Friday, September 02, 2005

 
Not having the internet at home - dud, obviously

There are certain people whom I can only confirm my continued existence by posting to sites which are not work-related and are therefore blocked by websense. Ok, maybe this is not strictly true, but it is a symptom of the way the internet has come to dominate most of our lives that just not having an internet connection at home has meant that I have disappeared off the radar. A connection is on its way, apparently, NTL permitting, but for the moment my posts are confined to those I can make from the internet café. Oh well.

The man of the house

Someone described me thus yesterday, after my revelation that I am the only person eligible to vote in elections in my house. Alex can't vote because she's American, Walter can't vote because he's seven and Stripes can't vote because she's a cat.

Weddings

My cousin is getting married today in a small ceremony in Lewes. He wanted it to be a low-key event and I of course respect his decision but at the same time it would have been very nice to be there. Charles and Christine's wedding this weekend just gone definitely wasn't low key, it was incidentally a fantastic event. It was so nice to meet old friends and make new ones, explore a lovely portion of Brittany countryside, learn about marital traditions in another country (it was after all, my first wedding overseas) and above all share in the happiness of two very genuine, lovely people. One thing which impressed me particularly was the total lack of pretension - there is a worrying tendency in England for people to do what they don't feel comfortable doing for the sake of show, whereas this was conspicuous by its absence in France. Christine works on the ferries and the wedding car featured a plastic mock-up of a ferry on the roof, complete with a broom for a funnel. "Hmm, tasteful", somebody snottily commented at work when I told them and I did feel a momentary, slight feeling of resentment at their reaction.

The differences between the urban and the rural was very apparent, not only at the wedding itself but in the town of Quintin where many of us stayed. All the shops seemed to shut for lunch between twelve and three and you couldn't find a bar open past nine in the evening for love or money. It did occur to me how much my mother would have approved of it all, as many of the characteristics of the wedding celebration and Brittany in general seemed tailor-made to counter all her comments about What's Wrong With Britain Today. A slow pace of life, no rowdiness and drunken-ness, people happy to 'have a go' and participate in games and singing, people dancing properly with actual set steps, be it ballroom or the traditional Bretan dancing (though there was disco dancing to Europop, YMCA as well) and a real community feel in spite of us coming from such far-flung places.