A Day by the Wayside

Yesterday, I left Duston a little before 9:30 to be on time at Sam's stonesetting at 11. I took into account the delays due to the never-ending construction on the M1, the fact that it was morning traffic, that the M25 was always more or less jammed. I was making great time. I had to get off the M25 at junction 25 and the cemetery was just a couple of miles away. Just before arriving at junction 25, my front left tire blew out. It was 10:30.

I called emergency services and they took all the information and told me to wait. If I needed to call back, I was told to ask for the Essex police and given another number to call. I waited very patiently and finally called the Essex police a little after 11. Already 1 1/2 hours waiting outside, on the other side of the barrier, with my yellow safety vest on. Getting into the car to make the phone call was a relief if only for the quietness of it. I was told to keep waiting. I had my incident number; they knew I was still waiting....

I just wasn't thinking clearly. I should have immediately called our insurance company in France. By the time I thought of them, 2 hours had gone by. I still wasn't thinking clearly because I called Paul to ask him to do it. The emergency services finally got to me after 1:00 and the insurance company called me while they were there taking down my information at about 1:30. They told me it would be better for me to wait for the insurance company's solution and they left me there, still waiting. The GMF were very efficient. Within a few minutes, I had my incident number from them and I got a call from the rescue service they had set up. Unfortunately, the rescue service told me I'd need to wait about another hour.

At the tire shop -- the outside of the tire has this big hole

The inside rim is completely torn apart. 

My hero came in less than an hour and I was on the road again at exactly 3:00, only 4 1/2 hours after pulling over. The rain started just as he was finishing up putting the spare tire on. I got off the M25 and started searching for a tire shop because the instructions were to not drive too far on the compact spare. I continued on the route to the cemetery but I stopped to find gas stations on the GPS. The station I aimed for seems to have disappeared, so I kept on going and lo and behold found myself in a shopping center district and saw the sign for a Formula 1 place. I know that Claire and Geoff go to the Formula 1 up in Duston, so I pulled in and they sold me a pair of tires. (I had to change brands because they were out of Michelins, so I needed to change both front tires.) They checked the tire to try to figure out what happened. Still don't know. It wasn't because the tire was worn out. Old, yes, but not worn. New tires installed and aligned and set to go by 5:15. Got back on the M25 and headed back to Duston. Arrived at 6:15.

To all the family I was going to see at the stonesetting, I'm so sorry I missed you. Luckily, we had dinner the night before with the Pickars. Thanks, Ken, for the picture, to remind me.

Also, thank goodness this did not happen the previous evening when I had Aurelia in the car with me, nor on the way back to France to catch the tunnel shuttle.

3rd and 4th cousins!

Busy, Busy

I'm going to start with today and work backwards. It's been a busy month!
This morning started out with breakfast with Representative Carolyn Maloney (Dem. NY). AARO organized this breakfast on very short notice. If we had had more time, we might have organized a real event around her coming to Paris. She is the founder and chair of the Americans Abroad Caucus. She's looking for a Republican co-chair, so if your representative is a Republican, suggest it. She has been our champion in Congress. She talked a bit, but mostly she listened to us. We (AARO) gave her a certificate expressing our gratitude for all that she has done, so far. I'm honored to have attended this breakfast and to have met her.

Actually, I met her yesterday evening at the Democrats Abroad event in her honor. There were more people present and she was there to speak about what she and the Americans Abroad Caucus have accomplished and what's to come, but she also spent considerable time listening. In addition to our issues as Americans Abroad, she alerted us to the number of measures that are being passed (although struck down afterwards) against women. Not only the invasive anti-abortion measures and now, anti-contraception. I've been reading about it in the paper, but I must admit I had no idea the extent of the movement. It was a really short trip: arrival in the morning; meeting with the Ambassador Rivkin in the afternoon; the cocktail event followed by a fundraising dinner in the evening; breakfast this morning; train to London for more of the same and return to Washington tomorrow.
Thursday evening was the AARO board meeting followed by a little party for RB, who has left the board after 10 years of being the events manager. 
We had dinner with the P's yesterday evening (after that event). It was a nice, calm meal. They've signed up for a trip to China in the fall, so we compared their itinerary with ours from 6 years ago.

Last Sunday, after casting our votes in the first round of the legislative elections here, we set off for Six-Fours to visit the Lebelles down there for a few days. That's always enjoyable. G cooks up a storm and it's so good, it's hard to resist eating too much. Lots and lots of conversation, of course. P has been delving into family history and shared his genealogy files with us. We also spent an afternoon with Ch and Y. We returned on Wednesday. 
All the time we were gone and until yesterday, I was working in the background on the certificate for Representative Maloney. I was supposed to do it, but I ran into a little problem because I no longer have very sophisticated image software, so a colleague from the board ended up having to actually do it. It looks great and now we have a good template and an image of our logo at 20% transparency to use as background in future documents.
Paul and I went to the Matisse exhibit at Beaubourg at the beginning of the month. That was fantastic -- all the work he did drawing over and over the same subject. Those fluid lines are not so simple; they come after having drawn the subject so much the hands seem to know what to do automatically. Paintings are the same. He painted, took a picture, scraped the painting and started over for a year, a year and a half!
The first weekend in June was the exhibit of our paintings at La Charpente, followed by a visit from Sacha and his parents. He's getting that Bouddha look about him! I visited him and Gwen yesterday before going to that cocktail event. He's really growing so, so fast. He's smiling at people, now!