

 

Shakatak - Night Birds

I bought my home in Brighton in 1985, around the time when 'Nightbirds' was a hit record. I bought the album (on cassette) and played it relentlessly; I may even still have it somewhere.

Shakatak were a London band, and I believe they are still going strong today!

There was some very good music around at that time, especially from female singers, and this song still brings back great memories.