During a small crisis in the French garden where my esteemed Husband decided to light a bonfire, and set light to the upper end of the orchard requiring a call out by the fire brigade, I managed to trip over my shoelaces.
I think I suffered concussion for a couple of days having buried my face in the ground. I thought I had done more serious damage at the time, and having realy hurt myself promptly let rip about calling the fire brigade to put the fire out. I did go down with a whack with both hands gripping buckets of water! This did elicit a lot of use of the 'F' word, which was heard by a good friend who had dropped everything to be on the scene within about five minutes. (I was embarrased, shamed, and silenced instantly, caught red handed being foul mouthed!)
Now what are beloved partners for if you can't let rip with a light burst of strafing language when they are out of earshot, (or in it). At least the adrenaline kicked in promptly and I managed to chuck a bucket of water on the right spot to stop the fire speading to next doors Walnut tree I envy so much. (Wish it would seed itself on our side of the fence).
Well done to the French local fire service, an exceptional shout. They were on site under difficult obstructive conditions, (as everyone had double parked in the village for a vide-grenier) within ten minutes and thoroughly enjoyed their fire engine. I have some great photos I might add when I download them tomorrow.
Yes, thank goodness people volounteer to do these jobs, otherwise we might have set light to half of Brittany it was so dry! It turns out this crew are made up of family members, and wonderful to see a girl on the team. I have some great shots of her putting out the fire on one of our trees.They will have to get a tenfold up in our calender contribution this year! This is a service that is funded by local contributions, so it's got my vote of confidence!
I was impressed that Himself had the emergency number programmed into his phone, (sooo.. ashamed it's not on mine). Looks like we won't have to do a lot of weeding until spring! I can't exactly tell him off because he came and asked me for my lighter, and I didn't ask him what he wanted it for. It never ocurred to me He was going to light a bonfire.
It was the 'stop what you are doing and come immediately' quiet tone that was so interesting. He had already had a go at putting it out, abandoned the idea and any attempt at talking his way out of the evedent mistake when I got called in. The first I saw was 20 foot flames and smoke bellowing up like a forest fire from the back door.
So there you go. Sometimes you have no idea a little spark could ignite such an inferno. I kept thinking of how this 'occupy wall street' movement has gone global, and how without very careful containment we could easily end up with anarchy. I think the main objective is to reign in the heirachy of any establishment that has no direct accountability to the people it serves.
Just because some people are playing existential monopoly with money that doesn't belong to them, doesn't give the 99% carte blanche to dismantle the real benefits of social integration and swe have to call on in an emergency. Like the volounteer fire services, Lifeboats, and charitable divisions of economy that are non-profit making.
In true French style, our saviours stopped for a cup of coffee with us before going to fill up their fire engine again, and there was not one word of reproach. No one said 'daft brits', or 'fancy lighting a bonfire'. I am hoping that it actually helps them to just make sure the double parking gets sorted out for next years vide- grenier. If they were called out to a fire in a house, they would need to save lives.
Anyway, I checked out existential monopoly, just in case I had coined a new phrase, but no the zeitgists seem to have got there first. I think it's a shame we buy in to so much of this science hoo-ha. To think world domination and space exploration has been built on the idea that we are looking for type 1-2-3 civilisations in space is really a bit outdated.
I would imagine if there were other life forms they wouldn't even live in this dimension of space time, and communicate through dreams and visions. I think this is far more likely, as all of the old spiritual writings about 'the gods' are more to do with this sort of communication.
Well that's me, I can think what I like and make it all up as I go along if it suits me!