List of posts

  • This is the full report on the famous Michelin-starred restaurant in Ynyshir in Wales which received a 1 star health rating last year. I note that the chef, Gareth Ward, is still complaining that the inspectors “Don’t understand” what the restaurant is doing. Right.

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  • A weekend away

    We – Roxanne and I – went to Paris for the weekend to meet quite possibly our favourite person, her sister, my daughter, Scarlett. Scarlett is currently studying Art, with a capital A, in the UK and is wondering what to do when she finishes her A-levels this summer. The serious money down at Ladbroke’s…

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  • France needs glasses

    Things are going to shit in France. All of the schools where I work are losing students in large numbers because of stupid government decisions, I am losing work and very few people care about it apart from the end users – students and teachers. France has always been heavily over-bureaucrated, something I may have…

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  • I quite like cooking

    I used to cook for a living, as I may have mentioned before (cf My Book), but haven’t done it very much for a while now for one reason or another. Laziness, being too busy, whatever. I have started cooking again, properly, over the past couple of months though; lasagne, shepherd’s pie, cakes and, for…

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  • Moaning

    I moan about my students because it’s funny. Well, I think it’s funny and that’s what counts, n’est-ce pas? Mostly, of course, they’re fine. Some are even good. One or two are excellent. The interesting ones are stupid, lazy, ignorant and make good copy. If it bleeds it leads; if they’re stupid, something that rhymes…

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  • Moving on

    The past five and a half years have been a long history of moving on; from marriage, from living in a family, from jobs I didn’t like, from people I don’t appreciate. Next month comes one of the final steps in that process: Leaving the flat which became my haven in 2020 at the beginning…

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  • Happy Birthday

    It was a very happy birthday indeed this year with lots of friends and family in Paris for a few days, see photos below. We variously visited Notre Dame – absolutely spectacular- the Pantheon, the flea markets at St Ouen, The Niki de Saint Phalle/Jean Tinguely/Pontus Hulten exhibition, the Apple Store and, of course, that…

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  • 10 000*

    Ten thousand days ago today I arrived in France. Not for the first time but the last. Since then all my journeys have started and finished here. On July 1 1998 I drove from our house in Peckham to Pompignan with a car full of stuff and a dog to begin a new life. It…

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  • La Rentrée

    La Rentrée, The Return (to school (implied)) is a big deal in France. I guess it is elsewhere too, but here it has A Name with Capital Letters, special supermarket displays and Special Offers from everyone including Chanel. This year for me it meant moving house, albeit slowly. I’m still doing it, in fact, as…

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  • On holiday

    For the past two years I’ve been working in and around Montpellier, rather than exclusively in Nimes. 15 years ago when I started teaching I drove all over the place, teaching individuals in their homes and then in their workplaces. In 2013 I added teaching at Vatel which soon became my sole employer, and that…

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