Driving me up the wall

Boring snoring that nice lady decorator called it. We were on the ferry from Caen to Portsmouth and the early start yesterday morning was obviously too much for the collection of crusties who had reserved reclining seats in the Pullman Lounge. The fact that we had also pre-booked these seats and what that implied in terms of our respective ages was conveniently overlooked. To paraphrase Stealers Wheel, we had snoring to the left of us snoring to the right, and we were truly stuck in the middle with some errant noses. It was driving us up the wall which reminded me of a picture I took on the Iles de Re earlier in the week which I feature today. I thought it apt having met cyclist Bradley Wiggins agent at Lords last month.

Bike illegally parked

Relief came in two ways; the sun was getting warmer by the minute and just when we could stand no more and were contemplating a stroll around the deck over the ships tannoy system came to the rescue with details of a wine tasting on deck 8. We managed to extract ourselves from the old age snorers lounge on the pretext of trying some very ordinary reds aboard the P and O ferry Normandie.

With the sun out and a glass of a much better Bordeaux in my hand and a Sancerre in that nice decorating hand we took solace on the sun deck to enjoy another perfect summers morning. Astonishingly, the weather remained fine, even as we floated into Portsmouth. I began to hope that we would have a six week Indian summer in Arundel?

Having not had the opportunity to sample English beer for some two weeks and with the pub next door open and buzzing, it does not take a clairvoyant to know what happened next. We popped in for a quick one, ended up having several quite quick ones, then a few slower ones, then some very slow ones until we came to dead stop sometime in the evening. In between times, and within 2 hours of arriving back at Arundel, predictably, the clouds rolled in, the wind got up and splashes of rain were soon in evidence. The nice thing about having a pub next door is that when long trousers and a sweater were suddenly needed they were at very close hand. Two minutes to go home and change and get back to the pub.

So that’s it, the long summer party is over and I have work to do and not just for Currencies Direct, I have a book to finish writing, and a load of boring music biz administration stuff to attend to. I must also address a waistline ravaged by three months of mad partying so carbohydrates will be but a fleeting concept in the coming fortnight unless there are any unforeseen diversions, such as a retro festival at Goodwood next weekend, of which I only became aware yesterday. Barring the unforeseen, the next big event is the Bistro Rally from Port de la Rague to Cannes on 24th September for which we will be popping over to France.

Those lovely people at the South Of France English Theatre will be back with their adaption of Boeing Boeing at the Pres Des Arts in Valbonne on 9th November and have some excellent value sponsorship packages available. They will be taking the show up and down the Riviera. They are also staging their locally renowned Rockfantazia music show at the same venue on 28th and 29th September, a cruel reminder that my days to be in France in the coming year are sadly limited.

Chris France