Cinderella and the Bonfires

I haven't grown up in a rural environment but I can certainly appreciate one. Winter in France offers the opportunity to do something that is forbidden in Auckland. Lighting fires outdoors, big fires.

In Auckland, NZ it's forbidden all year round to light fires outdoors, no matter the reason. Absolutely no rubbish fires any time. There are bylaws enforcing air quality. I've been known to dob-in the occasional neighbour who transgresses this rule and sends toxic smoke into our breathing air. CO2 emissions and all that too.

It was therefore with surprise that I watched Jean-Claude igniting ginormous bonfires on his property over the past three days. With so many trees on his property needing management there's always dead wood, fallen trees and leaves, prunings too big to be mulched but still needing to be got rid of.

Fires are forbidden from the 15th February in this area so burning has been underway solidly this week. JC's piles were huge, much taller than me and the heat was unbearable, I felt my eyes drying out immediately but it was interesting. He's make a nest of newspaper and kindling wood and slosh the diesel all over it and off she went.

The columns of smoke twisted upwards in spirals and the gorgeous reds and golds and oranges inside the inferno roared and flicked and consumed.It was dangerously beautiful.


There were two main bonfires, both very large and JC and I were kept busy stoking and feeding; tough on the back. I was wrapped up against the biting cold; cinders all over my hat and through my hair. JC had to stop from time to time to put his hands in mis trouser pockets to warm his hands, they got so painful from the temperatures not much above zero.


On the second day JC got up early, stirred the embers and started again. This morning, the third one continuously, he was at it yet again, raking and throwing twigs and stumps in the middle of his property; hot tiring work. The man has energy, fitness and more stick-at-itness than most twenty-something year-olds.





 


While the twigs were cooking he then started work on planting a fruit tree in his orchard. Last week it was a plum to join the figs and apples. This one might be a cherry tree to join an older one.


Digging is too heavy for me these days but I help when I can and when the mood takes me. Mucking around in gumboots with twigs and branches, standing around while clouds of bush smoke swirled over me was rather fun. My parents would never have let me do anything so 'un-girl-like'.

Right now, much smaller heaps are gently smoking like reluctant volcanoes, puffing into the clear sky and sometimes adding to the fog that comes over the valley. People have been doing this for years. It's not great for the CO2 issues but not having trees is worse.

When friends make contact...

I often feel socially isolated here in France. Unable to get around much and still suffering from the language barrier it's hard to make friends. Of course, I consider Victoria who works with me as a friend but we rarely see each other socially. It was therefore with great warmth and pleasure that I experienced a little bit of contact this past week from people I had not expected to hear from or see.

Being Christmas, I sent out my usual Christmas newsletter from myself with a contribution from Laura to various friends and special contacts. Most responded with either a brief hello or a longer, newsier update or article of their own. Fantastic, I felt a little more reconnected. People I enjoyed in the past-I still enjoy, the miles matter little in that regard. Some friends are on their own adventures elsewhere in the world, enduring jobs they don't like, reviewing what they want to do next year, having grandchildren,looking after aging parents, my ex getting engaged, folks dropping out of the conventional 'stream' of things. I haven't heard yet from my friends back in Christchurch who are still suffering multiple major earthquakes more than 15 months from the first.


Out of the blue I received an email from Laurence. We met just over a year ago when she invited me to have dinner with her and her daughter but we'd had little contact in the interim.

There I was this week after work, catching a train to her town, Laurence meeting me at the station and driving me to her new home. It's lovely, homey, in good condition and perfect for a lovely lady in retirement. Her son still lives with her and she recently hosted a student from Germany.

The petit-fours came out of the oven, we devoured the main course and finished with fresh oranges and vanilla icecream. I admired the gingerbread house covered in lollies that a German student living nearby had made. A very convivial evening shared together completely in French.

Yesterday I received a call from Pascal in Brittany. Contact from him is extremely rare so it was lovely to hear from him and know he was thinking of me and even discussing me with his friend Pascal (2) whom I met last year. Last Christmas, as you'll recall, I spent my first Christmas in France with Pascal's family. His Mum still asks after me. They are lovely people and Pascal will always be a good friend in my heart for introducing me to the beauty of Brittany and all the laughs we shared.

This Christmas I'm spending the festive season with someone particularly special and intimate in my life. The wonderful Jean-Claude who has added so much colour and richness to this year for me. It will be quiet. His daughter and her son are here some of the time so it's a French family Christmas but without a lot of people. It's easier for me to converse like that and a rest is very welcome.

It's Christmas Eve as I write this and in JC's house one shares presents around midnight. If the kids are asleep they are woken up to unwrap what Father Christmas has delivered. Right now the tree lights are twinkling, the fire is crackling and flaming. And I think we are eating roast lamb for dinner, having had a delicious roast porc with sauce accompanied by a superb Pinot Gris for lunch. La Belle France....
Photos of Laurence and Pascal...

Preparing to hibernate

It's December and officially Winter. The temperatures are sinking down to zero and ultimately below that. So far, this season, we've had no dump of snow, not even a flake. This is great but the temperatures are still chilling.
I've got my winter duvet on my bed with a polar fleece blanket on top. The heater stays on all night. I wear my socks to bed but I'm still cold because my bed is right beside the doorway. Maybe it's time for the 'bouillotte' or hot water bottle and to go to bed fully clothed like I had to do last year. Certainly, my pyjamas are now inadequate.

During the day I look like some sort of Siberian woman or an Inuit as I make my way by bicycle to and from work. Last week I invested in a fake fur-lined hat with a flap in the front and flaps on the ear sections. Unfortunately it's not waterproof. I wear a heavy winter coat (not nearly long enough) covered by my waterproof but very thin nylon raincoat with hood, scarf and gloves.


The end result in rain is always wet knickers and legs. There are so many speed bumps and cobblestones to ride over that I have to stand on thee peddles. Each time I do that the rain wets the seat. The wind blows the rain between my legs and knees as I cycle and the mud sprays all the way up my lower legs as I negotiate broken branches and mud, mud in the near darkness. This is the alternative to getting stuck in winter traffic.

Jean-Claude has spent many weeks preparing for the winter season ahead. A winter that is so much longer and harder than those in New Zealand. He's worked very hard to chop up trees to make firewood of various sizes; kindling and logs which he stores according to diameter. When building a fire he starts with crumpled paper, then kindling, then progressively thicker logs. Pour diesel over it all, light a match and whoomph! Voila, open fire in the chimney. Cosy but inefficient and different to my log fire in Auckland. Don't they use firestarters here?

JC has mowed his extensive lawn for the last time for five months. He rides on his mover methodically cutting the grass and sucking up the leaves form all the trees. There are no leaves left now to fall. Much of nature will hibernate for months now.

Winter preparations have also included fitting winter tyres on his car. He did it himself this year as he had the time to do it. It's heavy work changing four big tyres. There are many sorts of tyres folks use here for the changing conditions.

He doesn't usually do much about Christmas Trees but this year decided to buy one so I could decorate it as I told him this is a special treat for me at Christmas-I've always done it except for last year. I can't have one at my place as I can't afford it and decorations and don't have a car to transport it in anyway so I was happy to settle for creating one at JC's place.

We chose a less expensive variety. It's the smallest once-alive tree I've decorated. The trees in NZ are very different; larger and less delicate. The smell is also rather different, less tangy here but they still all drop their needles.

In France they get wrapped in a net for you to make it easier to transport them. A great idea because the needles are rather sharp and painful. I weighted the bottom of the container with JC's collection of fossilised sea urchins that he has collected on rambles in the woods and fields over the years-that's certainly different!

We bought new fibre optic lights and some extra baubles to go along with what he already have. After a few hours I'd finished deorating it, the fire was on and as darkness grew the tree was truly festive with the tiny multi-colour lights reflected in the balls.

There's less choice of decorations and generally they are of lesser quality in France (so far that's my experience. You have to resort to a supermarket or a garden nursery to find anything. I'll be interested to see what other differences I notice this time around.

Same but different

Each day I see the differences between a Latin country and an Anglo-Saxon one. I had never imagined there could be such strong differences in outlook, behaviour, temperament. You see it in driving, family, education, service, and light switches and plug holes to name a few. But what's a French Home Show like? Is it the same or better than what I knew in NZ? Same but different.

I've attended Home Shows in NZ from both the customer and the vendor perspectives so I was interested to see a Home Show a while back in Chartres. Same in that the traffic was horribly clogged to get to it, the search for a car park, the smells of food, the noise of demonstrations, queues, freezing temperatures outside but sweltering ones inside the exhibition halls.

The Home Show at Chartres had a new flavour for me. With such a large population in France and within Europe where was more of a focus on artisans and their wares. There were things you wouldn't normally see in NZ shows.

Of special interest to me were the furniture makers, the upholsterers, the musical instrument refurbishers, knife-makers, clock and watchmakers, the clog makers, the rugs.

Of limited interest to me were the cottage industry clothes, handbags and hand made jewellery.

As expected there were lots of wine and food stalls. Working exhibits included carpenters, thatchmakers, mosaic decorators, furniture decorators. After a few hours I got choosy and jaded by the food and clothing and dinky and kitchy candles and wall ornaments. There was a stand on solar energy and another on heating but I found the lack of really eco-products disappointing. NZ shows have rain tanks, solid wood burners, worm farms etc. There was a landscape garden display but it was static and quite conventional. Overall I found the show interesting but I wouldn't want to do it often.

Another thing I won't be doing often is teaching Bellydance. After teaching two classes at the Dance and Fitness Centre in Cafeolait the teacher decided to come straight back after having her baby and seems to be stalling about giving me lessons in return. She said we could start in December, then she changed it to January. I do hope she'll keep to the bargain.

 It was an exhausting and challenging opportunity teaching beginners. The class was still mixed ability so I did my best not to give exercises too hard but interesting enough for those with dance experience. On the final lesson I introduced them to veilwork. That was well-received. The exercise did me good.


Well-received isn't the word I'd use for two other recent events. I received a message via Facebook from the 'ex-gangster'. It's been a year since I've heard from him and was subjected to his appalling behaviour the last time we met so I was very surprised to get a short incomprehensible message. He'd come across me on Facebook and worked out that I was still in France. He asked me if I'd gone to a high school in Morocco. Bizarre, he knows that's not true so I told him he must be looking at his own profile instead.I don't think all the marbles are in place.

I went back to the sous-prefecture in Rambouillet because I now had an expensive translation for my NZ drivers license so surely now I'd get my French one? Nope. First I was told I didn't need the translation (B.S) then told nothing had still been done about it, three women crowded around a computer trying to work out which date they should go by; the date on my visa or the date stamp on my first Titre de Sejour. They didn't know the anwser and still couldn't fathom the translated drivers license.

I didn't leave until they gave me a paper saying I could drive for six months while they tried to work out what to do. I was left standing for an hour and a half with no explanations while they disappeared and fluffed around.

Primitive art at Musee Quai Branly

After celebrating Jean-Claude's birthday by treating him to a night at a Paris hotel and dinner at one of the oldest Auberges in Paris we made the most of our next day by spending it at Musee Quai Branly which specialises in primitive art from around the world. It was established by President Chirac in his day.




 


Featured regions include Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Objects on display are diverse but can be relied on to include masks, costumes, musical instruments. The place was very busy with school groups and two temporary exhibitions: Samurai outfits and in another room Maori artifacts. The later was a bit serendipitous.





Generally the museum is well laid out but you have to go out of it to eat anything and then go through security again to get in.

Merchandising is kept to a minimum. I enjoyed spending several hours going through it fairly methodically but one thing really bugged me. The standard of written English on the exhibits. Frankly, it's awful to see the carelessness in a museum of this size in Paris; spelling and grammatical mistakes in headings and body text. The so-called English section of their website is really crappy and even their map to the complex includes inexcusable mistakes.


This is France, not Timbuktu. They have access to native English speakers but they don't seem to notice they are lacking in professionalism and care. Obviously no-one checks what they write. They should be embarrassed and ashamed as a national monument.




I feel irritated because it's abundantly clear throughout my time here that France desperately needs some expertise in English but the government here seems to do everything in it's power to keep experts like me out.








What also gets up my nose in monuments and restaurants in France is their use of American English. I can't understand why they choose that when the rest of the world (including non-English-speaking countries) use standard English. It can't be a tourism decision as most visitors would not be from the USA.

 For many of us who don't live in the US it's yet another example of American cultural imperialism otherwise its use wouldn't exist outside the US. For goodness sake, there's nothing dangerous about the letters S or U. It's no advantage to non-US citizens to be identified as Americans these days-it can be dangerous.








I don't want to be identified as American so I won't use their spelling. It must be confusing for foreigners. I've written to their communications department alerting them to their errors in English usage and offering my services but I'm not holding my breath for a reply.




The Samurai exhibition was excellent; great to be up close to all that armour, some of it many hundreds of years old.




I didn't learn much from the Maori exhibition other than it was selected and presented predominently by Maori. Lots of stuff I would have liked to see from everyday life wasn't there. There was an undercurrent of politics of course.





 



The pieces on display were of good quality and the main information panels were displayed in French, English and Maori. It seemed to be well patronised.


Photographs can only be taken if you don't use flash.

Carless days...and months

I'm currently having some time out from my job; taking some annual leave left over from the previous year. Time out means staying in bed longer, doing things I wouldn't normally have time to do, spending some time with Jean-Claude and wondering where this life of mine is taking me. I have no clues as to my future, in any shape or form and while that may appear romantic and exciting it's impossible to put down roots. You could say I'm free but free to do what?

For one thing I still can't do anything about getting a car. Once again the French administration has shown its appalling lack of service, incompetence. Months ago I went into the sous-prefecture with all the documentation required to convert my NZ driver's license to a French one. I went armed with additional proof that this process was, indeed, approved by the French Government. OK, my documentation was all in order and I was told that I would have to stop driving on the expiry date of my old visa. Well, how long was it going to take to get the new license? She shrugged and said she had no idea, that every country was different.

I had no choice. I reached the expiry of my visa, my renewed tire de sejour kicked in but there was no sign of anything relating to the driver license so I waited some more. I couldn't drive, I couldn't even practice driving. Two months later I went in and explained the situation was getting critical. There was then a lot of 'kerfuffling' in the background as if they couldn't find my dossier (that would have been a complete disaster as one must have applied for a license exchange within one year of arriving in France).

Finally the woman came back to the counter and said there was a problem. Signal for twisting guts and a hot flush to arrive. I was told that the woman responsible for my dossier had left to have a baby and she hadn't been replaced by management and they were a bit over-worked so....nothing had been done. And that's a real weakness in France; people don't do things if it's not written into THEIR contract, teamwork doesn't seem to exist so unfortunate people like me are just conveniently ignored no matter how it screws up their lives. Nobody cares, no-one is accountable, no one takes initiative.

Oh, and by the way, this other woman had decided that my impeccable documentation was now no longer complete. I needed a translation of my license. No problem, I smiled, this international license supplies the translation. You guessed it, she refused to accept it. For goodness sake, how much translation is required of my name, a date and a few random letters of the alphabet? Because that's all there is.

No, I must find an officially approved translator, spend money, get it sent to me, come back and get this woman to give me a 'note from the teacher' to say my real license was on its way. My disguised anger should have choked me. Instead I had to be gracious and grateful. After emailing translators and getting no reply I decided to go to the NZ Embassy in Paris and organise it all there. I should have the translation in a week (having paid 60 euros).

The one thing I am grateful for is that NZ and France have an agreement to exchange licenses so I don't have to spend thousands of euros and a lot of stress doing French theory and practical tests here.

On checking the internet, here's the latest info on French driver licenses

New driver's licence from January 2013

As of this date, the licence will take the form of a credit card with a photograph and will include the details of the types of authorised vehicle. This new licence will contain a microchip and a machine readable zone. Note that from January 2013, drivers with an older licence will have their licence changed, and all old licences will be renewed by January 2033. It will be required to renew the new style licence every 15 years.

This reform is part of a European directive of 2006 which provides a single, secure format driving licence issued in all countries of the European Union (EU).

Considering Intergenerational Fairness

Last month I attended a conference on a topic which is not yet often discussed; that of intergenerational fairness. I hadn't thought much about it before and I know I'm not alone in that. The conference, based in Budapest, Hungary, was jointly hosted by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology and WHAT IF - sustainability as intergenerational fairness.

The goal of the conference was to explore an intergenerational perspective on the domain of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT has changed lifestyles, production regimes, public governance and participation but it has also created new forms of “divide”. While solving problems it creates new issues and challenges spanning sustainability and social justice.

Panel sessions focused on two topics: ICT as a possible solution to the generational divide and the other on ICT and generational divide: open issues, challenges and risks. Presentations, debates and discussions asked whether access to ICT should now be seen as a human or ‘generational’ right. The following issues and questions represent the key ideas and presentations from delegates to the conference:

ICT has done wonderful things for economic development and some forms of communication but it has also created problems. We must fix the problems we have created. Maybe our trust in technology to fix what’s not working in today’s society is too strong. Fairness between the generations raises the issue of competition for jobs. It is probable that we have entered a time when a grandfather, father and son could be competing with each other for work. How are we bridging the Digital Divide. Can it help us? Europe needs to deliver new solutions but how to do this? Pre 1925 European companies were innovative. Now they do 10% of what the US is doing and most of the true US innovation comes out of ‘garage’ companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google.


There is intergenerational inequity. Each generation has the right to benefit from natural and social resources as the previous generation enjoyed but now there are issues of debt, caring for an aging population, access to life-long education. What are the links between the generations? Problems cannot be solved by ONE generation. There is an unfair distribution of rights and opportunities; current generations are competing and conflicting. It’s not just the realm of future generations, it’s happening right now across all ages. This is the first time in history that we have been in this position where future generations will be worse off than the previous.

Issues of intergenerational fairness explored during the conference covered families, entrepreneurship, innovation, welfare state, employment, education, energy, intercultural dialogue, poverty. In the past we had different stages of knowledge and control of it: first the church with its fundamentalism, then the state with its conflicts of interest and finally the markets had control but created financial crises.

These days we are losing nature and the environment is not the same. WE are in a new situation. Where is the old curiosity-based science where innovation comes from? These days it’s all about money generation and profit from the get-go. Globally people have LESS rights now than they had before so we must renegotiate this. Governance isn’t working – we now have huge debt and insecurity, anguished hedonism and it’s not fulfilling for people. We know now that MORE is NOT better. Well, only some of us do - alas.

What we need is more participation by citizens, more intergenerational interactions, more curiosity and imagination, more innovation and entrepreneurship and perhaps ICT can help with this. Digital literacy should be a human right to freedom of association and assembly on the internet. People must have access to accurate and comprehensive information. There must be equitable access to higher education. Life-long learning is still not part of the right to education but older adults should have the right to become digitally literate in order to be able to participate in society.

Key issues are employment, skills and poverty. Some delegates felt the State should be legally obliged to ensure digital literacy. There’s also a moral obligation to provide equal opportunities. We must reach all learners because there is a wide societal interest in life-long learning. Adult training courses in Hungary of more than 2490 hours must include a digital learning module in order to receive funding support (Hungary 2009). Therefore public policies and programmes are needed to progress things.


Digital literacy raises issues of lack of resources for many people as they cannot purchase the hardware necessary, such as smart phones, laptops, high-speed broadband. Therefore we must find a way to reduce this ‘gap’ in order to increase social cohesion. In the near future everything around us will involve the internet. Everywhere there will be screens- our appliances will have screens, a new environment for all generations to adjust to.

It’s worth noting that the future doesn’t have relevance for many people. They are thinking short term, maybe their lives are short. Maybe they struggle to provide the basics of life for themselves so for them intergenerational fairness is not ‘on the table’. They have no space in their 'survival' to contemplate it and no resources or voice to do anything about it.

A down-side of ICT is that we are so connected these days with gadgets for doing things and for communication and being in contact 24/7 – where is the digital peace? Family members aren’t speaking to each other- they are absorbed in connecting elsewhere with gadgets. We are totally dependent on electricity for basic needs. What if there's an outage of several days? In 1997 there was a power outage in Auckland, New Zealand that lasted several days. NZ's largest city-impotent, chaotic. It would be much worse than that now.

Next year is the European Year for Active Aging and solidarity between the generations. We need intergenerational ‘teaching’ going both ways. Institutional changes are needed for a fair society to emerge. There will be an EU-wide event in Brussels on Intergenerational Fairness in the first quarter of 2012. I wonder what can come of that. Politicians don't have our true interests at heart so we all need to take responsibility for being aware of this current issue and coming up with strategies to deal with it. What are your thoughts?

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/sustainable-international-development/
Discover what Edinburgh University is doing

Fleeting visit to Grand Rapids

A small group of us from France and Albion College drove two hours to visit the Mayor of Grand Rapids and have a look around at the sustainability efforts of the city.









The city of Grand Rapids is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040 about the same as Waitakere City that was, in Auckland NZ. It is the largest city in West Michigan.



Grand Rapids is home to five of the world's leading office furniture companies and is nicknamed the "Furniture City". The city and surrounding communities are economically diverse, and contribute heavily to the health care, information technology, automotive, aviation, and consumer goods manufacturing industries. They actually have a street dedicated as the Medical Mile where you can find hospitals and clinics and medical imagery companies.




The city is interesting and has a mix of modern and older architecture but I was mostly interested in what they were doing of an 'eco' nature and how they were marketing themselves. Both were a little disappointing. Compared to what was Waitakere City in Auckland the efforts to encourage sustainability are patchy, less intense and less integrated into the city.


When I asked for a brochure on their sustainability efforts I was told they didn't have anything (extraordinary). I asked for a press kit but apparently they don't exist (unbelievable) and there was no supply at the city hall of brochures on the city (touristy or otherwise). To me this all seems incomprehensible. If you're doing something well you've got to show people. Telling them to visit a website isn't effective. This is surprising since the city is the hub of one of the United Nations regional Centres of Expertise.



The city is fond of art and uses it in its building such as its new bus transit centre where the Greyhound buses collect and drop off their passengers. Eventually it may connect to trains too. Each year the city has an Art Prize competition which encourages a high number of entries. Winners get money and everyone who enters can display their entry around the city. It's a real boom for the city at that time.





The city has buildings which qualify for LEED status. This means they are built to particular green standards, mostly in terms of energy but hopefully other requirements too.



We stopped to look at the Smart Meters which are being installed in the more 'sustainable-minded' areas which tell the supplier and the householder how much and when they are peaking with their use so they can adjust when they use appliances to the off-peak tijes.
Our guide from the city council was determined we should see once of their LEED breweries.




It was shut when we arrived but as we looked forlornly through the windows the owner took pity on us, welcomed us in and gave an explanation of their LEED accreditation. The Vivant Brewery brews its own beer and cider in French-German style. It is located inside a renovated church. I found it ironic that the root of all evil had taken over a house of God. They've done a good job of it. The furniture is a bit beerfest but solid and the flags and new bar fit in well with the stained glass windows.

Grand Rapids was the hometown of Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States. He, along with his wife, former First Lady Betty Ford, are buried on the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids.




 

The Ford Museum opened to the public in September 1981. It is part of the Presidential libraries system of the National Archives and Records Administration, a Federal agency. Unlike other Presidential libraries, the museum component is geographically separate from the library/archives.

The Ford Museum is in Grand Rapids, Michigan and the Library is in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Despite the separation, the library and museum are a single institution sharing one director.

Approaching the museum I was amused by some of the outdoor sculpture. Near the entrance is a footballer made out of metal stuff.






 

Playing in the fountain outside the entrance to the museum is another piece of art. Permission to display it was given to the artist. I loved the brown bears who really seemed so natural in the shower of water and catching their fish

I enjoyed this museum; we were personally guided by its Vice-President who has an amazing grasp on the relevant history. The first section you come to deals with pop culture. Then immediately you visit the Watergate section with static and audiovisual displays.

Past the section that deals with the President's childhood and early adult life in the navy and his meeting and marrying Elizabeth (Betty) you come to a life-size replica of the oval office as it was in the time of President Ford. Many of the memorabilia on display are the originals.








There's a section devoted to Betty Ford and her good works and then you enter a facsimile of the President's cabinet room as it was. Everything is simple and tasteful.

We finished up the tour with a special treat. We were escorted to President Ford's office in Grand Rapids with all its memorabilia in place, vase from Emperor Hirohito of Japan, an Italian tea service, a rug used by Gerald, his desk set up for a typical day's work.

Outside you can easily find the graves of Gerald Ford and his wife Betty- laid vertically in and behind the concrete memorial. This museum is certainly worth putting on your agenda if you visit this city.