Nice IV
It appears that about six or seven old rock ‘n rollers have gone to the big stage in the sky since our arrival. I didn’t really know any of them or have any strong feelings about them but since they were about my age, I paid attention. Certainly the world knew about the chameleon known as David Bowie, but again I didn’t really know anything about him until Chris Hadfield sang Space Oddity. But one prominent death did resonate with me and that was the passing of Alan Rickman.
Many years ago, while awaiting a flight in the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in San Francisco, I heard this familiar voice talking with one of the staff who was trying to fix a computer problem that this particular passenger was having. The agent was stymied and I turned around and offered to have a look. It was a relatively easy fix but this man was mightily impressed since he really wanted to get that email to his wife. I certainly didn’t know who he was but did know the voice so I asked if he had done any voice-over commercials. He laughed and said it hadn’t come to that yet but did admit to being an actor. Since I don’t go to movies I really was at a loss but like all really interesting famous people that I’ve met, he had the ability to change the conversation around to the other person, in this case me. He asked how I knew so much about computers and we talked for a while and had some wine and generally spent an hour or so talking about flying, England and other topics, but not about Alan Rickman. Later that week I spent time looking him up and found that he was a most prolific actor and I’ve tried to see as many of his movies as possible. I suppose he will always be remembered for his role in the Harry Potter movies, but I’ll always remember him as a downright regular guy.
As most of you know, Cindy and I have doctoral degrees and we sometimes think of ourselves as being rather clever. Then comes that moment when the gods sweep you off the peaks and into the mud of confusion and self-doubt. Such as been our fall from grace this week. During our last shopping trip we bought dishwasher detergent, and after doing a full dishwasher load with the new capsules we noticed a very strong and not very appealing soapy smell on all the dishes and glassware. So horrible was it that we had to wash each item again to remove the smell. We thought there was something wrong with the machine, perhaps it needed salt for the water softener, perhaps there was a back flow issue, or perhaps it was operator error! Today, Cindy carefully read the instructions on the detergent box and lo and behold, we had been using WASHING MACHINE detergent, complete with its own time release fabric softener! Boy, did we feel foolish.
The sun has returned along with the blue skies that we have become so used to here in Nice. It is time to walk some more since we didn’t do very well yesterday but really did enjoy the rest and the rain. Hope you all enjoyed the Super Bowl, we of course missed it but it sounded like it was a snoozer anyway. We’ll leave you with a picture of the Old Port. On one side of this three sided harbor are the really big mega yachts and on the side next to the bars and restaurants are these old but functional fishing boats. Very lovely. Best wishes, Cindy and Wm
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