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Archive for July, 2005

Advance Warning

Dear London Metropolitan Police,
I’ll be using the underground train system of your fair city this coming Sunday afternoon and my mother is a tad worried about the idea. I’ve explained to her that despite the 52 dead from July the 7th, though deplorable, that’s about as many people as are killed in road traffic accidents […]

Pre-Schengen Nostalgia #3

So, after leaving Paris after the weekend and taking the train back home, a familiar routine played out between Forbach, in France and Saarbrücken, in Germany (the last two incidents are described here and here). As usual, at Forbach, German border police (Bundesgrenzschutz) got onto the train and wandered through the carriages asking various people […]

Fuzzy-Brained

Both of the sets of medication I received in Paris have a little symbol on their packaging: a car inside a red triangle. Presumably it’s meant to warn one not to drive whilst taking them. I’ve certainly noticed that I’m having even more difficulty concentrating than usual (which is saying something). One of them, if […]

Trust

Post Temporarily Removed:
Sorry to the people who’ve posted comments, but I’ve pulled this post for now. It’s one of the few stories that I want to get exactly right before publishing it. I’ll work on it and re-post it when my brain is functioning in a lucid manner (so perhaps never).

Refresher French Course

Exercise 5: “A Visit To The Doctor”
For this exercise you will require:
1 (one) trapped sciatic nerve
1 (one) Parisian Doctor
10 (ten) years of French lessons, long ago - as evidenced by your spontaneous answer to being asked your age: (dix-huit), which isn’t strictly true anymore, is it?
Curtains, eye-patch, sabre (optional)
1 (one) “local” non-French woman who will […]

Random Advice To Strangers #351

Say, for want of example, you were suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to travel to Paris (purely to watch the finish of the Tour de France, you understand), might I advise you not to travel by train if the journey takes more than six hours. Especially don’t consider travelling by train on a Friday afternoon […]