Happy Birthday Gareth Thomas and if you do happen to pass by and read this: PLEASE stop with Toulouse and come and play for Stade Français!

THE LETTER

So I’ve finally received THE letter - looking so tremendously authoritative and imposing as only an official French government letter can - which informs me that I’ve been allocated a school in the south-eastern environs of Paris at the end of the Pink Line 7. I’ve now entered the ‘dread’ phase where I’m slightly panicking about: (a) what the hell I think I am doing (b) how will I cope without beloved familiar English things (i.e. a nice piece of toast)? (c) where am I going to live which doesn’t resemble something in a novel by Zola? (d) will I live up to the famous ‘Rob’, the English teacher before me?

BEE BOX

I’m very excited by the arrival of the new bee box which is supposed be a snazzy new home for the bees which visit my garden. However, it has to be said that the bees are rather less enthusiastic and haven’t deigned to use it yet although I did see one hovering tantalising close … oh well never mind, it looks pretty if nothing else!

MODIGLIANI

Today is my favourite artist’s - Amedeo Modigliani - birthday. If he were still alive, he would be 121 and still painting or sculpting his gorgeous, long-necked people with their almond eyes. Instead he died at the age of 35 after a fantastically dissolutely artistic life: what a loss. There’s no doubt that if I’d been around in fin-de-siècle Paris, I’d have willingly volunteered to be his model. Will I have to wait for the centenary of his death in 2020 for the art world to recognise this amazing artist and stage a retrospective of his work?

LIONS

The Lions’ Tour ended on Saturday with their third Test defeat. At times, it was heartbreaking to see their fumblings but overall I’ve been especially happy to watch Gareth Thomas, Stephen Jones and Donncha O’Callaghan who just seem to get better and better. You can’t deny that the better team won this Test series. Good job it’s only a game. Roll on the VI Nations!

ANOTHER WAR OF THE WORLDS

It’s extraordinary how in one moment things can change so abruptly. One moment commuters, tourists, shoppers, people are busy going about their London lives, the next it’s all stopped or distorted. The area where I work, Covent Garden, is normally such a bustly, touristy, lively, interesting place but today the tube station was closed and it was subdued and quiet and there were more police on the streets. It seems that humanity is never content to be at peace, rubbing along with each other, accepting our differences. Apparently the Queen has said that the terrorists will not change our way of life and it’s true, today people have continued to commute and see the sights and shop and be as busy as they normally would but the atmosphere was noticeably different.

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

I went to see The War of the Worlds yesterday. I have to say that my little brain was rather confused all the way through the film since I kept wondering when Tom was going to save humanity, instead of just being a terrible father and at the end I actually thought that the evil alien tripods had been defeated just by the mere presence of our tiny Tom. It was only in discussion afterwards that it was pointed out to me that Tom was actually just an ordinary Joe in this film, instead of his usual ‘go-get-‘em-grrr’ sort of hero. It was quite worryingly gruesome in places but I suppose one of the good things you could say about it is that I stayed awake all the way through.

Lavender 'fat head' growing in my garden 

THE WEATHER

Well it had to happen sooner or later that I would get round to talking about English people’s favourite topic of conversation: the weather. If we’re not having a cup of tea, we’re talking about how odd the weather has been.

This week being Wimbledon, there has been the obligatory four-seasons-in-one-day sort of weather (congratulations to Venus Williams by the way). But if there are two things you always need to carry with you in England, all the time, whatever the season, it’s a pair of sunglasses AND an umbrella.

For a few years now, an enterprising local landowner has been planting several of his (or her) fields full of lavender. It’s now in full flower and I can see a lovely sea of purple on my train journey into London. Maybe this is a sign of global warming and southern England is now the new south of France ….