Grimm whichever way you look at it

Parking the car in a puddle was the first of Sprog 1’s mistakes, the other was to leave the key on the back axle of his car. Let me explain. We were flying into Nice airport yesterday, and he had flown out the day before, so it was decided that he should leave his car at the airport and we would collect it when we arrived. He will no doubt claim that the was not a puddle when he parked it, but the fact that it was, and it is fact that the only way to retrieve the key was for someone to lie in the puddle and reach into the dark recesses of the axle before we could go home. His allowance will now be subject to review and harsh scrutiny, and he will be washing my shirt and shorts when he gets back.

Ironically, after the rains of Sunday, which ruined the Arundel Festival Bathtub Challenge, this morning was bright, sunny and lovely, a typical English weather response to the end of a bank holiday weekend. For us it matters not a jot because apart from the odd storm like there was this morning, we should have at least another month of fine weather to enjoy down here in Valbonne.

We shall not be alone either this week as madman Nigel “Medina Palms” Rowley will be here and will no doubt find some mayhem for which he will be to blame, he will be accompanied by the serene Lesley, his wife, who appears to be able to ignore his excesses and take all his madness in her stride. The lovely Mary Dobson will also be staying for a few days along with her rather less lovely husband Adidas Ben, to whom I shall be very nice as he secured my Lords test match tickets and I shall be relying on him to do the same again next year.

This all adds up to a likely explosion of wild social interaction which will no doubt begin some time this evening when they all arrive fresh from Beaune where they have been staying in the way down from England. I believe Valbonne Square, that rich seam of new clients for Currencies Direct, could be visited in the coming days.

Lunch was taken at the Caviar House at Gatwick Airport, to discuss and plan how to head Nigel off at the pass, but no conclusion was reached. It will just have to be the usual crash helmet, goggles and the acceptance that he will leave his usual trail of destruction in his wake. As WC Fields once noted, visiting friends are like fish. after 3 days the begin to smell. I am being disingenuous of course, we will have a great wild time for three says and then I shall sleep for a week.

Looking further forward in September, we have several jaunts lined up. I have been told that I am going on a grim tour in a couple of weeks with some brothers. With me looking puzzled, That Nice Lady Decorator, still seriously under the weather – now she has the faintest idea of the scale and severity of man flu – had to explain that we are going to Germany to do the Grimm’s Fairy Tale tour and stay in the castle, reputedly the one in which Sleeping Beauty was rescued.

This is also pretty grim. Mr Clipboard goes all Clockwork Orange

I was unwise enough to suggest that she may be bereft if I fell asleep in the turreted room we have reserved, and was “rescued” and she made some suggestion about a frog which I did not fully understand but sounded derogatory.  It seems we have 4 Grimm Days and then a party in Hanover. I have just downloaded Fawlty Towers onto my IPad, but suspect it will be decreed as too dangerous for me to take it with me when we go.

Chris France
@Valbonne_News