A man of many talents!

Well my electricity saga is ongoing - 16 days and counting to get the top two floors of my house re-wired etc. and then he will start on the ground floor next week. I'm really hoping it will all get done by next Friday, but if not, oh well. We can't be far off now! That being said, I was so happy the weather was good today that I took myself off for a walk through the local woods just to get some fresh air. It's supposed to be nice again tomorrow too so I was trying to decide where I should go - further afield - in order to be able to deal with the cabin fever next week! But then my neighbour sent me a message asking if I wanted to go out walking with her tomorrow so I jumped at the chance. She's the one who has lived here about 20 years but since her husband isn't interested in going out exploring she really has little idea what lovely walks there are out there. Just in case we're going to take our snow shoes with us - you know the ones we were desperate to get hold of during lockdown and which we've never used yet!!! We'll see how it goes tomorrow but I actually don't think we'll need them at this point! On my walk today I noticed yet again the house with what looks like loads of antennae all over the place. Probably five on the roof and a massive satellite dish (maybe five feet in diameter) in the front garden! I've often wondered what's up with all that equipment and assuming he's probably not a very indiscreet spy, I reckon E.T. will definitely be able to phone home from his place if he ever comes back to earth somewhere near here!

The other week after yoga class one of the ladies asked me if I would be interested in taking a trip to the Périgord region (south-western France) with their old fogies group in September. I don't have anything planned, what with all the expense of getting this place put right, but in the end I decided to go for it. I know this lady a little as she was on the trip to Corsica with us so I thought "what the hell" and headed off to St. Pierre on Tuesday to sign up. The lady president of the St. Pierre club asked me if I was interested in playing cards with them (there were about 80 people there playing when I showed up), but as we were chatting two older gentlemen came over to her bitching, apparently, that so-and-so wouldn't switch tables and "you know we're all supposed to move around after every game"! Ehhhh, no thanks, I'll pass. I had signed up a couple of years ago for card club in the village where my sewing club is but gave up in the end because it was around this time that Jordan and Jen needed baby-sitting help with Charlie so I dropped out. At our last annual meeting (where each club's financial statements are handed in) I learned that there was a lot of bickering going on in this card club too so the then lady president had resigned and someone else had taken over! Maybe card games bring out the worst in people, I don't know, but the average age seemed to be around 105 so I suppose if they're bitching at least it means they're still breathing! In any case, we'll see what this trip to the Périgord is like and if it's any good I might go on some of the various day trips with them too if they appeal!

Now that I've finished listening to the Ethel Kennedy book, I've switched over to listening to Cheere Denise reading the Andrew Lowney book, Traitor King, about Edward and Mrs. Simpson. It's obviously very very different to the Kennedy book but it could well prove interesting. What is amazing, however, are the similarities between them and Harry and Meghan - they really do seem to have been Harry and Meghan Mark I! Oh I don't mean in the sense that they both married very domineering American divorcées - that's the least of it - but in the apparent similarities between the two men's personalities and their relationships with their wives! Edward was raised never having to think for himself for even one minute. Every day someone decided what he would wear, what he would say, where he would go and so on, and he seems to have been a totally self-absorbed, selfish, entitled and mean man. After his abdication but before he and Wallis could get married (I'm guessing they were waiting for her divorce to come through) he was invited to stay with Kitty Rothschild and her husband in one of their homes. His days seemed to have been spent navel-gazing or shopping - and then having his bills forwarded to Kitty for them to pay!!!!! What is it with these fabulously wealthy people thinking other people are just dying to pay their way for them? On the day Kitty finally left because she'd had enough of him, he couldn't even be bothered to get out of bed to thank her and say goodbye!!! Good grief! What's even weirder is that Wallis Simpson didn't actually want to marry him. Oh he was good enough to have as one of her dalliances - another notch on the bedpost so to speak - but she apparently found him so incredibly boring and "soppy" she really, really did not want to marry him. The book states that the day after the wedding he smiled at her and said "so what do we do now?" and she later confided to Gore Vidal that it was at that moment she knew she was going to have take over where palace staff had left off and become his new mommy!!! Yikes! It's harder going than the Kennedy book but so far (I'm on chapter six) the parallels between them and H and M are amazing! The author actually chipped in in the comment section of chapter two to say that he very much appreciated the way Cheere Denise was presenting his book, so I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of it!

My friend came over the other day to ask if I wanted some apples as she'd over-ordered on her grocery delivery. She'd wanted four apples and ended up with 4 kg of apples (about 20 apples)! She told me that she hadn't been well as she'd strained a ligament in her left shoulder - she thinks lugging bags of firewood around - and ended up at the ER as she was in such pain. They decided to send her for a scan, but by the time the scan appointment came around the pain had greatly diminished so she cancelled it - only to end up in the same situation the following day but this time in her right shoulder. I told her for god's sake call me if she needs me to drive her somewhere but being stubborn (aren't we all) she'd managed on her own. Then I spotted my favourite neighbour trying to hump a 20 kg gas bottle (about 45 lbs) out of her car and into her kitchen, so I went running round to carry it with her before she did herself an injury too. We don't have mains gas here so use gas bottles if we want a gas hob - but changing those bottles is no joke as they are extremely heavy. Again I understand why people don't like to ask for help but ....! And bugger me but didn't my own gas bottle run out the next day, but at least I only have to lug it into the garage from the car so it's easier for me! I told them we should get a bigger place and have some kind of Golden Girls set up! It might not be such a bad idea, come to think of it!

I mentioned before that I've ordered so many different kinds of lightbulbs off Amazon these past couple of weeks that as he was leaving the other night my electrician picked up one of the duds that I was going to take to the recycling centre and asked me what reference this particular bulb was. I invented a reference off the top of my head and he started laughing. So he tried again, and again I got it wrong, and it ended with him patiently explaining to me that any bulb that started with reference letter E was a screw in bulb and the other numbers referred to the different dimensions. He told me he'd test me on it again next time, so as he was on his way out the door I asked him to name the six official languages of the United Nations without looking them up. So he closes the door and comes back in and of course he couldn't do it! As of right now we're one all!

Then yesterday after he'd spent a good 30 minutes on his hands and knees pulling cable through a very low crawl space I told him to give it a break and offered him a cup of coffee. As we were sitting there he commented on my X-box but I said I couldn't use it because last time I turned it on it needed to update settings and I couldn't figure it out! So he told me it was pretty easy and he would do it for me. After about 10 minutes he'd got it up and running and as I told him the only thing I ever played was the tennis he had me standing in front of the camera so that it could adjust itself, then told me to put my right arm up (I'm going to serve you see) and throw the "ball" up in the air with my left arm. While we're doing this I didn't hear my neighbour come round and she was half way up the stairs listening to us roaring laughing and must have wondered what on earth I was paying my electrician to do all day! It genuinely was just a 10 minute thing while he took a break, but I'm sure she now thinks I have money to burn paying an electrician by the hour to play X-box with me! Oh just think of the gossip!

It's been a hard day's night (and day and night and day and night and ...)!

Once again I've been offline for a while and am now trying to catch up with my blog reading after an exhausting week or so, but more on that later. I see that Sky News UK is officially finished - well not so much finished, but their viewing figures were dropping so badly that I think one thought was to make it now "pay to view" (if you'll forgive the expression)! I wonder which bright spark had that idea, I mean, if you can no longer entice viewers for free because of your biased "reporting" what makes you think people are now going to pay to watch your biased reporting??? Seems they're all going for each other's throats at the moment and while I think it's a shame because at one time they were a good news channel, given what they devolved into, I won't miss them at all!

In other news I see quite a few of the UK's large supermarkets are now going to be doing away with most, if not all, of their self-service cash registers due to the large amount of theft. Again, good news if it helps keep actual humans in work!

I finally finished listening to Cheere Denise' abridged readings of the book, The Other Mrs. Kennedy, and oh my goodness was that book ever a surprise! I was very young at the height of the "Camelot" era and always took Ethel to be the mousey little side-kick to the supposedly very glamorous Jackie (though I never saw it myself) but what a wild ride that book was! I tend to agree with Cheere Denise in that she thought Ethel had some kind of mental illness - and a breakdown would certainly have been understandable after Bobby's death - but she seemed to have been batshit crazy waaaayyyy before that! Her own mother banged out seven (I think) kids and then more or less dumped them on any paid help she could find in order to go off travelling with her newly-wealthy husband and spend his money. It seems to me that Ethel - never having had a better role model - did exactly the same! Oh she was bound and determined that she was going to have more children than Rose Kennedy (hence the 11 kids) but from the way the story is told, she had no particular interest in raising them after they were born. The house was total chaos, the kids were pretty much feral and they had numerous pets (including a pig) that were kept indoors and crapped all over the place. Eventually they had to start advertising for hired help anonymously because if they put the Kennedy name in there nobody would apply. One chef lasted just 12 hours, she punched and slapped the staff and had the most weird "sense of humour" where she would push her guests fully-clothed into the swimming pool or pour a glass of red wine over Andy Williams' head because it was "funny". She even rode her horse into Teddy Kennedy's brand new house, absolutely ruining the floor, and roared laughing at how hysterical it was - Teddy didn't agree! She seemed to have an intense dislike of Bobby Jr. and David in particular and physically chased them out of the house to fend for themselves as teenagers. David eventually died of a drug overdose and in a magazine interview (can't remember which one now) he described their family life as looking all picture perfect from the outside but chaos and bedlam on the inside, keeping his worst vitriol for his mother, Ethel. When she died Bobby Jr.'s "tribute" was far more restrained and not vitriolic, but if one of my kids ever delivered a eulogy like that about me, I think I'd be glad I was dead in order not to have to hear it! Honestly I think if you tried to sell her life to make as a film you would probably get turned down because it would just be seen as too ridiculous. It would appear, however, that some people actually do live lives that are beyond belief!

Aaaannnnd on to the main reason for my absence - welll the electrician has been here for about 12 days so far and thinks he might be able to get it all finished by the end of next week - although I'm not so sure. Every time I hear him say oh bon dieu I realize he's discovered yet another nightmare. The original fire was caused by the previous owner's handiwork in not putting an earthed plug socket in the top bedroom. Then we had an internal balcony knocked out and a false ceiling with spotlights installed. Turns out these light bulbs were on transformers, which were overheating gradually, and nestled into the insulation! That crap could have gone up at any time - we were just lucky it didn't. He was telling me that as an electrician you try to keep all your wiring in any particular room in one central place (apologies to any electricians out there but I can't remember what he called it), but the wiring in my house is all over the place so he's had to have his camera up in the ceiling of every room trying to locate where each block of wiring starts. Then he told me that all of my light bulbs were way too powerful - they were around 40W when they should be LED lights up to a maximum of 5W so Amazon have been having a field day with my credit card as I've been ordering lightbulbs galore for the past week. It should make a significant difference to my electric bill by the time I get them all changed but I now feel like they can probably also see my house from outer space - along with the Great Wall of China!

I was expecting a delivery on Friday and then received a text message from the driver to say that I had missed my delivery spot and to follow this link to either arrange another delivery to my home for €3 or pick up at a drop off point for €2 the next day. So I followed the link on my phone but I can't be doing with all that diddy text so typed the link into my computer - and it didn't seem to exist. And then I took another look at the order number and something made me go back into my Amazon account to check it and lo and behold it had nothing to do with my genuine order. I'm so so glad I didn't get any further on my phone because right that very moment the real Amazon driver rang my doorbell and there was my parcel!!!

This electrician is a really nice young man and usually if I'm cooking something I always offer workmen to eat with me, but with my electric being all over the place I wasn't exactly cooking up a storm so every day I ran into town and picked up sandwiches and pastries for both of us. He told me no-one had ever done that for him before, so I just laughed and told him I should introduce him to my Kosovan tiler as he'd soon put him straight. Then on Friday he showed up a bit late but walked in the door with croissants for both of us for breakfast and sandwiches and pastries for lunch! How nice is that!!!! He is up and down the stairs like a bride's nightie and as a result I have to admit he has the most gorgeous bum! Huh, and I thought all of that was dead in me but apparently not, on occasion!!!! He works extremely hard and while I'll eventually be glad to see the back of him, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to anyone that asks!

On Friday Charlie had his first "skiing lesson" (think walking on skis) which he absolutely adored but he sure was knocked out on the way home. I'm delighted because I loved sports as a kid and starting skiing at three is right up my alley!

And finally, I was so glad to have the weekend to myself before the "home improvements" start up again on Monday that I decided to get out to Passy for a walk at the lake. It was glorious as always and I was just sitting in my car having a cup of tea and enjoying the peace and calm, when all of a sudden some eejit with a ghettoblaster came roaring up on his bike like a displaced Rasta. Two older men threw their hands up in the air as he cycled past and then all of a sudden he stopped right in front of me, got off his bike and went striding up to them! I thought oh bloody hell what do I do here - do I film it if there's an altercation or get in the middle of it (like he'd be afraid of me, right), when he ran over to the men, kissed them on both cheeks and shook their hands! Phew thank God for that as I don't think my Bruce Lee impersonation would have impressed anyone!

So it's onwards and upwards again from tomorrow and I hope the electrics get finished by the end of next week. What with the electrician, the decorator, the new plumber (to finish the bathroom that the other guy didn't finish) and the tiler, I'm looking at a pretty steep hit to my bank account. I had the money but I don't think there'll be any long haul travel for me for a while!

And breath!!!!!!

It's been another jam-packed, fun-filled week here (not) but I suppose as each day goes by hopefully things are closer to getting back to normal (Caree, I feel for you)! On the positive side we had our latest board game evening at Jordan and Jen's place on Saturday night and as some of the games just go straight over my head (too French-focussed), I seem to end up being Charlie's chief dinosaur chaser - not that I mind. At the moment we're reenacting the Mufasa and Scar fight from The Lion King (using dinosaurs), but I'm happy to say Mufasa wins every time in our version!

I saw snippets of the US inauguration but just like any lengthy ceremony, there's no way I would ever sit down and watch the whole thing. One thing that did strike me though, was that at one point there was a shot taken from outside the White House and while of course security was ramped up by about 1000 per cent, I remember that when I was working at the World Bank (1985-1987) I would often walk down to the park near the Washington Monument at lunchtime and you could virtually stand and look in at the White House through the railings! As time went by security was heightened more and more and it kinda made me sad to see how over the years the White House became (like so many other places, I suppose) a virtually inviolable fortress! Heck where I worked our building was right on Lake Geneva and our security guards were basically just car park attendants. And then, over the years, massive gates were installed, turnstyle entrances for the staff showed up and x-ray machines became the norm. How sad is that!

The electrician showed up to begin work on Monday and after spending the entire day just sitting around but trying to stay out of his way, I decided on Tuesday that I would leave him to it and do whatever running around I had to do. I suppose you shouldn't really leave workmen in your place alone but I think he was glad to get me out of his way and in any case, he knew I had cameras in the house - not that I have anything worth stealing! So I called up the lady from the food bank and made arrangements with her to take six trash bags full of blankets, sleeping bags and coats to her place. She was recovering from a knee replacement so couldn't drive out to meet me, but in any case I was glad to get out the house. When I finally found her house in the back of beyond I commented what a lovely place she had but, being alone (she'd already told me that) didn't she find it a lot to keep up with, like I did? And so over the next 15 minutes I think I found out her entire life story, how she'd bought the house after divorcing her serial cheater husband and got to decorate it exactly how she wanted and spend her salary/pension how she wanted too! It was weird because I don't know this woman, but in the space of a 15 minute coffee break I think I got her entire life story - not that I mind - I'll talk to anyone! So then I asked her if her house was anywhere near where the squatters had moved in (she hadn't heard of it) but apparently, while it was in the same village, it wasn't exactly close. In the end I believe it was a group of Roma gypsies who had taken over a house and land that had belonged to someone who had recently died (apparently they check out local obituaries for houses likely to be empty) and while the police had got them out pretty quickly, it would seem that it was not before they'd managed to make off with the huge copper flower pot outside the Mairie!

They have them on video, but fat lot of
good it did!

Chantal from sewing club was asking me about the squatters as she lives close by so I told her about the FB group I follow if she was worried about it. Chantal volunteers at the village library so I showed her some of the pictures I'd seen on FB that proved librarians actually do have a sense of humour! She loved them!

The lady I ordered the sewing trolley for did indeed pay me for it so I'm hoping that's the end of it, but we'll see, I guess. Goodness knows it took me ages to learn to stop "doing" for other people - my ex-husband's US taxes (hey, your're the American, figure it out), his DUIs (why don't you ask some of your drinking buddies), people at work wanting a breakdown of their education grant status per child (I'm sorry, you'll have to ask Mrs. R in Finances for that - it was their decision not to forward these to staff members). It's not normally in my nature, but sometimes it's just too easy to allow other people to get you to do things for them because they're either too lazy or because you've always just done everything for them. I do remember once watching the programme Catfished on Youtube when they interviewed a rather lovely English lady who had been taken in by someone she'd been talking to online for about six months. All of a sudden he was "trapped in the Middle East because his employer wouldn't let him return until he'd paid for material that was broken", or "his son had been in an accident and they wouldn't let him leave hospital until his bill was settled" - you know, that kind of stuff! She was desperately hurt when she realized what was going on because she thought they had a genuine connection, but everytime he spun her some kind of sob story she would just say "oh that's terrible, what are you going to do about it"? So the scammer never got a penny out of her and so far, she's the only one I've seen that hasn't ultimately been scammed. Mind you, did any of you see the recent story of a French woman who divorced her husband and sent hundred of thousands of €€€€€€ to Brad Pitt to help him with his hospital bills? Her husband was a very wealthy man so she completely shot herself in the foot on this one, but can you imagine falling for some of the worst photoshops in the world and losing your marriage over it!!!

Poor Brad, I'm thinking of setting
up a Go Fund Me for him!

And finally, my electrician is finding more nightmares to put right with every plug he removes. I have a small space heater in the living room for when it's exceptionally cold, although I rarely use it because I tend to live on the first floor anyway. Well he showed me how the wiring there had started to melt and would most likely eventually have gone up the same way as the top bedroom at some point. He told me that everywhere there was a plug socket on an external wall, there was no insulation so my house was just a huge leaky sieve, with cold air blowing in through all these outlets. Mind you, he also told me that the lightbulbs throughout the house were waayyy too powerful and to get them changed to max 5w bulbs and "stop heating my house through the lightbulbs". When I told him I'd run out and buy some he told me not to bother as they were cheaper on Amazon and within 24 hours I'd received the whole lot! In the "TV room", where I spend most of my time, I have eight spotlights and he showed me how these bulbs, again, were way too powerful and had started to melt the transformers that had been installed when we'd had the false ceiling put in about 20 years ago. Basically the whole place was a potential tinderbox! Everytime he came across something he called me over to take a look at it so that I was aware of what was going on, so right now I'm in the process of changing all the bulbs in the house which, he said, I should see reflected in my electricity bill in short order!

I'm gonna have a helluva lot of
cleaning to do pretty soon!

I left him in the house the other day while I ran out to drop a carload of stuff off at the charity shop and on the way back picked sandwiches up for both of us for lunch. He was surprised as he'd never had someone do that for him, but Jordan told me he'd frequently had a little old grandma insist he sit down with them and eat when he's been out on a job on his own. So on Friday he showed up with croissants for both of us for breakfast - nice huh! Anyhow I reckon I have another week of his being here all day every day but I'll be relieved when it's over and I can feel more secure in my own house. He was telling me that his family originally came to France as refugees from Somalia but he has spent most of his life here as he arrived at a very young age! Blimey, with me being a Brit, the Bangladeshis coming in to do the plumbing/decorating and my tiler being from Kosovo, it's starting to feel a bit like the United Nations only without the flag and the diplomatic status!

Gifted?

It's been a pretty hectic few days again this week, what with having various "trades" come to the house to give quotes for work. I decided, that depending on the quotes, I would have all the electrics done, the second bathroom installed (I've given up on the other guy) and the upstairs hall and top bedroom redecorated - the top bedroom being where the electrical fire was in December. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the bit where the carpet was burned but my brain just doesn't have the bandwidth for that at the moment! I think I mentioned in my previous post that the Bangladeshi guy had come back with a quote for the electricals of €9,400 - which shocked me - but then I haven't had electrical work done in years. His two brothers then came back with a total quote of €3,200 for both installing the second bathroom and the painting and decorating work I want doing. However, the French electrician who showed up first got hold of me to say that he was having trouble getting his quote through, but when it finally arrived it came in at €4,600 - which is a helluva big difference from the €9,400 quote! So I accepted the French electrician's quote and the Bangldeshi brothers' quote for everything except the electrical work and let their electrician brother know why - that he was just too expensive! And that was when he suggested that "maybe we can come to some arrangement"! Well that only pissed me off even more because that was when I knew he was obviously taking the piss - either taking advantage of a woman alone or just the fact that I obviously didn't know anything about the cost of trades! I did have Jordan take a look at the quote for the plumbing work and he said it looked fair to him, so that's where I stand right now, with the electrician coming on Tuesday to install all the new plugs, light switches and an electric radiator, and then coming back whenever the new electric panel/box(?) shows up. After that it'll be lining up the plumber, the decorator and the tiler, on top of baby-sitting duties etc., so it will very definitely be a busy few days/weeks. Still, if I don't drop from the exhaustion of shifting stuff out their way, it will be a means of getting the entire house cleaned from top to bottom after they leave!

Mind you, the Bangladeshi brothers asked if I would be interested in giving them English lessons (??) but I told them that I'm not a teacher by nature and don't have the time in any case. But what a cheek - or was it? Am I just being too sensitive? And talking of being too sensitive, before Christmas B, from sewing club, was asking if anyone knew where to get a military-style uniform for a five year old as her little grandson was army-mad. I told her to look on Amazon as you can get pretty much anything there but she told me she wouldn't go on Amazon because she would be afraid to put her credit card into their system. But when she did indeed find something she liked she asked me if I would order it for her! It strikes me as somewhat odd that she doesn't mind me putting my credit card into the system though. In any case, I ordered it for her before Christmas and she paid me back immediately, so no problem there. But then this week she asked me if I would order her a trolley on wheels for her to tote around her sewing machine, plus all the attendant gear that goes with it. Well this cost around €100 and the client would have to be present to sign for it, so I had to ask her for her home address and told her that I didn't want it delivered to my address because it was a huge parcel and I wouldn't be home on that day in any case (baby-sitting duties)! I don't know though, am I just being too sensitive about this because while I know she will pay me back, I also don't want to get into the habit of being her P.O. box when she isn't a little old lady (she's six years younger than me) and has three adult children of her own who could do it for her! I don't know, maybe I am just having a bad few days!

I'd had a sore throat for about a week and was feeling pretty tired, but even though I'd been gargling with warm salt water, it didn't seem to be going away, so I stopped in at the chemist's and she asked me if I was allergic or averse to essential oils. I told her not that I was aware of, and blow me but within about two days that sore throat was gone. I just love what I would call natural medicine or "old wives' remedies", so I'm always willing to give them a shot, and even happier when they seem to work! Talking of which, if One Family happens to read this, you were asking about vitamins etc. and when I left a comment on your blog I forgot to mention the wonderful Dr. Eric Berg on Youtube. His videos aren't very long at all but he seems to have made nutrition and natural remedies his speciality, so you might enjoy checking him out! I also seem to wake up every morning with a stuffed up nose, even though I don't have the heating on in the bedroom, so today I decided to hell with everything that I could/should be doing and took myself off down to the lake at Passy for a walk. The weather was wonderful and listening to a good book on my walk and then sitting there afterwards with homemade cake and a flask of tea has got to be my idea of (cheap) heaven - and of course, no more stuffy nose!

In other news, on one of the private FB groups I follow a few of the members have been saying that they swear some of the communcations received from their other halves (usually in the case of an adversarial divorce) seem to have been written by AI. So now these same people are raving about Chatgpt's Brenda and Frank feature, which allows you to feed someone's incoming correspondence into it and it analyses the "real" meaning behind the often pleasant words. You can, of course, also run your own correspondence through it and "Brenda and Frank" give their thoughts on it, help you to tone it down or make it more succint, whatever you choose! So while I have my doubts about some of the nefarious uses for AI, I can see, conversely, that it could on occasion be very useful indeed!

And finally, on Friday I looked after Charlie for about eight hours and while he is absolutely adorable, god he wears me out. He's an intelligent little thing (you can see Jen, in particular, spends ages with him) and when one time he asked me how to do something and I said I didn't know, he said "not to worry Nanny, there's always a solution"! Yikes! Around 5 o'clock we walked down to the daycare to pick Elynn up and since his feet are too small for the special slippers you have to wear inside and I had my giant clodhopper snow boots on, I took both of our boots off and we went in in our socks. The new lady didn't recognize me so I had Elynn in my arms while trying to wriggle my ID out of my bag, then was quite flustered trying to dress Elynn in her outdoor clothes, put mine and Charlie's boots back on without dropping Elynn and making sure the stroller didn't blow away in the wind. There's got to be a more rational way of doing all this (I was a sweaty mess by the time we made it home) and Jordan said there was, he just waited till Jen got home to keep Charlie before he went to pick Elynn up! While we were at daycare two of the older ladies recognized Charlie and asked how he was, and how he was getting on at school, so he told them that he liked it very much but that he would soon be finished with it and be going to work with his dad to help him in his plumbing job! They (like me) roared laughing, but in the end I think they were pretty mean. I mean, what if the kid really is gifted huh?

That went well!

It's day nine of the new year and it already feels like Christmas was ages ago! I was at home on New Year's Eve and stayed up just long enough to watch the fireworks out my window and then another hour later the fireworks displays in the UK. It was lovely here, so clear and crisp that the small celebrations further up the mountains were easily visible, so it was funny when I spoke to my neighbour's daughter the next day and she was telling us how they had been shrouded in fog and couldn't see anything! I don't know what altitude she's at (I'm at 800 m) but she's only about 15 minutes away so, as always, it's weird to see how you can be in bright sunshine one minute and just a few minutes down the road surrounded by thick fog!

So I spent NYE either reading in the peace of my own home or watching a few videos on Youtube. It's odd really because for some reason the algorithm decided I must have wanted to see loads of short clips of Michael Jackson as a very young boy/man. I was a huge MJ fan when I was younger and to see him (and his brothers) bursting with raw talent so young was amazing. That being said, I couldn't begin to imagine how stressful it must have been, for Michael in particular, to have the weight of all that talent and other people's expectations on such young shoulders!

I got off to a great start with my walking resolution by doing a few local walks immediately following the festivities. I'd walked for about an hour the other day when I bumped into the farmer's daughter walking her dog, so turned round and did the same circuit in reverse while we got to catch up as we hadn't seen each other for ages. Every year they instal a still where my friend, Stan's, old bar used to be and I really enjoy seeing it. I always understood that they mainly made eau de vie from walnuts that people brought over, but apparently they can make hooch out of pretty much anything so who knows!

The roving still!

It's a pretty and easy walk through
some local woods, although muddy
of course!

Leading back towards the village you have a 
local allotment. I'd love to have an allotment
there, but since I can't keep up with my own
small garden it'd be a pretty dumb thing
for me to get involved in!

I let the end of the festivities pass by getting paperwork up to date and sorting out what needs to be done in the new year (a lot, as it turns out). I updated my French tax deductions to take into account the small UK pension that I started receiving in September. I know quite a few Brits living here who haven't declared their UK pension, but I feel that it's just not worth the risk of getting caught (and potentially a large fine) for such a smallish increase in my taxes!

I got my heating fuel top-up ordered (ouch) and sent out a request for a quote to get the electrics in my house sorted after the recent fire! I got quite a few responses and have so far had two people out to my house to take a look. That's when I got the shock of my life when the first guy (confirmed by the second) told me that since the electrical work in the top bedroom was not up to code, had my house burned down the insurance wouldn't have covered any of it!!! Now to be fair I realize that this entire bedroom was most likely never declared when the previous owners created it in the attic and having seen some of his handwork in the rest of the house I've little reason to think the electrical work would be any different, but I had honestly not given any thought to possibly having no coverage if the house had burned down!

This is the cleaned up version of
where the fire started! It could have been so
much worse!

Anyway, that was enough for me to decide that the whole house is going to get a complete electrical make-over and while the first guy hasn't sent me his quote in yet, the second guy could be interesting. He is from Bangladesh and has brothers who are plumbers/tilers/painters and decorators so who knows, with my second bathroom never having been finished and my original plumber seemingly having disappeared from the face of the earth, maybe the brother of electrician number two (coming over tomorrow) can finally complete my bathrooms. And I suspect the painter and decorator brother will make an appearance at some point as I want to get that bedroom plus the hall and landing completely redecorated! The electrician's quote for the entire house, plus installing lights and electrical sockets outside is €9,400!!! but since I'm pretty good at saving "for a rainy day" (some rainy day though) I have the money and will just bite the bullet and get it done, although I suspect a potential trip to India in March this year is now off the cards!

Yoga started up again on Monday (thank goodness) and then Jen asked me if I could take care of Charlie on Wednesday (he doesn't have school on Wednesdays) rather than her mom, who is still feeling unwell. Of course it's no problem to look after him, although if I ever have to run and hide under the table again from the big bad wolf I might end up doing myself an injury. Then of course as we have to chase him with our respective dinosaurs and dragons I'm definitely getting the feeling I'm too old for this lark! I did ask him how the wolf got up to their floor and he told me that the monkey pressed the buttons for him in the elevator! Well of course he did - why didn't I think of that!

Monday night sewing club started up again and since the ladies bought in a galette des rois (a traditional pie eaten at Epiphany) and champagne, Claude asked me if I would open the champagne. Probably not a good idea as I couldn't keep my hand on the cork, which shot off across the room and whizzed between two of the ladies' heads. It could have been really bad had it hit one of them, but can you imagine a trip to the ER with a champagne cork stuck in your ear!

Pilates started up again this morning so I made the rather brave decision to walk into town rather than try to find a parking space on market day. It takes about 40 minutes and while I don't mind the cold, by the time I got there the wind and rain was blowing a hoolie! As has become my habit I caught the local bone-shaker bus back up to the village but when I went to hand my €1.70 to the driver he told me that they no longer accepted cash so I had to pay by card. Problem was, when I tried to swipe my bank card their machine rejected it, and since I was pretty sure I still had at least €1.70 in my bank account (although who knows right now?) he told me to forget it since if they couldn't be bothered to make sure their card readers worked, well then that was their problem wasn't it. And yet again, when he dropped me off in the village he offered to take me all the way home. It was a different driver this time so I'm wondering if this isn't maybe part of company policy! Who knows, but since I was pretty soaked through anyway I thanked him kindly and just walked the rest of the way. Then it was into the shower and off back into town for my bi-annual contrôle technique, which is the roadworthiness test linked to the age of your car. And wouldn't you know it but as I was on my way there I realized that my front right headlight had blown, so had to stop into Ford yet again, for them to change it for me. Thank goodness they are very accommodating and, so it would appear, I did indeed still have at least €1.70 in my bank account to pay for it, although the way things are going I'm wondering for how much longer! At least the car passed though, because even though I have the money set aside for a new car, the thought of either having to shell out more money on this one or buy a new one right now gives me the willies!

Oh while I think of it, apologies to anyone whose comments I haven't published lately, as I've just realized that I've had a problem with some comments going to spam!

And finally, I just saw a video on a Youtube news channel about a man in Corsica whose mother had recently died and her house had been taken over by squatters. As most people know it's almost impossible to get squatters out, particularly in the winter, so this man phoned his elderly friend who told him not to worry and that he would come over right away. Well this friend was a beekeeper and had his buddy kit up in a beekeeper's outfit before going in through the back door of mom's house and dumping one of his beehives in the middle of the living room! This was followed by a bunch of panic-striken squatters running screaming from the house shouting how they were going to sue! The old guy laughed and just said he considered his bees to be "pets" and good luck with suing him! And that's why I love living in France. Most people don't have guns over here, but I'm pretty sure there is an absolute army of beekeepers who are probably just as lethal!

Little Miss Marple!

Well Christmas Day has come and gone in a whirlwind of mostly pleasant activity, but I'm invariably glad when it's over and get almost as much enjoyment out of the Twixtmas week - i.e. the week between Christmas and New Year when nothing much is doing. I say "nothing much", but as it snowed a while ago and has now been sunny for quite a few days, skiing conditions are absolutely perfect. I can tell that by the traffic notifications on Facebook which pretty much show traffic jams on every road leading up to the ski resorts. I'm so glad my sister and BIL came early December so we missed all that and if they can get past the miserable traffic conditions (mainly at the weekends) I'm sure all the skiers are having a wonderful time (and the resort business owners too)! By choice I'm not going anywhere on New Year's Eve as I just don't enjoy it so the festivities really are over and done with for me!

On Christmas Eve we were up at Jordan and Jen's place for snacks rather than a heavy meal but I was nervous as hell driving back at midnight in below zero temperatures and very treacherous conditions! Christmas Day was at my place and it was bedlam, mostly because we had Charlie's toys and Elynn's baby gear all over the place. And to think I was considering maybe downsizing! Ha, fat chance right now! Lunch went really well - except for the mango and white chocolate cheesecake my sister told me about. Oh the taste was wonderful (Tate & Lyle's recipe if you're interested) but when I took it out of its tin it collapsed into a cheesecake puddle! I think I got the wrong version of French "double cream", or just forgot to whip it. Either way, it was a complete disaster!

Jordan and Jen's Christmas gift to both grandmas was a photoshoot with the grandkids towards the end of January. Yikes, what are my chances of losing 30 lbs and getting plastic surgery before then???? Still, I'm sure the photos will be lovely regardless. My Christmas present to myself was two fire blankets (thanks to Lori for mentioning them) and I might get a second fire extinguisher since there is a difference (apparently) between an electrical fire and a regular "let's burn the curtains down" fire, so I'm told!

On the Saturday (28th) Jen's mom's gift to us all was to be a "surprise" up in the ski resort of Megève (I'm thinking sleigh ride) but the night before Jen ended up at the ER with Charlie, who had been totally listless all day and running a very high temperature for about six days, despite being on antibiotics. Turns out he's got infections in both ears but they also took him for a chest x-ray, thinking they'd keep him in overnight at least if it showed any infection in the lungs - but thankfully they were clear. So the next day, instead of going to Megève, everyone stayed home, Charlie slept for 14 hours straight, and is apparently much, much better now. It couldn't be helped of course and hopefully we can reschedule later in the month, as the lady was apparently very understanding! At least Santa made it through for the big day - and that was the most important thing for Charlie anyway!

Jen had to go straight back to work on Boxing Day but Jordan's got this week off too, so he can keep a close eye on Charlie, while Elynn goes back to daycare. She seems to enjoy it very much (plenty to keep her occupied) and is settling down very well. Oh, I'm sure there will be the never-ending kiddies' infections for her too (it wouldn't be normal otherwise, would it) but at least she seems to be really happy there and when I went to pick her up one time the assistant had her in her arms and was playing with her and making her laugh so it's no wonder most of the children seem quite contented!

Do you remember in a previous post that I mentioned a 250 (lb/kg?) unexploded WWII bomb that had been found on a construction site in Annecy just before Christmas? Well that's where Jordan will be starting work shortly so let's hope for everyone's sake that that thing has already been dealt with appropriately!

In other news, I'm apparently turning into a real life Miss Marple, because the other day I noticed that my neighbours two doors away had left their front shutters open and yet I knew they were away! As another neighbour had also recently been burgled I sent them a message to ask if they realized this. They replied that they must have forgotten and could I get their keys from my favourite neighbour and go round and shut them! Then last night I was sitting reading when I heard a kind of siren sound. It wasn't the sound of emergency services here (more like the sirens in the US) and as it was really close, I went outside and realized it was coming from my other neighbour's house. So I knocked on the door and it turns out they had also just installed alarms and cameras and he had forgotten to turn the outside alarm off after testing it. It's weird that I heard it in my house and yet neither of them heard it from inside their house (kinda defeats the object, doesn't it) but isn't it sad that people now feel they have to do this when we used to leave our doors open all the time. I guess those days are well and truly over now!

And finally, the other day I saw a short video on Youtube by a distraught lady who had recently had her bank accounts wiped out in a "your computer is blocked, call this number" scam. She mentioned that if you had seen the movie The Beekeeper that was exactly what had happened to her, so I looked up the film as I thought it might be the kind of movie that interested me. I managed to get it on streaming - and what a load of shite it was! I left it running while I was playing scrabble (must have been really bored) and the guy basically figures out who the scammers are, blows them up in the first 10 minutes and then spends the next two hours single-handedly taking out the entire US military and Secret Service! A kinda "Schwarzeneger takes on the world" piece of drivel (although it wasn't Arnie, of course)! So since my walking total for this year has been pretty dismal I think my New Year's resolutions have to be (1) aim to walk at least 1,000 miles in 2025, and (2) stop wasting so much time on Youtube and crap movies! Number two should be easy - we'll have to see about the other one!

Happy New Year everyone, and I hope to see you all again in 2025!

A great visit!

Well my family have been and gone! It was a great visit - they really are very easy visitors - and we got lucky with the weather, which was maybe just a little overcast on one occasion but otherwise bright and sunny! I must have been more tired than I thought though because since they left I've slept around 10 hours most nights - which is pretty much unheard of for me! Oh well, I guess the body knows!

We had a bit of drama the first day though, as I'd been up to the top bedroom and decided to put the small heater on for a while as the room was quite chilly. I'd wiped the heater down and then we sat having a cup of tea when all of a sudden the electricity shorted and there was a vague smell of smoke. So I ran upstairs and (I reckon) something inside the heater (dust?) must have created a spark and the curtain in front of the bedroom door was literally on fire. I yelled but couldn't get the curtain down so I stamped on the fire in my socks (great idea) and was just managing to put it out when my BIL ran up and beat out the final flames with his shoe. I didn't think quick enough to yell that there was a fire extinguisher in the living room, but then I think by the time I'd gotten him to understand where I meant, the whole place would have gone up in flames! I did use the extinguisher as a final precaution and took a brand new smoke detector up to that room just in case, but all was well after that. Add to that my bloody socks started to melt into my foot, but I ran downstairs and got my feet in a bowl of cold water pretty quickly so all in all I only ended up with one blister! Exciting times eh - and now I need to get the electrician in in the new year and think about how I want/need to redecorate that room! There's never a dull moment is there - but then it could have been so much worse!

On our first full day I took them to the hot springs in Chamonix where we spent around four hours outside lounging in the water and staring at the Mont Blanc. It was wonderful, but to be honest, four hours is about the limit for me - I don't understand how people can spend eight to ten hours there! When we got back to the car park I fished out cake and a flask of tea and started to pour it - when I realized I'd added the hot water but forgotten to put the tea bags in the flask!! What with trying to put my "top" on through the leg holes last week and now this, I do have doubts about my sanity sometimes! Later that evening my kids came over for dinner and sis and BIL got to meet the grands. I knew my sister would be dotty over the kids (she always has been) and we got some really nice pictures of them with both kids as a souvenir!

The next day I thought they'd like the farmers' market in Bonneville - which they did, even though it wasn't nearly as big as usual as they were setting up the Christmas stalls. After that we headed up to Plaine Joux for lunch and while we couldn't get down to the Lac Vert as the road has now been turned into a ski slope, we did get to watch a few intrepid paragliders jump off into the valley!

My sister and brother-in-law
at Plaine Joux!

They posted this picture on FB, saying how
they were initially very scared to jump
but afterwards it was ok. I don't think
anyone fell for it though!

After that it was down to the lake at Passy for a leisurely stroll before heading up to Jordan and Jen's for dinner (I'd made lasagne and garlic bread and for once used a proper recipe - it turned out very well)!

The next day Charlie's school was singing in the Catholic church (he goes to a Catholic school) and the kids were very good, although it looked a bit like herding cats when they were trying to get them all ready. After that it was back to the school where they were handing out mulled wine or hot chocolate before we sat down to diots (a local sausage) slow cooked with tons of potatoes and followed by sweet crepes for dessert. It was really well done and I can only commend the teachers for their dedication (although I reckon their hearing must take a battering on a regular basis)!

On their last day we decided to try our luck by going to Annecy to see the Christmas market but, as I suspected, the place was just heaving and parking places were like gold dust. Mind you, I think the next time I might try heading in the opposite direction as there seemed to be parking places nearer the casino, even if it meant walking! Since my BIL, in particular, loves La Clusaz I decided to take a back road up there from Annecy, passing by the Château de Menthon St. Bernard on the way. This was the place we tried to go to last year to visit their Christmas market but again were stymied by everyone else (and his uncle) having the same idea!

Château de Menthon St. Bernard!

Because it had already snowed (it doesn't always) La Clusaz was opened up for the skiers, but the main parking will be free of charge until next week, so again we lucked out getting to see the mountains covered in snow in the glorious weather! La Clusaz has always been one of my favourite ski resorts because the parents of my pre-marriage boyfriend had an apartment up there, and anytime it was free at the weekend we used to head up there all winter long. It was bliss!

La Clusaz!

The next day we were up at the crack of dawn to get them back to the airport in rush hour traffic, and while there were no accidents or unforeseen events, they were both horrified at the daily commute I had when I was still working! As I was driving though, I thought I felt something "weird" with the car. For any of you that drive a stick shift, it felt like dropping down from fourth gear to third too soon, and the engine starting to drag. They didn't feel it, but I noticed it about four times and was just praying that I could get them to the airport without breaking down. I did, but I decided to head straight to Ford on my way back and one hour and €180 later they discovered that the "particle filter" was blocked, so they dismantled it and cleaned it out. It could have been worse as I understand if they had to replace the part it would have been pretty expensive, not to mention I probably couldn't have gotten it fixed the same day!

In other news, when we were heading in to our last sewing club of the year, as I was about to unlock the main door four kids, about 16 years of age, were making their way out. When Chantal asked them what they were doing in the building as it was private they said they were "looking for a toilet". Then when we got up to the club room we found three more kids all set up around the tables having a fine old time. Chantal hit the roof and asked them what the hell they thought they were doing. They said they'd been to the library (which is in the same building) but she countered that she volunteers at the library and it was closed so they'd better think of another one pretty quick before she called the police on them for trespass! They shot out of there like grease lightning but I did send a message to the Mairie to let them know that someone must have left both the main door and the club room door unlocked (maybe the cleaner?) and to ask them to remind everyone to check before leaving!

My "other neighbours" (Mrs. Gossip and her husband) came back from Mexico a few days ago and had both contracted what appeared to be a bad case of covid, so I ended up doing a bit of shopping for them while they were holed up. Thankfully they seem to have improved and I've seen them walking their dog so I guess the worst symptoms are over by now!

My walking tally looks to be pretty pathetic this year as I'll only hit around 700 miles by year end, so I think my resolution has to be "aim for 1,000 - 1,500 miles" in 2025. I've seen a few beautiful places on the FB hiking groups I follow so I might give some thought to maybe going further afield for a few weekends when the weather permits to check out other regions! Well, that's the aim anyway!

And finally, the trial of Dominque Pelicot has come to an end, with that monster and around 47 other men having been sentenced. For those that haven't heard of the case, Dominique Pelicot had been drugging his wife of 50 years for the past decade and inviting other men to come to their home and rape her????? As she was drugged she knew nothing about it, except that she frequently visited the doctor for unexplained pain and infections, although apparently, thankfully, no more serious STDS!!!! He was only caught when an alert supermarket security guard spotted him upskirting a woman (taking pictures up her skirt) and when the police were called they confiscated both his phone and his computer - and that is when they discovered the videos of so many, many men raping an obviously unconscious woman! He had also, apparently taken indecent photos of both his oblivious daughter and daughter-in-law! His wife, Gisèle, waived her right to anonymity and asked for both the press and public to be allowed into the court room to witness the trial. Pelicot wept when he got 20 years (should have been life, in my opinion), so seemingly he wasn't so brave when he found out the consequences of his actions. About 47 other men quite rightly got varying sentences too. Women's groups (which also included many men) were at the courthouse every day for three months to support her brave stand! I just hope she can find peace and happiness in whatever time she has left on this earth, and that her ex-husband gets to live the rest of his life as he deserves! Merci Gisèle (the Pelicot trial)!

Gisèle Pelicot, thanking her supporters!