Stable diet disaster

After the excesses of food back in England over the weekend, today saw the start of the “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted (down loads of food) diet”. Excessive in quantity and lacking in quality is a fair description of both the food consumed in England and the shape of my abdomen. And before you “spell check” obsessives criticise, the headline was a deliberate pun.

That was the plan, but a lunch with Greg at Cote d’Azur Villas in the lovely sunny Cafe Des Arcades in Valbonne Square was particularly distracting, as the plat de jour was a stunning pave de boeuf. I kept looking at the salad menu, but when one of those dishes went past less than a metre from my nose, the decision was made and the edifice upon which my willpower is based crumbled like dust. The horse will have to stay outside for another day.

Golf tours. That’s what we discussed, bespoke golf tours for this area using some of the many fantastic villas that Greg controls which are often empty for long periods out of peak season. In that respect it was purely a commercial lunch, (so I hope my accountant is reading this and will be prepared to receive the bill on my next expenses submission), although very pleasant indeed.

Other deals were done involving Currencies Direct and property matters so my guilt was somewhat off set by the knowledge that yet another business triumph has been born, perhaps even more than one.

My trip to Australia is beginning to hove into view. The first time I went there was in the late 1980’s with the Reverend Jeff, a regular reader of this column, not looking too holy in this picture from my youth.

Myself, the Reverend Jeff and John Otway, aptly for the Reverend, this was taken outside a church about 35 + years ago. Dig those red strides!

The highlight of the trip was when he crashed into a cow and wrote off the hire car. Most people, if they are going to attempt road kill of any significance in Australia would take aim at one of the many kangaroos that nap on the warm tarmac, but Jeff was always one for steak tartare (as long as it was properly cooked). Actually I lie, he is more of a beefburger person now I come to think of it, but I think you get my drift.

As I have at least 3 friends who are BA pilots, I shall expect one of them to do their duty in terms of upgrades in late November. It will be the least they can do for me giving up, as I am, 10 days or so of my life to ensure England get the right result in the First Test in Brisbane.

I have business in both Antibes and Cannes over the next few days, both revolve around meetings to ensure that fewer people will in future be ripped off by their banks when transferring funds from one currency to another. If any of my readers need to be similarly rescued, please click on this link; www.currenciesdirect.net/chrisf

Today is set to be more mundane however. Once I have crow-barred my son out of bed and emptied the trailer (well, after he has emptied the trailer) at the local tip, it will be the joys of the quarterly battle with VAT for me, and the uncompromising stance taken by my accountant over my perfectly reasonable expenses.

Chris France

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