Wednesday 12 December 2012

Better than Carol Singers...



Being a relative newcomer to twitter I am still fired with enthusiasm and tend to click on anything and everything that looks interesting, which is why I find myself today taking part in something called a Christmas Bloghop (see details at the end).  Despite having no idea what one is, here is a very short festive blogpost!

Last night was dark and cold so we were sitting quietly in front of the fire, trying to ‘Keep up with the Kardashians’, when the doorbell rang.  My husband immediately wondered ‘who the hell could that be at this time of night’ and was then totally bewildered when my face lit up and I replied ‘I hope it’s the Fire Brigade’.  Pausing only very briefly to redo my lipstick I nearly knocked the dog over in my unseemly rush to get to the front gate where stood a cheerful delegation of men in high-vis jackets.  Sadly not the ‘Pompiers’ but an equally nice-looking team from the ‘Service de Nettoiement’ – the dustbin-men (or whatever the PC term is these days).

These visits are very much part of the Festive Season here in France and the purpose of the visit is to present householders with a Calendar, in exchange for a ‘donation’.  I only had a 20 euro note so I asked for 10 euros back remembering the fact that they hurl the empty bins onto my wild flower bed after each visit!  This amount appeared to be quite acceptable and after much hand-shaking and valiant attempts by them to wish us Joyeuse Seasons in English, they departed in their van.

There are still 12 nights to go before Christmas – plenty of time for the Fire Brigade to call!





16 comments:

  1. When I was in France in Novemeber the firemen called selling calenders. I wonder if they will be back again collecting more money. We don't get that here in Portugal
    Hoppy Chrismas e Feliz Natal :)

    Ps just a quick note I had a terrible job making this post I think you need to enable more posting options ie the one with Name and URL

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    1. Hola Carole! Will see what I can do about the comments box. Happy Christmas.

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  2. Ha ha. Hope the firemen call soon :-)
    Here in the wilds of Wales we don't get many people selling anything - which suits me fine lol.
    Wishing you a successful 2013.
    Suz x

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  3. Yes, better keep that lipstick handy.
    I discovered an interesting thing about firemen after teaching groups of bus-drivers here in Aix. I was wondering why the bus drivers don't fir the stereotype of bus drivers in other countries I've lived in, many of my students ran marathons, skiied and all looked superfit. I then learned that many of them are volunteer firemen, it's a great combination and I'm sure it boosts passenger numbers. :)

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    1. A lot of our bus drivers here seem to be very small attractive women - probably for the same reason!

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  4. Aw yes, Twitter! That's exactly how I found myself a part of this party. I'm glad. I found a lot of nice blogs in the process. :-) Em.

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  5. We have had the firemen and post-woman with the calenders, as the post-woman takes our letters to post for us sometimes we gave her a box of chocolates as well as the 10 euro tip. I didn't put the lippie on for the firemen as Deb didn't have the right shade to match my attire that morning. :-)
    stevebichard.com

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  6. The yearly tradition is like an end of the year thank you. We had the firemen come round, but our postman hasn't come yet. C'est la France. :)

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    1. Damn, I forgot about the postman - and he turns up really early in the morning!

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  7. The postman (or should I say woman) came for us on monday. I had no idea the going rate and only had a few coins in my purse. I am so British always paying by card for everything. it seems like most normal french people carry around wodges of cash. i hope noone else comes today since i have the grand sum of 2€40 to offer!! If there's a fire I probably won't get rescued. Thankfully the bins are communal so I can rely on everyone else to be generous!

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    1. It's like keeping in a supply of sweets on Halloween - you hardly dare not to!

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  8. Last week, I was in the country by myself and this homeless guy had been wandering around ringing on people's door bells. I'm not usually scared when I'm on my own but people keep asking me "Aren't you scared" and it makes me nervous. The SDF finally disappeared and it was pitch dark at 8 pm when the doorbell rang. It scared me out of my wits but I thought I should answer just in case. It was the firemen! I mumbled something about it not being the right time ...
    But the postman was much smarter. He left us a note saying when he was coming and gave his cell number to make an appointment if weren't going to be there!
    I've learnt from the past that it's good to be friendly with your postie (Steve, I hadn't thought of the letter-posting solution - I could have saved myself a 20 K drive the other day!) so I got my 10 euro bill ready and went and chose a calendar which will be very useful for my gîte guests.
    No sign of the dustmen yet!

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  9. P.S. What is your twitter handle so I can follow you? Mine is Aussie in France@AussieFrance

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