Shocked to learn just now of the death, in an accident in Thailand, of an old colleague, Etienne. He and I worked together in the early 1990s, and had only recently got back in touch via facebook. A great big gangling man, he was one of the gentlest souls I've ever met. Not an ounce of self-publicising, not a milligram of malice: he just got on with the work quietly and capably, and I often got together with him and one or two others for a Leffe Blonde or three after work. We'd planned en principe to get together in old Parisian haunts, but knew, when planning our latest trip through France, that he was off on one of his jaunts to the Asia-Pacific region. Too late now: carpe diem.
Better news on the house-fettling front: Pierre the builder is coming round the week after next to strip off the areas of rendering that pose the greatest threat to next door's roofs. Meanwhile, with a view to the definitive work, he has given me a works schedule that ought to keep the administration happy, and an estimate that singularly fails to do the same for me. I shall start jumping through various other administrative hoops in the coming days.
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