Hat catastrophy, can it be rescued?

November 13, 2010

tags: british airways, Cafe latin, Cote D Azur, Currencies Direct, frances thompson, Living In France, Moving To France, supperclub, Valbonne

Church, at Cafe Latin on a Friday in Valbonne, where coffee is worshipped on market day, is a sort of ecclesiastical Sunday, and welcomed a decent congregation yesterday despite the wind and I don’t mean flatulence. It is a place to which I go regularly to rescue and convert the bank-trusting locals in the errors of their ways and to the joys of becoming a Currencies Direct customer.

As usual, I was there to seek for some fashion tips for the week ahead, and am usually there to check what Mr Humphries (“Mr Humphries, are you free?” “Yes I’m free”) is wearing, however he has become wise to the power of my camera and my pen, well computer keyboard, but you know what I mean, and had wisely dressed down for the occasion ( at least that is what it looked like to me!). However, I have found a new fashion icon to cherish and of whom I took this photo.

Oh, he's going to Barbados, underneath the palm trees, don't want to be a bus driver all my life...

Mike Allen is a British Airways 747 pilot and was sporting this very daring hat or err….leaf on his head which spoke loudly to me, and I hope to my assembled readers as well. His beautiful wife Nancy was also there, and is a regular, and aware of the column, and she should of all people should have known better than to allow here poor injured husband to pose for a photo for me, she at least knows what can happen being a regular at church. She has even read this publication.

Mike himself is a bit of a non believer, not often being able to worship as he is regularly flying the great and the good around the world. He had only popped in due to being unable to fly because of to a wrist injury and for which I believe he was looking for a cure, so I suppose in a way he was an easy target. I have some sympathy as I imagine a wrist injury could make all that flapping rather painful.

I asked him if he could steer planes with one hand, but he said it was tweaking the knobs that he couldn’t do. Now I am going to leave that one there, parked, a bit like his 747 (and a bit unlike fellow Valbonne resident and BA 777 pilot John Coward who crashed rather than parked his plane at Heathrow a couple of years ago). Suffice to say that I have a BA economy ticket for Australia in about 10 days time, and all my BA pilot friends know what is expected of them if they are to emerge from this column with any credit….so, Mike, let me UPGRADE this warning to you.

Last night to Frances Thompsons Indian night in Valbonne , but sadly I will not be here for her Sunday lunch or Thai/Vietnamese night, details of which you can find if you click on supperclub06 as I will be on my way to urge our boys on in The Ashes in Brisbane as long as the French don’t decide to stage one of their lovely National Strikes on 22nd November, and no volcanoes or terrorists decide to try to thwart me. A full report will be published tomorrow if there is any poor behaviour, tasteless clothing or other misdemeanours which I discover and feel I should share.

Chris France

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