Today was just absolutely fabulous for sunbathing . . . if you had the time. The last day of February and it was hot enough to laze outside in a bikini (or similar garb or none as takes your fancy) and enjoy the beginnings of a wonderful tan. But, for some of us it was nose to the grindstone as we battled on indoors finishing off (unless that should read "finishing us off") the final bits & pieces to AMB.

And of course, by now you’re getting to know me and realize that I don’t do things by halves. Enlightenment struck late last night and I did a complete 180 degree turn and decided it was daft to create a second website when the first one, AMB Cote d’Azur, was perfectly adequate. Moreover, when Nigel piped up "You’ll need to have a blog there too won’t you?" I suddenly realized that, beating myself with one stick was perfectly admissible; with two it becomes silly.

You’ll see the results tomorrow when the changes are uploaded to our UK server. Although it all may look similar, it is different (and I think better!). However, all this rummaging around made me come across some photos I took years ago and which now suited my purpose (and earlier blog) perfectly: a turquoise Mediterranean Sea. Believe it or not, the photos were taken "on the fly" or to be absolutely correct "in the car" as we sped along the Promenade des Anglais on our way to Villefranche-sur-Mer. Like yesterday, the sea had turned this amazing colour and needs to be seen to be believed. The photos show a distinct band of turquoise seawater holding back a colder and deeper blue one. Personally I find it stunning and was somewhat miffed yesterday that climatic conditions (but possibly me lingering too long photographing other things) caused a change in colour.

So, there you have it, well almost as the title of my blog says. Those of you who might think that I may be glued to my chair can think again. I actually went round the garden this morning (exercise you know) cutting our first flush of Daffodils for our conference table and then took an hour or so off this afternoon to walk Freddy in the park while Nigel kindly stayed home to babysit (Archie & Maggie). You see, I can live without computers!

As I get older so Time (with of course a whacking Big Capital T) seems to find more momentum than when I was a child, and I find that the month of March is already hammering away at my backdoor tomorrow. But it leads me on to think of proper Spring and Summer and the joys of eating outdoors, enjoying our pool and the delights of balmy evenings on the French Riviera.

You guessed it, we didn’t go to Nice on Sunday. Well, I must admit that it turned out to be one of those days to curl up and hibernate with cup loads of piping hot chocolate. Cold, overcast and blustery is how I can best describe it and I felt sorry for all those people dressed up in decorative frocks attending the parades; they must have frozen to death.

So we went yesterday afternoon instead and although there were no parades, I did take a photo of "Le Roi du Carnival" parked in Jardin Albert I. This year the king was Jacques Chirac dressed up as a rugby player holding a rugby ball in one hand and a beer can in the other. His "statue" measured a stupendous 14 metres high while his head, a whoping 5 metres (plus an extra 2 metres if you count his crown) weighed 800kg.  When "on parade" he is driven out on an enormous motorized "shar" (tank) weighing around 10 tonnes. To get some idea of the size of Monsieur Chirac, look very carefully at the enlarged photo; you should see part of an arm and a hand at the bottom of the photo. It belongs to one of the carnival’s cleaner-uppers who was busy scraping off the coloured "silly string" (or "webbing fluid" if you were Spiderman) sprewn from hundreds of aerosol cans.

As we drove along the Promenade des Anglais I was amazed to see how incredibly turquoise the mediterranean sea was. Sadly, by the time we’d park the car, took some photos of Jacques Chirac and made our way to the beach, the colour had changed to grey and the magic had gone. All was not lost however, for as we approached I couldn’t resist taking a quick photo of an intrepid gentleman scouring the beach for coins and what have you with his metal detector.

For those of you wondering how sandy Nice’s beach is: it isn’t. It’s pebbly and very pebbly at that. Walking along it is difficult, even Freddy found it heavy going  as the layer of pebbles is very deep and move and slide with each footstep. I’ve always much admired the bravery of the swimmers who, after a wonderful refreshing dip in the sea, are faced with the daunting task of negotiating these wretched things barefoot - made worse in the heat of summer when they are scorching hot (in truth I’ve seen some swimmers wear plastic slipon shoes for protection but not many).

On a different note, I thought I should follow up about the snow-capped mountains (Maritime Alps) that I photographed and spoke about in an earlier blog. Much to my surprise the snow has nearly all gone and the mountain tops are quite bare. I refuse to put this down to global warming (a label that seems [to me anyway] to be touted for everything that goes wrong in this world recently) but rather Mother Earth’s natural and periodic cycle of life (ex. our wild violets are especially abundant and gorgeous this year).

Lastly, for those of you who have asked, I’m hoping that Nigel will soon write up a blog to tell you all about our computer installation and setup. In fact, we’re expecting three further arrivals to join our happy group of digital mayhem: Sony Jim and Pinky & Perky. More I shall not reveal for the moment; suffice to say that yes, we do give names to our computers and mine is called My Little Pony!

Today I’ve been busy working on AMB Riviera, the sister site to AMB Cote d’Azur. I didn’t plan to do so, thinking I’d spend just this morning restyling the layout a bit and adding a bit of text here and there. Well, like I wrote yesterday, these horrid beasties suck you into their little world and here I am, hours later and evening is fast approaching.

However, since Wednesday I’ve made the concerted effort to go for walkies with Freddy Fox Terrier at a local park called La Valmasque. These walks have been very enjoyable and a great way to relax and work through ideas for the two websites. Sadly the park gets packed during the summer months but, for the moment, it’s nice and quiet as Freddy and I amble around contentedly.

While humans and their doggy chums come to walk round the park, it is also visited by wild boar the fresh rooting of which we’ve found in the grass as they turn it over in search of worms and roots. The park also has a super lake called l’Etang de Font Merle whose main attraction is one of the largest lotus colony in Europe: Nelumbo nucifera from Asia.

I’m sure you’ll be delighted to know that tomorrow Nigel and I are off to Nice to take a look at the Carnival. Proof of our visit and escape from the binding tentacles of our computers will be in the shape of several photos that I’ll share with you in tomorrow’s blog. How’s that for a treat?