Of Ducks and Shoes

Alright, I admit it, it was lovely today. Hot, but pleasant, very goddamn
pleasant.

I'm rather disappointed that I haven't heard from Sarko. He's currently appointing his new cabinet and I'm sure he's the sort of person who wouldn't be put off by my mere absence from Europe or the fact that I'm not an MP. The lack of Frenchness should be of no consequence whatsoever since we have employment mobility in Europe. (Unlike within the Commonwealth.)

I have been brushing up on my French - the bad words that is, 'les mots verts', different ways to insult the rabble and such like.
Perhaps my invite is lost in the post.

It bugs me beyond belief that I am having to tumble dry clothes at the moment. I feel like poking someone in the eye with a sharp stick over it, not to mention the thousands of other people in condos and apartments who aren't allowed to hang washing out. But hey, at least we'll have to have better lightbulbs.

Having conquered Canadian dress sizes, I thought shoe sizes would be a doddle. After all, we've had US shoe sizes on the boxes of trainers for ever. But....that slightly out of phase thing occurred again.
My UK shoe size, 5, translates as a US 7½. SO...what's the problem? Well, same problem as trying to buy half sizes in Britain. It's not always possible to buy half sizes here. Today I was looking at some fairly pricey training shoes, but even so, I could get an 8 or a 7, just not a 7½. And that's always going to be the case going one way or another, since women's shoes are 2½ sizes higher in number here.

Ducks, according to Richard Wiseman in The Week, are funny, they are a comedy dead cert. It's all apparently tied up with the smile muscles needed to say the word 'quack'.

This week however, I had a meeting with a woman from an organisation called 'Pink Duck'. I asked her why her organisation was called that.
'People tend to forget my name,' she said,
'That surprises me,' said I, 'Tatiana seems rather a memorable one in my opinion.'
She sighed.
'You'd think,' she said, 'but you'd be wrong. Anyway, no-one has ever been offended by a duck, so I decided that it would be a good name for my company.'

A statement like that strikes me as a challenge, but then, I couldn't come up with a bad duck story there and then so I had to let it pass.

Unless.......