Metier Pen and Pencil Set
I was clearing out a drawer in the bedroom and found this pristine Metier pen and pencil set by Cross. The label says it is 10 carat gold filled with a model number of 4501.
Metier Pen and Pencil Set by Cross
I don’t think it’s ever been used.
Monaco
Monaco is to me a soulless place and a small excursion from Cap Ferrat took us to the Principality. I didn’t get out of the car and took just one picture.
Monaco
It shows the barriers that are being put in place for the Monaco Grand Prix on May 16th.
I used to always want to go to the Monaco Grand Prix. But after going to Spa a couple of years ago and leaving without knowing who’d won, I would now always watch Formula One on television. Even that now is perhaps questionable, as it is so boring after the rule changes.
But Monaco will always be remembered for the victory of Stirling Moss in the Lotus 18 in 1961 against three (Yes! Three!) Ferraris. There is some film of it here on Sir Stirling’s web site.
When Metier was sold, I was advised to go somewhere like Monaco for a couple of years to avoid the tax. I didn’t! And having been a couple of times to places like Monaco, I can’t say I regret it at all.
The House with the Private Beach
When we sold Metier in 1985, we bought a house on the Cap d’Antibes called Les Ondes on the Chemin des Ondes.
I had been worried that images from Google showed what looked like a large development where the house had been. But when I walked up the road, the house was still there and appeared to have changed little since we sold it in the early 1990s.
The beach had changed little too, although you will notice there is now a sign, which shows that it is a public beach. It was for most of the year private though, in that there was no parking nearby and others couldn’t be bothered to walk from Juan or Antibes.
But they had made the road one way up the hill!
We spent several happy summers at Les Ones, but in the end sold it as it was always getting burgled when we were there. We also had three hire cars stolen from outside. Talking to staff in the hotel, they felt that things had got a lot better. I hope that’s right. But then it was never too bad until May.
One holiday stands out. My wife and I took, one of her barrister colleagues, Martin, away to the house for a few days. He was and hopefully still is very outspoken. He would lie on that beach and say in a loud upper-class English voice, ‘Look at that lump of lard over there’ at some lady who’d been eating for two. Luckily, no-one understood his English or perhaps most were laughing with him.
That holiday too we went to a Michelin starred restaurant in Antibes, where the wine waiter was the spitting image of Stephen Fry, doing an impression of Lord Melchett from Blackadder, doing a cariacature of a wine waiter complete with tastevin. He never understood why we kept laughing at him.
I also remember this so well, as Martin paid for his holiday with a painting, that sits in my dining room.
Left and Right, Up and Down
Of all the roads in England, few are as notorious for a good burn-up as the A68, that runs from the Scottish Border to Darlington. It’s up and over a blind summit, then fast left, fast right or possibly both. In places you can see the road stretching several kilometres in the distance.
Yesterday, as I returned from Scotland, the road was pretty empty except for a couple of wagons and a few cars, so it was great fun. And safe too, as if you drive the road properly in good visibility and fairly dry conditions, you have no problems unless you take some of the blind summits too fast.
As I said in the related post on Taking the High Road, it’s the sort of road for which Elans were built!
I have rather an affection for the A68 as several times I drove it on the way to see the first Metier customer, Ferranti, in Edinburgh. In those days though, it wasn’t in an Elan. But there weren’t any speed cameras!
Metier Minotaur
I started a company called Metier Management Systems. For my birthday, an old friend gave me a copy of the rather interesting magazine called the Metier Minotaur.
I shall be printing copies, so if anybody wants a facimile let me know.
The Anonymous Widower 