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Hello, Pigale!
I agree, the Marseillaise was stirring and the crowd were with the French to a man/woman! Great to see and hear.
Yes, well done, England!

Hi, Rusty!
I think Barney may be arriving.... the wind has become very fierce - there is a howling gale blowing, with trees swaying and creaking. We have a huge copper beech in the garden that is giving us some concern - it is rather too close to the house for comfort.
What is it like with you now?
Tomorrow I am going to another school Open Day. I shall need to make a very early start - I must catch a train about 8.30 am in order to be there for the beginning of the school tour.
I hope that this school proves to be as impressive as the last. Fingers crossed!
We have discovered two Amazon vouchers that we had forgotten we had! "Spending money" for the Black Friday Sales?
Will you be able to buy your Hammerite paint on special offer, do you think?
I shall certainly look up the book offers.
Regerttably, I wasn't able to record the film I wanted to watch - it should have been showing on Film 4 ( we should get that on Freeview according to the TV guide) but it was not to be....a notice came up saying "Channel scrambled or unavailable...."
Not - to -worry, I guess I can buy the DVD .
Time for a coffee, while I attempt to finish off the Times 15 x15 ...I've got stuck in a corner!

Hello, Elle!
No Barney here, but it is only 5C. Not very warm.
I heard Alex Thomson on C4 News say the first word the Syrian refugees on Bute will have to learn is "dreich"!
I think your wind will drop soon, according to Met Office.
Maybe you should get your tree lopped off a bit?
Hope you get on fine at school tomorrow.
I thought the crossword was a good one today.
1 down is a new word to me, though. Not good at heraldic terms.
And I do not have a Scooby on parsing 16 down!
I hope there are plenty of hot water bottles on Bute, tonight.

Rusty, the answer to 16 Down is simply hidden in the clue...

Devastate a fort, wounding a number inside (3,3,3)

DevastaTE A FOR T WO, a number/song is inside.

Malone, thank you for that!
I spotted "tea for two" and thought "two" was the number, not realising that "tea for two" was a number/song.
And why do we call a song, a "number", I wonder?
Anyway, thanks for putting me on the right road!

You're welcome, Rusty. I thought 'number = song' was a fairly newish (20th century maybe) thing, but according to Chambers, a number can be ' a self-contained portion of an opera or other composition'. I like learning new things, even just little nuggets such as this!

Me too, Malone. I should imagine only crossword addicts (and perhaps dictionary lovers) know that "neat" can refer to cattle of the genus Bos There must be lots of other examples

Me three, folks.
I have a head full of daft wee things.
One bugbear I have, with reference to songs/numbers, is singers being called "artists".
An artist to me is a painter, but I am sure it can mean other things, too.
There are two words that convinced me, many years ago, that I needed a good dictionary, were "ounce" for a snow leopard, and "priest" for a club for banging salmon on the head!

Heard of that use for "priest" but never "ounce" ! Learn something every day. Wasn't "artists" with that meaning originally "artistes"?

Probably, Rosalind.
And what about "boy band"?
Bands in musical terms, to me, played instruments.
These young lads only sing.
Or, am I being picky?