Lame duck Mayor does disservice to investment

Lame duck Mayor Miller has added a third job to his portfolio as interim chief executive officer of Invest Toronto. He is already Chairman of this organisation. I'm not sure how this allows him to spend more time with his family. In the gobbledegook of management speak: "The mission of Invest Toronto is to promote Toronto as a destination for businesses to invest, grow and prosper."
He is fatally compromised in such a role. What if an entrepreneur wants to meet him on arrival at Toronto City Centre Airport? "Oh, no, I can't possibly go there!" he will cry. What if said entrepreneur wants to invest in Toronto City Centre Airport? "Oh, no, I advise against it!" Surely Invest Toronto deserves better than a quacking lame duck with an impeccable anti-business record. No doubt his appointment and the sudden announcement of his departure from the mayoralty were intimately connected. A sinecure was needed in a hurry.
Mayor Miller's legacy is printed on Page 5 of the Globe and Mail today - a full-page advertisement for Porter Airlines!

Farming notes

On our recent trip to Spain I commented on the fields of scorched sunflowers thinking they were crop failures. Lo and behold there were the same fields in the Charente in France. Seems it is normal procedure to let the sunflowers dry and shrivel before harvesting and processing. You live and learn.

Take me out to the ball game

I received a last-minute invite to the end-of-season baseball game at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. The Blue Jays came from behind to beat the Seattle Mariners 5-4. This is sport with a showbiz flavour.

Brompto in the Charente

The tour party to Angoulême relaxes at the Bar le Donjon at Montignac. Here Chef de Mission Jack Kellett, right, and Nigel Lewis pose with four Brompton bicycles. The bikes were a blue six-speed titanium from 2007, a red 3-spd L3 from 1997 and red and green 5-spd L5 models. We covered approximately 15 miles in a circular route from Camping de Marco at Bignac crossing the Charente river. The party travelled to France in a red Honda FRV.

Circuit des Rempart 2009

There have been a lot of anniversaries in the car world - 100 years of Morgan and Bugatti - plus fifty years of the mini. Here at Angoulême the Circuit des Remparts celebrates the seventieth edition, hosting a mini. This is the 1071cc mini of Denis Derex from 1963. I took this picture on the short chute approaching the Virage du théâtre by holding the camera through the fence and hoping for the best.
Pic by RLT.

Tin snail at Angouleme

I'm at Angoulême for the Circuit des Remparts. Stopped by a 2CV rally in town. Feeling no pain. Pic by RLT.

Frank Gardner, Aussie original, is gone

Frank Gardner, racing driver and stranger to political correctness. See The Indy.

I met him in Wellington, N.Z., at the Nissan-Mobil 500 in 1992. I also remember him racing in the sixties.