Sunday 21st February

Great song, sung of course by Cilla (when she was still young and groovy).  It was for one of the landmark films of the sixties too, Alfie – starring Michael Caine.  And for the first time the unspoken horror of backstreet abortions and the desperation it entailed was shown, albeit in quite an amusing and comic film.  Which is what a great film should be of course, to make you laugh, to make you cry and to smile at life and think about it all at the same time.  It was re-made a few years ago; I sat through it, but it was rubbish.

So, what is it all about Alfie?  That is the big question facing all of us, and more so the older we get, until maybe at some point you just let go – and stop even thinking about it at all.  When we were young, or much younger than now, we had all the answers – or thought we did.  And now….well, for me, I really don’t know anymore.  All I know is I have to keep on keeping on.  And for what, I am not sure.  It’s a life and not such a bad one really.  It could have been far worse, and for sure it would have been if I hadn’t escaped my previous relationship.  But as to what we are all doing here, on this planet, in this country, in this town; I am not sure any of really know.  Some have given up on England, or so they say – citing immigrants, benefit scroungers etc: (obviously Daily Mail readers).  Some, like us, are having a once in a lifetime adventure, living (or imagining we are) the dream, enjoying the food and the wine and the weather and the friends we have made here in this very English enclave of rural France.  But some are younger and are working in France; builders or architects or teachers, and their children are attending the local Ecole and are wonderfully bi-lingual.  Some of us have sold up completely and moved to France, and the way house prices are going never to return.  Some of us live here for the six months of the summer and go back for the winter.  I used to think that you had to be some sort of special person to decide to live here, but the longer I am here I am less sure.  It is the sort of place that people just wash up in, like flotsam or jetsam, drifting around and then realizing that this is quite a nice place and staying.  But as to what it is all about, I know less and less.