Sunday, February 01, 2009
A day in the life of a British Corsophile
7.44. Wake up a bit late - and only now thanks to my wife's reminder that it's time to get up for my archery. Yes, I'm an archer and today it's a clout shoot. This is a strange sport in which we have to line up and shoot arrows at a flag 180 yards away. So I rush downstairs, grab my gear and zoom off to collect my pal David to drive down to Exbury in Southern Hampshire.
12.15. It is bitterly cold, and there's snow in the air. We are shooting against a head wind and I have to angle the bow something like 40 degrees to make the distance. Thank goodness for hand warmers. We've done 36 arrows and I have done OK (for me) but it's enough of the outdoors and we head back home for warmth and some lunch.
14.30. That feels much better! Time to check the email. Someone in St Malo wants to swap houses with our flat in Corsica in August... No chance. I have to tell him in my bad French that the place is already booked up. Someone else has written telling me he wants me to put a link to his hire car company on one of our websites. I'll think about it... Now it's time to read a bit more of Caroline Bithell's excellent book Transported by Song - Corsican Voices from Oral Tradition to World Stage. Yes, I'm a slow reader. I'm not an ethnomusicologist, but it's worth reading for the colour and the anecdotes alone. I listen to an old tape - Polyphonies, by Voce di Corsica, while I'm reading the relevant chapter.
19.45. Dinner, and time for a glass of Corsican wine! We keep a number of bottles of our favourites in the house and tonight we're having a bottle of Clos Colombu rosé, from Lumio in the Balagne. It's excellent, as always.
22.15. It's snowing again! Quite rare down here.
23.15. More emails - again on the subject of carhire. And it's time to check my web stats and update my blog. Now you're up to date.
12.15. It is bitterly cold, and there's snow in the air. We are shooting against a head wind and I have to angle the bow something like 40 degrees to make the distance. Thank goodness for hand warmers. We've done 36 arrows and I have done OK (for me) but it's enough of the outdoors and we head back home for warmth and some lunch.
14.30. That feels much better! Time to check the email. Someone in St Malo wants to swap houses with our flat in Corsica in August... No chance. I have to tell him in my bad French that the place is already booked up. Someone else has written telling me he wants me to put a link to his hire car company on one of our websites. I'll think about it... Now it's time to read a bit more of Caroline Bithell's excellent book Transported by Song - Corsican Voices from Oral Tradition to World Stage. Yes, I'm a slow reader. I'm not an ethnomusicologist, but it's worth reading for the colour and the anecdotes alone. I listen to an old tape - Polyphonies, by Voce di Corsica, while I'm reading the relevant chapter.
19.45. Dinner, and time for a glass of Corsican wine! We keep a number of bottles of our favourites in the house and tonight we're having a bottle of Clos Colombu rosé, from Lumio in the Balagne. It's excellent, as always.
22.15. It's snowing again! Quite rare down here.
23.15. More emails - again on the subject of carhire. And it's time to check my web stats and update my blog. Now you're up to date.
