Surprise visit

I am back in Carcassonne - for four nights only - so don't miss it.

Actually nobody knows I am here so all my local friends will probably miss it. Although that's not strictly 100% true because Claire knows I am here. Claire had been briefed to handle the client check-in tomorrow but my sudden arrival here at short notice means that I will now look after that myself. Claire is the only person here that I have told about my trip over, but I suspect that others may well also know by now.

Not that anyone has been in touch. I'm not sure if I am relaxed about that or a bit upset. I have made no effort to contact anyone else so I have to be relaxed about it really.

Brigitte knows I am here too - she saw the shutters open and the lights on and rang the doorbell this evening when she got back from work. We have a meeting of the co-propriete on Wednesday. She is the President and she was very serious when she spoke to me about the meeting and the agenda - we have to do something about the noisy tenants and the cleaning. I agree - get a cleaner and make the tenants move out - if only it were that simple - this being France I suspect much discussion and a lot of paperwork will be needed to implement anything at all and even then we probably won't notice the difference. There will be much debate and everyone will get a chance to say what they think (after all, I am living in the last bastion of socialism in Europe) after which we will all agree to do nothing for now and continue as we were before.

She looked at me as if to say "I am just a woman - it is very ard (there are no h's in french) for me to deal wiz zis". Well my French is nowhere near good enough for me to deal wiz zis so I will be voting to re-elect you as president for another year. You will 'ave my full backing.

My trip out here was indeed very short notice. I came out for a meeting today which went very well indeed - and that's all I am going to say about that for the time being.

It's really good to have something positive to (not) talk about because the last two weeks in London haven't been great. What is it about January that brings everyone down and brings everything in life to a head. As long as I can remember the leaden grey skies of a new year in London have always caused trouble. It's almost as if the oppressiveness is designed to make us re-examine what we are doing and what we have done and whether we should have done it differently and whether we should now be thinking and acting anew.

It is nothing to do with new years resolutions- they are the equivalent of the lookout on the Titanic spotting an iceberg ahead - jolly good intentions but not going to make a lot of difference when the real problem is the design of the ship in the first place.

January makes us ask the most searching and fundamental questions about what we are doing and why, what we have done and why and what are we going to do next.

Crikey - I've definitely spent too long in France - far too philosophical for my own good.

Actually I did make a new year resolution to continue my exercise regime but to cut down on my alcohol intake. After my crazy discovery of cycling last year my exercise regime over the last month has been rubbish, so I have failed badly on that front, but at the same time I have been very smugly not drinking during the week - who would have thought?

The net result is that I don't really feel any healthier at all - just very very tired.