What the world needs now

"The man’s tears were unsettling. There is something about a man crying uncontrollably that shakes me. His dying wife was in the bed across the room, speaking occasionally, but mostly lying with eyes closed, comfortable but waning. He cried for her. He cried for himself. He cried for the fact that he was losing the life they had shared for decades."

Read the rest here...

Knew it was coming, and it came

While riding on a train goin’ west
I fell asleep for to take my rest
I dreamed a dream that made me sad
Concerning myself and the first few friends I had

With half-damp eyes I stared to the room
Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon
Where we together weathered many a storm
Laughin’ and singin’ till the early hours of the morn

By the old wooden stove where our hats was hung
Our words were told, our songs were sung
Where we longed for nothin’ and were quite satisfied
Talkin’ and a-jokin’ about the world outside

With haunted hearts through the heat and cold
We never thought we could ever get old
We thought we could sit forever in fun
But our chances really was a million to one

As easy it was to tell black from white
It was all that easy to tell wrong from right
And our choices were few and the thought never hit
That the one road we traveled would ever shatter and split

How many a year has passed and gone
And many a gamble has been lost and won
And many a road taken by many a friend
And each one I’ve never seen again

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
That we could sit simply in that room again
Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat
I’d give it all gladly if our lives could be like that.

(PS, it's not quite that bad, but I'm not going to fiddle with Bob's lyrics!)

Autumn ... L'automne

D'accord, les journées se raccoursissent, le temps se raffraichit, mais... quelles couleurs, quelle lumière, quelle ambiance.

Je crois qu'avec l'âge (je peux me permettre ce genre d'expression maintenant !), chaque automne que l'on vit n'est pas isolé, mais fait écho à tous les précédents. Du coup un genre d'ambiance interne s'installe et illumine tout...

Ca me fait penser à la dernière phrase du livre 'Journal d'un curé de campagne':

"Tout est grâce"

OK, so the days get shorter, the weather is colder and blustery, but ... look at those colours, the deep sunlight in the early evening!

I think that with time, as one gets older (I can start saying that kind of thing now, I think!), each autumn isn't experience in isolation, but surrounded with the echo of all the autumns past. So it is all bathed in a kind of inner atmosphere which lights everything up....

Makes me think of the last words of 'Diary of a country priest':

"Everything is grace"

Photos

Deux autres photos automnales.

Two more autumny photos.

Elia

Notre filleule Elia est venu passer 24 chez nous la semaine passée.

Elle s'est bien occupé de Rebecca lors de notre promenade, ce qui m'a permi d'aider Kalia lors de sa première sortie avec son 'nouveau' vélo. Elle a su faire presque du premier coup, impressionant!

Elia a marqué des points auprès de Kalia, qui a pleuré "mon amie Elia" le soir quand elle est partie...

J'ai aussi eu beaucoup de plaisir à avoir trois filles à la maison.

Our goddaughter Elia came and spent a day and a bit with us last weekend.

She looked after Rebecca when we went for a walk by the lake, which gave me the chance to give Kalia a hand for her first time on her 'new' bike (without stablisers). She was up and running in no time at all, quite amazing.

Elia really made an impression on Kalia, who wept the loss of "my friend Elia" the evening she left.

I also had a great time having three girls at home.

Cause and effect

Paintbrush injury pupil set to receive pay-out

Lady Dorrian was told that since the accident the local authority had issued a "safety flash" warning, stopping children working on the floor and banning the use of long paintbrushes.

Mr Brown claimed that the "risk assessment" carried out after his son was hurt should have been done before the accident, and could have prevented the tragedy.

He also claimed that those supervising the class at the time were at fault.

Pupils face 'uninspiring' lessons

Pupils at school in England are facing too many "dull and uninspiring lessons", say inspectors.

Whatever happened to "Hard cases make bad law"?

Now it's "Better safe than sued"

ABC

Les deux filles s'amuse avec le jeu ABC.

Both girls having fun with ABCs.

Swing ... Balancoire

Et elle chantonne en même temps.

What you can't see is the little ditties she sings while she's swinging.

Face paints

C'était bien parti, mais ça a mal terminé, car Rebecca ne pouvait pas rester tranquille assez longtemps. ("Daddy, elle m'obéït pas!").

It started out ok, but ended badly, because Rebecca didn't have the patience to stay still for long enough. ("Daddy, she won't obey me!").

The saddest bear of all

Short and sweet.

PC Hate ... Haine d'ordi

C'est fini maintenant, mais voilà l'écran que j'ai vu un peu trop de fois ces dernières semaines.

Everything is working fine now, but here is the black screen of death which I saw too many times over the last few weeks.

Two down ... Encore une

40th ... 40ème

En plus d'aller voir Silo8 (j'étais obligé d'y retourner avec eux pour traduire, bien sûr), mes parents ont eu le droit au restau pour célébrer leur 40 ans de mariage quand ils étaient chez nous il y a quelque semaines.

When they were here a few weeks back, Pop & Grandma had a nosh-up treat at a local restaurant, and I took them to see Silo8 (I obviously had to go again, to translate!).

Almost swiss ... Pseudo suisse

Quand on est en Suisse depuis plus de 10 ans, on a le droit de voter au niveau communal. Ce sera donc une première pour moi, le 28 novembre.

If you've been in Switzerland for more than 10 years, you can vote in commune-level referendums, so it'll be a first for me on the 28th November.

Streets of gold ... Routes pavées d'or

Row ... Rame

Lamp

Pushchair ... Poussette

Premier promenade avec poussette et deux bébés (devinez leurs noms :).

First walk with pushchair and two babies - care to guess the names of the babies?

Richard of York?