Uh-oh!

Hope you have a great trip.

Enjoy,dude,enjoy.

If he expects me to pretty up the place, he will be sorely disappointed

Anyway, how do you pretty up a building site?

I have to keep the grass short as its part of Ronnie's business. Our swimming pools are used as reservoirs so we don't run out of water for the roses!! The only thing that swims in them are frogs and water boatmen.

Off to do the shopping for the curry tomorrow

He is probably still telling French Customs all about his pip .

He'll get locked up if he starts asking a Gendarme if he wants a peep.
There is more than one meaning....

Up half the night with bad cramps in the legs. Too much sitting down, listening to music yesterday. Lots of exercise to be done today, clearing the barn, chopping wood to prepare for next winter's delivery.

Have I got the Pip? Well....yes and no.

My ears are not what they once were. Fact of life and ageing plus a genetic inevitability given my family history. However, I can still hear well enough at the right volume (sorry neighbours) to know what is going on.

Firstly, the Pip is the best pre-amp I have ever heard in my system. Very smooth, subtle and clear. Great tonal texture and good control at the frequency extremes.

However, it rather unbalanced the system. We had to remove the sub woofer as it sounded bloated and unnecessary with the Quads. CD sounded better in the bass then vinyl which is the reverse of normal here. Richard is obviously used to the sound it makes and missed it when it wasn't in circuit. Ronnie agreed that it was picking up subtleties in the mix more than she usually heard.

Me? I found that I was noticing the hi-fi aspects more and not getting so lost in the music. Perhaps this would change as we adjusted to the changes. So, on a short acquaintance, I found it didn't improve my enjoyment of the music at all. As I won't be getting any long term experience of it, this is probably good news. Like always, the question would be whether the differences were worth all the extra money but thats irrelevant in this case as its no longer available. Certainly the best sounding piece of skirting board in the world

So an interesting day all round. Richard and Sue are great company and as usual, we bored the pants off them doing the tour of the house and estate which they put up with without too much protest. Fizz from them and curry from us helped the day go all too quickly.

So Kevin, over to you now. The wagon train sets off this morning. Hope there are no low bridges round your way, that bloody caravan is ginormous


PS. One of the cats decided to show what they thought of a stranger in the hi-fi and peed in the box it had been brought in . Found an alternative fortunately.

Our cats have great taste in music.

Talking of which, we just listened again to the Bacarisse middle movement that usually moves us to tears. Yesterday it left us a bit cool but this morning Ronnie said "the emotion is back" Strange thing this hi-fi/music interface/juxtaposition whatever. Maybe its just what we are used to. (Or to what we are used)