We have had some wierd experiences with Amazon and Kindle recently.
A week or so ago, Anita bought a Spanish-English dictionary for her kindle app on her Galaxy Note. The thing is, she could not see the resulting eBook from her Note, anywhere - not on the cloud nor on the device. However by using a normal web browser to access her online account, the book became visible. After a couple of lengthy conversations with Amazon tech support, a new version of the software was released that solved the problem.
In due course this new software loaded itself onto my tablet PC, a Google Nexus. I didn't pay it much attention, but this morning, on using the Kindle software on this device to idly browse the books I have in the Amazon cloud, my attention was attracted by two books that I didn't think I had bought. One was " A Modern Chinese-English Dictionary" and the other I have no idea because the characters were in what appeared to be Chinese.
I went to my account online and the books were not listed there, so I couldn't delete them.
While I was fiddling about on my Nexus, I attempted to delete these books, and in doing so, I started a download. By this time I am a bit suspicious, so I attempted to stop the download. Although the book seemed to stop downloading, two files with chinese names appeared to be continuing to download. This is starting to look dodgy. I turned off the Tablet and re-started it and the downloads stopped.
I uninstalled the Kindle app, and re-installed it and the chinese books are now nowhere to be seen.
I think it's possible that someone might have been trying to hack my tablet. My suspicious mind is telling me that what I think I have observed is entirely consistent with a hacker planting a fake book in my Kindle database on the tablet, and that this book, once I start to download it, attempts to download and install some kind of trojan horse or other malicious software on my device.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OK, following some contact with Kindle, this looks like some wierd effect related to the fact that Kindle comes complete with 5 dictionaries, including, I guess, a chinese one. Normally you can't see them in the book list, so when they appear it looks odd. I'm really not too sure about the second book though - it had no English text in the title at all. Perhaps it was a thai - chinese dictionary or something
Saturday, 17 August 2013
Saturday, 3 August 2013
Sunflowers
Usually the field next door to us has been sown with wheat or maize, but this year the farmer has chosen sunflowers. Much nicer! Two views below from one of the gîte bedrooms.
Thursday, 1 August 2013
Dinah, Rodney
Does anyone else remember the Dyno-Rod adverts on the radio a few years back? Dinah and Rodney were discussing a problem they had with their drains and couldn't think who to call. It came to mind recently as I have undergone what I can only describe as a good rodding.
The preventive healthcare system in France works quite well, at least it seems to me. Apart from anything else, as you get past 50, everyone is screened for colo-rectal cancer by means of what I call a shit test. Not a particularly pleasant process but your faeces are screened for blood, and if there is any, off you go for further investigation.
I was due for one of these, but on a visit to the doc (July 4th), I mentioned that the death of my father was occasioned by a cancer that might well have begun in his intestines. No shit test for you then, sonny Jim, off you go for a colonoscopy. One of those situations where I have to tell myself that the only approach is a logical one; if there is a problem, it's best to know so that it can be deal with, and if there isn't, then it's good news anyway.
There is standard set of things to do before such an operation. You are required to make an appointment to see the anaesthetist, whose job it is not only to make sure you don't feel anything during the operation, but also that you wake up again at the end of it. So I decided that a free and frank exchange of information is the best approach here.
The rest of the preparation is about making sure the bowels are empty. A fibre-free diet for a few days, then some laxative. Boy, magnesium oxide is effective, especially in large doses. At least it comes with lemon flavour so it doesn't taste too bad.
The operation itself (July 30th) was a breeze from my perspective, a feeling of being slightly drunk followed by a sleep, and waking up feeling fine. Find anything? A couple of little benign polyps that will be tested, and depending on the result the re-test will be in either three or five years.
After the initial visit to the doctor, the process was handled by the Polyclinique du Maine, that is, as far as I can work out, a private enterprise that sells its services to the government and health insurance agencies. It struck me as being everything a modern hospital should be; clean, efficient, careful, and (as far as I can tell) error-free. And less than 4 weeks, start to finish. Can't be bad.
Picture from Dyno-Rod website
The preventive healthcare system in France works quite well, at least it seems to me. Apart from anything else, as you get past 50, everyone is screened for colo-rectal cancer by means of what I call a shit test. Not a particularly pleasant process but your faeces are screened for blood, and if there is any, off you go for further investigation.
I was due for one of these, but on a visit to the doc (July 4th), I mentioned that the death of my father was occasioned by a cancer that might well have begun in his intestines. No shit test for you then, sonny Jim, off you go for a colonoscopy. One of those situations where I have to tell myself that the only approach is a logical one; if there is a problem, it's best to know so that it can be deal with, and if there isn't, then it's good news anyway.
There is standard set of things to do before such an operation. You are required to make an appointment to see the anaesthetist, whose job it is not only to make sure you don't feel anything during the operation, but also that you wake up again at the end of it. So I decided that a free and frank exchange of information is the best approach here.
The rest of the preparation is about making sure the bowels are empty. A fibre-free diet for a few days, then some laxative. Boy, magnesium oxide is effective, especially in large doses. At least it comes with lemon flavour so it doesn't taste too bad.
The operation itself (July 30th) was a breeze from my perspective, a feeling of being slightly drunk followed by a sleep, and waking up feeling fine. Find anything? A couple of little benign polyps that will be tested, and depending on the result the re-test will be in either three or five years.
After the initial visit to the doctor, the process was handled by the Polyclinique du Maine, that is, as far as I can work out, a private enterprise that sells its services to the government and health insurance agencies. It struck me as being everything a modern hospital should be; clean, efficient, careful, and (as far as I can tell) error-free. And less than 4 weeks, start to finish. Can't be bad.
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Weather break
The temperature peaked at 35 degrees here on Monday afternoon, and we got the thunderstorms the same
night as the weather broke.
I like thunderstorms and so I went out to enjoy the lightning and the cool, sitting on a little garden chair in the middle of the courtyard from where I took the picture of the clouds. At ground level, the sun had set but the upper parts were still illuminated and the sheet lightning added its own fireworks, all accompanied by kettledrum thunder. The picure doesn't quite catch the purple bruise colour of the clouds, nor their rate of change in the turbulence.
We only got the edge of the storm and so I enjoyed the light rain, the wind, and feeling cool for the first time in weeks. It looked to me that the centre must have passed over Thorigné, a small village a couple of kilometers away. I confirmed this today as I drove past - the church roof had been holed by a direct lightning strike, the local roofer had already put a tarpaulin over it and a tractor was driving away with a trailer full of broken slates and shattered wood.
night as the weather broke.
I like thunderstorms and so I went out to enjoy the lightning and the cool, sitting on a little garden chair in the middle of the courtyard from where I took the picture of the clouds. At ground level, the sun had set but the upper parts were still illuminated and the sheet lightning added its own fireworks, all accompanied by kettledrum thunder. The picure doesn't quite catch the purple bruise colour of the clouds, nor their rate of change in the turbulence.
We only got the edge of the storm and so I enjoyed the light rain, the wind, and feeling cool for the first time in weeks. It looked to me that the centre must have passed over Thorigné, a small village a couple of kilometers away. I confirmed this today as I drove past - the church roof had been holed by a direct lightning strike, the local roofer had already put a tarpaulin over it and a tractor was driving away with a trailer full of broken slates and shattered wood.
Monday, 22 July 2013
Rhythms
We have just got to the end of a 5-weekend stretch of having clients every weekend, and we now have a small pause of 3 weekends before the next group arrive. We are grateful for the break.
The gîte has beds for 30 people, and the ideal number is about 25, more if there's a big contingent of children. Our main clients are therefore family groups; people who get together to celebrate gran's (and sometimes grandad's) 50th wedding anniversary, or brothers and sisters who get together once a year for a party, etc.
It's easy to imagine that since they only stay for the weekend, that the job is part-time. That's only true insofar as we don't rent out every weekend, but the typical rhythm is a good solid week of work per group. They typically arrive on Friday evening, for dinner, and stay until late afternoon on Sunday, or with one day extra if it is one of the many long weekend bank holidays. We serve breakfasts and the evening meals, and lunch also if required.
So a typical weekly rhythm starts on the Friday afternoon with the preparation of the evening meal, and welcoming the new guests. We're usually up until 10:30 or so serving and cleaning up after. We get up to prepare breakfast around 7:00 or 7:30 the next morning, and again, we're up late that evening. If we're not making lunch we do get a mid-day break.
The Sunday (or Monday) after they're gone, we strip the beds, take the linens to the collection point for them to be washed by Blanchisserie du Maine, empty the dustbins, lock up the gîte and jump in the pool. We have been known to have a glass or two of wine at this point.
Monday is gîte cleaning day; by the evening the place is clean, floors mopped, bathrooms done and the place generally rendered a hostile environment for bugs and creepies of all kinds.
Tuesdays Anita plans the meals for the next group and prepares the shopping lists. I do gardening as necessary, ususally I mow the grass; it's kind of our day off. Anita also works in the garden whenever she has time during the week.
Wednesday we make the beds and make sure that the place is in a good state to welcome the next group, doing any repairs, replacements, etc.
Thursday is shopping day when we take the Espace to Promocash and the other shops in Laval and fill up with the meal ingredients as necessary.
Friday morning I prepare the pool, making sure it is clean and healthy for the arrivals. Friday evening they arrive.
This is a tolerable schedule if taken steadily, but after five weeks of this I am thoroughly grateful for a break.
So here's a few shots of the garden. This wave of high temperatures has dried the soil out at the surface, but I haven't needed to water very much yet. I am hoping that the predicted thunderstorms will do the work for me. There isn't a huge amount of colour right now, we're between the Spring and Autumn flowers. The best are the Canna Lillies, Gladioli and Day Lillies, plus the sundry annuals like Nasturtiums and French Marigolds. There are even a few early Dahlias, but they will be at their best around September or October.
I have been a bit negatvie towards roses in the past, especially if they need spraying or have had the scent bred out of them But I think I might try to find a few that have healthy foliage and smell nice, to add some colour at this time. And if they look really good, I might be prepared to forgo the scent.
I don't know what the little white flowers are called, nor the ones that look like pink jellyfish swimming towards the surface, which is unforgivable since I grew them both from commercial packets of seed.
The gîte has beds for 30 people, and the ideal number is about 25, more if there's a big contingent of children. Our main clients are therefore family groups; people who get together to celebrate gran's (and sometimes grandad's) 50th wedding anniversary, or brothers and sisters who get together once a year for a party, etc.
It's easy to imagine that since they only stay for the weekend, that the job is part-time. That's only true insofar as we don't rent out every weekend, but the typical rhythm is a good solid week of work per group. They typically arrive on Friday evening, for dinner, and stay until late afternoon on Sunday, or with one day extra if it is one of the many long weekend bank holidays. We serve breakfasts and the evening meals, and lunch also if required.
So a typical weekly rhythm starts on the Friday afternoon with the preparation of the evening meal, and welcoming the new guests. We're usually up until 10:30 or so serving and cleaning up after. We get up to prepare breakfast around 7:00 or 7:30 the next morning, and again, we're up late that evening. If we're not making lunch we do get a mid-day break.
The Sunday (or Monday) after they're gone, we strip the beds, take the linens to the collection point for them to be washed by Blanchisserie du Maine, empty the dustbins, lock up the gîte and jump in the pool. We have been known to have a glass or two of wine at this point.
Monday is gîte cleaning day; by the evening the place is clean, floors mopped, bathrooms done and the place generally rendered a hostile environment for bugs and creepies of all kinds.
Tuesdays Anita plans the meals for the next group and prepares the shopping lists. I do gardening as necessary, ususally I mow the grass; it's kind of our day off. Anita also works in the garden whenever she has time during the week.
Wednesday we make the beds and make sure that the place is in a good state to welcome the next group, doing any repairs, replacements, etc.
Thursday is shopping day when we take the Espace to Promocash and the other shops in Laval and fill up with the meal ingredients as necessary.
Friday morning I prepare the pool, making sure it is clean and healthy for the arrivals. Friday evening they arrive.
This is a tolerable schedule if taken steadily, but after five weeks of this I am thoroughly grateful for a break.
So here's a few shots of the garden. This wave of high temperatures has dried the soil out at the surface, but I haven't needed to water very much yet. I am hoping that the predicted thunderstorms will do the work for me. There isn't a huge amount of colour right now, we're between the Spring and Autumn flowers. The best are the Canna Lillies, Gladioli and Day Lillies, plus the sundry annuals like Nasturtiums and French Marigolds. There are even a few early Dahlias, but they will be at their best around September or October.
I have been a bit negatvie towards roses in the past, especially if they need spraying or have had the scent bred out of them But I think I might try to find a few that have healthy foliage and smell nice, to add some colour at this time. And if they look really good, I might be prepared to forgo the scent.
I don't know what the little white flowers are called, nor the ones that look like pink jellyfish swimming towards the surface, which is unforgivable since I grew them both from commercial packets of seed.
Sunday, 7 July 2013
A swarm of bees
A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a pile of hay.
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon.
A swarm of bees in July
Isn't worth a fly.
This swarm of bees arrived in my garden, just by our front door in fact, today, Sunday the 7th July. Whoopee. I spoke to our local bee-keeping lady and she told me that they should be gone in a couple of days or so. Well, I hope so - I don't really need them here when we have guests.
Update: Tuesday morning, they've gone, except for a few lost-looking ones.
Is worth a pile of hay.
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon.
A swarm of bees in July
Isn't worth a fly.
This swarm of bees arrived in my garden, just by our front door in fact, today, Sunday the 7th July. Whoopee. I spoke to our local bee-keeping lady and she told me that they should be gone in a couple of days or so. Well, I hope so - I don't really need them here when we have guests.
Update: Tuesday morning, they've gone, except for a few lost-looking ones.
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Iris rhizome splitting and replanting
There's plenty of Iris in my garden - they like the limey soil and the hot Mayenne sun and so they flower profusely and spread rapidly. They make a magnificent display when they're going strong, but after about three years or so they get overcrowded and become less vigorous. At this point they need to be dug up, separated and replanted in fresh soil.
The time to do this is, according to the books, 6-8 weeks after they have finished flowering, so they can build up their reserves during the rest of the year for next Spring's display. I am perhaps a bit early, but on the other hand, Spring was cold and late here, so I'm going for it.
Each original plant will have produced 10 or more offspring, and there's a limit to how many I can keep in my garden, so the result of this excercise is a large number of Iris plants that need good homes. Unfortunately I regard them in a similar way to the kittens produced by a domestic cat - I have to find them a good home. So there's some for Leo, some for the lady gardener who works at the music school, some for Marie down the road. Those I can't get rid of end up in a box in the car park up the road with a notice "Free to good home". They all seem to go in the end.
Here's what you do. The hard part is preparing the new bed, that should get at least 6 hours of sun per day, when it's not raining that is. Here in my garden it involves pick-axeing the stones out of the ground, getting the perrennial weed roots out and adding a slow fertiliser to the soil. When the bed is ready, dig up the clump that needs splitting, and separate the rhizomes into individual plants. You can trim back the leaves to help with their stabilty once planted. Then plant in your sunny location and water them when it gets too dry. Give the spare ones away.
The time to do this is, according to the books, 6-8 weeks after they have finished flowering, so they can build up their reserves during the rest of the year for next Spring's display. I am perhaps a bit early, but on the other hand, Spring was cold and late here, so I'm going for it.
Each original plant will have produced 10 or more offspring, and there's a limit to how many I can keep in my garden, so the result of this excercise is a large number of Iris plants that need good homes. Unfortunately I regard them in a similar way to the kittens produced by a domestic cat - I have to find them a good home. So there's some for Leo, some for the lady gardener who works at the music school, some for Marie down the road. Those I can't get rid of end up in a box in the car park up the road with a notice "Free to good home". They all seem to go in the end.
Here's what you do. The hard part is preparing the new bed, that should get at least 6 hours of sun per day, when it's not raining that is. Here in my garden it involves pick-axeing the stones out of the ground, getting the perrennial weed roots out and adding a slow fertiliser to the soil. When the bed is ready, dig up the clump that needs splitting, and separate the rhizomes into individual plants. You can trim back the leaves to help with their stabilty once planted. Then plant in your sunny location and water them when it gets too dry. Give the spare ones away.
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